The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (18 page)

His words made her pulse race. “You do know what to say to make a girl happy.”

“The only girl I want happy is you.”

They rode in silence for a while, Lizzie wishing they could touch, even hold hands. The moon came out from behind the clouds and suddenly the road ahead was illuminated.

“I can’t wait any longer.” She kicked Ajax into a gallop and followed the road home.

When they arrived, they took care of the horses as fast as they could.

Mal took Lizzie’s hand and they walked up to the house together. He didn’t stop when they went through the front door. He took the stairs two at a time and she followed him step for step.

Finally they reached the master bedroom. She hadn’t seen this room before. A brass bed, with oak nightstands on either side stood on the wall opposite the door. On the wall to the right of the door was a bureau that matched the nightstands. A commode with a pitcher and basin on top was on the wall to the left of the door.

“Where did you find the quilt and the sheets?”

“One of the local housewives made the quilt and embroidered the sheets and pillow cases. She left them at The Tombstone Mercantile to be sold. I thought they were pretty and you would like them. Besides, I didn’t have time to do laundry and wash all those sheets that covered the furniture.”

“No, I suppose not,” Lizzie hugged him. “They’re beautiful, Mal. I love them and I love you.”

“I love you, too, Lizzie Brandon. Now I’m making you mine. I want you to know who loves you.” He unbuttoned the top button on her shirt and worked his way to the last one then he pulled the shirt out of her pants. Her fine cotton chemise still blocked his way.

She unbuttoned her pants, shucked her boots, and shimmied out of her bloomers and denims. Now the chemise was all she wore.

Mal placed his hands under her breasts and slid up to her nipples, flicking them through the cloth. They responded by standing straight out.

Lizzie could hardly stand still. She threw her head back. “Please, more…more.”

Mal pulled the chemise ribbons with his teeth.

His hands kept up their exquisite torture of her breasts and soon his mouth replaced his fingers. She pulled his head to her.

Her legs gave way and she fell back on the bed.

Mal fell with her because she refused to let him go, but he released her nipple before they landed so he didn’t hurt her by accident.

He was so thoughtful like that, but she still wanted more and squirmed under him.

“You have on too many clothes.” She sighed as he took her nipple in his mouth again. “Take them off.”

“Yes, ma’am. More than happy to oblige.” He stood, toed off his boots, and dropped his pants and drawers. He winced in pain, but pulled his shirt over his head without unbuttoning it.

He stood there in front of her completely ready and she wanted to feel him in her more than anything. Feel the curly hair that covered his chest and see if it was soft, wanted to touch his skin. She could tell he’d been working without his shirt on, his skin was so tan above his waist and pale below. What did he taste like? Was his skin salty? Or sweet? Or neither?

“Take me. Make me a part of you and you a part of me.”

Mal laid next to her, propped himself up on one elbow and drew lazy circles around her breasts with the fingers of his free hand.

“What are you in such a hurry for, sweetheart? We have all night.”

“I can’t wait, go fast now. We can go slow later.” She ached and felt liquid pool in her groin. Mal could ease that ache and she needed easing.

“No, we go slow now. You’re untried, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

She reached up and touched his face with her hand, cupping his jaw. “You could never hurt me.”

“Not on purpose, but if I don’t take it easy, I could hurt you by mistake. Trust me, Mrs. Brandon.”

“Yes, Mr. Brandon.” Her heart raced. “I trust you. Always.”

Mal continued his slow torture of Lizzie, finally bringing her to the brink, and sending her over it, skyward, soaring, shattering.

Lizzie’s heart pounded as she fought to catch her breath. “Oh God, Mal. That was…was…amazing. I do like that.”

“You’ll like this too.”

He positioned himself so his rod was at her opening and pushed it slowly in, easing her as he did, suckling her, keeping her on the edge. He pulled out and then in again, slowly, because she was untried and so tight.

“I’m sorry, Lizzie, if I hurt you.”

He bent down and kissed her, and then he slammed his body and his member into her as far as it would go. Then he stilled.

“Mal?”

“Yes, Lizzie.”

“Why did you stop?”

“To let your body get used to me.”

“I’m used to you and I want to move.”

“Then let’s move sweetheart.”

And they did until Mal shouted and his body shuddered. He pumped into her another couple of times then he stilled.

“Are you all right?” he asked, from his place in the crook of her neck.

Too overwhelmed with sensations, she didn’t answer.

He came up and looked her in the face.

“Lizzie, are you all right? Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head as tears flowed from her eyes.

“Then why are you crying?”

“I never…” She sniffled. “Never thought it would be so beautiful to mate.”

He rolled to his side and pulled her with him so that she rested her head on his arm and her breasts nestled against his chest.

“Darlin’ we did not
mate.
Animals mate. People who love each other, like we do, make love. We made love.”

“Uh huh. Made love.” Her words came out slowly and she was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes open.

“I should have waited, you’re sleepy and need to rest, but I will invigorate you later after we both get some sleep. First though, I need to take care of you.”

He rose from the bed and went to the commode, took a wash cloth from the top drawer, poured cool water from the pitcher on to it and then squeezed the excess water from the cloth into the basin.

He brought the cloth to the bed.

“Open your legs for me.”

“Why?”

“This will ease you.”

She opened her legs and then looked away.

“Here,” he pressed the coolness against her. “Doesn’t that feel better?”

“Yes,” she nodded but continued to look away.

“Look at me, sweetheart. There is no need for embarrassment between us.”

Hearing his gentle tone, she finally looked over at him. “Regardless of what you say, this is embarrassing.”

“I’m sorry. I only want to make you feel better quicker. Now come, let me hold you. That’s all I’ll do for tonight. You will be too sore for any more love making.”

“But I thought…”

“I know what you thought, but the rest of tonight is for me to hold you in my arms and for the two of us to sleep. After all, we’re getting married tomorrow.”

She began to chuckle and then laugh at the absurdity of getting married again tomorrow.

He joined her and before long both were laughing and hugging, relaxing into each other.

Lizzie was tired. It had been one heck of a day, her wedding day. She smiled. It would be a day she would never forget.

* * *

Mal brought the eggs, toast and a cup of coffee, up the stairs to Lizzie. He put them on the bureau and walked to the bed, where he sat on the edge and watched his wife sleep. His wife. He never thought he could be this happy. Ed Talbot could never have been this happy, but Mal, Malcolm Brandon, well he had it all—a beautiful wife, gorgeous home and hopefully soon, a passel of youngun’s to fill it.

“Up and at ’em Mrs. Brandon.” He swatted her butt. “Time to get back to the ranch and get changed so we can get married.”

“Ouch.” She yawned, scratched and sat up in bed. “But we are already married. Do we really need to do it again?”

“Yes, because our family deserves to see us get married. So do our friends and the rest of the town. I have a beautiful woman who loves me and I want to show her off in her new yellow dress.”

“Well, when you put it like that.” She took a bite of her scrambled egg and toast and a sip of her coffee and then got out of bed. She sashayed over to Mal where he stood by the door, and put her hands around his neck. “Sure I can’t change your mind?”

“I’m sure. As much as I would like to take you up on your most tantalizing offer. We have responsibilities.”

“Oh, well. I tried.”

She unlatched her arms and backed away.

But he held her in place with his arms wrapped around her waist.

“If it were any other morning I’d take you up on your sweet offer. As a matter of fact, I intend to take you up on lots of those sweet offers. But this morning we have other things to do. You have to get dressed and meet me at the church. I have to take this money back to John Peterson and make sure that reward money goes into an account for Jamie’s education. At least then, Harvey will have done one thing good on this earth.”

He gave her a hard kiss.

She melted against him, kissing him back. Then she backed away. “Well, we better get this little dogie moving.”

“Dogie?” asked Mal. “We don’t have a dog, though if you want to get one, we can.”

“Dogie is another name for a cow, motherless calf actually.”

“Just another thing I have to learn to be a real rancher.” He pulled off his pants, which he’d put on to make her breakfast. He grabbed his suit out of the closet and put it on. It was black with vest and jacket. He had a pocket watch that had been his grandfather’s, his mother’s father, which he put in the watch pocket.

“I don’t know how to tie this.” He looked hopelessly at the long strip of silk cloth in his hand.

“Here, let me. I used to tie Daddy’s.” Lizzie left her camisole untied and came over to him. “What would you do without me?”

“I don’t know and I don’t ever want to find out.”

He reached up and played with her breasts while she tied his tie.

“Now quit that unless you want me to use this to choke you until you promise to make love again.”

“You don’t need to choke me to make me promise that. I promise I’ll make love to you every night, and most mornings, for as long as I’m able.” He nipped her nipple with his lips. “How’s that sound to you?”

She leaned back her head obviously barely listening to what he was saying.

“I can see my little bride can’t seem to concentrate when I’m playing with her, so…” He closed her chemise. “If I want to get to the church on time, I need to stop playing.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Just when I was…well, never mind. You’re right.” She put on her shirt and tucked the shirttails into her pants. “Let’s go.”

Mal picked up her hand and kissed it. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She squeezed his hand. “I don’t want us to ever forget to tell each other that very phrase at least one time every day.”

“Agreed.”

“Now let’s get this show on the road.”

They went outside where Mal had the horses waiting. “I didn’t want to have to saddle them while wearing my suit. Don’t want to get dirty before I marry the prettiest girl in the Territory.”

He watched her blush. She did it so prettily.

They rode to the Cobb ranch where he left Lizzie and he went on to town to give the money back to the bank.

He pulled up in front of John Peterson’s house. The white frame house with white picket fence wasn’t much different than most houses in town. It was two story and so much bigger, but that was about it. John Peterson didn’t blatantly show off his wealth. He was not only the bank president, but its owner and backer. He along with silver baron Ben King had founded the bank.

When the silver mines started really producing, the two of them brought in an assayer and opened the bank. Ben hit the mother lode in the Thorndike mine. Since then he’d dabbled in the bank, opened a hotel and restaurant and was working on some other enterprises to not only keep busy but to help the town.

Mal wasn’t really surprised to see Ben’s horse outside the Peterson home. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

John Peterson opened the door. “Malcolm. I take it you got Lizzie back.”

“Was there ever any doubt? I would never leave her. I see Ben’s horse is here. Can I come in for a minute?”

“Sure. Let me take those saddlebags for you.”

Mal handed over the saddlebags packed with the ten thousand dollars.

They walked into the parlor where Ben was sitting with Doctor Matthew Reynolds.

“First, I’m sorry if I’ve come at an inopportune time, but I’m glad to see you all together. Second, I want to thank you John, for getting the money for me. As it turned out we didn’t need it, but I would have given every penny to get Lizzie back safely. And lastly, I want to invite you all to my and Lizzie’s wedding in,” he pulled out his pocket watch. “Thirty minutes at the church.”