Nichole Harris-Shilo
Nichole took Merril’s hand as she stepped off the boardwalk along Park Avenue and crossed the dusty street. The sweet music of a fiddle and harmonica from down the block drew them from the dining room at their hotel, into the cool Denver evening. As they strolled past the celebration, a bride and groom raised their glasses in a toast surrounded by their wedding guests. Laughter blended with the music, and the couple kissed on a side yard platform.
“Are you sorry we didn’t have a church wedding?” Merril ran his warm hands up her arms.
She leaned back against his chest and shook her head. “No. Not at all. Everyone I care about was there.”
“Our marriage will cause a scandal among the Cattlemen’s Association.” Merril’s voice was low in her ear.
“I know. I thought about that, too.” She shivered as the memory of Kevin’s announcement at The Highlands’ barbeque flashed through her mind. “I don’t care what anyone thinks, honestly. I only care about you.” She tipped her head back and smiled at the concern on his face. “Really, it’s okay.”
“You’re chilled. Let’s go back.” He ran his hands down her sleeves one last time, then offered her his arm.
She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and they retraced their steps to their small hotel.
Inside their room, a banked fire in the wood-burning stove removed the chill and warmed the room.
Nichole unbuttoned her jacket and glanced at her saddlebag stacked on top of Merril’s in the corner.
Should I find my nightgown?
She shrugged the light coat from her shoulders and turned to Merril. His emerald gaze locked onto hers as she tossed the jacket onto the chair.
Probably not.
“Have a seat. I’ll pull your boots off.” His grin ticked up on one side, and he hung his hat on a hook beside the door.
Nichole’s face warmed, and butterflies fluttered low in her chest as she sat on the chair and lifted her foot to her husband.
Merril grabbed the heel of her boot and slid the leather free from her foot with a quick movement. Her heel dropped into the palm of his hand. He lowered her foot as she raised her other boot. Her second boot dropped beside the first, and he bent to kiss the top of her stocking-covered foot.
“Now yours?” she asked.
Merril shook his head, pushed his boots off, one at a time, toe to heel, and kicked them aside. “Mine are old. They come off easy.”
Nichole lifted her skirt and untied the garter just below her knee. She rolled the stocking down and slipped it from her foot, then glanced at Merril.
His gaze shifted from her foot to her face and back to her foot.
She wiggled her toes at him, stuffed the garter into the stocking, then lifted her skirt above the other knee.
Merril groaned.
“Torturing you is kind of fun.” Nichole grinned as she rolled the other stocking leisurely down her leg and set it aside. She looked up as he shrugged out of his shirt.
He unbuckled his belt and undid the top button loose on his trousers.
Her gaze scorched a path from his tightened trousers, across his tanned chest to his laughing green eyes.
“You’re right. This is fun.” His grin widened as he crossed his arms and leaned his back against the wall. “Your turn, darlin’.”
Nichole stood, reached back and unhooked the buttons on her skirt. She stepped out of the material and folded it on the chair with her jacket. The blouse followed. She smiled over her shoulder at Merril. “Would you unlace me?”
He stepped close and loosened the ties on her corset as she unpinned her hair and let it fall across her back. Merril swept the curls to one side and nibbled along her neck to her shoulder.
Gooseflesh ran down her arms, and her breath hitched as his tongue swirled across her skin. The corset slid over her hips to the floor, and Merril’s warm hands slipped beneath her camisole and cupped her breasts. She turned her head and lifted her face to his. His soft lips found hers as his thumbs stroked her nipples.
When she turned in his arms, he lifted the camisole over her head, and pulled her tight against him. His mouth slanted across hers with desire.
Nichole wrapped her arms around Merril’s neck and pulled his hair free from a black ribbon. She ran her fingers through his long hair and pressed herself closer.
He unfastened the button on her drawers and guided them down her hips.
She trailed one hand down his chest to his trousers and caressed the tight denim. The answering rumble deep in his chest made her legs weaken.
His hands disappeared from her hips, and then the entire burning length of his body pressed against hers. He lifted her leg and ran his hand down her back and between her legs, inflaming her passion.
“Such nice long arms,” she whispered, as her other leg gave way. “I’m going to fall.”
“No, you’re not. I have you.” Merril picked her up and set her on the bed.
Squeeeeak.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Nichole laughed.
The bed squealed again as it took Merril’s weight. “Do you want me to stop?” He rose to his elbows, and grinned at her as he pressed himself part way into the center of her desire, then withdrew.
“Don’t tease me, Merril.” She tried to wiggle onto him, but he pulled back.
“I don’t want you to be embarrassed in the morning.”
Her eyes opened and stared hard into his.
Green eyes glittered with gold as he almost entered her, and then withdrew again. “You need to tell me what you want me to do.”
“I need you to break this damn bed, Merril.”
He laughed as he filled her, and then groaned as he wrapped his arms around her and tucked his head into her neck.
She didn’t hear the bed squawk in time with their lovemaking, and didn’t care if it did.
After their passion cooled, he drew the cover over them and pulled her close.
Nichole curled into his side, her leg over his, her head on his shoulder. “I love you, Merril.”
“And I love you, Mrs. Shilo.”
She looked up at him and smiled as he dropped a quick kiss on her nose.
“What?” he asked. “I see you’ve got something on your mind.”
“I do.” She cuddled closer. “Remember what I told you at the barbeque, before I went in the house?”
“Mmm.” His head fell back on the pillow as his hand ran up and down her arm. “You told me you remembered things that never happened. You were worried about what White Eagle had said about you.”
“That’s right.” She paused and chewed her nail for a moment, then looked up at him. “Let me ask something else. Have you ever heard of reincarnation—of being born again into another life?”
“Actually, I have.” He looked at the ceiling, his arm around her shoulder. “I worked for almost a year laying a spur of the Central Pacific line. My partner was a Chinese man named Chen. He spoke in broken English, but we understood each other well enough. He told me he hoped for great things in his next life.”
“Good—then this might not be an impossible explanation.” She pushed up onto her elbow and stared into his sleepy eyes. “When Jones hit you and you lost consciousness—imagine that when you woke up you were in ancient Rome.”
He raised his head slightly as his gaze focused on her. “Instead of The Highlands?”
“Yeah. Say you opened your eyes, and you were someone else, thrust back into a life and body of the person you used to be—in a previous life.”
Merril’s brow furrowed as he stared at Nichole. “Is that what happened to you? You woke up in a previous life?”
Nichole nodded. “I did.”
Merril folded his arm behind his head and studied her eyes. “What was it like? Do you know who you were?”
Nichole nodded. “I know.” She looked down at her hand on his chest. “I woke up on a cattle ranch and met a man I couldn’t live without.” She raised her gaze to his. “I married him today.”
“What?” Merril blinked and shook his head. “But that’s—now.”
“It’s who I am now. In this life, I’m Nichole Harris. But I have memories from another life.”
“A previous life?”
“This is my previous life, Merril. I had to make a choice—stay where I was, or come back to you. White Eagle was right, the choice was mine. I chose to be with you.”
Merril’s head fell back, and he gazed at the ceiling.
Nichole watched his eyes as he considered what she had told him.
When his gaze returned to her, he remained silent.
“Did I blow your mind?” She ran her hand along his stubbled jaw.
“Blow my mind?” His brow creased.
“Yeah... ka-boom.” She held her fist to her head, and pulled it away as she opened her fingers. “I don’t mean to upset you, but I need you to know.”
“I’m not upset, I’m—I don’t know—in a state of wonder, I suppose. Do you remember your name, your life?”
Nichole nodded. “My name was Courtney Veau. I had parents, grew up, went to school.” She tore her gaze from his and looked down at her hand. “I never gave any thought to things like past lives, until I woke up in the hospital and remembered the time I spent as Nichole. When I realized you were lost to me—forever—it was the worst thing that ever happened to me, in either life.” She raised her gaze to his. “I love you, Merril and I didn’t want to live a life without you in it. I found a way back.”
He tightened her in his arms and closed his eyes. “I’ll thank God every day of my life that you did.”