Risk no Secrets

by Cindy Gerard

  She hugged him so hard he flinched at the tenderness in his stitches and lost his balance. They landed back in the chair with a thud, her body sprawled across his lap.

  Fire burned through the knife wounds. He didn’t care. All he cared about was her. Holding her. Feeling her heat and her tears and her life blood beating through her body and knowing there were no secrets between them anymore.

  “Why don’t you two nice kids get a room? Leave an injured man to rest in peace.”

  Sophie gasped. Wyatt grinned and held her tight when she would have scrambled to her feet.

  “You’re supposed to be asleep,” he said, glancing at Doc.

  “What, and miss all the good stuff?”

  Yeah, Wyatt thought, looking from one man he loved like a brother to the one woman he loved more than life. This was definitely the good stuff.

  Epilogue

  They decided on a spring wedding. They wanted to start their lives together during a season of hope and renewal and promise. May in Georgia provided all that and more. And they’d both needed the nine months to heal.

  The colors and the scents filling the day were pure South. Margaret Savage’s gardens were in riotous bloom. Streamers of Spanish moss dripped from the wide-spreading branches of the majestic live oak lording over the backyard of the only home Wyatt had ever known. It seemed fitting, then, that the only woman he’d ever loved stood beside him, her dark hair dappled by sunlight and shadows and a delicate halo of baby’s breath and lace.

  “Ladies and gentlemen.” Pastor Bob Larson beamed over his Bible at the gathered crowd. “It is my pleasure to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Savage.”

  No polite round of applause from this crew. Oh, no. Wyatt and Sophie were met with a rowdy roar of “Hoo-rays!” and “Lock and loads!” and shrill, happy whistles, with Johnny Reed and Doc leading the way.

  Besides the BOI contingent that had turned out in force, family and special friends also joined the celebration. Robert and Ann Tompkins had flown in from Virginia to help them celebrate their special day. Carrie Granger was among the first to offer her congratulations as they stood in a receiving line of well-wishers.

  “I’m so happy for you both.” Carrie’s smile was genuine and generous.

  “Glad you could make it, sugar,” Wyatt said, hugging her.

  “Are you kidding me? The whole county’s buzzing about all the ‘dangerous’ men who checked into Sara Parker’s B&B yesterday. No way was I going to miss this action.”

  Wyatt snorted. “One of them is bound to end up with a lamp shade on his head before the day is over. We’ll see how dangerous they look then.”

  She smiled again and squeezed his hand. “And no way was I going to miss seeing you so happy.”

  “I like your friends,” Sophie said later as they relaxed in a wooden glider on the quiet end of Margaret’s manicured yard filled with lawn chairs and tables overflowing with traditional Southern dishes. And while the champagne fountain was seeing its fair share of action, the busiest spot of all was the keg of beer that had been wrapped in an old quilt to keep it cool. “And I love your family.”

  “You do know that my mother hasn’t stopped smiling since I told her about us nine months ago.” He searched the crowded lawn of laughing and chatting people and found Margaret Savage, beaming and full of vitality in a violet lace dress, talking with the pastor and his wife as far away from the keg as she could possibly steer them.

  “Well, that makes two very happy Savage women.”

  Oh, he liked the sound of that. And the sound of the laughter that surrounded them.

  “I hope those guys don’t get out of hand,” he said with a nod toward Doc, who was back in fine form. Apparently, he was also well educated on the workings of a pony keg, because in between telling tall tales to Wyatt’s dad and flirting with Carrie, Doc had taken charge of the spray nozzle and was topping off everyone’s glass.

  “You’re not disappointed that we didn’t make this a big, formal affair?” He folded her hand in his and brought it to his lips, damn proud of the way their wedding bands looked twined together.

  “I loved our ceremony,” she insisted. “It was perfect. My parents are loving it, too.” She smiled in the direction of her mom and dad, who were visiting with Robert and Ann Tompkins. “We’re not formal people, Wyatt. This is much more … real,” she said, finally settling on the right word as Hope, pretty in a pink dress, went sailing by with Sam’s niece—now adopted daughter—Tina. The little girls were laughing and chasing Annie’s monster child, Will, who hadn’t lost any steam since last summer when Wyatt had first met his terror of a nephew.

  Wyatt no longer worried about depriving Sophie of the things Montoya could have given her. She’d long ago made him a believer that she was comfortable in whatever world they created, as long as they were together.

  “And you’re good with turning the Baylor School over to Maris for the time being?”

  “Couldn’t be in better hands,” she said, smiling for him. “She’ll do a wonderful job. Besides, I’ll be making regular trips back. Hope’s not going to let me get by too long without taking her to see Lola. How about you?” she asked, looking up at him. “You’re really okay leaving the BOIs?”

  “I’ll admit, I’m a little … unsettled about it right now. But give me a few months,” he said, with as much honesty as he could. “Let me get past the adjustment curve, and then we’ll see. For now, I’m all about settlin’ back into Georgia time, sugar. I’m all about settlin’ in with you.”

  “I’m liking the sound of that.”

  He was, too. Yeah, he would miss the good guys. They were his brothers. The bad guys? Not so much.

  “The band’s about to start up,” he said when he saw the Talbot boys, a popular local trio, set up their equipment on the back porch. “Hope you like country.”

  “I’ve been known to hum along to a little Waylon and Willie.”

  “Let’s just hope Reed doesn’t decide to make his country debut,” he said with a nod toward Johnny, who was deep in conversation with Brad Talbot over his Martin guitar.

  She laughed. “That I want to hear.”

  “No,” he assured her. “You don’t.”

  A few minutes later, when the band struck up the first chords of Kenny Chesney’s “You Had Me from Hello,” the crowd erupted in more whistles and cheers, and expectant eyes turned to Wyatt and Sophie.

  “Guess they’re playing our song, sugar.” He stood and held out his hand. “Me and my two left feet would love to have this dance.”

  She took his hand and let him lead her to the brick patio before moving into his arms. “Dancing’s not about footwork, darling man.”

  He loved the playful sparkle in her eyes. “No?”

  “Oh, no.” She looped her arms around his neck, pressed close against him, and swayed to the music. “It’s about the contact.”

  Then she tipped her head back and kissed him. Kissed him like they were alone in the dark on a dance floor. Kissed him until he forgot that they weren’t.

  Didn’t take long before he got a reminder.

  Another round of loud whistles and applause finally had him coming up for air. A tap on his shoulder had him growling a succinct “Get lost.”

  “Yeah, right.” Doc just laughed and swept a grinning Sophie into his arms and danced her across the patio.

  I’m the luckiest man alive, Wyatt thought as he stood at the edge of the makeshift dance floor and watched another man dance away with his wife. He was surrounded by friends and family. He was loved by a woman he adored. And as of today, he officially had a daughter.

  Hope was a born nurturer, he thought, becoming used to the pride he felt when he watched her with his sister’s boy and Sam’s little Bryan. Like her mother, he realized, shifting his attention to Sophie again, who was laughing in Doc’s arms. Not for much longer, though, by the looks of things. Rafe, Johnny, Gabe, and Sam looked like they were ready to move in and take their turns giving Sophie an
earful about the best ways to domesticate a Papa Bear, while Rafe’s B.J., Johnny’s Crystal, Gabe’s Jenna, and Sam’s Abbie were huddled together around a table, sipping champagne and catching up.

  Joe and Steph stood aside from the crowd, wrapped up in their own little world. They were still falling, Wyatt realized. Still exploring this “crazy little thing called love.”

  Nate and Juliana caught his attention then, as they sort of swayed to the music but mostly just stood still, bodies close, eyes only for each other. The guys had all known that Nate and Juliana were crazy about each other. What they hadn’t known was that when their fearless leader finally took the plunge, he’d dive this deep.

  The song ended, and Sam politely delivered Sophie back to Wyatt’s side.

  “She’s too good for you, Bear,” the tall rancher said with a wink at Sophie.

  Wyatt wrapped an arm around her waist. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Okay.” Sam leaned in close. “We’re pregnant again.”

  Wyatt did a double-take. The look on Sam’s face said he was over the moon. “Congratulations, man. Wow. That was fast.”

  “Yeah, well, when you’re good at something …” Sam let the line trail off when surprised and happy squeals erupted from the table where the wives were gathered. “I’m guessing Abbie just shared the news.”

  “Lot of hugging going on,” Wyatt observed as the women rose to embrace a beaming Abbie.

  “Congratulations, Sam,” Sophie said. “I’ll just go extend my congratulations to Abbie.”

  “Tell me something,” Wyatt said, watching the four women envelop Sophie in the circle of their love, “how’d we get so damn lucky?”

  Sam grunted. “I stopped asking that question a long time ago. Now I just go with it and thank the powers that be that that woman is a part of my life.”

  Yeah, Wyatt thought as the spring sunshine warmed his shoulders and the love of his wife warmed his heart, it was time to just go with it.

  “You knew it was going to happen,” Rafe said a couple of hours later.

  “Yep. He’s been itching to roll up his sleeves and break out the poker chips,” Wyatt agreed as they stood side by side, watching Doc lure anyone within winking distance over to a picnic table where he was setting up shop.

  “Help me finance my trip,” Doc teased Jenna Jones. “You know you just love to lose to me, darlin’.”

  “That’s my wife you’re calling darlin’,” Gabe muttered as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

  “Jealous? Sorry, darlin’.” Doc winked at Gabe. “From now on, I’ll save the pet names just for you.”

  “Can anyone join this game?” Wyatt’s sister, Annie, made herself at home at the table.

  “You’re in trouble now, Colter,” Wyatt warned Doc. “Go get ’em, Spanky.”

  “Finance what trip?” Joe stood with his arm over Stephanie’s shoulders, watching the action.

  “Eat your hearts out, ladies and gents. I’m taking a long overdue vacation to Italy, where I plan to gorge myself on pasta and gelato and soak up the local culture.”

  The latter part of his statement was met by grunts of laughter.

  “Fine. Laugh, you Neanderthals,” Doc countered around the unlit cigar he’d tucked in the side of his mouth. “While you all wouldn’t recognize culture if it bit you on the ass—you ladies, of course, are excluded from that statement—I happen to appreciate the fine arts.”

  More chuckles.

  “And when I’m not taking in the local color,” Doc went on, refusing to fall to their insults, “I’ll be lying in the sun on the Amalfi Coast in the arms of some warm, willing woman. No guns. No bad guys. No stress.”

  “Speaking of stress.” Wyatt pulled Sophie away from what promised to be an all-nighter. “I don’t think anyone would miss us if we slipped away.”

  Secure in the knowledge that Hope was in Margaret Savage’s loving care, she took his hand and followed him.

  The little inn where Wyatt had reserved a room for the night was only fifteen miles from the Savage farm where the party was still running full tilt. Here, in this room, in this bed with Sophie, however, they were a world away. Their world away. Their lifetime. Finally.

  “Do you know that in the entire world,” he whispered, pressing his lips against the inside of her thigh just below the spot where she was warm and damp and needing him, “there is nothing as soft … nothing as silky … nothing,” he repeated gruffly when she sighed and shuddered and opened for him, “as amazing as this spot … right here? Right”—he bussed his nose against her heat, kissed her there—“here,” he murmured, and opened his mouth over her.

  Drinking her in.

  Coaxing her higher.

  Leading her toward a long, lush climax.

  “Wyatt.”

  His name escaped on a whisper of breath as she gripped the sheets at her hips and rose to meet his mouth, to urge him to take her wherever he wanted to go with her.

  He loved her this way. Desperate. Gasping. Her taut muscles quivering, her body arching and wet and giving.

  She was in a hurry. He had no intention of rushing this. He’d waited a lifetime for the privilege of loving this woman. So no, he wasn’t rushing a damn thing.

  He wanted her wild. He wanted her screaming and teetering on the brink of sanity. Wanted to take her places only he could take her. Steal her breath. Feed her fire. Discover secrets about her sensuality that she had never risked with anyone but him … then make her pleasure last forever.

  “Please,” she begged, then caught her breath on a moan when he slid one broad hand beneath her hips and angled her deeper against his mouth.

  “Please!” A ragged cry this time when he cupped her breast, then finessed the tight bud of her nipple between his finger and thumb to the rhythm of his tongue and sent her over the sharp, searing edge of sensation.

  She poured into his mouth like honey, her muscles clenching wire-tight, her body straining to capture and savor the electric ride before she dissolved in a boneless sigh.

  Love, rich and rare and beyond anything he had ever imagined, filled him as he slid up her body and filled her. Pressing deep. Moving slow.

  There was time now. Time to savor and sink into her heat, time to wait for her to recover, then respond, then rally to meet him stroke for stroke, heartbeat for heartbeat.

  “I never knew,” she whispered as he moved fluidly above her. “I never knew love could be this good.”

  She lifted a hand, stroked his hair, guided his face so she could see his eyes. So that he could see hers.

  And what he saw when he looked into the beautiful brown eyes staring back at him was much more than love. Much more, even, than life. He saw forever.