Wild Texas Flame

by Janis Reams Hudson

  “Well,” he said, his voice purposefully loud. “I didn’t think you were the type to throw a man’s name around like that. I don’t think my reputation can stand any more black marks. I guess you’ll have to make an honest man out of me, won’t you?”

  Her whole expression changed from arrogant cockiness to something he couldn’t read. It scared him. Had she led him this far only to realize he’d been right all along, that he’d only hurt her if he stayed?

  “What precisely does ‘make an honest man out of you’ mean?” she asked.

  He took a deep breath and felt his heart pound. The shaking he’d noticed earlier was worse now. “It means I love you, Sunny Thornton. It means, will you marry me?”

  Her eyes closed briefly. Ash held his breath, waiting.

  When she looked at him again, it was with all the love in her eyes that a man could ask for. More than he surely deserved. More, maybe, than he could stand. “Yes!” she cried. “Oh, God, yes!”

  She flew to his arms and he scooped her up, burying his lips against hers.

  Epilogue

  The full moon rose in the late June sky and threw long shadows from the new barn, out across the sawdust littered ground at the Cottonwood Ranch headquarters. Golden light and fiddle music spilled from the gaping barn doors. Inside the two-hour-old structure, two dozen lanterns cast a bright glow over the square dancers on the temporary canvas floor.

  Over in the back corner, the Spit an’ Whittle Club was hard at work. Mose sawed on his fiddle, Skeeter clutched a mouth harp to his lips and blew, and Dutch raked callused fingers over a washboard. Harve had to really cut loose to be heard above their music.

  “Weave ‘em up and weave ‘em down,

  Weave ‘em pretty girls round and round.”

  Out on the makeshift canvas dance floor, couples wove ‘em up and wove ‘em down. At the end of the song, a round of applause rose from the more than twenty partners, in appreciation of the past hour’s music. Everyone said it was the best barn raising in years.

  Rachel and Amy curtsied to their schoolmates while Katy laughed up at Erik. “See? I told you you wouldn’t have a limp once your leg healed. And now that your head’s all better, you’re as good as new.”

  Erik blushed.

  Sunny laughed at Erik’s flush, then turned to her own partner, curtsied, and fanned her heated cheeks. “Thank you for the dance, Mr. McCord.”

  Her tall, blue-eyed partner grinned, then bowed at the waist. “My pleasure, Mrs. McCord.” He grabbed her by the hand. “Come with me.”

  At the hot look in his eyes, Sunny went. Eagerly.

  “Look at those two, would ya?” Sheriff Jamison told Ella. “Married darn near three months, and still grinning at each other like a couple of idiots, and running off to be alone in the dark every chance they get. Disgusting.”

  Ella turned half away and peered at him out the corner of her eye. “Jealous?”

  “Darn right, woman. When are you going to quit fooling around and marry me?”

  “Next Sunday.”

  “I tell ya, Ella, if you don’t—. Huh? What did you say?”

  Ella feigned an innocent look. “You asked me a question, and I answered.”

  “Next Sunday? No foolin’?”

  Ella nodded.

  “Whoopie!” The sheriff grabbed her beneath the arms, lifted her high in the air, and whirled her around and around.

  Over at the punch bowl, William Davis served each of the musicians and the caller a cup of punch. “Looks like the town’s about to have another wedding.”

  “Looks that way,” Dutch said.

  “Yep,” said Mose. “First them two younguns, now the sheriff and Miz Standridge. Don’t that beat all?”

  “Well I don’t know why you were so surprised when Miss Sunny got married,” Harve said. “I always said Ash McCord would turn out to be a fine man.”

  “Why, Harve, you did not. Just last winter you said—”

  “Ah, shut your trap, Skeeter. Just ‘cause you never heard me say it, don’t mean I never said it.”

  Ash led Sunny into the dark privacy beneath the dense foliage of the cottonwood tree behind the house.

  “It’s such a relief to have the men back and the barn rebuilt.”

  Ash pulled her into his arms and brushed his lips across hers. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a relief to finally get you alone.”

  Sunny smiled secretly to herself. She’d been trying to find the best way to tell him her news for days. He’d just given her the perfect opening. “Actually,” she whispered against his lips, “we’re not exactly alone.”

  “We’re alone enough for this.” He stopped the teasing brush of his lips and opened his mouth over hers.

  Sunny caught her breath at the fierce hunger of the kiss. He never failed to stir her to her very soul. She met his ardor with a passion of her own.

  When he ended the kiss, Ash leaned his forehead against hers, his breathing ragged. “I love you, Sunshine. I love you so much.”

  Sunny snuggled her head onto his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I love you, too. And I’m glad, for your sake, that the sheriff was able to get the truth about your father’s death from Maria before she died. And that Mr. Davis got that friend of his, Judge Beauford, to clear your name.”

  Ash kissed her temple. “Let’s forget all that for now. It’s over and done with.”

  She smiled again. She’d gotten away from the subject she wanted to discuss. “Well, there is something else we could talk about.”

  He kissed her cheek. Deep laughter rumbled in his chest. “Actually, I’d rather not talk at all. I’d rather love you.” Then he took her mouth with his and stole her breath again.

  When she came up for air, Sunny found her voice shaky. “Will you still love me when I’m fat?”

  Ash laughed. “You’re so tiny. When will you ever be fat?”

  She pressed her lips to his chin and tried to see into his eyes. “In two or three months.”

  “Don’t be silly. You couldn’t eat—” He stopped in mid-sentence and pulled back to look in her face. Even in the darkness, she could see a glow come into his eyes. “Sunny?”

  She took his hand and placed it low on her stomach. “I’ll probably waddle like a duck, too.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “Sunny? Are you—?”

  “Yes.”

  “A baby?”

  His look of tender awe brought a lump to her throat. She could only nod in response to his question.

  Slowly, Ash knelt before her and pressed his face to her stomach. “Oh, Sunny, you make me so proud, so happy. So…complete. God, I love you.”

  She slid to her knees and cupped his face in her palms. His cheeks were damp. “And I love you, Ash McCord.”

  Ash looked deep into her honey-gold eyes and gave thanks to God. Other men could tear up the earth and themselves searching for their treasures of gold. For as long as he lived, Ash would hold his own golden treasure tight in his arms. And tonight in their bed, she would once again turn into his wild Texas flame.

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