“I have a farm over in America in the Dakota Territory. I could use help with it. Of course, it comes with a cottage I’m sure will be sufficient for your family, and with wages for the work.”
Jeremy scratched his head. “How can you pay me wages when I owe you for passage on the ship for my family and me?”
Cullen smiled, though it faded as he spoke. “A very special person once told me that no good deed goes undone. I hope when my times comes that someone does a good deed for me.”
Jeremy held out his hand. “I have no doubt it will.”
They shook, and Sara tucked Cullen’s words away for safekeeping. If the time came when she could do Cullen a good deed, she would, and with gratitude for what he’d done for her.
A yawn hurried out of Sara before she could get her hand to her mouth.
“My wife is fatigued,” Cullen said, standing. “I think it is time for us to retire.”
Jeremy stood. “I don’t know what to say. Your generosity astounds me and I am forever grateful.”
“Are you a hard worker?” Cullen asked with a smile.
Ginny stepped next to her husband, their daughter in her arms. “We both are.”
“Then we will all work hard together so that we all may have a better life,” Cullen said.
After Cullen closed the door to the small room that housed a bed with a chest at the foot and a small hearth that kept a chill from the room, Sara said, “That was more than generous of you.”
“I could not leave them to starve,” he answered, slipping his shirt off. “Not when I have it in my power to help them.”
He yawned and stretched his arms up and then out to his sides, every muscle and fiber growing taut while his flesh glistened from the flames’ flickering light.
Sara’s mind turned to instant mush. She couldn’t think straight, couldn’t remember what they had been discussing, and didn’t care. Her only thought was how deliciously appealing he looked.
Her own nipples grew taut and a rush of heat permeated her body, settling smack dab between her legs until she thought the moisture would run right out of her. She plopped her bottom on the bed and took a breath.
He hurried over to her, taking her hand. “Are you all right? You look flushed.”
Sara snatched her hand out of his. “Just fine.”
He brushed a stubborn red ringlet off her forehead and battled its refusal to stay put.
She didn’t give a hoot about the stray hair, but the havoc his gentle touch caused was another matter. And one she knew she’d better address soon or else surrender—and wouldn’t he like that?
She gasped when his fingers rushed across her lips only to return in a whisper when his lips stole the faintest of kisses, almost as if she wasn’t sure he had kissed her and yet at the same time could not doubt that he had.
Then just as suddenly he was gone.
She opened her squinted eyes and didn’t see him anywhere.
“Get in bed.”
His abrupt order startled her right off the bed, and she swerved around to find him stretched out beneath the covers, his kilt sprawled across the end of the bed. He was naked beneath the blanket.
She stood there a moment, not certain of her next move, then quickly shed her boots and made ready to climb into bed.
“Take off your clothes.”
She thought to speak but couldn’t. Her voice froze, along with her movements. Maybe it was the bold, I’m-in-command look in his dark brown eyes that had turned her throat dry. Or her thudding heart, which beat so loudly she couldn’t hear herself think. Or maybe it was the way her body was responding so eagerly to his demands.
She managed to gather her strength, then said, “I’m not in the mood to consummate our vows tonight.”
“Who said we would?” he asked, yanking the blanket back just far enough for her to spy part of the thatch of dark hair that nestled his manhood. “You’ll be too warm beneath the covers fully clothed.”
Sara shrugged. “Then I’ll sleep atop the blanket.”
He laughed. “Coward.”
“Pragmatist,” she argued.
“Then shed your garments and join me beneath the blanket.”
She shook her finger at him. “There’ll be no joining tonight.”
“I agree. Not tonight.”
Why didn’t she believe him?
She decided she couldn’t be a coward, and besides, she didn’t want him thinking he was in command, so she shed her skirt and blouse, glad she had donned a shift before leaving the abbey.
It was plain white linen and hung like a sack on her.
Cullen shook his head. “That is an ugly shift, take it off.”
“I will not.”
“Afraid to stand naked in front of your husband?”