Authors: Madeline Baker
“Is he dead?” Loralee asked tonelessly. “Have you come to gloat because you’ve won at last?”
“Loralee, don’t—”
“Don’t talk to me!” she shrieked. “You’ve ruined my life, killed the only man I’ll ever love.” Tears welled in her eyes and coursed down her cheeks. “Haven’t you done enough? Go away!”
“Loralee, listen to me, please.”
“No!” She was screaming now, overcome with pain and rage because Shad was dead.
Muttering an oath, Mike grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Loralee, for God’s sake, listen to me. He’s not dead.”
Loralee stared at Mike blankly. Not dead? But she had heard the gunshots.
“He’s alive,” Mike said. “Do you understand?” Good Lord, why was she looking at him like that? Had she lost her mind?
She went suddenly limp as Mike’s words penetrated her grief.
“He’s alive,” Mike repeated, “and he needs you. Go to him, Loralee.”
“I don’t understand,” she said slowly, afraid to believe. “I heard gunshots.”
“He’s wounded, but he’ll be all right.”
He’ll be all right
. The words wiped the despair from her eyes and filled her heart with hope. Zuniga was alive! Thank God, he was alive.
“I’ve got to go to him!”
“Your horse is saddled and waiting.”
“Thank you, Mike.” She was running into the nursery as she spoke. She threw the baby’s things into a bag, grabbed the boy in her arms and gave him a hug. “He’s alive,” she murmured, the joy mounting with each moment. “Alive!”
Mike sighed as Loralee burst into the parlor. She looked like the old Loralee again, her eyes shining and vibrant, her smile bright and beguiling. How could he have ever thought to hurt her or cause her pain? He had known from the day he married her that she would never truly be his. She was the kind of woman who loved only once, and she loved Shad Zuniga. Any fool could see that.
“Thank you, Mike,” she said fervently. “Thank you a thousand times over.”
“Be happy, honey,” he murmured, and she was gone.
Loralee rode as she had never ridden before. Young Shad howled at the top of his lungs, frightened by the speed of the horse, and by the tight grip his mother had on him. For once, Loralee ignored his cries as she urged Lady to go faster, faster. Zuniga was wounded, and he needed her. She kicked Lady, willing the horse to go faster still, unmindful of everything but the fact that Shad was alive and in pain. She breathed a sigh of relief as the lake came into view.
She found him lying beneath a tree, his eyes closed. The dun stood beside him, grazing peacefully on the sparse yellow grass. The stallion’s head went up as he scented Loralee’s mare and he whickered softly. A moment later, Zuniga sat up, his eyes wary as the sound of hoofbeats reached his ears. He relaxed visibly when he saw it was Loralee and the baby.
“Shad!” Dismounting, she placed the squalling child on the ground, then threw herself into Zuniga’s arms, her eyes searching his face. “Are you all right?”
“I am fine, Loralee. Honest.”
“Oh, Shad.” She touched the bloodstained cloths tied around his left shoulder and right forearm. “Lord, I never knew anyone who got himself shot up as much as you do.”
“I am all right.” He touched his wounded shoulder with his fingertips. “The bullet went clean through. And this,” he gestured at the bloody rag tied around his forearm. “It is just a scratch. Hey,” he chided softly, “it is all over now. Do not cry.”
“I can’t help it,” she wailed, and burst into tears. He was so dear, and she had come so close to losing him forever. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on as if she would never let him go.
Zuniga stroked her hair, loving the feel of it in his hands, the way it always smelled faintly of lavender. Holding her close put a strain on his wounded shoulder, but he would not have let her go for anything in the world. He glanced at his son and saw that the child had cried itself to sleep.
“What happened?” Loralee asked when her tears subsided. “Why did Mike change his mind?”
Zuniga shrugged. “Who can say? Perhaps he realized that killing me would not really solve anything. He loves you, Loralee.”
“I know.”
Zuniga smiled wryly. “You cannot pick and choose the people you love,” he murmured. “It just happens.”
Loralee grinned as Zuniga repeated the words she had once said to him.
“I love you, Loralee,” Shad said fervently. “I guess I have loved you ever since the first time I saw you hanging up that load of wash.”
“And I love you. So much.”
“I know, but will you be happy spending the rest of your life with a man like me?” He shook his head ruefully. “I have no money. I have no home to offer you. I am wanted by the law.”
“I have a little money,” Loralee replied softly. “And I’ll make you a home wherever you wish.” She kissed him on the cheek, then let her lips wander to his nose and eyes and chin before returning to his mouth. They kissed for a long time.
“We could go to California,” Shad said, thinking aloud. “A man I know there offered me a job a long time ago. He said the offer was good any time.”
“What kind of job?”
“As a cowboy,” Zuniga answered gravely, then burst out laughing.
Loralee laughed, too, her eyes shining with happiness. “I’d love to go to California,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ve always wanted to see Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco.”
“I think you would go anywhere I asked,” Shad mused.
“Anywhere.”
Loralee’s smile was radiant as Zuniga took her into his arms once more. “We’d better get started,” she suggested, then shuddered with pleasure as Zuniga’s hand began to stroke her thigh in a lingering caress.
“Tomorrow,” he said huskily.
“Tomorrow!” Loralee exclaimed. “Why not now?” Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she waited for his answer.
“You know why not now,” Zuniga murmured, and Loralee willingly surrendered to the touch of his hands and lips as they began to work their familiar magic on her willing flesh.
Tomorrow they would start for California. Shad would get a job and they would build a home and a life together.
Tomorrow.
But for now, she wanted only to bask in his love, to hear his voice, husky with longing as he whispered, “I love you, Loralee, for now and evermore.”
Madeline Baker started writing simply for the fun of it. Now she is the award-winning author of more than thirty historical romance books and one of the most popular writers of Native American romance. She lives in California, where she was born and raised.
Love Forevermore
Copyright © 2010, 2014, 2016 Madeline Baker
Cover design by Cindy Lucas