The Beholding, page 27
Luke pulled a chair to the edge of Tommie’s bed. He propped his elbows on his knees and pressed his fingers together in prayer, his attention never wavering from the child’s face.
Light and shallow, Tommie’s breathing barely stirred the covers over his chest. Of all the battles Luke had fought in the war and all the gunfights he’d faced, none of those moments scared him as much as sitting here watching the little tyke’s pale features. The moaning had stopped three hours ago. Now only an occasional flutter of the boy’s eyelashes showed his attempts to awaken.
Laying a callused palm on the small brow, Luke was relieved at the definite coolness beneath his touch. They were doing a good job. A wisp of blond hair hung over the corner of Tess’s beautiful mouth, and he carefully tucked it behind her ear, trying not to awaken the beauty whose body curled next to her son’s.
Nature’s call urged Luke to leave the room for the first time since the drama began. He reluctantly decided there were a few other needs to attend to. Pulling the blanket over the sleeping pair, he bent and kissed the child’s brow and softly brushed a knuckle over Tess’s cheek. “Sleep tight, you two. I’m going to get us something to eat and see to Talon.”
Tess stirred but didn’t awaken. Luke trod softly across the room and closed the door quietly behind himself. Running a hand through his hair, he yawned, admitting the exhaustion spreading through his body. Lionel was sleeping upright in one of the parlor chairs, his long, gangly form stretched at an uncomfortable-looking angle.
Shaking him awake, Luke whispered, “Cramden. Wake up, man. I want you to keep an eye on the widow and the boy. I’m going to take my horse to the livery, then round us up some grub. If Daggert asks to see them, tell him they can’t be disturbed. I’ll be back in a while.”
Lionel nodded, stretched his arms and stood. “Count on it. The boy going to be all right?”
“Looks like it.” Luke smiled. Relief sent new energy through him.
“I don’t care what the gambler says. You love that kid and wouldn’t hurt him.” Lionel placed a fatherly pat on Luke’s shoulder.
Emotion welled in Luke’s eyes, and he cleared his throat before attempting to speak. He offered his handshake. “Much obliged.
“Gotta see about Talon,” Luke announced after Lionel gripped his hand in friendship. Unaccustomed to having someone accept him so readily, Luke didn’t know much else to say or do. “Maybe I can buy you a drink later.”
“I’ll take you up on that. We’ll celebrate the boy’s good health.”
Luke headed out of the Barton House and gathered Talon’s reins. “Hey, fella, you think I’d forgotten about you?” He gave the horse a quick pat before mounting. “I’ll get you some oats and give you a quick rub-down.”
As Luke worked at his various tasks, he relived every moment since meeting Tess and Tommie Harper. Such pain he’d caused them. All for the sake of keeping his word to a group of men who meant nothing to him but money.
Years ago, he had shut himself off from his emotions because they were too risky. But now he gave them full rein. Olivia, Father and Laoni had all refused his love, and in their own way refused to love him. He had built a wall of stone around his heart, deciding it was better not to love at all. But Tess was different. Not once did she deny caring for him. Even in her anger over his investigation, she admitted loving him.
And all he had done was mock that love. No wonder she hesitated. He didn’t deserve her, yet he loved her. All Luke knew was that he would move Heaven and earth to see her proved innocent. And if, God forbid, he failed to convince the Stock Exchange, he would battle the courts clear to Washington to have her sentence stayed. Tess and Tommie wouldn’t be separated … if Luke had to defy the law himself!
Chapter Thirty
Mommie? Where are you, Mommie? Tommie wondered as he willed his eyes to open. The room looked dark and unfamiliar, frightening. Is this Heaven? All he could remember was looking up at the dark-haired man for just an instant, then hearing the branch snap and falling forever. Am I dead like Papa? “Papa, where are you?” He tried to whisper aloud, but his mouth tasted as if somebody had stuffed it with cotton.
Gradually his eyes opened and accustomed themselves to the dark, and the footboard took form, a dresser, some other furniture. Heaven’s sure got plain ol’ things in it.
As he attempted to sit up, a throbbing pain in his hip made him collapse back onto the pillow and he muffled a cry of alarm. Mommie said there’s no pain in Heaven. Do Papa still hurt, too?
“Tommie, how do you feel?”
The boy turned toward the wall and looked at his mother’s tired face and rumpled hair. She rested in a chair next to the bed, but immediately moved forward and sat on the bed beside him, clasping his hands. Her gaze moved rapidly over his face as he asked, “I’m not in Heaven?”
“No, thank God. You’re with me.”
“Am I in trouble?”
Tears brimmed in his mother’s eyes. She shook her head and laughed. “Only if you ever scare me like that again. What would Mommie do without you, little man?”
She hugged him, accidentally pressing against the place that hurt.
When he complained, she said, “You’ve had a serious fall. The doctor had to reset your bone and says when you get well, your hips will finally be the same size. If we do all the exercises, you won’t hardly limp at all.”
Tommie’s eyes widened. Maybe when he fell, he had gone to Heaven and God made him well and sent him back. “Can I tell Mista Luke?” He tried to sit up again, but the injury prevented it.
“He already knows, son. He’ll be back in a few minutes. Luke’s rustling up grub and feeding Talon.”
“Talon hurt?”
“No, he isn’t,” Tess assured him, brushing hair away from Tommie’s forehead. She pressed her palm against his brow. “You want to tell me what happened? How you got hurt?”
Tommie hesitated, afraid she would be angry because he tried to take Talon away. But Mista Luke had said to always tell the truth even if it hurt. Tommie didn’t know if he could stand much more. The pain in his hip hurt more than having to eat turnips.
But Mr. Nugget probably already told her. “I thinked if I taked Talon away, Mista Luke would stay wiff us. I din’t like all those mens. I love Mista Luke. Why can’t he be my new papa?”
Tess looked flustered. “That’s difficult to answer, son. Just go on with your story.”
She always got red like that when he said something she didn’t want to talk about. Tommie didn’t know if that would help him this time or hurt him. He quickly told her how he had gotten hurt. “… and when Mista Nugget came over the hill, I reached for the reins and the tree broke. I felled.”
“Nugget saw the accident?” Tess blinked as her child nodded. She had forgotten all about the Frenchman. If he’d seen the fall, why hadn’t he told someone? If Luke’s story was true, then the time difference between the fall and Luke finding him remained unexplained. The Frenchman had not once shown his face at Barton House asking about Tommie’s welfare. Why would he hesitate to tell anyone about Tom … unless there was some reason he didn’t want anyone to know? Could it be that this was not an accident? Dr. Hammond blamed Talon, but what if Nugget had wanted Tommie dead? The possibility made no sense.
“Well, if you aren’t a sight for tired eyes.” Luke entered the room, carrying a tray of food. He placed the meal on the chest of drawers and hurried over to Tommie’s side.
The bounty hunter’s big hand reached out to Tommie, which he shook real hard. But as Luke started to pull his hand away, Tommie reached out with both hands and pulled him down for a fierce hug.
The big man’s shoulders tightened and his whiskered face scratched Tommie’s cheeks, but it was about the bestest hug his friend had ever given him.
“Glad to see you feeling better,” Luke muttered, his voice sounding kind of low and funny.
Mommie had a silly look on her face too, kind of soft and mushy like a doggie looking at her puppy.
“After you eat, do you feel like a ride?” Luke placed the food tray on his lap. He had arranged the food to look like a face on the plate. Two eggs formed the eyes, a gob of jelly made a nose, and two strips of bacon curved into a smile.
“You mean you’ll let me ride Talon”—Tommie’s eyes lowered as he confessed—"after I try to take him away?”
Tess explained what her son had told her.
“I won’t leave you, Tom,” Luke reassured him. “I promised I wouldn’t.”
The child stared at his friend. “Will you be my papa then?”
Luke grinned. “I suppose that’s up to your mother.”
Tess avoided a direct answer. “There’s a few things to settle first, son. When you get better, we’ll discuss this more. Fair enough?”
“No,” Tommie complained.
“Fair enough.” Luke’s hand reached out and hers met it halfway.
Tommie thought maybe Mama liked Mista Luke real good.
“Do you think it’s too soon to take him to Idaho Springs?” Tess urged Tom to eat what he could.
“Hammond told me to get him there as soon as possible. Tommie will only get sore laying in bed. But it’s your decision, Tess. I’ll go along with whatever you want.”
Tess stood and straightened her skirts. “I want to do what’s best for my son and get on with our lives. I’ve got questions to ask Nugget, and Jim for that matter, but those can wait until Tommie’s better.”
“Then let’s take the boy swimming.”
Tommie saw the look that passed between his mother and Luke. Yessiree, Mama liked Mista Luke real good and Mista Luke liked Mama too.
Tess hated the rotten egg odor pervading the air of the mineral springs as she and Luke carried Tommie between them and stepped fully clothed into the waters.
“Buzzard pis—” Luke snapped off the curse escaping his lips and offered a wicked grin. “I mean, isn’t this hot!”
Hot hardly described the heat that pierced Tess’s bones like a dagger of fire. Tommie squirmed between them and demanded to go back to the ledge. Her skin was flushed with the heat rising above the bubbles.
“Hey, dis don’t hurt,” Tommie remarked, bobbing up and down in the bubbles. “Look, Mommie, I can bounce.”
Tess watched her son’s body rise above the bubbling surface, then plunge down until only his head remained above water. Luke followed suit and she did the same. Like trout they frolicked, urging Tommie to twist and turn, bounce and test his leg as Doc Hammond had instructed.
The water revived, soothed, tickled and relaxed them. Like tiny raindrops that pelted everywhere, the bubbles invigorated them. Air pockets exploded into sound on the surface, gurgling, matching the joyful giggles of Tommie’s enjoyment. Of Tess’s own and Luke’s.
She closed her eyes and gave herself to utter relaxation, experiencing every touch upon her toes, her thighs, the center of her spine, her breasts. With a deep sigh, she watched as Luke helped Tommie float on his back and try a number of movements she would have thought impossible with a mending bone. No wonder her father had earned such money at Hot Springs. Perhaps if he had been truthful about the water’s qualities, he could have made an honest living at them.
“They say this cures colic and constipation, arthritis and gout, goiters, dandruff and bad temper.” Her voice took on the carnival barker loudness practiced by her father.
Luke spun around. She saw the look in his eyes and knew he questioned her involvement in her father’s scams.
“Does it cure lovesickness?” he asked.
A tenderness enveloped her. He cared enough not to insist that she speak of the past in front of Tommie. How could she have ever believed that Luke would wish him harm? “I hope not,” she answered, “because if it does, I want my money back.”
Luke laughed and headed for the ledge, carrying Tommie in his arms. “What do you say we take you to the attendant and let her give you a hot mineral bath while your mother and I finish our spring bath?”
“Is it a good baff like this one?” Tommie looked both eager and suspicious.
Tess’s laughter mixed with Luke’s as the bounty hunter chuckled. “Yes. Believe it or not, there are such things as good baths.”
Luke returned and sat down on the ledge, then eased into the pool. With a few deft movements, his clothes came off and were flung to the bank.
“W-what are you doing?” Tess lowered herself further into the water as if she were the one totally nude. “Someone might come in. The attendant.”
“No, I paid her well to take special care of Tommie,” he said calmly, gliding through the water at an alarming rate, drawing closer. “I told her not to disturb us. That we would come get him in a while.”
“Oh.” Tess’s breath caught, then exhaled into a single word. “Luke?” She couldn’t remember what it was she was going to ask. The froth bubbled away, offering a tantalizing glimpse of the man beneath. But the currents shifted and left only a view of his shoulders.
“What is it, love?” He moved closer, his eyes darkened to mimic the stark hunger in them.
She became aware of how erotic the water felt bubbling against her, arousing her senses to pinpoints of feelings. But if the water was intoxicating, so much more was Luke’s muscular physique, chiseled in granite and sinew, tanned with health and vigor.
“Come here.”
Low and husky, his voice compelled her to obey. The currents sprouting from the springs seemed to be at his command, for she felt herself drawn in his direction. To her surprise he spun her around, kneading her shoulders.
“We’ve got to talk… about everything,” he encouraged, moving his hands up and down the length of her back, to the top of her buttocks, then back again. Her head lolled to one side, making her hair fall forward over one shoulder.
“Feel good?”
“Yesss,” she hissed. Miracle hands increased the massage, erotic as the bubbles.
He leaned forward, his arms encircling Tess’s waist as he kissed the back of her neck. “I know you’re not guilty of the mine scams. But tell me about the hot springs.” His tongue took liberties with her ear. “You’re so beautiful.”
She felt his nakedness press against her and wished her own clothing were gone. “I was young and stupid … no, gullible is more the word. You see, I believed I had to protect my mother from my father.” The past spilled out in a torrent of words.
“I’ve been the stupid one.” Luke’s lips pressed light kisses around her neck, up to her cheek, to her mouth. “I should have listened to my heart all along. Duty’s a mightly lonesome word.”
“Then you believe me?” she whispered.
His gaze lifted to stare longingly into her own. “From now until forever, love.”
Her lips parted in unconscious invitation, shaping his name. “Luke—”
But it escaped without a sound as his teeth closed over Tess’s lower lip in a caress that sent ripples of pleasure through her. Sensations long denied tingled along every nerve as his tongue plunged to taste her. She met the thrust with her own delicious parry and satisfied her craving of him. Tangling his hair in her fingers, she pulled him closer, the hunger deepening and unsated.
Tiny explosions ignited in the lower part of her body. Rivers of sensation raced through her veins, peaking her breasts. Her heart swelled with love until it overflowed. Slowly her eyes opened to find him studying her. She marveled at the love shining back at her from those indigo depths. Love that accepted all her failings and promised devotion to all her hopes and dreams.
At long last, the loneliness that had been Luke’s life ceased. The stone wall crumbled in his chest and left a foundation of trust. Her name echoed over and over in his mind. Tessa. Tess, Beloved Tess. His heart hammered with exultation as she moved to allow a closer fit.
“Kiss me again,” she whispered.
She looked lovelier than anything he had ever viewed. Luke touched her with reverence, with awe. “May I?” he asked, unbuttoning her blouse to remove the final barrier between them. Her hands touched his, helping as he knew they would the remainder of their days.
His breath sucked in at the sight of her perfection. Passion burned in the depths of her eyes, making her shiver and arch closer. His control slipped, taking with it long years of hunger for love. His body soared with desire.
With a groan he kissed her again as his hands caressed each welcoming inch of her flesh, possessing, asking, demanding what would forever be his. Lightning thundered through him as her nipples pressed wantonly against his chest. With a moan of delight, he lowered his lips to their rosy pinnacles and granted them equal affection.
She cried out in pleasure, and he could not resist viewing the transformation that passion aroused within her. Flushed with heat, her breasts mirrored the loving caresses of his mouth. The pulse beating in the soft hollow of her throat matched the rapid pace of his heart. Most beautiful of all were the green pools of love, dilated and banked with desire as deep as his own.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he wanted her to be his wife.
Luke could not bear to look at Tess a moment longer without making his possession complete. With a thick sound of need, he pressed his aching flesh against her. She parted her thighs, offering the touch of softer flesh. He had to tell her, speak before passion ruled him. “I’ve waited for you all my life.”
His words ended in a soft, low sound of pleasure as Tess claimed his mouth. Despite his urgent need, he cherished the tender, slow kiss of acceptance she gave him before blessing him with the gift of her body.
With each slow movement, Tess watched the face of the man she loved. Anticipation radiated through her as tension gathered and his slow, rocking strokes became faster, deeper. She began to unravel, sending currents of ecstasy spilling through her senses. “Luke,” she whispered, “I lov—” Her back arched as pleasure eddied through her.
But it was his voice that uttered the three words which might forever dam the past and flood their future with joy.
“I love you.”
Tess held him, crying his name in reverence, unwilling to let this moment be stained with the truth she would reveal all too soon.
