by Linda Devlin
Eden Sullivan.
Chapter 12
Eden rose and dressed, and hurried downstairs to wake the children for school. She got them fed and out the door just in time. She didn't tell Millie and Teddy about the marriage, deciding that Sin should be with her when she shared the happy news. Sin was going to be their papa, just as they wanted him to be.
Apparently the rest of the hotel's residents had been out late last night. No one was roaming about, looking for breakfast or wondering where she was. She very quietly returned to Sin's room, closed the door behind her, and began to unbutton her blouse. She wasn't ready to give up this time in bed with her new husband. Not yet.
She stripped, tossed her clothes on the floor, and slipped beneath the covers. Smiling, happy beyond words, she scooted close to Sin, loving the feel of his skin, his heat, so much, that she couldn't bear to stay on her side of the bed.
"Where have you been?" he whispered, rolling over to face her.
She grinned widely. "I had to get the children off to school," she said, pushing back a long strand of dark hair that fell across his cheek.
"How are you this morning?" he asked, his fingers in her hair and settling comfortably on her waist. "Are you all right?"
"I'm much more than all right," she confessed. "I feel wonderful. A little sore, perhaps, but... not very." She'd never forget her wedding night, not as long as she lived. What extraordinary feelings Sin had introduced her to, what amazingly unexpected pleasures.
He kissed her good morning, a gentle kiss that didn't remain gentle long. His arms wrapped possessively around her, so that he cradled her gently and completely. There was something so right about being here, in this place, with this man, that she was as swept away by the rightness of the moment as she was by her physical response. She pressed herself to him, crushing her breasts against his hard chest, lifting one leg over his hip to bring them closer together. No matter how she moved, she couldn't get close enough.
Deep sensations of longing rushed through her, and her body began to throb. Everything she was, from her head to her toes, pulsated and yearned.
Sin rolled her onto her back and spread her thighs, and moving slowly, he entered her. He stretched her, stroked her, pushed so deep inside he stole her very breath away. She held on tight and rocked her hips against him, as he made love to her. She ceased to think, to breathe, as he loved her.
She shattered in his arms, lost in an intense pleasure that washed over her. At the same time, she felt Sin's own pleasure, his release deep in her body, the shudder that ripped through him. She cried out softly, unable to remain silent as the culmination of the act vibrated through her.
Sin toppled, descending gently over her body, cradling her in his arms.
"I love you so much," she whispered in his ear. "I never thought I could love anyone this way."
Sin had not yet told her that he loved her, too, but she was not concerned. She'd seen love in his eyes, felt it in the way he touched her. One day he'd tell her how he felt. Until then, she'd be perfectly happy to let him show her. Every day.
* * *
Sullivan was strangely content. Serenity was an entirely new feeling for him, and he didn't expect the strange contentment to last. Still, while it did last he was going to enjoy it.
It was midmorning before he and Eden left the bed. They dressed each other, taking their time and laughing and kissing. If he didn't think it would be too much for her he'd take her again, slow and easy this time.
Tonight would be soon enough.
They walked down the stairs, his arm over her shoulder, her arm around his waist. Eden thought she loved him; she thought the rush in her blood was love, not lust. Sullivan knew better, but he didn't waste his time telling her so. If she wanted to call it love that was fine with him. Right now he figured lust was as good a reason as any for getting married, and as long as they were both content... what difference did it make?
At the foot of the stairs he took her in his arms for a long kiss. No one was around, and he couldn't seem to get rid of the urge to touch her, not even after last night and this morning. He knew, with a sudden twinge of uneasiness, that he wouldn't ever get enough of her. Eden Rourke—Eden Sullivan—was his one weakness, a chink in his armor, his Achilles' heel. At the moment he didn't care.
"You were right," she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Last night was better than anything."
"Tonight will be better," he promised.
She gave him a fleeting kiss. "Better? My goodness, is that possible?"
"I don't know, but I think we should try." He pulled Eden against him, cupping his hands on her buttocks and holding her tight as he kissed her properly. She responded by immediately parting her soft lips and flicking her tongue inside his mouth. He couldn't stop the groan that rose from his throat. "I want you again, right now," he said. "Right here."
"Hell, Sullivan," a familiar gruff and friendly voice rumbled from much too nearby, "looks like you and your lady friend came downstairs too soon. If I was you I'd..."
Eden's head snapped up and she looked toward the door just as Sullivan did.
Jedidiah Rourke, covered with trail dust and carrying his saddlebags and his rifle, quickly lost his friendly smile. "Eden? What the hell are you..." His eyes landed on Sullivan. "You bastard."
There was no telling how much Jed had heard. Enough, apparently, as he dropped his saddlebags but not his rifle. "Get your goddamned filthy hands off of my sister."
"Jedidiah," Eden said primly, "watch your language."
Jed shook a finger in her direction. "I'll see to you next, young lady. First I've got to take care of this no-good backstabbing lily-livered mongrel."
Eden tried to place herself between them, but neither man would allow it. She was gently but firmly shoved aside.
Jedidiah Rourke was a good six-foot-three and built like a tree trunk. Dark blond untamed curls hung almost to his shoulders, and a few weeks' beard growth covered the lower half of his face. Sullivan figured he could take the bigger man in a fist fight, if he had to, but he didn't think a brawl in the lobby of Eden's hotel was the way to start this marriage.
"Listen to me, Jed," Sullivan said calmly as he and the big man danced around each other. "There's a lot going on here you don't know about."
"Tell me about it," Jed seethed. He leaned his rifle against the green sofa and flexed his fists.
Sullivan relaxed. At least he didn't have to worry about getting shot. Yet. "Last night Eden and I..."
Jed, not wanting to hear any more, roared and lunged forward, swinging wildly. "Damn it, I don't want to hear about it!" he bellowed as he let his fist fly.
Sullivan stepped aside, dancing safely under the wild swing of a massive fist. "Don't make me hit you."
Jed spun to face Sullivan and poised to throw another punch. "I come in here and find you with your hands on my little sister's ass and your tongue down her throat, and you want to explain to me what happened last night? I don't want to hear it, you bastard. I've heard enough already." Jed prepared to lash out again, and Sullivan got ready to move out of his way or to fight back, if he had to.
Eden bravely stepped between them. "Jedidiah Rourke," she said primly, "I will not have you threatening my husband this way. Do you hear me?"
Jed didn't lower his fists, but he did become very still as he looked down at his sister and narrowed his eyes. "Husband?" he whispered in a gravelly voice.
"That's what Sin has been trying to tell you," she said with a smile."We were married last night."
Jed's fists loosened; his fingers flexed. "Sin?" He cast a quick, suspicious glance at Sullivan as Eden stepped up and gave her brother a big hug.
"I'm so glad you're finally here," she said, going up on her toes to place her arms around his neck.
"Married?" Jed said again, his hard blue eyes on Sullivan as he hugged his little sister.
"That's what I was trying to tell you," Sullivan said. The mongrel comment still stung, but
he let it go. For now.
"Nate performed the ceremony right here in this lobby," Eden said with a smile as Jed set her aside.
Jed's eyebrows arched in amazement. "Nate? Hell, Nate can't marry anybody!" He was ready to fight again, and this time Sullivan wasn't going to back off. "What did you do, rig up some fake wedding ceremony to get my little sister into bed?"
Eden cast a suspicious glance of her own at Sullivan, a split second before Jed moved in and swung. Sullivan stepped aside and delivered a swing of his own. A solid punch landed on a hard and sizable midsection. He also put out his foot to trip Jed. The big man lost his footing and landed on the floor with a thud that shook the whole hotel.
"What is all the noise about?" an almost aristocratic, coarse voice called from the stairway. Nate stood there, wearing the same clothes he'd worn last night, raking a hand over his head. "Can't a man sleep in this hotel anymore?"
Jed rose quickly from the floor. "Did you perform some kind of half-ass fake wedding ceremony so Sullivan could... could"—the man actually blushed—"so he could take advantage of my sister?"
"Of course not," Nate assured Jed in a calm voice.
Jed grinned at Sullivan, a wicked grin that said You're dead.
Nate continued. "The ceremony was quite real, not half-assed or fake at all, I can assure you. I am still an ordained minister, after all."
"Were you drunk?" Jed asked.
Nate flashed a twisted smile. "Of course I was. But not so drunk I don't remember that Sullivan looked like he was about to explode, or that Eden had a wide grin on her face and clung to her bridegroom's arm like she would fall through the floor without him. I was not so drunk that I don't remember that they both very willingly said I do before I pronounced them man and wife."
Jed groaned and placed his head in his hands, muttering an obscene word that had Eden blushing and stammering.
Sullivan backed up a single step. Why the hell was he surprised by this development? He wasn't good enough for Jed's sister. He was good enough to fight with, to drink with, to trust with another man's life. But to marry his sister? Of course not. No mongrel would be good enough for Jedidiah Rourke's baby sister.
Jed lifted his head and glared at Eden."I thought you were going to marry Seymour Mayfield," he said tiredly. "In your last letter you said..."
"I said he asked," she interrupted. "After giving his proposal some serious thought, I declined."
Jed shook his head. "You should be in Spring Hill, living in a nice house, married to a nice man, knitting or sewing or doing some kind of female thing. You don't belong here."
"I do now," Eden said calmly.
Jed shook a long finger at Eden. "You and Sullivan are not married," he insisted. "I declare this so-called marriage null and void, as of right now."
"You can't do that," Eden insisted with a gentle, understanding smile.
"Oh, yes, I can," Jed said softly. "If you really want to marry this... this..."
"Mongrel," Sullivan supplied in a low voice.
Jed snapped his head around to glare in Sullivan's direction. "Mongrel," he seethed before turning his full attention to Eden again. "Fine," he said. "But by God you're going to do it right. You're going to get engaged first. You're going to wait a few weeks, at the very least, to make sure you're not making a mistake. Then there will be a real wedding, with a fancy dress and a ring. If you want Nate to perform the ceremony, that's fine, too, but he will, by God, be sober when he does it."
Eden reached up to lay a small hand on Jed's face, the gesture one of love and understanding. Sullivan had seen her comfort Teddy and Millie just this way. And him, he realized with a start.
"That's silly," she said. "And too late. Sin and I are already married. It's done, Jedidiah."
"Sin," he seethed. "That's so goddamn precious, if I'd had any breakfast I'd lose it here and now."
She smiled at her brother and then looked over her shoulder to where Sullivan stood.
His heart sank, heavy in his chest. Damn it, Jed was right. Eden didn't belong here, and she sure as hell didn't belong with him. He would've known that last night, if she hadn't had him half out of his mind from playing in the tub. He'd been drunk on Eden, intoxicated by what he wanted, carried away by a touch and a kiss and the promise they offered.
"Your brother's right," he said softly. "It happened so fast...."
Her smile faded.
"Maybe you should take some time to think it over," he said without emotion. "Take some time and be sure we're not making a mistake."
"Do you think we made a mistake?" she whispered, heartbreak in her eyes.
No. "I don't know."
She looked utterly devastated.
Jed smiled widely. "Null and void," he said. "And Sullivan," he added, "if you want to marry my sister again, you'll damn well come to me and ask for her hand in marriage, properlike."
Eden stared at him like she expected him to do something, to save her, to tell Jed that she was his wife and there was no going back. She looked at him as if she expected him to be someone he wasn't, her champion, her partner, the man who loved her.
And he knew then that Jed was right. He would never be the man Eden expected him to be. He left the hotel without saying a word.
* * *
Eden stared at the empty doorway, willing Sin to reappear. He didn't.
"Look what you've done," she whispered.
"You can't be married to Sullivan," Jedidiah said calmly, more in control of his emotions now that Sin was gone.
She twirled around and stomped her foot at him. He actually flinched. "But we're already married." She looked to where an amused Nate lounged on the stairway. "Isn't that right?"
"Legally wed," he confirmed with a crooked smile.
"So you can't just... just... make it go away," she said.
Jedidiah leaned in close and spoke softly. "I think I just did."
She never lost her temper. Never. But right now she saw red and her blood boiled. "If I lose Sin because of this, I will never forgive you," she said, surprised to find that she meant it.
At the same time she was furious with her husband for not insisting that Jedidiah couldn't make their marriage null and void with a snap of his fingers. Deep inside she wondered if Jedidiah might be right about one thing. If Sin had only married her to get her into his bed, if there was nothing else but desire between them, he might never come back. He might be perfectly happy to have their marriage invalidated. He might even be relieved.
"We'll talk about it later," Jedidiah said confidently. He gathered his saddlebags and rifle and headed for the stairs.
Eden placed herself at the foot of the stairs and blocked his path.
"After you've had a chance to calm down," Jedidiah added in a condescending tone.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.
"To my room. I live here."
"Not anymore you don't," she said, her chin and her nose high, her spine rigid. "You see, I'm in the process of remodeling my hotel, and I'm afraid there are no rooms available."
"Your hotel?" Jedidiah asked softly. He looked past her to Nate. "Her hotel?"
Eden glanced over her shoulder to see Nate nod his head once.
"I leave town for less than two months," Jedidiah said, his voice no longer so calm, "and come home wanting nothing more than a bath and a couple days' sleep and some of Lydia's hard-ass cathead biscuits. I expect to find things pretty much the way I left them, but I walk in here and find you messing around with your goddamn husband in your goddamn hotel. How the hell long have you been here?" he thundered, leaning forward as if he could intimidate her.
Eden smiled. It was an effort. "Oh, I've been in Rock Creek a little more than a week. And Jedidiah," she added primly, "don't swear."
He shifted uncomfortably on his big feet. "So, when do you think a room might become available?"
She moved her face forward to look her brother right in the eye. He'd always been bigger and older and meaner, s
o she'd had to learn early on to hold her ground. She held her ground now as she poked him in the chest. "When I get my husband back."
Chapter 13
The saloon was all but deserted, but then it wasn't yet noon. Cash was up and drinking his breakfast at the bar, and Sullivan had claimed a seat at a table in the corner. Yvonne was busy cleaning up some of last night's clutter and watering down certain bottles of whiskey. The calico girls were still asleep, all but Kate, who stood by Cash at the bar and joined him for a silent, liquid breakfast.
Sullivan had come down to earth hard, after a night and a long morning of pretending to be someone he was not. How long had he expected it would last? Eden wanted something he couldn't give; she wanted a life he couldn't ever be a part of. She'd been right all along. She'd rather live with people she loved in hell than live alone in paradise, and he... Hell, he'd rather be alone in hell. Life was simpler that way, safer.
If she hadn't looked at him with those big blue eyes and asked what they would do next if they were married, he never would've asked her; he never would've thought that maybe... just maybe...
Jed slammed his way through the bat-wing doors and flung his saddlebags to the floor. Jedidiah Rourke was never what one would call a calm man, but he was also rarely frustrated. He was frustrated now.
"She tossed me out. Can you believe it? My own sister, and she tossed me out on my ear."
Cash lifted his head and stared sleepily at Jed. "You're back. Have I missed all the fun?"
Jed headed for the table in the corner, where Sullivan sat, and Cash patted Kate on the bottom and told her to get back to bed.
"I can't believe you'd stoop so low as to marry my little sister." Fortunately, Jed's hands were not balled into fists.
"Marry?" Cash asked, leaving the bar to join them. "Sullivan," he said tersely, "when I suggested that you do whatever was necessary I didn't mean..." He stared down at Jed and amended his words. "What I mean to say is, you actually married her?" He lowered himself to a chair, seemingly deflated.
