Memphis

by Sara Orwig

  His skin was darkened by the sun to a deep brown, his brown curls streaked with blond. She couldn’t get her breath and ached to kiss him. “I thought you’d never come,” she whispered.

  He didn’t answer, but danced through the wide doors. “My carriage is over here,” he said, tugging her hand. She didn’t protest, but hurried with him, her heart racing as they rushed across the lot and he helped her up and climbed up beside her to take the reins. She glanced at him. He looked solemn, so marvelous and she couldn’t resist touching him, reaching out to run her hand along his arm. He drew a deep breath and looked down at her, urging on the horses as they rushed to his house.

  She gazed up at the two-story brick house. He had built it for her. She had even helped select some of the furniture, but for the past months she had given up all hope of ever living in it. In the drive Caleb swung her down from the buggy, his hands on her waist and she looked up at him. Moonlight was pale on his wide cheekbones, his eyes in shadow. He drew a deep breath and pulled her hard against him as he bent to kiss her.

  His tongue went deep into her mouth in a hot, demanding kiss, and she felt as if everything inside turned over. Desire burned, making her hips thrust against him. She felt her body reacting, growing heated, ready, while she yearned for him with a need that was painful.

  “Caleb, Caleb …” she whispered, kissing him, running her fingers in his curls.

  He swung her up in his arms, the hoop flying up. She tried to hold it.

  “Dammit,” he swore, striding to the house and kicking the door shut behind them. He set her on her feet and pulled her to him. He yanked down the dress, buttons popping, lifting her breasts free to kiss her, touching her nipple with his tongue.

  Sophia gasped with pleasure, tilting back her head, closing her eyes while her hands fumbled his belt buckle, loosening it and pulling it free. She shoved away his coat and he turned her, kissing her nape while he worked the last tiny buttons free at the waist of her emerald dress.

  “Take down your hair,” he ordered in a husky voice as he unfastened the hoop skirt and crinoline and unlaced the corset. He peeled away her drawers and stockings and she turned, her hair tumbling down. And finally she was in his arms, feeling his marvelous, warm body, his manhood hard, hot, pressing against her.

  She felt as if she would melt as he caressed her and pushed her down on the hooked rug. He shifted, trailing kisses over her, his tongue making her gasp and arch her hips with need.

  “Ye’re mine, lass. I need ye, damned newspaper or not,” he said, his voice gruff and fierce and making her pulse race. “And I’ll show ye that ye want me,” he said, his fingers stroking her, making her gasp and writhe and strain for release.

  “Caleb—” She stroked him, her hands caressing him until he moved over her.

  “Ye’ll be mine, Sophia.”

  He thrust into her and her hips rose to meet him as she wrapped her legs around his slender hips and moved wildly with him. Her hands raked his strong back, sliding over the smooth curve of his firm buttocks, caressing him while she moaned and was caught up in a driving desire to make Caleb hers forever, to show him that she needed him desperately. She showered kisses on his throat and shoulder, murmuring his name and then release came, wracking her body, both moving wildly.

  “Sophia, mine! Ye’re mine!” He turned his head to kiss her deeply.

  Finally his weight lowered on her while they both gasped for breath, their bodies heated, damp with perspiration. He lifted long locks of hair from her face. Turning on his side, he held her and gazed at her. “Ye can do anything ye want with yer damned paper, Sophia. I need ye too much to let it come in the way.”

  “Caleb!” She gazed at him, thinking she would never send him away again.

  “I watched ye tonight to see how important that Weatherford was to ye—”

  “Caleb, he wasn’t!”

  “That I’m glad to hear!”

  “Caleb, I’ll give up the paper.”

  His eyes narrowed and he sat up, pulling her up and framing her face with his hands. “Ye’ll give up yer paper for me?”

  “Yes, because I love you. I need you. Nothing else is important.”

  “Ahh, lass,” he said, his voice rushing out as he leaned forward to kiss her, pushing her back and coming down on top of her.

  Later when they were in the big rosewood bed in the upstairs bedroom, while he held her and toyed with her hair, he turned to look at her. “I ordered you a new press from Shreveport.”

  Stunned, Sophia sat up to look down at him. “You did what?”

  “You heard me,” he said, amusement lacing his voice. “I started to not tell you when you said you’d give up your paper, but I paid a pretty penny for it.”

  “I thought you didn’t want me to have a paper—”

  “Sophia, understand me. I want you. If the only way I’ll have you for my wife is to have you printing a damned temperance newspaper, then that’s what I want. I ordered you a press.”

  “Caleb! My heavens, Caleb, I can’t believe you would do that. You’ve opposed everything. My stand on gambling and drinking. A press costs a fortune.”

  “That I know.” He tugged gently on locks of her hair and she looked down at him. “I can’t cancel the order now. It’s already in Pine Bluff, ready and waiting. I was going to bring it to town on the first run of the train.”

  “You did that for me,” she said softly, feeling a surge of amazement and love that he wanted her so badly. “Caleb, I never thought I’d get married or be so fortunate,” she whispered, kissing his shoulder. She ran her hands over him, feeling him hard, aroused again. “Don’t ever leave me again,” she pleaded.

  “Don’t send me away,” he said gruffly, swinging her down and moving over her to kiss her.

  It was almost dawn when she sat up. “Caleb, I don’t want to stir scandal now. I can’t be seen coming out of your house in daylight after leaving with you last night.”

  He chuckled and sat up. “Whatever you want, love.”

  “And we have to have some restraint. We can’t have a wedding until Chantal’s baby is born. I don’t want to go down the aisle big with child.”

  “I’ll write Rafe tomorrow and see when she can travel. You gave me the date of February second. Fortune’s still in Virginia, but he expects the army to send him elsewhere soon. He’s planning on coming out this way anyway. Now he can come for our wedding.”

  She gathered up her things and looked around to see him watching her. “You can have the bathroom, Sophia. I’ve had special plumbing installed and have a well in back and we have running water.”

  “Caleb, how grand!”

  “I built all this for you.”

  Her heart seemed to swell with love and her good fortune. Her gaze drifted down me length of his lean body. From the waist up, he was coppery; below his waist his skin was paler. He had filled out, looking strong and virile. “Do you have to go back today or can you stay tonight?”

  He crossed the room to bend and kiss her throat, brushing her lips with his. “I’ll stay tonight. I’ll come to your house after dark.”

  When she dressed, she moved to him. “Will you lace this?”

  “Sophia, you’re bound up like you’re wearing damned armor!” he said, lacing the corset. “I would cheerfully burn this and the hoops and that stiff petticoat you wear. Your drawers as well.”

  She laughed and turned to face him. “You would prefer to keep me naked as a jaybird!”

  “Yes, I would,” he said, his gaze lowering to her full breasts. “Don’t bother wearing that corset on our wedding day.”

  “I shall be hopelessly out of fashion.”

  “I will make up the sacrifice to you in some way,” he said in a deep drawl that stirred tingles in her.

  She stood on tiptoe to kiss him lightly and then she hurried to dress. When she returned he handed the buttons he had gathered from the floor. “I’m not sorry, although it’s a pretty dress.”

  She took the bu
ttons from his warm hand, kissing him lightly.

  He drove her home and went inside with her.

  “Mazie should be here anytime now. I’m going to change into a cotton dress, and you can stay and have breakfast with me.”

  “I want to announce our engagement today.”

  Sophia stroked his cheek. “I’m so happy, Caleb. I was miserable without you. It was worse in a way than when you were gone in the war.”

  “I know, love. I hope we never have another big disagreement.”

  She tucked her head against his throat and smiled. “I suspect, my arrogant husband-to-be, we will have a multitude of small ones.”

  He chuckled. “I’m afraid I have to agree, because your father raised the most independent woman in all the nation.”

  “No. I’m not so independent, Caleb. You’re just cavalier and stubborn.”

  “Am I now? If I were so damned cavalier, love, I would have done what I wanted this morning and kept you in my bed all day.”

  She stood on tiptoe to kiss him and then pulled away, gazing at him solemnly. “I’m back to sewing my wedding dress today. I can’t wait.” He reached for her and she stepped back, shaking her head. “Caleb, Mazie will be here any minute now.”

  “I’ll help with your buttons. We’ll hear her come inside.”

  Midmorning Caleb entered Will’s office and sat down across from him. “I’ve hired twenty more men. The notice is still posted around town. I want thirty to fifty more if you can get them, but get men who will work. Experienced hands will be better.”

  “You sound more cheerful today.”

  “I am. Will, Sophia and I have set a wedding date, the second of February.”

  “Congratulations! By damn, that’s good. So you worked everything out?”

  “Yes. I told her I ordered a new press. She said she was about to give up the paper, but now she hasn’t said any more about giving it up. I don’t care. We’ll work around it.”

  “Good! I’m glad.”

  “I hope you work your problems out, Will.”

  “Thanks. Cal, Dunstan’s boasting he will have his train ready in two months near the end of January.”

  “So will we. We’re getting more efficient about laying track. We’ve done better than a mile a day several times now; the men who are laying the train bed are doing a hell of a job through some usually swampy country. We’ll make it, Will.”

  “Keep your guards at night, Cal. I don’t trust Trevitt.”

  “Here are the latest figures,” Caleb said, opening a satchel and placing papers on the desk.

  “I’ll look these over and have copies made and I’ll take them to the other investors. Cal, congratulations on your wedding to Sophia. I’m envious.”

  “You’ll work out your disagreement with Amity. The damnable part for me now is so much time away from Sophia. I’ve got to stay with the train and bring it in. I explained to her and she agreed. My family will all be here for the wedding.”

  “Including Amity. At least I can show her Memphis and maybe she won’t view it as such a strange, faraway place.”

  “You need to get to know all her family, Will.”

  “I’d go call on them again if we weren’t so tied to this railroad. Cal, we’ve got to bring that in ahead of Dunstan. If we do, there’ll be other people who will invest with us. I’ll have to admit, I want to be first, just to show Father. He didn’t think we could ever get this running because of all the problems the Memphis-Little Rock encountered.”

  “We’ll do our best.”

  As Caleb walked out of Will’s building, he ran into Dunstan Trevitt, who gave him a cool look. “So you’re back in town.”

  “Only for a short time.”

  “We’re going to win, O’Brien. There’s no way you can beat me. I’ve got three thousand men working for me.”

  “We’ll see what happens,” Caleb said, unable to forget the night he looked in the window and saw Trevitt attack Sophia.

  “I’ll beat you. I don’t ever forget. You got away from me during the war and so did Sophia—but I haven’t forgotten.”

  “Leave her out of this, Trevitt.”

  Trevitt brushed past him and strode down the street. Caleb felt a tight knot inside. Three thousand men on his crew. He knew it was a big crew, but he hadn’t known it was that big. And he still worried about Trevitt and Sophia. He knew he was the only thing standing between her and Dunstan’s wrath. When he was halfway across Arkansas would she be safe?

  He returned to Will’s office and related the incident.

  “I know he’s your damned brother-in-law—”

  “Don’t worry. You know how I feel about him. I worry more and more about Hannah Lou. She’s not happy with him, yet she won’t say a word against him.” He tugged at his ear and frowned. “Cal, I hope he doesn’t hurt her. She’s so quiet.” He clamped his lips closed and stared out the window.

  “Sorry, Will. I worry about Sophia when I’m away working.”

  “Just warn her to be careful. She can always send for me, but she might not have a chance. Sophia can take care of herself better than most women.”

  “She can if she can get to her pistol, but if she’s unarmed, Dunstan is stronger.”

  “Get the railroad built and come home,” Will urged.

  Caleb nodded and left, striding toward the tiny office where Sophia had her paper. When he stepped inside, she was bent over the press. She didn’t have a bell over the door and he stood watching her. He had opened the door quietly and she didn’t know anyone was in the room with her.

  “Sophia.”

  She turned and his breath caught. Wisps of hair had come unpinned and fallen. She had a smudge of ink on her face, but the light in her eyes when she looked at him made desire flame. He reached behind him and turned the key in the door.

  “Caleb, you can’t lock the door in the middle of the day!”

  “You’re quitting now and going home with me before I leave for Arkansas. And before we go, we’re getting a bell and I’m putting it over your door. Where’s your pistol, Sophia?”

  “At home in the drawer.”

  “When I’m gone, you have it with you every minute.”

  “What’s happened?” she asked as he walked up to her. She smelled like roses and he wanted to crush her in his arms.

  “I saw Trevitt. He’s as big a threat as ever.”

  She glanced beyond him. “I feel safe when you’re here.”

  “I’ll be a hundred miles away in Arkansas. You carry a pistol. I’m going to buy a bell for this door now.”

  He strode to the hardware store and came back. He stopped at her door and looked up at the door frame around the oval of glass. Running his fingers along the door, he bent down.

  A blast echoed and the glass door shattered. Caleb jumped inside, slamming the door. “Get down!”

  Sophia stood at her desk, her eyes round. “Caleb!” she screamed.

  Chapter 22

  “Stay down!” Caleb snapped again, looking outside. A woman screamed, and a horse pulling a buggy broke into a run.

  “What was it, Caleb?”

  “I leaned down to look at the door. That shot was for me.”

  “Great heavens! Why would any—?”

  “Because if something happens to me, it would leave our railroad without someone supervising the actual work.” He stepped outside, anger pouring over him, looking at the angle of the shot. He gazed at the two-story building across the street.

  “Caleb, you think Dunstan Trevitt did this?”

  “I’ll be back. Close up and go home, Sophia, and keep a pistol handy all the time.” He strode away, and she dashed to catch up with him, half running beside him.

  “Caleb, where are you going?”

  “I’m going to find Trevitt.”

  “Caleb, wait,” she said, tugging on his arm.

  He turned to look down at her.

  “Please, come back. What can you prove? You aren’t even armed.”

/>   “I want to see where he is and what he says. You know he shot at me. I’d be dead if I hadn’t bent over.”

  “Then get the sheriff. Don’t go after him, please.”

  “You go on home. I’ll come by before I leave town.”

  “You scare me when you’re so angry,” she said.

  He felt a burning rage, but he smiled and gave her waist a squeeze. “There’s never any reason for you to fear me.”

  “I don’t fear what you’ll do to me. I’m afraid for what you’ll get into.”

  “Stop worrying. I’ll be along soon. You get your pistol.”

  “All right.” She turned away, and he hurried to Trevitt’s office. Caleb threw open the door and it slammed against the wall. The secretary stood up, his face becoming pale.

  “You can’t go in there!” he said, trying to yank open the desk drawer. Caleb strode past him as the man pulled a pistol. He held it with both hands, shaking badly.

  “Stop where you are!” he ordered.

  Caleb ignored him and kicked open Trevitt’s door, sending it slamming against a wall. Trevitt sat behind his desk; two men were seated across from him. Trevitt yanked open his drawer and raised a revolver.

  “What do you want?”

  “I came to tell you, don’t try again, Trevitt!” Caleb snapped, longing to leap across the desk and slug him, yet looking down the muzzle of a gun.

  “What the hell are you talking about? Have you gone mad?”

  “I knew you’d deny it, but I’m telling you, leave me alone,” he said, his words clipped and his voice tight with rage. In front of others he expected Trevitt to deny what he’d done. Trevitt was no fool. Caleb shook with rage, trying to control his temper. He was tempted to call Trevitt out and be done with worrying about him, but he had sworn he wouldn’t resort to using a gun again.

  “Leave you alone?”

  “You just shot at me. And I know the reason.”