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"Yes, my love?" he whispered back, rolling from atop her.
"Do you think you might truly love me? Just a little?"
"I love you, Eugenia. Entirely," he answered, letting his hands caress the curves of her breasts once again.
"Will you stay in Cripple Creek for long?" she said, scooting next to him, fitting the curve of her body next to his, straightening her skirt, hiding the lower half of herself from Nature's gaze.
"As long as you're there, and want me," he said, eyeing her questionably with his dark brown eyes.
Eugenia began to run a finger over the thickness of his reddish lashes, making them blink nervously. She laughed softly.
"As long as I want you?" she said. "Adam, I've been waiting for you too long. How could I ever not want you?"
He grumbled. "Women are known to be fickle," he said. "Especially madams."
Eugenia sat up, her pride hurt once again by his implications. She pulled her underthings in place, then slipped her blouse on and buttoned it slowly.
"Can't you just think of me as an ordinary person, Adam?" she asked, turning toward him to plead with her emerald-colored eyes. "You know I don't participate in the sexual aspects of my house. You were the first since…"
Adam stood up over her, straightening his own clothing and slipping his shirt back on. He looked away from her. "Since… who… ?" he asked quietly.
Eugenia rose, ran her fingers through her hair, fluffing it up around her shoulders, then began to walk toward the creek, remembering another time, another creek, another man. She felt movement behind her and knew that Adam was following.
"Since who?" he persisted, picking up pebbles, tossing them into the water, making ripples move outward from small, to larger, reminding Eugenia of the confusion of her mind. She knew that to tell any, was to have to tell it all.
"There have been two men in my life. Sexually," she added, almost inaudibly, sitting down on the water's edge, watching the clearness of the water and its sudden foaming around rocks jutting in the way.
Adam sat down beside her, pulling his breeches legs up to reveal that he had put his boots on once again. Eugenia looked at them, seeing true cowboy boots for the first time ever, with the pointed toes and high heels. She looked upward into his face, a face of trust. Surely he would understand. She had to tell him about Drew, and the other man whom she had thought to be Drew when she had been under influence of drugs—thanks to Madam Valerie and her wickedness.
"Please don't say anything until you've heard it all," she said, putting a forefinger to his lips, sealing them. "Okay?"
He smiled awkwardly and shook his head in agreement.
Eugenia began to tell the story, from the beginning, even the night's activities with Drew at the base of the mountain. She even continued on until she had told all about Dawn's murdering Madam Valerie, realizing he was the first person she had revealed this secret to. Then Frederick's part in her life, and why she had chosen to be the madam. When finished, she stared in silence into his face, waiting for his negative response. Maybe he would no longer want her. But hadn't he expected it since she was a madam? She just didn't know…
"Well?" she asked, almost shyly.
"All I can say is damn, damn, damn," he uttered, pulling her into his arms, clutching her to him. "What breaks, Eugenia," he added. "I wish I'd have come along much sooner. None of that damnation would've happened to you."
"But you would have seduced me as the others, wouldn't you have?"
"My love, if I had met you under the proper circumstances, no, I wouldn't have seduced you," he said flatly, smoothing her hair away from her face. "I would've courted you, Oklahoma style, then I would've made you my wife."
Eugenia's heart began to pound, then slowly melt as his mouth found hers once again. Was she truly falling in love with Adam, so much so she could forget about Drew, and how he had made her feel? She so wanted to love Adam. He was so good for her. Was she for him?
"Tell me about your home in Oklahoma," she said, sidling next to him, breathing deeply with contentment, watching the shimmering water once again.
"I loved working with the horses," he said proudly. "I worked on ranches. Never had one of my own. But worked wherever they had horses to care for."
"Then why did you leave?"
"The gold fever bit even an old cowpoke like me." He laughed hoarsely.
"And? Have you been successful at gold mining?"
"I hate to say a no to that question," he drawled. "In fact, I've almost run out of funds."
An urgency seized Eugenia. "You mean you might go back to Oklahoma? Leave?"
