She writhed on the bed as he tasted her with his tongue, probing at her outer lips then teasing at her inner ones. He devoured her like a starving man and the flames of her desire flickered then blazed as he found where she was most sensitive and suckled her bud, taking it between his teeth and nibbling it until she felt that it would burst with pent-up pleasure.
Evelyn’s passion kept building and she gave in to her need, pushing her hips up towards him and offering him all that she was, all that she had to give. She screamed as he gripped her hips, burying his face in her, drinking her juices as they burst forth from deep within her and her climax claimed her with a shudder.
“Oh, Nate! I love you!”
“I know, Evelyn, I know.”
“Now come to me.”
He moved up the length of her body and covered it with his own. She waited impatiently to feel him plunge his hard cock into her depths and her insides ached to hold him. But he didn’t. Instead, he lay over her, pressed against her, supporting his weight on his elbows.
“Make love to me?” she wriggled under him, eager to encourage him to slip into her warmth. “I’m so ready for you.”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?” She frowned.
“I need to know something first. I need you to tell me the truth about why you married.”
Nate held Evelyn’s wrists and allowed his weight to rest upon her, just enough to prevent her from moving. He could see that his question had disturbed her and he didn’t want her running off and leaving him in limbo again. His cock throbbed with lust. He had never wanted her as much as this but he had to hold off for a bit longer.
He did love her, he couldn’t deny it, but he had to know the truth before he could really give into that love. She’d hurt him once and she could easily do so again.
He’d considered that she might just want him now because he was a man of substantial means, that maybe she was as materialistic as he had once thought, but he was struggling to believe that. Damn it! If that were true then the love they’d shared all those years ago had been a lie. And that was too awful a thought to bear.
“Nate, please?” The confusion in her blue eyes snapped him into action.
“Tell me, Evelyn, why’d you marry Henry Campbell?”
Her eyes shot wide open.
“What? You can’t ask me that now when we’re lying here naked and your face is smeared with my juices.”
“I certainly can and I can’t think of a better time. Why would you lie now?”
“Oh, please, Nate, don’t do this!” She moved under him, trying to wriggle free and he felt his erection twitch as the swollen lips of her pussy brushed against him. The tip of his cock throbbed and he knew that he’d better get some answers from her soon or he might just come before he even got inside her.
“Evelyn, please keep still or I will lose my focus and…”
“Make love to me?” She fluttered her eyelashes and he groaned with desire. All he had to do was let his weight rest upon her and he knew that he would slide right into her, into that delicious wet warmth where it would throb and explode, easing years of heartache and frustration as he arrived home once more.
But he couldn’t. He’d waited this long to make love to her so he could wait a bit longer. Couldn’t he?
“Tell me why you didn’t wait for me.”
A shadow passed over her face.
“I need to know the truth, Evelyn. It’s tortured me all these years thinking that you were a fraud, a phoney who never really loved me and all I’m asking for now is the truth.”
She nodded.
“I’ll tell you. But I’m done waiting for this, Nate!” She lifted her hips suddenly and wrapped her legs around him, forcing his groin against hers. He gave in with a groan, plunging deeply into her cunny again and again as his need built to an overwhelming crescendo.
He pushed himself up to his knees so that he could see all of the woman he loved and he bucked into her, watching as her large breasts jiggled with the movement and the flush of desire spread across her chest. Each thrust caused him to shudder with ecstasy, and his balls tightened. She moaned every time he ploughed into her depths and he reached down and rubbed his rough thumb over her scarlet nub, circling the sensitive flesh again and again until he felt her begin to contract around him.
When he could take no more, he covered her body with his and she enveloped him in her arms, whispering his name until they clung to each other as their mutual desire exploded and he surrendered his soul, submitting to wave after wave of quivering pleasure.
He lay there for a while, his head on her breast, listening as her heartbeat slowed. He was overwhelmed with a deep sense of calm—feeling that he was finally where he should be. Nothing had been right since he’d lost Evelyn but hope flickered now upon his horizon. It was clear what had been missing and even though he’d tried to replace her, to forget her, to move on, nothing had filled the void that she’d left behind.
“Nate?”
“Yeah?”
“Now I’ll try to explain.”
He rolled over reluctantly, not wanting to let go of her warmth. She sat up against the ornate carvings of the headboard then he lifted the coverlet up and handed it to her so that she could cover herself. She smiled at the gesture.
Then he climbed under the coverlet next to her and sat waiting, his eyes glued to her face as he waited for the answers to the questions that had haunted him for more than a decade.
Evelyn pressed the patchwork coverlet to her chest and looked around the room, searching for the words to answer Nate’s questions. Her body still throbbed with desire and her inner thighs were sticky with the evidence of their recent climax. The atmosphere in the room had moved from the joy of intense lust to the sombre intensity of truths to be told.
She wished that they could return to the burning pleasures of just moments ago, but she knew that she had to be honest with Nate now. He deserved to know the truth. The problem was…once she told him everything, she feared that she’d lose him forever and the thought of returning to the isolation of her former life—the emptiness of body, soul and mind that she felt without him around—was almost more than she could bear.
“Evelyn?” He prompted her, his brown eyes softer than she’d seen them since he’d ridden away on his horse all that time ago, his bedroll on his back and her heart in his hands. He’d had no idea what he was leaving behind.
“When you left, Nate, I felt like my heart was going to break.”
“It wasn’t as if I wanted to leave you, Evelyn.”
“No, I know but you were young and eager for adventure and I was so nervous about you going off to seek your fortune.”
“It was the only way we were going to get any serious money behind us.” He held out his palms.
“Maybe, Nate, but I’d have been happy as a farmer’s wife.”
He nodded. “I know that but I wanted you to have more than your folks, than my folks…”
She took one of his rough hands between hers and ran her fingertips over the palm.
“I didn’t need more.”
“Well maybe I did.” He frowned at his own comment.
Evelyn nodded. “I think maybe you did. And that’s all right, Nate. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a good life for yourself. I’ve never blamed you for that.”
“Not for me, Evelyn but for us.” He gestured at her chest then at his own. “Call it masculine pride but I wanted you to have the best of everything and I wanted to be the one who provided for you. I wanted you to be proud that I was your man.”
“Nate”—she squeezed his fingers—“I was proud that you were my man. Didn’t you know that? Didn’t I make it clear to you?”
He nodded. “You did but I wanted to give you more than just this…” He waved at his body and laughed self-consciously.
“Oh my darling!” Evelyn laughed too. “Of course I was proud to walk on your arm but I was also proud of you, who you were and how hard
you worked the land!”
“So?” He raised his eyebrows. “What happened when I left?”
“I didn’t hear from you for over six weeks and I was sick with worry.”
“Time passed so quickly because I was so darned busy, up before dawn and working till way after sunset. By the time I made it back to my tent, I was good for nothing other than collapsing onto my bunk. But then I struck lucky.”
“But I didn’t know that…and…there were complications.”
She saw him stiffen, and he pulled his hand from between hers. The coverlet slipped down his chest and rested below his navel. Despite her apprehension, the sight of his naked torso with its dusting of dark hair and hard, flat stomach rekindled her lust. She forced herself to look away. She couldn’t imagine how it would feel never to look at his gorgeous body again or to feel it pressed against her own.
“Henry Campbell came round to see my Daddy and found me crying by the chicken coop.”
“I’ll bet he did,” Nate growled, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“I had good reason to cry.”
He reached out and stroked her face. “I’m so sorry. I’d go back and tell myself to write to you if I could.”
She sniffed. “Nate, I was with child.”
“What?”
She reached out and took his hand again.
“What do you mean, Evelyn? He got you…”
She shook her head.
“Then who?” Fury blazed in his eyes.
“You!”
“But that’s not possible!” he exclaimed, shaking his head. “I was always careful.”
“It’s not a fool proof method, Nate,” she whispered, suddenly shy. “And once or twice…after some of Daddy’s homemade liquor…we did throw caution to the wind.”
“You mean?”
“Yes, Nate, Aaron is your son.” She dipped her head, afraid of the storm that would follow.
He jumped from the bed, oblivious to his nudity but Evelyn couldn’t tear her eyes away from his glorious form or his thick cock as it swung against his thighs.
“I have a son!”
She nodded, unsure if he was furious or ecstatic.
“I have a son!”
“Yes, Nate.”
“But I didn’t know. I would have returned, married you, brought him up…”
She watched as the enormity of the situation sank in and he sank onto the edge of the bed, reduced to the raw human emotion of grief.
“He’s ten. I’ve missed so much.” Then he looked up at her. “You married Campbell and let him bring up my son. You stole my child away from me!”
“Nate, it wasn’t like that! I didn’t know what else to do! My parents were furious and I thought you’d abandoned me. I had to think of the child.”
“The child? Bringing him up with a man like that?”
“A man like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Evelyn! But I do get it! He had money, a nice house and my son!”
He jumped up from the bed and pulled on his pants then snatched up his shirt from the floor.
“He was kind to me…and to Aaron. Even though he’d had his family and his boys were grown by the time he took up with me, he still looked after us.”
“So why’d he leave you destitute? What kind of man doesn’t leave provision for his widow?”
“He did.”
Nate frowned. “So you were pretending to be broke?”
“I just couldn’t take what belonged to his sons, Nate. It was legally theirs and not mine or Aaron’s. They let me stay at the house until recently—when they both married—but then it was time for us to leave, so as they could get on with their lives.”
“They gave you nothing…at all?”
“I refused to take anything. They paid for our journey then we said our farewells. They knew Aaron wasn’t their kin.”
“So you’re telling me that after all those years, after setting yourself up in a nice cosy little arrangement, you just upped and left without a dime to your name?”
“Yes, Nate.”
“After throwing away what we had, you then threw away everything else?”
She inclined her head.
“But what about Aaron?”
“I just had to have faith that it would work out for us. I couldn’t provide for him with money that wasn’t ours. I want him to grow up to be an honourable man, Nate. Just like you.”
He pulled his shirt over his head and looked wildly around the room.
“I have to get out of here!”
“Nate, please!” Salty tears rolled down Evelyn’s cheeks in torrents, spilling over the coverlet and trickling onto her naked breasts beneath it. She wanted to scream at him, Don’t leave me again…but instead she whispered, “If I had my time over I would do it all so differently.”
He glared at her.
“You chose another man, Evelyn. There’s no way to change that.”
“He was a good man, Nate. He just…”
“He just what?”
“He just wasn’t you!” She fell forward onto the bed and buried her face in her hands, sobbing like her heart would break.
* * * *
“How are you feeling, Mama?”
Evelyn stood on the porch of the Grand Central hotel, shielding her eyes from the harsh midday sun.
“I’m okay, Aaron.” She forced a brief smile but she was sure it appeared more like a grimace.
“Do we have to go? I kinda like it here.”
She placed a hand upon his arm. “You know that my position fell through, Aaron, and I need to find work to support us.”
A cloud of dust at the end of the street signalled the arrival of the stage coach from Cheyenne and her heart sank into her boots. They were really leaving.
“But can’t you find other work here, Mama? There must be something?” He wrinkled his little freckled nose. “Or maybe I could work?”
Evelyn laughed and cradled his chin. “Oh, my boy, you’ll be a fine man one day. Plenty of time to work then. Be young while you can. Now don’t worry.”
She looked around to ensure that all of their belongings had been brought down from their room, then she stared out at the busy street. The arrival of the stage always created such excitement for the inhabitants of Deadwood as they greeted family members, new settlers and the arrival of goods.
She wished that she could share their excitement and that her stomach wasn’t clenched so tightly. If only she’d been able to make her home here as she had hoped less than a month ago. But it wasn’t to be. It seemed like a lifetime since then and in that lifetime she had won, then had lost, everything that she had ever wanted.
The stage pulled up in front of the hotel and the unloading process began. Evelyn knew that the horses would need to be changed, the coach emptied and repacked, so they had some time left before their departure.
“Shall we walk a while, Aaron?”
He nodded and offered her his arm like a real little gentleman, but as they walked she could feel the tension in his young frame.
“I know that you don’t want to leave, Aaron, and I’m sorry but I promise that we’ll settle soon.”
He shrugged. “I know why we had to leave Mr Campbell’s house, Mama.”
Her heart beat quickened. “You do?”
“He wasn’t my real papa, was he?”
“Aaron…I…”
“It’s okay, Mama, I know why you married him. I understand that it was hard for you.”
She stopped walking and placed her hands on his shoulders.
“Oh, Aaron, how can you understand? You’re only ten.”
He looked back at her, his face still soft with youth but his eyes full of knowledge. She swallowed hard against the pain in her throat. Her son was growing up so quickly. Heading towards his eleventh birthday, he was almost the same height as her and he clearly knew more about their situation than she had realised. She’d been mistaken in her assumptions about his innocence.
“I w
ent to see Mr Hamilton.”
“You did what?”
“I’m sorry, Mama, but last week you seemed so low and you wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. So I went to talk to him.”
Evelyn’s eyes roamed over his face. She had meant to protect him from her hurt but she’d been so lost in her own pain that she’d failed.
“And?”
The boy lifted his hat and pushed his damp hair back then chewed at his lip.
“He seemed to be in the same state as you.”
Evelyn squeezed his shoulders.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s my real daddy, ain’t he?”
Tears pricked the sides of her eyes as she nodded.
“How’d you know?”
“You said it in your sleep, Mama, and I asked Mr Hamilton if it was true.”
“In my sleep?”
“You always talk in your sleep. I’ve learnt a lot”—he grinned—“though I do try not to listen.”
Evelyn’s cheeks flushed.
“I’m so sorry you found out like this.” Evelyn took his face in her hands. “I love you so much and I just wanted to protect you.”
“It’s okay, Mama”—his cheeks coloured—“I’m kinda glad. He seems like a real good man.”
Evelyn rummaged in her reticule for a handkerchief, biting the inside of her cheeks. Not only had her son found out the truth but he actually liked Nate. And she’d blown it for them both, no, for all three of them. Again.
She had to try to make it right.
“Come on!”
She grabbed Aaron’s hand and hurried along the street, ignoring the calls from behind her that the coach would soon be leaving.
“Where are we going, Mama?”
She turned to her son but kept walking. “To see if I can’t put this right…”
As she turned back, she stopped in her tracks and looked up into eyes so dark they seemed to swallow her whole.
“Mrs Campbell.”
She inclined her head, her mouth suddenly dry and her mind blank.
“Were you coming to see me, Mrs Campbell?”
She let go of Aaron and held out her shaking hands, taking hold of both of Nate’s. “Yes, Mr Hamilton.”
He smiled but then his face grew serious. “I heard you were leaving.”
Desire in Deadwood Page 5