Laura heard no word from Cash that night or the next day. Rumors abounded. She heard he’d been down at the tavern drinking and carousing all night. She heard he’d taken one of the prostitutes from the hotel to the house. She heard he was broke and selling off the property. She heard many things, but she could believe only what she saw for herself.
Since she had no mind to go down to the tavern on her own, she would have to wait and see what happened. Jonathan wanted her to go into Lexington and stay with family. She probably ought to, just so she wouldn’t be putting him out of his house, but she dragged her feet with one excuse or another. She had to see Cash, to know that he was all right, and she couldn’t do that from Lexington.
Another night went by without word from him. Laura knew he was still around. No one would let her forget. If she walked down to the store to pick up thread, she was stopped by half the town to ask after Cash’s plans for the farm and to advise her of where they had seen him last. He was here, and he was alive, but he was avoiding her.
She was being foolish to linger, hoping he would come to her if she stayed. In all likelihood Cash was waiting for her to leave to carry out whatever presumptuous plans he had in mind. Jonathan obviously knew more than he was letting on, and he wanted her out of town.
And since no one would tell her anything, she couldn’t leave. Steve Breckinridge stopped by with an invitation from his mother to go shopping in Lexington for a few days, and Laura knew then that he was in on this plan too. It was hard to imagine Cash dealing with the Breckinridges, but they had never offered to take her under their wing before.
Steve expressed impatience at her refusal. Jonathan looked even more harried. Laura felt sorry for them, but she was tired of taking care of everyone else. This time she was taking care of herself. And taking care of herself meant taking care of Cash.
The next day she heard that Cash had torn up the tavern the night before, after the Raiders hanged another poor soul just outside of town. Laura had an uneasy twinge that the two incidents might be connected, but she wasn’t exactly certain how. No one else saw it that way. They just clucked their tongues and expressed a certain malicious sympathy that Cash was going to pieces now that his wife had died.
By the end of that day Laura had almost made up her mind to ride out to the farm to see if she could find him in the morning.
She checked on Mark in his cradle, then sat at the vanity to brush out her hair. Since she had never been blessed with Sallie’s long luxurious curls, Laura kept her hair trimmed to the middle of her back. It was easier to tend, and it looked thicker, fuller that way. At a choked noise behind her, she swung around in fright.
Cash grabbed another candle and lit it, holding it high to fall on the shimmering halo falling about Laura’s breasts and shoulders. The lacy yoke of her nightdress lay untied at her throat, revealing the shadowy hollow and swell beneath. He had thought he knew this woman intimately, but tonight showed he knew nothing at all. The nurturing woman he had come to know could be a temptress as well. He ached to reach out and trace the rounded curves pressing against the nearly transparent cloth.
Once recovered from her fright, Laura recognized her effect on him. Cash could tell that from the emerald gleam in her eyes. Her gaze lingered at the open neck of his shirt, halting mischievously just below the band of his trousers at the evidence of his desire. Cash nearly dropped the candle as he fell victim to her bold look.
“You’re becoming a damned nuisance, you know that, don’t you?” he asked harshly, setting the candle aside as he reached for her.
“You’re such a romantic person, Cassius Wickliffe. Must you always swear at me?” Laura rose and stepped into his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.
He clasped her waist, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled as if coming home.
The smile did it. Cash could no more resist Laura’s smile than a drowning man could resist a rope. He had expected harsh recriminations and arguments. He had expected objects flung at his head. He had expected rejection. But even when he deserved it, when Laura had every reason to boot him out, she smiled at him with a come-hither look that tore him up by the roots and flung him against the wall.
“It’s for your own good, Laura,” Cash murmured, even as he bent to take the kiss she offered.
Her acceptance of the light brush of his lips ended the war raging within. Laura’s lips never lied, even when they were silent. They met his firmly, responding to his every demand with an equal demand of her own. Cash felt a shudder of deep, abiding desire as he drew her up against him and took her mouth with a hunger a mere kiss couldn’t assuage.
Feeling her heart thudding against his chest, Cash resisted a moment longer, nibbling at her ear beneath the heavy cloud of hair. But the strain of keeping away would be too great shortly. He lowered her to the floor and allowed his hand to stray to the curve of her breast. “This isn’t why I came here, love.”
“Probably not,” she agreed with a wry twist of her lips, her gaze never leaving his. “I’m certain it was some other noble reason that brought you here. You’ll never make a gallant knight, Cash. But that doesn’t matter. I always thought Scott’s heroes were pusillanimous ninnies.”
Cash nearly choked on a laugh. “Remind me to have you repeat that again in the morning when I’ve had time to think about it. What am I going to do with you, Laura? You’re like no other woman I know. You’re supposed to be so mad at me that you’d take the first opportunity offered to get the hell out of here. I figured I would have to chase you across half the country. Why can’t you act like anyone else?”
His hands rubbed unconsciously up and down her sides, savoring the curve of her breasts and waist. She tilted her head to watch him with curiosity.
“Because I thought I heard you say you loved me. Because I trust you. Because I don’t want to ever be parted from you again. Is that too much to say all at one time? Should I scream the words at you and hit you so you’ll understand?”
A chuckle lodged deep in his throat as Cash pulled her into his arms again. “Please, don’t. I remember what happened the last time you screamed at me. The next time I make love to you, I want it to be with wine and roses all around. Lord, I’ve been such a fool, Laura. That first time, I just thought it was something that happened only once in a thunderstorm. I never imagined it could always be like that.”
“Maybe it can’t. Last time involved a thunderstorm too. Maybe all you require is thunder and lightning.”
Laura gasped as Cash suddenly flung her to the bed. “You’re all the thunder and lightning that I require, Laura. But now isn’t the time to let you know that. You have to get out of here.”
Cash’s mouth nibbled hers, and Laura steadied her hands on his shoulders. “I love you, Cash,” she whispered in his ear.
He stiffened, and stared at her in incredulity. She ran her fingers into his hair and caught a hank, keeping him from going too far. “Don’t look at me like that. If I’m going to be sinful, it might as well be for a reason. Maybe I didn’t know what love was that first time, but I do now.”
“No, you don’t.” Cash buried his face against the side of her neck and kissed her there. She squirmed deliciously beneath him, and he sought new zones to explore, producing a satisfying gasp as he nibbled her ear and rubbed an aroused nipple between his fingers. “You’re just hungry for this, and I’m the only man who’s given it to you.”
Laura punched his shoulders and swung her feet in an attempt to connect with his shins. “Cassius Wickliffe, you are an obnoxious beast! Get off me before I pull every hair out of your head. I don’t have to listen to your insults.”
Her attempts to maim him lacked the fury of the last time they had fought. Cash brushed aside the open bodice of her gown and kissed her breast. She arched eagerly against him, all protest gone. She was the most responsive woman he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing, and he knew now that he wasn’t going to leave until he’d had her once more. Just once more, that was all.
“Hold still, Laura, and let me love you as I ought to. And then you’re leaving Stone Creek until I tell you it’s safe to come back. Promise me you’ll leave.”
His tone was demanding, but Laura responded more to his actions. His lips had stopped their magic, and she understood the threat implied. If she didn’t promise, he would go away, and she couldn’t bear that, not now. She’d worry about his words later. “I’ll go. Don’t stop. Cash. . . ”
He cut off her words by the heated response of his lips. Laura gave a strangled cry at the sensuous tug, and then Cash’s hands were beneath her, pulling at her gown, lifting her against him, and her mind ceased to function beneath the barrage of sensations.
While his mouth lovingly attended to her breasts, his hand stroked the juncture of her thighs, and Laura was helpless to do more than grab his shoulders and writhe beneath the wild waves of pleasure lifting her. By the time he finally unfastened his trousers, she was frantic, and she cried in ecstasy when Cash entered her with a swiftness that took her breath away.
Before Cash, she had always imagined the marriage act to be something done furtively, under the covers, in darkness. This brazen act of pleasure had never been within her ability to imagine. She wanted the sensation of Cash inside her, his heavy weight covering her. She wanted the scent and heat of him, the muscular strength rippling over her, as their bodies joined and thrust and fought for release.
Cash’s hoarse command of, “Now, Laura!” was sufficient to release what little control she had left. Her body exploded with his, the contractions ripping through them together while space and time ceased to exist for one brief moment. In the aftermath, Cash lifted Laura more fully onto the bed and joined her there.
“Wine and roses next time,” he promised as she curved into him, reluctant to let him go.
“There will be a next time?” she asked sleepily, demanding reassurance.
“If that’s what you want, there will be a next time,” he said, “but be certain that’s what you want. Once I have you, I’ll not let you go. I keep what’s mine, Laura.”
“I know.” Eyes closed, drinking in the luxurious sensation of Cash’s hard body holding hers, Laura knew she should be demanding explanations, asking questions, looking for some security for the future. But she couldn’t shatter this peace with the world outside. She pressed her palm into the curve of his neck and shoulder and brought her lips to the base of his throat.
She couldn’t have given him a more forceful reply. Gathering Laura into his, Cash covered her hair with kisses. He would succeed. He had to succeed. For everything he had ever wanted was right here, without any strings attached. For the first time since he could remember, tears stung his eyes. He’d thought it would be a cold day in hell before he ever cried. Instead, it was a brief glimpse of heaven.
“I’ve got to go, Laura. I can’t stay. Will you take the train in the morning? I have to know you’re safe.”
She finally shoved away enough to see the shadows of his face in the candlelight. His eyes were barely more than dark sockets, and she caressed the bristle of his cheek. “And how am I to know that you will be safe?”
A tender smile curved his lips as he brushed the thick hair cascading over her shoulder. “It’s never mattered to anyone before. I don’t understand why it should matter now.”
She regarded this nonsense patiently. “You know better than that. You’ve always mattered to me. Now, promise me you won’t do anything foolish. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’d rather have you alive than anything else that I can think of.”
And strangely enough, Cash believed her. Laura had been the one to help him when no one else would, even when she was a little girl. She had been the one running at his heels when scarcely a soul would speak to him. Even now, she was the one who stood at his side when others turned their backs, who tended his needs when those who should have refused their duties. He found her devotion hard to believe, and he had denied it for years. But he would have to be the greatest fool alive to deny it now.
“I really think you mean that, pequeña.” Cash caressed Laura’s face with the back of his finger, enjoying the look of concern meant just for him. It was a rather heady sensation, this caring and being cared for. It might take time to get used to. “And I’m not planning on getting myself killed. This time, I mean to be around to watch you grow round if I’ve planted something here.” His hand moved to cover her abdomen.
Those were the words she evidently wanted to hear. Laura smiled and leaned back against the pillow, and Cash watched her until she slept, warming his hand against her belly.
He really did mean what he said, but he also knew life was full of uncertainties. What he was aiming to do was not conducive to a permanent existence in this world, despite his promise. He kissed Laura’s nose and swung from the bed.
He’d just have to make certain he killed Marshall Brown before Brown could kill him.