She was going to ask whether he’d prefer she wear a robe, but then felt his cock stir and harden. That was rather exciting.
“I was trying’ to ask if ye’re upset.” His hands caressed down her back.
She shook her head, closing her eyes to relish the feel of his light touch.
“Ye want to meet my brothers then?”
She opened her eyes. “Yes. Very much.”
He smiled, his hold on her lowering to her backside. “In a way, I’m glad they’re not here. They’d fight me for ye. I’m sure of it.”
She laughed, not sure if he was teasing her or not.
“Ach, they would. My brother Duncan, he’s the big one. Women swoon because he’s so tall. My brother Michael is too handsome for his own good. Women follow him ‘round as if he’s Apollo himself. Then there’s Thomas, the quiet charmer. He’s charmed more women into his bed then I’d care to admit to a fine lady like ye. And lookin’ at ye, Meredith, I ken they’d want ye. I’d have to fight every single one of them for ye.”
In all her time with David, he’d never complimented her, never called her beautiful, or
belle
, or much of anything. And she’d never felt particularly pretty. Having plain brown hair never helped, and her owl-like eyes made her feel as though she looked more like a cartoon character than a real woman, especially so with her elfish nose. She’d never felt real.
Until that second.
She didn’t know whether Jake was just particularly good at charming too or if he was speaking the truth. And, oh, how she wanted it to be the truth, because even if it was a lie, it was the prettiest lie she’d ever been told. It made her feel beautiful. Desirable. Proof was in his erection pressed against her stomach.
She reached her arms around his neck, simultaneously lifting up on her toes. Wanting to tell him how there was no need to fight, she was his, but needing to keep her damned mouth shut, Meredith kissed him instead. Their tongues collided, and she felt her body buzz with energy. Feeling happier than she might have ever been, she lifted her knee, wrapping her leg around him. He moaned and grasped the back of her calf, except her balance wasn’t the best on one set of toes, and she teetered. Catching her, he pushed her up on the lip of her pantry. Somehow, they ended up laughing and looking at each other in the process, and Meredith’s heart beat so loud, she worried he heard it.
Thinking frantically of saying something, she asked, “How old are you?”
“Four and twenty. You?”
She nearly died. Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head. “No. You can’t be. Oh my God.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, while he tried to pry her fingers from her visage.
“Oh my God, no.” She was mortified. He was so young. She’d guessed he was younger than her, but twenty-four? Twenty-freaking-four?
“What is it, Meredith?”
He was as young as some of her students. As many of her students, actually. That’s what was wrong.
She swallowed and somehow jumped away from her pantry and him, still covering her mouth with her fingers.
“Ye’re scaring me, woman. What’s wrong with my age? Ye can’t be much older than I. Mayhap by a year?”
She shook her head and finally turned. He’d followed her, his perfect body, so chiseled and lovely, so close. His erection might have lessened from a moment ago, but it was still there, straining toward her.
“I’m eight years your senior.”
He straightened. “Nay, ye can’t be. Ye look my age.”
“It’s my stupid eyes and idiotic freckles. I look like a child, but I’m much older than you, I assure you.”
He laughed for a moment, but then pointed a finger at her with a scowl. “Don’t talk about yer eyes and freckles like that. I love those parts of ye. And it’s not like ye’re a million years older than I. Ye just have eight years on me. That’s all.”
“That’s all? That’s a huge age difference.”
“Nay. Not at all. Plus, no one would ken our difference, since ye happen to look young.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, and he noticed with his grin turning into a leering smirk. She was softening towards his argument, and she knew she probably should say something more about being older than him, but he looked so adorable and so sexy.
He took another step closer, his hands gracing up her arms. “Lastly, my birthday is soon, making ye only seven years older than I.”
She chuckled and let herself get wrapped up in his arms and naked body. “When’s your birthday?”
“The sixth.”
“Of January?”
He nodded, caressing her arms and back.
“You’re an Epiphany baby.”
He stilled, looking down at her a bit shocked. “Aye, born on the Twelfth Night too.”
“It means you’re lucky, doesn’t it?”
He held her tighter. “For once, I would agree with that.”
Reaching down, he kissed her then.
“I want ye again.” His voice rasped and was all sex.
She shuddered, wanting him too. Inspiration struck, making her smile up at him. “I have an idea.”
“I do too.” He ground himself against her.
She giggled, desire making her breasts feel heavy, her thighs tingled. Grabbing his wrists she pulled him with her nearer to the door. “I have a very good idea. Let’s take a shower together.”
*
“
L
ord
, ye made this with yer tiny hands?” Jake admired Meredith for building the tall shower contraption that swallowed a third of her porch.
It was cold as sin outside and just as dark, but there he stood with a white blanket wrapped around him, and Meredith tucked in that plaid of hers, stoking a fire in a small boiler close to the large canister device she called a shower.
She had a huge grin, her cheeks ablaze with the flames and her enthusiasm. “Yes. I find I rather like making things. I wanted to make this, thought about it for a couple weeks, then started to draw the design. It’s nowhere near perfect, and we’ll have hot water for only about ten minutes, but it’s warm running water. Can’t beat that.”
He chuckled, liking this side of her. Ah, hell, he liked all sides of her. But right now, she was as animated and energetic as the fire in the boiler, heating the water for said shower. She was glorious.
In her beautiful excitement, he almost forgot about the possibility of a threat, but he had checked for marks or signs that someone was close by. There was nothing. He wondered if the man on her porch had been some straggler who had eventually run off, never to be seen again. However, she had slapped a company mining man, although, the smack was probably called for, in his estimation. Aye, this Mr. Bruisner needed to answer a few questions. But in the meantime, it seemed Meredith was safe.
Yet Jake knew well enough that often things could change quicker than the blink of an eye. His own life was an example of that. One moment he thought he was dying from smallpox, the next he was shuttled God knew where, then he was a witness to atrocities no one should see, should know about. Railway law...he knew there was no such thing and had seen men acting inhumanely, acting like animals. Nay, animals would mayhap have more decency than what he’d witnessed.
A cold, small hand wrapped around his cheek.
“You all right?” Meredith asked, her voice raspy, reminding him where he was, and the hope he’d never see anything like that again.
He held her hand to his cheek, no longer worried she found his skin disgusting. She might, though, not like his whiskers rubbing against her soft skin. He needed to shave.
Nodding, he forced his lips to curve up. It wasn’t much of a chore when he gazed upon her sparkling violet eyes, the concerned way her dark brows drew together.
“Yes.”
“Do—do—” she pulled her hand away and grouped the plaid more tightly around herself, frowning. “Do you think me odd, not feminine, for making this?”
God, by being lost in the past, she’d had to wonder if he wasn’t proud of her for building such a feat. He chided himself and knew it was always best to remain in the present, for it was such a gift now.
“Nay, woman, this is wonderful work ye did. Amazing. Ye think of patenting it?”
Her brows arched high. “No. I hadn’t.”
His smile grew. “Ye might think of it. Ye might make a pretty penny on yer shower contraption.”
The curve of her lips upward made him feel, again, like the victor of a war. Whichever war, he knew not, and it didn’t matter. He’d won, and that was all that mattered.
“You want to take a shower with me?” she asked, her eyes averted from his, seeming shyer than usual.
“Yes.” Whatever taking a shower was sounded like paradise.
He also knew they should talk more, get to know each other, but it seemed all his body could do was be close to hers. And to be a wee bit too excited. He’d probably be sore tomorrow, not from making love to her, but from wanting her so much.
She fetched any remaining hairpins from her tresses, piling the three pins on the porch’s railing, then pushed a lever, and another one, and soon Jake heard the pitter-patter of water falling. Meredith pulled a curtained glass door, and there, inside the canister, was a warm rainstorm. Only, it was gentle and sweet, like the way it could rain in the summer months in South Carolina. Meredith had created a shower.
With only the silver moon and stars as light, he tried to see how the water dribbled the way it did.
“It took me a long time to figure out the shower nozzle,” she said, standing close to him. “I didn’t know how to drill through steel, or how to make the holes, but after a visit from the ferrier I realized I could use the blacksmith tools to punch small holes into a copper disk and weld it onto the pipe like that.”
He smiled down at her. “Lord, ye’re a bona fide genius, aren’t ye?”
She looked away, shaking her head.
“Yes, you are, Meredith. This invention is wonderful.”
She bit at her lips, still not gazing at him. “I—I had no idea I would like to build things. I never took an engineering class, and I wasn’t that great at math, but I like to do this, even if it did take me months to make.”
He chucked a finger under her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Woman, now listen to me. Ye’re amazing and that’s all there is to it. Got it?”
She pushed his hand away, glaring at him. “You’re rather bossy.”
“When I’m right, I’m bossy. And I’m right about you.”
The smile she was trying to hide truly did vanish at what he’d said. She blinked, almost appearing to flicker away tears. He thought she was probably not used to compliments, probably not used to be told she’d done well. The little wild thing that she was, was probably much too used to being stuck in her own head, in her own damned way.
“I’m right,” he whispered, then forced a kiss on her. Leaning away, he gauged her reaction.
She looked as though she were going to argue with him, so he did it again. “I’m right,” he said, then pressed another hot kiss on her mouth. She moved her lips with his, easily accepting him, then slid her tongue in his mouth.
And he’d won again.
It felt wonderful too. When she moved her hands to his, pulling away the blanket around his hips, he couldn’t help but smile through their kiss. Her hands flew all over him, molding over his body in such a seductive way, as if she thought him utterly desirable. Then she guided him into her ceramic tile canister, warm water flooding his senses almost as much as his wee fae’s kisses. He planted his feet and anchored himself still as she tugged herself free from her plaid. Then she was inside the shower, closing the door. With the water cascading on her glorious curves, he moaned and let his hands do as hers had, kissing her all the while. He cupped her ample breasts, loving the softness, the way her nipples hardened whenever he touched them. Next, he explored the deep curve of her waist, whilst their passion kept escalating.
He pulled away from her lips, hoping to breathe and think a little, but she kissed down his chest, one of her hands grazed around his bollocks. Her other hand wrapped around his cock, and he couldn’t think anything coherent again, save his dreamy thoughts about her. She somehow had soap in hand and lathered him in floral-scented bubbles.
“I’m going to smell like a woman,” he choked through his desire.
She giggled.
With her being so small, washing his hair was a challenge, but she managed it and everything else, making sure his hardness stayed erect in her hands, which he was, incidentally, putty in. She pushed him into the curved wall of the canister, then, before he could tell what she was doing, for water kept landing in his eyes, she was on her knees before him.
“Meredi—”
When she’d wrapped her lips around the head of his penis, he couldn’t even cough out a noise. He moaned and leaned back into the cold wall, feeling her tongue lathe around him, down, then back up where her mouth took him again. Channeling his fingers through her wet hair, he couldn’t believe how his luck had changed, couldn’t believe any of this actually.
He was warm and healthy, in a town where people didn’t massacre each other just because they could—oh, sure, they had bigotry towards each other, but nothing like what he’d seen. Further, he was clean and one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen was pleasuring him. She’d have him undone in no time. With the water running cool, he pulled her hot mouth away from him.