“Fond, is it?” He slipped off his chair and onto his knees. Somehow he ended up kneeling between her spread thighs. Yards of fabric and petticoats weren’t enough of a barrier to keep her from feeling the heat of him.
He dropped her hands and cupped her face in his palms.
“I suppose fond is what you feel for Red or Billy or a dozen folks in town.” He skimmed his thumb along her lower lip. She closed her eyes against the draw of him. “Since you won’t tell me true, I’ll tell you how I feel.”
Her eyes flew open.
“Don’t, Matt, don’t.” She shook her head. “You’ll be leaving in the morning.”
“Tell me how you feel…about me.”
She leaned forward, touching her forehead to his, squeezing her eyes shut and hiding the truth. “If I tell you, it might hold you here. You’d be killed.”
He sighed; his breath warmed her lips. His scent shot straight to her heart. As long as she lived she’d never forget the way of him. Wild prairie and horses combined with leather and a bit of smoke from the fire all overpowered by the knee-weakening scent of male.
He found her hand, drew it to his mouth and kissed the wedding band. His gaze held her, demanding her soul.
“I love you,” he whispered, warming the gold. “If that changes what happens tomorrow, so be it… . I love you, Emma.”
Emma tasted the salt of a tear on her mouth and wondered which one of them it had come from.
“My grief is that I’ll be losing something precious, and I can’t choose what it will be.” Emma wiped the moisture from her lip. Matt’s eyes welled, but so did hers. “Come tomorrow, whatever happens, my heart will break.”
She slipped out of the chair. Heart to heart with Matt, she buried her face in his shoulder.
“I do love you, Matt,” she whispered into his shirt, and then she began to cry.
Matt rocked her for a moment, then held her at arm’s length. He looked at her a long time, but didn’t speak.
He unbuttoned his shirt, took her hand and placed it over his heart.
Fire-burnished hair rustled across his open collar when he reached for the buttons of her dress.
He popped them open one by one and spread her dress wide. Work-worn fingers plucked the tiny blue bow that fastened her shift. A couple of tugs at the lacy fabric left her breasts exposed.
The air in her lungs seemed too heavy to breathe. Her heart beat too quickly not to show, but his heart beat the same way. She felt the runaway thrum of it under her fingertips.
With fingers that could as easily rope a steer as wipe away a tear, he touched her chest. He traced the bottom curve of her breast then brushed his thumb across her nipple, all the while gazing at her bare flesh as though that, too, was a caress.
At last he pressed his calloused palm over her heart, then lifted his gaze to her eyes.
“Bone of my bone,” he whispered. “Flesh of my flesh.”
He kissed her, a slow, deep kiss.
“Don’t worry, darlin’.” He buttoned her dress, stood up and drew her along with him. “Whatever tomorrow brings, we will face it together. When we’ve got things sorted out, we’ll—” He nodded toward her bedroom.
This was all wrong. There was nothing to be sorted out except keeping Matt alive until he boarded the train.
And yet the moment they had just shared was nothing less than a joining of souls. Like wedding vows spoken all over again. And she had given herself over to them; the words Matt had recited were true.
She touched her lips with trembling fingers and tasted the promise of her future.
Matt had no more than opened the door to go to his bed in the soddie when a hacking sound came from Lucy’s bedroom. “Papa, Mama! I throwed up!” Lucy’s little voice wept. Whatever that future held, it would have to wait.
Chapter Twelve
“My tummy hurts, Papa.”
“It’ll feel better by morning, baby.” Matt’s stomach turned a flip or two, as well. “Close your eyes now. Try to sleep.”
“She probably ate something that didn’t agree with her.” Emma stood beside the door with the soiled bedding wadded in her arms. “It isn’t uncommon in children.”
She gave him an encouraging smile, then continued down the hall. He listened to her footsteps brushing against the floor as she walked.
They had left important decisions hanging between them. Lucy’s illness would hold things up for a bit.