The Mail Order Bride's Secret

by Linda Broday

  “He’s one of the raccoons.” Jesse huffed. “He likes to open all the animals’ cages and let ’em out.”

  Tait could just picture the chaos.

  Becky patted his arm, demanding her turn.

  “What is it, honey?”

  “Love you.”

  Tait swallowed hard, his heart swelling. “I love you too.”

  How had he managed the unbearable loneliness of his life before they came? He realized that was one of the reasons he’d turned to liquor—and why it had never been enough no matter how many bottles he’d emptied. Nothing could substitute for what he’d just now found with these kids and Melanie.

  He went inside and set Becky down then turned to his wife. “I practiced what I’d say to you all the way home, only now that I’m here I can’t remember any of it. I’m glad you didn’t walk out on me as I feared you might. You had good reason.”

  “I considered it for all of a minute.” A teasing glint lit up her eyes, and she wore a big smile. “But I didn’t want to leave an opening for another woman.”

  “How about we start over?” He put an arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss.

  The heat came to the surface in a flash, and he didn’t know which end was up. All he knew was that he didn’t want to stop. Melanie Dunbar had him in her clutches, and he didn’t want to escape.

  But Becky was clinging to his leg, and the twins were yelling for his attention. With regret, he released Melanie. “After we get these kids to bed, you and me are having a long talk.”

  “I’m all for that. But let me take a look at the source of that blood.”

  “It’s nothing to fret about.” He stilled, watching hurt cross her face, and he softened his voice. “I’m fine. Really.”

  She blinked and turned away. “Are we doomed to fight about everything?”

  “No. You’re welcome to look to your heart’s content.” He sat down and rolled up his sleeve, stiff with dried blood. “The bullet only grazed me. I think the water created a bit of a shield.”

  “What were you doing in the water?”

  “Swimming. We were on one shore, and the Berringers on the other.”

  “Good heavens.”

  Becky leaned against his knee. “Hurt?”

  “No, honey. It doesn’t hurt.”

  Melanie mumbled something about Tait not feeling things like ordinary people, and she went for some water to wash the wound. He started to tell her that he was going to go bathe and would wash it then but knew his protests would do no good, so he held his tongue.

  He suspected she needed someone to fuss over. Women tended to do that when they were nervous. As much as he hated it, he’d let her. Then they’d have to talk once the kids were in bed.

  When she returned, he raised his shirt and sat patiently while she cleaned his wound. The bullet had taken a path along his lower ribs on the right side.

  Melanie smelled of wild honeysuckle that grew in profusion across the prairie and down in ravines, and he wanted to pull her into his arms. Her gentle touch whispered over his skin like a summer breeze nudged by a river’s rippling current.

  “Thank you. This feels much better.” He pulled his shirt down.

  She gathered the pan of water and cloths. “You should get the doctor to look at it.”

  “For a scratch? Nope. She has more important things to do. She’d probably have a good laugh.”

  While the children took baths in the hotel, Tait gathered his things and went to the outdoor community bathing apparatus Jack had rigged up a few years ago. It consisted of poles in the ground, each set surrounded by walls of heavy burlap. Buckets of water sat on a high shelf, and when the bather needed to rinse, he pulled on a string and water gushed. They had to be the cleanest outlaws anywhere.

  Tait stood in line with the other men, and when his turn came, he scrubbed every bit of dirt and blood from his body. Since everyone else had already eaten, he swung by the café for a quick bite. While he ate, he thought of what he’d tell Melanie about Lucy, praying he could get through the story without too much pain. He still found it hard to think about that gut-wrenching day. Even though three years had passed, he still woke up some nights dripping with sweat.

  He didn’t want to talk about it. To his way of thinking, the past was for the dead and the future for the living. But for Melanie, he’d do it.

  Finally, he went back to the hotel and helped prod the kids toward bed. He listened while they said their prayers. All three asked God to tell their parents they loved them.

  Joe ended his prayer with a deep sigh. “God, please tell Bandit he’s not a kid and to quit opening all the cages or we’ll never be able to have this circus.”

  For some reason, it struck Tait as funny that God would take an interest in one raccoon when there were so many serious things needing attention. But maybe Tait was wrong. Some things meant everything to a boy who’d lost it all.

  At last, he and Melanie strolled toward their bedroom arm in arm. “You asked if I’d been married before. Let’s go talk. I don’t want the kids to hear this.”

  She nodded. They sat on the bed together, their backs against the headboard.

  Tait took her small, delicate hand in his. “I didn’t intend to mislead you. Jack is the only one who knows any of this, and the pain is as raw today as it was three years ago. I’m not at all sure I can talk about it.” He turned to meet her gaze. “But I don’t want anything to come between us. Yes, I was married before. Her name was Lucy. We lived on a piece of land up in western Kansas. I did a little farming, and we had a small herd of cattle—around a hundred head. It was nothing big, but we did okay, and we were well below the area where the Missouri River Railroad crossed.”

  Pictures swirled in Tait’s head as he told the story. “One day railroad officials paid me and Lucy a call. Said they were dropping a spur line down to Dodge City and were going to run it straight across my land. I told them over my dead body.”

  Melanie shifted. “You said the railroad took your mother’s land. Was this before or after?”

  “After, so I already knew how they operated. I wasn’t going to just let them take what I had. Looking back, I wish I’d given them every last inch of my spread. Lucy was—” He swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth. “She was in the family way.”

  “Oh no!” Melanie clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “I was proud. I insisted I would fight to the end if that’s the way they wanted it. They kept threatening, each time bringing more and more men with them. Kern Berringer had been put in charge, and we tangled some. I shot two of his men, and that ratcheted things up to a fine level.”

  Tait took a deep breath to steady himself. “One day he and about a dozen riders galloped up with guns blazing—shooting cows, horses, dogs, anything that moved.”

  “The bastard!” Melanie spat.

  “I opened a trapdoor to the cellar and put Lucy down there with a rifle. I held them off as long as I could, but there were too many. They shot me and dragged me out of the house. I heard screams, and saw them carrying Lucy, and I couldn’t do one solitary thing to stop them.

  “Kern Berringer told his railroad friends to have some fun. They formed two lines and made me crawl between them, kicking me mostly but one or two fired into me. I passed out, and they must’ve thought I was dead. When I came to, I saw—” Tait swallowed hard to control himself and finish what he had to say. But he couldn’t stop the rushing memories and the tight panic in his chest.

  Melanie squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to do this. Please stop.”

  “No, you need to know exactly how deep this vendetta with Berringer goes.” He jerked off the bed and went to the window, staring out at the blackness as dark as his mood.

  “For God’s sake, please stop,” Melanie cried. “This is tearing you apart.”

  Tait’s ton
gue worked in his dry mouth. “I saw Lucy…swinging…from the crossbar of our ranch.” He broke down and sobbed. “She was dangling from the large wooden girder…our child…my beautiful Lucy. Hanging there like she was nothing—just a thing to discard.” His shoulders shook.

  Melanie’s arms went around him, and she held him with tenderness he’d hadn’t known for so many years. Tait clung to her and buried his face in her hair that carried the fragrant, life-affirming scent of the Texas land and wild honeysuckle.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered brokenly, her tears wetting his shirt.

  He didn’t know how long they held each other, but finally he regained the strength to speak. “Now you know the story.” He led her back to the bed. “Thinking about that day rips the scab off a very large wound.”

  “How did you get to a doctor?”

  “Jack found me barely alive. He hauled me into town, then buried Lucy for me.”

  “He’s a good friend.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “Why did they kill her? Their fight was against you.”

  “I heard she came out of the cellar and shot one of their men and killed him, but Kern Berringer never needed much of an excuse. He already hated me for crippling him.”

  “This is what drove you to rob trains. It wasn’t so much your parents. It was Lucy.”

  “I wanted to break the money-grubbing railroad bastard. Still do, only I have the kids to consider now.”

  “I have a confession. I tried to tell you last night but couldn’t.” Melanie looked away. “I went to your sod house while you were gone to Flat Rock. I’m ashamed, but I did it.” Her lip trembled. “I went through the boxes of women’s things you had stacked in the corner.” She glanced up. “I wanted to know the man I married. You tell me so little. I guessed you had a previous wife. I apologize.”

  After a long silence, he kissed her fingers. “I should’ve told you from the start. I’m not an easy person to get to know or live with.”

  Melanie laughed. “I don’t think either of us are easy people.”

  The laughter died, and she kept her eyes on his. A wanting for something more darkened them. Maybe she wanted to be held. To be kissed. To be cherished. Most women wanted those things. But how much could he give for a man more dead than alive?

  “I’ve sorely neglected my bride, it seems.”

  “You’ve been busy.”

  Tait trailed a finger along her arm and watched goosebumps rise. She shivered. “Are you cold?”

  “No.” She clutched his shirt and leaned in, barely breathing.

  He swept her auburn hair aside and nibbled behind her ear, down her slender neck. Wild honeysuckle filled his senses.

  “I’ve waited for this moment.” She lowered her eyes, her lips parting.

  Tait sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. Melanie released a gasp and slid her palms across his collarbones and down his chest. He trembled from her gentle touch. Releasing a growl, he pressed his mouth to hers.

  He was burning alive with need, and he had to find a way to quench the hunger, praying she wouldn’t change her mind and stop him. The kiss sent a strange quiver along his veins, and his heart beat faster. Despite their agreement that love wasn’t a part of their marriage, there was a magnetism between them that he couldn’t deny. It had been there on their wedding day, and it was here now.

  He closed his eyes and felt the hurt and anger melt away.

  It had been far too long since he’d listened to his needs. He slipped his tongue inside her parted mouth, and danced with hers in a mating ritual of sorts. He couldn’t get enough of her. She was his every fantasy, every hope, every dream.

  Melanie reached between them and closed her hand around his erection that jerked and turned painfully hard.

  He broke the kiss then started on the row of buttons on her dress and removed it, caressing her warm flesh, kissing the swell of her breasts above the blue-satin tie of her chemise. One tug on the ribbon and it came loose. He pulled it off over her head.

  Tait stared at her naked beauty, his breath hitching. Some men had a different woman every night, but Tait could count on one hand the women he’d taken his pleasure with. For him, the joining had to mean something. And this time definitely did.

  He still needed to figure out whatever this was between him and Melanie, but something there was deep and real.

  She worked to relieve him of his shirt then moved to his trousers. He laid her down and dropped next to her, shaking back the long hair that fell into his face. Every movement was slow and deliberate. He didn’t want to hurry this.

  At the beginning when Melanie first came, he’d thought making love to her would be a duty, not something to look forward to. But now, he almost burst with the need to kiss every inch of her luscious body.

  His lips found hers again as his hands moved along her curves, exploring, savoring, molding each swell and dip.

  A light caress across her flat stomach brought goosebumps to the surface.

  He found a freedom with her. Melanie liked to be touched and wasn’t afraid to admit it. Her response to him was openly enthusiastic, and that excited him.

  Every movement slow, his fingertips brushed featherlike down her body, then he slid his palm across all that velvety skin. Every. Single. Inch. He explored her body, learning by her ragged breathing which areas were more sensitive than others.

  And when he encountered the wispy curls that guarded the center of her being, she let out a soft cry. Tait weaved his fingers through the fine hair to touch flesh as soft as cottony down.

  He traced her bow-like lips with his tongue and slid two fingers inside her.

  Melanie gasped, pulling him closer. Her mouth closed around one of his nipples. Her tongue flicked over the hard nub, then her teeth grazed him. “Make love to me, Tait,” she mumbled around his nipple. “Make me feel that I matter. I want you now.”

  Tait could hardly think for the strong suction of her mouth. He’d never been with a woman like this.

  “Not yet,” he rasped. He drew lazy circles on her flat stomach and down each shapely leg then kissed the underside of her arms, across the tender flesh covering her ribs. Her hard nipples strained for him, and he stroked them roughly with his tongue before drawing one then the other into his mouth.

  “Please don’t stop!” she cried in a fever pitch, arching her back.

  He would have to stop soon, or he’d get carried away and end this too early, and he wanted to drag it out as long as possible. A man didn’t get pleasured like this every day.

  Melanie’s touch was everywhere, searing his skin with her brand. Every stroke of her hand left a mass of sensation in its wake, twisting, swirling, settling through him.

  Filled with insistent throbbing for her, Tait settled himself between her thighs and stared into her beautiful eyes. “Do you want this?”

  “Yes. Please don’t stop. I need you, Tait. I need to feel alive.”

  “You’ll always matter to me sweetheart. After tonight you’ll have no doubt.” He lowered his mouth to hers and, locked in the kiss, pushed inside her wet warmth.

  Her muscles clenched tight around him. Lord, she felt good, and it had been so long. She moved with him and they found a rhythm that would take them to the Promised Land.

  Higher and higher he climbed.

  Melanie arched her back, letting him go deeper. Touching. Pulling. Kissing him.

  They were flesh against flesh, man against woman, heart against heart. Two people with a raw, aching need to feel alive.

  Melanie gasped and cried out, shuddering beneath him.

  Tait’s being flooded with desire and longing. He too hurtled out of control, beyond a point of no return. Light burst around him, and for a little while, he found blessed peace.

  For all he had once been, for all he now was and would ever be, this moment was branded forever on
his memory.

  Fifteen

  Low light from the lamp beside the bed let Melanie see this beautiful man she’d married, his nicely formed body bare beside her. Skilled and caring, Tait Trinity had given her the happiest time of her life.

  A sheen of sweat covered Melanie’s skin, and her breath came fast and uneven, seeming to resist her efforts to calm it.

  What the hell had just happened? She’d never been shaken like this. No one had ever made love to her with such gentleness. Tait’s slow touch made her achy, and his kisses drugged her, heating her up inside like a glass of the finest bourbon.

  Smooth. Slow. Hot.

  Every bone in her body seemed to have turned to liquid.

  Tait rested his head on her belly. Even through the haze of pleasure his confession about Lucy circled in her mind. She toyed with the soft strands of his freshly washed, sun-streaked hair and knew she was falling for him. Dammit! She couldn’t afford to get emotionally invested. Common sense told her that.

  She wasn’t supposed to care. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

  Melanie closed her eyes, soaking up the heat of his body. He’d seen so much heartache and despair. How in God’s name could she tell him about her deceit now? She couldn’t destroy him. She couldn’t add to the losses he’d suffered, of Lucy and their child, his sister, and the hard work of raising these orphaned kids.

  No, she’d wait and keep looking for the money. That was it.

  Yet his words echoed in her head like a gong. I don’t want anything to come between us.

  Tait had exposed his raw, bleeding heart for her sake, and she still clung to her dark secret. Deep shame washed over her in waves.

  She had to show him Ava’s hair and tooth and tell him about the threat to chop off a finger. And soon.

  Tait’s knuckle brushed her cheek. “Thank you for your patience with me, Mellie. At least we’ll be able to start on the house as soon as the lumber arrives. With as many men as we have, if it doesn’t rain, it’ll go up fast. Did you draw up some plans?”