After Sundown (33 page)

Then he shifted his weight, capturing her mouth with his again, breaking the mirror’s spell. They kissed until her lips felt swollen and bruised, until he chased away all her thoughts and fears—of the past, of the future, of the danger that awaited them beyond this place.

There was only the two of them. Here, together, safe. There was only him, only now.

All her senses flooded with him, with his spicy, male taste and scent and heat. The fire of his kiss, the sultry touch of his hands on her skin, the scorching awareness of his rigid arousal pressed against her thigh. Pleasure and longing and a much deeper emotion all burned within her.

His fingers traced a tantalizing path along her thigh. Brushed over the silken triangle between her legs. He found the sensitive bud hidden there, teased it. She arched beneath him with a husky cry and he opened her to his touch, finding her soft and wet. He made a low sound of pleasure, of hunger.

Wordless sounds came from her throat as he stroked her, pressing his thumb in tight circles against that hard pearl, slipping his fingers inside her. She grasped at his muscled arms, her voice rough and sensual even to her own ears. “
Lucas.
”

She lifted her hips, needing more. Needing all of him.

Tonight and forever.

He parted her thighs with his knee, positioned himself at her core. His gaze locked on hers. And then he pressed forward, that hard, male part of him opening her slowly... penetrating her deeply.

A low moan came from her throat, the pleasure beyond words, the sensations overwhelming. He thrust into her until they were fully joined. Until he was part of her, a sweet pressure inside her. She twined her arms around his neck and closed her eyes, whispering his name, lost in the feeling of being claimed and cherished. Of being
his
.

Their moans and sighs made the only sound in the silence, and there was only him, inside her and around her, filling her body and her heart and her soul.

Together they moved in that intimate dance, softness and steel, both offering and receiving, both taking and giving. She matched his rhythm as he arched his hips, alternating slow, silky caresses with sudden, deep thrusts that made pleasure coil tighter and tighter within her.

The sensations in her body burned her like the fire in his eyes, those emerald depths glittering with emotion that startled her with its intensity. His mouth took hers in a kiss that was just as fierce and powerful.

He stroked the curve of her bottom, lifted her against him, grasping tighter as his rhythm became faster, more urgent. He seemed just as lost as her—reckless and lost, driving into her. Each hard thrust made the tension spin tight, low in her belly. Tighter. Tremors began rivering through her. She felt him shudder. Together they reached for the light in the darkness.

And together they claimed it. He grasped her hips with both hands, locking her against him, and suddenly shards of brilliance exploded around her, inside her, brighter than stars. She felt his body go taut as he spilled himself inside her, both of them groaning, gasping as wave after wave of pleasure cascaded over them.

Annie felt like she was falling, flying,
free
.

Then Lucas’s muscles went slack, his weight pressing her down into the sheets. She wrapped her arms around him and they stayed joined together, breathing hard, spent. After a while, he gently withdrew from her body and eased himself alongside her, gathering her to him, holding her close. She rested her cheek against the hard curve of his shoulder. He dusted kisses through her hair.

Long after her breathing and her heartbeat slowed, Annie savored the sweet moment. It almost felt like one life ending, fading like the sun that had vanished behind the mountains, and a new one rising in its place, a silver moon in the sky, defiant in its brightness against the night.

And she knew that she would never forget this moment as long as she lived, this feeling of being so protected and cherished.

This emotion that overflowed her heart.

“I love you,” she whispered in the darkness. “I love you.”

~ ~ ~

Lucas felt the touch of the sun stealing through the curtains, but refused to open his eyes. All night, they had kept each other awake, making love again and again—fiercely, tenderly.

If he just kept his eyes closed, he could stay here, holding her close, and forget the world outside this room.

Regret cut through him as he reluctantly opened his eyes, slowly. Annie lay curled against him, so impossibly beautiful in the light of dawn. He remained still and watched her sleep, memorizing every curve of her face, the shape of her lips, every glossy tendril of her dark hair.

He had wanted her to be his, and his alone, if only for one night. One reckless, stolen, lawless night that he would remember long after he had to set her free and watch her walk away.

She had to agree to leave him. Somehow, he
had
to persuade her to see reason.

But for now, just for now, he didn’t want to wake her from her dreams. His breath hitched in his chest as he looked at her.

Despite everything she had been through, everything she had lost, she still dreamed. She was all dreams and hope and heart, his sweet elf. From the beginning, he had responded to her delicate beauty, her flashes of steel and fire... but it was her gentle heart that affected him most of all.

The tenderness in her soul that was so deep, nothing could take it away.

With a drowsy sigh, she snuggled closer to him, her lashes lifting.

His heartbeat unsteady, Lucas reached out and brushed a stray curl back from her face.

She blinked, smiling at him in the soft light of dawn. “Good morning.”

He couldn’t find any words. Why did they always seem to fail him at moments like this?

She ran her fingers over his beard-stubbled jaw, then ruffled the tangled hair on his forehead, almost playfully. “I don’t regret last night,” she whispered. “And I meant what I said. I love you, Lucas.”

“Annie...” He buried his face in her hair, tightening his arms around her.

“It’s all right.” She stroked his shoulder, soothingly, as if he were the one in need of care and comfort. “I know. You haven’t changed your mind about me going back to Missouri.”

“No.” He hadn’t changed his mind. There was no way in hell he was letting her put herself in the hands of people who would hurt her.

“But I’ve made my decision,” she said in a tone that held a new, quiet strength.

“No,” he corrected gently, lifting his head. “
I’ve
made your decision.”

“Stubborn, impossible male,” she teased.

“Maddening, impossible female.” He took a deep breath. “Annie—”

“Lucas, I don’t want to argue about it anymore.” Her fingers traced an old scar on his shoulder. “I don’t want to think about what’s going to happen when spring comes. Can we just... not fight about it anymore, for now?”

He gave in, nuzzling his cheek against hers, reluctant to deny her anything that would make her happy.

“There are only a few weeks of winter left.” She kissed a sensitive spot she had discovered last night, just behind his ear. “And I don’t want to spend them fighting with you.”

He rolled onto his back, pulling her atop him. “And how do you want to spend them?”

“Like this.” She snuggled close, laying her head on his chest.

“Annie...” He closed his eyes. It had been unspeakably selfish to allow himself to make love to her for even one night, to accept her passion and her love when he had to send her away.

It was no way to treat a lady, especially not this sweet, brown-haired elf who had claimed such an important place in his life, in his heart.

He cleared his throat and forced himself to say it. “Annie, you should have everything you want—a home, a husband. And I want to give you that.” His voice thickened. “By letting you go. You can have that life, somewhere else, somewhere safe—”

“But I don’t
want
that life if it doesn’t include you,” she protested softly. “I want my home to be with you.”

He reached up to twine his fingers through her long hair. “I don’t even have a home,” he reminded her. For years, the only home he’d had—the only one he’d wanted or needed—was what he could carry in his saddlebags. “And I don’t know when... or if... I’ll see you—”

She stopped his words with a fingertip against his lips. “Lucas, I know that we can’t be sure what’s going to happen. And when we get back to Missouri—”

“When
I
get back,” he corrected.

She sighed in frustration but didn’t try to argue for the moment. “Back in Missouri,” she continued, “you’ll see your family again and...” She paused. “That might change things between us.”

“Seeing my family again will not change how I feel about you,” he said gruffly. “Annie, you matter to me. You’re...” He tried to think of the right words. “Important to me in a way that I can’t even...” He was making a mess of this. “I care about you, lady.”

It came out as a half-growl, but his declaration still made her smile.

And brought that warm softness to her brown eyes. “I know, Lucas. You’ve shown me how you feel, in so many ways.” She shook her head. “But I don’t want you to make any promises now that you might regret later. Just give me today,” she whispered, “and tomorrow, and however long we might have until spring.”

Her plea wrenched his heart. He brushed his thumb over her soft cheek. “Just go on like we were before?”

She nodded. “Only without all the arguing.”

“We’ll be giving certain people in town plenty more to gossip about.”

“I didn’t realize you cared so much what the town gossips thought about you,” she teased.

“It wasn’t me I was thinking of,” he said dryly.

She smiled. “You’re very sweet to be concerned about my reputation, gallant sir. But the people who matter to me already
know
how we feel about each other. I think Rebecca knew before I did.”

He drew the blanket around her to keep her warm as she settled against him. “Holt knows, too.”

“Our friends will be happy for us. As for everyone else...” She shrugged. “Some people will never accept me, no matter what. But for the first time in my life, I really don’t care what people like that say or think.” She sounded mildly surprised at her own words. “All I care about is how much I love you.”

He shut his eyes, aching at the way those words made him feel, every time she said them.

“Lucas, just for these next few weeks, can’t we pretend like... like there’s nothing waiting beyond those mountain passes to hurt us? That for once, for a little while, we both have a place to call—”

“Home.” He murmured his answer against her lips. “Yes.”

A
nnie sighed and sank lower in the tub, watching steam curl upward from the water. The vapor that rose in the firelit darkness filled the room with the scent of meadow herbs from her favorite soap. She closed her eyes with a smile, the heat easing the soreness from her every aching muscle. It was Saturday, and she’d been at the store since six this morning, hurried and busy all day.

Lucas, bless him, had had the hot bath waiting for her when she got home, placed in front of the hearth in their room. He’d even lit candles on the mantel and the tables. The curtains were drawn, the whole hotel dark and silent.

“Better?” he asked softly from where he sat a few feet away.

“Yes.” She turned her head to smile at him. “Much better, thank you.”

He returned her smile, reclining in the chaise longue wearing only his black trousers. There was a now-familiar gleam in his eyes as he watched her, a huskiness in his voice. “Happy to oblige.”

Her cheeks warmed, her smile widening as she returned her attention to her bath. Even after weeks of sharing a home with him, she still blushed when he looked at her that way.

For the past month, they had spent their days as before, both kept busy by their work. In the afternoons, she would sometimes visit her friends or they would visit her, the women filling the hotel’s front room and kitchen with their chatting and laughter as they made tea and did needlework, or played cards, or baked some special surprise for their menfolk.

But the nights... the nights belonged only to her and Lucas. They spent every hour together, stealing every moment, giving themselves to each other as if each time might be the last.

And Annie had begun to realize that the hardest part of the choice she had made wasn’t the idea of leaving Eminence and all her friends, or even the fear of facing a trial.

It was the thought of being separated from the man she loved.

She bowed her head and rinsed her hair, letting the tangle of curls fall around her in a dark cascade. Once, it had felt like she and Lucas were trapped by the winter snows that surrounded this isolated town.

Now it felt as if the blocked mountain passes offered their only protection.

And as the middle of February approached, bringing warmer temperatures, she knew that their sanctuary couldn’t last much longer.

The water grew cool, but she took longer than necessary rinsing her hair, hoping Lucas couldn’t see her expression. She had been trying so hard not to think about the future, not wanting to let sorrow or fear intrude on this special, magical time.

These few weeks of happiness that might have to last her the rest of her life.

“Ready to dry off?” he asked quietly. He came over and took a large towel from the chair beside the tub.

“Yes.” She looked up at him, grateful to have her melancholy thoughts interrupted. As she stood, water sluicing down her naked body, he wrapped her in the towel, and in his embrace, his arms so strong around her. For a moment, he just held her.

Then he scooped her up and out of the tub, carrying her over to the chaise, setting her down at the end. After he picked up another towel he’d had waiting, he swung his leg over the long chair and sat down behind her.

She closed her eyes as he began to dry her hair. Of all the little customs and routines they had established, this Saturday night ritual was one of her favorites.

“Talked to Holt this evening,” Lucas said after a moment.

“Oh?” Annie asked reluctantly. Her friend Daniel was not one of her favorite topics these days—because he agreed with Lucas that the best thing for her to do was go to Canada. The two men were working on a plan together, and they had Lily Breckenridge and some other experienced miners traveling out to the passes now and then, keeping an eye on the snows and reporting back.

While scouting, Daniel’s friends had inadvertently solved the mystery of what had happened to the two prospectors suspected of poisoning Lucas at the Christmas dance: The pair had been found on one of the mountain trails, frozen to death. Apparently they had tried to get out of town rather than face Lucas’s fury, and paid with their lives. The case, Travis had declared, was closed.

It also offered proof of just how dangerous the passes around Eminence were in the winter, Annie thought, a shiver going down her spine.

Lucas remained silent a long moment before finally sharing the news Daniel had given him. “Said it might be only another week,” he told her quietly. “Maybe ten days.”

Annie blinked hard, knowing that meant the two of them had even less time left together than they had thought. At the first opportunity, Lucas and Daniel intended to get her to safety.

And she was still equally determined to turn herself in and face the charges against her. “Lucas, I don’t want to—”

“Shh.” He stopped drying her hair, set the towel aside, and kissed her shoulder. “You know this is how it has to be, Annie. I want you safe.”

He slid one arm around her waist and she covered his hand with hers. He threaded their fingers together.

She leaned back into his embrace, wanting so desperately to believe that his plan could work, that everything would be all right. But there were too many things that could go wrong.

And he would be risking too much, giving up too much. She couldn’t let him do it.

“Annie, I’ll come find you as soon as everything’s taken care of back in Missouri,” he assured her. “I know we said no promises—but I’m giving you one. However long it takes, I
will
come find you.”

She closed her eyes, fighting the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.

“All you have to do is wait for me,” he murmured encouragingly. “Just make sure you don’t meet some nice Canadian man.”

How did he keep managing to make her smile when she felt like crying? “I don’t want to meet
any
nice man.” She nuzzled her cheek against his. “I want you.”

He chuckled, low in his throat. “Thanks.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she corrected, brushing kisses along his beard-roughened jaw. “You’re very nice. And caring and gentle, and honorable and brave. And I love you.” She whispered it against his mouth, turning in his arms so he could kiss her the way she wanted him to kiss her. With that sweet hunger, deep and potent.

When he lifted his head, she looked into his eyes. “I will never love
any
man but you, Lucas.”

Their lips met again, and he drew her closer. Enveloping her in his strength and passion, and there were no more words between them. Only sighs of longing and low murmurs of need.

Tomorrow, or the next day there would be time enough to discuss the future, Annie thought desperately. She didn’t want the world to intrude on them. Not yet.

Please God, not yet.

~ ~ ~

She was late. Her woolen coat still unbuttoned, Annie juggled her gloves, a biscuit she had grabbed from the kitchen for breakfast, and a handful of hairpins as she left the hotel, closing the front door behind her, trying to do it quietly so she wouldn’t wake Lucas. Rebecca would never complain, but Annie felt terrible for being late. It was already a quarter to nine, and Monday was usually a busy day at the store.

With each new morning, she and Lucas had grown more and more reluctant to greet the dawn as it invaded the home they had made, reluctant to begin another day that carried them closer to the moment they had to part.

A week... maybe ten days.

Annie forced the painful thought from her mind, putting her gloves in her pocket and finishing the biscuit in a few quick bites as she hurried down the board sidewalk toward the general store. She picked her way around icy spots and drifts sculpted by the wind during the night. Her gaze on the planks, she pinned her hair up, not even bothering to button her coat. The store was only a short distance from the hotel, and the air today had lost its bitter edge, seemed remarkably...

Warm.

She wasn’t sure if it was that realization that slowed her steps, or the sound she heard.

The sound from the livery stable on the other side of the street.

Annie lifted her gaze and froze, her hands still raised to her hair, one hairpin still in her fingers. For a moment, she just stood there. Unable to think. Unable to move. Her heart was pounding so hard, it blotted out all sound.

The noise she had heard was the braying of mules and the jingling of harnesses.

A mule train
. The first mule train of the season had arrived—a string of fifteen or twenty pack animals, loaded with provisions, accompanied by drovers with long whips. There was a laden wagon. And riders on horseback. Five of them.

A dozen thoughts all collided in her mind at once. The scouts had been mistaken. One of the passes was already open! She would have to leave Eminence. Now. Today.
Leave Lucas
.

Her fingers seemed to go numb. She let her arms drop to her sides, too stunned to take another step, to take a breath. It felt like she was being splintered in pieces, part of her numbly accepting that the inevitable had come too soon, part of her wanting to turn back, run to the hotel, to have just one more day, one more hour with him.

She took a step backward, shaking her head in denial, anguish.

And that was when she saw the woman.

For a second, some part of Annie’s mind found it odd that a finely dressed lady should be among the rough muleskinners, odder still that she seemed to be in charge. The men who had been on horseback gathered around as she spoke with Mr. Ballard, the owner of the livery stable.

Then all at once, whether it was the woman’s fine clothes or the way she held herself or the color of her hair, Annie realized that she looked familiar.

“Oh, my God.” Annie flattened herself against the wall of the abandoned building behind her, feeling dizzy. Everything started spinning around her.
No. No, it couldn’t be
... Annie had only seen her a handful of times, from a distance, back in St. Charles.

The men had started looking around at the few townsfolk who were out at this time of day—then one of them caught sight of Annie, said something to the lady.

She felt an icy chill go down her back as they all glanced her way. Terror flashed through her. She obeyed the instinct to turn and start walking back toward the hotel.
Toward Lucas
.

“Antoinette Sutton?” one of the men called out, his voice sharp and challenging in the clear morning air.

“It’s her!” another male voice shouted.

Not even thinking, Annie broke into a run. She heard them coming for her. Yelling at her to stop. Panic seized her. Their boots pounded the boardwalk. She kept running, faster, blindly.

Hands grabbed at her coat, her shoulder.

“
No!
” she screamed, her hair tumbling loosely around her as she was shoved back against the wall. There were five of them, their faces hard and angry as they looked at her. Two of them held her pinned, one on either side of her.

All of them were wearing badges.

The lady had followed them across the street, her beautiful face a mask of fury as she approached, her voice shaking with outrage. “That’s her.”

Annie shook her head in mute disbelief.

It was James’s wife.

“Antoinette Sutton,” one of the lawmen said, taking out a pair of handcuffs, “you are under arrest on the charge of murder in the first degree.”

They wrenched Annie’s arms behind her. Her mind was reeling. Mrs. McKenna came closer, until she stood only inches away. Her blue eyes ablaze, she glared at Annie as the cuffs were locked in place.

Then the elegant woman raised one gloved hand and slapped her across the face, hard. Annie cried out and would have stumbled if not for the firm grasp of the men who held her.

“You murdering little
whore
,” Mrs. McKenna spat. “What in the name of God are you doing out of jail? What happened to my brother-in-law? Did you kill
him
, too?”

“Olivia!”

Annie glanced up the boardwalk at the same time Mrs. McKenna did—to see Lucas standing in the open door of the hotel, wearing only his trousers and his unbuttoned shirt, his face stark with shock.

“Lucas!” Mrs. McKenna cried, looking relieved as she rushed toward him. “Thank God. We thought you were dead! Your sisters and I were worried sick when there was no word. I’ve been in Denver for a month waiting for... Lucas?”

He barely glanced at her, staring at Annie and the two lawmen who held her with an agonized expression. “Annie—”

“No.” She shook her head, trying to tell him it was all right. For a moment, she had panicked, but this was what she wanted, what had to be. Tears blurred her vision and started to fall. “Lucas, no.”

Mrs. McKenna looked at Annie, then at Lucas, her eyes narrowing.

Mr. Ballard had run over from the livery, and a few other townsfolk came into the street. Suddenly the morning air was filled with noise, everyone asking questions and talking at once. One of the lawmen who had been standing apart from the others, a dark-haired young man with long sideburns, stepped forward as Lucas walked toward Annie. “Marshal McKenna, sir—”