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Josh smiled slyly up at Shane. "You want to challenge me in a game of poker?" he said, reaching for a blanket from the bed to cover his nakedness.
"Exactly," Shane said, squaring his shoulders.
"I accept the challenge," Josh said, moving slowly to his feet. "Gladly."
Melanie and Shane exchanged quick looks. She smiled at Shane, he at her. She knew Shane's skill with cards.
Josh apparently didn't.
"But for now, if you don't mind, I'm going to return to St. Paul," Josh said, going to his armoire
to choose fresh clothes. "Perhaps I had better get some practice in before you get the chancemaybeto beat me." He looked smugly at Shane.
"Tomorrow, Josh," Shane said, walking Melanie toward the door. "I'll meet you in St. Paul. Have a table ready." He looked over his shoulder at Josh. "Now I would make a suggestion. Stay sober. You are going to need all your senses when you play your brother in a game of poker.''
"You scare the hell outta me," Josh said, chuckling. "You've lived in a damn Indian village all your life. Where could you pick up any skill at poker?"
He gestured with a hand around the room. "Brother dear, you'd best enjoy your night in this house, for it will be your last!"
Melanie wanted so badly to brag to him about Shane's prowess at the poker table, for she had no doubt that Shane would win. She had seen Shane play poker. She had seen a man get so riled because of his skills he had drawn a pistol on him!
Yes, Shane would be the winner. She smiled as she left the room with him.
When they got outside and Melanie saw the traps on Shane's horse, she looked up at him with questioning eyes. "Darling, where did you?"
"I stole them from Trapper Dan," he said. "When the time is right, after I get the new cowhands settled in here at the farm and I have some free time again, I plan to use the trapper's traps on him. He will see the sort of pain he has caused many an innocent animal that has lain for
hours before being taken from a trap. It will be a slow and painful lesson. I will watch him suffer and enjoy it!"
Melanie turned her eyes away, not wanting to envision the sort of vengeance that Shane was talking about. The cows bellowing in the distance gave her cause to change the subject.
"Shane, I'm going to spend the rest of the day with you," she said, turning her eyes back to him. "I'm going to help you do whatever has been neglected the last couple of days. It will be fun working side by side with you."
Melanie walked alongside Shane as he led his horse to the stable and unloaded the traps. He hid them beneath a stack of straw, then spun around and glowered at Josh as he came to the door.
"Now ain't you two a pair?" Josh chuckled, saddling himself a horse. "Melanie, are you going into the wilderness with Shane to live as a savage with him after he loses at poker with me? I can just see you nowwalking around with a papoose hanging on your back!"
Shane's eyes darkened with a quick anger. He took two wide steps forward, a fist doubled, but Melanie intercepted him by stepping in his way. "Ignore him," she urged. "He only continues to show his ignorancehis uncouth ways. Let him go. Tomorrow he'll never have cause to mock you again."
"See you tomorrow!" Josh shouted, swinging himself up into his saddle. "And don't fret none. I'll be as sober as you!"
Melanie grabbed for Shane's hand and wrapped her fingers around it. "Tomorrow, darling," she said softly. "Tomorrow."
Chapter Twenty-eight
The moon spiraled its light through Shane's bedroom window, silvering Shane's bare back as he lay above Melanie, gazing down at her, smiling softly. "You smell of many wonderful things," he whispered. "Like spring rain, like the sweetness of milk. The bath we shared after our long day of work is something that I would like to repeat, often. Once we are married, this is the way I would like to end every day. Sharing a bath with you, then licking your skin dry with my eager tongue."
"Shane, that's shameful," Melanie whispered, smoothing his damp hair back from his brow.
"What's shameful?"
"That you wish to lick my skin dry after our baths," she said, giggling.
"Are you saying that you did not enjoy it?"
"You know that I did," she murmured.
"That is all that matters," he said, watching her expression as he gently stroked her leg, behind her knees, and her calves, the sureness of his caress firing her desire.
