by Merry Farmer
Juan shrugged and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I saw him with Mr. Gunn from the hotel earlier.”
“Mr. Gunn?” Miriam frowned. “What is he doing with Mr. Gunn?”
“Discussing the hotel business.”
Miriam’s brow flew up. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Hands still in his pockets, Juan leaned closer to her. “If you ask me, I think the Magnificent Miles Kopanari is tired of the gypsy life. If you ask me, I think he’s suddenly become interested in the life of a hotel concierge. If you ask me, I think he’s trying to learn a new trade from the man who is considered the finest hotel manager this side of the Mississippi.”
Fear pierced Miriam’s heart. “No, you must be wrong.” She dove back into her sewing, even though her hands shook. “Miles would never give up the life of the stage. How could he?”
“Madame is getting older.” Juan punctuated his comment by glancing over his shoulder to where Madame Kopanari had just sunk into a chair, her skirts flaring, giving her the appearance of a toad that had just settled on a lily pad. “Miles won’t want to drag her around forever, and you know she’s always wanted to return to her homeland. That would leave Miles free to pursue whatever profession he wanted.”
“But we all depend on Miles for employment,” Miriam continued to argue.
“At the moment, the twins are more interested in locating their lost brother.” Juan nodded to the excited twins at the other end of the table. “And to be honest, I’ve been talking to your handsome cowboy about a job at Paradise Ranch.”
For some reason, that more than anything struck terror into Miriam’s heart, but all she could say was, “Stop calling him ‘handsome cowboy.’ He doesn’t like it.”
Juan chuckled. “How would you know, Chiquita? Have the two of you been talking about it at your special evenings out?”
Miriam’s cheeks colored, and she snapped her eyes down to her work. “Cody and I were not having supper alone, you know. First, my friend Libby invited me to supper, and Cody happened to be there as well. Then Wendy and Travis had me over, and Cody was there too.”
Across from them, Wendy smiled, seemingly for no reason at all, but obviously she was paying attention to the conversation.
“And then the day before yesterday was the day Howard Haskell invited all of us to supper at Paradise Ranch,” Miriam went on.
“At which time you and Cody sat beside each other the whole evening.” Juan winked.
“I’m not responsible for where Cody Montrose sits,” she fired back.
Her anger was a mask, though. It hid the growing coil of panic in her gut. If Miles stayed and worked for Mr. Gunn, if Juan left to become a rancher, if Madame Kopanari returned to Europe, and the twins left to find their brother, there would be no troupe, no job. Miriam would be stuck, stuck in a town where people knew her and where Cody wanted her. She’d be stuck with nowhere to run from her shadows.
“Cheer up, Chiquita,” Juan said again and moved on toward the stage. “You could always finish what you started and become Mrs. Montrose.”
He winked one last time and joined Cody at the edge of the stage, thumping him on the shoulder. Cody glanced quickly past Juan to Miriam, as if he knew full well they’d been talking about him. Miriam’s face burned with frustration and…and need. She clenched her jaw and poked her needle into the curtain she was sewing with such ferocity that she jabbed her finger on the other side.
She yelped and snatched her hand back, shaking it out and sucking on her finger. It didn’t help. Her heart was still on fire, and her feet still itched to run.
Whatever he’d done wrong the day he gave Miriam a tour of his house, whatever he’d continued to do wrong all the times he’d tried to talk to her in the past week, Cody was determined to keep trying to woo Miriam until he got it right. Heck, that’s why he’d spent every spare second of his time helping out with the show for the past week. He just wished Miriam had noticed his dedication. Maybe she did, but maybe he needed to make the point that he was ready to settle down and make promises to her a little more obviously.
That was why he ended up at the door of Miriam’s hotel room at supper time in his best suit, a bouquet of hothouse flowers from Gunn’s private stash in his hand. He cleared his throat, knocked, then danced back on his feet to wait.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door, and with them girlish chatter. Uh-oh. Was Miriam not alone?
The door flew open, and the twin, giddy faces of Meizhen and Meiying met him.
“Handsome cowboy!” they greeted him in unison.
Cody swallowed hard, swaying back. “Uh, did I get the wrong room?”
“No, no.” The twins grabbed one of his arms each and yanked him through the doorway. Cody nearly lost the bouquet in the process.
Across the room, sitting in a blue brocade dressing gown with her hair down and her cheeks bright pink, Miriam gaped at him. As she leapt to her feet, the front of her robe sagged enough to give him a teasing glimpse of rosy, rounded flesh.
“Cody?” She pressed a hand to her heart, then must have realized her state of undress. She tugged her robe closed and retied the sash.
“Handsome cowboy come,” one of the twins exclaimed with glee.
“Handsome cowboy come,” the other repeated in a lower, more scintillating tone.
Cody swallowed again, sweat breaking out down his back like it did whenever he walked into Bonnie’s place. “I, um, brought you these.” He held up the bouquet, his voice as strained as the fabric of his trousers.
Miriam attempted to smile. She hesitated, then skittered forward to take the gift. “Thank you.” She hid her face by breathing in the flowers’ fragrance. “They’re lovely.”
Cody grinned, glanced awkwardly at the twins—who huddled together at the side of the scene—then cleared his throat. “You probably have fellows bringing you flowers at the stage door after every performance.”
“No,” one of the twins blurted.
“Only handsome cowboy,” the other added. They both giggled.
Miriam sent them a frustrated look.
“Supper,” the first twin exclaimed as though someone had just invented the concept.
“Yes, yes, time for supper,” the other agreed with as much enthusiasm.
“Long time for supper.”
“Yes, long, long time.”
The twins linked arms and rushed for the door.
“We not come back for very long time,” one of them said.
“Veerrry long time,” the other agreed.
They burst out in one final giggle, then zipped out to the hall, shutting the door behind them. The room seemed strangely void without them.
Cody shifted his weight, rubbed the back of his neck, and dragged his eyes to meet Miriam’s. She slowly lifted hers from the bouquet, which was now held like a shield in front of her.
“They sure are—”
“I’m sorry about—”
They both stopped, and a moment later, broke into chuckles. Miriam loosened up considerably.
“Let me just find something to put these in.” She turned and searched the room, zeroing in on a pitcher set beside a bowl on a table in the corner.
As she crossed the room to take care of the flowers, Cody took a breath to steady himself. He’d intended to invite Miriam down to the hotel’s restaurant—an area with plenty of other people around—for supper, not to sneak around with her behind closed doors. But truth be told, the things he wanted to say to her were far better said in private than in public.
“Miriam, look, I’m sorry that things have been so…I dunno, strange between us this last week,” he blurted. “And just when I thought everything was going so well.”
Miriam practically dropped the flowers in the pitcher and spun to face him. “Things are going well, aren’t they? Everything is well as far as I can see. I mean fine. Everything is fine.” The way the words rushed out, as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to a dam, disproved every w
ord she spoke. She leaned backwards against the small table, gripping the corners as if her life depended on it.
Of course, that particular pose formed her body into a perfect, sinuous line. Her hips stood out as the fabric of the dressing gown pulled around her—pulled around her and slipped open at her chest again. Her breasts really were a large, round, perfect handful.
It took a colossal effort of will for Cody to drag his eyeballs up where they belonged—to her eyes. “The thing is, I know you’re worried about where you’re going to go after this and how you’re going to support yourself and what the future holds,” he rushed on before he could chicken out. “But you know I have a fool-proof idea to make all that go away.”
“I do? I-I mean, you do?” She blinked and straightened.
Cody couldn’t decide if he liked her new posture or not. “Yeah. Like I said the other day, we should go right back to where we were before all this mess happened. I say we forget the last four months and just pretend that you’re here to be the mail-order bride I sent away for. I say we get married.”
Silence.
Miriam stared at him, her eyes large and round. And beautiful. Cody couldn’t forget that. Her eyes were vibrant blue, and with her hair falling in luscious waves around her, she looked every bit the angel. Or maybe the siren.
“Cody, I don’t know…” Her chin tilted down, and her eyelids fluttered low. Make that a sad siren.
“What is it, sweetheart?” He took three big steps across the room to her. He reached out for her, and without realizing he was doing it, slipped his hands around her side and brought her close to him. “Am I so bad now that you’ve gotten to know me a little that you still want to run away?”
“No,” she answered so fast her words could have given him whiplash. Instantly, her sharp edges smoothed. “No, Cody.” She rested a hand on the front of his jacket. “You’re not so bad at all. In fact, I kind of like you.”
She peeked up at him through long lashes, her cheeks flushing with just the right amount of coy charm. Bolts of electricity fired through Cody’s blood, igniting instincts as old as man. He tightened his hold around her waist.
“If you like me, this should be easy.” He grinned. If she let him, he’d never get tired of flirting with her. “Say you’ll be mine?”
She swayed toward him, then away. Tension rippled through her, but she placed her other hand on his chest beside the first. Her whole face pinched, and her fingers played with the top button of his jacket. If she found a way to be any more contradictory, he might just explode.
After several long moments of exquisite torture, Miriam let out a breath and looked up at him with as much frankness as a judge. “I do like you, Cody Montrose.”
“Well, that’s handy.” His reply was far too clumsy and shaky for his liking.
Still, she smiled. Her fingers continued to play. The top button of his jacket popped open. Her fingers flinched as though it was an accident, but rather than redoing the button, she lowered her hands to the next one down.
“But…” She let the single word hang in the air between them for a long time. Her brow furrowed, then smoothed. She stared at his jacket, and flicked open the next button down. “I do like you,” she repeated, her eyes fixed on the last button. “I’m just not so sure you’ll still like me after a while.”
Cody laughed—itchy and breathless—releasing tension. “Sweetheart, I think I could like you for a very long time.”
“But there are things about me that you don’t know.”
The last button of his jacket slipped open, and her fingers drew the heavy fabric aside. Cody sucked in a breath, suddenly wanting nothing more than to get the rest of his clothes off as well.
“So? There’s plenty you don’t know about me either.” He raised a hand, lowered it as he thought twice, then marched boldly ahead and tugged at the sash of her robe. He flickered his glance up to meet hers.
The heat behind the cool blue of her eyes was enough to send Cody’s blood pulsing to all the places he needed it the most. “I know you were at Hurst Home.” He tugged the sash all the way loose. Miriam sucked in a breath as her robe sagged open. “I know the women at Hurst Home come from troubled backgrounds. Some of them have folks wishing them harm, but some are just trying to get away from the harm they fell into on their own.”
Her eyes lowered at his words. By all appearances, she looked abashed, maybe even penitent. But her fingers danced their way to the waistband of his trousers. “Would you be…upset with me if you knew I wasn’t…pure?”
Would she be upset with him if she could feel the wave of lust that washed through him as she admitted that?
“It doesn’t make a lick of difference to me.” His voice was as full of gravel as it was full of truth. That lick of difference transformed itself in his mind to all sorts of other licks in all sorts of other places, on her body and his. “I think I could grow to love you no matter what.” He finished his thought as her deft fingers unbuttoned his trousers, while he could still get those important words out.
“I want to stay and be your bride, Cody,” she whispered, eyes still downcast. There was a ‘but’ in her tone all the same.
It was a ‘but’ she never followed up on. The last button of his trousers slipped free, and she sent a long-fingered hand exploring below his waistband, along his length.
Cody sucked in a breath. He couldn’t remember if he was going to make a reply to her statement, ask what ‘but’ was. An earthquake of desire shuddered through him as she drew him up, attempting to free his hardening length from his trousers. It wasn’t going to work as long as his suspenders were still over his shoulders, but that didn’t stop her from stroking like a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.
And in one brilliant flash, Cody realized that he didn’t mind if she wasn’t a fragile, virginal flower. In fact, the idea that they would both be able to express themselves fully and knowingly between the sheets sent his heart racing toward the precipice of love that much faster.
He raised his hands, cupping either side of her face and drawing her closer for a searing kiss. With a helpless whimper, she gave in and relaxed into him. Cody’s momentary regret that her hands had left his trousers was squashed as she circled her arms around him and opened her mouth to him. He wanted her like no woman he had ever know, and she sighed in complete acceptance.
As his lips and tongue danced with hers, he smoothed his hands down to her shoulders, across the curve of her collarbone, and down to close his hands gently around her ample breasts. She sucked in a breath—taking his lower lip with it—and arched her chest toward him, pressing herself firmly into his hungry hands. Her breasts strained against the silky fabric of her shift. Cody stroked his fingers across her nipples until they were hard and Miriam was mewling for more. Her hips angled into him as her hands scrambled to push his jacket and suspenders off his shoulders.
He had to let her breasts go to wriggle out of his jacket and his shirt when she grabbed hold of the hem and jerked it up over his head. He took a step back, toward the bed as she did. She followed them, letting her robe come all the way loose and drop to the ground. All the while, their mouths sought each other out, stealing a brief kiss here, pausing for a long, passionate kiss there as they inched toward the bed.
At last, as Cody’s thighs bumped against the mattress, he brushed his hands over Miriam’s shoulders, taking the straps of her chemise with them. The flimsy covering slithered to the ground, leaving Miriam naked before him. He sucked in a breath as he took her in with unapologetic longing.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered, as if in church. She still looked like an angel, with her long, blonde hair forming a curtain around her sensual body, but no kind of angel that Rev. Pickering would bring up in a Sunday sermon. Her breasts were full and round, her nipples taut and rosy, her waist was slender, her skin pale and creamy, and her hips curvy, the thatch of curls between them the most tempting thing he’d ever seen.
He wanted to devour her in every way possible.
“Cody.” His name on her lips sent a jolt of desire straight to the part of him that was already half-exposed, straining up out of his sagging trousers. She reached for him, spreading her hands across his firm abdomen, raking her fingers up to his chest. His own nipples tightened in response, and when she slipped her arms around his back, digging her fingertips into his back and leaning so close to her that their chests almost touched—but not quite—he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold onto control long enough to show her a good time.
He drew her into his arms, groaning as her breasts made contact with his chest, as her hips swiveled into the part of him that strained for her. He slanted his mouth over hers, showing her with his tongue what he wanted to do with more important parts of him. Miriam responded with a moan of pleasure and of…of…
Cody pulled back, cradling her face with one hand and tilting it up so he could look into her eyes. Only, she wouldn’t look at him. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips were soft and kiss-swollen, but she wouldn’t look him in the eye.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, a little harsher than he’d planned to be.
Those siren lips of hers quivered. A glossy tear dropped onto her cheek. She pressed her face into his supporting hand, took a shuddering breath, and whispered. “I can’t do this. I can’t give in to temptation again.”
As desperately as Cody’s body ached for her, and as blatantly as his staff pressed up out of his trousers, he inched away from her until he felt he was at a respectable distance. His lips worked, but it was several seconds before he was able to blurt, “Explain.” He winced at the clumsy command.
Trembling just enough for him to feel it, Miriam raised her eyes to meet his at last. “I want to make love with you so badly right now that I feel like I have a fire inside of me that can only be put out through satisfaction.”
