After the Ashes(97)

He didn’t like what he saw. The fine lines of her hands were encrusted with dried blood. He closed his eyes. If he loved her, truly loved her, he would get her as far away from here as possible.

He opened his eyes and forced himself to meet her soft gaze.

“We are not going to do anything. You should be out of the territory while—”

She jerked her hands from his. “You’re not sending me away.”

“Look, your brother is in more trouble than you know.”

“And so are you, which you wouldn’t be in if it weren’t for me. I’m not going anywhere.”

He gently gripped her shoulders. “Sweetheart—”

“No, Christopher.”

“I can’t marry you until I get this cleared up. I don’t want you arrested.”

“Marry? Did you say marry?”

“Uh.” Spoken out loud, the proposition sounded bizarre, like volunteering to swallow live crickets. His stomach clenched, but he had crossed a line that he felt forced to step over. “I guess so.”

“You guess so? You either want to marry me or you don’t.”

“Will you listen to me then?”

In answer to his question, she kissed him hard on the mouth.

He kissed her back, easily melting against the soft curves of her body, drinking in the taste of her. Not caring that it was completely inappropriate, his blood rushed to bring him to full arousal. After he’d almost lost her in a thousand different ways, the solid sensation of having her in his arms proved too enticing to resist. He cupped her bottom, urging her hips to melt into his. If he had a little more privacy, he’d be sorely tempted to take her here on the dusty ground, quick and fast. An urgent coupling to burn away the remnants of their separation. He slid his hand across her rib cage to cup her breast. Her nipple strained through the worn fabric of her shirt. When he flicked his thumb across the awakened tip, her soft intake of breath shot down the length of his erection. What the hell was he doing?

He pulled his mouth away from hers and made instant eye contact with Langston’s seething glare. Luckily their angle blocked him from Jay and Corey, and hopefully, blocked them from him.

“You’re going back east until this is settled.” Not only would sending her away keep her safe, but it would keep his head clear.

“Absolutely not.”

“Lorelei—”

“What are you going to do?”

He dropped his hands from her, his arousal doused at the reality of their situation. “To begin with, your brother is a problem.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know if I can keep him from jail.”

“But he won’t hang?”

Braddock couldn’t look away from her blue stare. With the clarity of seeing Jay lying in mud created by his own blood, he saw Corey’s limp body hanging from a rope and understood what that would do to Lorelei.

He pulled her against him. “I won’t let anything happen to your brother.”

“I don’t have a right to ask you to help him. He doesn’t deserve it.”

“We can’t help who we love.” He understood what that meant for the first time. “He’s your brother and you’re going to be my wife. I’ll make it right for all of us.”

Braddock gazed over the top of her head at Langston and wondered if an ounce of those harsh stories he told about himself were true. To make things right, he’d have to keep Langston quiet any way he could.

***



Lorelei pried her bleary eyes open at the persistent shaking of her shoulder. Before she could draw breath, a hand slid across her mouth. In the same instant she was scooped from the bed she shared with Alice and Rachel as silently as a calm breeze. The girls didn’t even shift their sleeping positions at the disturbance.

Instantly she knew Christopher’s touch. Excitement curled in the apex of her thighs at the mere brush of his skin. He eased his hand from her mouth and wrapped his arm underneath her knees as he hauled her against his bare chest.

“Shh.” He half whispered, half nuzzled into her ear as he carried her from the room on bare feet.

The moment they ducked into the boys’ room, he closed the door behind them and slid her down the length of his body.

Before she could voice a halfhearted protest at being abducted from her bed, he gathered her against him by fisting his hands in her white cotton nightgown. As his mouth slanted over hers, he yanked the gown to her waist and sank his hands into her fleshy backside. He worked wicked magic with a thrust of his tongue while he kneaded her with powerful determination.

His arousal seared through his carelessly buttoned trousers. He dipped his knees and pulled her closer as he fiercely raked himself against her.