She pressed her lips together. Her toe tapped under the hem of her skirt. She stared at him without speaking, bristling with that inner fire, so hot it scorched him too. He kept his scowl fixed in place, his mouth shut in a hard line.
At last she said, “I’ve been offered citizenship before, when I completed my studies. I turned it down.”
“What? Why?”
She was still, eyes fixed on him so intently that he was sure he would burst into flame.
“A piece of paper isn’t going to make me belong, Mr. Avery.” She strode to her desk and took up a handful of papers. “The government of this country can list me however they’d like, but you yourself have proved to me and those like me that we will never be accepted.”
“I never said any such thing!” he argued.
She darted around him and began placing papers on the desks. “No? Isn’t that what you mean by seeking to have the Flathead children expelled from school?”
He pursued her, staying a step behind as she rushed up and down the rows of desks. “What were you talking about just now? The Fifteenth Amendment. It was passed twenty-seven years ago, but can a black man go about his business easy as he pleases in most parts of this country? No. He can’t. Why do you think Moses Wright moved this far out west?”
“Construction businesses are booming on the frontier.”
She wouldn’t look him in the eye. Her stack of papers dwindled fast and she returned to the front of the room.
“That and a gang of men in sheets burned down his business in Louisiana and tried to kill him.”
She whirled to him with an exasperated sigh. “The citizens of Cold Springs are not going to rise up with pitchforks to lynch Red Sun Boy for perfect attendance at school, Mr. Avery.”
“Dammit, I told you to call me Christian!”
“They are not going to burn down Sturdy Oak’s homestead either.” She returned to her desk without a second glance.
“Do you want to be a citizen of this country or not?”
“How can you talk about me belonging in one breath and then advocate the exclusion of people who look like me with the next?” She picked up a pair of books and marched past him to the bookshelf at the other end of the room, glaring as she went.
“I’m not! I’d petition for Sturdy Oak too if he wasn’t already a citizen!” He followed her.
“What makes you think you are so all-powerful that you could snap your fingers and make me one of you?”
“Because that’s the way the government works!”
She shoved the books on the shelf then faced him. “Because you say so?”
“Yes!” He stopped a foot away from her, chest heaving far more than it should have after a little chase around a classroom. “People listen to me, you know.”
“Only because you never stop talking.” Her face was flushed pink and her eyes glittered as she stared at him, refusing to back down.
“Because they know that I know what I’m talking about,” he countered. “They trust me to look out for their best interests, which is what I’m trying to do.”
“So we should all listen to what you have to say?”
“Yes!”
“You, Mr. Avery, are a bully and…and another word that begins with ‘b!’” Her voice trembled with frustration.
“I’m looking out for the people of this town! If that makes me a bastard—”
“Just be silent for once!”
“I’ve wasted too much time being silent.”
“For pity’s sake!”
“I’m doing this, getting involved, to keep you safe!”
“Christian, please! Stop talking!”
“I have responsibilities to this town and you can’t—”
She threw herself against him, arms closing around his shoulders, his words cut short by the pressure of her mouth on his.
Numb shock flooded him. Every thought he ever had spilled out his ears and lay in shreds around his feet. Life as he knew it was reduced to heat and pressure and the faint scent of lavender and skin. There she was, in the center of it. Lily.
She pulled back with a gasp. Her forearms braced against his shoulders and she struggled. He realized a moment later that his arms were around her, his hands on her waist, holding her against him. Her eyes filled with panic as sharp as if gunshots were firing over their heads again. She jerked back.
He wasn’t about to let her go.
He pulled her closer, lifting her to meet his lips once more. This time he took control. He pressed into her, devouring her with a hunger that reached to the root of his soul. Her mouth gave willingly under his, her lips moving to match his. He teased his tongue against hers, sparks snapping through him as she not only accepted his exploration but gave in to it. A moan rose from her throat. Her body sagged against his. He tightened his hold, his whole world compressed into the non-existent space between them.
He’d never wanted anything so much in his life. All other desires had been pale curiosities compared to the way he wanted Lily. He kissed her with the full force of that want, arms spreading across her back, drawing her heat against him. She returned his passion tenfold, her hands gripping his shirt and the muscles of his back. Their mouths only left each other for brief, fitful breaths before joining again, hungry for more.
A shriek and giggle and the thundering of footsteps in the hall snapped the two of them apart as though they’d been tossed in the snow. Christian stepped away, panting. He twisted to stare at the classroom door. It was opened a crack. He glanced back to Lily. She stared at the door too, wide-eyed, the back of her hand pressed to her mouth. Her chest heaved as she caught her breath.
“I don’t think anyone saw us,” Christian assured her, voice haggard with unfinished need.
Lily met his eyes, a sheen of panic covering her fire. “What if they did?”
Deep confidence spread through Christian. With the taste of Lily still on his lips, every part of the world seemed right to him.
He shrugged. “They’re children. What do they know?” He stepped closer to her, reaching out for her hands. “Come have dinner with me tonight. I’ll get us a quiet table at the hotel. We can talk about this—”
“No.”
Her answer was as hard as diamonds. She held his gaze for half a second more before pivoting and marching back to her desk.
“No?” He followed her, towering over her as she sat and scooted her chair in, locking herself out of his reach. “I don’t know if you noticed this, Miss Singer, but you just kissed me. Thoroughly.”
“It was a mistake,” she mumbled. “A terrible, terrible mistake.” She reached for a pile of workbooks and plunked them in front of her without looking at him.
“I don’t believe it.” He leaned over, resting one hand on the back of her chair and one on her desk. “Have dinner with me.”
She hesitated. Her chest was still rising and falling, as if she’d run all the way to the school from town. Her cheeks were rose-pink and he could feel the heat pouring off of her.
“Why not? You know you want to.”
She twisted to glare at him, her nose inches away from his. The force of her fury should have knocked him off his feet.
“You are an arrogant bastard,” she whispered.
“And you like me that way.” He grinned. He could kiss her again. She would let him. All he had to do was lean in.
She tore away to face her school books. “I can’t stand arrogance, Mr. Avery, especially in men. Please leave.”
He hesitated, hovering near her. She probably did hate arrogance, but she didn’t hate him. He knew that as certainly as he knew that he’d have far too much explaining to do if her students returned to the classroom and found him in the state he was in, and he was not ready to teach them about the birds and the bees.
He straightened. “You can turn away all you want, Singing Bird, but I’ll still be there when you turn back.”
Slowly she turned to face him. Her expression was so vibrant it unner
ved him. The memory of her taste, the thrill of her body clinging to his, her breath against his lips, left his body buzzing.
“Do your worst, Mr. Avery,” she said, point blank.
He would. He absolutely would. He would win her and that was all there was to it.
Chapter Eight
She had kissed him. There was no denying the truth. Christian Avery had provoked her to distraction…and she had kissed him. Thoroughly.
The knowledge had stuck with Lily all week, keeping her up at night and ruining her focus during the day. She would have been able to wave the whole thing off, consider it the heat of the moment, but for the fact that Christian was at the school every day. He had hovered like the tune of a love song she caught herself humming before she was aware of it.
She had kissed him.
And now she would have to pay for it, starting with the academic games.
The lobby of the Cold Springs Retreat was humming with excitement. Students and their families were already arriving. The hotel staff was dressed in their best. Roy LaCroix greeted the new arrivals with a list in hand, directing each student where they should go to meet up with their team for a last-minute practice.
And here Lily was, faced with Christian.
“Good evening, Miss Singer.” He swaggered up to her, arrogant smile firmly in place. He was dressed in an exquisitely tailored suit—one that looked as though it would be more at home in Baltimore than Cold Springs. He’d shaved for the occasion as well. His eyes glittered with heat and mischief, just as they had when he’d caught her at the door to her classroom and attempted to ask her to dinner every day for the past week.
She almost greeted him with a curt “No” out of habit.
“Mr. Avery.” She nodded, facing away and focusing on the door. She couldn’t look at him. The memory of his arms tight around her, his lips pressed against hers, was still too fresh, too hot. She had kissed him, and she wanted to do it again.
“Fine hotel, isn’t it,” he said.
She kept her mouth shut and her hands clasped behind her back in spite of the tempting scent of cedar and tobacco. It was laced with the cool, fresh tang of soap tonight. Images of him naked and lathering up what was certainly a fine, fit body invaded her mind.
“Delilah put a lot of work into the place and Roy and Sarah run it well,” he went on as if he didn’t notice her reddening face. “You know, they have a fine dining room over on that side. We should really take advantage of it one night.”
“We are here for the children, Mr. Avery. Kindly remember that,” she said. As if she didn’t remember the taste of his lips, more luxurious than any hotel dinner.
“Well, all right then.”
She cursed herself for being disappointed when he didn’t go on. She craved the rich bass of his voice, in spite of the fact that everything he said was nonsense.
When she couldn’t take the captivating sound of his silence for another moment, she asked, “Shouldn’t you be with your team?”
His sheepish grin was worse than any arrogant answer. “I would be if I could find them.”
“Ask Roy to—”
“Miss Singer, I hope your team has packed their bags.” Samuel Kuhn dashed her attempts to get rid of Christian. He swaggered up to her with his wife and Isabella in tow. “We’ll be glad to see the back of them after they’re defeated tonight.”
“Good evening, Isabella, Mr. Kuhn, Mrs. Kuhn.” It was the only reply Lily trusted herself to give.
“Why don’t you just shut your trap and wait to see how Miss Singer and her team do?” Christian came to her defense. Lily tensed.
Samuel chuckled, lips curled in a sneer. “We all know what you think on the subject, Mr. Avery, and I must confess, I’m disappointed. I was under the impression you had more sense than that.”
“I’ve got enough sense to tell the difference between a teacher and a jackass.”
Alicia Kuhn gasped and slapped her hands over Isabella’s ears. Lily fought not to roll her eyes. Samuel just laughed.
“The U.S. Army is just a telephone call away, Mr. Avery,” he said. “I would have thought you’d be glad to see them come in, since you yourself have been so vocal about banishing her lot from our school.”
“My aim is to keep everyone in this town safe, including the Indians,” Christian fired back. He shifted his weight. “I’m beginning to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to move the whole lot of them smack into the center of town and enroll all the kids in the school. Then maybe ignorant bigots like you would get used to seeing people as people and not colors.”
Lily’s breath caught in her throat. Her skin prickled. She glanced at Christian out of the corner of her eyes. Could he be changing his mind?
Her pulse raced. She fought the implication. She was a teacher. Her livelihood depended on her distancing herself from him and from that reckless kiss. How dare he undermine those efforts by something as devious as seeing things her way?
“You see, this is exactly what I was talking about,” Samuel said to his wife. “They’re a corrupting influence. Cunning in the extreme. They play off of people’s sympathies, and the next thing you know they’ll overrun the place and we’ll all be living in teepees eating raw meat.”
“I’ll have you know—”
“Strange, Mr. Kuhn,” Lily spoke over Christian, outwardly maintaining her calm while boiling on the inside. “Just the other day you were saying that Indians were dull and ignorant. Tonight they are cunning?”
Samuel’s face hardened. He stared at Lily with venom in his eyes. His wife sniffed and turned up her nose. Poor Isabella looked miserable, caught between the two parties. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes went glassy with anxiety as she glanced to the door.
Lily saw in an instant what she saw. Red Sun Boy and the other Flathead children had arrived. The entire family was with them, from Sturdy Oak to Two Feathers to Snow In Her Hair and River Woman and all of their children. Conversation in the hotel lobby ground to a halt as the family made their way across the room. They wore their finest clothes, which consisted of traditional beaded tunics and jewelry combined with tailored trousers and dresses.
A beat after their entrance, the room buzzed with gossip.
Snow In Her Hair spotted Lily and pointed her out to her father. Sturdy Oak nodded and the group switched directions to walk toward them.
“This is insufferable!” Samuel said. “I’ll not be waylaid by a bunch of redskins. Come on!” He took his wife’s arm, laid a hand on Isabella’s shoulder and marched them on into the ballroom.
Lily only had time to clench her fists before Sturdy Oak greeted her and Christian with, “Hello, my friends.” He wore a comfortable smile that seemed impervious to the whispering and pointing that filled the lobby.
Not all of his family was as at ease.
“We should not have come here,” Two Feathers murmured, meeting the stares of the people in the lobby with a challenging scowl. “We are not wanted.”
“Yes you are,” Lily contradicted him. She forced herself to smile and reached out to lay a hand on Martha’s shoulder. “You are all very much wanted here,” she reassured the girl.
Martha smiled at her words, but more than that, Snow In Her Hair and River Woman seemed relieved as well. They exchanged a look laden with thoughts and opinions. Lily’s unsettled heart twisted in her chest. They probably thought she was a fool for endangering their children. But no, those were not smiles of discontent.
“We should move into the ballroom,” she said to hide her emotion. “The teams have all been given meeting spots throughout the room so that they can practice one more time before the competition. We should meet with the rest of our team and practice as well.”
“And so should I,” Christian added.
Lily’s usual irritation at the way he seemed to finish her thought was tempered by the sudden anxiety of being without him. He touched her arm then nodded to Sturdy Oak and the children.
“May the best team win,” he
said before smiling at her and walking off to the ballroom.
He’d left her alone, adrift and over her head with people who would laugh at her if they had a hint of the emotions he stirred in her.
“This way,” she directed Sturdy Oak and his family, voice shaky.
The grand ballroom was awash with sound and light. It had been decorated with red, white, and blue bunting, and strings of electric light bulbs had been run across the front of the room. The effect of that technology alone lent the room a feeling of progress. Lily led Sturdy Oak and his family up the side of the room to a spot to the right of the dais that had been set up for the competition.
A plain door stood open next to the dais and several smartly dressed hotel workers passed in and out, bringing chairs into the main ballroom and onto the dais. Sarah LaCroix organized the workers and pointed them on their way. One of the young men flinched at the sight of the Indians and dropped his chairs. Sarah, on the other hand, lit up with a smile when she saw them.
“Welcome to our hotel,” she said, leaving her position and crossing to meet them. “My name is Sarah LaCroix, and if you need anything, just let me know.”
Sturdy Oak and the others smiled at the unexpected welcome. Before they could reply, Sarah went on with, “Folks all over town have been talking about you lot. They say some of you robbed the station office and Mr. Kuhn and who knows what else.”
Deep shame froze Lily to her spot, prickling across her skin. Two Feather’s face darkened into a scowl.
“But I don’t believe it,” Sarah went on. “None of you all has ever done anything to hurt a flea before, whereas between you and me,” she leaned closer, “I know some men from back in my saloon days who are nothing but mean. If folks around here knew half of what I knew, they’d stop all their clucking about you fine folks and look for the real thieves.”
She stood straight again, her smile as bright and innocent as the children flooding into the room. “Anything you need, you just ask me,” she finished.
“Thank you, we will,” Snow In Her Hair answered. She exchanged a knowing glance with Lily.
Lily didn’t know what shocked her more, Sarah’s outrageous speech or the camaraderie that Snow In Her Hair was showing her. Both left her speechless.
In Your Arms (Montana Romance) Page 9