Temptation (A Temptation Novel) (27 page)

“I’ve been climbing out my window. It’s a pretty good drop from the second floor, too, but I’ve been managing to land without breaking anything so far.”

“How do you get back in?” I asked, worried.

“My folks don’t lock the basement door and the lock to my room is on the outside, so I just sneaked in last night. They never even knew that I was gone.”

“Who puts a lock on the outside of a kid’s door?” I questioned, silently fuming.

“My parents.”

“Wow, and I thought I had it bad.”

“What do you mean?” His potent curiosity came through in his voice.

“When I lock myself in my room to be alone, Sam tries to tear the door down like a raving lunatic.”

“Really?” He sounded bothered now.

“Yeah, but luckily my door has been around for a couple hundred years and it’s up to the challenge.” I giggled.

Quiet had descended in the loft again. He brought his hand to my chest, placing it over my heart, feeling the wild beating. He was so still, I wondered if he was falling asleep.

“I missed you so much. The only thing that’s kept me going this week was imagining what it would be like to hold you in my arms again.”

“I know. Me, too. I was so afraid that I’d never see you again—that you’d be sent away,” I whispered.

With an agonizingly strained voice, he said softly, “But I am going to be sent away. This Friday our driver is hauling me to my grandparents’ house in Pennsylvania. I’m to stay there until I settle down and find a wife.”

He sounded miserable. I didn’t know what to say. I was too young to have any ideas, other than running off to a Southern state to get hitched in some roadside wedding chapel.

Taking his big, callused hands between my own, I said in a fervent whisper, “Noah, we could run away together. I can do some research online about it, but I think that some of the Southern states allow kids to get married when they’re sixteen.”

“You would do that—run away with me and leave your family…and your life?”

“My life isn’t much without you in it. I couldn’t deal with you being gone, Noah. I’d have a nervous breakdown or something.”

He wrapped his arms securely around me and began kissing my neck. The electric current running through my veins consumed me as his mouth moved on the same small place for a long time. Fleetingly, part of my brain registered that he might be leaving a mark on the spot. Then another part of my brain warned me what I’d have to listen to from Sam if I did wake up with a hickey in the morning. Bringing my hand up, I carefully disengaged his lips from my skin and brought his mouth to my mouth—a perfectly safe place.

He was distracted now and broke the kiss off. Breathing hard, he said, “We can’t run off like a couple of stupid English kids. We have to be smart about this. There is an option, though.”

The “stupid English kids” statement did not go over well with me. I was experiencing slight irritation, along with all the crazy, out-of-control emotional excitement my body was dealing with.

Curiosity won over irritation, so I inquired, “What option?”

With sudden eagerness, he said, “Father told me he would accept a marriage union between us if…” He stumbled and paused for a second before rushing the words out. “If you become Amish.”

The words slammed into me. My brain seemed to cloud over. I wasn’t sure what I thought or what I should say. I could feel Noah shifting uneasily beneath me, while his fingers rubbed the skin on my arm nervously, waiting for my answer. I had actually imagined myself dressed like the Amish girls, going to bed with him each night and even carrying his baby around. But now, with the possibility of that reality looming on the horizon—for real—I was suddenly paralyzed with fear.

He must not have been able to wait any longer. “Rose…please…tell me what you’re thinking. Will you do it? Will you become Amish so that we can be together?” Pausing just a second, he went on with enthusiasm, “Just think of it. Every night I could hold you in my arms just like this, and no one would be able to keep us apart.”

Even in the thick darkness, I could picture his tortured face as he pleaded with me. But still I was torn.

“Why don’t you become English, Noah? Wouldn’t that work, too?” I countered.

His voice came out frosty, and I was sure he was grimacing. “No, that wouldn’t work for us. I wouldn’t have the ability to support you and our family in your world.”

“Couldn’t you go back to school? You’re supersmart—we could even go together. Think about how cool that would be,” I suggested.

Dashing my little illusion, he said, “I’m not going to an English school now. I’m too old for that, and besides, I don’t need to. My family’s business makes very good money and we could live comfortably. What’s the problem, Rose? Is it that you don’t want to miss out on driving a car or going to your rock concerts? Or maybe you can’t stand the thought of never being able to dance for all the English men again.”

That did it. The fury billowed up in me, and I couldn’t stop my hand from pulling free of his grasp. I smacked him hard on the side of his face. The sound seemed to echo across the loft. I immediately wished I could take it back when I realized that he might have a bigger mark on his face than I’d have on my neck. How would he explain
that
to his father?

Right when I anxiously squeaked, “I’m so sorry, Noah, I didn’t—” He grasped the hand that had been the weapon and pinned it down to the hay.

Through gritted teeth, he said, “Maybe what I said struck too close to home for you—is that it?”

Wincing at his words, I tried to move. Failing, I said helplessly, “Why are you being so mean to me, Noah? You’re asking me to give up my education, my family and my entire way of life. I’m only sixteen, for goodness’ sake. How could I decide that in just the blink of an eye?”

He continued to hold my hand and body uncomfortably tight. Even without seeing his face I could sense that a battle was raging inside him. Then without warning, he released his grip and brought his hands to my face with a softness that erased the memory of the discomfort. He stroked away the tears that had begun trickling down my cheeks, then brought his mouth along each line of wetness and kissed them, tasting the salty water with his tongue.

Mumbling, his face only inches from mine, his voice sounded pained when he said, “I’m sorry, Rose. I deserved your slap—I really did. It’s just that I love you so much, and I can’t begin to think of my world without you in it. I was so frightened when you didn’t immediately agree to become Amish. I just felt that if you really loved me, you’d give up your English life so we could be together.”

“I do love you. With all my heart I love you.” And I leaned into him, letting my mouth find his. I kissed him deeply, trying to prove that my words were true. My head was spinning out of control, and I was suddenly filled with indecision. With a gasp, I separated from him and tried to pull back, but he held me tight. I struggled with him until the words tumbled out of my mouth.

“Please, Noah—stop, I need some time to think this all out.”

He released me then and sighed with resignation. “We don’t have much time. Remember, I’ll be in Pennsylvania next week.”

Lifting my body and gently setting me on the hay, he climbed down the bales, walking away from me into the spot where the moonlight was shimmering through a window opening. I could finally see him, and I saw torture, anger, frustration and sadness all distorting his beautiful face. I couldn’t stop myself from jumping off the hay and running to him. I clung to his waist, burning, hot tears running freely over me and his shirt. He tried to act indifferent for a few seconds, but then his arms encircled me. I felt his warm strength holding me again.

Raising my chin with his finger, he told me in a hoarse voice, “You have to make a decision soon. I can’t live this way—not knowing what you really want. You have the power to keep us together. It’s all up to you now.”

With that, he leaned down and kissed me so softly it felt like a butterfly’s wings caressing my lips.

The roar of Sam’s truck pulling into the driveway made us both freeze in place, waiting. I heard the truck door open and slam shut and then a few seconds later the house door, as well.

“Boy, he’s keeping late hours,” Noah muttered.

“Yeah, he has a new girlfriend. I guess he was trying her out tonight.”

“You shouldn’t talk that way. It’s not very ladylike,” he reprimanded me.

Feeling slightly miffed, I said, “Well, it’s true.”

“And your father is okay with him staying out all night with his girlfriend?”

“I think Dad is too busy with his own woman to give Sam’s curfew much thought these days,” I said matter-of-factly.

“See what I mean about your society, Rose—there are no morals about such things. It’s disgusting.”

Anger boiled up in me again and I shot back, “Well, at least my dad doesn’t lock us up in our rooms and threaten to send us away to other states to get us hooked up with people we aren’t even interested in.” Life had come full circle in the past few days. Now
I was sticking up for Dad.

In the pale moonlight, I could see that my words had stung him. His lips were pressed tight, and I thought I could hear his teeth grinding. I didn’t want to part like this, with him hating me, but I was afraid to say anything else to him, fearing he’d rebuff me.

I didn’t need to worry, though. He bent down, and after lightly grasping my face in his hands, he kissed my forehead. The next second he was gone, heading down the steps, leaving me alone in the loft.

I hurried after him, just catching his arm in the doorway.

“When do you want to meet again?”

His eyes searched the darkness and he took a breath. “Tuesday—same time. And remember, Rose, I need an answer.”

He turned, and I watched him make his way through the moonlit hay field, moving slowly toward his prison cell. I didn’t move a muscle until he was completely out of sight. A shiver fluttered through me and I didn’t want to be standing there alone in the dark barnyard. Suddenly, finding my muscles, I whirled and ran to the house. Going through the doorway as quietly as a mouse, I tiptoed across the unlit kitchen—and smacked into a hard, unmovable object.
Crap.

Rubbing my nose, I waited for the light to go on. When it did, I was momentarily blinded, having to cover my eyes with my hands for a few seconds before I could start to blink. When I could finally see again, I wasn’t surprised to find Sam standing there, a glass of milk in hand. At that moment, I remembered the one factor I forgot to consider in all my hard-thought plans—that Sam would have a snack before he went to bed, even if it was three o’clock in the morning.

“Where the hell were you, sissy?” I actually stepped back, surprised by his words.

Defiantly, and hopefully sounding less intimidated than I actually was at the moment, I retaliated, “What about you, Sam? Where’ve you been all night?”

“That’s none of your business,” he shouted.

“Well, it’s none of your business where I was either.” I bravely stared him down.

With an exasperated sigh, he bellowed, “It’s not the same with girls. You’re the one who could get knocked up or kidnapped or something horrible like that. I, on the other hand, don’t have to worry about any of those things.”

Okay, my boyfriend was from the 1800s, but my brother lived in the Dark Ages. There was no talking to him about any of this. He was acting more like my father than my brother, and I didn’t like his role-playing one bit. I tried to walk by him, when his arm whipped out. Once again, he had my arm in a tight grip.

“Well, what do we have here?” He poked at my neck with his hard finger. I absently jerked my hand up to cover the spot, silently cursing Noah.

“Leave me alone, Sam,” I warned him with the most threatening look I could put on my face.