Sullivan

by Linda Devlin

  The hotel looked better already, and Eden had begun to see the true potential of the establishment. There had been no more threatening notes, so she dismissed the first one as a bad joke or a warning meant for someone else—Lydia, perhaps. Having endured more than one meal prepared by the woman, Eden could understand why a threat might be justified.

  Millie was adjusting to Rock Creek more easily than anyone. She called Eden Mama and had Teddy doing the same. Millie was very protective of her newly claimed brother, and he followed her everywhere as if it were his duty to watch over her.

  Eden and Sin cleaned the tub on occasion, retreating to the small room in the middle of the day while the children were at school or late at night while they were asleep. All they did was kiss, and touch, and laugh, even though Sin made it clear he wanted more. That was one reason the tub was a perfect place for their inappropriate but dazzling rendezvous. Once they settled in, there wasn't much room to maneuver. It was a relatively safe place to test the dangerous boundaries they occasionally threatened to cross.

  Sin hadn't mentioned Webberville or his blasted hat in days.

  The children were asleep, and the other residents of the Rock Creek Hotel were across the street at the saloon, entertaining and being entertained. Eden sat on the first flight of steps, looking down into the lobby. Sin stood at the foot of the stairs, cast in an odd half-light. His long hair shadowed his face so she couldn't see it as clearly as she would've liked. Still, she knew that face so well, she needed no light at all.

  "Cash is trying to put together some big poker game tonight," Sin said. his voice lowered so as not to disturb the children above. "He said if I don't show up he's going to call me out."

  Eden smiled. "Would he do that?"

  Sin shook his head. "No."

  "Are you going to play?" she asked. "It's all right. I don't mind staying here by myself."

  "No," he said, taking the first step. "I'm not going to play poker tonight."

  She smiled as he climbed the stairs and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

  "One dangerous game at a time is enough for me."

  "Is this dangerous?"

  "Deadly." He kissed her then, as she'd known he would.

  She knew him so well by now, the marvelous feel and scent of him, the way he tilted his head when he kissed her, the manner in which he encompassed her with his arms, his whole body, within seconds of a simple meeting of their mouths.

  She laid back against the stairs, the hard ridge of a step against her back, Sin above her. Her arms encircled his neck, his hair fell across their faces, sheltering them from the light as they kissed.

  "You taste so good," he said as he moved his mouth to her throat and lightly sucked at a particularly sensitive spot. "And I swear, I dream about the way you smell."

  She smiled and relaxed, her legs spreading so that Sin rested between them. It just seemed more comfortable this way. More natural. "I dream about this," she whispered. "About the way your body feels over mine."

  He rose, just a bit, to look down at her. "And you're asking me if this is dangerous?"

  "You're right. Someone might catch us here," she whispered.

  "The tub." Sin took her hands and pulled her to her feet, and together they walked to the tiny room off the lobby. He lit the single candle in the room and closed the door, climbed into the dry tub, and pulled her in after him. She fell on top of him, a soft peal of laughter erupting from her lips.

  She couldn't get enough of kissing Sin. She wanted more. Deeper, longer, more complete. Here, behind the closed door, he touched her, stroking her breasts, caressing her hip. And she touched him, her hand on his chest and his neck, her fingers dancing down to his slim hips.

  Feeling bold tonight, she flicked open the first few buttons of his shirt and peeled the fabric apart to kiss the base of his throat. She felt his pulse with her mouth, tasted his skin with her tongue. When he moaned, she felt the vibration with her lips and kissed him harder, sucking against his flesh. It seemed like she couldn't ever get enough.

  When she raised her lips, he flicked open a couple of her own buttons and kissed her just as she had him. She leaned her head back and sighed, unable to decide which was better, kissing or being kissed. He moved his head lower, trailing his lips over the beginning swell of her breasts.

  Every time they came to the tub, they went a little further. She knew this, accepted it, even anticipated it. When Sin flicked open a few more buttons and slipped his hand inside her blouse, she didn't protest, but held her breath as he placed his hand beneath her chemise and over her bare breast. She felt his touch all over, deep inside, between her legs.

  She kissed him deeply while he very tenderly caressed her breast. What she wanted more than anything was to take his shirt off, take her blouse off, and press their bare flesh together. The insistent pulsating inside her increased, became unrelenting.

  "Sin," she whispered as he trailed his fingers over her nipple, "if we were married, what would happen next?"

  He stopped, became very still beneath her. "What do you mean?"

  "I want something, and I don't know exactly what it is," she said breathlessly. "You're going to think I'm hopeless, I know, but until I met you I'd never even kissed a man. Well, not properly, anyway. I know, sort of, what happens. But not really. I don't really, really know. I have so many questions, but I don't even know enough to know what to ask. Tell me. Tell me what comes next."

  "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?" he whispered hoarsely.

  "No." She squirmed a little, trying to bring herself closer to Sin, if that was possible. She touched his neck with one finger, there where a bead of sweat had popped up. It was no surprise that he was perspiring. It had gotten awfully hot in this small room.

  He took a deep breath. "First of all, we'd take off all our clothes."

  "All of them?"

  "Every stitch."

  "Oh," she said, deciding right away that she wanted, very much, to see Sin without a stitch of clothing on. She trailed her finger down his throat. "Then what?"

  "We'd lie down in the bed together, and kiss some more. Hard, long, deep kisses that would last as long as we wanted them to. I'd kiss you here"—he tweaked her nipple and she shivered—"and here." Using his other hand, he ran the tip of a finger on the inside of her elbow. "And here again," he said, brushing his palm over her breast. "And maybe here." He trailed his finger from her elbow, raked it slowly down her arm, and then laid his hand over her navel. "I'd kiss you until your body throbbed."

  "It already does," she whispered.

  "Don't tell me that." He sounded as if the knowledge pained him, more than a little.

  She settled herself more comfortably against Sin and slipped her hand inside his shirt to caress his chest. "Then what?"

  He sighed deeply. "You really don't know?"

  "Really."

  "You truly are trying to kill me," he muttered, shifting his body beneath hers and hiking her skirt to her knees. He pushed up her wide-legged drawers and settled his hand comfortably on her thigh, just above her knee.

  "No, I'm just curious. What comes next?"

  "I'd lie on top of you."

  "Like on the stairs?" she asked.

  "Like on the stairs. You'd spread your legs wide, and I'd touch you, to make sure you were ready."

  "Ready?"

  "Wet," he said, his voice raspy.

  "Oh."

  His hand rocked on her thigh. "Then I would... we would... we'd fit together. I'd push myself inside you."

  Her heart skipped a beat. "And that's it?"

  He laughed lightly. "Honey, that's just the beginning."

  She sighed deeply. "So you would... stay inside me for a while?"

  He shivered from head to toe. "Eden, please."

  "Well, I shouldn't be ignorant forever," she insisted. "If anyone's going to tell me about such things, I want it to be you."

  He groaned. "You ask a lot of a man."

  She
kissed him briefly and urged him to continue.

  "We... move," he whispered. "All the way in and back out again. Slow at first, and then... faster."

  "For how long?"

  "Not very damn long at this rate," he muttered. "But long enough."

  "Long enough for what?"

  "For... we... It's hard to explain, but it feels better than anything you can imagine."

  "Better than this?" she whispered as she kissed him again.

  "Better than this."

  She moaned against his mouth. Oh, she wanted more. She wanted to know what better than this felt like.

  Sin's hand moved slowly up her leg, until he was almost touching her where she throbbed for him. His fingers danced across her inner thigh while his hand moved, ever so gently, over her bare breast.

  He buried his face against her neck and mumbled something unintelligible.

  "What?"

  He lifted his head and looked at her. "Marry me. Tonight. Right now."

  She smiled widely. "You shouldn't joke about such matters."

  "I'm not joking. I'm deadly serious. I want you so bad I don't think I'll make it through the night without you."

  "That's not a good enough reason to get married," she whispered. "Is it?"

  He gave her question serious thought, and while he thought, his hands raked almost mindlessly over her body. "No, it's not," he admitted.

  Her heart sank, but then he continued. "But I've never felt this way about any woman. I didn't think I ever would. It's more than wanting you, more than lust." He kissed her, sweet and much too short. "Like it or not you're mine, Eden Rourke, and I want to do this right. For once in my life, I want something good and proper and honorable. I want you to be my wife. Now. Say yes."

  She grinned and held him tight. "Yes."

  Moving slowly, they untangled their limbs and stood to climb out of the tub. "Are you sure?" Sin asked as he took the candle from the shelf and opened the door. "No doubts?"

  "No doubts," she said.

  He snuffed out the candle and led her to the stairway. At the foot of the stairs, he stopped. His head was bent, so she could not see his face. When he lifted his head he gave her a look that made her heart stop. Maybe Sin didn't know it yet, but he loved her. She saw it in his eyes, felt it in the way he touched her.

  "Wait right here," he said.

  She sat on the bottom step to wait, certain that her wobbly legs wouldn't hold her up long enough for Sin to fetch the preacher. A few seconds later she thought to refasten the buttons of her blouse.

  * * *

  Nate was pretty far gone already, but he remembered most of the words to a wedding ceremony.

  He leaned against the front desk and did his best, having terrible trouble with words containing the letter L. Sullivan and lawfully gave him fits. Before the ritual was over, he hoisted himself up to sit on the front desk, his long legs dangling over the sides as he told them they were both crazy, and then he pronounced them man and wife.

  As Sullivan kissed his bride, Nate laid down on the front desk for what he said would be a short nap.

  Sullivan scooped Eden into his arms and carried her up the stairs, flying up the first flight, kissing her as he carried her down the hallway, and then racing up the stairs to the third floor. By the time he reached the doorway to his room, Eden was laughing. Completely relaxed in his arms, her head fell back and she laughed with a joy such as he had never known or seen before.

  After placing Eden on her feet near the foot of the bed, he lit a lamp. He'd waited too long for this; he wasn't going to fumble around in the dark. He wanted to see Eden, to see her body revealed as she took off her clothing, to look into her eyes when he sank into her.

  She wasn't laughing anymore, but her smile was full of joy, the expression on her face seductive, and shy, and inviting. "What now?" she whispered.

  He went to her, towered above her and laid his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not going to tell you this time," he answered. "I'm going to show you."

  She shivered as he ran his hands down her arms, lifted her face to ask for a kiss he gladly gave her.

  As much as he wanted to have her, as much as he ached, he wanted to make this last. There would only be one first time, only one.

  He took the pins from her hair and let it down, running his fingers through silky strands that fell halfway down her back. The fair strands were shiny and thick and only slightly wavy. When they'd been traveling he'd watched Eden brush her hair and then twist it back up again, but he'd never seen her like this, with those golden strands down around her shoulders and falling down her back, loose, soft, as she stared up at him and waited.

  The buttons of her blouse slipped through his fingers, and the simple cotton parted for him, revealing inch after inch of perfect flesh. When he'd gone as far as he could, he lifted the blouse from the waistband of her skirt and pulled it over her head. Beneath it she wore a low-cut chemise, lace and a pink silk ribbon decorating the valley between her breasts. Her body was as beautiful as he'd imagined, soft and creamy pale, flawless in every curve. The tempting swell of her breasts rose with every breath she took. He trailed his fingers over the rising flesh before untying the pink ribbon and unbuttoning more buttons to bare her torso.

  He laid his mouth over her coral pink nipple, tasting her gently, barely sucking her flesh into his mouth. Holding her tight, he savored the scent and feel of her, the way she touched his hair and sighed. He suckled her harder, drawing the nipple deep into his mouth, and she shuddered and held on tight, her breath coming fast and hard.

  Her calico skirt followed the chemise, pooling on the floor. Her petticoat dropped next. He rolled her stockings down, resting on his haunches while he took his time with the chore, kissing her bare knees and slipping her shoes off, then tossing them aside.

  All that was left was a pair of loose, flimsy drawers, as lacy and fancy as the chemise. He untied the tapes and let the last remaining garment fall to the floor.

  He'd dreamed of seeing Eden this way since the moment he'd met her. Naked, vulnerable, perfection. His. Her body curved softly, and he reached out to trail his fingers over every curve. To cup her breasts and run his hands over her hips. To trail his fingers up her thighs to her mound.

  She jumped, startled, when he touched her there. "You're so beautiful," he whispered as he parted her thighs and touched her intimately, stroking her wet flesh.

  She didn't wait for him to take his own clothes off; she impatiently began the task for him. She unbuttoned his shirt and untucked it, forcing it higher, her hands on his skin, until he grabbed the shirt and shucked it over his head. He kicked off his boots as Eden unbuckled his belt and unfastened his jeans, one button at a time passing slowly through her fingers. She wrapped her arms around him and slipped her fingers into the waistband of his trousers. Those hands boldly moved lower to cup his buttocks and force down the trousers.

  When he'd kicked the denims aside, Eden moved back, a single step, to look him over. "You're beautiful, too," she whispered. Her eyes landed and lingered on his arousal, and a new expression was added to the face he knew so well—skepticism. "But really, Sin, are you sure this is going to work? I mean... It's bigger than I thought."

  "Trust me," he said, taking her into his arms and lowering her to the bed.

  She placed her arms around his neck. "I do. Trust you, that is. And love you," she added with a smile. "And I want you," she whispered, laying her mouth over his and kissing him with soft, slightly parted lips.

  It pained him to wait, but he wanted to give Eden all he had promised in the tub. He kissed her breasts, taking a nipple into his mouth and suckling until she moaned, then moving his attention to the other breast. He kissed the tender flesh of her inner elbow, flicking his tongue there when she sighed deeply and buried the fingers of her other hand in his hair. He kissed her flat belly and felt her quiver.

  When he parted her legs and touched her intimately, she tensed, and then almost immediately she relaxed, her
eyes drifting peacefully shut. She truly did trust him, with her body and her heart. She literally placed herself in his hands and trusted him to take care of her. He stroked her wetness gently, slipped a finger inside her, and felt her quiver.

  He hovered above her, and her legs spread wider for him. The tip of his arousal touched her, and she rocked gently up. Against him, into him.

  With slow deliberation, he entered her. She was so tight, so small, he was afraid he might hurt her if he moved any faster. But she didn't seem to be in pain as he gradually stretched her, rocking gently back and forth until he met and broke through her maidenhead.

  Her only response was a small uttered "oh" and a mild twitch. She opened her eyes and looked at him, licked her lips and clasped her hands behind his neck. She lifted her hips again, rocking against him, urging him deeper. She cocked one leg and rested it over his.

  With a moan and a push he filled her completely. Without hesitation she met his thrust, lifting her other leg over his, holding him tight. She kissed him deeply, her tongue mimicking the pace and motion of his length within her as they fell into a rhythmic, intimate dance.

  She gasped, and still she did not take her mouth from his. Her body shuddered, and he felt the milking caress of her inner muscles around his shaft as she quickly climaxed.

  He drove deep within her one more time, finding his own completion as her body tightened around him. Losing control, well beyond all control, he pumped his seed into her and groaned against her hungry mouth.

  And then he collapsed against her, cradled her, spent and breathless.

  "Oh, my," Eden breathed a few minutes later.

  Sullivan could only murmur a response. He was drained.

  He rolled onto his back and she came with him, resting her arms against his chest and gazing down at him with a satisfied smile on her face. "I was right to trust you," she whispered. "I was right to marry you."

  Married. He'd almost forgotten about the wedding. God, she'd had him half out of his mind in that damn tub! He would have done anything to get her into his bed, would have done anything at all to make her his at last. Married.

  But now that it was done, he couldn't be sorry. He could think of worse ways to spend his nights than in bed with Eden Rourke.