by Everly West
The reverend stepped into the sanctuary and stared at the couples. Tears formed in Anna's eyes. All her life, she'd dreamed of her father walking her down the aisle of the church where the man of her dreams would gaze at her with love in his eyes and they would promise each other forever.
Instead, she was in a cold church on the other side of the continental United States where a man with a six-inch covering of dirt was about to marry her just to keep her from living on the streets.
Nothing like her original dream. Nothing like what she had planned. Everything was different, and she'd had over a thousand miles to prepare herself for this moment, but still the tears welled up in her eyes.
The reverend said, "A nasty-looking storm is rushing toward Angel Creek. Before the worst of the snowfall arrives, I want everyone safe and warm in their homes. Therefore, the ceremonies will be short and simultaneous."
Not only was her dream wedding nothing like her real one, but the reverend was basically going to say the vows and then usher them all out the door. Away from her friends.
What had she done?
Glancing at Charity, she wondered if she had time to run.
Levi took her hand and smiled at her. "We don't know each other, but I want you to understand that when I say my vows, I'm sincere that I will do everything I can to keep you safe and protect you. It's my hope that eventually we'll look back on this day and be thankful we took a chance on one another."
Stunned, Anna gazed into his warm green eyes, her nerves calming. He squeezed her hand and a delicious trickle spiraled up her spine, radiating heat.
"Do you still want to marry me?" he asked.
He was giving her the chance to back out. The chance to run, get away from this awkward situation. What were the chances of her finding anyone else? Suddenly her body filled with warmth and she knew she wanted to take this opportunity with him.
"Yes, let's get married," she said. "Just promise me you won't be late to the birth of our first child."
The man threw back his head and laughed. "I promise to never be late again if I can help it."
"Deal," she said. "Let's do this."
They both turned to gaze at the reverend.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered..." Reverend Tilly began.
This was her wedding and while it wasn't perfect, she had a man who was promising to care for her. Maybe there was hope.
Chapter 2
After the wedding, the girls stood there, gazing at one another in shocked silence. Finally, the men tugged on their wives and each girl hugged the other goodbye.
"I'll see you soon," Anna whispered to Sarah.
"Yes," her friend whispered back, her own chest tightening. The friends had been inseparable since they were children, and now their husbands were taking them each to their homes. Everyone she knew was headed in a new direction, causing fear to spiral through her. She glanced at her new husband; could she trust this man?
Finally, Levi took her by the hand. "We need to go. We're an hour from town and that storm is starting to blow."
"As soon as my conversation was finished, I was going to leave with you," she said, knowing in her heart she didn't want to leave her friends, but hating the fact that her new husband was forcing her to make a choice. Forcing her to face her fears.
Stepping outside, he held her arm as they walked down the steps. Snowflakes swirled around them.
"Do you see those dark clouds in the distance?" he said coolly, not even turning to glance at her.
"Yes, it looks like rain. What has that got to do with anything?"
Why was he making such a big deal of the weather? Even the reverend had mentioned a snowstorm.
"Honey, this time of year, we don't get rain. We get snow. If we're going to make it to the ranch, we should have been on the road over an hour ago."
"Well, someone was late to the ceremony," she retorted, thinking this was not a good start as he helped her up into a sleigh, not a wagon. It seemed like he was prepared for more snow than she expected.
"Understood. But the time for chitchatting about nothing was over. It's time to get on the road," he said, his eyes never leaving the snow-covered path.
Climbing into that sleigh with her husband was the hardest thing she'd ever done, besides leaving Charleston. Couldn't he see that she was heading into the unknown with a man she just met and that thought terrified her?
Turning away from him, she concentrated on the route they traveled. Pine trees loaded with snow lined the winding road.
"There's a fur pelt in the back. I suggest you pull it up and wrap it around you. It's going to get cold," he told her.
Since they'd left the church, she'd felt the wind whipping about her, making her wish she'd worn more layers of clothing.
"Even colder than it already is? My toes are numb."
"Wrap the pelt around you."
Was he always so bossy? She wanted to ignore him, but her feet were frigid, and the wind was picking up. Already, it was blowing briskly against her in the sleigh.
Right now, any kind of warmth would feel really good. Reluctantly, like she wasn't feeling the piercing wind, she reached back and nonchalantly pulled the pelt from the back. An animal fur. She shivered, wondering what poor animal gave up his skin for them to have warmth. Turning back, snowflakes hit her cheek.
He cursed.
"Excuse me," she said to let him know she'd heard his foul language. Was her husband a vulgar-mouthed, rigid, unfeeling man?
He glanced at her. "I was hoping we'd make it back to the ranch before it became a blizzard. We're only ten minutes out of town and the flakes are flying. We could be in trouble."
What was he talking about? It was snow. Right now, the sight of white flakes falling gently from the sky was beautiful. She stuck out her tongue and tasted the frozen water. With the pine trees glistening silver, the new flakes made the world look like an ice palace, all bright, pearly, and gleaming.
"Why do you think we're in trouble?"
He glanced at her and grimaced. "We're heading into a blizzard. A frigid, snowy storm that is going to make the road harder and harder to see. Where I can't tell where the trail stops and starts. Where we could get lost and wander around until we're frozen."
The man was an alarmist. A person who liked to prophesy gloom and doom and calamities. And she was going to spend the next hour on pins and needles wondering if they were going to make it to his home. Of course, they would arrive.
Shaking her head, she glanced at him. "And how long have you lived in Montana?"
"Five years. Long enough to know a blizzard when I see one and realize the danger."
Opening her reticule, she pulled out her father's pocket watch and glanced at the time. It would soon be dark and the inscription on the watch gave her strength.
"Look, Levi, I didn't escape Charleston, South Carolina, to come to Montana to die. Get this sleigh to your ranch before we freeze to death."
As if the weather had heard her defiance, the wind slashed the sleigh and the horse neighed in alarm.
Frozen pellets pelted her face, stinging.
"Yes, ma'am. Anything for my new bride," he said sarcastically. "That gust of wind is a clear indication we're heading into a blizzard."
A tiny prickle of worry started to zig along her spine. Like she said, she was not going to die in some freak blizzard in Montana after surviving the bombing of Charleston.
The snow fell faster and thicker, and at times, she wondered how he could even see the road. The horse seemed to have slowed, its head down, but he trotted on like he knew where he was going.
Her fingers were starting to go numb and she tucked the fur around her closer, no longer caring it was a dead animal skin keeping her warm.
Thirty minutes later, she'd moved the scarf around her neck up to her face, protecting her cheekbones from the stinging ice that felt like needles. The vista was no longer beautiful, and she counted the minutes, hoping they would soon arrive. She worried they would
pass his ranch in the swirling white, never seeing his home.
"How m-much farther?" she asked, screaming into the wind.
"We're about halfway," he said, glancing around them. "I'm having to remember trees and bushes along the road, but in the snow, it all looks different."
Moaning in frustration, she ducked her head to try to keep the cold wind at bay.
Suddenly Levi stopped the sleigh and hopped out. What now? Couldn't the man feel the cold? The sleet and snow? Did he want to die?
"What-t-t are you doing," she asked, her voice quivering, her body was racked by penetrating shivers. She'd never take feeling warm for granted again. "Let's-s-s go," she cried, her voice shaking.
Ignoring her, he walked up to the horse and held his hand over the horse's nose and rubbed his head. Then he hurried back to the sleigh. "The horse had too much frost and snow caking his nose. I had to wipe it off." He glanced at her. "Are you doing all right?"
No, she wasn't doing all right. She'd never felt so cold in all her life. Even the animal pellet couldn't stop the chill from reaching her bones.
"I'm-m....f-freezing," she said, shivering, her teeth clattering.
"I know. Me too," he said. Suddenly he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close to him.
"What-t-t...are...you...d-doing?" she protested, but it came out sounding weak.
"We're sharing body heat," he said. He took the pelt and wrapped it around the two of them. An infusion of heat and warmth from his body felt wonderful.
Taking a deep breath, she breathed in his scent and her heart beat a little faster at the feel of his hard-muscled leg.
She should move away, but she was too cold. The heat from his body felt so good. The warmth of his thigh rubbing through her skirt was a delicious friction that she should move away from but didn't.
"The storm is getting worse."
She glanced at him, her facial movements feeling frozen. "How much farther?"
"Ten minutes up the road."
"That far? Can you go any faster?"
"The poor horse is going as fast as possible," he said, wrapping the pelt tighter, their bodies against each other.
The sensible voice in her head said they would be lucky to make it to his place. The wind howled loudly and blew fast. She couldn't see anything but white. Thank goodness the horse seemed to sense they were close to home and turned down a frosted lane lined with drifts.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the horse stopped. The snow was blowing so hard, she could barely make out a structure.
Levi turned to her. "Wait. Let me help you. You're wet and cold."
The rashness of this man. She could get out of the sleigh without his help. She threw off the pelt and regretted her action the moment she did. The frigid air blasted her, and she realized how much colder it would have been without that blanket of warmth.
Throwing her stiff leg over the side of the sleigh, she stepped down and immediately fell face first into a deep drift. She couldn't feel her limbs. They were numb from the arctic chill and she lay there struggling to move in the snowbank.
"You just couldn't wait, could you?" he said, lifting her.
"I am quite capable of walking."
"I can see that," he said, swinging her body into his arms.
"What are you doing?" she asked, feeling breathless being held by this lumbering hunk of a man who was her husband.
"I'm carrying you into the house."
A sense of warmth and security enveloped her as he carried her one hundred ten pounds of frozen humanity. When they walked inside, he set her gently on the ground.
"Can you stand?"
"I think so," she said, grabbing onto a chair and looking around, her feet still frozen.
Striking the flint, he fussed with the lamp until it was lit. As light spread throughout the house, he glanced at her and then licked his lips.
For a moment, she felt a thousand needles stinging her face and limbs. They were alone with a raging blizzard outside and she was his wife. She stared at Levi, his dirty clothes no longer covered in dust. In fact, they were now obscured in snow. His emerald eyes stared at her with a twinkle.
"How stubborn are you?" he asked, smiling.
Oh, the poor man had no idea her father had raised her without all those silly rules that apply to women. She tilted her chin and smiled. "Guess you're going to find out, aren't you?"
Levi rushed out of the house and into the snowy cold where he'd left the horse and sleigh. The bitter chill was a welcome respite after staring at his wife. Her full figure, soft mouth, and eyes the color of a stormy sky were enough to have him thinking they were married, for better or worse. He needed this blizzard to cool him down and put some sense back into his overactive imagination.
The woman could be trying, and now they were married until death do they part. Trying, in that she hadn't listened to him when he said they needed to leave. The horse made a deep rumble in his chest.
"I know, it's bitter cold out here. Give me just a moment and you'll be in the barn with a nice fresh bag of oats," he said. "Better than having to face a beautiful woman."
Locating the rope he had tied to the porch column, he stretched it out, walking into the swirls of white, unable to see the barn, knowing it was close. He bumped into the building, kicking his frozen toes against the wood. "Found it."
Walking along the building, he found the door and tied the rope to the handle. Now he could come and go between the two buildings without getting lost. Snapping a throat hook onto the rope, the other end he tied to his belt. Quickly, he made his way back to the sled.
"Let's get you in the barn," he told the horse. He must sound crazy, but he talked to his animals all the time. They were usually the only breathing creatures around for miles. Except now Anna occupied his house, filling it with her womanly scent and gorgeous..."Stop, right there."
It wouldn't do him any good to be thinking about the curves hidden under that fancy dress she wore. Or the fact she was his wife. They had thirty days to decide if they wanted to be man and wife. Thirty days as long as they didn't consummate the marriage.
Climbing into the sleigh, he turned the vehicle in the direction of where he thought the barn was and the horse gladly pulled him right up to the door, which he pulled open with the rope attached to his waist. With little urging, the horse trotted inside where he climbed down.
"Hey, there, Bacon," he said, reaching down and petting the mutt he'd raised from a pup. The dog licked his hand. Yes, it was a strange name, but the dog had gotten into some cooked bacon when he was a pup and that became his name. "Tonight you can't come up to the house. Once I learn if she likes dogs or not, then I'll bring you in."
The dog whined like he understood his owner.
"Believe me, I could use you up there to come between me and my wife. It's going to be hard to keep my hands off her for thirty days. Thirty days of pure torture."
The dog licked his hand in a consoling manner.
Quickly, he went to work unharnessing the horse. He glanced around at the animals curled up nice and warm inside the building. A milk cow, a couple calves, some chickens, a few grunting pigs, and three horses.
Most of his cattle were in the pasture not far from the house. He prayed they would make it through the storm. He hated to think of them out there in this weather. As soon as the snow stopped, he'd take them food. The stock hay was safely inside the new sheds he'd built in the pasture this summer, but he still went out and spread the bales for his cows.
Once he'd brushed and fed the horse, he glanced toward the house and thought of the woman waiting for him there. Gorgeous and she smelled so good that he wanted to snuggle against her and breath in her scent. And she was going to hate him when he walked back in the house.
Sighing, he knew he should go in. The woman didn't have sense enough to know she'd just survived a blizzard. And her wet clothes would only make her sick. He was going to look like the biggest pervert demanding she take them off and
hang them up to dry. But he didn't need her catching pneumonia and dying before they had a chance to determine if they would remain married.
He was in quite a pickle. One demanding, beautiful, sexy as hell, woman living under his roof as his wife and he couldn't touch her for thirty days.
Walking into the house, the first thing he noticed was Anna squatted beside his fireplace, a blanket tossed about her shoulders, trying to light a fire.
"Oh, come on, light," she said, striking the flint at paper she'd stuffed under a log.
Feeling remorse for not making a fire before he went to the barn, he strode over to the fireplace. "Let me."
Standing, she bumped into him, her breast brushing against his arm. His cold blood heated, rushing through him. Licking his dry lips, he leaned down and struck the flint. A spark hit the paper, igniting it.
"You make it look so easy," she said.
"I've had more practice than you," he responded, not looking at her.
Within a matter of moments, the fire was blazing and heat warmed the room. "I got busy taking care of the animals in the barn."
It wasn't exactly an apology, but more an explanation for why he'd left her in a cold house. Actually he'd run out into the weather to escape the feelings she evoked in him.
"I couldn't find a kettle, but I found a pan. Do you have tea?"
He swallowed. He'd never had a woman in his home. Hell, he had very few visitors, just his brother dropped by. Now, he would share the little place with his wife. "No tea. But I have coffee."
"As long as it's warm, it will do," she said. She started to sit, but instantly jumped up when she realized the back of her dress was soaked. She went to the fire and turned her backside to the flame.
"You need to get out of those wet clothes. I'm going to change as well," he said, trying to calm her, but fearful she would think he had an ulterior motive. The thought of her getting sick worried him.
She glared at him. "And just what do you think I'm going to change into? All my clothes are packed away in my trunk. And where is my trunk?"
Levi sighed. He hadn't even thought about unloading her baggage. For now, she could put on his clothes...if she would.
