There All Along

by Dane, Lauren

  They were back to running official transports in the north once more. Exhaustion burned his eyes. But he needed to touch her. Needed to see her. Needed to hear her voice and feel her skin against his.

  So yes, they should stay the night in the garrison. But Silver Cliffs was just up the Highway. They’d already stayed two days and it was time to go. He’d done his job and he wanted her so much his skin itched for her.

  “The widow Coleman is good for you.” Trinity cleaned her weapon at a nearby picnic table. “Being with someone makes you strong when they’re worthy.” Her gaze cut to Marcus, the corner of her mouth lifting as he turned and caught her looking.

  “She wants to be out here with me. And after seeing what we did in the South, I can’t. When we left last time it was my plan to make it possible, to get the clearance to have her with me. But now?” He scratched his bearded chin. “I can’t bring myself to expose her to that. No matter what she thinks she wants.”

  He had an alternate suggestion. One he hoped she’d listen to and accept. But there was simply no way he could have her out on the Highway when they could be under attack by fucking cannibals.

  He’d walk away before he’d do it. At least if he walked away, she’d be safe in Silver Cliffs behind those impenetrable walls. At least she’d be alive somewhere in the world. He had the stick as well as the carrot. For the time being the military had issued a ban on nonmilitary personnel traveling with lawmen. Even those lawmen who rode along with their husbands and wives had to leave them in a garrison. He’d lead with that before he made his proposition.

  “What’s the alternative, Loyal? You’ve seen life out here in the garrisons. Verity wants more. She wants to live outside those walls and she wants to do it with you.” Indigo shrugged.

  “You know as well as I do about the new restrictions. I have a proposal to make to her about how we can take the next half an annum or so. I guess I’ll have to see what she thinks.”

  “Don’t blow it. I’ve been riding with you for over ten years. I’ve never seen you do so much as look back over your shoulder when we left a garrison. This woman is the first. The only one you’ve been drawn back to and that means something.” Indigo was far more perceptive than most people imagined.

  “It does mean something.”

  “Let’s roll then, shall we? Get to Silver Cliffs. Pick up our passenger for lawman academy. Have an ale at the bar. See Loyal go all cow-eyed at the widow Coleman.” Trinity slapped his shoulder and laughed, heading for Marcus, who bent to kiss her before they headed to their vehicles.

  They rumbled through the gates and headed back for the Highway. Their pace was harder than normal. He wanted to be there as soon as possible. The Highway was clear. Partially because of the increased military patrols. Partially because they’d beaten the brigands back.

  No matter though, because it meant they could get to Silver Cliffs.

  The time he’d been away had been torture because he’d missed her, yes. But it had also helped him get to the heart of how he felt about Verity.

  Indigo had been right. In all the years of his life, there’d never been anyone who drew him to a place the way she did. Never been a woman who was so impossible to get off his mind.

  He was a solitary man. He liked not being owned or having responsibilities to anyone outside the job. His family was his crew, but otherwise no one else held much personal importance to him.

  He hadn’t been obsessed with fucking before Verity. He got it when he needed to, when he wanted it. When it was offered by a person he knew wouldn’t expect anything more than a good time.

  But Verity wasn’t a woman he could tumble and walk away from. He’d known that when he’d crawled between her thighs the first time. It’s one of the reasons he’d tried so hard not to give in to that burning need to touch her. For two annum he’d kept his desire leashed. But each time they’d driven through those gates it had been harder to resist.

  Not just the sex, though that part made the blood heat in his veins. So smooth and sweet on the outside but behind closed doors, once they were alone she demanded her pleasure. He’d never really imagined that being as hot as it was. But there was something so deeply alluring in the knowledge that she was dirty but only he saw just how dirty.

  She was someone who listened more than she talked. Curious. Vibrant. Full of decency and honor and caring. Verity was a person he could share his future with and it was long past the point where it scared him the way it did the first time he’d kissed her and left Silver Cliffs.

  It was what it was. She meant something in his life. The totality of Verity wasn’t just her. It was the Verity-and-Loyal of it all. The way she fit in his life, the way he fit in hers. The way the two of them made something else entirely.

  He’d held on to that when they’d been out dealing with the death and destruction of the last three moons. He was part of something bigger than his job for the first time in his entire adult life.

  And it was . . . good.

  17

  The horns sounded and she looked across the store to Ruth.

  “Go on and see if it’s him. Tobin and I will handle the loading dock doors.”

  Grinning, Verity patted at her hair. “They have to come up here anyway. And I can see from my parlor better than down at the gates.”

  Ruth laughed as Verity ran from the store, out the back. The view from her parlor was enough to show her the tail end of an escort heading over the bridge.

  Her heart pounded, leaving her slightly breathless, and it wasn’t until that very moment that she let herself confront the worry that he’d be hurt out there during this brigand uprising.

  She sat in a nearby chair and let herself shake, letting it go so she could gather herself up again, put herself together so she could go back down and greet him.

  The procession came up the hill, with the escort vehicles peeling off at the garrison offices.

  He’d come when he could.

  She smoothed her hands down her trousers and took a deep breath, heading to unlock the mail office. Three moons with no deliveries meant there’d be a lot of work to do.

  Ruth’s husband, Garner, had shown up to help with the store, closing up so they could get ready for the rush of preorders.

  With Tobin going she was glad she’d hired on one more person to help, one of Ruth’s cousins who ably dealt with the busy times and kept herself working when things slowed down.

  She dealt with the sacks of mail showing Ruth just how it worked. It was bittersweet. Tobin had been so great, knew what to do and how to do it. He’d be gone and Ruth would take over. As much as she loved Ruth, as thrilled as Verity was for Tobin, she’d miss the boy a great deal.

  New experiences for them all, she supposed as she handed out letters and parcels, checked names off the list and kept the line moving until she looked up to see Loyal standing there, looking tired and thinner than he had the last time she’d see him.

  But he was hers and so much joy burst through her it was all she could do to stand there and smile at him. “Well met, lawman.”

  “I think you need to meet me out back. I have a message for you.” He nodded his head solemnly, but the hint of a smile at one corner of her mouth belied the truth of what he was up to.

  “I’ll be just a moment,” she assured Ruth, who waved a hand at her to go.

  She forced herself to move at a normal pace until she’d closed the door and then she ran down the hall to the back door and barreled into his arms as he picked her up, twirling her, his mouth taking hers as he set her feet back on the ground.

  His taste filled her to near bursting, his arms wrapped tight around her, his smell all around her.

  “I missed you so fucking much,” he muttered against her mouth. “You taste so good and I’m starving.”

  She smiled. “You’re here.”

  “I told
you I’d come back. I keep my promises.”

  “There’s a mob in the store.”

  “I know. I have to go back to the garrison offices. I needed to come to you.”

  She hugged him again. “I needed you to.”

  “I’ll drop my things upstairs.”

  “I’ll see you when we close up.”

  He kissed her again, his tongue sliding over her lips and into her mouth. She sucked on it and he grunted, his hips jutting forward, holding her so tight she had the mad wish that he’d simply lay her on the grass and fuck her senseless.

  “Playing with fire. I’ll collect on that promise when I get you alone later.” He kissed her one last time, setting her back.

  She licked her lips and his pupils swallowed the iris.

  “Looking forward to that, lawman.”

  The rest of her afternoon went by quickly enough. She was rushed off her feet between the mail and the folks coming in to collect their orders. They closed up and spent several hours more restocking the shelves to ready themselves for the next morning when the whole garrison would show up to see what new items had been brought from all up and down the Highway.

  Tobin buzzed with excitement. Constance even stopped in with a smile, but didn’t work a shift. And that had to be all right. Constance had to make her own choices just as Verity would make hers.

  Hers sat in her parlor smoking a cigar, reading a newspaper and looking finer than anyone had a right to. This was often how she found him when he came to Silver Cliffs. But it was different now because he belonged to her.

  He looked up at her entrance, stubbing the cigar out and moving to her.

  “It was a miracle that I was able to get up here without Tobin in tow. I sent him off to talk to Indigo. Which was rather mercenary, I know. But I can’t find it in me to feel bad.”

  He pulled her hair from the braid, running his fingers through it, bending to bury his face in it. “Three moons without the scent of you. Sometimes I’d wake up in the middle of the night and smell you, the phantom of your skin. It burned through me.”

  “You missed me then?” She ran her hands up his arms, loving the warm strength of his muscles. Over his shoulders and down to his chest where she began to unbutton his shirt.

  “I did.” He put his hands over hers, stilling them. “Not so fast. Aren’t you hungry? I’m not going anywhere right now. Don’t starve yourself to get something you can have—in abundance—after you’ve satisfied other hungers first.”

  “I’m starving for you.” And it was true. It had been all day since she’d eaten, but three moons since he’d touched her. Since she’d had her hands on him, heard his voice.

  “I made dinner.” He put her in a chair. “Sit and let me take care of you. Then I’ll take care of you some more.”

  He sauntered into her kitchen, pulling something from the oven that smelled very good, before dishing some onto two plates that he brought to the table. “I saw the bread, it’s there under the cloth. I brought some butter as well. It’s got salt from the Great Sea. I think you’ll like it.”

  He bent to kiss her temple. “Don’t pout or I’ll give you something to do with that mouth besides eating.”

  Her gaze locked with his and she breathed in deep, letting what he did to her settle into her bones. So good. He woke up every bit of her senses. All her wants. Just looking at him made her ache.

  It was a delicious sort of ache though. She licked her lips, loving the way his breath hitched.

  “Promise?”

  She watched, her nipples hardening, as he reached for his belt buckle and undid it, sliding his trousers open and pulling out his cock. Everything inside her stood up and cheered at the sight.

  “Go on then.” He tapped the head of his cock, wet with pre-come, against her lips. But she opened, licking across, tasting salt and skin and Loyal. She hummed her satisfaction at that.

  He hissed and she took the head to the crown into her mouth with a swirl of her tongue.

  “Yes.”

  She fought against the lure of closing her eyes and sinking into the sensation that way. She didn’t want to miss the sight of him. Of the way he gazed down his body at her. Hungry.

  Little by little she swallowed more of him. Taking him deeper and then deeper again. Finding her pace, getting her breath just right. His taste didn’t flood through her, instead she absorbed it in increments until, before she fully realized it, he owned her.

  He smoothed a hand down her hair, brushing her jawline, her cheek, the side of her mouth.

  “So beautiful. There’s so much ugliness out there and then there’s you. You who washes it all away every time you touch me.”

  She moaned around the cock in her mouth. She tried to tell herself she’d be tough when she gave him her ultimatum, but how could she resist him? In the flesh as he said things like that with the truth of it written all over his face? She wanted him and she wanted things to work.

  But for that exact moment she wanted to bring him pleasure. So she focused, licking up the line of him, delighting in his rough moan, of the way his hand had moved back to her hair to gather it, to move her at whatever pace he wanted.

  “You want it in your mouth? Hm?”

  She nodded.

  His curse delighted her. Just a small slip, a tiny chink in his control. And she did it.

  His hand tightened, her scalp tingled as the pain slid into something else, as the taste of him filled her, as his tortured groan was homecoming.

  He had a plan, damn it. He’d make her a meal, strip her naked, bathe her, eat her pussy a few times, fuck her boneless and then they’d talk. But she was temptation personified. So lovely. Beautiful and sweet and soft but just beneath that softness there was an edge that drove him to possess her, to cosset and protect and take. Take and take.

  He bent to kiss her, shaking his head at her satisfied smile.

  “Welcome back, lawman. Now where’s my dinner?”

  “Can you wait then? For me to sate other appetites?”

  She laughed, sipping the ale he’d poured. “I can wait. I know you’ll make it worth it.”

  She buttered some bread and dug into the casserole he’d made, sighing happily. “In addition to everything else you’re good at, you can cook. I’m not quite sure how you haven’t been snapped up before now.”

  “Never wanted to be. Until now.”

  He took her hand after he sat. Squeezing it before digging in. “So fill me in on what’s happened over the last three moons.”

  She waved it away. “You have a much better story, I’d wager.”

  “Not while we’re eating. It’s not a story that goes well with food. I see you have new staff in the mercantile.”

  “That’s Ruth. She’s going to take over when Tobin leaves. She’s wonderful and a fast learner. I think she’s better at running things than I am. Endlessly patient. A good friend too. Tobin is”—she shook her head, amused—“so excited. He fair bounces around town all day long. Any time the horns go off he runs to see if it’s an official transport to pick him up. Jackson has been helping him with target practice and tracking. Most folks are proud to see him go and represent us down in Shelter City.”

  Most. “So you’re still having trouble with your sister then?”

  She told him about how they’d stopped inviting her over, about the things her sister had said. And about their recent attempt to patch things up in some way.

  “I’m sorry I’ve brought you heartache.”

  “It’s not that. It’s . . . I think it’s that I’m different now. I want different things and while most folks in Silver Cliffs are all right with that, some, like Constance and her husband, they’re not. They’re so frightened by whatever is outside the walls that my wanting to see it is threatening somehow. I don’t know. But what can I do? Give up on what I want to make them comf
ortable? Why should I do that?”

  They skirted around it, the gauntlet she’d tossed down when he’d left the last time. It was cowardly to avoid it, but he’d wanted a bubble. Just the two of them, no stress. Even for a brief time.

  She smirked. “Just because we’re not talking about it doesn’t mean we’re not thinking about it.”

  “How do you do that? Know what I’m thinking?”

  She laughed, putting her head on his shoulder a moment. “It’ll be our secret that you’re really not so mysterious.”

  “Let’s eat first. Then can we get naked and in your lovely tub? We’ll talk. I promise. But let me have you, soak you up for a bit.” He needed that more than he’d realized until right then.

  “All right. The doors are locked so as long as we aren’t beset by brigands or Tobin, we have time.”

  They talked of nothing too serious. She told him what she’d been up to. Training Ruth, making a new friendship. She skirted around her interactions with Haldeman, which amused him more than angered him. He had no worries about her constancy. The man was a threat, but not an immediate one.

  “I’ll clear the dishes if you’ll run the bath?” He took her hand, turning it and kissing the heart of her palm. She shivered and he smiled.

  “You’re a rogue. I rather like it.”

  What he liked was the breathless way she spoke.

  “Only for you. All for you.” He pulled her close, swaying. She made him feel things he’d never understood. Had seen, knew existed between others, but had never begun to feel.

  “You make me want things, Verity.” He brushed a kiss against her forehead, pushing her hair back to expose more skin. More to touch.

  “I’m glad I’m not alone.”

  He breathed her in deep. Needing that. She chased away the stench of death. Of misery and pain. Filtered it all out and left him better.

  “I’ll go run the bath.”