The Outsider (31 page)
“He said he’d get Christien back for me. He was so—nice. So sympathetic. I trusted him. I told him about Stephen’s delusions, about how he kept accusing me of being with other men. It wasn’t true, any of it. He said he believed me.”
And she’d believed him enough to let him go to Sally Fortun on her behalf. A meeting from which he’d returned with two startling options for her to choose from: they could marry and she’d share the Fortun wealth with him, or he would tell the courts that he’d been one of her many lovers and how she’d tried to talk him into killing her husband so she could have his money.
Dodge breathed a soft oath. “But it would just be his word against yours.”
“As if that weren’t enough, the word of an outsider against two of the biggest families in New Orleans, he had other … proof.”
“What proof?” he asked, knowing he wasn’t going to like it.
“He arranged for several uninvolved and reputable parties to find us together—in a compromising position, in my hotel room. We—we were in my bed, and I was unclothed.”
When she paused to gather the strength to go on, Dodge added softly, “And unwilling.”
She glanced up at him, grateful for his faith. She looked so damned grateful, he wanted to kill the son of a bitch.
“But that’s not what they saw and not what they’d testify to. Tony, if I don’t sign over custody of Christien to Stephen’s mother, they’re going to take me to court for murdering my husband. And even if they don’t prove a thing, it won’t matter. I won’t have Christien. And if you’ll still have me, the scandal will ruin your career.”
He was silent for a moment. “And that was why you were leaving.”
“He brought papers for me to sign. He’s waiting over in the hotel. I was going to take Christien far away and start over.”
“Without me.” When she didn’t answer, he looked away, his jaw working fiercely. “God, you must think I’m an awful coward or a bigger fool.”
She stared at him, not understanding. She jumped slightly when he turned back toward her, for his dark eyes were filled with an explosive intensity.
“That bastard’s not taking your son away from you. And by God, nobody’s taking you away from me. We’re paying him a visit, the two of us and our lawyer, the Harvard-educated Mr. Banning. He has no idea what he’s gotten himself into, now that he’s got me riled. He’s going to have one helluva fight on his hands—”
“But—”
Dodge broke off his impassioned speech with an impatient “What?” Then his eyes blinked shut
while she kissed him long and hard until he was breathless and docile once more.
“I don’t deserve you, Hamilton Dodge.”
“Well, you’ve got me and there’s not much you can do about getting rid of me.”
When she leaned away, it was only a scant inch, so that their hurried breaths mingled.
“Make love to me, Tony. I want us to have a marriage, not an arrangement … if that’s what you want, too.”
She stood, tugging on his hands to bring him up beside her. He crushed her to him, pressing his face into her tumbled hair. “You have no idea how much.” Need vibrated through his words.
She melted against him, opening for his plunging kiss, sighing as it gentled into an urgent search for her response. She denied him nothing, answering with equal abandon, only vaguely aware of him opening the back of her gown, of it slipping to the floor, followed quickly by her hoops, corset cover, and the boned undergarment itself, until she wore only her combinations and stockings. Then he kissed the soft skin bared as he peeled back those dainty straps and adored the firm fullness of each white breast. As her fingers clenched in his hair, he lowered that kiss to the black triangle of curls, delving his tongue to explore her with a shocking intimacy. Her legs went weak and watery. Her breath came in short bursts that crested with a sudden explosive jolt of pleasure.
She had no memory of how they got to the bedroom.
With the mattress soft and yielding beneath her
and Dodge all hard masculine angles above, Starla surrendered to the compelling contrast of sensations. She lost herself to her husband’s hungry kisses, learning the rock-hewn contours of his arms, back, and shoulders with the eager circling of her palms. No objection arose in either body or mind at the first invasive thrust of his fingers, nor at the deep claiming fullness that followed.
The way Dodge said her name as he buried himself inside her, all low and husky with reverence and awe, fed the emptiness of her soul like nothing before. What followed was all sensual poetry, a sense of completeness and giving of one to the other that brought tears to her eyes and wrung a glorious cry from his lips … and afterward, a wonderful contentment found only in entwined arms and legs, and entangled hearts, and peaceful sleep on a bed shared by man and wife.
It was during the cusp between midnight and the new day that Dodge was awakened by the soft snuffling sound. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the blackness so he could see his wife huddled on the edge of the bed, shaking with sobs.
What had he done? Had he somehow hurt her, made her feel afraid? The possibility tore his heart asunder. Cautiously he placed his hand upon one quaking shoulder and said her name. She went instantly still.
“Star, what is it? If I’ve done something—”
She rolled into his arms, burrowing against his chest like a wounded animal, to wail as if it was
the most awful thing in the world, “I love you, Tony.”
For Dodge the world stood still in a moment of private thanksgiving. Then he went on to address Starla’s tears.
“I love you, too. Is that something terrible, sweetheart? It shouldn’t be a reason to cry.” He began stroking the sleek line of her back and soothing repetitions.
“I’ve done such shameful things! I’m so afraid you’ll come to hate me.”
“There’s nothing you could ever do that would make me love you any less.”
Her head shook violently. “You don’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter, not to me.”
“But it will. You don’t understand … I let it happen. It’s my fault. My fault for being weak and foolish.”
“Shh. Star, you don’t have to tell me any more.”
But she continued in a frantic whisper, as if digging in tainted soil to uncover a secret better left buried. Each moment brought that evil closer to the light.
“I was very lonely and I wanted to be loved. That’s what I thought it was, the holding and the kisses. I thought it was love.”
The bastard!
Dodge fought to keep his fury contained. He continued the gentling caresses while in the darkness of his mind he was planning a retribution that would go beyond pain, beyond ruin, to the total destruction of the son of a bitch who’d so abused this woman’s fragile trust.
Her voice gave a painful hitch. “He hurt me and he called me a whore and said I’d led him on. And then there was the baby and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell him; I couldn’t tell anyone. And I must be an awful person, because I prayed so hard that the baby would die, that I would die. How could you love me, Tony? How could you?”
He gave a low, passionate curse, then took her damp face between his palms, lifting her head, holding her so she couldn’t evade the sincerity in his stare.
“I love you because you’re smart and brave and caring and beautiful, and you have nothing,
nothing
, to apologize for or be ashamed of.”
Her tears scalded the backs of his hands as she held his gaze, daring to believe what she was hearing.
“I love you, Starla. I will never, ever stop loving you.”
He spent the rest of the night convincing her of it, giving her all he could because she’d already had so much taken from her unfairly. And much later, just as dawn was creeping up on the darkness, she slept in his arms while he rested easy, forgiving her for her imagined sins without another thought, believing that her confessions centered on a selfish son of a bitch in New Orleans who’d used her for his own gain.
But not knowing the confessions weren’t about her relationship with a spoiled Southern lawyer.
They were about her relationship with her father.
Since Starla had anticipated the embarrassment of having to retell her story to Noble Banning, somehow it didn’t seem quite so awful in their well-lighted parlor with her husband, solid and supportive, at her side.
Noble was a stoic witness, asking brief questions and making quick notes. When she was finished, she felt drained, not only of energy, but of some of the guilt as well. Especially when Dodge’s arm stole about her shoulders for a bracing hug.
“So, what do we do?”
Nothing sounded better to Starla than that all-inclusive “we.”
“First, I’ll go over to the hotel and introduce myself to that lowlife as your new counsel. Then, with luck, I can reduce him to the cowardly pile of boot scrapings he is with my plan to travel to New Orleans to do extensive interviewing in regard to his character and that of your first husband. Then I plan to gather sworn affadavits in Starla’s favor from her banker husband, from her influential distillery owner brother, and from Kentucky’s most
powerful horse breeder, and I’ll even see if I can twist a few good words out of Deacon Sinclair.”
Starla clutched at Dodge’s hand, her expression filled with disbelief. “And they’d do that for me?”
Noble dazzled her with his smile. “Darlin’, we’ve all known you since you were a baby. How could you think any of us would have a bad word to say? You’ve got yourself a decent, hard working husband, you’re a solid member of a growing community, and you’ve got ties to some mighty powerful political forces, and I don’t think you’ve got a thing to worry about.”
She sagged into the circle of Dodge’s arm, sighing as his kiss brushed her brow.
“Just one more thing,” Noble added. “Starla, is there anything else you can add that might weaken their claim on the boy?”
For a long moment, she kept her face buried in the clean starchy scent of her husband’s shirt. Then slowly, very slowly, she faced Noble and told him, “Nothing I can think of, no.”
A lie. A lie because the truth, though it would win her back her son, would also cost her her husband.
Dodge rose up awkwardly along with Noble and extended his hand. “I appreciate all you’re doing. I know you had other plans.”
“Plans I can postpone for a little while. Starla’s always been special to me and she deserves a chance to be happy, especially after the good advice she gave me the other night.” He smiled down at her and she managed to return it.
Dodge saw him to the door, and both of them
stepped outside to meet Tyler, who was just coming up the front steps.
“I heard you was back,” was all Tyler had time to get out before Noble lifted him up into a rib-crunching hug that lasted until Tyler was wheezing. Back on his feet, his breath restored, Tyler was all grins. “Didn’t think no Yank prison could take the starch outta you, Noble. How the hell are you? Plannin’ to stay? Starla get a look at you yet?”
“Fine, for a while, and yes. I’ve got some things I’ve got to do. They’ll take me about a week. Then I’ll be back for some of your daddy’s finest.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Noble nodded to Dodge and went down to collect his horse. Tyler looked after him with a bittersweet smile.
“He used to be a damn good friend.”
“He still is.” Dodge made no attempt to explain himself.
“Always thought him and Star….” Tyler shrugged. He gave Dodge a long, gauging study. “I want what’s best for my sister. That appears to be you, whether it’s what
I’d
want for her or not. You make her happy, and for that I’m in your debt.”
“You don’t owe me for that.”
“Maybe not.”
“Starla’s inside, if you want to see her.”
“Not just now. Actually, I came to see you.”
He walked to the steps and paused, looking off toward town. Without turning, he mentioned casually, “Yank, were I you, I’d take out fire insurance on that bank of yours. Might come in handy
in the next day or two. Tell my sister I said hey.”
Perplexed and alarmed by the nonchalant warning, Dodge stared after him as Tyler made his way down the walk and took the turn toward Pride. He heard Starla come out of the house and sensed her concern in the way she clutched his arm, figuring she’d overheard that last part.
“Think he was serious?”
Starla shivered. “Does it matter?”
“Can I trust him, you think? Was it a warning, or could he be setting up some kind of trouble of his own?”
“I don’t know, Tony,” she confessed. “I don’t know what kind of man my brother’s become.” And it upset her.
Dodge tucked her up against him. “I’ll trust him … with due caution.”
Later that night, while Starla knelt on the mattress, massaging her husband’s legs, the matter surfaced again.
“Don’t go in to work tomorrow.”
Dodge dragged himself up from his blissful luxury and blinked his eyes open. “What?”
“Stay home. Stay here with me.” She continued kneading his muscular calves, refusing to meet his questioning stare.
“Not that I’m not always looking for excuses to stay home, but if your brother’s friends have something planned, I need to be there.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because it’s my job, Starla. The people of Pride expect me to protect their investment in
the bank. I can’t do that hiding under the covers at home.” He made it sound reasonable, but to Starla it was sheer insanity.
“I’d rather have you home under the covers than at the bank risking who knows what. If Tyler was warning you of something that’s going to happen, you owe it to yourself, to
me
, to heed his caution.”
“Nothing’s going to happen if I’m ready for them.”
“Then I’ll come in with you.”
“No.” His answer brooked no argument.
She frowned in frustration. “Then ask Reeve to spend the next few days with you. Please. No one would think less of you. There’s no civil law in Pride. You have to do what you can to keep yourself safe, and if that means having an extra gun at your side to go up against those cowards, then ask. Tony, please. I’d feel so much better knowing you weren’t there alone.”