“You sure you can’t see through this screen?” Hopefully she sounded more chaste than she felt.
“If I were you I’d finish up quick.”
Emma turned and lifted the lid of her trunk. She drew out her nightgown and ever so slowly let it slide down her body. How wanton of her was it to imagine that the fabric gliding over her breasts was Matt’s calloused hand?
After one more toss of her hair, she stepped from behind the screen.
“Your turn,” she said lightly to cover her true yearnings.
Matt stood up from the bed when Emma crawled between the wall and Lucy to snuggle down onto the mattress.
“Every time I think I’ve got you figured out, you surprise the hell out of me,” he whispered.
She’d certainly surprised the hell out of herself. If it weren’t for Lucy lying smack in the center of the bed, Emma might have ripped this gown right off.
The strange urge didn’t ease any when Matt didn’t go behind the screen to get undressed. He faced her with a lock of hair brushing the deepening crease in his cheek, unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off. He hung it over the screen, then untied the scarf from around his neck and draped it over the shirt.
She’d seen men remove their shirts for farm work or field chores, but she’d never wanted to reach out and touch any of them. Maybe it was the moonlight painting Matt’s muscles in strokes of bronze and silver that made her fingers itch.
Maybe it was the fact that she was his legally wedded wife and could reach out with a nearly clear conscience that made her breath quicken under the sheets.
When her husband dropped his jeans and crawled under the covers wearing only red drawers, she felt the need to hold her breath to keep from groaning.
Mercy, how was she going to make it through the rest of the summer like this? Surely Lucy wouldn’t be sleeping between them every night.
Fantasies of Matt’s hard bronzed body settling over hers, with his sun-kissed hair swooping down to tickle her neck and his lips tasting places that had never been tasted, had Emma floating on a cloud of pure delight.
As if sensing her feelings, Matt reached over Lucy’s head and grasped Emma’s hand where it lay on the pillow near her head. He twined his fingers through hers and let them lie bound together, silk and leather.
A smile teased the corners of his mouth. Across the moonlit bed Emma yearned to kiss it. Married was married after all.
Suddenly Lawrence Pendragon’s voice shot out of a corner of her memory.
“What’s wrong, Emma?” He squeezed her hand. The smile vanished from his face. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to.”
“Who is Angus Hawker?”
The breath came out of Matt’s lungs in a long whoosh. He glanced at Lucy and touched her cheek, apparently testing the depth of her sleep.
Even though Lucy didn’t stir, he spoke in a whisper. “What did you hear about him?”
“That he is going to kill you.”
“That’s his plan, all right.”
“But why?”
“Do you recall what I told you about coming upon Red?”
“You did what needed to be done to save Red’s life.”
Matt hugged his fingers tighter about hers. “I killed a man. The fellow that Red was facing was hot for a fight, and not going to settle for less than a quick draw, so I obliged him. His name was Seth Hawker. Angus is his brother. Angus was in prison when the shooting happened, but he’ll be out by summer’s end. I figure he’ll make it to Dodge by early fall.”
Emma’s heart seemed to be tumbling in midair. The thought of her handsome husband, no matter how recently she had come by him, lying cold in a grave made tears strain at the back of her eyes.
He braced himself up on one elbow to peer down at her face.
“There’s something I need to explain to you.” He let go of her hand to feather the outline of her hair, but he clenched his fist instead of touching it. “I could pick up Lucy and carry her over to Red’s room. That’s what I want to do. I never meant to be married, but darlin’, in just one day you’ve got me rethinking that. If I was free to do it, I’d press you back on this bed and bind you to me.”
“I might not mind being bound, for now.”
Matt bent over Lucy and kissed Emma lightly on the lips.