Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] (30 page)

“I’ll be a help to yore ma. I promised her I would.”

“Ma likes you.”

“I like her, too.”

“Let’s go to the wagon.”

“We’d better not. Yore ma trusts me, ’n I ain’t wantin’ to let her down. It’s gettin’ harder ’n harder to hold out against ya. We ain’t got much longer to wait now. After we get married we’ll be together ever’ night.”

“I was looking at you while you were drying dishes, Mary Ben. You’re just so pretty and you’re
my
girl. I wanted to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.”

“If’n I am, I don’t want to wake up.”

“Let’s sit down here on the end of the porch. You can sit on my lap and I’ll keep you warm.”

“I was surprised at ya speakin’ up like ya did in front of ever’body,” she said after he had sat down and pulled her onto his lap. The old yellow dog came out from under the porch and lay down beside them.

“Why? You knew we’d get married sometime. I just didn’t like hearing about Van and Kain when we wanted to get married, too.” He leaned back against the wall and covered them with her coat. “I like holding you like this. You’re . . . just a little girl, and sweet.” His hands roamed over her small body, and his lips nuzzled her ear. “Do you think we’ll know what to do when it comes time?”

“We’ll know
what,
but maybe not
how,
at first,” she whispered and slipped her hand inside his collar at the back of his neck. She moved her face so their lips could meet. He kissed her gently, as always. “We’ll learn how. Most folks have younguns ’n they have to do it to get ’em.”

“Kain said it’d hurt you at first. I don’t want to hurt you.” He hugged her fiercely. “I don’t think I could stand to hurt you, my sweet girl. Kain said I’d have to be careful, and I will. Sometimes I get so big and so hard, and I think I can’t put this in Mary Ben, she’s too little.”

“Yes, ya can, silly. Babies come outta there, so it stretches. You ain’t to worry about it, Henry. Ya ain’t to worry a’tall, hear?”

“Kain said men want to do it more than women. He said men could do it every day and not get tired of it. He said if you didn’t want to I wasn’t ever to force you, and I won’t, I promise I won’t. He said when we both wanted to do it it would really feel good.”

“Kain must a told ya a lot of thin’s.”

“He did. He said if I wanted to know something to ask him and he’d tell me the best he knew how. He knows about women and a lot of other things. He said if I touch myself when I’m big and hard it’d not make me go crazy. I always thought it did.”

“What else did he say?”

“I told him I got like that when I was with you, and that I wanted to kiss you awful bad. He said it was all right for a man to get that way when he was with a pretty girl he liked. I guess he does when he’s with Van. You know what, Mary Ben? I’ve got you now, and I won’t have to be asking Kain.”

“Do you want us to have a baby, Henry?”

“Won’t we get one if we do it?”

“Some people don’t have but one youngun, some none. My ma jist had me. That mean old bastard that took us to Oklahoma put it to her lots of times, but she never had no more. He’d make her bend over, throw up her skirt ’n poke it in her. He tried to do it to me when I was just a little girl, and Ma cold-cocked him with a spoke from a wheel.”

“Did she kill him?”

“No. I did. Later I shot him dead. He was nothin’ but a mean dirty old skunk. He was hurtin’ Ma. I told him to stop ’n he wouldn’t.” She shuddered and cuddled closer in his arms. “I didn’t even stop ’n think ’bout it, I jist shot. I’d shoot somebody hurtin’ you, Henry.”

“You would? Ah . . . honey girl,” he whispered between kisses. “I’m suppose to take care of you.”

“We’ll take care of each other . . . ’n yore ma, too. I jist love ya so much, Henry.” She felt his breath heat and quicken as his kiss deepened. He pressed her against the elongated hardness that sprang up between them and moved his hips in jerky little motions. She pulled away and framed his face with her hands. “We’d better stop, sweet man, afore you get to hurtin’ bad,” she cautioned. “Soon I’ll not have to tell ya to stop. I’ll be with ya all night long ’n we’ll do all the lovin’ ya want.”

“Ah . . . Mary Ben, I just hurt to have you.”

“I know ya do,” she crooned, and stroked his cheek with a feather touch. “Jist be still. It’ll go away, like it done afore.”

“Thank you, God,” Ellie prayed, “for bringing Mary Ben into our lives. She’s a sweet, dear girl, and I promise to love her as if she were my own, for this great joy she has brought to my son.”

Ellie sat in the kitchen sewing on the pink and white striped dress she had made for Vanessa several years before. It was hard for her to believe she was remaking it for her son’s future wife. She had been proud of Henry earlier that night. He had spoken up like a man. A few weeks before he would have pulled her away from the others and whispered in her ear if he had wanted to tell her something. He was going to be married.
Her Henry was taking a wife.
One day there could be children, her grandchildren. One of her greatest sorrows had been her belief that her son would never know the fulfillment of loving, as she had loved his father. That was over now. Mary Ben was mature beyond her years and seemed to understand Henry far better than she and Vanessa. There was no doubt in Ellie’s mind that the girl loved him. He was such a handsome man, the image of his father. If only Henry could have lived to see their son on his wedding day.

The country had changed Henry, changed all of them. Here she sat in the kitchen thinking it was perfectly respectable for Vanessa to be in Kain’s bedroom with the door closed, and Henry and Mary Ben alone in the dark outside. My, my, she thought. What a difference a few weeks could make in a person’s life.

She had completely given up the idea of trying to locate Adam Hill. She realized now he was indifferent about the relationship. Otherwise, he would have answered her letters. Should their paths cross, so be it. If not, she and Henry wouldn’t miss having a relative they’d never had. Of more importance was Kain. He was an extraordinary man. He had brought them through that rough country to this place. She had the feeling he would have done it even if he hadn’t fallen in love with Vanessa. She prayed to God he was mistaken about his illness. But he seemed so sure.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the happy laughter coming from Kain’s room.

*  *  *

“I need to have my bandages changed.” Kain stretched out on the bed and grinned up at Vanessa.

“No you don’t. I changed them this morning.”

“They itch.”

“You’re lucky. That means they’re healing.”

“I hurt . . . something terrible—”

“Big baby! You’re after sympathy. Eeow!” she screeched, falling heavily beside him when he jerked on her hand. “You idiot! I could have fallen on you and hurt you.”

“I made sure you didn’t. I want nothing to interfere with my wedding night.” He laughed, dragged her close, turned her over on her back and, leaning over her, kissed her hungrily. “I can’t keep my hands off you. I want to touch you, look at you, kiss you . . . here and here.” His lips moved from her mouth to her eyes, her nose, and down her cheek to her chin.

“Hmmm.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means don’t stop what you’re doing.”

His fingers scarcely touched her skin as they played along the line of her chin and then began to caress her throat. He smiled down at her, and it warmed her like sunshine. She arched up in mute appeal for his hand to cup the aching fullness of her breast. She watched his eyes move down as his hand slid from her throat and his fingers slowly stroked back and forth across her aroused nipple, visible through the cloth of her dress.

“Ah, sweet woman,” he whispered. “I’m desperate to make love to you. I want to see you, touch you, feel you. I want to come into you and worship you with my body, give you my soul.”

She reached for his hand and brought it to her lips. She turned it over and kissed his palm with a tender, lingering caress while still looking into his eyes. His eyes were deep and warm and golden. An instant hotness like a flash of heat skittered along her nerves and a burning ache stabbed her lower body with awful, stunning suddenness.

“Then why don’t you, my darling?” She wasn’t sure she had even said the words. Her fingers guided his to the buttons on her dress. In utter silence they continued to stare at each other with openhearted longing. She moved her hands up over his shoulders to the back of his neck, giving him unrestricted access. His trembling fingers worked at the buttons, but not until he released the last one did he fold back the top of her dress and pull on the ribbon that held her chemise.

She felt the throbbing beat of her pulses high in her throat, and the pounding of his heart when first his eyes and then his fingertips touched her breasts. The gentle, seeking touch of his hands sent delicious quivers through her as he held her warm and naked breast in his palm.

He made a low groaning sound. “My love, my love.”

Unable for a moment to do anything but look at her, his warm, loving gaze caressed the coral tips of her breasts, the smooth white skin of her ribs and upper belly.

She watched his eyes follow his fingers as they stroked from one side of her firm globes to the other, across taut and aching nipples. Her breath came in long, deep waves, enjoying the moment, waiting heedlessly for the next. He bent his head and his mouth traced a path from her collarbone to the tip of her breast. He kissed it reverently and took it into his mouth. She felt the roughness of his tongue and her breathing came deeper and faster.

“Kain . . .” She palmed his face with her hands and brought his mouth to hers. Their lips met and parted, then met once again in a deep, clinging kiss, his tongue gently circling the soft, pink flesh of her inner lips.

“I’ve never known such pleasure or seen such beauty,” he whispered, and pressed his mouth to her moist parted lips again. “This means I love you.” His mouth trailed to her eyes and his kiss closed them. “This means I love you. And this,” his voice faded to no more than a breath of a sound as he pressed his face into the valley between her breasts, “means I love you.”

“My sweet and gentle man,” she crooned, and caressed his head with her two hands. “I’m yours, now and for always. Show me what to do. I want to give you all of me, and I want all of you.”

He raised his eyes to hers, not daring to believe she could want him as much as he wanted her.

“I can wait—”

“I don’t want to wait, Kain darling. I don’t want to waste a minute of my time with you.”

With great suddenness he was holding her fiercely. She heard his gasping, almost sobbing breath; felt his quivering, eager mouth against hers. His tenderness thrilled her to the marrow. The rough drag of his cheeks against hers, his masculine odor, the sweet, tender way his fingers held the back of her head as his lips played with hers all sent delicious quivers throughout her melting flesh.

“Do you want me to blow out the lamp?” His voice in her ear seemed only a breath.

“No.”

“Thank God!” he said fervently. “Oh, thank God you are what you are, my love.”

He slipped off the bed and knelt down. He untied her shoes and slipped them off her feet. Slowly he pulled off her black stockings, his hands caressing her knees and calves. He lifted a bare foot and tenderly kissed the red mark on her instep made by the tight shoelaces.

He said her name and reached for her hand. She stood before him and he untied the sash of her dress, smoothing it from her shoulders until it fell around her feet. She stood proudly, her eyes on his face, the chemise that hugged her narrow waist and slim hips her only covering. His fingers were so shaky that he fumbled with the pins in her hair, but as each one slid away he placed it carefully on the table. He could only stare at her when her fiery hair fell in curling wisps over her gleaming white shoulders and pink-tipped breasts.

As his eyes roved over her, Vanessa’s body burned with a joyful and alien longing, new and unknown sensations that had lapped at her senses since she had met him. He pulled her into his arms, buried his face in her drifting hair, and stood quietly holding her as if he were holding something far more precious than life. After what seemed like an enchanted eternity, he released her and stepped away.

His whole body flamed and hardened, his arms and legs began to quake. He quickly pulled his shirt off over his head. Watching her, he worked at the buckle of his belt, unfastened it but then waited, willing himself to contain his almost insupportable eagerness before he released the throbbing, elongated hardness to her innocent gaze. He had to go slow, he cautioned himself. He reached for her again and she came willingly. Her soft breasts against his flesh set him to trembling and constricted his chest until he thought he would suffocate.

“Tell me what you want. I don’t want to frighten you,” he muttered thickly.

She gazed up at him, seeing through her desire-misted vision the anxious, tender concern in his eyes. “Nothing about you could ever frighten me.”

“I could blow out the light.”

“No. I want to look at you.”

He released her and stepped back. His heart was drumming so hard he could barely breathe. He was too stunned with his happiness and joy of her to utter a word. He shrugged out of his tight buckskin britches and stood before her. His body was dark against the white bandage on his shoulder and side. His wide shoulders narrowed to a sinewy waist without an ounce of superfluous flesh. He stood on muscular legs, and where they joined she saw the thatch of dark brown curls that enclosed the root of his maleness. The mystery she had expected to fear and shrink from was beautiful. It stood firm and hard against his belly, a monument of his love.

She stared at him with the dull, fixed expression of the hypnotized before her lips parted and the air from her lungs escaped with a pleasurable sound. “Ahh . . .”

With a freedom that surprised even her, she slid the chemise over her hips, and when it fell to the floor she stepped out of it. She stood still, only her glorious hair covering her while his eyes roamed from the top of her head, down over rose-tipped breasts to her flat belly, on to the soft, red-gold hair that nestled between her thighs, and down long slender legs to the tips of her toes.