by Sara Orwig
“I scraped my face when we went down. You saved my life.”
She merely nodded, and he glanced around. “Where’s the buggy?”
“Just around the bend, but I thought I shouldn’t come back along the road, because it would too easy for him to see me.”
“Let’s get the buggy.” Dan picked up both rifles and they started back.
Rachel’s emotions were in a storm. His answers reassured her, yet it was difficult to forget her anger when she thought he might have taken Pa back for trial. And she had been frightened senseless that Walker Marland would kill Dan. All the time she had scrambled through the trees and brush and rushed to get back, she had steeled herself for a shot. Her nerves were on a ragged edge and she was torn between her anger with Dan and a need to throw her arms around him and reassure herself that he was all right.
“Suppose he tries again.”
“I don’t think he will, but that’s a risk I have to take. He has a witness now in you. He’ll have to explain away his wound. I have his rifle. That’s tangible evidence if you need any.”
“Don’t say something like that!”
They turned the bend and Dan went to the buggy. As he started to reach up and place the rifles in the buggy, he glanced at her and paused. With deliberation he set one inside and pumped out the cartridges on the other. Then he switched them and unloaded the second rifle. He placed the revolver in his belt and picked up his coat.
“Come here, Rachel,” he said, taking her hand and leading her off the road, through the brush.
“Dan, we’re in weeds and that man might come back! Where are we going?”
“We’re going where’s there a little bit of a clearing and I see a place up ahead.”
“What are you doing?” she asked as he paused near tall oaks on a small patch of open ground. The moon was rising, full and white, over the treetops and Rachel watched Dan spread his coat on the ground. Her heart began to drum and she placed her hands on her hips.
“What are you doing?” she repeated.
“I have to take you home looking as if you fell out of the buggy, and we have an honest believable explanation for why you’re dishevelled,” he said, straightening up and tugging his shirt out of his pants. He came toward her and reached out to place his hands on her shoulders.
The warmth of his hands on her sent her pulse into a flutter, but her anger still boiled. “I’m in no mood for your sweet-talking charm. And that man could come back.”
“He won’t find us here and he won’t come back. Rachel, he’s shot and bleeding and he’s a soldier. He has sense enough to go to a doctor,” Dan said, bending to brush her shoulder with kisses. “I didn’t know I had any ‘sweet-talking charm.’ That’s amazing to learn.”
“I do not feel like loving and how can I go back because my hair will be completely down—”
He laughed, a deep mellow sound that she hadn’t heard before and it played over her nerves with the touch of a caress. “Hon, you look as if you’ve been dragged behind the buggy through a swamp.”
“You’re losing your sweet-talking charm fast,” she said while his fingers went to the tiny row of pearl buttons down her bodice.
“Rachel, love, you are beautiful, especially when you’ve been running through the woods to save my life!” His tongue was trailing fiery patterns around her ear and on her throat, moving to her shoulder and her anger was evaporating.
“Dan, they’ll take one look at me and Pa will come after you with his rifle.”
“He knows I want you to marry me.”
“He does?” She pulled back in surprise.
“Of course. I asked today when we went down to the creek.”
“You didn’t tell me! You just said he wouldn’t move, so I thought you didn’t talk about anything else.”
Dan unfastened the last button and pushed away the silk bodice to slide it over her shoulders. His hand drifted across her breasts and she inhaled swiftly. She caught his hands in hers.
“What did he say?”
“He said he was glad I wanted to marry you and he was happy for us and he doesn’t want us to wait because of him,” Dan answered, turning her hands in his and raising her palm to his lips. His tongue flicked against her palm and then his hands slipped away from hers and he cupped her full breasts, bending to kiss her through the silken chemise. The moment she felt his hot breath on her flesh, his tongue flicking over her nipple, she gasped with pleasure while all her resistance and arguments and questions vanished.
Knowing the fight was over and she had capitulated, Dan fondled her, wanting to take his time and love her slowly because he might not get to be alone with her again for a long time. He pulled a pin from her hair and a silken lock cascaded over her shoulder. He pulled away another pin as he kissed her throat. “I said you look as if you fell out of the buggy, but I was teasing, love.” He ran his fingers gently through her hair, shaking away the pins so her hair fell freely across her shoulders.
He remembered the moment when he had glimpsed her, knowing she would save his life, too aware she was risking her own. “You looked like an angel from heaven, an avenging angel, maybe, with the rifle in your hand, but you were the most beautiful sight I have ever seen,”
He tried to slow, to curb the impulse to rip the silk dress and chemise and underdrawers away. He wanted to pleasure her fully, to take what time they had now. He cupped her breasts, kissing the hard buds, listening to her gasp as her fingers wound in his hair. Her hands slid to his pants, struggling with the buttons and he paused to take over the task.
In minutes he had their clothes stripped away. Moonlight splashed over her curves and long legs and Dan ached to be inside her, but he pulled her to him, fitting her body against his while his mouth closed over hers and he kissed her. His hands slid over her smooth buttocks, and he cupped her up against him while he raised his head.
“I can’t wait long to marry you,” he whispered hoarsely.
Her eyes opened languorously as her hands caressed his thighs, her fingers circling his manhood. He drew a deep breath.
“Ah, love, we need each other, we need nights of loving. Rachel, I’ve been alone too long. You respond to love and passion. I want to make you happy.”
She bit her lip, her head tilting back, the auburn hair a silken curtain behind her head. He picked her up to lower her to the ground, kneeling beside her to trail kisses down the length of her, caressing her lightly, his fingers playing over the satiny warmth between her legs, stroking the bud in her soft flesh while he heard her gasp of pleasure.
He tried to hold back while taking her to a brink over and over because he wanted to hear her cries of pleasure, see her respond to his touches with passion. Finally he knew his control was going. He felt as if he would burst with need for her and he moved between her slender thighs. Her eyes opened, and she watched him, her fingers stroking him until he caught her hands in his.
“I won’t be able to hold back long enough for you to have pleasure if you touch me,” he whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth. “I love you. Marry me, Rachel. Marry me soon.”
Rachel’s heart drummed. She wanted his loving, feeling a desperate need for him. Passion made her silent, and the only reply she could give him was that she couldn’t marry him yet. But how right it seemed to be with him! And how badly she needed him! Her heart beat with joy at his words of love and his declarations of wanting her.
Moonlight bathed him as he knelt between her thighs, his manhood dark and erect before he lowered himself to enter her slowly, easing against her tightness, setting her aflame.
Her hips rose to take him. His mouth covered hers, and he kissed her roughly. He raised his head to watch her. “Put your legs around me, love,” he whispered, moving to enter her fully, his shaft filling her.
Ecstasy shot through her, making her writhe beneath him, her hands stroking his smooth back and firm buttocks. His body was long and powerful, joined with hers. Ecstasy rocked her, blinding her, a fierc
e joy over the man in her arms. His powerful strength was hers, his sureness, his caring. Dazed, she clung to him wildly, crying out with passion when she reached a peak and rapture burst in her.
“Rachel, love!” His voice was a hoarse cry she barely heard over the roaring of her pulse. He shuddered with release, thrusting deep within her, and she felt complete with him, a fulfillment of lost years and haunted dreams. She felt as if they had already committed to a lifetime with each other.
His weight came down on her, a heavy sensation she relished as she ran her hands over his body that was a marvel to her.
“Suppose there’s a baby from our loving?” she whispered.
He turned his head, rolling to his side and keeping her with him, shifting his legs against hers. “I hope there is, Rachel. You would have to marry me then.”
She placed her face against his throat, seeing the naked longing in his eyes when he should be satisfied and she knew that his yearning, as well as hers, went far beyond their lovemaking.
Shifting away from him, she trailed her fingers along his jaw over the rough bristles of a new beard. “We should get back home.”
“Let me dress you,” he said, moving to gather up her things.
Laughing she leaned back on her elbows, watching him while he slipped her foot into the silken underdrawers that Abeyta had made as a gift for her as well as a pair for Abby. Watching her, Dan drew the thin silk up slowly and her flesh tingled. His gaze was a more erotic caress than the silk sliding over her thighs.
“Maybe I should dress myself,” she murmured, sitting up to reach for the underdrawers.
He pushed her shoulder, shoving her back gently. “Let me do this.”
She lay still while he lifted her hips, pulling the drawers over her. His hand brushed down across her stomach, down between her thighs. As she gasped, he reached for the chemise and took her hand to sit her up. He slipped the flimsy chemise over her head, his hands following it down over her breasts. He drew the satin ribbon ties together, his palms brushing her breasts, his fingers moving in feathery touches against her as he tied the ribbons.
She closed her eyes, knowing he was rekindling fires that should be banked and cooled. She caught his hands. “If I don’t finish this without your aid, we won’t get home for another hour.”
He kissed her, his tongue sliding into her mouth while he pulled her into his arms. This very special woman was his. Finally she wriggled away and stood up, stepping back to pick up her turquoise dress. She held it up in the moonlight, her thoughts shifting to home.
“Dan! I’ll look just dreadful and this dress will have grass and mud from the neck to the skirt.”
With a deep chuckle he took it from her and shook it. She watched him, her gaze playing over his lean, naked body that was fit and muscular, remembering the feel of him lying against the length of her, his thick shaft inside her. Blushing hotly, she wondered if she would ever stop feeling amazed that he loved her and needed her—this hard man who seemed so self-sufficient.
He turned, his gaze sweeping over her. She took the dress and stepped back. “You stay away,” she whispered, “so we can get dressed and go home.”
Looking her over slowly with a solemn expression, he picked up his clothes. She turned her back and dressed, fastening the tiny buttons up the front of the bodice. When she looked around he was dressed, pulling on his boots.
“Dan Overton, every pin from my hair is gone!”
“Love, you have an excuse. Tell them you ran through the woods to get back to me.”
“I did! But I shouldn’t have lost every pin in my hair.”
“Rachel, something else is different. Your dress—” He made a motion toward her legs.
“My wonderful new petticoats are gone that Abeyta had made for me.”
“Gone? Where the hell—?”
“I yanked them off so I could get through the woods more easily.” She waved her hand helplessly. “They’re back there somewhere.”
He grinned and in two long strides reached her to sweep her up into his strong arms to spin her around, moonlight splashing over him as he smiled at her. She screeched and clutched him around the neck.
“Thank the Lord you sacrificed your petticoats to save me!” He laughed as he hugged her. “I want to keep you out here all night.”
“You weren’t the one whose back was on rocks and hard ground,” she said with mischief in her voice.
“I didn’t hear any complaints,” he replied good naturedly, striding back toward the buggy.
“Set me down. I can walk.”
“I know you can walk. Don’t you think I’ve watched that sway of your fanny every time you’ve walked past me?”
“That’s scandalous to say!”
“You wear those damned tight britches all the time. What do you expect me to do? Ignore the best view this side of the Atlantic Ocean?”
She laughed and squeezed his neck, and he grinned at her. “See, Rachel, it can be good.”
“I know it can be,” she answered solemnly, feeling breathless over the grand promise in his quiet words.
He sobered, gazing at her. “I’m going to devote all my time and energy to saving your pa and to getting you to change your mind, to marry me right away.”
She stared at him, feeling the struggle of wills begin again between them. He set her on her feet and took her hand to walk back to the buggy.
When they finally slowed and stopped at Abeyta’s, Rachel turned to Dan to touch his hand. “I’ll tell them whatever you want. We don’t have to tell them why Walker Marland came after you.”
“I’ll tell your pa because I think he should know. For now I’d rather tell them it was the man who expected to marry Solange and he is still angry that she married me—which is the truth.”
“That’s fine. Pa trusts Abeyta completely, so whatever you tell him, he may share with her.”
“She’s becoming important to him, isn’t she?”
“Yes, and I’m glad. Pa’s changing fast out here.”
“That’s what the frontier does to men and women. It either brings out their strength or destroys them.” He glanced beyond her. “Looks as if Abeyta is having a party.”
She glanced around and saw that all the windows blazed with lights. “Look at us! Your face is skinned, and I look dreadful.”
“You look gorgeous,” he said, smiling at her. “And we have an excuse for our appearance.” Dan dropped down from the buggy and came around to take Rachel’s hand as she stepped down. The moment the door swung open and Abeyta saw them, she gasped and stepped back.
“Are you all right?” she asked, looking at Dan and frowning.
“I’m fine now, but we had some difficulty,” Rachel said swiftly.
“We have some of my friends over. Come into the library, the last room down the hall, where we can talk. I’ll get your father.”
She waved her hand in the direction of a door. Dan and Rachel hurried to the library.
“I’m glad you spoke up quickly,” Dan said with amusement. “Did you see the look she gave me? She thought I did this to you.”
“You did,” Rachel said in a satisfied voice, and he smiled.
In minutes Eb and Abeyta entered the room. Eb frowned. “Lord, Rachel, was it McKissick?”
“No,” Dan said, placing his arm around her shoulders. “It was a man from my past. Walker Marland from Baton Rouge. He’s stationed at Camp Verde now and saw me in town. He expected to marry Solange, and instead she married me.”
As Dan told them what happened, Eb began to relax. When he finished, Abeyta cried out and came over to Rachel to place her arm around Rachel’s shoulders. “Love, come upstairs and let me help you change. I want you both to meet my guests if you feel like it.”
“I can’t do much about my appearance,” Dan said, touching his scraped cheek.
“We’ll explain that you were set upon by ruffians,” Abeyta said firmly. “We want you to join our party. You and Eb are the most handsome men
to arrive in San Antonio in a long while; the ladies will be all aflutter to meet you. Eb, I’ll show Mr. Overton to a room where he can freshen up and I’ll help Rachel and then we’ll be back down.”
Abeyta linked her arm through Rachel’s and Rachel realized what a warm affectionate person Abeyta was. “Abeyta, I’m so sorry about this beautiful dress and the petticoats.”
“Do not say another word about the dress or other things. Thank goodness both of you are safe. And you, my brave one, how wonderful you were.”
“I agree,” Dan drawled, placing his arm across Rachel’s shoulders as they climbed the stairs. “I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t been so brave.”
“Now,” Abeyta said at the top of the stairs, “Mr. Overton, take that room to your left.”
Dan crossed the hall while Abeyta and Rachel entered the bedroom where Rachel was staying the night. In minutes Abeyta had a green silk dress spread on the bed and fresh underclothing. “My dear, do you want help with your hair?”
“No, thank you. You’ve helped me so much. I’ll be down soon,” she said, pouring water from a pitcher into a washbowl. She had stepped out of the turquoise silk and stood in the chemise and underdrawers while Abeyta closed the door behind her.
When she was finally dressed with her hair tied behind her head, she opened the door to find Dan standing in the hall leaning with his shoulder against the wall while he waited.
“You needn’t have waited for me.”
His gaze drifted down over her, desire lighting his eyes. He drew her to him, stepping back into his bedroom and closing the door.
“Dan, we have to go down—”
“Shh, Rachel. I know we do,” he whispered, brushing her lips with his, “but give me one kiss.” He slid his arms around her, the silk rustling as he drew her close and placed his lips on hers, his tongue entering her mouth. She melted against him, returning his kiss, wanting to be alone with him again.
In minutes as his kiss deepened, she pushed against his chest. He released her, gazing at her with a look that seared like a dancing flame. She felt enveloped by his love, a joyous wonder constantly with her.
“Let’s join the party,” she whispered reluctantly.