Texas Rose TH2 (41 page)

Tyler reached for her shawl and pulled it around her as he spoke to Daniel. "I'm taking Evie with me tonight. You and Carmen behave yourselves. I'm sending Ben over to keep an eye on things. We'll be back in the morning in time for church."

Daniel peered over the top of his glasses, but he didn't raise his head. Evie's on-again, off-again marriage contained embarrassing elements that he wasn't prepared to acknowledge. He just watched her go.

Outside, Evie felt deliriously free, as if she were indulging in an illicit affair as Tyler led her toward the hotel across the alley. It was rather like a Gothic tale where the heroine sneaks into the forbidden tower at night. She had always wondered about the "fate worse than death" that the heroines feared in those novels. Now she knew what it was.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, they were practically running. As Tyler had expected, Ben was waiting for him. But Ben had only to take one look at the two of them before reaching for his coat.

"Stay over at the house and keep an eye on the kids. We'll be back in the morning."

Ben nodded his head, gave Evie's flushed cheeks a wicked look, and departed without a word. They heard him clambering down the stairs as they closed the door.

Suddenly inexplicably shy, Evie couldn't look Tyler in the eye as he took her shawl. She looked down at the gown she had changed into and realized Tyler was looking there, too. She had worn one of her more daring dinner dresses, and without the shawl, she suddenly felt very exposed.

"This time, I want to see all of you, Evie." Tyler tipped her chin up with his finger until she met his eyes. "Are you having second thoughts?"

Evie shook her head. She could easily drown in the tenderness of Tyler's eyes right now. Maybe he did love her, just a little. That wasn't just lust reflected there; she was sure of it. She raised her fingers to the tie he had donned before coming to dinner.

"I'm your wife. I want to be a good one." She undid the tie and reached for his collar button.

Her reply wasn't what Tyler wanted to hear. He didn't know what he wanted to hear; he just knew a vague disappointment. But she wasn't arguing, that should be enough. If she was just playing another one of her roles, that shouldn't trouble him. He would take her any way he could get her.

They undressed each other slowly, exchanging tentative kisses at first, then growing more greedy as need overcame propriety. Evie felt the rush of cool night as Tyler lifted her out of the puddle of her petticoats and gown, but it was as nothing to what she felt when he removed the rest of her undergarments.

She stood there in nothing, with even her stockings and garters at her feet, while Tyler looked his fill. The single lamp threw shadows over the walls. Tyler touched her breast, and she sucked in her breath, but she didn't retreat.

"There isn't an angle or plane on you. You're all curves," he murmured wonderingly, exploring the circle of her breast before dipping lower, to the inward curve of her waist.

He still wore his trousers. Evie didn't think that quite fair, but she was willing to be patient. She wanted to be able to paint Tyler just like he was now. She wasn't certain she could do justice to the way the light glinted off the golden-brown hairs on his chest, or if she could manage the ridge of muscles beneath, but she wanted to try. It would be much safer to paint just the upper half of him. She didn't think she dared even think about the lower half.

As if he had followed the path of her thoughts, Tyler pulled off his belt. "I'm ready anytime you are."

Evie cast a quick look downward, then back up again. He was smiling at her embarrassment, but his fingers continued to work at his trouser buttons. She backed toward the bed. "Tyler." She licked her lips nervously. Every nerve in her body was tingling with the need to have him touching her again, but they had a lot of unfinished business. "I don't have..." She hesitated, no knowing how to say what she needed. "Starr said I'd need..."

Tyler backed her toward the bed. "I don't keep vinegar and sponges in my room, Evie. We'll find those another day. I'll take care of myself this time." He pulled something out of his trouser pocket before he stripped the trousers off.

Evie wasn't paying any attention to what was in his hand. She had never really seen Tyler in an aroused state before, and her eyes widened into saucers. She knew it was possible. He had shown her it was possible. But she never would have believed it otherwise. He seemed to grow bigger as she watched.

Tyler caught her by the waist and lifted her to the bed. "Have you ever read Tom Jones, Evie?" When she shook her head, he lay down beside her and leaned over her. "I'll have to find a copy for you. There's a scene in there where the hero..." And he leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"That's in a book?" she asked incredulously, but the question was strictly rhetorical. Tyler was already showing her what he wanted. She felt the faint rasp of his whiskers against her flesh as he took her breast into his mouth, and she lifted herself completely into his embrace.

"Perhaps I'll find a copy of Fanny Hill for you, too," he murmured against her. "I can remember they tried a variety of interesting places besides a bed. What do you think, Evie? Shall we try a couch next? How about on a ship?"

She didn't know whether it was Tyler's words or the sound of his voice that acted on her like an aphrodisiac. She was on fire all over. The brush of his hair-roughened legs between her thighs made her quiver with excitement The touch of his hand as he flattened it over the mound between her legs drew her attention downward. She knew he was watching her, but she couldn't look away as he covered himself with something and began to probe gently where his fingers played.

And then the feeling swelled and rose up in her, and Evie jerked her head back to meet Tyler's gaze as he entered her. She saw the look of possession in his eyes, the determination, and her heart nearly leapt from her chest. He lifted her hips and slid deeper, and she was beyond awareness of anything at all but thundering earthquakes in her blood.

Tyler took his time. He had been too quick earlier, too savage, and he wanted to savor the sweetness now. He plundered her mouth, paid homage to her breasts, and moved slowly until he felt her breathing quicken again. Then he rocked against her until she cried out and raised her legs of her own accord, taking him deeper, until he could go no more. He set the rhythm then, finding it in his own desperate need, wanting the release and the comfort and the ecstasy only she could offer.

Tyler took Evie's cries into his mouth and drowned them with his own. As his body exploded into hers, it wasn't enough. He knew it wasn't enough. But it was better than anything he had ever known before. He kissed away a tear rolling down her cheek, and let the perspiration between their bodies oil the friction of their skin as he covered her with his weight. He didn't want to move off of her. He didn't want to leave her. But he had to.

Evie moaned a little as he moved away and discarded the sack that had protected her from his seed, but she didn't seem aware of what he was doing. Tyler pulled her into his arms and brushed her hair down over her breast.

"Do you think we can borrow the couch in the lobby next time?" he whispered in her ear.

Evie giggled but didn't reply. She snuggled closer, laying her leg across his.

"Evie, I'm not Ivanhoe," he murmured, more to himself than to her.

"Who did Fanny Hill have?" she asked sleepily.

"A lover who left her to make her own way in the world for the better part of her wicked life." Tyler stared up at the ceiling. The lamp was flickering low and would soon be out. He didn't feel called upon to rise and blow it out.

"Well, when it comes to that, I suppose that's what we all have to do." With dreamy philosophy, Evie curled up against his shoulder and went to sleep.

Tyler lay there a little while longer, his stomach tightening into knots of fear. He had a wife now, and he didn't know what he was going to do with her. He didn't even know if he could protect her. He had made a dismal failure of protecting his loved ones earlier. How much had he improved in years of playing at gambling tables?

Not enough, he feared.

Chapter 32

Tyler watched the sun crossing the windowsill to burnish a strand of auburn in Evie's otherwise dark tresses. Looking down on her face innocent with sleep, he felt seventeen again: nervous, terrified, and proud. He'd thought he'd grown up a little since then, but only on the outside, apparently. Inside, he was still that boy with a frightening job ahead of him.

He leaned over and kissed the corner of her eye. Her lashes fluttered, brushing against his nose, and he kissed her again, this time near the corner of her mouth. She turned and caught his lips with her own before he could get away.

It would have been nice to dally here awhile longer, but he'd made promises and he would try to keep them. He was hard and eager for her when his hand caressed her breast, but the hour was late. Reluctantly releasing her, Tyler reached for the cover and pulled it around his waist as he climbed from the bed.

Evie lay sprawled wantonly across the sheets. She was even more beautiful in the sunlight, like some exotic cat stretching in feline pleasure. There was no shyness in her now as she wiped at those dangerous sloe eyes and considered him openly. Ruby lips smiled as she flexed her legs and turned on her side.

So much for taming the beast. Tyler felt a bolt of overpowering need strike through him, and in seconds, he was kneeling over her on the bed, and the lateness of the hour grew later.

* * *

"I feel like I ought to have a scarlet letter A branded on my forehead," Evie giggled as she held Tyler's arm and hurried after the children on the way to church.

"F would be more appropriate," Tyler muttered. He could think of a damned number of other things he would rather be doing than rushing around getting a passel of children ready for church and then spending hours listening to a preacher rant and rail. Most of those things had to do with getting the woman next to him naked again.

"F?" Her eyes widened as his meaning came clear. "For fornicate?"

"Fornicate?" Tyler choked back a grin at this ingenuous translation of his intended vulgarity. "Fornicate, of course," he agreed. "Or frigging." His lips curled upward as he searched for a few more equally adequate substitutes for the subject he had in mind.

Evie laughed. She had been as cheerful as a chirping bird all morning. Married life suited her. Tyler allowed himself a degree of satisfaction for that, but he didn't let her see it. She would only chirp and twitter some more.

He loved hearing her chirp and twitter, if he would admit it, but he wouldn't. He didn't want to love anyone or anything. Love was a painful business that he was better off avoiding. Good sex was an entirely different proposition. That's what he and Evie had—good sex.

Caught up in his selfish thoughts, Tyler didn't even see Kyle coming until Evie gasped, and by then it was too late. The blow shot through his jaw with the power of two hundred pounds of muscle, sending him sprawling in the dust right before the church and half the townspeople.

"That's for being a low-down, good-for-nothing snake in the grass. Now get up and let me give you another for being a rotten, no-account sidewinder."

Tyler didn't listen to Evie's indignant cries. Leaning back on his elbows, he remained where he was, gazing up at the larger man with his square jaw set in murderous rage.

"I accept your congratulations, Harding, but I'd prefer to leave the rest until after church." Odd, but the beast didn't stir at this direct assault to himself. It didn't take any effort at all to lie here grinning back at the man who had it all—except Evie.

"Dadblast you, Monteigne, get up and take it like a man. You've got no business nosing around a little filly like Miss Maryellen. You ain't even got a roof over your head. I'm going to kill you just as soon as you stand up."

Tyler lay back down and placed his hands behind his head. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll just do my worshiping right here. Maryellen," he said the false name with a wry twist, "tell the preacher to speak up loud and clear this morning."

Evie couldn't keep a bubble of laughter from forming on her lips. The children had stopped to stare, and people were coming out of the church to watch the performance. Tyler looked quite ridiculous in his best Sunday frock coat and crisp ruffled linen lying in the street, but he seemed perfectly content to continue perusing the sky. Kyle, however, appeared on the verge of a volcanic explosion.