“Thank you Grady. I really do appreciate you paying for it, and I thank you for your generosity and thoughtfulness.”
“I left you alone in Black Rock to get raped.”
His bald statement made her frown. “It’s true I was attacked, but their intent was never clear. I think they were simply trying to rob me.”
“How the hell could they know you had money? I just told you the clothes you wear make you look like a beggar.” He poked angrily at the fire. “I left you, and some bad things happened.”
Eliza finally realized he was feeling guilty for what had happened. She moved closer to him and lay her head on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault. The old woman was the shopkeeper. She saw me with the pouch of money and decided to help herself to the rest.”
“That thing was a woman?” He sounded as disgusted as she was.
A shudder ran through Eliza. “Yes, she was, I think. It was difficult to determine, but her hands were small like a woman’s.” She didn’t want to think about the woman touching her, but the memory burbled to the surface anyway.
Grady put his hand on her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
She looked up at him, at his dark eyes glittering in the firelight. “Thank you for rescuing me.” Eliza placed her hand on his. “I’ve never before been a damsel in distress and had a knight save me from a dragon.”
He shook his head. “You read too much, Liz.”
She laughed and moved his palm to her lips, kissing the roughened skin softly. Surprisingly, a visible shiver raced down his arm at the touch of her lips.
He cocked one eyebrow at her. “Do you know what today is, Liz?” He rose and pulled the pot from the fire then poured hot liquid into the tin cup.
“Thursday?”
He turned to pull out something from his saddle bags. “It’s October ninth.”
Eliza sucked in a breath of surprise. It was her twenty-first birthday, and Grady had remembered. Her throat grew tight at the idea that he had tucked away the piece of information she’d given him a week earlier in Bellman, before they’d been truly intimate, when they’d barely known each other.
“Happy birthday.” He handed her the tin cup which she took gratefully.
“Thank you, Grady. I had forgotten.” Although warmed by the fire, and the sentiment, the night air was freezing cold. The warmth from the cup seeped through her hands. When she sniffed the coffee, she realized it wasn’t coffee. “Is this tea?”
He held up a tea ball, which dripped onto the fire, making a hissing noise with each drop. “Yep.”
“Where did you get tea? I don’t understand.” Truly, she didn’t understand. Eliza was used to being the doer, the one who did everything for everyone else. He’d gone out of his way to remember her birthday, had made her tea for goodness’ sake, and all without her knowledge. She was at a loss to even absorb it all.
“I had the tin and tea ball from a while back. Never used it. I figured you didn’t like coffee, being as how you make a face whenever you drink it.” He shrugged. “I was looking for something and found the stuff at the bottom of my bags. It ain’t new. Oh, and that’s for you.” He pointed at the package lying on her saddle. “Open it.”
Eliza took a gulp of the hot tea, regardless of manners she had to have some now, then set the cup down with some reluctance. Then she looked at the package, and her excitement began anew. The day had been fraught with darkness, and now he’d brought the light back into her soul with his simple gestures of thoughtfulness.
Eliza’s heart melted. “What is it?”
“Open it, and find out.”
With the enthusiasm of a child at Christmas, she put the package on her lap and carefully untied the twine. Grady made some impatient noises, but she didn’t rush the experience. Eliza’s hands shook as she finally unwrapped the paper to find a bar of lavender soap. The heavenly scent wafted up toward her, and she breathed in deeply.
“Grady, I don’t know what to say.” Her voice was hoarse with emotion. He had not only remembered her birthday and made her tea, but he’d purchased a gift for her. She didn’t want to ever let that feeling go—the one where she felt more special than anyone else on Earth. For the first time in her life, she had a birthday gift.
She couldn’t tell him that her church did not celebrate the day of anyone’s birth. It was treated as any other day. Grady’s gift, his thoughtfulness, were simply incredible.
“Thank you. Truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you.” She looked up at him with tears brimming in her eyes.
He frowned. “It’s just a bar of soap and some tea, Liz. No need to get all weepy about it.”
She shook her head. “It’s much more than that. It’s a gift, and I thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s get to eating this rabbit before it gets overdone.” He turned his back to her, but she wasn’t finished yet.
Eliza set the soap aside and moved over beside him. She took his face in her hands and looked into his dark eyes. “Thank you, Grady.” She leaned forward and kissed him, softly, sweetly. His lips were soft beneath hers, and she kissed him several times before straightening.
He licked his lips, as if tasting her essence. Her stomach jumped at the sight of his tongue. She knew firsthand what that tongue could accomplish. She wanted to be with him again, to rub her body against his in heat and fire. To wash away the touch of darkness she’d experienced that day.
“You keep looking at me like that, and the rabbit’s gonna be ashes.” He sounded strained, likely as much as she was.
“The forest is full of rabbits.” She captured his lips again, but this time, with hunger for more than food.
Without missing a beat, she started unbuttoning her dress.
Grady could hardly get his trousers off fast enough. He couldn’t explain what it was about Eliza that made him nearly loco with desire, but she did. He nearly fell on his head trying to yank off his trousers without taking his boots off first.
By the time he was naked, she was sliding off her dress. Her skin glowed in the meager light, and again, he marveled at what was hidden beneath the brown wren’s disguise. His warrior queen, the eagle beside him and before him.
“God, Liz, you’re like the damn stars in the sky.” He didn’t know what possessed him to sound like a poet, but the words were out, and he couldn’t stuff them back in his mouth.
“And you are a beautiful specimen of manhood.”
Now her words made his cheeks heat. What the hell was that all about? Since when did a man like Grady Wolfe blush? More than once?
Since he’d met Eliza No-name in the darkness of a Utah night and found his world turned sideways.
“Don’t make me wait any longer.” She lay down on the bedroll, spread her legs, and opened her arms. “It’s my birthday, after all.”
Grady forgot about his confusion over resurrected emotions and focused on the beautiful, naked woman in front of him. He slid up her warm, soft skin, hearing the gentle rasp of his body against hers. With heightened anticipation, he took his time as he moved, reveling in the feeling of Eliza until he reached the perfect spot on top of her. When he lay down fully, and they were head to toe together, he groaned at the sensation. They simply fit together as if someone had made them that way.
“That was simply wonderful.” She ran her fingers up and down his back. “You’re so warm and hard, and the hairs on your legs are quite crinkly.”
Grady surprised both of them when he chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that kind of pillow talk before.”
Eliza frowned. “I don’t have a pillow.”
This time it was a laugh instead of a chuckle. He kissed her then looked down into her eyes. “You are a one of a kind gal, Liz.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he was done talking. He captured her mouth again for one long kiss, then he pressed small kisses up and down her lips, nibbling at them as if they were raspberries ripe for plucking. She made a sound of impatience, but he didn�
�t hurry.
Not the only impatient one, his dick pulsed against her, wanting entrance into the hot recesses of her body. Grady wanted to pleasure her on her birthday, even if it meant forcing himself to wait.
He had no doubt she’d never been pleasured before, and although he’d seen it done, this would be new for him, too. Grady’s experience with women had been limited to the kind involving money.
She smelled so good, he breathed in her scent as he reached her neck and continued on his quest. Small kisses, bites, and licks ensued. She moaned, and he knew she had forgotten about being impatient. As he nibbled on her lobe, she sucked in a breath of surprise and wiggled her lower half. A sensitive spot he’d have to remember.
Grady shifted so he was on his knees, and she was splayed out before him like a banquet for the gods. Her breasts begged for attention, the nipples tightly budding in the cool air and lightly kissed by warm firelight.
The crackling of the wood was accompanied by the symphony of the night creatures. They sang to Eliza as he began pleasuring her in earnest.
He licked her soft skin in circles around each breast, carefully avoiding the nipples. His hand made the same lazy circles around her pussy, teasing, tantalizing. Goosebumps broke out across her body as his journey continued.
Grady licked her nipples then, earning a gasp of pure arousal. Then when blew gently on the wet skin, her gasp turned to a moan.
“Do you like that Liz?”
“Oh, my.”
He smiled and pressed a finger against her clit.
“Yes, yes, yes.” She sounded so different, so fucking sexy, he could hardly stand it.
His fingers continued to tease her nubbin of pleasure as he finally took one nipple in his mouth. He sucked at her while his tongue lapped at the nipple, then he nibbled. When she didn’t protest, he bit just a little harder.
She jerked in his arms but didn’t tell him to stop. Apparently, Eliza liked a little bit of pain with her pleasure. Grady switched to the other breast and proceeded to bite first, and then lick and suck. She trembled beneath him, and he took a certain satisfaction from knowing he was giving her such bliss.
Shifting again, he pressed her breasts together in his hands and licked them both, then bit them, finishing with a kiss. The space between those beautiful orbs would fit his dick nicely, but that would have to be later.
Before she could ask him what he was doing, he had settled himself between her open legs and spread her pussy lips wide. The pink flesh glistened in the firelight, her arousal pleased him to no end. He blew on her again, and she shivered.
“Grady, what—”
“Shhhhh, just feel and stop talking.”
He swiped his tongue from one end of her pussy to the other, her tangy sweetness coating his tongue. Grady wasn’t prepared for the rush of pleasure that coursed through him. She was delicious, and he wanted more, much more.
Pressing one finger into her tight hole, he began eating her in earnest. He licked, nibbled, and bit her clit, lapping at her as if he were a puppy finding a sweet treat. She moaned with each swipe of his tongue, each time his teeth closed, and with each kiss from his mouth.
Grady was afraid he’d come into the bedroll from pleasuring her. The more he tasted her, the sweeter she got. He sucked her clit into his mouth and tugged hard as he fucked her with two fingers. His dick pulsed along with her, humping the ground, and his body shook with desire.
She screamed his name and bucked with more power than he’d thought she possessed. He held on, pulling every last second of her orgasm into his mouth. Her essence flooded through him, and he closed his eyes, trembling with the sensation.
When he caught his breath, he kissed her pussy one last time then rose up to find tears on her face. She smiled and opened her arms, inviting him to be with her. He didn’t need to be invited twice.
This time when his dick pressed into her tightness, he groaned. Jolts of ecstasy slammed into him, and he knew in seconds, he was going to come. Driving into her fast and hard, his orgasm began somewhere near his feet and rolled through him. Stars exploded behind his eyes, and a rushing sound filled his ears.
He vaguely remembered shouting her name as he came deep inside her. When he was able to form a coherent thought, he collapsed next to her, breathing so hard he felt dizzy from the lack of air. What the hell had just happened?
Never in his life, even as a teenager, had he dipped his dick and come within a minute. Yet Eliza’s pleasure had driven him to the brink of orgasm. Grady didn’t know what it meant, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Eliza had obviously already gotten under his skin, He didn’t want to think she’d gotten any farther than that.
She leaned over and kissed him, a sweet, long kiss. “Thank you for my birthday gifts.”
Without even considering what he was doing, he tucked her under his arm so her head rested on his chest, and then covered both of them with her bedroll. He closed his eyes and slept almost instantly.
Chapter Ten
‡
Grady felt the shift in their relationship after Black Rock. He was in uncharted territory, and it bothered him immensely. Eliza was so much more than he’d expected her to be, not that he’d wanted to get to know her better. It had just happened.
The wren had wormed her way into his life, and he resented it as much as he liked it. The sex with her was indescribable, more potent than any he’d had in his life. The truth was, he was hard for her almost constantly, something he hadn’t dealt with since he’d left his teenage years behind.
He dreamt of her, watched her as they rode. Hell, he even peeked at her when she bathed. Her tits were so perfect, he wanted to touch them every time he saw them.
Grady didn’t want to feel things for her, didn’t want to be caught up in his fascination for a woman who was as plain as the brown clothes she wore. Yet she was anything but plain, and he knew it.
Beneath it all, she was amazing. Smart, brave, sexy, passionate, and patient. Grady was none of those things. He simply was what he was, a gunslinger with a fast hand and no conscience. Eliza was so much more than he was. The stark contrast between their natures was one he didn’t forget, even for a second.
However, he had to admit, when he was in her arms, he didn’t think about the purpose for his being on the trail. When they were intimate, Eliza gave him a chance to forget he was a gunslinger.
It was a mistake, and he knew it. Grady was not one to make too many mistakes, and he had to rectify the situation. The truth was, he should have left her behind two weeks earlier when they’d first met.
Now, he was almost too involved with her to simply walk away, which was exactly what he was going to force himself to do. However, first, he had to stop fucking her every goddamn night.
Easier said than done of course, since every time she kissed him, his dick stood at attention, begging for her sweet pussy. He found it ridiculous that he couldn’t control himself anymore, which was why he needed to pull away from her.
Grady steeled himself to do just that. They had stopped at a few more towns and traveled a number of miles, all without finding much, except where his quarry wasn’t hiding. Eliza didn’t ask what he was doing or why, and he didn’t offer any explanations.
Until they stopped in Emerson, that is. He told her they were stopping for supplies, even though that was the excuse he used each time they stopped. She was the smartest person he knew, and there was no way she believed that lie. They had enough to eat and plenty of supplies. Since she did the cooking, she knew that to be true.
Emerson was a sleepy little town with not much happening. Not dark and forbidding like Black Rock, or strange like Bellman, Emerson was a town built by the ranches that surrounded it. A central location for the cattleman to meet and have social contact, not to mention the standard small-town needs such as a mercantile, a post office, and a jail.
The one thing Emerson did not have was a hotel. No matter, since he didn’t plan on spending the night
. It was late morning, and they still had plenty of daylight left. Eliza had developed a better seat and rode without bouncing around in the saddle. She’d adapted quickly, and he realized it pleased him.
Pushing aside his mixed-up thoughts about Eliza, he stopped at the mercantile.
Eliza looked down at him. “Why are we stopping here?”
“You need new undergarments.”
Her cheeks flared red beneath the ugly brown hat. “Grady, that’s hardly your concern.”
“Yes, it is. I want those fabulous, ah, parts to have softer material against them.”
“Grady!” She glanced around, nearly losing her hat when she whipped to the right too hard. “You are incorrigible.”
“I know that. I also think you need a better hat, one that fits you and doesn’t look as if a horse shit it out its back end.”
This time Eliza’s mouth opened and closed, but she didn’t say a word. She dismounted, secured Cab to the hitching post, and marched toward the mercantile alone. Her shoulders were back, thrusting out her breasts.
Grady couldn’t keep his eyes off them. Damn, they were perfect. Much to his consternation, he wasn’t the only one who noticed either. Several men on the street stopped to watch her walk past, their gazes glued to those perfect tits.
With a frown, he dismounted and did his best to scare away the men who still watched the door even after she’d stepped inside the store. He growled as he passed one cowboy who was young enough he probably didn’t shave.
“Mind not ogling my wife’s tits, you little shit?”
The cowboy started and stared at Grady, the color draining from his face. “Sorry, mister.” He skittered away down the street, looking back to see if Grady was going to shoot him in the back.
It was tempting, but Grady resisted the impulse. No need to get in trouble with the law again. Particularly since he was just healed up from the beating in Bellman.
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