The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (8 page)

There was a brilliant flash of lightning followed almost immediately by the roar of thunder over-head. Then the rain started. Light at first, but as the day grew darker, the rain picked up speed. Soon Ed could hardly hear Lizzie over the din of the rain pounding the tin roof.

She took a couple of plates off the shelf above the kitchen counter and dished up the food, before handing him one.

“Thanks.” He set his plate on the table and then held her chair out.

“You’re welcome. Do you play cards?”

They both sat and began eating, the niceties second to their hunger.

“Some.” He figured that was a better answer than
sure I play poker all the time.
“What kind of cards? I warn you, I’m a very quick study.”

“How about a little stud poker?” She put a bite of cheese in her mouth.

Watching her eat was almost sexual. And then her tongue darted out and licked a bit of butter from the sandwich off her lip. He had to close his eyes for a minute to get hold of himself. Lord, what he’d like to do with those lips. He could almost feel their softness beneath his. He took a breath and remembered this was Lizzie, his fiancée. Or Mal’s. Damn, he was beginning to hate the man, forgetting for a moment that he
was
the man.

“That I know how to play. San Francisco is home to lots of gambling establishments. Not that I frequented them.” Shaking his head, he held up his hands. “But I did often enough to learn how to play poker.” He took a piece of the venison and put it in his mouth. The meat was nearly as good cold as it had been hot the night before. Atina was a great cook. Her food sure beat the hell out of his or Harvey’s cooking.

“Good.” Lizzie rubbed her hands together. “I haven’t been able to play in a long time.”

“Why?”

“Because I always win. No one wants to play with me.”

“Right,” Ed laughed at her confident tone. “Tell me the real reason.”

“That is the real reason.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Why would I lie? You’re my fiancé and will find out anyway.”

“Well, don’t go easy on me. I want to beat you fair and square.”

“Be assured, if you beat me, you did it honestly.” She shook her head. “I don’t throw games for anyone.”

That was another thing Ed loved about Lizzie. In the month he’d been there, he’d never seen her give anything but her best. Whether it was working with the cattle, mucking stalls or helping Atina with the laundry tubs, Lizzie gave it her all.

Lizzie grabbed the deck of cards from the shelf above the stove and the box of matches and took them to the table.

“Let’s play for matchsticks. We’ll each start with thirty.”

“Fine by me.” Ed counted out the matches for each of them while she shuffled and dealt the cards. “I’m going to make some coffee.”

“Good idea, the hot liquid will help us keep warm.”

They played a couple of hands and munched on cookies, before the coffee finished making. Ed won as many as he lost. Lizzie was a good poker player.

“So Mal, are you a bluffer. So far you haven’t been. When you bet you have it.”

“Oh, I bluff now and again.”

“Just on cards?” She sipped her coffee and eyed him over the rim of her cup.

“What? What do you mean?” He knew the jig was up. She’d figured out he wasn’t Mal and he’d have to come clean. Would she marry him anyway? His heart pounded hard in his chest and he was sure she could hear it.

“Just that you seem to be better at some things than you let on. Like hunting. Getting the rabbit on your second shot was more than just a stroke of luck and I’m thinking that you could have gotten the animal on the first shot if you had wanted to.”

Ed closed his eyes and thought for a moment. “I didn’t want to seem too good, but I’d been practicing a lot since we started corresponding.”

“I wondered.”

Ed was so relieved he wanted to leap across the table and kiss her.

The storm roared over head. Wind whistled through the door where it didn’t quite meet the threshold, hitting the fire, making it dance and throwing shadows on the walls.

A bolt of lightning through the windows on either side of the door lit up the cabin like the morning sun.

Thunder boomed, sounding for all the world like cannons blasting right over the shack. Lizzie jumped and cursed.

“It’s getting late, I think I’ll hit the hay. There’s a pad under the bed you can sleep on.” She got up and pulled the bedroll from under the cot.

“All right.” Ed took the pallet from her, dropped it to the floor in front of the fire and then held out his hand. “Why don’t you sit with me a bit? We can get to know each other a little more. Do you realize we’re supposed to get married and I haven’t even kissed you?”

She looked down and softly asked, “Do you want to?”

“Hell, yes, I want to.” He realized she sounded so bold in her letters but this shy side to her personality was new. And he liked it as well. “I’ve been waiting for you to give me some sort of signal that you wanted me to, but you haven’t so I figured it’s time I asked. But I don’t want to do anything that will scare you away.”

“I’m not scared, Mal.” She took his hand and slid next to him on the pallet, tucking her knees beneath her. “I don’t know what you wanted me to do. I’ve never been engaged before. I’ve never even kissed anyone before.”

“Well, now.” He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “That’s good. I get to teach you right.”

With infinite care, he used his index finger under her chin to lift her head. She kept her eyes down-turned.

“Lizzie. Look at me, sweetheart.”

Slowly, she lifted her chin and looked up at him.

He spotted complete trust in her eyes. Trust that he wouldn’t hurt her and, by God, he wouldn’t. He’d protect her with everything he was. With his life.

He lowered his head until their lips met. He sipped from her, then gently opened and pressed his tongue against her closed lips.

Eyes wide, she pulled back.

“What are you doing?”

“I want to put my tongue in your mouth. It’s another way to kiss. It’s a way for a man and woman to show they care for each other.” He stroked her lovely face with the back of his fingers. “Are you willing to try? Do you trust me?”

“Okay.” She nodded, a smile twitched her lips. “For you, I’ll try it. You’ve been willing to try everything I’ve thrown at you and haven’t balked once. I trust you, Mal.”

He took her lips again.

This time she opened her mouth wide.

He pulled back and smiled. “Just open a little for me.”

She did and he slid his tongue inside and mingled with hers. Not for long and then he pulled away. She came with him and issued a small mewl of protest when he broke away.

“Are you sure you’ve never been kissed before? You’re awfully good at it.”

“I’m a fast learner.” She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his head downward. She took his lips and he was gratified that she pressed for entry this time.

Ed broke away to rain little quick kisses down her neck and was rewarded when she angled her neck to give him better access. He softly chuckled.

“What? Did I do something wrong?” Lizzie straightened and tried to pull away.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. You’re doing everything just exactly right.”

She relaxed and started kissing him again. Lizzie liked kissing. She liked the way she felt. All her insides were alive and aching. Wanting so much more than just a kiss.

“Mal. Help me. These feelings…”

“Are perfectly natural. Those feelings are desire. Well the beginning of it, anyway. You, or at least your body, want to make love. Kissing is the start of that.” He ran his hand up and down her back. “Then there’s touching, and finally making love.”

“I know how to make love, I was raised on a ranch, but I never thought just kissing would make me ache like this.” At the thought of kissing him her heart beat so fast she could feel it and her breathing quickened. “I’ve never felt anything like this before…I want you with me. I want to touch your skin and have you touch mine.”

“That’s all part of desire. But we’ll take it one step at a time. I think sticking to kissing is probably all we should do now. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Please, if it feels more like this, take advantage of me.”

He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. “You are such a sweet thing and you do tempt me, Lizzie. You tempt me mightily.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming.” How can he be so rational at a time like this?

He sighed. “But, you’re not ready and I’m afraid I want you too much right now to take your needs into consideration. Just let me hold you and we’ll kiss a little longer. For our first time together, that’s all we need to do.”

“All right.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. She wanted so much more. Her body ached and she knew Mal could ease that ache. Lizzie was well aware of what happened between a man and a woman. When she was little, she walked into her parents’ bedroom while they were making love. The incident was something she never forgot or the fact that her father put a lock on the door so she couldn’t do that again. Natural or not, they didn’t want her to share those moments with them.

She smiled at the memory.

They stayed sitting on the pad for Mal’s bed, kissing, hugging, leaning into one another, for a long time. Finally, she yawned.

“Time for you to go to sleep, young lady.” He turned her face to his and kissed her soundly. “Morning comes early.”

“All right. Turn your head so I can get undressed.”

He did.

She quickly unbuttoned her shirt and shucked her denim pants. She slept in her camisole and bloomers. If she’d been by herself, she would have slept in the all-together like she did at home.

“Okay, you can look if you want.”

“I always want to look at you.” Mal took off his boots and his gun belt. “That will never change. I care for you Lizzie. I know it’s only been a short time that we’ve known each other, not counting the letters. I feel like they didn’t tell me enough about you at all. Eight letters isn’t a lot of information. I’ve learned so much more in this last month.”

“Me, too. You’re almost like a different man.”

“But I am a different man.” He latched on to her words. “The man you knew was a merchant. This man is a rancher, or will be soon. John Peterson sent a messenger out to the ranch yesterday. Mr. Abernathy accepted my offer. I’m closing on it this Friday and I want you there with me. I’m putting your name on the deed too, just like the bank account. Everything I have is ours now.”

“So you went ahead and did it. Well, I guess that’s wonderful. But you haven’t even seen the place; I don’t understand how could you put a bid on it?” She turned on her side, leaned up on one elbow and rested her head in her hand.

“I knew you wanted it and John Peterson made the arrangements. Done is done. I told you, I’m a different man.”

“I love the Abernathy place. The house is so beautiful. He built it for his bride and the missus really kept the place nice. It’s got a garden out front surrounded by a white picket fence. They had a bunch of kids and wanted a place for them to play that was out of the way of the horses and wagons. Do you want kids, Mal?”

“I do if you do. I always wanted more brothers and sisters when I was growing up, so yeah, I’d like a few kids. How about you?” Ed faced her lying like she was on one elbow with the mat cushioning their arms from the cold floor.

“Hm…I think I’d like to have about four. That seems like a good round number.”

“Four it is or maybe six or ten or…”

“Stop.” She laughed. “You’re outrageous. You’d have me pregnant all the time and I don’t want to do that, so let’s hope four is enough.”

He chuckled. “Get some sleep now.”

“I will. Goodnight, Mal.”

“Goodnight, sweet Lizzie.”

What did he mean that he wanted her too much? What came next? What would lesson two be?

CHAPTER 6

The next day they worked until about three in the afternoon. Lizzie called a halt and drove the wagon back to the line shack where they’d spent the night. And what a night it had been. Lizzie found herself aching every time she thought about kissing Mal and that was almost constantly. Would she feel this way after they finally made love? She sure hoped not. The sensation was disconcerting.

They got back to the shack, unhitched the horses from the wagon and saddled them for the ride home. They were pretty far out and it would take a more than an hour to get home if they didn’t gallop. The horses had been mostly standing all day and so weren’t worn out, so a nice canter would do just fine.

When they arrived home, Atina was finishing up dinner. She’d roasted both back haunches of the deer and served them with potatoes, pinto beans, fresh bread with butter, green beans from her garden out back and gravy she made from the meat drippings.

Lizzie’s stomach growled as soon as she smelled the cooking meat.

“I’m starving.” She turned to Mal. “How about you?”

“I am. Apples and cheese for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch didn’t hardly take the edge off. My stomach thinks my throat’s been cut, it’s so empty.”