Beautiful Bad Man (16 page)

The end was as different from what he had known as the beginning. Instead of pulling out of her still erect, washing every trace of her from his body, and wishing he had a different place to spend the rest of the night, he kept the connection as long as possible, relishing the fan of her breath on his shoulder, her arms around him and hands spread on his back.

When he finally lifted his weight from her, he pulled her close, back to his belly, buried his nose in her hair, and fell asleep.

Soft whimpering from beside the bed woke Cal. He and Norah lay in a tangle of arms and legs, cocooned together against the cold of the house. Memories of the day and night before rushed back, together with awareness of the source of the whimpers.

Mentally cursing the fool who had thought a dog was a good idea and accepted one not much more than a puppy, he moved the arm Norah had around his waist to her side, pushed her leg out from between his, and eased out of the bed.

Trousers, boots, he didn’t fumble for more but pulled on his coat, picked up his rifle, and staggered out into cold, coming wide awake with the first shivering breath.

“I should push you out by yourself and let the coyotes have you,” he muttered as Early gamboled around his feet. “I bet you think I should be grateful you woke me up instead of making a mess.” Early jumped against his leg, and he fondled the dog’s mismatched ears.

“I bet you think your life changed a lot today. Yesterday. You have no idea. First she won’t sell, then she wants me to marry her for it, then she....”

Even talking to a dog, he couldn’t say it out loud. What she’d done was give him a glimpse of something that scared the bejesus out of him, something never meant for men like him that could start a hunger that would eat away what little was left inside him that didn’t need to be shoved into the dark place.

Even so, as he whistled the dog back to him he wondered how she was going to react to his cold body back in the bed, using her to warm up.

T
HE SLIGHT MOVEMENT
of the bed as Caleb rose woke Norah.

She watched him move away, admiring the long lines of his back and taut, muscular rear. Joe had hung blankets on a rope to hide the bed from the rest of the soddy. So visitors wouldn’t see he said, but the two of them used it to hide from each other too. She had seen his body, of course. She’d nursed him through an occasional illness, but he never slept without a night shirt, never rose naked in the morning light, and if he did, she would never have watched him the way she watched Caleb now.

The race horse–draft horse comparison came back to her, but it was more than that. Yes, Caleb was lean, his muscle well defined under the skin, the taper of broad shoulders to narrow waist and hips marked, but he was also sleek.

The light picked out a sprinkling of golden hairs across his chest and on his arms and legs, but the blond hair didn’t grow in the kind of thick mat that had hidden Joe’s chest and even covered some of his back and shoulders.

Caleb’s hair didn’t feel the same either, silky and springy instead of, well, like fur. Everything about him felt so male, but not in a crushing, smothering way. And inside. Her body had opened to him so easily, eagerly, with no dry burning rasp at first. Only the pleasure. Oh, the pleasure of having him.

He washed quickly with the water left over from last night. Her body reacted so strongly to the sight, she closed her eyes and bit her lip. Desire curled low in her belly, and she wanted to call out, pull him back to her, touch him.

Those things were for times when the darkness covered them, and not for a woman to be starting either. Lying here like a slug-a-bed wishing had to be wrong. She wanted him to touch her the way he had last night. Twice.

Eight years married, and she’d never known. Did other women know it could be like that, or did some live and die thinking that part of marriage a mild pleasure some times and a small chore others?

In town, the way he looked at her, at least those times they weren’t quarreling, made her feel like a girl again, special, pretty. He’d even called her pretty. What he’d done last night made her feel wanton, female, desirable.

He couldn’t have learned those things in the brothel. He’d only been ten when they’d taken him from there to his uncle. She didn’t want to think about the magic of last night having anything to do with a place like that, but then she didn’t want to think about other women either.

He’d come out of the saloon early the morning they married. He hadn’t been drinking, and those kind of women worked there. Trying to get him to tell her anything would be a waste of effort. He only gave up the reason he headed out of town in the wrong direction yesterday when he had to.

She kicked out from under the covers and sat up, astonished at the direction of her thoughts. She couldn’t be thinking of talking to him about what they’d done. Sometimes women alluded to such things, reassuring each other of their common experience, but no one
talked
about what they did in the dark. She shivered at the memory, his hands, his mouth, his body. Her breath quickened, nipples peaked.

This morning would be like yesterday, eating at the restaurant and not mentioning breaking into Lawson’s. They would just be not mentioning a different thing. That’s the way things were between a man and a woman, husband and wife.

She had to call him to breakfast. He came in with his face closed down and his eyes wary. They ate in silence, and she couldn’t think how to relieve the tension or why it was happening.

She’d been so delighted, but that didn’t mean he was. He was probably used to women who knew about those things, who knew how to respond better.

“Caleb?”

The wary eyes met hers.

“I liked what you did last night. I liked it a lot, and if you didn’t so much. If I need to.... If I s-should....” She stuttered to a halt.

“You liked it.”

“Mm hm.”

“A lot.”

“Yes.”

He took a swallow of coffee, regarding her over the edge of the cup, his expression slowly relaxing. “So did I. How about if we do it again right now?”

She gasped. “We can’t. It’s broad daylight.”

He looked around as if checking to be sure she was right about that. “So married people don’t do it in daylight?”

“N-no. At least I never — we didn’t — I don’t think so. Maybe I could find a way to ask Mabel Carbury when we go there.”

He pushed away from the table and reached for his hat. “Let me talk to her first. I still have money. Maybe she’ll take a bribe.”

Norah didn’t recover from her surprise until he was gone. His words made her throw something at the door again, but this time she laughed as she did it, and the towel she threw didn’t make a mess.

T
HE TRIP TO
Carburys’ would be longer than five miles by road instead of straight across the fields, but Norah couldn’t see any reason why it required Caleb’s saddle horse tied to the back of the wagon or Early tied in the bed.

“Are you and Early going to ride away and leave me with the Carburys?”

“No, but we’re not leaving anything alive behind either. We can rebuild anything Preston wrecks, but we can’t raise the dead.”

Norah didn’t want to think about Van Cleve, Preston, or the inevitability of more trouble. The sunny late January day matched her mood, very cold, but crisp, not damp.

Joe’s old coat would have to do until she could make up the new one, but the red scarf perked up even the dull brown. Mabel would love the rose dress. Becky had probably already regaled her mother with the story of selecting the material, but showing off a beautiful dress wouldn’t be half as much fun as showing off a handsome husband.

Armed Carburys poured from the house and barn as Caleb halted the wagon in the yard. Norah called out and waved, slowing the rush.

“If they shoot me,” Caleb said, “make sure you get the money belt off the body before anyone else gets it.”

“That’s not funny. No one is shooting you.” She climbed down without help and started for Mabel and Becky.

“I thought you’d like to meet my new husband, but if I’m wrong, we’ll load my things and be gone as quickly as possible.”

Becky took a step back. Mabel’s jaw dropped slightly. “Husband? You
married
him?”

“Of course I did. Archie told me to go to town and find someone who could put up with me, didn’t he?”

Archie appeared from the other side of the wagon. “I believe I mentioned it shouldn’t be Sutton.”

“Are you sure? Why don’t I remember that?” She knit her brow but couldn’t keep the expression and grinned.

“Well, get him down and let’s meet him.”

“Come meet everyone,” she called to Caleb, as if he were waiting for an invitation, not for assurance no one would pull the trigger on any of the rifles pointed at him.

She tried to see him as the others must. Several days of dark blond stubble still covered the lean jaw, but most men sported full beards this time of year. Even shaded by the brim of his hat, his dark eyes had a hawk’s intense alertness, and no one would be fooled by his relaxed posture on the wagon seat.

Neither his agile jump down nor that no footprints way he covered the few feet to her side did anything to dispel the dangerous aura.

Even so, Becky had been sighing and fantasizing about a non-existent romance for weeks and surely had told her folks Caleb had visited Norah. Mabel and Archie must have changed her attitude. Becky stood with her arms folded across her chest, glaring daggers at Caleb. In fact, Archie, who had let his rifle barrel droop toward the ground, looked the friendliest of the whole family.

“Your horses look like crowbait,” Archie said, giving the team a critical once over.

Before Norah could spring to the defense, Caleb said, “Ogden has a bunch like this he can’t afford to feed. They’ll fatten soon.”

“Fatten on what?”

“Hay and oats now. Grass as soon as I can fence pasture.”

Archie threw Caleb a sharp look. Having been to the farm to help Norah pack the day she left, Archie knew full well there hadn’t been a speck of feed on the place. “Bring them along. Her boxes are in the barn.”

Just like that the men left. Becky threw herself at Norah, hugging and almost sobbing. “What happened? Did he force you to marry him and give him the farm? I’ll get Pa and the boys to shoot him dead. We’ll bury him where no one will ever find him.”

Norah pushed Becky back far enough to look at her. “Where do you get such strange ideas? I quit my position with Mrs. Tindell and asked him to marry me, and he did.”

“You asked him,” Mabel said, frowning.

“I did.”
And he didn’t jump at the chance either.
Friends didn’t need to know everything.

“Even if you met him once long ago, it’s no excuse. He’s one of Mr. Van Cleve’s men.”

“He quit. He quit almost two months ago, and it was because of me.”

“He’s a bad one.”

“Oh, Mabel, yes, he is. He’s a very bad man, but he’s a beautiful bad man.”

“He is not,” Becky said. “I thought he would be handsome. Ethan is handsome. You said he was scary looking, and I should have believed you. You’re afraid to tell the truth is all. You didn’t ask him to marry you. He scared you into it.”

Ethan Butler was a pleasant-looking young man of average height with a nice smile, light brown hair, and a pale, town complexion. Norah decided against doing a point by point comparison with Caleb.

Mabel had seen more of life than her emotional daughter. Her face softened as she met Norah’s eyes. “So it’s like that, is it? You’d better come in and tell us about it.”

N
ORAH WAITED UNTIL
they were well down the road on the way home before asking, “Were they horrible to you?”

“Not bad for people who think I married you for the land and as soon as a little time passes I’ll turn it over to Van Cleve and disappear.”

“You did marry me for the land.”

“Not just the land. There’s the curtains.”

“Curtains.”

“Whatever makes the house feel like home. I think it’s the blue curtains.”

After another while of silence, Norah pulled off a glove and curved her hand around his thigh.

“Did you ask her about what’s acceptable to do in broad daylight?” He kept his eyes on the horses, but she saw a slight curl at the corner of his mouth.

“No. I decided to follow my mother’s advice instead.”

“Your mother had something to say on the subject?”

“Wives be submissive...”

He gave a short bark of laughter. After a startled moment, Norah kissed him. After all she needed to practice this new way of kissing, broad daylight or not.

T
HE MORNING AFTER
the visit to the Carburys, Norah washed up after breakfast with a smile on her lips, humming to herself now and then and close to breaking into song. Whatever she had expected when she proposed marriage to Caleb, it wasn’t this.

Today she’d finish putting everything away and then start on her new coat or the blue dress material. Or the green. Or maybe it would be better to brighten the gray dress Caleb disliked so with trim. Blue trim. He’d like that.

The sound of the wagon pulling up outside surprised her. Caleb appeared in the doorway before she left her chores to investigate.

“I need some help today, partner. Come on along.”

Curious as to what help he could need, she bundled up in Joe’s coat and followed him out. Forrest was tied to the back gate again, Early and a pile of rope in the wagon bed. He didn’t want help with some small thing close by.

She climbed to the seat before asking, “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know the name of the place. It’s a couple hours away.”

Two hours. The only neighbors two hours away would be far more hostile than the Carburys. She might not know them well enough to reassure them.

“Do you think that’s wise? Maybe we ought to ask Mabel and Archie to introduce you to some of the neighbors.”