Chapter 30 #2
After everyone undergoes a quick bath, I nurse Emmaline while Sullivan has some broth for his fever. The poor boy is so exhausted that he falls asleep halfway through finishing his bowl, but at least he has something in his stomach. I hope tonight will be the best sleep he’s ever had.
“I’ve got him,” Warren says, stepping over a watchful Patches to gently lift Sullivan’s limp form. “Should I put him in our bed?”
“Yes.” My heart softly squeezes at the sight of the three of them. “Until you can make a bed for him.”
Patches whines and lurches toward the hallway as Warren leaves. “Go on,” I encourage, petting his soft ears when his worried eyes cut back to me. “We’ll all be there together in a little bit.”
The dog licks my hand as if to beg his leave, then trots off after them. When Warren comes back alone, he eases down beside me on the sofa.
“Patches wanted to stay with him?”
He nods, leaving no space between us as he leans in closer. “Curled up right beside him and tucked his head on top of his back. Sullivan didn’t even move an inch when I laid him down. Hopefully a full belly, restful sleep, and a peaceful home will help cure whatever ails him.”
His split knuckles are more noticeable as he beckons to Emmaline.
Instead of her usual excitement to see him, though, she’s subdued.
“Come here, Little Bit. Come see Papa,” he croons as he settles her onto his chest. Concern fills his face as he checks her over.
“Her eyes...I’ve never seen them like this.
So sad and without their sparkle. Do you think she’s thinking about any of it right now? ”
“I hope not.” I catch her small hand and rub the back of it. “I hope none of us remember any part of today. That it all becomes just a distant memory or like a dream.”
“So do I.” Silence falls for a moment, then he cups her small head and kisses her hair.
“I know it was a scary day, Little Bit. But everything’s all right now because Papa’s here to keep you safe.
No more bad man taking you and Momma away from me.
You can sleep now. Momma and Papa love you and will always take care of you. ”
He opens an arm, and I accept his invitation to snuggle with them as he begins to hum.
It’s Emmaline’s favorite lullaby. Which by his own confession isn’t a lullaby at all, but if it brings her comfort, it brings me comfort, too.
She fights her sleep, drifting off but then jerking awake and clenching her papa’s shirt in her chubby fists.
Warren never stops humming, not until her small body fully relaxes into slumber.
I almost follow her, but a warm hand cupping the back of my neck stirs me to full consciousness. “I’m gonna go put her down, then I want to hold you,” he says quietly with a probing look.
“Okay,” I whisper back, kissing Emmaline before he leaves with her. With a yawn, I move to the rocking chair. Something on the mantel stops me, though.
The picture of me, Warren, and Emmaline.
It’s a beautiful image of the three of us, held so perfectly within the frame that Warren made for me. How could something so innocent lead to such evil? I trace our faces and stare at the image until my eyes burn with the need to blink.
Two arms wrap around me. “You all right?”
“Our picture,” I finally answer, rubbing the pointed corner of the frame.
“That’s how he found me. How he learned about Emmaline.
All because the photographer had our picture on display, and he saw it.
” I turn in his arms, and his expression takes me aback.
Horror, anger, fear…each emotion flickers past in the span of mere seconds.
“Do you want me to get rid of it?”
“The picture or the photographer?” I ask with a dash of morbid humor. First Montgomery, then the house, and now this?
“Either. Both.” He shrugs. “Whatever you want me to do.”
“I want you to leave the poor man alone,” I say, settling comfortably in his embrace. “It’s not his fault the wrong person saw us.”
“No, I know it’s not his fault. Just like it’s not ours for getting the picture done.
But still, the wrong person did see it,” he rasps, and the tortured emotion in his voice hurts my soul.
“I didn’t think things would end up like they did.
Always with that bastard dead because I went after him, but never with you being taken.
I’m so sorry I didn’t realize sooner that the fire was because of him.
I’d have left everything in Dalton’s hands and raced to find you if I’d known. ”
“Oh, Warren, it’s not your fault either.
” I slide my hands up his chest and to the roughened stubble on his cheeks.
“Do you hear me? You’re not to blame in this.
Only Montgomery, and we made him pay the price.
” He sighs and leans into my touch. The oddity of me being the one to offer consolation instead of the other way around doesn’t escape me.
But I love being able to console him. “I couldn’t see much on the way in, but how much damage was done? ”
“Minimal.” As the word leaves his lips, he nips at my fingertips. “I’m sure he wanted it to be more, but we stopped it in time. Mostly because of the rain. Now that was an unexpected boon because I could’ve sworn there wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day long until the fire started going.”
I still, mind racing at the irony of our different experiences with the rain. The very rain that I railed at God about when Emmaline and I were drenched was also salvation for Warren.
For our home.
Could this be a unique coincidence, or…?
I glance up to the ceiling. This doesn’t mean I believe in you. One good deed doesn’t justify the hell you left me to go through alone. But…just in case…thank you.
Warren’s heated breath hits my neck as his hands grip my waist and trail tenderly upwards.
“God Almighty, but you don’t know the agony I felt when I got back to the house and you and Emmaline weren’t there.
That a fucking son of a bitch had stolen you from me.
It was like my heart and lungs had been ripped out of my chest, and I couldn’t breathe for the pain. ”
The prickly stubble on his cheeks scrapes my palms as I stare into his tormented eyes.
“I do know. Being forced away from my home…unable to hold my baby girl to comfort her. Wanting to scream to you to turn around and see we were being taken away while also just wishing with every aching beat of my heart that I could kiss you one last time. Just one…” I kiss the corner of his mouth. “Last...” The other corner. “Time…”
“I don’t like last times,” he growls, voice dropping to a deepness that gives me chills before his lips claim my mouth in a searing kiss that awakens every tired part of my body. Everything we want to say is poured into this unspoken exchange between soulmates.
“No more last times.” I slide my hands to the back of his neck when our lips part.
“No more,” Warren rasps, holding me as if I might disappear. “I need you, wife. But if it’s too soon, I can wait. If you need to rest. Or if you want to just talk, we can do that.” Even as the offer leaves his lips, his hips buck against me in protest.
“I need you, too. I don’t want this night to end with the memory of seeing him and touching him.
Only one man.” I breathe his oath into his mouth, and he utters a filthy curse into mine as I undo his trousers.
“You’re the only man I love. The only man I ever want to kiss.
To touch like this.” I fist his thick shaft, loving the perfection of this part of him.
If I thought his curse before was filthy, this one is outright obscene.
His lips slam down onto mine, and we shuffle backwards to the sofa. “I don’t know what to do with you, woman. Don’t know whether to be easy and lovinglike with you or if I should quit holding myself back.”
“Don’t hold back. You always put me and my needs first. You give and give and give to me, and now you deserve the same.
” I pump his thickness the way I know will have him throwing his head back with pleasure.
“This night could have ended so very differently. I want you to make me yours all over again. Give me everything.”
His eyes darken, blazing into mine as his fingers dig into my hips.
“Everything? Oh, you’re going to feel every inch of me inside you for days.
Every time you take a step, every time you sit down, you’re going to think of me and this night.
But not until I’ve had my fill of you first.” I close my eyes as his head dips down and lavishes hot, languid kisses over the neckline of my dress.
“Wait.” I somehow come to my senses. “The children! What if Sullivan wakes up?” After what he saw with Montgomery, it might traumatize him beyond just walking in on us.
Warren presses his forehead to mine as he tries to catch his breath. “Fuck. I’m gonna start building rooms for him and Little Bit tomorrow. But for now, we’ll just have to make do.”
A thrill courses through me when he sweeps me into his arms and carries me outside. “Your trousers are still undone!”
“Not going far.” His answer is pained and short.
And he’s right. He brings me to where the perfect beam of moonlight bathes the back of the house. Here, we’re out of sight of the bunkhouse, even though it’s in the distance, but still within earshot of the children.
When my shoes touch the muddy earth, he drops to his knees, rucks my dress up, and hitches my left leg over his shoulder. He doesn’t waste time with soft, slow touches. No, he’s a man who knows what he wants, and what he wants is his mouth between my legs.
I moan his name, threading my hands into his hair and holding on for dear life itself as he ravishes me as if he’s never tasted me before.
My hips move of their own accord, seeking the pleasure that only my husband can give.
Every sensation, every emotion, is amplified by the thought of how close I came to a life without him.