by Devine,Carol
The terror was over.
Epilogue
Sarah stood at the window of the master bedroom and looked down at the front yard below. It lay shadowed in the dim time between moonset and sunrise, when the clouds to the east were showing the first faint streaks of dawn. A modern lantern bobbed in the semidarkness, carried by a man wearing a long sheepskin duster. Ty Coburn, right on schedule.
Sarah smiled. Although the silver-haired man often professed his undying devotion to the Masterson Ranch because of her cooking, he'd come to the house this morning to prepare breakfast for the entire crew of ranch hands at her request. In exchange, she'd promised to make his favorite shoofly pie for dessert tonight. Ever since their run-in with Cal, Ty had been calling in the IOUs, taking considerable advantage of her expertise with shoofly pie.
Sarah turned from the window and glanced at the four-poster behind her. Zach lay on his back, sprawled across the rumpled sheet and blankets, asleep. He'd pulled on blue jeans when he'd gotten up to bring little Matthew in for the 3 a.m. feeding, but he'd left off his shirt. If it wasn't for the flannel-wrapped baby bundle anchored to his chest by his large brown hand, he might have felt cold.
She drifted over to the bed and perched on the edge of the mattress, loosening her robe. With the baby's arrival coinciding with the chill of autumn, Zach had insisted on keeping the modern gas furnace in the basement blasting most of the time.
Exhaustion stamped his features. She really should let him rest, sleep in until the full light of day lit the room. Between the harvesting and the birth of his son, he'd been running short on sleep for many weeks. But she had planned this morning carefully for a reason and since she'd arranged for one of the other hands to do Zach's chores this morning, he could sleep later when Matthew woke again to be fed.
She slid her hands beneath the blue bundle and lifted, careful of the tiny head covered in soft black down. Kissing the tiny fragile spot on top, she carried him to his own room down the hall. If she were lucky, he'd give her the hour she needed before he wakened for the day and another round of feeding.
By the time she returned to Zach, he'd rolled over onto his side, his broad back to her. She took off her robe and crawled naked into bed next to him. Despite the furnace, her feet were freezing. She snuggled close and wrapped her arms around him, letting his sleep heat warm her. Beneath her elbow, the seven inch puckered scar on his side reminded her of that terrible day when Cal had come to take her away.
After Butcher attacked and killed him, she was embarrassed by how she had dissolved into a fit of hysterical weeping. After she'd managed to free Zach from his chains, he had held her and tried to comfort her but the bullet wound on his side had bled profusely. He'd lost consciousness.
She'd known enough to run to the bunkhouse and call 911. When the ambulance screamed into the yard, it was the first time she'd seen one up close. But at the time, all she cared about was hustling the medical helpers into the trailer. The extent of Zach's and Ty's injuries had gone well beyond her ability to treat with pressure bandages and herbal remedies.
The police had been called when Cal's body had been discovered and the extent of the carnage became clear. Butcher had been remanded and taken by animal control to be examined by the vet at the local pound. It was only after an investigation that the coroner's office had issued a statement that the dog had killed Cal in self-defense. Butcher had saved three people's lives. The dog was returned to Sarah. Now his bed was in the kitchen downstairs, where he protected every one of the people who lived at the new Bar M ranch. He considered them all family, part of his pack.
Sarah wiped her eyes in memory. After two days of being in intensive care, Zach had insisted on marrying her right then and there in front of the chaplain at the hospital. A groggy Ty, in consideration of his concussion and the white bandage around his head, had sat in a wheelchair during the ceremony, serving as best man. Betsy Miller, Jason Miller's wife, who happened to be a nurse at the hospital, had served as Sarah's matron of honor.
Sarah had worn a simple white dress she'd bought by herself. When Zach had noticed that it still carried price tags as the ceremony started, he'd chuckled and cut them off. He'd worn blue jeans and his boots and not much else, for his ribs were taped and the wound at his side was still draining.
They'd had another ceremony a few weeks later, before God and more witnesses, at the start of the New Year, in the snow swept yard of their new home in the Wind River Valley of Wyoming. Traveling to witness it was Zach's brother Bram and his new wife Mandy and last but not least, Joe, Elizabeth and Meg. Mastersons all, they'd stood irreverently grinning while Sarah and Zach had taken the most traditional of wedding vows.
Sarah snuggled closer. Zach claimed there was no feeling around the scar because the nerves had been severed and would take years to grow back. Her feet warm now, Sarah kissed the scar first and traced the healed line with her fingers. She checked his face, the lean brown of his cheeks, the network of tiny lines relaxed in sleep, the strong marks of past grins bracketing his mouth, and felt such a strong feeling of love, she pushed him onto his back and straddled him. She laid the top half of her body down on top of his chest and let herself fall into the feeling of him alive and breathing, allowing it to lodge itself deep and send tiny throbs of happiness singing through her veins. Here was her belonging place.
"What are you doing to me, woman?" Zach asked, his voice slumberous and hoarse.
"What do you think I'm doing?" she asked and ran her hands down his long arms, firm strokes designed to bring him to full wakefulness. She started unbuttoning his jeans.
He startled in surprise, especially when she made short work of pulling them off and his underwear, too. "Sarah?"
"Zach?" she echoed, teasing.
She straddled him, smiling down at him. A crease appearing between his eyebrows like he couldn't quite believe what was happening. She hitched herself up and kissed him in that spot, then kissed his mouth, which parted in half sleep, half shock. But his hands spanned her waist and soon the kiss became open and carnal. She shifted slightly to rub the most sensitive parts of her body against the most sensitive parts of his, already full and hard between her legs.
"Am I dreaming?" he asked against her mouth, his whiskers like sandpaper on her lips. "It's been so long."
"Three months," she murmured, thinking of the last six weeks of her pregnancy and the six weeks of recovery since. Long weeks of holding and loving each other with hands and mouths and little else.
"I must be dreaming."
She opened her thighs wider in answer, feeling how the blood pounded in her ears. She thought of the life that had grown so recently to fruition inside her, the life Zach had started on their first night of holy marriage.
Just thinking about it started such quickening need inside her, ripe and ready, beckoning, seeking release. She moved her hips, loving the feeling of anticipation, loving how fiercely he reacted. She was glad of the precautions she'd taken, this gift she had given her husband, the gift of protection and planning and time for him and for herself. There would be more children but they would be given life as a loving God wished, when she and Zach were ready.
"Are you sure, Sarah? You must be tired, having to get up with the baby and all."
"You, too," she chided.
"Yeah, well, I get to sleep during feeding time."
His palms pressed her distended nipples, desensitized by their new role. A tingling went from the centers out, making her realize little Matthew hadn't quite sucked her dry.
"Yes," she said. "I'm very sure."
"Lord, I want it, too. But I'm not prepared. I mean, we talked about waiting awhile before we try for more kids but we didn't really discuss who's responsible for the birth control."
"Shhh," said Sarah. "There's no need to worry. The county nurse visited last week and she gave me what was needed."
"I thought she came to check Matt and give him his vaccinations."
"She also came to examine
me and pronounced me fit as a fiddle."
"You're fit alright. And so tight I wish I could fit into you right now."
"Please do," she said, positioning herself so he was poised at her entrance.
The contractions of her opening were so powerful Zach could feel himself being drawn in. He held back and tightened his hold on her, stopping her hips from moving. She obeyed, leaving him in an agony of suspended longing.
"Sarah, we talked about this. I need to use a condom until Matt's older and we're ready to have more children."
"There's no need for it, Zach."
She rocked against him and sheathed just the tip of his sex. The feeling was exquisite and he decided he would risk it to be with her again. Then he remembered how he had vowed to love and cherish this woman all the days of his life. He wouldn't allow her to be wrung out by too much work and too many children in too short a time, no matter what the Bible said about being fruitful and multiplying.
He began to withdraw but she reached down and guided him fully inside her. He nearly passed out at the pleasure of it. She'd turned into the devil and the temptation was too much.
"The nurse gave me medical things to read. I told her which one was best for me. It was rather simple, Zach, and much easier than what you're talking about. Condoms may be fine for you but I want to use birth control that lets us be naked all over."
He didn't hear the rest because he was drowning in sensation. The feel of her body covering his, not only with her weight but with her generosity as well touched him like nothing else could. Her willingness to adapt her beliefs inspired him to do the same, to find God in his own heart.
As she rocked against him, her long hair fell forward in front of her shoulders. He took her hair and wrapped it around his hands, feeling the silken texture, the way it bound him to her. And he was glad to be bound. He let her hair spill around their heads, a curtain of privacy that created a space where serenity lived. She kissed him and he gentled his kiss in spite of his burning desire to take her with lips and teeth and body as one together. Sarah liked gentleness.
She sighed and sank onto him. He felt a quaking take his heart, a biological echo of his soul, moved by the trust she placed in him, the purity he found in this specialness they created. He held her hips, drawing the dance out, listening to her breathe, panting, slickness building between them. Finally he felt her inner muscles leading to her womb tightening at intervals and the soaring began.
He clutched her then, thrusting deep and fast. And they went there together, forged in body and spirit to the place where heart, mind and soul come together.
Home.
Other Books by Carol Devine…
BEAUTY AND THE BEASTMASTER
THE BILLIONAIRE'S SECRET BABY
MARRIAGE FOR SALE
WARRIOR (2017)
Pre-Order on Amazon.com
Carol Devine's brand new book…
MARIAH
A Grizzly Springs Series Mainstream Romance
Disgraced FBI Agent Mariah McBride returns home to her small hometown of Grizzly Springs, Colorado to start her life over again. Rodeo Champion Shane Youngblood is the town's golden cowboy after hanging up his spurs to raise and train quarter horses on his ranch.
Known as a horse whisperer, Shane whispers things to Mariah, tempting and sexy things. But Mariah is determined to mend her tattered reputation and return to her career in Washington DC. She has vowed to never depend on anyone else again, especially the most notorious womanizer in Grizzly Springs.
ABOUT the AUTHOR…
Born in NY, NY and raised in Hawaii, Carol currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband. The other men in her life include her three sons and her faithful Chihuahua mutt. Future heroes and heroines include her grandchildren. Character fodder (AKA readers of her books) can reach her at: authorcaroldevine.com
A Special Note To My Readers:
Fans of the British TV Series, DOC MARTIN, will appreciate the story of how the setting of my new series, the small town of Grizzly Springs, Colorado came to be.
In a tantrum of the creative sort, I decided to try my hand at screenwriting. At the time, DOC MARTIN was a favorite of mine. It seemed adaptable to U.S. TV if written using a quintessential American setting, peopled by characters that reflected our diverse heritage.
Rather than a seaside village evoking the British Isles, I set my series in a rough-and-tumble Colorado mountain town amid horse and cattle country. I switched the genders of many characters, including the rigid, male surgeon anti-hero, Doc Martin, into the equally rigid, anti-heroine female surgeon, Doc Marrin.
From there, my version took on a life of its own. Unlike the British series, Marrin's love interest became a far more brash All-American character, one that was her polar opposite in personality and interests: the multi-racial Lee Roy Black, a former World Champion Rodeo rider turned quarter horse breeder.
However, I soon realized that for a Hollywood neophyte like me, there wasn't a chance in hell of selling these scripts. Rather than dump them in my rejection drawer, I reworked a secret baby subplot of mine from an extra episode I wrote for the first season.
It turned into a story featuring a female FBI agent named Mariah McBride, who is forced to return to her small Colorado hometown full of eccentrics and start her life over again after she's unfairly dismissed from the Bureau.
Her love interest needed to be extra-special, so I made him a former World Champion Rodeo rider named Kellen Shane Youngblood, who's quite the interesting talker as well as a handsome charmer.
And so, MARIAH, the well-deserving Cinderella of modern-day Grizzly Springs was born.
Carol