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Betsey took him from her and turned, pulling her breast free to see if he wanted to nurse. He latched on immediately and looked up at her with the same big blue eyes she’d spent the majority of the day looking into. She saw Aaron every time she looked at Samuel. Saw him sitting in the rocker holding him and her heart was racing within minutes.
It didn’t pound like that when she thought of San Francisco.
She sat back down and fed Samuel, rubbing her hand over hissoft hair and imagined what her life would be like five years from now. She saw herself sitting on the porch of a house facing the mountains that “spilled bright sunlight over its peeks every morning to shine through the windows like a personal wake up call from mother nature”and smiled.
Aaron broke her heart but she honestly believed he was trying to make up for it. All she had to do was be here to let him which meant, she had to find Mr. McBride and break that contract.
She finished feeding Samuel and got him settled, handing him back to Miranda when he dozed off, then saw her out the door, telling her she wouldn’t be much longer. She gave Ruby a smile and thanked her for the talk.
Boisterous laughter filled the room when she did. “I didn’t say much.” Ruby gave her a pointed look. “You make a decision, then?”
Betsey weighed her options again then nodded her head. “Yes, I think I have.”
She went back to the main room and fought her way to the stage again. The old clock sitting on the top of the piano said it was nearly nine. She looked across the room, then nodded her head to Enus. When he started playing, she began to sing again, her heart light for the first time in a year. For once her future didn’t look so bleak. After all she’d been through, she may just get her heart’s desire after all.
Chapter Fourteen
Something was different.Aaron had noticed it when Betsey walked out of the saloon and looked his way. She’d smiled and even in the faint glow of the lamps by the saloon doors, he saw her cheeks turn pink. Now that they were headed home, she seemed—different.
Samuel was fast asleep. He had been when they picked him up from Miranda’s house and he hadn’t made a noise and Betsey was still as quiet as a church mouse. She looked nervous and every time he glanced over at her, he would swear her cheeks turned red again and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.
There weren’t any lights on inside the house when Aaron pulled the wagon to a stop outside. Ben had either already gone to bed or wasn’t there.
Aaron set the brake with his foot and wrapped the horse’s reins around it, then jumped to the ground and rounded the wagon to help Betsey down. She gave him another shy smile before stepping away and heading to the house. He grabbed Samuel’s basket and noticed her standing by the door when he started that way.
She was staring at the ground and fidgeting with the hair by her ear, a sure sign she was nervous about something. He held back a smile as she glanced up at him and said, “Would you like to come in?”
Something in her voice told him there was more to that question than just a friendly invite inside. Her nervousness and small blushes and now an invitation into the house made him wonder if she’d finally forgiven him completely.
She opened the door and glanced up at him before looking into the house. “Ben’s gone to bed already by the looks of it.”
Her voice was soft and his heart was racing by the time she took a step back, the invitation as wide open as the door.
He stepped inside, watching as she shut the door before heading toward her room. He followed quietly, sitting Samuel’s basket on the bed then leaned back against the wall. He watched in silence as she changed him and settled him in his cradle. When she stood to her full height she stared at the wall in front of her for long minutes, Aaron wasn’t sure what she was doing and assumed she was trying to find the right words to say to him—but she started to unbutton her dress instead. When she slid it off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor, his heart stuttered and skipped a beat.
Betsey stepped out of the dress, turned to sit down on the bed, and removed her boots. She never said a word as she slid them under the edge of her bed, nor when she lifted the hem of her shift and dragged it up her legs, exposing the tops of her ribbon-tied stockings. He watched every movement of her fingers as she untied those stockings, the material going slack against her thigh before she pushed them down and tossed them aside. The sight of her bare thighs made him hard in an instant as memories filled his mind’s eye. Memories of how smooth her thighs were against his lips, how firm their hold was against his head as she held him in place.
She stood and crossed to the tall dresser and removed theribbon holding her hair back away from her face, then brushed out those silken locks as if he wasn’t still standing there watching her.
The moon was shining in the window and hit her in such a way he could see clean through her shift, the curve of her hips visible enough for him to realize she didn’t have anything on under that flimsy garment but skin.
He could see her face in the small mirror that hung over the dresser. She’d still not said a word and her silence was telling. Undressing in front of him said as much as words would have and that racing pulse of his started pounding as she looked up and met his gaze in the mirror. Was this her way of saying she forgave him? Was she waiting for him to make the next move?
She laid the brush down and Aaron stepped away from the wall, grabbed the edge of the door and pushed it shut. She looked up when it made a soft snick of sound as it closed.
His boots were loud in the stillness as he crossed to where she stood. He was a good head taller than her and could see her face easily when he stopped behind her. She was still looking at his reflection in the mirror and standing this close, he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.
Aaron took off his hat and set it on the dresser top, then grabbed her long hair and pushed it over one shoulder, exposing the slim line of her neck. He bent his head, kissing the soft skin beneath her ear before reaching around to grab the silk strings holding the front of the shift closed. He met her gaze in the mirror, waiting for her to protest, but when she did nothing but lean back against him, he pulled the neat bow tied on the shift and watched the material loosen, the front falling open to expose most of her breasts.
Betsey sucked in a soft breath when he slid his hand inside the soft material and cupped one of her milk-swollen breasts. Her nipple peeked instantly and he took the small pink nub betweenhis thumb and forefinger, giving it a small squeeze before leaning back down to kiss her neck.
Her hands came to rest on the side of his legs as he moved his hand across her chest to her other breast, his lips leaving a wet trail over her neck to her shoulder, where he nosed the material away until it fell down her arm.
He glanced into the mirror again. Her eyes were closed, her head cocked to one side and her bottom lip was tucked between her teeth. She didn’t look mad at him now. The look on her face was the same as it had been under the willow trees and when he lowered his other hand, pulling her shift up and sliding his hand between her legs, she sucked in a soft breath and leaned her head back against his shoulder.
This was how he always wanted her. Soft and warm, her breath caught on small sighs as he touched her, kissed her, loved her in a moon-washed room feet away from a bed. He slid a finger between her folds, her gasp of breath loud when he flicked his finger over the small bundle of nerves hidden there. She was already wet, the moisture slicking his fingers as he pushed further down before entering her.
She whispered his name, her hand lifting to the front of his pants to take his erection in hand through the material before she turned her head to him, her free arm raising to grab his head to kiss him. It wasn’t like the others he’d given her this week. This kiss was filled with a need he hadn’t felt in over a year.
