He drew back a bit, eyes ridden with apprehension. “Did he… Amos didn’t touch you?”
She pressed her fingers over his mouth. “He slapped me once, but he did not touch me inappropriately. I feared he might, but he did not.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, a sigh of relief gusting from his lungs. “Thank God.”
A cracking noise nearby caused them both to jerk. Elijah released her and shoved her behind him as he snatched his rifle from the ground. Fear arched through her until she saw what caused the noise.
One of the O’Gannon twins stood outside the tree line, rifle raised. “Someone want to tell me what the hell is goin’ on here?”
Elijah kept his weapon trained on the other man. “That depends on whether you’re friend or foe, O’Gannon.”
O’Gannon lowered his rifle and held his other hand up. “A friend to you, McKinnon.” He reached into his pocket and held up a shiny badge. “I’m U.S. Marshal Seamus O’Gannon at your service. My brother and I were having some time off when all this happened. Looks like we walked right into some mighty bad blood without even trying. Are you both all right?”
As O’Gannon walked towards them, Elijah’s shoulders lost tension and he lowered his weapon as well. “We’ve been better. What the hell are you doing here?”
The other man approached Amos’s body, took a glance, then came towards them. “Been tracking this mess for a couple of days after the train robbery. It’s long story, but it looks like you and your wife need some help.”
“Thank you, Mr. O’Gannon.” Mary Jane snuggled into Elijah as he put his arm around her waist. “Is Robert all right?”
O’Gannon nodded. “He was when I left him.” He smiled. “He’s got quite a temper, and he told me if I didn’t get out there and kick some ass, he’d kick mine. Looks like you’ve taken care of everything for me, McKinnon.”
Elijah shook his head and then pressed a kiss to Mary Jane’s temple. “Amos took care of himself.”
O’Gannon nodded as he scanned their battered appearances. “You both look like you need a doctor. There will be considerable explaining to do when we get to civilization.”
Mary Jane saw the resignation in Elijah’s face. “I expect so, Marshal. I expect so.”
But as Mary Jane leaned her head against Elijah’s shoulder and sighed, she realized the nightmare had truly ended.
Portage
Mary Jane sighed as she sank onto the edge of the hotel room bed, relief threading through her body after her bath. She considered dressing in the unmentionables and clothes given to her by the hotel owner’s wife…including the corset and crinoline. Instead she pulled the quilt, blankets, and sheets down and crawled naked into bed. She huddled into the coverings and hissed as the cold sheets prickled her skin. A warm bath had felt wonderful, but she needed more. She needed calm thoughts and sleep. Precious sleep. She closed her eyes, thoughts of Elijah dominating. Nothing mattered for now but that he was safe.
O’Gannon had accompanied them into Portage, which turned out to be only ten miles away from where they had the showdown with Amos. There they met with the sheriff and told their stories a couple of times. Mary Jane rejoiced when she realized no charges would be filed against Elijah for Claypool, nor did the authorities wish to jail her for saving herself from Hoop. Though the whole process had taken hours, O’Gannon had spoken up for them as well and that shortened the time they spent explaining nightmarish events.
Everyone else on the train had fared well and testified that Elijah and Mary Jane had acted bravely in the face of the train robbery.
Now all Mary Jane wanted was to snuggle in this bed with Elijah. Thoughts of what might happen when he returned from purchasing food filled her mind. She ached to hold him, to connect in a deeper way. To show him how much she loved him.
He had not mentioned love, but she knew he did love her. His actions told her everything she needed to know.
When the door unlocked and opened, she jerked from a half sleep and clutched the sheets to her chest. Elijah stepped in and closed and locked the door. Relief regulated her heart.
“Goodness, Elijah, you scared me.”
He smiled, some of the old Irish charm back in his eyes. “Sorry, darlin’. It might take you a while to calm down. I know I’m still edgy. Did you have a nice bath?”
“I did.”
He placed his purchases down on a table. “Why don’t you rest while I take a bath?”
“All right. How is your head?”
“Doesn’t even ache.”
When he started to disrobe, she sighed and enjoyed watching him. A doctor had examined his head and the wound showed no sign of infection. A small bandage covered the bullet’s graze.
For the first time in what seemed ages, she relaxed, her body releasing ravaging fear. With that she found she could not keep her eyes open. Tiredness caused her to drift, lovely sounds of him sloshing around in the big tub music to her ears. Some time later she awakened, and felt his arms slip around her. Sleep, though, refused to relinquish Mary Jane. She sank into a cloud of fluffy comfort, cradled in strong arms and the delicious contentment of total safety.
What seemed an infinite time later, she awoke, much more alert. Elijah’s arms held her against his chest. One of her thighs nestled between both of his hard, muscular legs. She pressed to his side, her right hand cradled in his as he held her palm to his chest. He secured her in a protective grip. For a few moments she breathed deeply, drinking in his clean, wholly masculine scent. A swirl of delicious need pulsed to life inside, demanding she shift and rub against his warm skin.
“Awake, darlin’?” His question rumbled, and as she looked up at his bristle-covered chin, he tightened his arms in a gentle squeeze.
“Yes. Did you sleep?”
“Some.”
Despite the comfort and rightness she experienced in his embrace, it hit her that she had never been pressed to him quite like this. Yes, they had sat naked together in Mrs. Connor’s bathtub, but now the air felt more intense, as bright as the lightning that had burst over Portage not long ago. She had never felt as vulnerable as now. It thrilled her, but it also sent apprehension through her. Now they were in Portage and had survived the authority’s interrogation—what would happen to them? Between them?
Disturbed, she sat up. She held the sheets over her breasts, unwilling to relinquish all modesty. It was too late to be embarrassed that she had lain completely naked with him.
Elijah stretched and yawned. His muscles rippled and bunched in his arms and chest. Every inch of her tingled as she watched the sheets slide low on his hips. She may have seen him naked before, and she had taken a bath with him and touched him intimately. She shared things with him she’d never told another person. That didn’t stop Mary Jane from admiring his blatant masculinity, the power she felt coiled in his body. Her gaze roamed over his muscled chest and followed the hair that curled there and trailed over his stomach.
His eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
She tried for a smile, but it failed. “We survived. We are alive.”
His eyebrows went up. “That is a good thing, right?”
“Yes. I—I just feel as if now we are in Portage and the trip is almost complete, we will go back to our lives. We…” She drifted, unable to verbalize her fears. “There is so much I want to say, Elijah. So much feeling inside me I do not know where to start.”
His sad eyes stared into hers. Would he tell her they could not pursue a relationship? She dreaded the possibility.
“I am sorry about Amos,” she said. “I mean… I am not sorry that he is dead, but he was your brother.”
Emotion raced across his face. He shifted and then sat up, turning away from her as he climbed out of bed. “I planned and plotted and seethed with anger for five years, Mary Jane. Up until I faced off with him rifle to rifle, I planned to kill him. Then I couldn’t do it. That’s why I offered to put down my rifle. But before that I couldn’t think of anything but k
illing him. What kind of man does that make me? Why aren’t you afraid to be with me knowing what I’m capable of? Why aren’t you on the next train to Pittsburgh and running as far away from me as you can?”
Hurting for him, for the self-contempt she heard in his voice, she stared at his naked strength. “Damn it, Elijah, do not tell me you are anything like your brother or that you somehow deserve punishment for what he chose to do. You are such a beautiful, handsome man. But not just in form, but in mind. I know that about you. I think I must have known, somehow, from the first time I saw you. I could not have trusted you otherwise.”
His turned back towards her, a slight smile on his face. “Is that a curse I heard, darlin’?”
She smiled. “Yes, it is. If you are corrupted, then I am as well. I might as well start with cursing.”
He laughed, but the mirth was short lived. “You trusted me from the beginning?”
She lowered her gaze to his hard chest, fascinated with his dusky nipples, the broad muscled planes. “Do you think I could have been as intimate with you as I have been if I had not trusted you?”
As he watched her, she slipped from the bed and stood in front of him, completely naked. She thrilled to the way his gaze raked over her. Pure, masculine hunger filled his eyes, a steady, burning desire that flared. Renewed need, simmering steady beneath the surface, settled low in her stomach and fluttered to life. Unashamed, but feeling shy, she allowed her gaze to slide down to his waist and lower.
Oh my. Oh indeed. His cock lay semi-erect, large and thick and fascinating within a nest of dark curls. Below that proof of his desire hung twin globes.
She jerked her gaze back to his face. “When I thought you were dead, I did not care about anything but taking my own revenge. I wanted to avenge you, Elijah. I plotted to trick Amos. To make him trust me. Then, I would do the unthinkable. I would kill him.”
His eyes widened for a mere second, then he reached for her shoulders. “You what?”
“I wanted to kill him, Elijah. I finally understood, really understood, what you felt when Maureen was killed. Other than staying alive, I made it my mission to find a way to kill him.”
He stared at her for a long time, his eyes showing confusion and growing belief. “You put your life in danger.”
She shook her head. “In any more danger than I already was? No. My life did not mean much, because you were no longer in it. You see, Elijah, you are not the monster you think you are. Because if you are evil, than so am I.”
“No.” His voice was a harsh whisper. “You could never be anything but the most beautiful…” His voice broke a little. “Beloved woman I have ever known.”
Her heart soared with heady happiness. “Beloved?”
“When I woke up after Varney shot me and realized they had taken you…” He swallowed hard, his eyes blazing with anger, with sorrow. “When I realized that you could be hurt, could be taken from me forever, I knew nothing mattered beyond finding you. Telling you how I feel. Showing you how much you mean to me.” He kissed her forehead and her nose. “Maybe I did go mad when I was in Eastern State those five years. Then you gave me my life back. You showed me gentleness and respect and understanding. You wore away at the hate inside me.”
She smiled. “Even when I was arguing with you in the rain?”
One corner of his mouth turned up. “Even then.”
She pressed into his body and clung to his shoulders. “Perhaps I just reminded you of what was already inside you. It was just hiding, Elijah. Just hiding.”
With a low groan he gathered her to his chest, cupping the back of her neck as he covered her mouth with us. His kiss did not cajole her into passion, but hurtled her straight into the fire. Something new exploded between them, refusing and denying restraint. She wanted this. She wanted him more than anything she wanted before. Even her need for revenge had not topped this growing, wonderful desire to love and be loved.
He drew back with a gasp, his chest heaving up and down, his eyes simmering with a barely banked heat. “Darlin’, tell me to stop if you don’t want this. Tell me to stop right now.”
His erection pressed hard, a masculine invader. She wanted to give him pleasure. “I want to know what you feel like inside me. Show me how you feel, Elijah. Show me.”
He plunged his fingers into her hair. “God, yes.”
With a whisper soft kiss, he tempered his passion for a single moment. His lips feathered over hers, sweet and light, and kindled an exquisite burn low in her stomach. He lingered over her top lip and then her bottom, each caress driving her mad with need. She shimmied, and her nipples brushed the hair on his chest, and her belly brushed the hard press of his cock.
With another groan, his kiss angled this way and that, exploring and tasting with ravenous hunger. Tongue against tongue, he tutored Mary Jane in how to kiss, what he wanted and needed. Her tongue coiled with his, then she licked deep into his mouth, and he groaned in obvious approval. She had never felt this free or powerful in her life, and she gave in to the desire, the wanton and wild that yearned to explode. Her hunger to know and explore him surprised her, but she reveled in it with freedom. She’d never felt this out of control.
All doubts vanished.
All worry escaped.
Her world came alive under his touch.
Sensations exploded into brilliant life as Elijah cupped her breasts. His lips traced over her ear, his tongue stealing inside, his hot breath stirring shivers of delight. The stubble on his jaw tickled her neck as he pressed hot kisses along her skin. As his thumbs swept over her nipples, she gasped. Writhed in his hold. Before she knew it his lips were there, sucking and teasing, his tongue flicking over one nipple and then the other with relentless licks. He ravished her breasts over and over until the heat and want between her thighs ached. Whimpering in delight, she clutched his head to her breasts and arched. Down, down his lips wandered. She pressed her legs together to try and remove the ache. His hands caressed her small ribcage and along her stomach. She moaned and shivered as her skin came alive, so sensitive under exploration. He knelt on the floor in front of her and stared at the fluff of dark hair between her thighs.
Her cheeks heated. “What are you…?”
He kissed his way across her stomach then back up, every sweet, tender kiss a revelation.
When he reached her lips, he whispered against them, his voice a carnal, fervent tone. “I need you. God, how I need you.”
Her heart soared. “And I need you.”
Seconds flowed into minutes as his touch learned her body. Though she knew he tried to be gentle, the urgency of his touch, the rasping of his breath told her how much he wanted her. With sweet and delicious attention, he caressed her back and cupped her buttocks, drawing her up so her feet left the floor. Instinctively she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bed. He fell backwards onto the surface, and she sprawled on top of him. Feeling awkward and unsure what to do, she hesitated, falling into the startling intensity of his eyes.
“Touch me,” he whispered. “Touch me anywhere you want. However you want.”
His eagerness to allow her exploration gave her freedom. Joy touched her soul as she sat up and straddled his thighs. She ran her hands over his chest, delighting in the crisp rasp of his hair, his nipples drawn into tight points. She wondered if Elijah felt the same exciting jolt when he was kissed or touched there. She decided to find out, and leaned over to swirl her tongue over his right nipple.
He hissed in a breath, his groan a testament to how much he liked it. “Yes.”
Emboldened, she worked his nipples with her lips and tongue. He stuffed his fingers through her hair as she tasted his ribcage, then worked her way down to ridged stomach muscles. So much power. So much…male. The hungry ache between her legs increased. She didn’t understand how she would appease this unremitting desire, but eager to discover the answer, she continued exploring. Over and over her lips and tongue journeyed across one muscle then another. She
skipped over his erection, still too shy to even look at it closely. Instead she caressed and kneaded his thighs, finding the perfect symmetry and strength more arousing than she expected. The rough hair on his thighs and calves even thrilled her. His feet, big and well made, delighted her need to discover.
When her hands swept over his toes, he jerked. He propped up on his elbows, his chest rising and falling, his eyes filled with raw heat. He watched as she made her way back up his legs, touching, kissing, learning what made him groan and move restlessly. When she reached his cock, which stood hard and upright, Elijah gripped it in one fist and stroked.
A bolt of heat charged through her as she stared. Oh my. My. This is indecent. This is…wonderful. Exciting. That excitement coiled in her belly with a force that made her squirm.
Before she could reach for him, he whispered, “Come up here, darlin’.”
She crawled up his body, and he enveloped her in his arms. His mouth found hers, and her mind went blank. With each velvet thrust of his tongue, her eagerness heightened, her desire a raging storm that needed to break. She slid her arms about his neck and rode out the thunder, showing with equal force how much she wanted whatever happened next. One of his thighs slipped between hers, then his fingers were there…touching…brushing the secrets he brought to ecstasy back in Mrs. Connor’s cabin.
She moaned against his lips as he plied her swollen folds, then concentrated on touching that one spot. One so, so sensitive spot. She gasped. Writhed as his lips closed over one nipple and his fingers brushed across the other nipple.
A rhythm began. His tongue brushed and licked and tormented her nipples, while his hand strayed between her legs and explored with shocking intimacy. Higher and higher the bliss grew until her breath panted, her thighs trembled, her body went tight. But the bliss wouldn’t come.
“Take it, darlin’. Feel it.” Then he slipped a finger inside her, and she almost yelped as the brush of his finger over aroused tissues felt so wonderful.
Before the Dawn Page 25
