Always in My Dreams
Page 41
Walker raised his hand and lightly touched the side of Skye's face. Her fiery hair was like silk against his fingertips. "No more than you."
"It wasn't so—" She stopped, abandoning the lie. "I was so afraid they wouldn't find him guilty. At night—"
He placed a finger over her lips. "I know," he said. He had held her night after night when she had been afraid to go to sleep, afraid that Morgan Curran would enter her defenseless, wandering thoughts as easily as he had entered her room. He had held her until exhaustion had claimed her body if not her mind. The shadows beneath her eyes had been fading since Morgan Curran received his unpardonable sentence two days earlier. The tip of Walker's finger traced the arch of her cheek. "I wasn't certain if you'd want to come back here. We didn't have to."
"I did."
It was just like Skye to face a thing head on. Her courage moved him. He was absolutely sure he had made the right decision about their future together. "I have my next assignment," he said after a moment.
Skye sat up now. "Assignment?" Skye was uncertain what that meant. She reached for her discarded shift and slipped it over her head. If he was going to tell her terrible news, then she wanted a bit of protection against it. "You didn't tell me," she said. Hurt, she avoided his eyes. There was nothing she could do about the slight quaver in her voice.
"I was saving it for the right moment." Standing, Walker slipped into his trousers. "I've known for a week now."
"A week." All that time, she thought. He must have been thinking how to tell her he was leaving. "When does it begin?"
"I've booked passage already. The Eastern Star leaves in ten days."
Skye swallowed hard and smoothed her shift over her hips. "Eastern Star? Then it's the Orient."
"I thought you'd be happy."
She shrugged. "It will give me time to renovate this house, I suppose. And search for the treasure. Perhaps Mama or Mary Francis will come and stay a while."
That's when Walker backed her right up against the wall. Her bottom pressed against the precariously tilted headboard as he braced an arm on either side of her shoulders. He bent his head slightly and gave her the full force of his level stare. "You have exactly ten days to find the treasure, pack your things, and say goodbye to your family. I'm not giving you a choice about this, Skye. You're coming with me."
Skye stared at him open-mouthed. Using this moment to tell him he was being high-handed was a little like cutting off her nose to spite her face. There would be two oceans to cross, time enough to let him know what she thought of not having been consulted. And it wasn't as if she didn't have a secret of her own, she thought a trifle smugly. Mary Francis had been correct about the fertility of the Dennehy women. Right now she launched herself into Walker's arms and spread kisses over his face.
"I take it this means you're happy," he said. Somehow she had managed to attach herself to him like a limpet. His hands cupped her bottom and her thighs cradled him intimately. "I guess I found the right moment."
Skye let him enjoy that thought. She would take issue with it as they were riding out the stormy waters around Cape Horn. Somehow, it seemed fitting. She buried her face in his neck and her smile against his skin. "I love you," she whispered. Skye raised her head and searched his face. Her eyes were solemn. "You won't regret this."
"There was never any possibility of that," he said.
She felt his words as a physical force. Pleasure rippled through Skye and she leaned into him again. The movement was unexpected and challenged his balance. Walker took a step backward, caught his heel on the edge of the mattress, and moved forward, bumping Skye into the headboard this time. With a grating, scraping sound it began to slide down the wall. Walker, with Skye still in his arms, managed to jump out of the way and protect his bare feet from injury. The headboard thudded to the floor.
They didn't notice that it had cracked in the center. They were looking at a hole in the wall that had been hidden for the better part of half a century. They peered inside together. A slim beam of sunlight made the interior visible and revealed a single ironbound chest. The lid was open. Yards of dusty silk draped one corner where the material had been lifted to reveal the richer treasure beneath.
Sunshine winked across the golden surface of a thousand Spanish doubloons.
"Eureka."
Neither of them was surprised that they said it as one.
The End
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ONLY IN MY ARMS
The Dennehy Sisters Series
Book Five
Excerpt from
Only in My Arms
The Dennehy Sisters Series
Book Five
by
Jo Goodman
USA Today Bestselling Author
ONLY IN MY ARMS
Reviews & Accolades
"Delightful and exciting... Goodman holds the suspense as well as the surprises and never lets up on the passion."
~RT Book Reviews
.
Mary was there when Ryder opened his eyes. She stood on the opposite side of the water hole, flanked by twin birch sentinels. Her path to the water was marked by the natural placement of large rocks rising from the bank like a stone stairway. She made no move toward the water or even to put her bare feet on the flat, sun-warmed rocks. Instead she remained very still and maintained her hold around the clothing she carried in her folded arms. In point of fact, the only clothing she wore was the bundle of fabric draped in front of her.
At first he thought she didn't move because she had seen him. But as he continued to watch her, he realized she did not have the frozen, startled posture of a frightened doe. She was not protectively clutching her clothing in front of her to preserve modesty or dignity. She merely held it. He was struck by the reverence of her posture, the respect she had for this quiet clearing he had only just discovered. Her stillness had nothing to do with him at all, he realized. She was unaware of his observation, and he wished that it might remain so. With no small measure of regret he knew he would have to make his presence known to her. But not yet, he thought selfishly. Not just yet.
Her contemplative state ended abruptly as she tossed her clothing carelessly on the rocks. It lay like a darkly raised bruise against the pale, sun-drenched stones. She didn't appear to give it another thought, not pausing even briefly to straighten or arrange it so it wouldn't wrinkle. In a way he was disappointed that she didn't care more for her garments. He had only an impression of healthy pink skin, elegantly slender curves, and rose-tipped breasts as she ignored the stone stairway and launched herself into the water from where she stood, entering it cleanly and shallowly in an arching, graceful dive that sprayed diamond droplets in her wake.
She didn't come up immediately, and he followed her path as she moved swiftly just below the water. She was as fluid as the element she moved in, her body undulating sleekly in a current of her own creation. The tapered length of her legs moved in unison, propelling her forward in a seductive, almost lazy rhythm. Once he thought she would surface for air in the middle of the water hole, but she dove abruptly and only the curve of her bottom broke the waterline before she went deeper. A smile flickered on his face.
When she finally came up for air it was directly below his perch. He was no longer smiling when she looked up and saw him for the first time. He was still hunkered on the lip of the rock like a bird of prey. His glossy black hair and the long black duster draping the ground around him furthered that impression. Intense gray eyes watched her narrowly above the straight, but somehow aggressive line of his nose.
He didn't say anything, just continued to stare at her. In spite of the flush that was creeping across her skin and heating her cheeks, she didn't duck beneath the water. It wasn't in her nature to run even when common sense dictated she should. With characteristic directness she stared back at him.
&nb
sp; Her eyes were remarkably green, he thought, as deeply green as the forest around her. It was a pure pleasure to look into them, and he was in no hurry to look away.
"I don't think you have any shame," she said. In other conditions, in another setting, she would have been able to infuse her words with enough acid to etch glass. This stranger merely smiled at her.
Only in My Arms
The Dennehy Sisters Series
Book Five
by
Jo Goodman
~
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Only in My Arms
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Meet Jo Goodman
Jo Goodman is a licensed professional counselor working with children and families in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle. Always a fan of the happily ever after, Jo turned to writing romances early in her career as a child care worker when she realized the only life script she could control was the one she wrote herself. She is inspired by the resiliency and courage of the children she meets and feels privileged to be trusted with their stories, the one that they alone have the right to tell.
Once upon a time, Jo believed she was going to be a marine biologist. She feels lucky that seasickness made her change course. She lives with her family in Colliers, West Virginia. Please visit her website at www.jogoodman.com.
Table of Contents
Cover
A Note from the Publisher
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Excerpt from ONLY IN MY ARMS (The Dennehy Sisters Series, Book 5)
Meet the Author