Deborah Camp (42 page)

“Hush up.” He strode toward her. “Put yourself in my hands, Mistress Rosy. Here, let me fix your hair.” He plucked the pins from it and let it fall. “There. Much better.”

“That’s your idea of styling a woman’s hair?”

He nodded. “A woman’s hair looks best spread across a pillow.”

“Oh, Theodore! You are shameful.”

He chuckled and went to the washbasin. He poured cool water from the pitcher into the shallow pan and motioned her closer. “Shed the dress and those underskirts and come over here.”

Trembling, more from anticipation than anything else, Regina removed her clothing down to her chemise and long underpants, which gathered into a flounce just below her knees. She wondered where the banker’s mistress found sheer, silky underthings. Theodore soaked a cloth and then soaped it. He turned her around and applied the cool, wet cloth to her neck and arms. Regina relaxed, dropping her head forward and closing her eyes. He rinsed off the soap and toweled her dry.

“Feel good?”

“Um-hmm,” she breathed, then her thoughts meandered along with his hands. “Theodore, why did you move from Kansas to here?”

“To meet you, of course.”

She smiled to herself. “Be serious. I’m immune to your flirtations.”

“Since when?” He blew on the back of her neck, raising flesh bumps and giggles.

“Stop that!” She batted a hand at him. “Really. What made you want to leave Kansas?”

“I wanted a fresh start, away from the memory of my father and away from my mother’s W.C.T.U. activities,” he explained. “Kansas holds a whole bunch of things for me—good and bad—but I couldn’t be my own man there. I was my father’s son, my mother’s son. My family is an old one, Regina, and so tightly knit that I couldn’t sneeze without two or three cousins catching cold.”

“And why did you decide on Eureka Springs?”

“Eric and I thought that it was a boom town and needed a couple of good attorneys. Morton Potter just wasn’t doing the job.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“Turn around here.” When she faced him, he slowly untied the laces of her chemise. “You know what?”

“What?”

“You’d be happier if you’d find peace with the other part of you.”

She tipped her head to one side. “What are you talking about?”

“The part of you who sang at the Gold Star. Why deny she still exists?”

“She doesn’t.”

“You sang there, Regina. It was you.”

“But I wasn’t myself. I was drinking.”

“The part of you that I loved … the part that all the men in that room loved, had nothing to do with spirits. You shouldn’t be ashamed of that girl, Regina. There’s a little bit of that Gold Star singer in you, along with a big old chunk of that Wild Irish Rose showgirl and a bigger piece of the Prohibition lady.” He hooked his thumbs in the top of
her underpants and lowered them until they pooled around her ankles. “There’s even a smidgen of that little girl left in you—the little girl Jack and your mother hurt over and over again. I never want to hurt you, Regina. I want you to feel safe with me.”

“I do,” she said, barely able to speak.

He separated the sides of the chemise to reveal her breasts to his ardent gaze. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of anything about yourself. All of you is beautiful to me. Every inch. Every mood. Every laugh. Every frown.” He lowered his head to take one of her rosy nipples into his mouth. Her back arched and she grabbed handfuls of his thick hair.

“Oh, Theodore!” She closed her eyes, gripped by the power of love. “If you accept all that I’ve been, then I do, too. I’m tired of hiding from myself.”

He released her throbbing nipple to kiss her waiting lips. “You’re all grown up,” he whispered. “And you’re mistress of your own life.” He swung her around and down onto the bed. It creaked with their combined weight. They finished undressing in a blur of movement and murmurs. He took one of her breasts into the hot cavern of his mouth, heating her skin and firing her passion.

“I want you, I want you,” she panted, caressing him from his shoulders to his hips. Oh, she’d dreamed of this! Ever since the last time, she’d dreamed of this. She’d wanted him so desperately sometimes that she’d awakened in a frenzied state, her body moist with perspiration, her heart booming in her ears. Her time with him before had only fueled more details in her dreams and stoked her inner fires. She clutched his taut hips, digging her fingers into his flesh, urging him to enter her.

Theo tasted her breasts, suckling, kissing, molding the pliant flesh to fit his hands. She wrapped
her legs around him and strained against him. Her breath was hot in his ear as she breathed his name. Slowly, like silk on silk, he joined his body to hers. Melting together, he created a steady rhythm, the pace increasing as his ardor leaped and surged until it commanded him. He heard her labored breathing, her deep moaning, and knew that she was out of this world, and he was on the brink of joining her.

The world shattered around him in bright, golden flashes. His body quaked. He thrust more deeply into her, needing to be lost in her, to be one with her. She quivered, trembled, groaned his name. Taking his face between her hands, she covered it with tiny kisses and love bites.

“What are you doing?” he asked, laughing.

“I could just eat you up.” She gnawed tenderly on his chin. “I love me when I’m with you. I love feeling so … so … wild at heart!” She released his face and slithered lower to feather his chest with moist kisses. “Make love to me again.”

“Whoa!” He laughed self-consciously. “I would if I could, believe me. You’ll have to wait a few seconds.”

“I can’t. Lu will be back pretty soon because Annie will be home from school.”

“So what?”

“So, you’ll have to leave.” She pushed him onto his back and wiggled on top of him. “And I won’t be able to be so wild at heart with them in the house and me knowing it. Therefore, as the farmer said to his wife, Let’s make hay while the sun shines, darlin’.”

“And as the desert nomad said to the visiting Englishman, you can’t squeeze water out of sand,” he countered with a lazy grin.

Regina snuggled against his lower extremities. “Maybe if I help, you can rise to the occasion.”

Damn, if he didn’t feel a spark of life down there! Grinning, Theo stacked his hands behind his head and decided to let her try. “What the hell,” he said, winking. “I’m game, if you are.”

B
right afternoon sunshine poured in the window to spotlight the bed and the two people in it. Kissing the pale bruise on Theo’s forehead, Regina recalled the night Jack and Theo had fought.

“Poor baby,” she crooned. “You’ve been through a lot for me, and what have I done for you?”

“You have to ask?” He flung out his arms, sprawling on the bed. “Don’t I look happy, satisfied, blissful?” He closed his eyes and pasted a dreamy grin on his face.

Regina slapped at his shoulder. “You monkey!”

“Monkey? Honey, I’m your champion, remember?” He sat up and pushed off the sheet. “I’ve got a surprise for you. Close your eyes.”

“Close my eyes?” She glanced around the room. “Where have you hidden a surprise?” Smiling, she raked his nude form from head to foot. She doubted if any man in town could hold a candle to him. “You’re it, right? Oh, you are one delicious surprise. When I saw you riding up on that black horse of yours I had no idea I’d end up here in bed with you. I was going to have a long heart-to-heart with you!”

“What have we just been doing, if not that?”

“That’s not what I meant.” She curled a finger at him. “Come back to bed. I want to talk to you.”

He shook his head. “First the surprise.”

Regina picked up a pillow and threw it at him as he walked buck naked across the room to where his jacket lay on the floor. He searched through the pockets and removed a tri-folded document, which he handed over to her, bending at the waist in a gentlemanly bow. If not for his nudity, she would have been touched. As it was, she had to giggle.

“What is this?” she asked, unfolding the papers. “Are you bringing suit against me?”

“Not quite, but I should. You’ve stolen my heart. A man can sue for that, can’t he?”

She stared at the top of the first page, where Old English lettering declared “Transfer for Deed of Ownership.” A property description followed. “Theodore, I don’t understand. What have you done?”

“All you have to do is sign on the last page and this house is all yours. You don’t have to move an inch. Nobody can ever touch this place, if the taxes are kept up—and they will be. I’ll make sure of that. Honeybee, I give you shelter. More than that, I give you peace of mind.” He took one of her hands and sandwiched it between his. “You don’t have to scrub other people’s laundry until your poor hands are chapped. You don’t have to iron until your arms tremble. You don’t have to lift a finger, if you don’t want to. Your champion has come to your rescue.” He puffed out his chest. “Was there ever a doubt?”

She read the first lines of the document, shaking her head. “My house? How can this be?”

“I paid the back taxes,” he said, sitting on the side of the bed. “All you have to do is sign this, Regina.”

“You bought my house,” she said, the import beginning to dawn in her—a cold, gray dawning.

“That’s right. I bought it for you. Better me than someone else, right?”

She tugged her hand from his, unsure of how she felt about this offering. What was behind it? Did he want to live here with her as husband and wife or … “I’ll pay rent to you?”

“Rent? Hell, no. I don’t want your money.” He kissed her cheek and smoothed her hair back behind her ear. “All I want is your undying devotion. Hey, aren’t you happy? Aren’t you relieved? You’re supposed to be tickled to death over this. You’re supposed to fling your arms around me and declare your allegiance.”

“I … I’m stunned. I’m not used to having things given to me for nothing.”

“For nothing? Seeing you happy isn’t nothing. This way you’ll stay in Eureka Springs and I can be with you. That’s not nothing, sweetheart.”

The memory of Irene Cooper’s visit plagued her. She folded the document slowly, carefully. “You told Irene Cooper about this.”

“Huh?” He blinked owlishly at her. “I did not! Who said that?”

“She did. She came by to collect her laundry and wanted to know if I was moving. She wanted to line up a new washerwoman.”

He scowled. “Sometimes Irene is as sweet as a dill pickle.”

“She’s always that way around me. I don’t understand why you confide in her. Especially about me and my business. Why give her ammunition to wound me, Theo?”

“I didn’t. Her father must have told her. I had to talk to him, you know. His bank is the one set to conduct the auction.”

“Do you still see Irene socially?”

“Of course not. Regina, why are we talking about Irene when we should be celebrating?” He gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him. “You don’t have to move!”

Something else Irene had said pricked Regina’s heart. “You told Irene about this before you told me.”

He frowned. “Listen to me, will you? I didn’t. I talked to her father, not to Irene.”

“She made a comment about me being a kept woman. She knew you had paid the taxes and planned on setting me up here.” She shook off his hands and a harsh laugh tumbled past her trembling lips. “How convenient that my home is so near the other kept woman in town. East Mountain will get to be known as Mistress Mountain.”

Anger clouded his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. Regina, you asked for my help and you got it.”

She stared at him, willing him to see her pain, her disappointment.
Please, please, don’t offer me anything less than love
, she pleaded with him, silently, urgently.
Can’t you see that I’m in love with you, Theodore?
When he said nothing she knew she’d have to.

“I can’t accept this.” She dropped the document in his lap.

“It’s done, Regina. Now sign the damned thing,” he ordered through clenched teeth. “Don’t you know it’s rude to throw a gift back in the face of the giver? Especially when you asked for the gift in the first place!”

“I didn’t ask for this!” She reached for a wrapper and poked her arms into it. Crossing the room, she kept her back to him while she belted the robe at her waist. How could he think she’d want anything less than his pledge of love and his desire for marriage? “I won’t sign that. I won’t. I’m sorry
if I sound ungrateful to you, but that’s the way it has to be.”

“You’re going to throw this deed in my face just because of something Irene said? She means nothing to me. Regina, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Maybe I am, and maybe I expected too much of you. After what happened between us, it’s understandable that you would see me as … well, easy pickin’s.”

His mouth dropped open. “Easy? You think
you’re
easy pickin’s?” He released a short bark of laughter. “Yeah, like picking leaves off a thorn tree.”

She paced to the window and saw Annie coming up the walk. “Annie’s home! Get dressed,” she hissed, wriggling out of the robe and grabbing her clothes. “We can’t let her see you leave my room. I’ll go downstairs and get her outside so that you can sneak out.”

“I don’t care if she sees me in here. I’m not leaving until you sign this deed or give me a damn good reason why you won’t.”

Regina pulled on her clothing, panic and despair commingling inside of her. “I can’t talk about this now, Theo. I’m too … too upset. I thought that you were going to—” She stopped herself from telling him that she’d been expecting a marriage proposal. “Never mind what I thought.” She flung his trousers at him. “Theodore, get dressed! You don’t give a fig for my reputation, but I do.”

He hitched up his trousers and then sat on the bed to pull on his socks and boots. “You’re not making a lick of sense. Whether you like it or not, I’m giving you this house.”

Fury flashed through her. “No, you’re not!”

Theo suddenly towered over her. He grabbed
her by the elbows and made her stand still before him. “Swallow your pride and sign the deed.”

She angled up her chin. “I won’t be your mistress, Theodore. I’d rather sing in a saloon again than live in a house you paid for just so you can have me whenever you want me. I’ve just recently gained a measure of respect in this town, and I don’t want to become a source of gossip like that … that woman Mr. Cooper keeps. I’d rather lose you completely than have you only at your leisure and when you can sneak over here without being seen.”