Texas Lily (44 page)

"Should you be standing out here in the hot sun? You ought to be lying down, resting."

"If he doesn't, I don't." Lily glared at her recalcitrant husband, who was now performing tricks for the amusement of his youngest brother. She switched her gaze back to Travis. "How is Juanita?" There was a world of questions in that one, but she did not dare ask them any plainer.

Some of the laughter in Travis's eyes died, and his reply was a little stilted. "She is well. She is a whirlwind of energy. If she could only build cabins, everything would be done. As it is, she keeps all of us fed, has somehow managed to restore mattresses to the beds, and is busily mending anything that falls into her path."

The courtship was obviously not doing well. Lily let the matter slide in favor of more pertinent questions. "Us? Have some of the men returned? Will they be able to help rebuild? Was any of the livestock saved?"

Travis grinned and took Lily's arm as he saw Cade stalking in their direction. "We will find someplace comfortable to discuss this. The only way your obstinate husband will be able to hear the answers is if he sits down and joins us."

Cade growled and appropriated Lily's arm before they entered the lodge, but he made no objection to taking a place on the mat and letting one of the women fetch drinks while he listened to Travis's recounting of the repairs in progress.

"There are chickens all over the damned place, enough to make a dozen mattresses and have stew every night. The hogs have gone wild, but we've been rounding them up and fencing them in. Jack says the cattle are still out there, but there's not been time to count or brand them. We're lucky the Comanches didn't burn us out like they did Bastrop. I guess one scorched building was sufficient to convince whoever robbed the place that there was no point in burning more."

"Then it was Comanches?" Somehow, that relieved Lily. She hadn't seen the destruction Cade had described, but she hated to think it was caused by people who knew them.

Cade and Travis exchanged looks. Cade answered for him. "It was everyone who came through, I suspect. People about to lose everything tend to do desperate things. They were probably hoping to take any kind of portable wealth they could find. Comanches are more likely to fire the place after taking what they want. They would want to drive us out never to return. There could have been some of the Mexican army involved, although I would have thought they'd have stayed farther south of here. They cleaned out everyone they crossed. Some of them had never seen clocks and mirrors or tasted white sugar or owned candle wax. It was an open market to them."

"Thank God we weren't there." Lily shuddered. She resented the loss of the personal possessions she had worked so hard to own, but her family and friends were still alive and relatively unscathed.

Cade dismissed the unpleasant subject and turned to Travis. "Are you staying to help us out?"

Caught by surprise, Travis hesitated. His gaze drifted not to Lily but to the curly-haired boy playing in the dust with his new friends. When his attention returned to Cade, his mouth was set in a firm line. "I have in mind to start a family of my own. I'll be looking for land, but I want it nearby. Roy is still my son."

Cade remained expressionless. "We will have need of all the help we can get. You are welcome to use the cabin until you find what you want. I would not keep you from your son any more than I would keep Lily from him."

They had been through too much by now for either man to speak of debts or gratitude. Travis nodded his acceptance, and Cade returned to the subject uppermost in his mind. "If there is a place where Lily can lie down, we will return with you now. There is much work to be done."

Travis gave him a glare of exasperation. "Lily is in her eighth month. How do you propose to move her back to the ranch? And if I take a look at your shoulder now, is it going to be raw and bleeding again after that asinine performance you just put on?"

Cade peeled back his shirt to reveal an ugly brown mass untouched by bandage but also untouched by the red streaks of infection or the flow of blood. The wound was starting to heal. "I will carry Lily in front of me, as before. The horse has a gentle gait. We will manage."

It was obvious there would be no arguing with him. Imperious as ever, Cade ordered his horse haltered and their belongings packed. Lily could only stand by in amazement as he gave Dove Woman instructions for following them when the time came, bade his father a calm farewell, and told his brothers the buffalo hunt might have to wait until fall. Buffalo hunt? Perhaps she had misunderstood that part of the conversation. In any event, he managed to stir the whole tribe until it hummed like a hive. No wonder he had never made a good employee. He was too accustomed to being the royal prince.

That wasn't a fair accusation, Lily knew, but it helped her to accept Cade's tyrannical habits a little easier. Whatever his background, he was certainly a man more inclined to giving orders than taking them. Without consulting her wishes on the matter, Cade took her onto his saddleless horse. She wanted to go home as badly as he did. With Serena propped in front of Travis, and Roy on his own pony, they set out from the Indian camp.

The gelding's walk was every bit as gentle as Cade had promised, and Lily leaned against his chest and relaxed with the swaying movement, drinking in the fresh, cool scent of pines as they crossed under them, relishing this freedom. She had felt almost as stifled in the Indian camp as she had at the hacienda, but now she was going home. Tonight, she would be in her own bed, and Cade would be by her side.

At that thought, she turned her head upward to catch Cade's dark glance looking down. Lily burned with the intensity she found there, and colored as she noted the direction of his gaze. Juanita had sent a gathered blouse as a gift. The low-cut neckline would have been barely acceptable before her pregnancy; now it was barely decent. It was insane to think Cade could be looking at her with lust, but Lily felt his look as if it were his hand caressing her breast.

She grew restless after that and squirmed until they were in sight of the ranch. She heard Cade muttering curses at her wriggles, but this had all been his idea. Let him pay for it. With the ranch in sight, she settled, her gaze sweeping over the familiar buildings, and she breathed her relief at the sight of men on the roof nailing down shingles on the main cabin.

Serena scrambled out of Travis's arms before he could come to a stop, and Roy rushed his pony on ahead, galloping into the yard and yelling his joy until men came running to discover the source of the ruckus.

Cade read the satisfaction in Lily's eyes as she gazed around her, felt the relaxation in her body as she discovered home almost as good as she remembered it, and recognized the bitterness of defeat along with his relief at her happiness. This would never be his land as his grandfather's would, but Lily had given him something he had sought all his life and craved more than he craved land—acceptance. He had thought to mold her to his way of thinking, but he had come too close to losing her to ignore her wishes any longer. If she could be happy nowhere but here, then here they would stay.

Cade didn't admit his defeat as he helped Lily down from the horse and into the newly refurbished cabin. It wasn't precisely defeat. Lily would give him the handling of her ranch now that she had the child to keep her occupied. Cade knew that. So it was a compromise of sorts. A compromise with definite advantages.

He circled his arms beneath Lily's breasts as she leaned into him to admire all the work completed in their absence. The damage to the mahogany table couldn't be completely repaired, but it could be concealed beneath a gaily embroidered tablecloth. The warped veneer of the chairs had been lovingly tacked down until the damage was scarcely noticeable. Serena's little cubicle sported a new mattress with a ruffled coverlet, and odds and ends of every kind of pottery and tinware that could be found were stacked neatly on the shelves, ready for their next meal.

"You've been spending money again," Lily murmured as she felt Cade's arms tighten around her.

"I spent a lifetime saving that money until I had someone to spend it on. I think I've found what I was looking for."

Lily glanced up, but she could discern nothing unusual in Cade's expression. He had meant nothing more than that he had found a home. She could be happy with that. She would be certain to make this the kind of home he would never wish to leave.

Straightening, Lily turned and looked him in the eye. "Shall we inspect the rest of the house?"

Since the rest of the house meant their bedroom, Cade willingly agreed, a gleam coming to his eye as he followed her out of the main cabin. Even carrying the heavy weight of their child, Lily managed her slender height gracefully, and Cade watched the swing of her hips with interest. He had made an inquiry or two while he was occupying himself in his father's camp. Dove Woman had been particularly knowledgeable. The barren desert of the remaining months of pregnancy and recovery had an oasis or two to be discovered, if he could persuade his wife to the journey.

And judging by the look in Lily's eye, she was willing. Whatever their differences might be elsewhere, they had one thing in common—and the bed they now inspected held equal interest for both of them.

Chapter 35

"Cade, what are you doing?" Lily whispered breathlessly as he came to bed and began tugging her nightgown off.

"Taking advantage of one of the privileges of married life. Besides, it is too warm to be wearing this thing."

Since he was boldly, blatantly naked without showing any evidence of shivering, she could accept his word for that. As Cade knelt beside her on the bed, pulling her gown off, however, Lily felt as if she were about to be scalped by a savage. When he next reached to unplait her hair, a shiver went down her spine.

"Cade, this is foolish. I look like a beached whale. Allow me some decency."

Instead, Cade flung the covers to the floor and straddled her legs, leaning over to rest his ear against her stomach. "I think he speaks Apache, but I can't understand a word he says."

Lily laughed softly and tried to push him away. She was too aware of the muscular hardness of the trunklike thighs on either side of hers, and she couldn't ignore the extent of his arousal. She tried to concentrate on his damaged shoulder, lifting her hand to touch the broken skin. "What language is it that you and your father speak?"

"Apache," Cade replied, leaning farther to place a kiss on her breast. "Any child of mine will know it through his mother's womb."

Lily gasped and arched upward to encourage his lips as they tugged at her nipple and sent spiraling sensations through her center. "Stop it, Cade! Oh, don't... It's not fair." She silenced as his lips found hers and drank deeply of a kiss they had denied each other for too long.

"Nothing is fair. It is up to us to take what we can get," Cade murmured against her mouth, turning to his side and pulling her with him.

"This is insane. You can't rape a fat woman."

The unholy gleam in Cade's eye was pure Indian as he slid his hand downward and between her thighs. "We'll save rape for a more appropriate time. For now, I mean a simple ravishment. Hold still, wife, and let me become better acquainted with my child. I would learn if you carry a boy or girl."

"Both, assuredly," Lily gasped at the increased pressure of his fingers, which brought her to a responsiveness that was scarcely necessary given her state of complete starvation.

Cade eyed her stomach with interest. "Ugh. Two. Do you think it's possible?" Without waiting for an answer, he slid downward and assaulted her senses with his tongue.

Lily gave a breathless scream at this unexpected attack. Surely it was immoral. Jim had never done anything like it. But those protests were worthless as her body exploded in convulsive waves with every swirl of Cade's tongue. He lifted her close and delved deeper until nothing was left of her but a damp rag that he laid gently back to the mattress, before carrying his kisses upward, extracting every last bit of pleasure from her skin.

And then he turned her away from him, placed a pillow under her for support, and entered her from behind, catching the last of Lily's shivering contractions and propelling them a little while longer until he reached his own.

That was the way they fell asleep, complete and more at rest than they had been in months. They had earned this peace, and Cade relaxed thoroughly for what might have been the first time in his life. His home was here, where Lily was. It didn't matter whose name was on the deed.