Texas Rose TH2 (23 page)

"Did you know you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life?" Tyler murmured, looking down at her as she stared up at him.

The compliment startled her. She had received enough flattery in her lifetime to start a book of poetry, but none quite like this. Tyler had already had what he wanted of her, and still he took the time to say something nice. That ought to count for something. She was ready to build a life out of any small thing he handed her.

"Did you know you have the most silver tongue of any man I have ever known?" she replied wickedly, not yet ready to give him more than that. He had too much control in his hands. She would retain what she could.

Tyler grinned and applied his silver tongue where it would do the most good. When Evie finally gasped for air, he relented and returned to resting on one arm while he studied her.

He cupped his hand around her breast as if to test its weight and flicked the rosy tip with his fingers, watching with growing hunger as it responded to his touch. Evie watched him warily through shadowed eyes, however, and he satisfied himself with kissing her there.

"If you're too sore, just tell me, Evie. A man and wife ought to be able to tell each other these things."

She found little relief in his words. How did she tell him she didn't know what she wanted? Yes, she was sore, but that didn't stop her from aching for more now that he'd aroused her again. Biting her tongue, she studied him. The bare arm resting above her was rounded at the top with an alarming amount of muscle. If she'd seen men with their shirts off, she didn't recall them to any extent. But she would remember this one. The hair on Tyler's chest was little more than a light brown fuzz that arrowed down to his narrow waist, but the sheet rested there and she couldn't see farther. She could feel, however. He was as aroused as she was.

Evie wasn't timid by nature. She reached out to scrape her fingers across Tyler's beard, liking the texture. "It's sort of like being handed a box of chocolates and knowing you'll be sick if you eat them all but not knowing when to stop, isn't it?"

Tyler grinned and slid his arms around her and rolled over on his back, pulling Evie with him. Her hair cascaded in a waterfall around them. He pulled the mass over her shoulder. "I've no taste for chocolates before breakfast. A sweet juicy orange is more what I had in mind. I've never got sick on oranges yet."

Evie gasped as Tyler suckled at her breast. She should have known what was coming, but ii hadn't occurred to her that they could do "that" in this position. But he was making it very obvious that they could. One large hand pressed at her hip, guiding her downward, and just the thought of what was waiting there made her ready.

A pounding on the door overrode their sweet murmurs. Evie jumped at the noise, but Tyler wasn't so swift to allow the intrusion. Holding her still, he continued to ply his tongue and teeth in little nips along her throat.

"The whole damned river's coming out of its banks! We've got to get to the horses." Ben's voice was peremptory and accompanied by staccato curses and continued pounding.

Tyler grimaced. "That's what happens when you treat them as equals. No courtesy at all. I expect better from you, woman."

Frightened by Ben's words, frustrated by the interruption, Evie remained frozen until she heard this crack. Tyler's humor belonged on the gallows. Pinching him in a soft place beneath his arm, she slid away, rolling up in the sheet as she did so.

"Expect to be disappointed then." She pulled the sheet defiantly over her breasts. She wasn't about to do what he had in mind with Ben standing outside the door, pounding it like a bass drum.

"I like a little sauce in the mornings." Tyler grinned, grabbed the sheet, and tugged as he swung his legs over the bed. "Ben, stop that infernal pounding before I come out there and throw you over the rail," he shouted at the door. "I'll be there shortly."

Evie scurried for cover as Tyler pulled the sheet around him, leaving her naked, but not before he got a good glimpse of hips and buttocks before she covered herself with a blanket.

"There's no sense in getting dressed," he reminded her as he stepped behind the dressing screen to pull on his pants. "It won't take long to get the horses to high ground. Ben's just an old worry wart. I'll bring up some coffee and biscuits when I come back."

Evie wasn't paying him any mind as she wandered to the window with the blanket around her. She had every intention of going next door to see how Daniel fared. If Tyler Monteigne expected an obedient wife who bowed to his every whim, he'd certainly taken on the wrong woman.

Her gasp as she looked out the window brought Tyler to her side. He looked over her shoulder, cursed, and leaving his shirt unbuttoned, fell down in the chair and began tugging on his boots. "That river was only a trickle the other day. Where the hell did that come from?"

Stunned by the immensity of the rapidly spreading waters, Evie could only stare outside as Tyler finished dressing. The nearly dry riverbed she had noticed when they arrived in town was now filled to overflowing. Water poured down the streets, lapping at the boardwalk, and seemed to rise even as she watched. Bales of cotton floated down the alley below. An empty crate bumped against a post by the sheriffs office. Men were loading up wagons with goods from the various businesses up and down the street, and the water was halfway up the wheels.

"Tyler, be careful out there. That current seems awful strong." Evie turned just as Tyler rose from the chair, fastening the rest of his shirt and shoving it into his pants. She didn't know why she should feel concerned about this man who had stolen her independence, but it seemed the natural thing to do.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and started for the door. "That coffee might be a little later than I promised. I'll see what I can do."

He walked out, leaving Evie wrapped in her blanket staring after him. When she realized what she was doing she glanced down and shivered with horror. She was standing here with nothing but a blanket on while she discussed floods and coffee with a man she barely knew.

And the memory of that man between her sheets and gazing down at her sent a hot flood of heat to her cheeks She had never considered herself a wanton before, but it was all too obvious that Tyler Monteigne had made her into one. She was more than certain that ladies simply didn't do those kind of things. Or maybe wantonness ran in the family and her mother wasn't really a lady.

Deliberately turning off those thoughts, Evie washed in the cold water from last night and looked for the most stiffly correct gown that she possessed. Unfortunately she didn't possess many, and she'd been wearing them to school these last weeks. Not one of them seemed suitable for the day after her wedding.

She had to keep the proper gowns clean a little while longer, until she had enough money to have them laundered. It wasn't exactly with resignation that she donned the white Swiss muslin with sprigs of green on the ruffled overskirt and green ribbons at the heart-shaped neck. She liked pretty things, and the schoolteacher clothes had been a trifle depressing.

Evie didn't attempt an elaborate coiffure but twisted her hair in several loops, pinned it, and covered it with an old-fashioned net until she could do more. She had to see how Daniel fared.

He was lying propped against his pillows, throwing wads of paper against the windowpane when she entered. She glanced at the Pecos Martin book in his lap and saw the jagged tears of pages ripped from the seam. She wasn't going to question that particular piece of rebellion.

"The water's up to door fronts now. It's a good thing we're on the third floor." Evie lifted her skirt from the unswept floor and went to the window to check the flood's progress.

Daniel studied her turned back sullenly. "I suppose Monteigne is out there making a hero of himself."

Evie raised her eyebrows as she turned around. "He and Ben are moving the horses to high ground. What on earth is wrong with you this morning? If your leg is giving you pain, I'll fetch you some medicine."

"I don't want any damned laudanum." Daniel picked up a book from the bedside table. "Ben said he'd bring up breakfast when he got the horses out. You don't have to wait on me."

"Daniel Mulloney, I do believe you're jealous!" Evie threw herself down in the overstuffed chair and watched the dust fly up. The discovery of Daniel's feelings had floored her, but she didn't intend to let him know that.

"I am not!" Red-eared, Daniel slammed his book down against the covers and glared at her. "I just don't see any reason why you had to go and get yourself married like that. And I don't believe for a minute that you're..." He stumbled over the word and turned even redder.

"Pregnant? With child? Enceinte? I'm not sure I believe it, either." It would be easier to lie, but Evie didn't like lying about this, not to Daniel. He deserved better than that. But her words sounded cruel even to her ears. Heaven help her, what was she going to do with a child?

Daniel relaxed as the subject came out in the open. He looked at her with curiosity. "You said you didn't think you'd ever get married. I didn't think you even liked men. You flirt all the time, but you never get serious."

Evie examined her nails. "Well, things happen, I guess." She didn't want to say that she didn't have much choice. There was no sense in Daniel hating Tyler. They would have to learn to live together somehow and Daniel needed a man in his life. She wouldn't have chosen Tyler had she been given a choice, but beggars couldn't be choosers. "At least Tyler is a little more fun than most." Remembering what they had done in bed, Evie didn't think "fun" was the correct word, but she let it slide.

Daniel didn't say anything, and Evie suspected his mind had followed the same path as hers. They were closer than brother and sister, but the topic of sex had never been discussed between them, and probably never would. That was one reason Daniel needed Tyler.

He finally ended the silence with an awkward question. "Is he going to find you a house? I wouldn't mind living somewhere besides a hotel for a change. I'm starving right now."

"We haven't discussed it. I'm of the impression that Tyler doesn't have much more money than we do. I suspect we'd better keep on looking for our checks and waiting for that lawyer to turn up."

Evie rose and checked the window again. The water lapped at the windows of several buildings already. She couldn't see Tyler from this angle. Daniel's room overlooked the livery and the tiny house attached to the rear, not the front entrance where Tyler would be. She hoped whoever lived in the house had moved everything into the stable lofts. It looked as if that back alley behind the hotel and past the house was a valley where all the water from the streets congregated. It rushed along like a river of its own.

She swirled around at a knock on the door, and gave a cry of relief as Ben sauntered in with a tray of coffee and some covered dishes that smelled mighty good. Tyler came in behind him, swiping his dripping hat from his head and leaving it on the floor, discarding his long coat on top of it.

Daniel sent Evie's new husband a suspicious glare, but the smell of food was more overpowering than jealousy. He struggled into a better position as Ben set the tray down beside the bed.

"Flapjacks, folks, and sorghum syrup. Don't eat too fast, it may be all you get the rest of the day. John's packing up his kitchen and moving for higher ground as we speak."

Evie turned a worried gaze to Tyler. "Should we be moving out, too? How long can the water stay this way?"

Tyler's gaze rested on her wholly inappropriate gown before rising to meet her eyes. His smile was gentle as he answered. "We won't let you starve. This is one of the safest places in town, and John is moving his supplies up here. It might not be the best fare, but there will be something to eat in those cans and barrels."

Evie nodded a trifle uneasily beneath the odd glow in Tyler's eyes. She didn't know what he was thinking when he looked at her like that. It wasn't the same look as when he wanted to bed her. She recognized that one well enough. This look came closer to the one he'd had in his eyes that day he'd first proposed marriage. It was almost a haunted look, and she didn't like it.

Evie ate a flapjack without tasting it, sipped at her coffee, and tried to pretend everything was normal. She and Tyler had not once discussed their plans for the future. She had no idea if she would have a house to live in, a place to raise a child, or where the money would come from. Until these last few months she'd never had to worry about such problems, and now they seemed overpowering. She wanted to think Tyler would take care of them all, but she had this nagging feeling that he was as scared as she was. It didn't add to her sense of well-being.

Setting aside her coffee, Evie wandered back to the window. Water rushed like a river through the alley. A crate slammed against the side of the hotel, narrowly missing the top of a first-floor window. A rooster sat dripping and bedraggled on the livery roof. Her gaze drifted idly to the little house in back, and she screamed.

"Tyler! There are children out there. On the roof. They're going to drown!"

As she gathered up her skirts and ran for the door, Tyler jumped up and grabbed her by the arm, shoving her back to the chair.

"Don't leave this room. The place is filled with rats, both the four-legged and two-legged kind. Daniel, keep her here." He glared pointedly at the boy in the bed. "Ben and I will see what we can do."