Beverly Jenkins (27 page)

He turned her then, lowering his mouth to her breasts. Sweet, hot pleasure filled her. He loved her for a few lightning-filled moments more, then closed up the blouse, and turned her back to the bread.

He left the kitchen without a word, leaving Cara dazed.

For the rest of the day he teased her like that, kissing her, caressing her in and out of her clothing, only to leave her dazzled and pulsing in response. By the time she set the plates out for dinner, he had her so flowing with warmth she could barely walk.

She had just set the last of the chocolate cake on a plate in front of him when his gaze let her know cake wasn’t the only item on his menu. He pulled her down into his lap, eased a hand into her hair, and guided her mouth to his kiss. He slid a caressing hand up beneath her skirt, then very gently, yet boldly pushed her drawers down and ultimately off. “You won’t need these,” he whispered hotly.

Cara could not help but ease her thighs apart under the fiery impetus of his touches. His kisses on her parted lips, his questing fingers, and her own need merged into sensations so potent she began to moan low in her throat. He opened her blouse and reacquainted himself with the nipples barely recovered from his last ardent sucking. She trembled passionately as he looked into her eyes, then trembled again as his fingers slowly rubbed a bit of the cake’s icing on first one dark bud and then the other. He bent and took an inordinate amount of time sucking and licking her clean. Cara swore she would die right then and there.

The only thing that saved her was the door pull’s ringing chime alerting them to a visitor outside. Chase kissed her lips in parting. He eased her from his lap and headed to the door as she hastily readjusted her clothing. As he opened the door, Cara spotted her drawers lying scandalously atop the table. She snatched them up, stuffed them
into the pocket of her skirt, and turned to greet the guest.

It was Asa delivering the tub. Chase helped with the unloading, then he and Asa carried the tub upstairs to Cara’s old room. Asa left soon after, wanting to get back to town before the new falling snow made the road more difficult to negotiate.

After his departure, Cara grabbed her shawl. Pulling on her gloves, she stepped outside and began filling buckets with the snow in the yard. Chase came out to help, and soon they had more than enough to melt down on the stove for bathwater.

While Chase hauled the buckets of hot water up to the tub, Cara tended the fire in the room. When the combined warmth of the steamy water and the heat from the fire raised the surrounding temperature enough to make the room comfortable, Cara slipped down to Chase’s room to gather the things she would need. She smiled as she added the scented soap Chase had given her for Christmas. When she returned he was adding a final bucket of steaming hot water to the tub.

“Who’s first?” Cara asked.

“You are.”

The tone of his voice rippled across her heightened senses. She began to undress slowly. They’d been playing a sensual game all day. Now it was her turn to see how he liked being on the griddle.

She planned on pushing him over the edge. She refused to wait another day to make love. Delbert had said she had to wait six weeks after the accident before resuming conjugal play, and more than six weeks were past. She wanted her husband, and she wanted him tonight.

Cara undid the buttons at her throat, then down her front. She asked, “Are you staying?”

“Yes,” he told her. In fact, he pulled up one of the chairs in the nearly empty room and took a seat, then added, “This is the warmest room in the house.”

Cara planned on it getting much warmer. To that end, she shook off her blouse, undid the ribbons on the front of her camisole, and stepped into the glow cast by the fire. She could see him seated just outside the circle of light, his face hidden by the shadows.

“Is the water still hot?” he asked.

She tested it and nodded. She slid the camisole off her shoulders, baring herself sensually for his eyes, then slipped her skirt slowly down her hips. The sharp intake of his breath made her smile. She’d bet he’d forgotten he’d taken her drawers earlier and that beneath her skirt she was still as bare as he’d left her. Without a word, she stepped into the tub.

Chase remembered fantasizing about sitting in the shadows and watching her bathe, but this . . . He could barely stay seated. The sight of her standing, then flashing him a bewitching little smile was hard enough to take, but when she began to slide the soap lazily up and down her body, he had to grip the arms of the chair. The scent of the soap and the wafting fragrance of the salts she’d added heightened his response. It was for Chase the most erotic interlude of his life.

“Would you do my back, please, Chase?”

“Sure.”

When he walked into the light, Cara feared that the water would begin to simmer just from the heat of his dark eyes. He came to the tub and knelt, gave her a lingering kiss, and took the cloth
and soap from her hand. He made her kneel with her back to him.

The initial feel of the cloth moving gently over her shoulder blades was glorious. She purred as it traced down her spine and circled the small of her back and the sides of her hips. His cloth-covered hand meandered up again, attending to those areas he’d neglected on the first pass. He dipped the cloth into the warm water to clear the soap from it, then used it to cascade a warm rinsing waterfall down her back. She arched responsively to the kisses he trailed up her damp spine. While his lips worked their way to the nape of her neck, his hands slipped around to gather up the weight of her breasts. She leaned back and let his strong chest support her. His hands played her like a delicate flute. And her body sang for him, rising and falling to the rhythm of the only man it had ever known.

Chase knew he had to take her tonight or die. Her damp skin under his lips and hands made him certain another day of denial would be impossible. He pulled back, leaving her only long enough to remove his clothes, then he returned to savor her soft nakedness pressed to his own.

Cara sensed herself being lifted from the tub. She turned her head to his lips as he carried her. She’d no idea where they were going and didn’t much care as long as the kisses didn’t stop. She came to rest atop the white cotton runner covering the surface of what she vaguely recognized as the top of her writing desk, but she was more interested in placing her kisses against his solid chest and flicking her tongue languidly over the flat brown buttons of his nipples. She was rewarded for her devotions by his fingers opening her like a flower to bestow devotions of their own. And she
loved every brazen stroke, every circling pass that made a moan slide from her lips. She supported herself on braced arms, legs parted to offer him better access, and felt her hips begin to rise in answer to his call. He bent to circle the tip of his tongue lightly over the whirl of her navel. Soft kisses were placed against the damp skin of each thigh. He moved lower to pay tender, wanton tribute and she let loose a lusty strangled cry.

He filled her a heartbeat later and her eyes closed. He didn’t move. She could feel herself pulsing around him and savored having him in the place she most wanted him to be. When he began to move he started slowly. The strokes were enticing, the first opening notes of a serenade she knew so well, and she responded by arching to receive more.

Chase obliged her. Watching her braced on her arms, the arch in her body offering her breasts so tantalizingly, added to the erotic memories he’d have of this night. The cotton runner beneath her slid in tandem with his thrusts. That sight also added to the blaze in his blood, making him increase the tempo to match the rise of his desire. The way her hips were answering him, enticing him, spurred him to lift her off the desk so he could guide her more commandingly.

The blazing contact sent Cara’s passions higher. She tightened her arms and legs around him to increase the smoldering sensations. She pressed against him meaningfully and without shame. She loved the slide of their bodies as she feasted on his raw male power. It didn’t take long for the climax to explode powerfully within her, making her cry out his name.

Watching her succumb with such fierce abandon, Chase smiled. Seconds later his hoarse cries
were filling the silence as he gripped her hips in the glory of his release.

Cara, groggy with desire, had no idea how or when they’d come to be standing in the center of the room, but her legs were still wrapped around his waist, and he was holding her easily and without visible strain. They were also still joined, she realized. He began to move again. She sighed, and her head fell back as he stroked the lingering remnants of her desire.

“This part of our marriage will be very real, Mrs. Jefferson,” he said raspily, guiding her hips with a tender vigor that made her twist for more. “Very real.”

She gripped his corded arms, and then buckled as the world shattered into brilliance once again.

When Chase came down to breakfast, Cara greeted him with a shy smile. This was the first time she’d ever been with him on the day after making love; on the previous two occasions, she’d awakened alone. After being so wanton last night, she was a bit unsure how she was supposed to act.

He set her at ease by coming up behind her and pulling her back into the circle of his arms. He kissed her ear. She tilted her head up to look into his face and he craned his neck so he could set a kiss upon her lips. “Good morning, schoolmarm. I didn’t cause you any pain last night, did I?”

Cara, touched by his concern, reached up and stroked his cheek. “No. Delbert said after six weeks I’d be good as new, and he was right.”

“One for the good doctor then,” Chase replied, sounding pleased. He kissed her once more and then patted her on the butt. “What’s for breakfast, wife?”

Cara placed before him a plate of well-seasoned
potatoes, scrambled eggs, slabs of ham, and three of her golden biscuits. “Cara Lee, you keep feeding me like this and Carolina’s going to have to put in for a new rider.”

“Good. Then you can stay home with me.”

She turned back to the stove to fix herself a plate, and therefore missed the odd look that came across Chase’s face. “Do you mean that?” he asked quietly.

The tone of his voice made her turn back. “Sure. Every woman wants her husband home, I think.” The look on his face gave her pause. “Did I say something I shouldn’t’ve?”

“No, I suppose not.”

Cara sensed that something had happened and that she’d missed whatever it was. “Chase?”

“It’s nothing, darlin’. Come sit and eat. I’m going to need a bath. Care to come and wash my back?” he asked with a grin and a couple of exaggerated winks.

Cara laughed, wondering if all married couples had so much fun.

Cara awakened the morning of January first, 1883, with Chase sleeping at her side and tried not to think about his leaving tomorrow. She’d been forcing her mind to skirt the subject all week, because of the pain it caused her heart. Instead she chose to dwell on his smile, his eyes, the way he’d made love to her the night, morning, or afternoon before. She replayed in her mind the rides through the snow they’d gotten into the habit of taking after breakfast, and the intimacy they’d discovered in reading to each other at night.

But she couldn’t put it off any longer. Tomorrow he would be gone. Gone until the army let him come back to her. He’d admitted the other day he
had no idea when that would be, but he’d vowed to make it as soon as it could be arranged.

She trusted him to keep that promise, but he would be so far away. He had no plans to transfer to a unit closer to Kansas, and she wouldn’t be so selfish as to ask him to, though it would please her. She loved him now more than ever, and because she did, she would not ask him to choose. If she did, in the end he would resent her, just as she would had he decided to interfere in her work as a teacher.

Cara usually enjoyed the tradition of New Year’s Day, but Chase’s looming departure took some of the joy out of it this year. As always, all who were able came into town to visit with neighbors and to take advantage of the treats and drinks set out by the shopkeepers on Main Street. The residents also used this as a way to break up the cold and sometimes lonely winter.

Cara saw a few of her students, but only waved to them, and moved on. She didn’t want to make her day any sadder.

She and Chase stopped and had lunch in Sophie’s dining room, and Dulcie fed them until they couldn’t move. Cara had tears in her eyes as Chase said his goodbyes to Asa, Dulcie, and then Sophie. He’d be riding out at sunup and would not be seeing them again for a long time.

When they left Sophie’s and went back out into the gray January day, Chase turned to her and asked, “Do you mind if we go on home?”

She searched his face. “No, not at all.”

“You’ll have to apologize for me to the Three Spinsters for not stopping in to see them, but I want to get you home and spend every minute I have left holding you, looking at you, making love to you. Do you think they’ll understand?” he
asked, sliding a gloved finger over her brown cheek.

She nodded yes.

Chase tenderly kissed his wife right there in the middle of town, then took her home.

Back at the house, Chase spent the balance of the afternoon doing just as he’d said: holding her, looking at her, making love to her. By evening he began gathering and packing his gear. Cara had vowed not to cry and so far had done a good job keeping her tears inside. However, seeing him pack the journal she’d given him for Christmas into his saddlebag was almost her undoing.

“I don’t want you to be sad, Cara Lee,” he said, looking at the tears standing like jewels in her eyes. “I’ll be back.”

“I know, Chase.”

They made love again that evening with a bittersweet tenderness. He took his time bringing her to the pinnacle of desire. She clung to him as they rode out passion’s storm, and, when he finally let her sleep, she did so soundly.

When she awakened alone, she was a bit disoriented. It took her a second to shake off the cobwebs. She
was
alone, she realized, seeing the empty space beside her. Still hopeful, she sat up to listen for the echoes of Chase’s presence somewhere within the house, but heard only silence.