When the Halo Falls, a heavenly romance

by Maureen Child

  And as those thoughts pounded through his mind, he shook his head and whispered. "Patience, if you're crazy, so am I." He shifted one hand to touch the side of her face, smoothing her hair back, loving the way she turned into his caress. "So let's be crazy together one more time."

  She stared up at him for a long moment, and then whispered, "Oh yes, Brady. Again." And she lifted her arms to wrap around his neck. The blanket fell to the floor at their feet and instantly flesh met flesh, sparking new fires, new need.

  He kissed her, and with their mouths joined, walked her backward to the edge of the bed. Then together, they sank onto the narrow, thin mattress.

  The fire crackled on the hearth, the first rays of sunshine poured through the windows, and the world was silent.

  Brady broke the kiss long enough to trail his lips and tongue along the curve of her jaw and down the length of her neck. He paused at the base of her throat and tasted her pulse, feeling its strength hammering through him. Once again, he felt the quickening of her own desire. He felt her response to his touch and it fed his own.

  This was magic. There was no explanation for this and he suddenly realized he didn't need one anymore. Being with her, holding her, loving her, was all that mattered. For however long it lasted, he would enjoy the gift that was Patience.

  And if the coming years were more empty because of the loss of her, at least he'd have the memories of this one moment in time.

  Patience tipped her head back, allowing him more access to her throat. To feel his lips on her skin, his breath puffing warm against her flesh, was a blessing and she accepted it as such.

  This was what she'd come to Fortune for. This man. This moment. This time together. Her mind whirled with delight and her body practically hummed with his attentions. His hands swept up and down her length and every spot he touched cried out for more.

  Right or wrong, crazy or sane, it didn't matter. All that counted was Brady. And the fact that, whether he could admit it or not, he loved her. As much as she loved him.

  She felt that truth in his every touch. So she gave him all she was and all she hoped to be.

  His lips found her nipple and pleasure shot from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. Delight shivered through her and she clung to him, holding his head to her breast, wanting more. Needing more.

  It was as if she'd waited centuries for this man. And she didn't intend to waste a moment of her time with him.

  Sighing softly, she closed her eyes and etched this feeling on her mind. Mentally, she wiped away the more troubling memories she'd encountered in the last few days and replaced them with this. This image of her and Brady wrapped together, with the glint of sunlight splintering on the window glass.

  And then he shifted, covering her body with his, and she tensed in expectation. She moved to accommodate him, and when his body entered hers, she sighed again at the completeness of it. This joining, this sharing, this loving, was worth everything to her.

  His breath came short and quick. His heart pounded in time with hers. He moved within her, urging her higher, higher, until the peak she sought was almost within reach. And then she waited, holding back, straining to endure, wanting to experience this rush of power with him. To know that, together they found the joy they were meant to discover.

  His body tightened, he groaned and whispered her name and with one last stroke drove them both willingly over the edge of sanity into the madness.

  Seconds ticked past and the only sound was the beating of their hearts. Until at last, Brady called on the remnants of his shattered control and rolled to one side of her.

  If the life he'd lived hadn't earned him a place in hell already, then the way he'd spent the last twenty-four hours surely would. Staring blindly up at the beamed ceiling, all he could see was Patience's face. Her eyes. Her smile. He closed his eyes, but it didn't help. Her image remained in his mind, where it would, he knew, always be.

  No doubt, he'd spend the rest of his miserable life being haunted by thoughts of what might have been. But he'd be damned for good if he even considered trying to make Patience his wife.

  God would never stand for a sinner laying claim to a woman like her.

  She smoothed her hand across his chest and each small fingertip lanced his body with the kind of warmth he used to dream about. Before he got old enough to know that dreams just don't come true.

  Not for the likes of him.

  He caught her hand, stilling it, and turned his head to look at her. You really are a bastard, he told himself and winced at the thought. He'd used her. Enjoyed her. Found a pleasure he'd no right to and now he was going to turn his back on her. For her own good.

  "Patience, I —“ He broke off, shooting a glance at the door.

  "What is it?" she asked, drawing the blanket up over her bare breasts.

  "Something," he said, shaking his head and sitting up, reaching instinctively for his gun belt. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but there'd been a sound that hadn't been there before. "I heard —“

  The door crashed open.

  Brady pulled his pistol free of its holster, leaped to his feet, and stood between Patience and whatever danger was coming.

  Sunlight streamed into the room, bouncing off the mounds of snow and becoming bright enough to blind a man. But not so bright Brady didn't recognize Sam as the sheriff all but fell into the room. And right behind him, was Lily.

  "Damn it," Brady muttered.

  Sam whistled low and long and had the good manners to look away.

  Lily was something else again. Her gaze slid from Patience, barely covered by the blanket, to Brady. And him she gave a look that should have killed him on the spot.

  Brady's back teeth ground together, but he lowered his pistol.

  "You son of a bitch," Lily said tightly. Then, holding out her hand toward Sam, she never took her gaze from Brady as she ordered the sheriff, "Give me your gun.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  "Pestilence!" Patience pushed Brady out of her way and clambered out of the bed, dragging her blanket along with her.

  "Ma'am," Sam muttered thickly and turned his back.

  "Damn it, Lily," Brady shouted, reaching for the pants he'd thrown into a crumpled heap on the floor. "Close your damn eyes or at least look the other way."

  "You've got nothin' I haven't seen before," she snapped, murder still in her eyes. "And I can't shoot you if I can't see you. Sam, I want that gun. Now."

  "Don't you give it to her," Patience called out.

  "No, ma'am," Sam assured her, still facing the wall, "I sure won't." Then to the furious blonde standing an arm's reach away, he said, "Now Lily, don't you go off half-cocked."

  "Oh, I won't," she told him. "I want that gun fully cocked and ready for bear."

  "Lily, you don't want to shoot Brady," Patience said, snatching at the blanket caught between the bed and the wall.

  "No, I'd rather horsewhip him," the woman countered with a snarl that sounded like it came from a mother lion. "But I'll make do."

  "Jesus, Lily!" Brady tugged his pants on and hopped unsteadily while trying to keep a wary eye on the woman looking daggers at him. He’d always thought of the woman as a friend. But right now, he was mighty glad Sam was keeping that gun out of her hands.

  Hell, he'd faced gunfighters who looked more friendly than she did at the moment.

  "Lily, you should calm down," Patience said, peeking out from behind Brady's shoulder.

  "Calm down?" Her voice went as high as a cat's back. "How can I calm down?" she asked. Narrowing her gaze into knife points, she aimed them at Brady. "A man I thought better of took advantage of you."

  He damn sure had, Brady thought, but wisely kept silent.

  "No he didn't," Patience assured her friend, flipping her hair back from her eyes.

  "Ah,” the blonde said, disbelief coloring her voice. "So you didn't sleep with him."

  "Oh, Jehoshaphat," Sam murmured, wiping his face with one hand.

 
"Of course I did," Patience answered. "But he certainly didn't take advantage of me," she added. "I wanted to make love."

  "Patience…” Brady said it on a groan and quickly did up the buttons on his pants. Damn it, how had this happened? He felt as if he were in one of those silly stage plays where everything falls apart at once and the hapless hero gets in trouble from all sides.

  "Well, it'd be silly to lie about a thing like that, Brady," Patience told him, giving his arm a pat. "After all, we are naked."

  "I ain't lookin'," the sheriff told no one in particular.

  Brady shot him a dirty look.

  "Yes, you are naked," Lily said. "And I'm guessing this means there'll be a wedding real soon."

  "Yes," Patience answered.

  "No," Brady said at the same time.

  "That's all I needed to hear. Give me that gun," Lily said again.

  "Damn it all to hell," Sam said on a groan.

  With his pants on, Brady felt some better, but not a lot. He reached up and shoved both hands through his hair, hoping to keep his skull from splitting. It didn't help much.

  He deserved this, he knew. It was his own fault. He never should have slept with Patience. He'd known from the get-go that she was a decent woman. And now he'd taken her virginity and shamed her in front of their friends. He'd compromised her reputation and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Hell, marrying her would only make things worse for her.

  Decent women just didn't marry saloonkeepers. Especially saloonkeepers who just happened to be former gunfighters.

  Anger simmered down deep in his guts and quickly bubbled over. And since he couldn't very well yell at himself, he did the next best thing.

  "What the hell are you two doing out here, anyway?" he grumbled, shooting a glare at Sam's broad back.

  The sheriff snatched his hat off and wrung the brim between both fists. He looked as uncomfortable as a cat in a room full of dogs. "It was that storm,” he said, still looking stoically at the wall. "When you didn't bring Patience back to town yesterday, folks got worried and, well —“

  "That's perfect,” Brady muttered. No one had ever given a good damn about him. He could come and go as he pleased and no one had ever noticed. Now he had folks trotting through blizzards to hunt him down. He had one woman wanting to marry him and another ready to kill him. He had a friend who couldn't even look him in the eye.

  Oh yeah. Life was good.

  Still grumbling, he stepped in front of Patience, to take the full brunt of Lily's outraged stare. "All right. You did your duty. You found us. We're fine. You can see that," he said. "So why don't the two of you ride on back to town and we'll be along directly?"

  "Not likely," Lily snapped. "If you think I'm going to be leaving you alone with Patience again, you've got another think coming."

  "This is none of your business, Lily,” he said.

  "Brady," Patience started to say.

  "And you keep out of this too. I'm handling it."

  Later on, he figured he must not have been in his right mind, otherwise he would have realized that giving Patience orders was no way to get anything done. She pushed him out of the way and stepped out from behind him.

  "Keep out of this?" she echoed, clearly astonished. "I will not. This is as much my business as it is yours."

  "Patience…”

  She ignored him. Looking directly at Lily, she said softly, "I know you mean well, but I love Brady. So please don't shoot him."

  Lily's shoulders drooped, the starch going right out of her. Shaking her head, she said, "You heard him, Patience. He says he's not going to marry you. That means you're ruined, now."

  “Ruined?" Patience countered with a smile. "I feel wonderful."

  Sam cleared his throat and took a step for the door. "I'll just wait outside. Lily?" He spared her a quick, sidelong glance.

  The blonde folded her arms across her chest and shook her head firmly. "I'm not going anywhere."

  "Naturally," Brady muttered, grabbing up the rest of his clothes and storming out the door. “I'll dress outside."

  "You'll freeze," Patience called after him.

  He shot a backward glance at Lily. "It can't be any colder than it is in here."

  #

  A couple of hours later, Treasure took one look at Patience and knew what had happened during that storm. There was just something about the look in a woman's eyes after she'd been with the man she loved.

  "You went and did it, didn't you?" she asked.

  Lily fumed silently and Patience gave her arm an absent pat. "Does it show?" she asked the storekeeper.

  "Well, it's not like somebody painted a sign on your forehead," Treasure told her, coming around the counter to stand directly in front of her. “But yeah, it shows. There's a spark in your eyes that I figure only a man like Brady could have put there."

  Lily groaned.

  Patience ignored her, as she had for the entire ride back to town. It hadn't been a pleasant journey, what with the horses having to struggle through the piled up snow. But it had been made worse by the cloud of restrained fury that had hung over all of them.

  Lily was hardly speaking to Brady. Sam wasn't talking to any of them. Brady wouldn't even look at Patience. And she… well, she'd been left alone to muse silently over the incredible experience she'd had.

  As far as she could see, there was no reason for anyone to be so upset. She and Brady coming together had been preordained. Anyone with half an eye could see that. Thoughtfully, though, she chewed at her bottom lip and reminded herself that Brady apparently didn't have half an eye. Since he seemed bound and determined to put what had happened behind them.

  Still, since she wasn't going to allow that, there really was nothing to worry about, was there?

  "It was wonderful, Treasure," Patience said, her voice as dreamy as the images swirling through her mind.

  The older woman sighed in fond remembrance. "As I recall," she said, "there were times when —“ She stopped herself, cleared her throat noisily, and asked, "But this isn't about me. So. When's the wedding?"

  Before Patience could open her mouth, Lily spoke up.

  "There isn't going to be one."

  "What?" Treasure's soft smile disappeared and became a razor-sharp slash of disapproval.

  "Of course there'll be a wedding." Patience tried to pour oil on the obviously troubled waters. She was, however, unsuccessful.

  "Not according to Brady," Lily grumbled.

  "Are you telling me that man is refusing to do the right thing by our Patience?"

  "He loves me," Patience said, but neither woman was listening.

  "He told me so himself, flat out," Lily snapped.

  “Well, we'll just see about that, won't we?" Treasure said on a sniff of disgust.

  "Oh, pestilence!" Patience muttered.

  "And until we get this all straightened out, we should just keep this quiet. Don't want word spreading around that the honeymoon came before the wedding," Treasure said.

  "Agreed." Lily nodded.

  "I don't care if the whole world knows," Patience said and both of her friends turned sympathetic, nearly pitying looks on her. In response, she lifted her chin and looked from one to the other of them. "I didn't do anything I'm ashamed of."

  And while the three of them argued the subject, none of them noticed Vonda Shales scurrying out of the shadowy back aisle and slipping out the side door, a smile on her face.

  By nightfall, the town was up in arms. It seemed all that had been needed for the men and women of Fortune to stop fighting each other was for them all to find a common enemy.

  Now they had one.

  Him.

  Brady picked up his drink and tossed the brandy down his throat as he would have a shot of medicine. He didn't even taste it, just relished the brief fire it ignited in his belly.

  First time he'd been warm since he left Patience's arms.

  And that thought was enough to prod him into picking up the bottle and pour
ing another drink. He leaned back in his chair and let his gaze slide around the crowded saloon. Fern and Addey were working the room, laughing and dancing with the customers. Joe was hopping behind the bar, busier than he'd been in days.

  Somehow, word about him and Patience had spread all over town — even to the outlying ranches — and the saloon was packed with men who were too afraid to call him out, but were happy to settle for giving him dirty looks. Hell, the only reason he was safe from the females in town was because none of them wanted to be caught dead going into a saloon.

  Grumbling to himself, he narrowed his gaze, pausing every once in a while on a particular face. He'd stare just long enough to make the man uncomfortable before spearing some other customer with the same icy glare.

  Damn hard to have your private life talked about over beers and whiskeys by drunks who were far from perfect themselves. And damned if he appreciated knowing that he was the cause of all the talk about Patience.

  She didn't deserve to be gossiped about.

  But then, she hadn't deserved to be ruined either.

  He took a sip, then set the glass down. One drink warms the belly, two warms the mind, and he needed what was left of his wits about him. Not that they'd done him much good in the recent past. Instantly, his mind screamed out, How had this happened? But that was a question he'd asked himself too often lately and he still didn't have a good answer to it.

  "You look fit to tackle a grizzly," Sam said as he stepped up to the table and pulled out a chair that would put his back to the wall.

  Brady gave the man a hard look as he dropped into the chair and leaned both forearms on the scarred tabletop. "If you're here to talk about Patience," he said tightly, "you can forget it."

  Sam shook his head. Reaching up, he took his hat off, hooked it onto the back of the chair next to him, and signaled to Joe for a beer. Then glancing back at Brady, he said, "I figure you don't need me to tell you what you already know…”