by Dee Burks
With Samantha, he would just have to find the right words and practice his speech. She would come around. “It has to work. It’s for her own good.”
Charlie’s expression conveyed his skepticism. “Hers, or yours?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That maybe you‘re thinking about her.”
Taos grunted.
”Thinking about her . . . and you?”
Taos ignored the comment. “She’s dead set on getting her hands on that ranch.”
“No, she’s not.”
“What do you mean she’s not?” Taos perked up.
“She told me. On the way to town. She doesn’t want anything. She just wants to stay.”
“She’s lying. She knew you would tell me.”
“She has money.”
“Then why did she come all the way out here?” Taos asked himself as much as Charlie. If she didn’t want the land, and she didn’t want the money, then what? He thought for a minute. The answer hit him suddenly like a rock breaking a window. “A man.”
“A what?” Charlie laughed. “I think that’s the whiskey talking.
“No, it makes perfect sense.”
“How do ya figure?”
“She’s not planning to go back to Boston.” It was such a simple answer, he had never even considered it.
“She can’t. That guy, John Larson, Lawton—”
“Lawson?”
“Yeah. He’s after her. She’s in danger.”
“She said she was in danger. If she were really in danger, Mattie could have fired him and called the law immediately. There was no need to send her away.” Taos leaned forward. “She’s damn near a spinster at this point and she has to know the clock is ticking. What if she just ran off and Mattie has no idea where she is?”
“Why would she have to come here to get a man?” Charlie’s tone reflected his disbelief. “Don’t you think she had lots better choices in Boston?”
“She knew she had to have a husband to get her inheritance and that’s what she’s here for, she’s trying to get herself married . . . to me.”
Charlie howled with laughter, slapping his hat on his knee. “You have lost your mind!”
“It’s the first sense I’ve been able to make of this whole mess.” Taos voiced his confidence.
“You can’t believe what you’re saying.”
“Yep. I do.” Taos got up and paced behind the desk. “She wouldn’t be able to get her hands on the ranch without a husband, right?
“Right.”
“Then she wouldn’t be able to run it without help, right?”
“Right.”
“She said all she wants is to stay here with us for a while and then go back to Boston, right?
“Right.”
“Then don’t you see, if she tricks me into marrying her, she gets the whole ball of wax.”
“Which is?”
“A husband to take her off the spinster list, her inheritance, plus part of this place, and a bunch of men to run the whole thing and send her money the rest of her life. It’s a perfect plan.”
“Farfetched is what it is. She isn’t that kind of woman, and you know it. Why would she think you would ever fall for that?”
“Cause it worked on me once before.”
“She didn’t know about what happened with Sharisse until I told her.”
“So she said. There’s one way to find out.” Taos rummaged through the drawers of the desk. He found the ink and a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?”
“Letter to Mattie.” Taos looked at the pile on the desk. Extending his arm, he shoved the mess to one side. An avalanche of paper slid to the floor. He ignored it and tapped the pen on the table, thinking of what to say.
“But Sammy said we can’t contact Mattie or Lawson will know where to find her.”
“She said he was after her, and she said we can’t contact Mattie, which means we have no way to verify her story at all.” He dipped the pen in ink. “Dear Mattie.” He spoke quietly as his pen scratched across the paper.
“You have lost your mind. What if Lawson shows up?”
“There is no Lawson, never was—and even if there might be, Mattie will confirm it for us.”
He folded the page and searched for an envelope. He banged the drawers and searched part of the pile remaining on the desk. He finally sat back in frustration and tapped the edge of the letter against his knee.
“What?”
“No envelope. I’ll have to buy one in town before I send it.” He frowned. If he sent it tomorrow, it would take an easy week or two to get there, another week or two at least to get any reply. Three, maybe four weeks, minimum. Too long. He wouldn’t last another few days the way things were going. In two weeks he would be a stumbling drunk or a shotgun groom. “A telegram.”
“A what?”
“A telegram. We’d know in just a few days.”
“Perfect.” Charlie said sarcastically and walked to the door.
“You’re not going to say anything about this?” Taos warned.
Charlie feigned innocence. “Me? Why would I want to keep you from making a complete jackass out of yourself?”
“Not a word to anyone.”
“I won’t have to say nothin’. By the time the door of the telegraph office hits your butt everyone in town will know.” Charlie disappeared.
Taos shoved the letter in his shirt pocket. Charlie had a point. Everyone knew everyone’s business in River City. Fine. He’d send the letter and wait. He could always ask Mattie to reply by telegram. He pulled out another piece of paper and revised his letter, tossing the first one under some papers. Either Samantha was telling the truth, or she wasn’t. If she was lying, they would all know in a few weeks. Then she would leave. His mind refused to dwell too long on that possibility. She needed to leave. He needed her to leave—for his own sanity, if nothing else.
What about Tommy? She had been here such a short time, and he already thought she hung the moon. How did she do that? Of course Taos was a grown man and couldn’t stop thinking about her either, but for very different reasons. Tommy was only seven. He was defenseless and she’d already taught him to swim, which made the bond even stronger.
The magic of seven. Such a simple thing to convince a boy that he has the power to do anything he sets his mind too. He wished he’d been there watching her teaching his son to swim for the first time. No doubt Tommy needed a mother. He wasn’t much older than Tommy when his mother died. He didn’t remember much about her except that she left a very large hole in his life that never went away. Tommy didn’t know the difference. Or did he? He was already a changed boy, and he followed Samantha around like a shadow.
What I need is some magic of thirty, and whisky ain’t it. So what was? His mind drifted back to her soft body and warm lips. How her eyes lit up and flashed when she was mad. He stared at the liquor bottle. She made a sober man drunk in a hurry.
He had to admit it was a little incredible to believe that she was after him for a husband. Sharisse made it clear that he was no prize. Samantha would find out soon enough. If she couldn’t get him, she just might try Charlie or Darren. He didn’t think he could stand to see any man touch her, even a brother. He would just have to manage until he figured out what to do.
Taos poured another glass and thought about what Charlie had said. What if she really just needed his protection like she said? He quickly pushed that idea aside. It couldn’t be that simple or that easy; life just wasn’t like that. He could feel the warning bells sounding in his head. If he allowed his resolve to crack even the slightest bit, he’d never be able to let her go again. He didn’t want to even contemplate what that might mean.
No, she was the bad guy here, not him, no matter what the rest of his family thought. He was also protecting them in the long run. They just didn’t realize it right now.
Taos analyzed the situation from every angle, mentally trying different scenari
os and what-ifs. The whiskey slowly disappeared as the moon rose. He usually didn’t drink much, and the alcohol went straight to his head. Taos shook the growing cobwebs away and climbed the stairs.
Things will look different in the morning.
His room was dark and he didn’t bother to light the lamp. He quickly shed his shirt and lay on top of the bed, sleep instantly claiming him. Sometime during the night he dreamed of her snuggled close to him. The scent of flowers drifted though his dreams.
A few hours later as dawn tinged the sky, Taos struggled to consciousness. His mind throbbed with the reminder of last night’s detour through a bottle. The dream he’d had was still with him, and he refused to open his eyes. The feel of a slim thigh crossed his knee, and he realized this was no dream. Taos strained his eyes down to see the top of a blonde head.
Samantha was curled up next to him, her head resting on his shoulder. His body quickly leapt to full alert as she moved softly against him in her sleep. When did she crawl into bed with him? This is going to be harder than I thought. His body was way ahead on that one. He hesitated for a moment, then curled his arm around her. Samantha sighed softly and snuggled deeper into his chest.
Taos felt like a drowning man with boots full of water. He should wake her up and throw her out for playing this little game with him. He should, and he would . . . later. Her hand moved across his chest as every hair on his body strained toward her.
Please, God, just let me drown.
He tried to bring back all the terrible things she’d said to him, to rouse his anger and cool his pounding pulse. But it wasn’t working. At all. He placed a soft kiss on Samantha’s head and rested his hand on her waist. Her warm curves beckoned him. It was irresistible torture. He slid his hand up her side slowly, remembering those warm curves. Samantha’s eyes fluttered open and met his.
“Hello, sunshine,” he whispered
Samantha tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip. The realization of where she was dawned instantly, and she seemed mortified to be half-naked in his bed. The shirt twisted around her waist and barely covered her hip.
She summoned a shred of composure. “I need to get up, please.”
“If you really wanted to get up, you wouldn’t have crawled into my bed in the first place.”
“I didn’t crawl into your bed. I just fell asleep after you locked me in my room!”
“This isn’t your room.”
His mouth came down on hers just as she opened it to argue. Her soft lips didn’t struggle. They yielded and the temptation was too much. Taos breathed her in, tasted her, and she tasted back. His hand slid down to her knee and up her thigh. He felt soft skin quiver under his touch as his hands roamed freely. Rolling her onto her back, Taos covered half her body with his.
She moaned into his mouth and the pleasure made the blood pound in his ears. He deepened his kiss, dominating her and taking as much as he was giving. He pulled one of her knees up and ran his hand along the curve of her hip past her waist.
The door clicked open as a rooster crowed in the distance, and a small head poked into Taos’s room. Tommy frowned at the two people in the large bed.
“Are y’all coming to breakfast?”
Taos and Samantha jumped off the bed as if it had just caught fire. Taos glanced at Samantha then at him. A few more minutes and they wouldn’t have had enough clothes on to accomplish that maneuver.
Tommy looked from one to the other.
Taos cleared his throat, “We, ah, we’re on our way.”
“No you weren’t. You were squishing her.”
“We were just talking.” Samantha took Tommy’s arm and led him to the door.
“No you weren’t, he had his mouth . . .”
“Tommy! We’ll be right down.” Taos’s voice demanded obedience.
The door closed and Samantha looked at Taos. They were both shaken and not just by the boy’s unexpected entrance. She ducked her head and started toward the adjoining door. He grabbed her arm as she tried to brush past.
She whispered. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“I don’t think we need to do any more talking. This is dangerous with both of us here, together.” He cleared his throat, trying to get his thoughts together. “This is going to get out of hand. What we need are some rules.”
“Rules?”
“Yes, like no crawling into my bed.” Taos’s voice wavered a bit. He already hated that rule. Waking up with her in his bed was the best thing that had happened to him in years.
“Ohhhh, those kind of rules.” A smile played at the corner of Samantha’s mouth. “Like no squishing before breakfast?”
He smiled in spite of himself. “Yeah, like no squishing.”
“Well,” she whispered, “that’s probably a good rule, especially without the door locked. Any others?”
“We should just give each other some distance.”
“I’ll consider it, but you know I don’t take instruction very well.” She said. “You have the same problem, you know.”
“Me? I wasn’t the one who came in and crawled in someone else’s bed.”
“And I wasn’t the one doing the squishing.” She left him staring after her.
Samantha was the last one to arrive in the kitchen.
Darren and Tommy munched leftover cornbread at the table while Taos sipped his coffee. Charlie was nowhere in sight. Samantha quickly set about starting breakfast.
She glanced over at Taos. He held her gaze as a slow, lazy smile crossed his lips. “Mornin’, Sammy.”
“Morning, Taos.” Her voice gave nothing away.
“You’re up a little late, Sammy.” Darren looked her over from head to toe. “Why is your face so red?“
“We were having a little chat.” Taos winked at her and was rewarded with a hint of color that rose to her cheeks.
“What kind of chat?”
“Never mind, Darren,” they both said.
The house seemed to get smaller by the minute.
Chapter 12
Charlie had left early for a short stint as deputy in River City while Sheriff Blake was out of pocket in Raton. After Darren and Taos saddled up and rode out, Samantha finally got a few minutes of peace to herself as Tommy tended to a few chores. She watched him running toward the barn, his huge dog loping along beside him.
Her mind strayed back to the way she and Taos had leapt off the bed when Tommy walked in this morning. Samantha giggled to herself. At least it wasn’t Charlie or Darren. This morning’s conversation confirmed one thing in her mind. He wasn’t afraid of her, he was afraid of them—together. And he did have a point. This house didn’t allow for much space, especially with their rooms right beside one another. But rules? Really! Next thing you knew he would be drawing a line down the center of the house. Of course, that would only last until he realized the kitchen was on her side.
The men had talked this morning about branding the spring calves and warned her the next few days would be long, especially without Charlie around to help. Perhaps it wouldn’t be all that hard to comply with Taos’s suggestion. She certainly had no desire to give Tommy any more unwitting lessons on the birds and the bees, and she’d gotten what she wanted: a place to hide, at least for now.
As it turned out, Samantha found plenty to occupy her time. The house cleaning turned into a multi-day project. She had no idea so much filth could accumulate in one place. Tommy was a real help, lugging water and keeping her company. Darren and Taos worked hard to finish the branding, coming in at dusk each day bone tired. They fell into bed only to rise before dawn the next day.
Taos stuck to his part of the bargain, though Samantha felt his gaze follow her constantly. It seemed whatever room she was in, he was in. She talked to him, or at him, most of the time. He didn’t say much, just watched.
Darren, on the other hand, talked her leg off. It was as if he hadn’t had a friend since she left, and she honestly wondered if he hadn’t. Only a year apart, they had shared a
childhood. Of all the Williams brothers he was truly the most like a real brother to her. She knew he felt the same about her and would do anything for her. She so wanted him to be happy.
Most evenings Samantha and Darren talked and laughed, catching up on the last nine years. Taos kept his silence. He also continued to keep his distance, and so did she. But at night she heard him tossing and turning, chasing sleep and never catching it. She had the same problem.
Tonight was no different. Samantha lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. It had been more than a week since she had felt Taos’s touch, and her body almost ached for it. She heard the clock downstairs strike one in the morning. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. Rain. She longed for a cool breeze and the sweet smell of moisture in the air. She flipped the covers back and went to the window. Pushing on the sash she tried to raise it a little, but it wouldn’t budge. She banged each side with both hands and it finally moved, but only an inch.
“Need some help?” Taos reached around her and easily lifted the window.
She breathed in the leather-and-spice scent of him. He turned to go, and she reached out and touched his arm. “Thank you. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“I wasn’t asleep.” He looked at her and frowned. “Why are you still wearing my shirt?”
She shrugged and stared out the window. Because it makes me feel safe, she thought.
He raised his hand as if to touch her then let it drop to his side. He walked back to his room and closed the door without a word. Samantha let her head fall forward and thunk on the wooden window sash. How was she supposed to sleep now? She puffed up her pillow so she could see out the window and watched the storm roll toward the ranch. The lightning intensified, and thunder rattled the glass. She drifted off to sleep as the rain began softly drumming on the roof.
Suddenly she was in John’s office, feeling his cold touch and vile breath. She stared into the depths of those beady eyes as his tongue flicked across her skin. Her body jerked and moaned in disgust.
Now she was riding, rain pelting her. Have to go faster, he’s following. The man closed in as hooves pounded the wet ground. A big clap of thunder shook her to the core, and she screamed, “No!”