CHAPTER FORTY
Amber~
“Holly?” He sounded baffled. “Nope. Do you think I would be canoodling with you while I’m in love with another woman?”
She felt hope flicker. But he must have loved his wife once. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Whatever I felt for Holly ended a long time ago. Round about the time she started stepping out with Tommy Jack.”
“Oh.” She hesitated, then decided she had to know. “What about your family? How did they feel about your wife and your cousin getting married?”
He grimaced. “Why do you think I wound up here in Colorado?”
“Why you? You hadn’t done anything wrong?” It sounded desperately unfair to her.
He shook his head. “Maybe so. But all the same there was a heap of bad feelings, and folks taking sides without knowing the truth of the matter. Eventually, I had just had enough. I lit out and started over.”
Her heart twisted. “It can’t have been easy. Didn’t you mind having to leave your home?”
“By the time I left I was so tired of the fighting that I didn’t care if I never saw any of them again.”
“Even your parents?”
He looked even sadder. “Even them. Things are a bit better now. Last couple of years I’ve even gone home for the holidays. Everyone seems to have forgiven and forgotten.” He shrugged. “Mom and Dad are even fond of Holly and Tommy Jack’s boy.”
Fonder of his ex’s son than of their own? “Oh. How do you feel about them having a child?”
“Am I missing something here? I said I was divorced. Have been for years. Why is that such a big deal?” His voice stayed level but there was an edge to it.
She knew she was blushing. “We’re pretty old-fashioned back in French Town. Folks stay married for life. I don’t think I ever knew anyone divorced until I met Patrick’s father.”
“Must be nice.” He sounded even more bitter.
“It is. In my family, we take true love seriously.”
“And true love always ends in happily ever after?”
“Pretty much.” She sighed. “Unless someone dies.”
“Huh.”
“My true love died.” She so hadn’t meant to say that.
“Yeah. When was this?” Lance tipped up her face so his one good eye could stare into both of hers. His mouth was a severe line.
“Willie and I were high school sweethearts. We were going to get married when I graduated.” Her voice faded.
“And,” he prompted.
“Willie enlisted the week after his graduation. He was a Marine like you.”
“Hmm.”
“He never made it back from his first tour.” She couldn’t help the sob that emerged with the words. “He was just nineteen.”
Lance rocked her against his chest. “Hush,” he said as if she were a child. “Never mind.” He kissed the top of her head. His arms comforted her.
“I’m sorry.” She spoke into his shirt. “It’s just so sad. He never got to grow up.”
“And what about your feelings? Are you still carrying a torch for that boy?” His voice was a little rough.
She owed him the truth. “I don’t think so. It’s been five years. But I always thought he was my one and only.”
Lance stroked her from nape to waist and gave her another comforting hug. “Five years isn’t so long.”
“It feels like forever.”
“Hmm.”
“At first I felt cheated of our future. And then I was sad because I missed him.”
“And now?” His drawl was so soft she had to strain to hear.
“I don’t know. I still feel sorrow when I think of him, but it’s more muted. As though I have forgotten him,” she confessed.
“You’ll never do that. But time has a way of taking the edge off grief.” He gave her another squeeze.
“I feel like I have already forgotten Willie. Look at me kissing you.”
Lance went rigid. “You haven’t dated since you lost your high school sweetheart?”
“Nope.” She spoke to his shirt snaps.
“Hmm.” A long pause while he petted her back. “Maybe we both deserve a second chance at love.”
She tipped her head back. “Do you think you could love me?”
“As easy as falling off a log. What about you? I’m not the man I was, and I never will be again. And I’m years older than your Willie. Years older than you.” His voice was flat. He expected rejection.
Amber could feel her face heating. She suddenly felt shy, but she put some starch in her spine. A modern woman shouldn’t be a shrinking violet. And Lance didn’t deserve coyness. “I’d like to try.”
“Sounds like a plan, sweet thing.” His drawl turned ‘thing’ into ‘thang’.
His happiness made her as swiftly joyful as she had been melancholy before.
“Shall we seal our deal with a kiss?” He bent his head and covered her mouth with his.
His taste was more familiar this time, but just as exciting. And as before lightning sparked between them. She wondered if he would think she was promising more than she intended, but his restraint was just as marked as before. It was her response that was different. She felt free to indulge her bear as she never had before. In fact, come to think, she seemed to have a whole new bear. A randy brazen wench of a bear.
Lance seemed to enjoy her hotly aroused bear for he clucked with masculine appreciation before angling his mouth so that their tongues could duel. Her world dwindled to the fiery union of their lips and tongues. Part of her was still concerned that he would think this was the prelude to bed, but the other larger part wanted to learn what pleased this man most.
She suckled his bottom lip and tugged it between her teeth for a playful nip. He growled and reciprocated, letting her feel the barest edge of his teeth as he pulled away to kiss her neck. He nibbled his way to her earlobe and engulfed it with his hot mouth.
He grazed the lobe with his teeth before blowing on it. Her clit began to pulse faster. He blew again, while his fingers teased the other lobe. Her whole body tightened with anticipation. She grabbed his arms and held on for dear life. He responded by tracing the rim of her ear with his tongue and then drying it with his breath. Her breath hitched and her stomach clenched.
The more aroused she became, the more subtle and teasing his kisses and caresses became. Not that he was unaffected by his play. His breath rocked his chest and his face was damp. He left her ear and laved the base of her throat, lapping at her skin while her breasts peaked and her pussy throbbed. She was on the brink when he set her six inches away.
“Wow!” His tone was heartfelt.
Amber heaved a long restless sigh of her own and opened her eyes. Lance rested his hot face against her hair. “I’d better go home,” he panted.
She brushed his face with shaking fingers. Beneath her fingertips he stiffened. The skin of his jaw was closely shaven, but there were patches where it was rough and pitted. Scar tissue.
“Do you mind?” His voice was humble.
“Only that you were hurt.” She kissed him on the damaged skin, as tenderly as she knew how.
He relaxed fractionally. Again his mouth sought hers as if she were water in the desert. His hands became busy stroking and kneading her back. She had never thought of her back as an erogenous zone, but she felt like purring from the pleasure of his fondling. To her embarrassment she heard her own husky moans start up again. She almost begged him to stay.
But it was still too soon for her. “Morning stables will be here soon enough,” she said in a voice that trembled.
“Yeah.” He was perfectly still, cradling her close. Gradually his heart slowed. “I’d best be on my way.”
“Do you know how to use that thing?” he asked pointing to her rifle which was racked up over the front door.
“I got my first deer when I was ten – and every year since.”
“Good. Is it loaded?” He shrugged on his parka.
“Not much use if it’s unloaded,” she said dryly.
“Ever shot a man?”
She shook her head. “But I’ve taken out my share of watermelons.”
He ignored her attempt at humor. “It’s different than shooting to put meat on the table.” His voice was bleak. “But if you must pull the trigger, aim for the chest – it’s a good big target.”
She didn’t tell him that her cousin Joey Benoit had given her the same advice before she went off to the ‘wilds’ of Colorado. She nodded. “If someone breaks in, I’ll assume he means me harm. Shoot first, ask questions later.” She rattled off the rest of Joey’s advice.
“Maybe you should keep your piece beside the bed,” he suggested as he pulled his gloves out of his pockets.
“I have a revolver under the nightstand,” she confided. “Loaded. I plan to roll out of bed and fire at whatever I can see.” A snake would probably be on the floor anyway. And a bullet in the ankle would drop the biggest man.
He grinned. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “Yup.”
“Good girl.” He gave her a quick, hard, possessive kiss and crammed his watch cap over his hair. “Lock up tight.” He opened her door.
“Good night.” She turned the dead bolt and threw the barrel bolt for good measure. She stood listening by the door. Lance’s footsteps started up after a beat or two and thumped down the three wooden steps. He began to whistle. Her ears caught the squeak of his boots on the snow as she turned off the porch light, and then silence.
Amber went to the window flipping off the light switch as she passed it. Lance’s straight back appeared and disappeared, meandering among the trees. What the heck was he up to? It looked like he was tracking something in the snow.
Should she bundle up and lend her skills? Probably not. Let the man have his pride. Any tracks would still be there in the morning. It was late and it was past time for a working woman to be in bed.