He took a step toward her. “Mercedes.”
Sadie beat him to it. She ran and jumped into his arms, laughing up at him. “And we’re going to make love now, husband, before God realizes his mistake and kicks us out of here,” she finished, planting her mouth on his. She pulled him down to the ground until she was sitting and straddling his waist.
Morgan let out a sigh that all but filled her lungs and settled his hands under his head. “That still might happen,” he said, smiling up at her, only to sober suddenly as he softly feathered a trembling finger across her cheek. “I was so afraid I’d lost you, wife,” he whispered.
Sadie covered his hand on her face. “Me, too. I love you so much, Morgan. I couldn’t live without you.” She shot him a smile. “I couldn’t die without you, either.”
She leaned down and kissed the frown on his forehead. She stretched out full-length on top of him and wiggled until her nose was even with his beautifully naked chest, grinning again when she heard him moan.
Sadie traced circles with her fingertip through the furry mat of hair covering his chest. She had a fair amount of area to cover and let it tickle her palm as she ran a lazy path over his muscles. She stopped and explored a nipple, heard him moan again, and ran her tongue over the silky-smooth circle. Hair tickled her lips as she gently suckled, and Morgan sat bolt upright and held her away.
Sadie smiled at his ferocious scowl, patting the spot she’d just licked.
“I promise to let you do the same to me in a minute,” she told him. “But I want my wicked way with you first.”
“I’ll disgrace myself,” he said through gritted teeth.
She pushed him back and leaned over him again, her nose inches from his. “We’ve got an eternity to practice, husband,” she said, sitting up and unbuttoning her shirt.
She watched his eyes go from her face to her breasts, and his scowl relaxed. He set his hands behind his head again as she slid the shirt off her shoulders and let it fall to her back.
Sadie cupped her breasts, pushing them together as she leaned forward and let them dangle over his chest. She slowly brushed them back and forth, only to find that now she was the one building with a tension that started in the pit of her stomach and spiraled outward and down to the very center of her femininity.
Sweat broke out on Sadie’s forehead. She felt flushed and wet between her thighs, and she couldn’t seem to stop shaking with the need to feel Morgan inside her.
His hands came to her breasts, replacing hers that were now digging into his shoulders. He gently fondled her, setting her completely on fire. She may have cried out, Sadie wasn’t sure, but she did know that she couldn’t make her hips stop moving against him.
His hands left her breasts but were quickly replaced by his mouth. Sadie shouted then, louder than the roar of the waterfall. Morgan lifted her and pushed off his pants, and suddenly there was nothing between her and her husband’s rock-hard erection.
Searing heat pushed against the folds of her womanhood, and Morgan’s strong hands grabbed her hips and lifted, settling her more intimately onto him.
Sadie felt herself stretching, accepting, taking Morgan inside. She moaned this time, loud and deep and keening, when she felt his mouth cover her breast. He used his hands on her hips to set them into a rhythm, suckled her nipple until she thought she was going to explode.
And she did, gloriously, shouting her pleasure to the granite walls of their wondrous heaven, gasping as each rocketing spasm took her spiraling upward. Morgan shouted his own pleasure, tightening his grip on her hips to help her ride out the light storm they’d created together.
Sadie sprawled on top of him, tucking her head into the crook of his neck, feeling the lingering pulse of her pleasure still throbbing around him.
And they lay together that way, both breathing hard, until their racing hearts stopped trying to out-thump each other.
“It kind of sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?” Sadie mumbled into his chest.
“What does?”
Sadie tilted her head back and opened one eye to the sleepy laughter she heard in his voice. “The passion. I thought I was going to spend an hour driving you insane. But I was the one who didn’t last five minutes.”
He patted her bottom affectionately. “I’m guessing we’ll calm down in about thirty years,” he said with a chuckle. He rolled them both over until she was beneath him, then kissed her on the forehead. “We’ll practice until we get it right.”
He brushed the hair from her face with repeated, gentle strokes, staring down at her with shining eyes.
“I love you, Mercedes,” he whispered. “As God is my witness, I love you more than life itself, lass. Will you marry me, Mercedes? Just as soon as I find that crazy old priest, will you do me the honor of making our vows legal?”
Sadie stretched her arms over her head like a lazy cat and thought about making Morgan wait for her answer. But she was too sated, too happy, and too much in love with him to let him suffer one more second.
“There must be a priest somewhere around here,” she told him. “And as soon as you find him, I’ll marry you, Morgan. Do you think we can make babies in heaven?”
He rolled off her and stood up, then leaned down and picked her up. He waded into the shimmering pool until the water reached his waist and dropped her without warning. Sadie sank to the bottom, retaliating by touching him intimately and kissing his erection.
She could hear his shout even under the water.
They practiced getting it right three more times, moving from the warm, shimmering water to the sandy shore to the far side of the pool under the thick spray of the waterfall.
Sadie lay exhausted on top of Morgan on the rocks, not even possessing enough strength to let out a respectable sigh. Morgan, though, could still manage enough energy to stroke her bottom gently with a lazy hand.
He lifted her chin to look at him. “You’re a scary woman, wife, when you lose your shyness.”
She wrinkled her nose and tiredly patted his chest. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, husband.”
Sadie didn’t know where the man found the strength, but he lifted her away from him and gently set her on the rocks beside him. She looked out over the waterfall. They’d ended up underneath it somehow, and the unusually warm water ran in a curtain that sparkled like sun-washed glass before it crashed into the pool at their feet.
Sadie’s stomach rumbled, and she laughed. “I guess you can get hungry in heaven,” she said, rubbing her belly. “But I’m simply too tired to eat.”
“And I’m too tired to hike back to the logging camp right now and get our stuff,” he said, standing and holding out his hand. “How about a small nap first, then I’ll go get our stuff?”
She took his offered hand and stood up, looking around the water-walled chamber they were in.
“Oh my God!” She gasped, shaking off his hand and walking in small circles, staring at the ground.
She was walking on small pebbles of gold.
“This is it, Morgan!” she squeaked, whirling to face him. “Jedediah’s mine. We found it!”
He scuffed at the ground with his bare toe, bending down and picking up one of the nuggets so that he could hold it up to the light of the waterfall.
“It seems we have,” he said softly, his voice barely audible over the noise of the falls.
Sadie walked back to him and examined the nugget in his hand, letting out a weary sigh. “Fat lot of good it does me now,” she grumbled. “The park will never be built.”
Morgan looked at her, his smile sad and his eyes dark. “What would happen if we were not dead, Mercedes? What if you were alive and had all this gold at your disposal? What would you do?”
“I’d build the park.”
“And then what would happen to this magical place?” he asked, dropping the gold and turning her to face him. “If we’re alive, and this place really exists, then what will happen to it when all the tourists come to visit your park?”
> She frowned at him. “It’s a moot point. We’re dead.”
He shook her slightly. “But if we weren’t,” he persisted. “What would happen to this gorge?”
She had to think about that, and she didn’t like what she was thinking. “It would be ruined,” she told him. “Once it was discovered—and it would be—then the people would trample over every square inch of this ground, trying to get to the gold.”
He nodded and released her shoulders. “That’s right, they would. Your park, your father’s legacy—it would all be forgotten, overtaken by the mystery of this special place.”
“But we’re dead, Morgan,” Sadie insisted. “Simply based on the fact that nothing like this can exist in the real world. It isn’t possible.”
Morgan said nothing more. He took her hand and led her around the edge of the waterfall and along the shore of the pool until they were back on the sandy beach. He picked up the shirt she’d discarded and settled it over her shoulders, wrapping her up and grasping it closed over her breasts. He kissed her nose.
“Let it go for now,” he softly entreated. “There will be plenty of time to worry about this later. We both need some sleep first. Then I’ll find us something to eat, and we’ll deal with our problems on full bellies.”
He used his grip on her shirt to pull her down as he spoke, and Sadie happily let him. She cuddled into his embrace the moment they landed, closed her eyes, wrapped her arms tightly around him, and quickly fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty
Sadie awoke to the strong odor of a wet dog. She opened her eyes and reached up to push Faol’s tongue away from her face, but her hand stopped in mid-reach and changed direction to poke Morgan in the shoulder.
“We’ve got company,” she whispered, quickly wiggling to sink farther behind him. “Father Daar’s here,” she squeaked a bit louder, poking him harder.
Good Lord. She and Morgan were as naked as the day they’d been born, her shirt thrown off and lying behind her. And if they weren’t dead already, the scowl on the old priest’s face likely would kill them.
“Ya have two minutes to get up and get dressed,” Father Daar snapped, pointing an age-bent finger at them. “Or you’ll be saying your wedding vows naked.”
Morgan sat up and used his body to shield Sadie from the scandalized gaze of the priest. She took advantage of his broad back and quickly found his shirt and slipped it on, buttoning it all the way up to her neck.
“Turn around, old man,” Morgan growled. He waited until the priest complied, then looked to see that Mercedes was modestly covered. He grinned at her furiously blushing face.
“Are you ready to say the words, lass?” he asked, feathering a finger over her red-hot cheek.
Mortified beyond any ability to speak, Sadie nodded.
Morgan stood up, sauntered past the still waiting priest, and gathered the clothes he’d dropped by the end of the pool. Sadie scrambled to her feet and made sure she was decently covered to her knees, thankful that Morgan’s shirt had long tails.
Her soon-to-be-for-real husband wasn’t the least bit shy about his own state of undress, nor did he seem worried that they’d been caught sleeping together—naked—by the priest. He carried her bundle of clothes back to her, frowning at Father Daar as he passed him.
Sadie quickly dressed, pushing Faol out of the way several times in order to tie her boots.
She suddenly gasped. “Faol was killed, too!” she yelped, just now realizing what the wolf’s presence meant. She gasped again. “And Father Daar. You’re dead!”
The priest turned and looked down at himself. “I am?” he echoed in dismay.
Morgan sat beside her, putting his own boots on, but he stopped and looked at her.
“You’re not dead, old man,” Morgan said impatiently. He waved one large hand in the air. “Mercedes thinks she’s died and gone to heaven,” he explained. “Thanks to your magic.”
Looking more confused than relieved, Father Daar turned his attention to Sadie. “What makes ya think we’re all dead, girl?” he asked.
Sadie held up her right hand, palm toward him. “I’m healed, Father. All my scars are gone. And I was shot. I felt the bullet rip through my body, but I don’t hurt, I’m not bleeding, and I don’t have any scars anymore. So I’m dead.”
The priest darted a quick look at the still shimmering pool, then turned his penetrating gaze to Morgan as he lifted one bushy white eyebrow. “Ya used the burl again, didn’t ya?” Father Daar said in a low voice, waving at the water. “Ya exposed our secret to save your woman’s life.”
Sadie looked at Morgan and saw him nod.
“And being a modern, she don’t believe this is possible?” the priest continued, drawing Sadie’s attention back.
She looked at Morgan, and he nodded again.
Sadie stood up, deciding she could speak for herself. She walked up to the priest and pulled her shirttail from her pants, lifting it high enough to expose her stomach.
“The bullet went into the middle of my back,” she told him. “And came out my side,” she added, turning and pointing at her back. “And I should be covered with old scars here, from the fire that killed my sister.”
She dropped the shirttail and crossed her arms under her breasts. “I’m completely healed, Father.”
She heard Morgan sigh again right beside her and looked to see him rubbing a hand over his face.
“We can’t say our vows until she understands,” Morgan said to the priest. “She has to realize what she’s getting for a husband.”
“Then explain it to her,” Father Daar said. “And be quick about it.” He pointed at Sadie’s middle. “At the rate you two are going, your firstborn will be sprouting teeth before ya’re properly wed.”
Sadie stepped back, covering her belly with her hand. “What firstborn? What are you talking about?”
“Are ya telling me it was an innocent nap you two were just having?” Father Daar asked.
Sadie felt her face heat to near flaming.
“We’ll say our vows as soon as she understands,” Morgan repeated.
“You’ll say them now before me and God, or I’m going home and washing my hands of ya. There’s a terrible storm brewing in this valley that’s needing your attention. But not until you’re properly wed.”
Still unable to raise her mortified eyes above Morgan’s belt, Sadie waited for him to decide if he really wanted to marry her or not. If they were all dead, what did it matter?
And if they were really alive?
“If—if you don’t want to get married, we won’t,” she said to his chest, still unable to raise her eyes any higher, fearing what she might see in his. “We’ll forget the rest of the week and just go our separate ways now.”
She was suddenly hauled up against Morgan’s side, turned to face the priest, her ribs crushed so fiercely it was a wonder they didn’t crack.
“Begin!” Morgan snapped to Father Daar.
As a declaration of love, that one word sounded magical to Sadie. Yes, they would begin their life together right now. And they’d have the most blessed union heaven had ever seen.
Their vows would be real this time, in this wonderful place that was more beautiful than any church Sadie had ever seen. They would have a storybook marriage that would last for eternity.
Father Daar had taken a small book out of his pocket and had already begun reading their vows. Sadie smoothed down the front of her flannel shirt and decided she probably should pay attention. But the moment she started listening, she realized she didn’t understand a word the priest was saying.
She squinted and leaned forward to see the book he was reading from, and she didn’t recognize any of the words. She covered the page with her hand, making him frown up at her.
“What language is that?” she asked.
“Gaelic,” Daar said, moving the book from under her hand and holding it up again.
“But I don’t know what you’re saying,” she interrupted, makin
g his frown deepen. “Can’t you translate it into English? And why are you using Gaelic to begin with?”
He cleared his throat, turned his frown into a glare, and shot it at Morgan, then back at her. “Because it’s our language, girl,” Father Daar said impatiently. “And since we outnumber you two to one, we get to choose the vows.”
Sadie waved at the book. “Then say them. But we’re going to add our own vows—in English, so I know what I’m promising.”
With a lift of his eyebrows at her impertinence, Father Daar raised the book up and began reading again. The words sounded more like curses than pledges to Sadie, with sharp consonants and guttural vowels that were more spat than spoken.
Faol had come to view the proceedings and was sitting beside Sadie, leaning on her leg, his tongue lolling out and his eyes a sappy iridescent green as he stared up at her. Morgan, disturbingly silent beside her, had her right hand clasped so tightly Sadie thought he was afraid she’d change her mind before the service was over.
Father Daar suddenly quit speaking and turned expectant blue eyes on her. Sadie guessed she was supposed to say “I do.”
She took both of Morgan’s hands into hers, straightened her shoulders, and started her vows.
“I love you, Morgan MacKeage. And I promise to be your wife for all eternity, to cherish you, to honor your spirit, and to guard with my soul this love that we’ve found.”
She squeezed his hands. “And we’ll have lots of babies together and raise them in a house overflowing with love. We’ll teach them the wonders of nature and bring them up…bring them up…”
She couldn’t go on. Her heart was near to bursting, she was getting all mushy inside, and a lump the size of a basketball was caught in her throat. She shook her head and swallowed and forced herself to continue.
“And I promise to love you forever,” she finished on a choked whisper.
That finally said, Sadie sucked in her breath and waited for Morgan to say his vows.
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