Someone Like You (24 page)

“I didn’t ask your opinion. You are in no position to know what’s best for you, but as your physician, I can tell you that bathing with your clothes on is not the best medicine.”

He stood up and tugged her hand, drawing her up to stand beside him. He pulled her dress over her head.

“Reed, I had a bath this afternoon. I don’t need another one.”

“That one was for you.”

“Who is this one for?”

“This one is for me.”

Quickly then he worked on getting her undergarments off. He stepped out of the tub, gathered up her clothing and carried the bundle into the front room to hang by the stove. She sat down in the tub and began washing herself.

“Oh, no, that’s my job,” he said, coming back into the room. He stepped into the tub and held out his hand. She stood, giving him her back, and felt his hands come around her. They moved over her slowly, agonizingly so, stroking and caressing her until she was desperate to get closer to him, to submit to the warm pressure of his fingers. While he touched her, he began to kiss her neck, her shoulders. She felt her breathing coming in hard gasps; her knees grew weaker with each touch of his lips until she was afraid they’d no longer support her. He turned her around then, kissing her stomach with his hands on her buttocks, drawing her closer against him as his mouth dropped lower. “Reed, don’t…”

He did not say anything but grasped her more firmly. His mouth was moving lower and lower still, until he was kissing her where she never thought a man would ever kiss her. She never knew anything could feel so exquisite, or could leave her yearning for more. Of their own accord, her legs moved apart, and she heard him groan and pull her closer. She could feel him more intensely now, and the touch of his mouth on her was insanity. She must be dying. She must. How could she control herself—her breathing that came in painful, short gasps? Of its own accord, her body pressed forward, wanting to draw him closer.

“Reed,” she whispered hoarsely, “please, I can’t stand up anymore.”

She felt her body shudder with the increased tension that mounted within her. She cried out, overcome with weakness. Just as her knees gave way, she felt his arms come beneath her and he lifted her out of the tub. He laid her on the rug on the floor beside the tub, then covered her with his body. Instinctively her legs opened to him.

“I’ve wanted you for so long, Susannah. I can’t think of a reason why we should wait a minute more.”

“Neither can I.”

He kissed her and she kissed him back, knowing what was coming next and knowing, too, that it would hurt the first time, that there would be bleeding and that she would be a virgin no longer, not that her virginity was a golden medallion she wanted to wear around her neck for the rest of her life. She had worn it long enough, and the leaden weight of it had grown far heavier than she wanted to endure. She welcomed the feel of him as he pushed against her, welcomed even the sharp stab of pain that followed.

“I love you,” he said, and moved inside her.

She had believed she knew all there was to know about the coupling between a man and a woman. Now she learned that she’d known virtually nothing—nothing about this incredible shift from pain one moment to intense pleasure the next.

“I love you, Reed. I love you,” she said. She locked her arms fiercely around him, as if by doing so she could prolong this beautiful moment and keep him with her forever. He must have mistaken her tears of joy for something else.

“What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

She placed her hands on each side of his head and drew his face down to kiss him. “No. I have never felt so wonderful or so loved.”

His lips moved over the dampness on her cheeks. “Tears come for a reason. Tell me. Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.”

He looked so bewildered that she wanted to laugh. “You don’t know?”

She shook her head and released a deep breath. “It’s a lot of things.”

His lips moved in her hair. “Like what?”

“Because…” She sniffed and tried again. “Because I’m normal, Reed. I’m normal and it’s the first time in my life I’ve felt this way. I’m normal and I don’t know how to tell you how much that means to me. I thought for so very, very long that I would never know what normal felt like.”

He smiled and kissed her eyes. “That’s only one reason. What else?”

“Because I’m afraid this golden moment will vanish, or I’ll awake to find it was only a dream.”

“It’s no dream. As for the other, only we can do something about that.”

Love, warm and enduring, flowed through her. Surely no one had ever been this happy, surely no one deserved to be.

He wrapped his arms around her and Susannah lay still, her heart thudding against his chest. Was this how two people became one? Each feeling so close to the other that they began to think alike and feel each other’s thoughts and pain until at some point in time it was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended?

She lay there listening to the sound of the wind in the bare trees outside, the occasional scrape of branches over the tin roof. The physical existence of the world about her slowly returned, the hard floor and the thinness of the rug beneath her, the heat of the room, the surprising softness of his hair. She wished she were an artist so she could capture this moment, for how could her memory do it justice?

She felt the strokes of his hand in her hair, his hand unsteady and seemingly awkward, and infinitely dear because of it. “Any regrets?”

“None.”

“I’m relieved to hear it. I was afraid…”

“Except—” She could feel his sudden indrawn breath, the tensing of his muscles. “Except I wish it had happened sooner.”

The air rushed out of his lungs with a
whoosh!
She laughed and kissed him, and found renewed contentment lying in his arms, listening to the rhythm of his murmured love words, feeling a deep and profound peace.

She had almost drifted off to sleep when she felt him shift his position, which was followed by a groan. She was reminded of the cold, hard reality of what they were lying on. She rolled forward into a sitting position. He did the same, although he wasn’t as quick about it.

“How old are you?”

He scowled and rubbed his back. “It isn’t the length of time it takes you to run, but the distance you go.”

She wrinkled her nose and looked him over. “You look like you’ve used up plenty of both.”

“Let’s boil your hide until it’s tender and see how you fare.” He went to the stove and brought back a bucket of hot water and poured it into the tub. When he returned, he put the bucket on the floor and scooped Susannah into his arms. He carried her back to the bath, stepped over the side, and stood her on her feet. “You stand there and I’ll sit down first.”

He had no more than sat down in the water when Susannah grabbed his hand and tugged him upward. “Oh, no,” she said. “It’s your turn to stand and I’ll sit down.”

Reed came to his feet and waited for her to sit down, but Susannah did not. Instead she knelt in front of him.

“Dear Mary, Joseph, and the wise men. I’m as weak as a newborn.”

And he must have been, Susannah discovered, for he literally slid down into the warm, soapy water.

“Turnabout is fair play,” she said. “Now you know what it feels like to stand on legs that don’t seem capable of supporting you.”

“I think I know,” he said, kissing her, “but I’m not certain. Perhaps, if you tried that one more time, I’d know for sure.”

“Glutton,” she said. She picked up another bucket on the floor beside her and poured the water over his head.

“
Yeoooowww!
” he said, and sprang to his feet. “That’s cold.”

She laughed and tossed the last bit of water in the bucket at him.

He flinched.

“You need a little cooling off.” She held up her hand and said, “Now, help me up. I’ve got to feed you and then get back to the house. My aunts are going to be wondering what I’ve been doing.”

“Maybe you should forget about feeding me.”

She saw his concerned look. “Why? Are you worried about what they’ll do to me?”

“No. It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s my hide they’ll be after.”

“I’ll tell them to be gentle.”

He chuckled, gave her a hand, and pulled her to her feet. He kissed her nose. “I wouldn’t worry about what your aunts think. I bet they have a pretty good idea.” He picked up a towel from the chair beside the tub.

Susannah waited patiently as he dried her off, luxuriating in the moment, the strong, sure strokes of his hands, the nearness of him, the tenderness she saw he felt for her. “Oh, I’m certain they have more than an idea.”

He turned his head to one side as he concentrated on what he was doing. “They’ve probably gone to bed by now.”

“If Aunt Vi could drag Aunt Dally out of the storeroom. She was busy mixing up some potion for me to give to Peony. She said it would make her give more milk.”

“Or give her the
hobbledy-trotts,
” he said, and they both started laughing.

While Reed finished eating, Susannah dressed, then loaded the tin back into her basket. He picked up the box he saw lying there and turned toward her. “What’s this?” He brought it up to his ear and shook it. “Something else to eat?”

Susannah had forgotten about the dominoes, and when she saw them she started laughing. “Dominoes,” she said. “It’s a box of dominoes.”

“Dominoes? You brought dominoes to a starving man? Why’d you do that?”

She held up her hands in a show of innocence. “It was Aunt Vi’s doing, not mine. She put them in the basket as I was leaving. She said I needn’t rush back. She suggested I stay for a while and the two of us could play dominoes.”

Reed threw back his head and laughed. “Your aunt is a shrewd old woman.”

“The shrewdest and the dearest.”

“Too bad she didn’t send something that would have taken all night,” he said. He put his arms around her and drew her against him. “I want to sleep with you beside me—just sleep with you beside me for the rest of my life.”

“Just sleep?” She frowned and said irritably, “I don’t know. That doesn’t sound very appealing.”

He took her chin in his hand and lifted her face so she looked at him. “Susannah Jane Dowell, I want you. Now. Tomorrow. Forever. I want to give you everything in the world that you’ve ever dreamed of having—as well as a few things you’ve never thought of, and perhaps even a few you may not want. That includes my heart, my love, my name, my children—if we are so blessed—and my solemn pledge to love you until the day I die, and longer if that’s possible.”

She listened patiently and then agreed—well, not exactly, but she did agree in general. To be precise, what she said was, “I might as well, because my cleverness is no match for your Yankee patience and tenacity. If there is anything I’ve learned it’s that patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness, and Yankees know just how to use it to their advantage.”

He smiled and held her close. “Susannah, will you marry me and sleep beside me for the rest of my life, if I promise to be appealing on occasion?”

“If I can pick the occasions,” she said and raised up on her toes to kiss him.

“Is that yes or maybe?”

“It’s maybe a lifetime won’t be long enough.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t meet you sooner.”

“You wouldn’t have liked me sooner.”

“How do you know?”

“I wasn’t very likable.”

“Maybe I could have changed all that.”

“Maybe we should be happy with what we’ve got now.”

“Maybe you’re right. When are we going to tell your aunts? When do you want to get married?”

“It better be soon on both accounts. I know what it feels like to be illegitimate, Reed. What we did could give me a baby. I want it to be born in wedlock.”

“It will be, love. It will be, I promise.”

Reed walked her back to the house and kissed her once more. “I’m finding it damnably difficult to let you go. I want to keep on holding you.”

“If Aunt Dally hears us, you may find it damnably difficult to hold a cup of coffee…after she breaks your arm.”

He released her with a soft chuckle and kissed her. “I’ll see you in the morning. Now, get inside. It’s freezing out here.”

He opened the door, and she went inside, bestowing a melting smile on him before she closed the door.

Reed pulled his coat together and buttoned it, then turned the collar up before he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He walked back to his house, his thoughts on Susannah and what had happened. He was facing the reversal of many of his life’s decisions.

In his house he noticed that the light seemed much brighter than it had before. Details seemed to leap out at him. He caught the scent of Susannah lingering in the room, and was aware of the acuteness of his senses all over again.

When he was in bed, he folded his arms behind his head and stared at the faint shadows on the ceiling. He remembered that day when he’d driven Susannah and her aunts to church—the day Violette gave him a Bible and told him to read
Job
. He remembered, too, how the words had moved him to the point of bringing God back into his life after turning his back on Him during the dark, dark years.