by Linda Broday
Feeling more than seeing her way, Jessie groped through the gloom. Though midday had barely passed, heavy clouds coupled with dense smoke made the goat’s whereabouts a guessing game. She’d inched along several feet when a chorus of blehs met her ears.
“I’m coming,” she called, her voice little more than a rasp through the cloth.
Had she made it all this way to be doomed to a fiery end? Her burning, watering vision could barely discern the animal’s shape. The cloth that had helped keep smoke from her mouth fell as she struggled to untie Marley’s Cheeba. She lost precious minutes when the stubborn knots refused to yield.
When at last the rope came free, Cheeba bolted for the exit, leaving Jessie to follow blindly, gasping and choking.
Blessed rain and fresh gulps of air welcomed her through the portal. She’d made it. Exhausted, limp, and coughing, she lay on the soaked ground for what seemed an eternity before she tried to locate Duel.
“Duel, where are you?” Haze still blocked her vision, distorting the world around her. “Duel!”
There was no answer. No sight of him. Alarm swept over her in towering waves.
“Please answer me, Duel.” Her voice shook.
Fearing the worst, she got to her feet. Much as the fire and smoke terrified her, she’d go back in if it came to that. She’d enter the mouth of a dragon to save the man who’d stolen her heart.
Before she’d taken two steps, he stumbled from the structure. He was leading Preacher, and Yellow Dog lay draped across his arms. Duel’s soot-blackened face was a sight to behold.
Joy that he had survived made her giddy.
“Thank the heavens above! You made it.” She hurried to relieve him of his burden. But she’d no more than claimed the dog’s weight when Duel collapsed, lying prone in the mud.
“Duel!”
Careful as she could, she laid the limp retriever beside her husband. She didn’t know if Yellow Dog was alive or dead, but Duel became her first concern.
“Speak to me.” She quickly turned him over and brushed mud from his blackened face.
Instead of a roaring, wild creature, the storm now had become a passive lamb. Light rain romanced the gentle land, kissing the treetops and tender shoots in the field.
Mindless of her own soaked-to-the-bone state, Jessie lifted Duel’s head onto her lap and smoothed wet locks of hair off his forehead.
“Duel, please talk to me. I can’t imagine what life would be like without you. I’ve never before known anyone as honorable and kind as you. Don’t leave me.”
His eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open. For this giant of a man, her knight who could turn darkness into day, his lethargic condition shocked her. Usually a vital man, Duel now showed a vulnerability she didn’t like.
With her fingertips, she traced his full, pleasure-giving mouth. Then almost as if against her own volition, she bent and placed her lips on his.
Nothing mattered—not the rain, not the burning barn behind her, not even Marley’s cries from the house. In that moment, in that sphere of time and space, only she and Duel existed. He tasted of smoke and desire. Fire and ice.
Suddenly he began to wheeze and cough, his eyes staring into hers. Jessie released her pent-up breath.
“Preacher. Gotta get Preacher out,” he rasped, jerking to his feet.
“You already have.” She pointed to the horse, who snorted and nodded his head as if to say, “I’m just fine.”
“Dog?” His quick glance located Yellow Dog, who by this time had recovered sufficiently to raise his head. Soft whimpers stole from the animal’s throat. He knelt. “Thought you was a goner for sure, boy.”
“Did the dog get trapped in the barn?” Yellow Dog’s soulful eyes spoke clearly of his pain. She joined Duel by his side.
“Yeah. That was what took me so long. A beam fell, trapping him and Preacher.” The dog didn’t resist when Duel painstakingly felt his legs, then his whole body. “No broken bones. Could have some bleeding inside, can’t tell.”
Yellow Dog licked Jessie’s hand with his velvet tongue, but kept wary eyes on Duel.
“Will you carry him into the house?” she asked. “I want him out of the rain tonight.”
“Two Bit’ll love that.”
She followed his gaze to the blazing structure that seemed destined to ashes. “Nothing you can do. At least we saved the animals.”
The dog didn’t resist when Duel lifted him. That fact alone revealed the depth of Yellow Dog’s misery.
Jessie grabbed the goat’s tether, intending to lead her to a spot beside the house that offered some shelter.
“Oh no, you don’t. I’ll not have that ornery beast in my house. No sirree.” His black scowl left no room for compromise. “I’m not Noah, and that house yonder ain’t a blasted ark. Next thing I know, you’ll be having Preacher in for tea an’ crumpets.”
“Not entirely what I had in mind, Duel.” A giggle slipped out at the visual image of the horse sitting at her kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea while the goat butted Duel every time he bent over. “The poor thing’s dripping wet. I’m going to put her against the house under the eaves. Unless you object to that?”
*
Marley fussed over her Boobie like a mother hen. An old rug served as a bed, and nothing would satisfy the little girl until she had tucked a blanket over the animal.
Dry now, albeit a bit under the weather with some nasty chills that came and went, Jessie felt unusually happy. More than she had a right to. A cloud of doom, heavy and dark, hung over her head. Trouble on a fast horse was racing toward her. Until it arrived, though, she’d allow herself to enjoy the moment of tranquility. Darkness had fallen, putting the events of the day on a page of the past. Tomorrow would begin a fresh page. Who knew what it would bring?
At the moment, she had a sweet, darling child to watch over. Her wandering gaze brushed past Marley, who sat beside Yellow Dog with one tiny hand resting on his back, to Duel, who dozed peacefully in the chair. And she had the best husband any woman could want, for however long time allowed her.
The dim glow of the lamps softened Duel’s chiseled features. She’d come close to losing him today. So close her stomach turned somersaults when she remembered.
His head rested against the high chairback, long legs stretched out in front of him. He belonged to her. They shared the same name.
A stirring wound through her, beginning as a lazy stream. She loved this man, her knight who had appeared from nowhere on the Texas Plains. Admired his honesty and forthrightness. The focal point of her attention shifted to the way his hair curled possessively around the high neck of his rough chambray shirt as if to gloat its privilege.
When she let her gaze roam freely down his muscular legs, a heat radiated from within her. A different heat from that of a quick and searing brand, this kind attached, melding itself to her soul. In that instant she realized, no matter how hard she tried, she could never separate herself from it.
Her breathing quickened at the swift revelation.
She loved him.
Didn’t much matter if he returned the favor. She suspected he’d never feel toward her—or any woman—the way he’d worshiped his Annie. Yet she accepted and lived with that knowledge.
Sudden light-headedness came that had nothing to do with her emotional well-being. This nauseous, sick whirling told Jessie she’d caught something.
“Papa, Papa.” Marley had gotten tired of watching the sleeping dog and now demanded Duel’s attention. “Boobie, Papa.”
Sleep-glazed eyes squinted at the girl. “Ain’t it past your bedtime, Two Bit?”
Jessie suppressed a grin. He’d not corrected Marley’s “Papa.” Her gaze met his half-raised eyebrow innocently. The full import of the day’s events hadn’t sunk in yet. Most likely he hadn’t given any thought to the night.
“Yes, it is.” She held out her hand, fighting the chills that shook her. “Little girl, your bed is calling.”
Instead of the obedie
nce Marley had shown in the past, she jerked away. “Boobie. Mine Boobie.”
Duel lifted the distraught child into his lap. “Yellow Dog—Boobie—will be right here. Go to bed like a good girl. Maybe he’ll feel like playing with you tomorrow. Okay?”
Marley’s wide, dark eyes darted from Duel to the animal as if to digest what he’d said. “Cheeba?”
“Shoot fire! Yes, Cheeba too.” He ruffled her dark curls with affection.
“Choot! Choot!”
“Uh-oh. Duel, you’re going to have to watch what you say. She picks up everything.”
Amid a chorus of ‘choots’ Jessie carried her to bed.
“Guess I’ll head for the…” A bright flush stained Duel’s neck and traveled still higher. “Just this minute realized I don’t have a barn to go to. I’ve no place—”
Nineteen
A noise startled Duel, awakening him from a light sleep.
“Ohhh. Stop.” Thrashing sounds came from behind the curtained-off bedroom. “Please!”
The words shot through the durable fabric clear and crisp.
He threw back the blanket that covered him and rose from the pallet on the floor. Stealing quietly on the balls of his bare feet, he peeked around the corner of the limp partition.
Moans gurgled deep from Jessie’s throat as she tossed wildly, fighting the bedcovers.
“Don’t!”
Her agonized cries cut him to the quick. Clearly she struggled to escape from something—or someone. He could hazard a guess.
“I’m no animal. Don’t do this.”
Duel moved swiftly to capture her flailing arms. He sat on the narrow space beside her.
“Jess, it’s me. Wake up, Jess.” He gathered her to his chest, trying to calm the herd of wild horses that seemed intent on leaping through his rib cage. “I’m here.”
“Don’t leave me.” Her plea ripped apart his earlier good intentions.
When I move into the house, it’ll be into your bed, madam.
That’s what he’d vowed. And he’d meant every word. Now, thanks to the fire, he had no choice but to sleep in the house. Still, that didn’t mean he’d take advantage of the unfortunate situation. He couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Gently, he eased away.
“Don’t go. Please,” Jessie repeated, gripping his bare arm. Her touch reminded him that save for buckskins covering his lower extremities, he was naked.
Only an executioner with a heart of stone could’ve refused that plaintive entreaty.
“I’ll never leave you, darlin’.” He hadn’t meant the “darlin’” part to slip out. It just had. If she hadn’t heard it, maybe he could take it back. When he smoothed back her hair, his fingers brushed her fevered skin.
“You’re sick, Jess. Why didn’t you say anything?”
She smothered another low moan with the back of her hand. Her uncontrollable shivers reminded him of a sapling in the middle of a Texas twister.
Duel released her. “I’ll be right back. Need to get more quilts for you and replenish the wood in the fire.”
“No. Please stay with me.” Jessie clawed the empty air.
A thin sliver of moonlight pierced the windowpane and spilled across the bed. In the dimness, her face projected impenetrable fear.
He hastened to reassure her. “I’ll be right back, Jess. You’re freezing.”
Forgoing stoking the fire, he grabbed some extra quilts, stubbing his toe on a chair leg in his haste to return. He swallowed a whole string of curses.
“See, here I am.” Limping painfully, he spread the thick cover over her. He wished to high heaven he could ease the wild terror on her face.
“You won’t hurt me?” She gripped the quilts tightly around her neck.
Damn! The last thing in the world he wanted was to cause Jessie pain and grief. Unsure of what he should do next, he shifted his weight as he stood beside the bed.
“You should know by now I’ll never hurt you. A McClain promise. Remember?”
“Duel?” As if only now recognizing him, suddenly Jessie stretched out her hand. “Will you hold me, Duel? For a little while. Until I fall asleep?”
Air gushed from his chest in one loud rush. Blindsided by a quick right to the belly felt more like it. Hold her? His buckskins grew tight with a deep, steadfast longing. He ached to slip his hands beneath her gown, to caress the silky skin he knew he’d find.
Then holding her would not be enough.
Indecision wound its way through him, a vine seeking sunlight and truth. Thing was, he didn’t trust himself to keep his emotions under lock and key. This “becoming familiar” business had taken him into dangerous territory. Still, he couldn’t turn a deaf ear. What sort of man could—except perhaps Jeremiah Gates Foltry?
That decided it. If Jessie asked him to jump over the moon he’d bust a gut trying. It was little enough to ask after the hell that man had put her through.
“Just try to get rid of me, Mrs. McClain.” The ropes beneath the mattress protested when Duel settled comfortably with his back against the high mahogany headboard. Another gift from Judge Parker. Must have cost the man a small fortune, yet he’d insisted on only the best for his daughter. Things a sodbuster could never afford.
Jessie slept then while he kept watch. He’d not let dreams, monsters, or illness befall her if he could help it.
A contented sigh broke from Jessie’s lips as he pulled her against him. With the cover tucked snugly around her, she let her head rest next to his heart. In that moment, his throbbing toe was totally forgotten.
Dawn neared when she opened her eyes. Her startled gaze took in his presence, but she didn’t recoil. “What?”
“You woke last night, fevered and with chills. Do you remember?”
“I dreamt I begged you to not leave me. That wasn’t a dream, was it?”
Duel shook his head.
“Oh dear. I suppose you sat like this all night? I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. You feel better now?” He relished the soft tickle of her hair against his bare skin.
“Yes.” A few seconds later she turned to look up at him. “Duel, are you happy?”
The question caught him off guard, for he’d been neck deep in fancy—fancyin’ her breath, wispy and light on his body, fancyin’ the feel of her beneath him, fancyin’ what it would be like to make love to his wife. His eyes popped open.
“I’m happy as a man has a right to be, I reckon.” He met her stare honestly. “Are you, Jess?”
She lowered her gaze as if embarrassed. “It’s this business arrangement of ours that bothers me.”
A rock tumbled and lodged in the pit of his stomach. Was she wanting out of their marriage?
“Are you disappointed in me? Have I done something to upset you?” Except for one small detail, they seemed to have it running smoothly, he thought. A swarm of doubt twisted and turned inside him. He choked for fear that he’d lose her before he had a chance to show her how wonderful life could be.
“This business arrangement,” she repeated again. “Is there any way you suppose we could change it?”
Change it? What in the name of Jehoshaphat was she talking about?
Jessie bit her lip and continued. “I find it…unacceptable.”
If she was trying to tell him she wanted out of the marriage, he’d make her spell it out. “How so?”
“I’d like a real marriage, not just one in name only. Are you…can you bear the thought of me as your wife? Just a little?”
A real marriage? Until this very moment he’d considered the likelihood of that happening as nothing short of a miracle. Had the lightning strike earlier injured his brain?
“You want a real marriage?” He spoke the words slowly, as if they needed time to sink in.
“Not a pretend one.” She allowed herself a quick glance. Probably to judge his reaction to her shocking words. “I’m tired of pretending. I’d like to wake up every morning with you beside me.”
“Are you ready for that, Jess? Do you
know what you’re asking?”
“I’ve never been more ready. That is, if you think—”
Bless her. This woman he’d married was the most sensitive, caring, simply delectable person he’d ever known. He savored the thought as if it were an unexpected taste of honey.
“Darlin’, I’ve already squared the past.” He stroked her cheek much as a sculptor would mold and shape the features of his love. “I’ll never forget Annie, but I’ve made a whole new life. We’re a family—you, me, and Marley Rose.”
He gently traced her lips with his fingertips before he lowered his mouth to capture hers.
Bedcovers fell away when she put her arms around his neck.
The place he trod upon was holy. A place he’d never been before, and he gave of himself one tiny morsel at a time.
From her lips, his kisses trailed to her slender throat, pausing at the rapid pulse at its base. There he pressed his mouth reverently. The gentle rhythm of her heartbeat seemed the only sound in the universe.
If love had a sound, surely this would be it. The quick beating of two hearts in tune with unheard music.
He inched farther, torturing his body with agonizing patience. Slow and easy, clearing her gown from the path as he went.
Tasting, touching, caressing.
Her rosy nipples tempted. He laved her ample breasts with his tongue, suckling on the pebbled nubs until she mewed and moaned.
Silver moonlight bathed her body with iridescent rays. He sucked in his breath. Jessie was more beautiful than he’d ever dared imagine. The best thing of all was he didn’t have to steal peeks. She lay exposed for his eyes only, and he drank his fill.
Pausing for a second to remove his trousers, he had to ask one more time. “Are you sure about this, Jess?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Her answer came as a silky thread spun by the most diligent spider. Had they created a web of fragile strands or could it withstand a stiff breeze? They’d soon find out. Beside him, a shudder ran the length of her body when he took her in his arms.
“I won’t hurt you. Anytime you want to stop, just say the word.” He spoke the vow into the soft cloud of her hair.
He didn’t expect an answer. None came. Only a tender sigh as she melted against him.
