June giggled. “You’re awfully presumptious. What makes you think you can have me now?”
“The look in your eyes.”
She smiled knowingly. Hoping he took the silent answer. “I wouldn’t constrain myself in such impractical contraptions as that anyway. A simple dress will get me by just fine I should think. How would one ride on a horse with any sort of ease wearing such ludicrous clothing?”
“Side saddle I assume.”
“Bully that. I’d rather walk.”
William bent down and kissed her exclamation away. Bringing her mind once more to the moment and how he felt against her.
“I love you, June.”
“And I love you.”
With that, William reached up and undid her buttons, one at a time. Cold air replaced the warmth of her bodice as he opened it, followed shortly by the ribbon tying together her chemise.
His breath hitched as he stared down at her, causing her stomach to flip and heart to soar. He truly did love her. Revere her the way she’d always imagined a husband would.
The only thing she could do in return was love him the same. And she did. She knew that now.
With only slight difficulty, William stripped her dress and under garments from her body, leaving her blessedly naked before him. Bared for only his viewing.
Her chest rose and fell with the desperate breaths she took as she watched him stand and undress—an ache deep within her that only he could satiate.
His eyes fired with love and lust as he returned to her. His body heat melding with hers to warm the mountain air around them. He slid his palm down her side and hip. With his eyes, he followed the path his hand took.
“I don’t deserve you,” he rasped. “No man does.”
“But I am yours.” She bit her bottom lip, and then let it go. “Make me forget about everything but the way you feel against me.”
She reached up and tugged his head down to hers. He complied. Kissing her so hard she thought he would break. With a deep breath, he shifted over her, and gently urged her legs apart.
He slipped his hands over her bottom and down her leg as he positioned himself at the entrance to her womanhood. Slowly, he eased into her.
The sensation so blessedly sharp she tensed, but William eased her fear as he ran his hands deep in her hair, and tugged her head back.
“It’ll pass,” he whispered, and kissed her ear.
She nodded as the pain began to ebb, and William tested her with a single thrust. To reassure him, she kissed him back with a frenzy she’d retrained before.
He took her cue, and began a rhythmic motion that sent her to a world she’d never know existed. Ethereal. Real.
This was right. This was meant to be. She would live the rest of her life with this moment seared into her heart. Would spend the remainder of her days devoted the man who’d given her the world when he’d shown her love.
William moved, and she opened her mouth to argue, but he kissed the words away.
“Trust me.” On those words, he flipped them over until she straddled him. He moved her hips with his hands, showing her the rhythm. “Like this.”
June nodded, but her passion-filled mind refused to allow her to speak. She rode him, and each time she’d feel him deeper within her womb, her soul.
His lips parted and drew her attention, but he was so far away. She wanted to kiss him. To have his lips on hers while he made love to her. Be connected to him in every way, but she didn’t want to break the moment they had.
He took a deep breath as he stared up at her with eyes so filled with desire she had to kiss him. Show him she felt the same, so she bent down and did as her mind commanded.
Returned his desire with her own. Licked his bottom lip, and then kissed the moisture away as he wrapped his arms around her body to hug her close as he drove into her.
The edge was near. She could feel it, but didn’t know what it meant until the moment she broke. Like waves lapping against the bank of a river, she shattered around him.
William groaned in response, and his muscles tensed as he gave three final thrusts, deep inside her.
She slumped over him. Every ounce of energy she’d possessed gone with the river of whatever it was she’d experiences mere seconds ago.
After a few moments, William adjusted them so that she lay next to him. He cradled her head in the crook of his arm, and stroked her hair as she waited until she had enough strength to move once more.
“That was…surreal,” she said, peering up at his face.
He studied the evergreen canopy above. “I think the heavens have shattered.”
She followed his line of sight to see a shard of sunlight filtering through the trees. “It seems so.”
He caressed her shoulder in response. She let the silence stretch between them as she worked through the afternoon’s events. She’d gone to the auction expecting to win her futile fight against William.
Instead, she’d ended up realizing her true feelings, being well loved, and engaged to be married. How it happened was anyones guess, but she didn’t regret one-second of today.
The fates had intervened when she tried to push him away. They were destined to be one. Whether today or in the future. How could a man like him fall for the daughter of a backwoods salesman? “Do you honestly love me?”
“You doubt me after what we just experienced?”
“I’m not the prettiest woman in the valley, and I’m certainly not wealthy. I'll marry you, but what if you regret it? Especially since we might have to go against our families."
"When my heart beats for the last time, and I can’t give you the world anymore. I will still belong to you. Even in death I will love you. That much I know.”
Warmth spread through her body at his words, driving away the slight chill the mountain air had put on her naked skin since the passion had ebbed. William loved her as much as she now knew she did him.
Nothing could tear them apart. She would love him into eternity.
Chapter 7
“Absolutely not!” William’s uncle barked from his position just inside the trading post door frame. Around them people buzzed about. Some cleaning up after the festivities, and other still ensconced in happy conversation.
Off to his right, June spoke with her parents. Her father’s stance mimicking William’s uncle. Rigid. Defensive.
“Why not?”
“I’ll not let my sister’s kid be hitched to the poor daughter of a traveling merchant.”
“Really, uncle. In this country you can’t go around judging each other for the work we do. We’re all trying to survive.”
“He’s Irish for hell’s sake.”
William folded his arms, closing in the arguments spewing from his uncle’s mouth. “Is that the only reasons you have? That he’s Irish and works to make a living?”
“You’re supposed to be taking over the mill once its set up. How am I supposed to trust you to do the job with your head in the clouds, and a wife who’s kin to a liar and cheat?”
William dropped his arms and took a step forward. The back of his neck growing hot, and pulse speeding up. “Don’t you dare speak of June that way. If it comes to choosing her over you, I’ll choose her.”
“You’ll turn your back on the only family who would take you in after the scandal? After your own father betrayed everyone associated with him?”
A thumping on the side of William’s head grew so hard he became acutely aware of the rush of blood flowing through his veins at his uncle’s words. At his prejudice. His judgment.”
“June may be a pretty girl,” his uncle continued. “But she’s kin to a swindler. Someone who threatens our very existence here.”
“Does he?” William stepped into the doorway of the trading post, towering above his uncle as he continued. “June’s father travels and trades his goods from a handcart. He is no threat to the empire you’ve created here.”
“He’s a threat until he either gives up his drive to t
ry to force us out of business, leaves Hellgate, or dies.”
“Yer in luck,” the familiar drawl of June’s father sounded from behind William. “I’ll be settling down on the homestead come fall. Giving up selling the goods for raisin’ animals. Not that it’s any of yer business. And it ain’t because you want me to give up my cart.”
William’s uncle glared as June’s father stopped before them with June next to him.
Her eyes showing a mixture of happiness, anger, and fear. He moved to stand next to her. To show her his support against his uncle.
“You’re settlin’ down on a farm?” His uncle questioned. Skepticism etched in every word.
“Jest as soon as my cattle get here.”
His uncle raised his chin. “And you won’t be stealing customers or intercepting my shipments and thievin’ them away from the wagon masters?”
“Now, now. I’ve never stolen anything from you.” June’s father pulled a corn-cob pipe from his shirt pocket and pounded it against his open palm. “I may have bartered with your wagon masters for the shipments, and found a few customers on their way to the trading post, but I’ve never stolen anything.”
“But you aim to quit the business?”
“The way I see it,” June’s father continued, “you ain’t got no right to disagree with this marriage. My June is to good for anyone in your family, but she claims to love young William. I’m inclined to believe he feels the same. You ain’t got a right to keep them apart because you got a beef with me.”
William picked Junes hand up, and laced it through his arm. Truth be told, they needed their families to get along if they were to thrive out here in the middle of nowhere. Sure they could survive alone, but to truly live a happy life, they needed the support of their families.
While it was comforting to know that June’s father had overcome his biased for his daughter’s happiness, William wished his uncle would be so inclined.
“As long as you swear to drop your back-dealing business venture and go into farming like a respectable citizen, I’ll give consent. But William is to run the mill. No taking him from his duties here to work your farm.”
“Wouldn’t think of it,” June’s father answered.
His uncle turned to June. “Are you aware that William is marked with shame?”
“I’m sorry?” June’s brows furrowed as William’s heartbeat kicked up and instant rage shot to his core. Who was his uncle to bring up such pain? Such secrets. That was a story for William to tell. When he was ready.
“I love my nephew, but if you’re to be wed to him you should know his father deserted the confederates and ran away to fight with the yanks. Shortly after that his mother killed herself, and young William headed west. Ran away from the war instead of fighting.”
“You’re wrong, uncle.” His heartbeat rivaled that of a dozen spooked mustangs running down a mountainside. What right did he have? “Ma sent me away before the war. Wanted me to find a better life out west so she put me on a ship bringing supplies to Seattle. Told me to find you.” William turned to June. Wanted her to know he wasn’t the coward his uncle claimed. “I worked the shipyards for a few years until I could pay for the trip across the mountains, and secure a spot on a wagon headed to Walla Walla. I didn’t find out about my mother and father until I got to Hellgate.”
“Whatever your past, I don’t care. All I know is that you’re a good man, and I love you.” June shifted next to him, grabbing onto his arm and drawing closer. She smiled up at him with her blue eyes shining. Happiness spilling forth to mix with his own.
He’d have her either way. Even if neither of their parents agreed, he’d run away with her. Build a life elsewhere. But he’d rather do it here in Hellgate where he’d already secured a future for them both. Where June would have her mother and father to return to if anything were to happen to him.
June faced his uncle, her eyes now fired with spirit. “I don’t plan to marry your nephew for his money or his connections. As important as you are in this valley, what’s important to me is marrying for love. And I’ve come to realize that I love William. Whether you agree to our attachment or not is of no consequence to me. I will have William if he’ll have me. I know you’re his family so I will accept you as you are with any faults you have, and I can only hope you’ll do the same with me.”
His uncle studied June as she held his stare. Challenge etched in both of their eyes. Pride in William’s heart. Pride for the woman he was to call wife, and pride for the way she took on life with a gumption no woman he knew possessed. She wouldn’t just survive out here in the wilderness. She would thrive.
After what seemed an eternity of the two of them silently challenging the other, his uncle nodded. “A woman with spirit to match her beauty. I like that in a woman.” Williams uncle turned to him, and nodded. “You have my blessing. As long as you swear to take over at the mill once its set up, and not run to Mr. Havens farm to work the soil, and whatever else he plans to do on it.”
“I would have married June no matter what, but I’ll work the mill.”
“Good,” his uncle proclaimed, as his shoulders relaxed. “When the preacher returns you can attach yourself to this woman with my full blessing.”
“The preacher returns?” William asked, searching the immediate area for signs of the holy man. “We want to get married as soon as possible.”
“Aye,” June’s father said. “He left yesterday for Walla Walla. He’ll be back in a few months. You can wait that long to be hitched to my girl, can’t yah?”
“Is there no one else who could marry us?” William looped his arm behind June’s back, and tugged her closer. “We don’t want to wait.”
“You’re going to have to, boy,” his uncle said. “The preacher was the only one. As soon as he gets back, you can be married. In the meantime you can focus on the mill. It should be ready to start working within a few weeks.”
He turned to June, his hands growing numb as the thought of a lifetime worth of months loomed before him. Unable to live with his love, unable to touch her. To cradle her in his arms each night. “I’ll ride out and fetch him. Or we can ride to Walla Walla and get married there.”
With those words, she grabbed his hand in both of hers. “We can wait. It’ll only be a month or two before he returns, and a trip like that wouldn’t be prudent. Have patience, my love. What’s a few months compared to a lifetime? It’ll be difficult, but we will get through it. Together.”
The warmth from her palms, and calm words helped to ease the urgency taking root in his heart. She was right.
The dangers of the trek over the rocky mountains would be too much for June. The last thing he wanted to do was put her in harms way. He lived to protect her. To love her.
He gave a single nod. “I’d wait through eternity for you if I had to.”
“And I you,” June said.
Without a care to who saw, William leaned down and kissed June. The price of love for him was well worth the wait. Even if he did indeed have to wait through eternity for June. He would.
About the Author
A country girl born and bred, Dawn Luedecke has spent most of her life surrounded by horses, country folk, and the wild terrain of Nevada, Idaho and Montana. After high school she joined the Coast Guard where she met and married her very own alpha male and drill instructor. She enjoys writing historical and contemporary romance and spends as much time as she can working on her current manuscript. For more information visit: www.dawnluedeckebooks.com.
Dawn Luedecke’s VIP Readers
Want to join in on the fun, get ARC copies of Dawn’s books, and get access to special contests? Join Dawn Luedecke’s VIP Reader Group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dawnluedeckevip
Join My Newsletter
Want to be the first to know when Dawn has a new release? How about giveaways, events, and other fun stuff? Visit www.dawnluedeckebooks.com to sign up or click the image below to sign up for Dawn’s newsletter.
Also by Dawn Luedecke
Full Length Contemporary
The Hard Corps Romance Series
Hard To Love: A Sweet Military Romance
Hard To Forget: A Sweet Military Romance (Book 2)
Hard To Resist: A Sweet Military Romance (Book 3)
Short Story Contemporary
Last Chance For Love: A Montana Ranch Book
Christmas Lily
Historical Romance
The Montana Girl Series
To Tame a Montana Heart (Book 1)
Big Sky Brazen (Book 2)
The Montana Mountain Series
White Water Passion (Book 1)
Wild Passion (Book 2)
Fiery Passion (Book 3)
Historical Short Stories
The Life Saving Series
Beacon Of The Night
I Heard The Bells
Ghost Ship’s Cry
Burning Light Within
Thank you for reading The Lighthouse Romance Anthology
The Lighthouse Romance Anthology (The Life Saving Series) Page 15