Wicked Wyoming Nights (16 page)

“I never thought of bringing anything to eat,” Eliza said with barely a thought to spare for Ira, home alone with no one to prepare his midday meal. “I was sure I’d be back before now”

“We’re at least three hours away from your cabin, but I brought along a little something.” Cord pointed to an enormous basket resting under the seat.

“Did you fix it yourself?”

“You wouldn’t be able to eat it if I had. Ginny Church fixed it. She’s has been trying to get me married off for years, and she packed enough food for us to stay gone for a week. Maybe she thinks I can weaken your resistance if I feed you.”

Eliza hardly knew how to respond. His reference to marriage was made in fun, but by now she knew that marriage was what she wanted.

“There’s a willow-and-cottonwood thicket on the creek not far from here,” Cord said. The sun had grown quite hot, but Eliza had been in such a continual fever of excitement she hadn’t noticed. Cord stopped the wagon next to the trees and helped Eliza down. He chose a shady spot in the lush grass and spread out one blanket after another until he had a mat thick enough to take the hardness out of the ground. “If you’ll set out the lunch, I’ll unharness the horse.”

The enormous basket contained chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, cold ham, several kinds of preserves, a pot of creamy butter, and some biscuits tightly wrapped in a napkin and still retaining some of the heat from the oven that baked them early that morning. There was also honey, an apple and raisin pie, and a bottle of wine.

“Give me the butter and wine, and I’ll put them in the creek.” Cord’s voice behind her made her jump. “We can put the bread and meat on a rock to warm it up.”

“Shouldn’t we go ahead and eat? The ants will get it if we leave it too long.”

“I want to show you something first.” He led her to a rise a few hundred feet beyond the edge of the thicket and, facing her to the east, swung his arm in an arc that encompassed land stretching for miles in all directions. “Everything as far as you can see is mine,” he said with the simple pride of ownership.

“Do you mean you
own
all this?”

“I’ve had to bend a few rules and it’s taken every bit of cash I could lay my hands on, but most of it is mine. I do my best to control all the rest.”

“How about the place where we camped that first day?”

“No, and unfortunately it’s right in the center of my range. I’d have no end of trouble if a homesteader settled there.”

“Can anyone homestead it?”

“Anyone willing to build on it.”

“And then sell it to you?”

“That’s how I got most of my land,” he confessed with a grin, “having my boys stake claims and then sell to me.”

“Then I could claim it and sell it to you?”

Cord looked at her strangely. “You would do that for me, against your uncle’s wishes?

I would do anything in the world if you would just keep looking at me like that, she thought. Aloud she said, “He wouldn’t have to know.”

“I’m afraid he would.”

“It doesn’t really matter” she answered, unsure of what she did mean but badly disconcerted by the way he was looking at her.

Suddenly he smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Let’s eat. You might feel less foolhardy if you weren’t starving to death.” Cord’s face gave no clue to his thoughts, but Eliza vowed she would stake a claim to that land just as soon as she learned how to do it.

Lunch was leisurely and wonderful.

“Do you always eat this much?” Cord asked with a laugh as she bit into her third piece of chicken.

“I didn’t have any breakfast,” she said with her mouth full. “It must be past noon.”

“Later,” Cord said, pouring out some more wine. Eliza looked doubtfully at the pale liquid. It bubbled excitedly, but after just one glass everything around her had assumed a much friendlier hue. Her uncle’s scowling disapproval had long since dwindled into insignificance.

“What is this stuff?” she asked, taking a sip from the glass. “It tastes awfully funny.”

“It’s champagne. It seems the Orrs left a few bottles behind, so Ginny put them away for a suitable occasion. Apparently, she thinks this is one.”

“It makes me feel delightfully woozy. I don’t think I can stand up.”

“That’s because you’ve eaten so much you weigh twenty pounds more.” Cord laughed. “You haven’t had enough to get intoxicated.”

“Is this how the men feel in the saloon?”

“Not exactly, but something like it.”

“Hmmm. Do you think I would like beer or whiskey?”

“No, I
don’t
,” Cord stated decisively.

“I didn’t think so, but why do I like this?”

“Wine is different from strong spirits. Still, I think you’ve had enough. Lie back a little while until the dizziness goes off.”

“I think I will,” she said, feeling relieved not to have to make any more conversation.

“Go to sleep if you like,” he said with a tender smile.

“No, I just want to lean back.” But her eyelids began to sink. “I got up so early,” she mumbled, and before long she was sound asleep.

Chapter 12

Eliza opened her eyes to find a canopy of trees overhead.

“Do you feel better now?” Cord’s voice startled her, and she sat up so quickly his image spun madly before her eyes.

“I fell asleep. How awful.”

“You barely dozed.” He smiled at her in a way that made her pulse race tumultuously.

“But you must have so many other things to do.”

“They can wait. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you sleep?”

“Please don’t. You know I never understand it when people tease me.”

“I’m not teasing. Do you think I would do anything to hurt you?”

“Not intentionally, but you can’t understand what it’s like to want so much to be beautiful. Uncle made sure I never thought I was more than passable.”

“And you believed him? What about all those men at the saloon? And I’m sure Croley Blaine hasn’t missed a chance to flatter you.”

“That’s just it. They’re all flattering me.”

“Not Lavinia’s girls. They dislike you intensely, and there’s no more sure sign of beauty than the envy of another woman.”

“Do you
really
think I’m beautiful?” she asked, hoping to be convinced. Cord took her face in his hands.

“I’ve never seen any woman who was half as beautiful as you. Ever since that day on the creek I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. I tried during the roundup, but I came back to find a shy, entrancing darling cringing before a room full of drunks, and all hope of keeping my distance was gone. It was all I could do to keep from sweeping you into my arms that night.”

“I was never happier to see anyone,” she said with becoming honesty, her eyes sparkling happily. “I almost wished there were a few more for you to knock down.”

“Do I have to knock somebody down before I can do this?” Cord kissed her. It was a long, lingering kiss and it left Eliza weak and breathless.

“No, not if you really want to.” Cord kissed her again, ruthlessly this time.

“Now do you believe I want to?” he asked softly.

“Yes,” she replied unevenly. “Oh, yes!” She threw her arms around his neck in a passionate embrace. Cord let his fingers trail over the planes of her face, caressing each part with a lingering wonder. As his fingers trailed over her chin and down her neck Eliza shivered convulsively, completely lost in a welter of sensations.

She could barely believe Cord found her beautiful and desirable, but the feeling was so wonderful, so exhilarating, she would have been willing to die rather than give it up. After a lifetime of avoiding men, her anxiety equally divided between dread of what they might do and fear they wouldn’t find her attractive enough to want to do anything, it was sheer bliss to bask in the warmth of Cord’s adoration. Her entire body tingled with anticipation as waves of happiness wafted over her.

“Lucy says every woman in Buffalo is after you.”

“It wouldn’t matter if every woman in the
world
were after me. You are the only one I want.”

“Why?” She found it difficult to believe he
really
meant what he said. Years of being ignored had nearly ‘destroyed her sense of worth, but in the short time she had been in Buffalo she had begun to be appreciated and her spirits had soared, nourished like a thirsty desert plant that grows doubly fast when the fickle rains come. But in Cord’s love she had more than admiration; she had someone who had sought her out, had worked to earn her approval, and had done it all without asking for a reward.

“I’m not sure I can give you a reason for it. Certainly not a listing of qualities I like. I loved you from the moment I saw you.”

“But you’ve got to have a reason to love somebody.”

“Why? Do you?”

Eliza was nonplussed. “I don’t know. I suppose I do, but I’ve never thought about it like that.”

Cord laughed softly.

“I didn’t know until the picnic I even liked you particularly. It upset me so dreadfully I couldn’t think sensibly for days.”

“Do you have to think about it?”

“Aunt Sarah always said I should never do anything without a good reason. She said people make their most serious mistakes when they act without considering beforehand.”

“Does your uncle follow that advice?”

“No, and I suppose I couldn’t want a better reason to heed Aunt Sarah’s warning.”

“Okay. If you
must
know, I’ll tell you, but you’ll think it’s pretty silly.” Eliza found it impossible to believe Cord could be silly.

“You’re so lovely it would be hard not to love you. You sing like an angel and bake pie a man would walk a mile for.”

Eliza felt disappointed. She expected him to mention milking the cow next.

“But I don’t think I love you for any of those reasons. I love you because you’re so worried about the children’s education and are too soft-hearted to tell Otis Redding you’ll switch him if he touches another pigtail. I love you because you need someone to protect you from your own innocence and because there’s something about the look you give me that makes me feel so big and powerful and completely wonderful I damn near burst my britches with pride.”

Eliza stared at him misty-eyed. How could she, insignificant soul that she was, make this huge, powerful man who owned thousands of cows and hundreds of thousands of acres, and who dared any man to touch what was his—how could she affect him so?

“I know that can’t really be true,” she said, barely able to say the words, “but it was so very nice of you to say it.”

“
Nice
be damned,” Cord said explosively. “I think my cows are
nice
and my land is
nice
, but I never felt as if losing them would tear the insides out of
me
. I think about them constantly because they are part of the work I do, but they’re not part of me. They don’t keep me awake wondering if they’re comfortable, if they’re happy, or if they might permit me to spend a little more time with them.”

“And I do all those things?”

“You’re the most wonderful thing that has come into my life. When will you believe I’ll never be happy until I spend the rest of my life loving you?”

“Not until you tell me at least once every day.”

“Neither once a day nor once an hour will be enough until you
believe
I love you, until you
know
it so thoroughly I won’t ever have to tell you again.” He took her in his arms and kissed her roughly, bruising her mouth and bending her head back until she thought her neck would break. “I want you to know, beyond any doubt, I don’t look for any higher honor on this earth than for you to become my wife.”

Eliza almost stopped breathing. Not even she could doubt his intentions now. “I don’t know anything about being a rancher’s wife. I’m nervous around horses and the only cow I know anything about is a milk cow. It’ll be just like taking on a new hand, only one much greener than Royce and Sturgis.”

“I’ll chance it if you will. I don’t know anything about being a husband, but I’m willing to dedicate the rest of my life to making you the happiest woman in Wyoming.”

“Please love me,” she begged, her desperate cry echoing from the empty well of ten loveless years. “Love me until I scream and try to drive you away. Hold me tight and never let me go.”

Cord’s arms closed around her so tightly for a moment Eliza thought he
would
crush her to death and she would die in his arms, but not only did she continue to live, she felt more alive than ever. Her head fell back, and she shivered with pleasure as his lips trailed down the white, fluted arch of her throat. She held him tightly, returning with full value the intensity of his caress. His rough cheek, newly shaved and smelling refreshingly clean, tore at the satin texture of her cheeks and neck, but she invited him to kiss her again and again. His lips had ignited a fire within her that burned away all the years of doubt and misery.

She felt engulfed by his embrace; in contrast, her arms around his neck felt like the merest thread of restraint. He was like a living, breathing dynamo in her arms, one that could explode at any minute and shatter her whole fragile existence. Yet this awe-inspiring strength enclosed her in a protective circle that made her feel wonderfully safe.