desire.
One was rushed in its hunger, starved and grasping for any morsels it could steal while allowed, while the other understood there was a table set for each of them with plenty to feast from. She found she much preferred the latter and slanted her mouth to August’s once more in a sensual and thorough kiss.
When they parted, Selyah’s breath had not been stolen, but her heart? Her heart had been filled with more affection and tenderness than she knew was possible, and it overflowed running over and filling up the spaces between them like water until they were both soaked through and left clinging to one another for fear of drowning. She opened her eyes and looked at him, fingers curled tight in the material of his shirt.
“I know,” she said again. They stared at one another in silence, the silence transforming the stables from ordinary to a peaceful respite for the couple. Their affection had grown that day, the trust of speaking freely nourishing their hearts in a way that neither could have anticipated.
Some said love was pain, that it was hard, a thing to be cultivated with a careful hand and Seylah estimated they were not wrong in their assessment, but she knew it to be another thing: Magical. There was no way to explain the beauty of this moment, the mundane became extraordinary and she swore there was no place finer than the straw and sawdust covered floors of the stables of this frontier town. There couldn’t be when August was holding her this closely or looking at her with such open affection in his eyes that she was speechless.
No, this, this was pure magic.
Love was magic.
“Ready for our ride?” He asked her, kissing her again, the quick press of his lips both chaste and intimate in the casualness of his touch. She nodded in agreement and in short order August had them both up, she in front of him in the saddle, his arms sturdy and strong on either side of her. She leaned her head against his chest and smiled at the feel of him at her back. Oft she had wondered what it would be like to ride like this, in August’s arms in a display of intimacy their friendship would never allow to happen.
She had thought it would be exciting, perhaps a bit scandalous, but now she saw that it was neither of those. Instead her place in August’s arms was comforting, it was safe, and most of all it was hers.
And that was perhaps the most magical thing of all.
Chapter 12
“There’s a caller here for you,” Rose’s singsong voice reached Seylah’s ears. She was sitting in the parlor a book in hand when her sister had entered the room with her announcement.
“What?” she looked up from her reading and took care to mark the page. It would not do to find herself lost when she returned to her novel.
Florence waved a hand, her head still bent over the adverts she was reading. “She means to say that August Leclaire is here for you.”
“As usual,” Delilah added from where she was doing her needlework beside the fireplace. The days were growing chilly with the onset of autumn. Thunderstorms were sweeping through the area regularly leaving the ground wet and muddy. It was these awkward days between fall and winter that Seylah longed for winter. She did not love the snow so much as wish for the rain to end. Rain was always more trouble than it was worth where they lived, and at least they would be able to settle in for the winter once the snow arrived. Settling in meant an end to the local cattle drives and it also meant an end to the homesteaders pushing their luck by way of expanding their holdings with illegal claims.
Their fathers had been tense and tight lipped on the matter which meant only one thing: things were getting worse. It was no secret that the men of the Wickes-Barnes household were prone to keeping their troubles close to themselves. It was made easier when the men shared their concerns with each other rather than burden the women in their lives with worry, and the touching, if misguided sentiment never failed to inspire the ire of said women.
Seylah wished they would learn but every year her fathers did the same thing. This year it appeared the homesteaders would be the conflict her fathers kept close, but with winter on the horizon they would all