Romance: Seducing The Quarterback (32 page)

When Hailey awoke, Charlie was not beside her. She expected
as much for she slept well after sun up. She found the bathroom and washed up.
Her body was fairly tender. She put on a fresh dress and apron and made her way
down to the kitchen.

“Good morning Mrs. Halverson,” said Willa. 

“Good morning Willa. Is Mr. Halverson about?” she asked.

“I suspect he is out working. He should be in shortly to
have some breakfast,” she said.

Hailey sat a small table in the kitchen. Willa poured her
coffee for her. 

“May I fix you some eggs?” she asked.

Hailey was about to say yes but Charlie and Hale pushed
through the door boisterously. Hailey and Charlie made eye contact immediately.
His gaze made her quiver.  Some of the warmth of the way he made her feel
rekindled.

“Eggs will have to wait, Willa. Mrs. Halverson and I are
going to have a conversation,” said Charlie.

Hailey search him with some confusion. She rose from the
table having just had a taste of her coffee. She was fairly famished. But if
her husband wanted to speak with her, she had to obey. She followed him out of
the kitchen and out onto the front porch of the home.

She stretched up on to her tiptoes to kiss his cheek but he
gently thwarted her.  Now she was definitely hurt. He regarded her with a
scold. He held her hands in his.  Her body was close to his.

“I want you to tell me who you are,” he said candidly but in
his always-soft voice.

“I am your wife,” she replied, faking her confusion. He had
figured something out awfully fast.

He tilted his head with
Warning
. “The woman I wrote
to said she was a widow and a mother. You tell me how when I laid with you last
night that you did not feel like you were either of those things.”

Hailey’s lip began to quiver. She could not control it. She
gripped his iron hard bicep for support. 

“If you’ve made a mistake and there is something you need to
tell me, I am here to listen,” he said softly.

“Did what we share last night feel like a mistake?” she
asked, choking back emotion.

“No,” he replied, his voice as thick with that same emotion.
“That’s why I am trying to understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand,” she insisted. 

She could not bring herself to trust him all the way with
the fact that she was an imposter. She had tried to pull the wool over his eyes
and she didn’t have the nerve to fess up.

“Well,” he said standing up straight. “I think that there
is. Somewhere there was a falsehood played against me. We’re married, for now.
I am not sure that that can’t be undone. I can send you back to Wichita and no
one has to be the wiser. I’ll decide on that later.  But for now we are man and
wife at face value only. You will not be sharing my bed again.”

Hailey thought she was going to be sick. If she told him
what she did, he would send her back for sure. 

“There’s a party tonight celebrating our marriage,” he said.
“Everyone here who works for me is excited about the fact that I tied the knot.
You and I will act like we are every bit the happy bride and groom. And any
time you want to be honest with me about who you really are or who you really
were, you are welcome to do so. I will listen and I will be fair. Maybe you
just made up the part about being a widow and a mother for some reason that I
for life of me cannot come up with.”

Hailey gripped the rail of the porch frozen with emotion.
She hadn’t realized that he was watching her. So many times in the past few
days turning her life upside down, she moved in and out of reality. She wasn’t
sure what was real or what was true. She was worn out.

And the prospect of facing her falsehood brought her sister
and her sister’s entire family to mind. They were all gone. And she missed them
dearly, especially her sister.

As quietly as she could, Hailey sucked up the tears as they
fell. She had to be discrete unless she attracted the wrong kind of attention.
But her feelings were too powerful. She had to let them take their course.

Charlie cast a giant shadow over her shoulder. She watched
as their shadows merged into one. He swept her up into his arms and carried her
upstairs.

He lay her down on the bed of what she knew now to be the
master bedroom. 

“I will tell Willa to bring you a tray,” he said softly.

“I am not hungry,” she said stubbornly.

“When you tell me the truth –”

“Please close the door behind you,” Hailey said cutting him
off with an uncharacteristic assertiveness. It was not her style to talk back
or to be disrespectful but she could not be lectured now.

Hailey cried her eye out until she fell back to sleep. She
was still exhausted which probably contributed some to her emotional state.
When she woke for the second time that day it was because Willa was fussing
about in her room. Hailey sat up.

“Willa, thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it.
But I can manage,” she said.

Thinking she was going to let the woman off the hook, Hailey
actually bothered her.  She continued to smooth a beautiful gown that she laid
out for Hailey to wear to the party later that night. 

“There is something you can do for me if you don’t mind,”
Hailey got out of bed.  “Would you mind giving me a tour of the house? I would
like to have a look at the bedrooms particularly. I want to know if Mr.
Halverson has special uses for them.”

“Special uses for them?” asked Willa.

“I can be straight with you, can’t I?” Hailey started
tremble. She was not going to cry.

“Certainly,” said Willa.

“I want to find a suitable room for myself. I feel like this
is Mr. Halverson’s room and I don’t want to push him from it,” she said.

“Oh dear,” said Willa.

Hailey wiped a rogue tear that drizzled down her cheek.

“The dress is lovely,” said Hailey. “When do I have to put
it on?”

“I thought you could sit and I could do your hair and that
would put us at the right time to get dressed. We only have couple of hours
till it begins,” said Willa.

“And you probably have other things to do,” said Hailey.
“You know I don’t mind pitching in and doing some of those things. I fully expected
to anyway. I had no idea Mr. Halverson had a staff.”

“He does, missus. My only task is to make a few light meals
and to help you.  He has a regular house staff for the bigger chores. So I have
nothing else to do but help you dress,” said Willa.

“Very well. We can worry about the room after I dress,” said
Hailey.

“Honestly, missus, Mr. Halverson doesn’t sleep in the house.
He sleeps outside mostly or in the guest house or in the bunk house with the
men.”

Hailey didn’t know how to respond. She stripped out of her
dress and let Willa fit her corset on.

“Not so tight, Willa. It doesn’t make so much difference
now,” she said forlornly.

It didn’t matter. Hailey knew she had a naturally lithe and
curvy figure so even without cinching her body up into an unnatural tininess,
she would still look fashionable.  But it didn’t matter that the man she wanted
to look beautiful for had no interest in her so long as she was not the woman
he sent letters to.

Willa carefully rolled and pinned her long tresses into a beautiful
array atop her head, leaving a sole lock cascading down her back. It fell like
a waterfall ending in a curl. Hailey could feel it roll around as she walked.

She stood still, holding her arms just so, so that Willa
could press the opened fitted dress to her body. Willa worked fiendishly to
fasten the hooks. Both women admired Hailey in swivel mirror.

“You do good work Willa,” said Hailey, her mood lightened
some by the beautiful clothes.

But she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten last night, except for
the biscuit Willa gave her, or that morning.  And she had quite a lot of
exercise the night before. Recalling that, Hailey burned with a fierce blush.
She froze with arousal so momentarily intense that she could almost feel
Charlie behind her kissing her neck.

She shook her head from her daydream, with her arms
embracing herself.

“Willa I know there will be food tonight but I haven’t eaten
since yesterday,” she said. “Can we go to the kitchen and get something?”

“Let’s go,” said Willa. “I will fix you up some butter milk
and biscuits.”

That sounded absolutely divine to Hailey who was happy to
have any appetite at all.  As best as anyone could who wore a dress like her
party dress, she hurried after Willa who for a woman of her age, spryly took
the winding stairs down.

Hailey was caught up with focusing on not tripping. She
didn’t notice that she and Willa had caught the attention of a few men looking
on, including Charlie. He was dressed for the party. He cut such a fine figure
in a dress shirt and a waistcoat. He as the most handsome man she had ever
seen. She caught his gaze forever seemed to be a mix of desire and scold.

Her insides clutched. Her heart raced and she was wet for
him. She wished that she were underneath him this very moment instead of out in
the doghouse.

“What are you two up to?” he inquired. 

Willa looked to Hailey who looked back at her.

“I asked the question,” Charlie reminded them.

“I am just getting a snack,” said Hailey.

“She hasn’t eaten since before she got off the stage
yesterday,” said Willa defensively. “Practically.”

Everyone in the room knew she had a little something to eat.

“Oh,” said Charlie, his eyes gathering. “I take full
responsibility for the oversight last night. I should have insisted you eat a
full meal.”

“As do I,” said Willa. “A little bitty biscuit after a long
ride is nothing ‘tall.”

Hale chimed in. “Willa don’t be so helpful. Get out in the
kitchen and fix her a dish.”

Hailey braced herself for his reproach.

“Don’t let that happen again,” said Charlie in a sensual
voice as he stalked her.

She froze while he toured her body, checking out her dress
for the party.

“Nice,” he said. “I appreciate that you sent a dress ahead
of yourself so that I could have it made. At least it was your dress, whoever
you are.”

Hailey had to have sent a dress ahead. It had to be her
sister’s but fortunately they wore the same size.



“Although,” he very discretely traced her neckline with the
rough tip of his finger.  “Seems to be a little snug here.”

His face was now but a breath from her. He was close that
either one of them could lean in and kiss. She wanted to feel his tongue in her
mouth but that might not ever happen even if she told him what he wanted to
hear.

“I have to go into the kitchen,” she stammered.

“Do that,” he said.  “You’ll need your strength tonight
though we will have a proper supper. There’ll be lots of dancing. You do dance,
do you not? I can’t recall if we discussed that.”

“I do dance,” she replied, shaking at his nearness.

“I enjoy it myself,” he in a voice so soft it was just above
a whisper.

Hailey swallowed hard and went into the kitchen. He followed
her. She had hoped that she would get some relief from the way he made her feel
but he was right there behind her. Willa was setting her plate on the small
table. Hailey glared her eyes at Willa to signal that her  

“Leave her eat,” said Hale.

“I have to help her so she doesn’t get it on her clothing,”
said Willa.

It was awkward. Hailey was not about to be fed like a baby.

“I will be careful, Willa. That is very thoughtful,” she
said 

Hailey sat down at the little table with the biscuits and
buttermilk. She lifted one biscuit and a strand of golden honey dropped to the
plate. Charlie barged to the table and took a seat.

“Here,” he insisted. He held the dish up to her chin and put
the biscuit to her lips.  She bit. It was just about the most delicious thing
she had ever tasted. Butter melted with honey. There was still some sweetness
on her lips when she sipped the buttermilk.

“You can ruin your clothes just as easily as I can,” she
remarked.

With a look Charlie reminded her he was her husband. He
dabbed her lips carefully with a napkin. It was erotic, she thought she would
faint. Their chemistry was undeniable. She revved up just feeling his touch
through the cloth of the napkin. He pressed slowly, deliberately. She found
herself pursing her lips to his fingers. She kissed him through the fabric. She
had forgotten he was off limits to her.  He glared at her ever so slightly.

“Thank you Charles,” she said stiffly. “That will hold me
until I have dinner tonight.”

“Finish them off please. There are only two and you haven’t
eaten anything decent I am guessing in days,” he said.

“I am not a flower. I can feed myself,” she protested.

But it wasn't true. She didn’t want to feed herself at all.
She wanted to have him feed her every meal. She found him so sensual and
arousing. The way he made her feel, made her want to do so many wicked and
wanton things.

If he insisted then, she decided to eat slowly so that she
would not finish any time soon. So that he would have to attend to her. And she
would feel his hands so close to her mouth. And she would have his attention
and look into his eyes.

But she decided she ate enough. Not so much that she would
be obvious that she was milking it just to have him near, and just enough so
that he would be satisfied that she was fed.  He rose, taking her plate to the
sink.

“Come,” he said. “We should go.”

He took her hand and they began the pretense that they were
happily wed and there was no friction between them.

Charlie walked her to a great room that was through a set of
double doors off the living room. He must indeed love dancing. This great room
was Dodge’s answer to a ballroom and he had it in his very own home. The side
of the house folded back and it opened the room up to a lamp-lit garden. It was
spectacular.

Horses and buggies carrying festively dressed guests, began
filing in. The clapping of horse hooves sounded up the drive. Musicians took
their places as the various servants set out the party fare. In no time, music
was playing and, skirts and boots were twirling around the floor.

Guests were shaking Charlie’s hands and nodding to Hailey.
Everyone was smiles from ear to ear. Women were kissing his cheek and wiggling
her fingers in lady’s rendition of a delicate little handshake. It seemed odd
that she and Charlie were going to such trouble when he wasn’t even sure he was
going to stay married to her.

Music playing full swing. They started off the dancing with
a lively piece. Guests nudged the two them to dance. If they were going to keep
up appearances, they had little choice but to dance together.

Charlie placed a firm hand at the small of her back and took
her other hand, they went sailing around the floor. It was wonderful. He was a
superb dancer. The touch of his hand in hers was directly connected to her heart.
Her whole chest tightened. She had the strong urge to sigh 

The floor was crowded. Making great sweeping moves was
tougher to do.  Charlie and Hazel’s bodies were closer and closer. They grazed
each other as they danced through their moves. They gazed at one another.
Hailey’s yearning was tortured. She needed him bad.

The music played right into the next piece that was
considerably slower. They stretched their arms and turned their bodies,
pressing into each other if but for seconds.  All the while they held each
other’s gaze. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.  He was being stubborn.

She loved that she could put her hands on his hard muscles.
He was so big and square and solid and his arms were like railroad ties. So
strong and hard as they held her. They twisted and turned so slowly, points of
his body joining hers. 

She wavered. She had spent the biscuit dancing with and she
needed solid food.  He was so attentive that he knew this.

“Come,” he said. “Let’s get some dinner and eat.”

People could fix themselves plates as they wanted and eat.
That’s what Charlie and she did. She had hoped he would choose from the buffet
for her. She liked being slightly dominated by him. But he left her to make her
own choice. He ladled out two glasses of punch for them and they sat.

“If I eat all this, I’m liable to bust out of my party
dress,” Hailey said innocently.

Charlie regarded her with lurking passion. She blushed. She
didn’t know whether she should excuse herself for the inadvertent remark or be
glad for it. She hoped she got him so worked up that he had to take back his
ultimatum.

“You are a wonderful dancer,” she said, taking a forkful of
steak.

She could see the trace of a smile bending his lips. “So are
you, I must say.  Dance much in Wichita?”

“I’ve been to a dance or two,” she replied, with fond
remembrance.

“I suppose with your late husband -” he began.

But a surge of her emotion stopped him in his tracks. She
was stunned, a dam of pain threatening to burst right where she sat. She was
trying to be discrete. She fanned herself.

“Are you alright? Did you swallow wrong?” he asked with
genuine concern.

She shook her head no. She knew her face turning beat red.
Her sister always said her face looked like a tomato before or after she was
cried.

“Let me take you out for some air,” he said.

Charlie ushered swiftly out to the garden patio and beyond.
He grabbed a chair from the patio and took is far out as he could before the
garden reverted back to uncivilized prairie. He sat in the chair and put her on
his lap. Hailey wrapped her arms around his giant shoulders.

“Please talk to me,” he said softly. “I made you well up
just now. Best to get it out even if it’s right here at our wedding party.”

“I don’t know if I can do it without sobbing my eyes out,”
she began. “I thought I had cried all my tears for Warden, and for the baby -”

All the avoiding she had done by wrapping up her sister’s
life and hopping on a stage was now right in front of her. And the only thing
that was making it any better was talking about it and being held by Charlie.

“Hailey,” he said softly. “I am confused here. I believe the
feelings you have for the two of them are real but last night, I know what that
was real. You have never been with a man before. You may have been married but
not in every way.”

“Charlie,” she pleaded.  “I’ve done something. If I tell you
what I did will promise me to not send me back?”

“I’m not fixing to send you anywhere. Truth be told, I can’t
turn you away not when you make me feel the way you do,” he said.

He turned her tear-drenched face to his and kissed her. His
lips were so sweet and warm.  And Hailey had been incredibly starved for him.
Hailey was impassioned, plunging her tongue into his mouth, plundering its
sugar. He broke the kiss urgently.

“I have to know what have you done?” he insisted.

“Why do you need a mail order wife?” she asked randomly.

“No,” he scolded gently. “My question first and then I will
tell you anything you want to know.”

Hailey sucked up her courage. “Warden and the baby were my
sister’s family”, she said, the thunderstorm of emotion mercifully staying at
bay. “My sister Hailey is the one who wrote to you and exchanged all the
letters with. I didn’t know about it until she died. I adored her -”

Tears streamed down her face faster than she could wipe them
off. 

She continued. “She was almost three years older than me. We
were all the family she had left. We had an aunt”, she rolled her eyes.

“Anyhow, Warden and Hailey had a town home where we all
lived together. First the baby died of fever, then Warden.  Hailey and I were
spared it. I don’t know what is worse. Getting sick or being spared.  Just when
I thought everything was getting back to normal, a simple little accident ….”

Hailey took a deep breath. She felt like she had been talking
forever.

“I must be heavy on your lap,” she said.

“You’re fine. So please,” he said, his voice was firm. 
“Tell me your name.”

“I’m Cora,” she said, finding courage to look into his blue
eyes.

“I see,” he said, the way he felt towards her warming considerable. 

He was no longer stiff or standoffish. It was as through the
truth had lifted a wall between them.

“So there, that wasn’t so bad,” he continued. “Tell me the
truth, was it?”

“You’re not going to send me away?” she whispered.

“I married you sweetheart. If you go anywhere, I’m liable to
put you over my knee,” his eyes actually twinkled.

Seized with a sudden fear, she asked, “Do you reckon our
vows stuck because I wasn’t who I said I was?”

“We can say them again,” he laughed. “I don’t imagine the
preacher standing up for us one more time. But just so you know, I’m calling
you by your name. I’m calling you Cora.”

“That’s fine with me,” she said with relief. “It was making
me so sad to have my sister’s name on my mind all the time.”

He kissed her nose. “We must always tell each other the
truth of it. It makes it so much better between us.”

“It does,” she agreed, feeling free to be easy with him.

“In every way,” he said, his voice laced with seduction.

He took her mouth with his and kissed her like he had while
they were in bed. It was a slow, simmering kiss that rushed her with arousal.
It overtook her body like a flash flood. She was at once aching and empty with
need for him.

“Cora,” he murmured her name.

As his mouth ravished hers, his hands searched her. His
palms were so large and powerful against her delicate teacup sized breasts. She
loved being in her handsome husband’s embrace. It thrilled her in a way that
had never expected it could.

“So sweet,” he said. “Now that that is out of the way, I
have to figure out a way to end this party. I am going to ache for you until I
can get you alone again. Wouldn’t be proper to just disappear any longer than
we have. Come.”

Charlie took Cora’s hand. He stopped without warning and
kissed her again.  Slowly, powerfully, as though he had to have just one more
before entering the house. He walked them up to the call box, where the caller
called out the dance steps out.

“Folks,” he said, quieting everyone out. “Newly married
people are always learning and discovering things out about one another.”

 He turned to Cora and winked. He gave her that he still
held a little tug to assure her.

“I just learned that my sweet, wonderful, beautiful little
wife prefers to go by the name of Cora. It’s kind of a silly story and one that
we will keep between the two of us at least for now. So without further ado, I
would to introduce all of you all to my new wife, Mrs. Charles Anthony
Halverson. Cora.”

Everyone erupted in boisterous applause and whoops and
hollers. There were a couple of cattle whistles in there too. Cora had had a
raging crush on her new husband.  Now she was certain she was head over heels
in love with him.

He spoke to the musicians behind the call box and then
offered her his arm. “Mrs. Halverson, will you dance with me?”

The crowd cleared. They looked with smiles as Charlie danced
her slowly around the middle of the floor. Cora’s heart was brimming. It flowed
over in delicate tears of relief and of love. 

“I didn’t tell you how beautiful you look,” he said softly.

The hunter’s look in his eyes went straight to her belly.
She was filled with warmth and aching for him. She had the strong desire to lay
back and offer herself to him.

“You are very handsome,” she had the courage to say. “So
handsome.”

She was done in by her own words. The mere mention of how
attracted she was to him flooded her with arousal and she teetered. She could
feel the feeling rise to her face. She had to have an expression. It made her
feel sort of bewildered.

He smiled softly at her. “Am I now?” he asked rhetorically.
“I am pleased that you think so.”

“I am pleased I think so to,” she said without thinking.

When she realized she had said that out loud, she held her
fingers to her surprised mouth. He let go a full laugh. He stopped the dance to
pull her close to him.  To wrap her into his massive arms, against his rock
hard chest and laugh. 

“I think we’re going to be happy, Cora,” he said.

“I think we already are,” she replied.