Until he’d reached the end of it. He gently rolled her so he was on top, bracing himself on his arms above her, purposely only allowing their upper halves to touch.
He gifted her with soft smooches and tiny nibbles on her kiss-swollen lips as she caught her breath and the urgency between them ebbed.
“You all right?” he murmured against her cheek.
“I don’t know. I didn’t expect my body would get so hot and tingly and I’d feel like frogs were jumping in my belly from just kissing.”
He smiled at her honesty. “Those are very good things. Means you like kissin’ me.”
“I like it a lot.” She tilted her head back to study him. “You are such a great kisser, McKay. I want to make sure you like kissing me too. So if I need to…improve, you’ll tell me, right?”
“Oh, I’ll go you one better, darlin’, and teach you.” He nuzzled her cheek. “But to be honest, I don’t have a single complaint.” He smirked at her. “Except I wish we had fewer clothes on when we were kissin’ like crazy.”
“Sounds like a good way to get bug bites in unmentionable places,” she teased back.
“You gotta be more concerned about all the places I’m gonna bite you before I’d let them bugs get a chance.”
“Silas.”
“Just statin’ my intentions.”
She ran her fingers through his hair.
“Mmm. I love that.”
“Then I’ll keep doing it.”
“Let’s shift a little.” Silas sat up and held his hand out to help her up too. When she was upright, he placed his head in her lap. “Ah. Much better.”
“I’d call you shameless, but you’d like it,” she said with amusement.
“Yep.”
Neither spoke for a while; she just continued petting him and he lapped it up like an attention-starved dog.
After a bit, she said, “I have an odd question.”
He opened his eyes. “Shoot.”
Her gaze roamed over his face. “With you and Jonas being identical twins, why are you both clean-shaven? Like today when everyone called you Deputy McKay. If one of you had a beard, that wouldn’t be an issue.”
“True. ’Cept we both hate beards.”
“Why?”
“No choice but to have a beard on a cattle drive. Granted, we were mere hairless boys when Jeb plucked us off the orphan train. After our voices and our bollocks dropped, growin’ a beard made us feel like real men. All the other cowhands had them. Then we realized there wasn’t a choice. Took time, not to mention soap and water, to have a smooth face on the trail. Plus, them old hands were bastards and gave a man grief for actin’ like a dandy. Or like we were getting slicked up because we were lookin’ for a bachelor marriage.”
“What’s that?”
“Months on the trail is a long time without a woman’s touch. Some of the cowhands…took to bein’ with each other, as to say…sexually. Was no skin off my nose if they chose that, it just wasn’t an option for me or Jonas. Soon as we were off the trail with money in our pockets, first thing me’n Jonas did was hit the bathhouse for a delousing and then barbershop for a shave.”
“What about visiting a whorehouse?” She paused. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, darlin’, it’s fine. I ain’t gonna lie—but I’m not braggin’ neither when I tell you I spent plenty of time and money with workin’ gals. It is in my past though; I can promise you that.”
“I bet the workin’ gals did a double take when the McKay twins sauntered through the doors. They’d probably offer their services for free.”
He laughed. Hard. “Ain’t nothin’ ever free with the ladies. But Jonas never came with me to one of them houses.”
“Never? Why not?”
“No idea. I never asked him why he passed or what he’d rather do instead.”
Dinah smoothed her fingers across his cheeks. “I’m glad you don’t have a beard; it’d be a shame to cover up this handsome face.”
He kissed her palms, one at a time. “Thank you.” Then he sat up. “What else you wanna do today?”
“Can we drive closer to Devil’s Tower?”
“Of course. But it will eat up the rest of our afternoon.”
Riding over to the tower meant taking the busier road. But the look on her face when she saw the size of the massive rock up close was worth dodging other buggies and ruts.
On the ride back to Labelle, Silas did most of the talking, since Dinah had questions. Lots of questions. He figured she couldn’t help it, being a teacher and all. The oddest part was he