Shattered Valor (33 page)

“Eden. Marry me.”

“Ty—”

“I love you.”

Eden felt such a flood of emotion, she couldn’t immediately answer him. “It’s been a horrible night. You’re just needing contact with someone. Anyone. It isn’t love.”

“I love you, Eden.” He took her hand and pressed it to his chest. “Feel my heart. It doesn’t lie.”

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. “I don’t know how to love, Ty.”

“Yes, you do. You know all kinds of love. You love Tank. You love your friends, Sherri and Trudy. You love me, too.”

“I do, but it terrifies me.”

“Why?”

“My parents thought they loved each of their spouses, and every one of their marriages has failed or is failing. I don’t want that.”

“Nor do I. I want you forever.”

“What if we change?”

He smiled. “We will change. Together. In step with one another. Always.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Eden, love isn’t a mood that comes and goes. It’s a truth. It’s something that exists or it doesn’t. I recognized that truth when I met you at Winchester’s.”

“We can’t rush into things.”

“Yes, we can.” He kissed her throat.

“You’ll need a pre-nup.”

“No pre-nup.”

“Ty, you have a sizeable estate to protect.”

“What’s mine is yours, Eden. If I’m a rotten husband and you choose to leave me, then you should take what you want. I wouldn’t wish this house on anyone, but if you want it, it’s yours.”

“And if I’m a rotten wife? I can be very annoying.”

“You are a loyal, fierce, protective, and tell-it-like-it-is woman. Those are traits I admire. I need you in my life just as you are. And for the record, I don’t appreciate your denigrating someone I love.”

“What about children?”

He didn’t answer right away. “The thought of being responsible for someone else’s life, besides yours, terrifies me. I don’t know how to be a father. I haven’t had much of a model for that. But if you want them, I want them. I can take classes and read up on being a parent. I can learn.”

“Or, you could just follow your heart.”

He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “Were your parents good parents?”

Eden made a face as her gaze grew distant. “No. I don’t think they meant to be bad. They were just selfish. They never put their children or step-children’s needs—or even those of their spouses—ahead of their own.”

“How did you learn to be so caring?”

She shrugged. “I wanted something very different from their experiences. I guess I was selfish, too, because I wanted the world.”

“I’ll give you my world.”

She took hold of his face. “I just want you, Ty. I just want you.”

He took her hand and kissed her palm. “I think children can wait. We don’t need to jump into that. How would we deal with them in the middle of all of this chaos?”

“Rocco and Mandy have Zavi. They’re making it work. Doesn’t Kit have a daughter?”

He grew still as he studied her. “Are you saying you want a child?”

She smiled. “When the time’s right, when we’re both ready, yes. This conflict could run for years. I don’t want to wait until it is over to begin planning for a family.” Fear washed through her again. She sighed and stroked her fingers over his temple. “What if you get tired of me? My parents did. My previous boyfriends did. Everyone but Tank has.”

He pressed his thumbs beneath her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Let’s say that differently. What if I get tired of air? What if I stop loving clear, blue skies? What if I can’t take any more, Eden?” He shook his head. “Will never happen.”

“Then, yes. I’ll marry you. I love you, Ty.”

He kissed her, gently and leisurely. He felt her arms wrap around his neck. He touched the incredible softness of her face again, feeling the fine bones of her cheek and jaw beneath the tips of his fingers. He lifted his fingers to start over at her forehead and drew his hand down the side of her face, learning her like a blind man would.

He slipped his hand behind her head, holding her still while he deepened their kiss. She let him take her mouth, stroking his tongue with hers.

“Eden,” he pulled back only enough to form the words, “I want to make love to you.”

She smiled. “I thought that’s what you were doing.”

He moved his hips, positioning himself at her entrance. She was tight and slick as he pushed inside. Like liquid silk. “Jesus, you feel good.”

He rocked against her body, slowly, all the way in, all the way out. He watched her face as he moved over her, warmed by the heat in her soft gaze. He kissed her forehead, the soft skin of her temple. He rubbed his cheek against hers and felt the velvety smoothness of her skin through his rough beard. He moved to her mouth, consumed by the feeling of his cock inside her tight channel, his tongue inside her mouth. They were connected in every way it was possible for a man and woman to be joined.

“Eden, wrap your arms around my shoulders. I’m going to lift you up.” He held her hips as he lifted himself to his knees, keeping her astride his hips. He lay back so that she was fully atop him. The change in position, in pressure, the exquisite feel of her was nearly his undoing. She rocked forward, bracing her hands on his pecs as she ground her hips against him. He slipped his hand between their bodies, reaching her for the nub of flesh that ached for attention.

“Oh, Ty. Ty—” Her body tensed, her hands dug into the skin of his chest, and then she was convulsing against his cock. He worked her clit until the spasms began to subside. He pumped inside her as he waited for reality to settle over her. When it did, it was a thing to behold. She was panting as she looked down at him.

“Again.” She gritted her teeth. “I want more. Do it again.”

He grinned. “Who said I was done?” He straightened his legs behind her, then sat up, pushing her back between his legs. He leaned over her, letting his cock move in her as he nuzzled her breasts. Taking one in each hand, he took turns sucking on her erect nipples. He could feel her body tightening around him again. He thumbed her clit as his tongue flicked her nipple.

When the next round of spasms took her, they took him, too. He pinned her hips to his as he slammed into her body. Heat shot from his balls, though the whole length of his erection, into her. Wave after wave jacked from his body. He groaned and arched his body into hers. After the heat passed, he lifted her, then rolled them to their sides as he pulled her into his arms.

Eden cupped the side of his cheek and drew his face to hers. “Promise me you will always love me,” she demanded, her mouth moving against his lips.

He smiled. “Always. Through the rest of this life and into whatever follows, my soul will adore yours.”

A salty warmth slipped into the seal of their mouths. Eden blinked. “I’m so afraid I will lose you.”

“Never. Never, Eden.”

“I love you, Ty.”

He wiped the tears from her cheek and kissed her forehead. After a minute, he pulled the covers over them, luxuriating in the feel of their naked bodies against each other. “Sleep, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The next evening, Ivy Banks walked into the hall of the local grade school where an emergency town meeting was being. She passed several clusters of people who were actively engaged in animated discussions. She didn’t know what this impromptu meeting was about, but one of her customers told her she shouldn’t miss it.

Politics in a small town like Wolf Creek Bend was everything to some of the power-hungry civic leaders. She passed a small group of men and women. One of them noticed her and elbowed the woman speaking. All conversation stopped as she walked by.

She’d left her daughter home alone while she popped in to this meeting. She hoped whatever it was that had the natives riled up could be dealt with in short order. Just in case it ran long, she took a seat in the back of the room, close to the exits should she need to cut out early.

Two folding tables were set up on the stage. The town council members, the mayor, and Sheriff Tate began to take their seats. The auditorium started to fill up. The last to come in were the people who’d been congregating in the hall. Some of them started toward her section of seats, then realized who was sitting there and chose instead to take other open seats.

Ivy had a weird feeling about the gathering. She hadn’t been back in town very long. Not much more than a year. Even though she spent several years here as a child, her parents and their parents weren’t from this area. She wasn’t yet considered one of the townspeople.

Had someone gotten sick from eating at her restaurant and complained to the town council? Perhaps they’d felt like they couldn’t come to her directly? Maybe people were just avoiding her because she smelled from her day at the diner. She surreptitiously lifted her shirt and sniffed. She’d been around the kitchens all day. Whether or not she stunk, she couldn’t smell it on herself.

Maybe she was just being paranoid. This meeting most likely had nothing to do with her. The mayor banged his gavel, then called the meeting to order. He sent a searching look over the crowd. Ivy couldn’t tell who or what he was looking for, nor whether he found it.

“Thank you for coming tonight. I know all of you are busy. I appreciate you making time for this important discussion.” The mayor drew a breath. “My office has received dozens of phone calls from concerned residents who are worried about the events that have taken place over the last couple of weeks, starting with the explosion at Mandy Fielding’s place and ending with the gunfight on Main Street last night.”

That’s what this was about? Ivy hadn’t heard the gunshots, but Casey had. She’d come into Ivy’s room and woken her up, but by that time whatever disturbance had happened had been taken under control. She hadn’t given it another thought until her customers started discussing it at the diner.

“The explosion at Mandy’s was due to a puncture in the gas line, Mayor,” the sheriff said. “I explained that.”

“Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe you could explain for those of us gathered here why a group of special consultants to the US Department of Homeland Security have taken up temporary residence in our town?”

That set off a round of hushed conversations in the audience.

“Your honor,” the town council chairman said as he stood up, “I’ve spent the day playing phone tag with various people in Washington. Every call leads to more calls, but I have yet to get a straight answer from anyone I’ve spoken to about our situation.”

“Now hold on,” Sheriff Tate again interrupted. “Why are you making a fuss with the Washington when we can deal with this ourselves?”

“Can you deal with the situation, sheriff?” the mayor asked. “Sure didn’t look like it last night. I saw the arms that team of special consultants was carrying.” He nodded at one of the council members who projected a picture on the huge screen behind the stage of all kinds of weapons set across the hood of an SUV. The weapons were black and the SUV was black, and the picture looked to be one taken from quite a distance. It was difficult to clearly see all the arms that were laid out. “That’s not the best photo, but you still see the firepower they were carrying around. There’s no need for anything like that in our town.”

“It’s all because those that hellion is back in town,” a woman from the audience stood up. “This was a peaceful, God-fearing town before Kit Bolanger came back. Him with his gangster friends.” Ivy tried to remember who the woman was. She’d met Kit in high school. He’d been her first flame. He still owned the part of her heart not claimed by her daughter. Whatever he’d been, it wasn’t a gangster. Not then or now.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

“Who was involved in that gunfight, sheriff? Was anyone hurt?” one of the residents asked.

The sheriff made a face. “Two men from a motorcycle gang based in the east coast were killed. Mandy Fielding was slightly injured when her driver’s-side window was broken. I have no other information than to tell you other than that the FBI accepted the bodies and the SUV the men were driving into their custody immediately following the incident.”

“The FBI!” another resident exclaimed. “What are these men doing here? This a quiet ranching community.”

“Again, that information hasn’t been shared with us,” the mayor told the man.

“I think what we need is for Kit Bolanger and his crew to take their business elsewhere,” one of the councilwomen announced.

“And how do you propose to make that happen?” asked the mayor.

“This started because Mandy Fielding needed help with her equestrian center. Well, now that it was lost in the explosion, she’ll have to start over. We can rescind her building permit and refuse to issue another on the grounds that it’s a hazard to the community.”

Ivy got up and silently made her way to the exit. The hall outside the auditorium was empty, so she was spared further censure from the town’s witch-hunting residents. If the FBI was involved, what Kit and his team were doing couldn’t be illegal, could it? She had to warn him and Mandy about the sentiment in town.

The long June sunset colored her drive out of town and up to the ridge where Mandy lived. She almost turned into her friend’s driveway before remembering that Jerry had told her Mandy and everyone had moved into Ty’s house. She passed Mandy’s drive and turned onto Ty’s a few minutes later. She parked by the front steps, then hurried up to ring the doorbell.