Give My Love to Rose (25 page)

Passion flared to life inside Marston. He
burned and ached with the want he felt for this woman. She was what
he wanted. She was his forever. He wanted to kiss her, touch her,
taste her and completely cover himself in her scent.

Then Langley’s boot steps sounded out in the
cabin. Rose groaned and pulled away from him. “No more killing,
okay?” she pleaded, staring up into his eyes.

Marston shook his head. “I won’t promise you
that. I’d do anything to keep you and Langley safe.”

Rose sighed, but he could read the
acceptance in her eye. Marston pressed another tender kiss to her
lips just before Langley called out for her.

Marston growled. “Sometimes having kids is a
pain in the ass.”

“
Yes,” Rose acknowledged.
“But sometimes it’s the best thing in the world.”

Marston had to agree.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Marston sat alone before the fire that
night. Rose and Langley had long since gone to bed, but Marston was
staying up to work on getting Langley’s gun ready for
Christmas.

He sighed as he shifted on the sofa. He had
hoped that after what had transpired between him and Rose in the
washroom that tonight would be the night he could stop calling the
sofa bed. He knew enough about Rose’s past to understand her fear
of lovemaking but, hell, he would settle for a night of simply
holding her in his arms while they slept.

The torture of having her so close and yet
being unable to touch her was slowly driving him insane.

‘
You were already
insane.’

Marston grumbled under his breath at the
goading of the voice in his head and held the revolver up against
the light so he could look down the inside of the barrel. He’d been
working on it for two nights and already had the thing as close to
new as it would ever be—it looked damn good in his opinion. He
hoped Langley would be as excited as he was when he saw it.

Rose’s bedroom door opened and he heard her
step out. Marston’s first thought went to her nightmare, but her
foot step were wrong for that. She didn’t into the kitchen, instead
she came out to the sofa and took a seat.

Marston offered her a smile. “Can’t
sleep?”

Rose shook her head and pointed at the
revolver in his hands. “Where did you get that? Isn’t yours
bigger?”

Marston couldn’t help but wiggle his brows.
“Mine is bigger than most.” He saw her flush red in the firelight
and he laughed softly. “This is Langley’s gun.”

Disbelief filled her feature. “The one that
Langston wanted him to have?” she demanded. “How on earth did you
get it to look so nice?”

“
I’ve just been giving it
a real good cleaning,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m gonna sneak
off in the morning and try to shoot it.”

“
Try?” Rose asked, taking
the revolver in her hands and running her hand over the cold, hard
iron.

“
Yeah. I’m not entirely
sure it won’t blow up the first time somebody tries to shoot it and
I’d rather lose my hand than have Langley lose his.”

Rose all but threw the gun back at him as
her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline. “I’d rather that
neither of you lost a hand!”

Marston chuckled as he laid his hand on her
soft red curls which were hanging loose around her face. “Don’t
worry, Rose. I can use my left hand just as good as my right so
losing one won’t make much difference.”

Rose rolled her eyes even as she leaned into
his touch. “Why don’t I feel comforted?”

Marston slid Langley’s revolver back into
his saddlebag before patting his leg. “Get over here,” he
ordered.

Rose was quick to obey, loving how safe and
secure she always felt with his arms around her. It amazed her that
his big arms, with such death and power in them, were as gentle as
cotton when they touched her skin.

Rose trembled as she remembered the sight of
him standing beneath that water. His body was all golden skin,
littered with scars and hard with muscle and power. Rose’s blood
began to heat just thinking about earlier in the day.

“
Do you want to hear
something crazy?” Marston asked as he entwined their fingers and
raised her hand to his mouth to brush a kiss across it.

“
Sure,” Rose whispered as
a warmth spread from the top of her head down to her
toes.

“
I.. I feel like Langley
is my boy. I certainly ain’t what most would want in a pa
but…”

“
Marston, you’ve been
great with Langley!” Rose insisted.

Marston’s brow rose. “Are you forgetting
that I made the kid hold nails in his mouth so he couldn’t
talk?”

“
I used to make him
molasses and wax gum so he’d be too busy chewing to talk,” Rose
admitted.

She felt Marston’s chest tremble with
laughter. “He is a talker.”

“
He loves you, Marston,”
Rose assured him as she held their hands up toward the firelight
and studied the differences. Rose’s hands were rougher than many
women’s because of the work she did, but they somehow seemed as
soft as silk against Marston’s. Her pale skin contrasted sharply
with the gold of Marston’s.

Marston sighed. “The feeling is mutual. But,
he already has a pa.”

Rose lifted her head from his chest and
looked into his eyes. “No, he doesn’t. He has stories of a pa that
he never knew. You are the first and only man to do the things a pa
would do with him. You’ve taught him how to chop trees, hunt, work
on horses hooves, aim a gun and now you’re even fixing his revolver
for him.”

“
Those things don’t add up
to much when I think about what y’all have done for me.” Rose
smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. “I wonder what it would
feel like to be called pa.”

“
You should talk to
Langley,” Rose urged.

Marston shook his head. “No, I don’t wanna
turn myself into something I’m not. I’m not his pa and I don’t want
to push him.”

Rose yawned as she snuggled against him.
Marston kissed her hair. “You need to get some sleep, Rose.”

She nodded and stood slowly. The firelight
shone through her thin white sleeping gown. Marston was unable to
take his eyes off the shadow of her body. His fists were clenched
tightly on his thighs as he fought the urge to pull her down onto
the sofa and ravage her soft body.

“
Marston?” The fear in
Rose’s voice broke through Marston’s fantasies. He frowned up at
her and saw the way her jaw tightened with
determination.

“
What’s wrong?”

“
Nothing. I…” Rose let out
a slow breath and her gaze went to the ceiling a moment before
returning to him. “I want you to come to bed with me.”

Marston’s eyes widened. He was afraid to
believe that she had truly just spoken the words he was nearly
certain he had heard. “You want me to sleep in your bed?”

Rose nibbled her bottom lip. “Our bed?” she
offered.

Marston got slowly to his feet as a smile
tugged his lips. “Our bed sounds damn nice to me.”

He pulled Rose into his arms, smoothed her
red curls from her face and swooped down on her, devouring her lips
with every ounce of hungry need he’d been fighting for so long.

Marston held her tighter as she moaned
against his mouth and he deepened the kiss, tasting her sweetness
and drinking her in. His blood caught fire and he knew she was
feeling the intensity just as strongly by the way her hands gripped
the back of his shirt and her knees gave out beneath her.

“
I have wanted you for so
long,” Marston gasped, pulling away and moving his hungry lips to
her neck.

Rose stiffened and Marston sensed the change
in her—he could feel her fear. He pulled away and looked down into
her wide blue eyes. “Rose?”

“
I’m scared..” she
whispered, tears shining up at him. “I have never made love… it was
always.. before the men simply…” Rose swallowed hard as one of
those tears slipped silently down her cheek. “It hurt.”

Marston felt that all too familiar rage
bubbling up within him, but he forced it back down. His woman
needed tenderness and, by God, that’s what he was going to give
her.

Marston cupped her soft cheek with his
calloused hand and smoothed away her tear with his thumb. “You
never have to be afraid with me, Rose. I would never hurt you. Not
for anything this world has to offer.”

“
I want you to show me,
Marston. Show me what it feels like to lay with a man who loves
me…”

Marston nodded before bending low and
scooping her up, cradling her against his body just as he had the
day he’d helped her to the shower. She smiled up at him, her blue
eyes glowing with the depth of her trust and love.

Marston felt that raging inferno in his
blood become a burning ember which Marston knew would burn long
into the night. Slowly, gently, tenderly he would make love to her
until all those men in the past who had hurt her were little more
than distant memories she couldn’t fully recall.

“
I can do that for you,
love,” Marston assured her, laying a gentle kiss to her hair.
“Because I am that man.”

He carried her into what she now said was
their bedroom and closed the door silently behind them.

***

“
Where are you going?”
Rose whimpered.

Marston thought the way her brow wrinkled
when she whined was pretty darn adorable. “How did you know I was
going anywhere?”

Her eyes were still closed but the grip her
arm had around his body tightened. “I felt your body tense up,” she
replied. “I was thinking we could just stay like this all day.”

Marston felt his body get hard at the mere
thought of spending the entire day wrapped up in nothing but sheets
and Rose’s arms. Hell, he felt as if he were ten feet tall and
bulletproof knowing that she had trusted him to make love to her
all through the night and still seemed eager for more this
morning.

“
Rose, your body needs a
break, I’m sure. According to the doc, you’re supposed to be
resting and you sure didn’t do any resting last night.”

Rose’s eyes opened as her cheeks reddened.
“I am sore…” she admitted. Then she smiled. “But it is certainly a
sore I could get used to.”

Marston chuckled as he kissed her head. She
glanced out the window and frowned when she saw that it was barely
dawn. “Where are you going so early?”

“
Christmas is
tomorrow.”

Her frown deepened. “So?”

“
I’ve always wondered what
it would be like to eat a fresh baked turkey on Christmas,” Marston
admitted as he breathed in the scent of jasmine on her
hair.

“
And?” she
urged.

“
And, I’m going to go hunt
for one.”

Rose ran her fingertips across the hard
plane of his stomach, causing him to trembled shamelessly beneath
her touch. “Are you going to take Langley?” she asked.

Marston shook his head, grabbing her hand
and pulling it to his mouth. “Not today. I want to test out that
gun while I’m gone.”

Marston dropped one last lingering kiss to
her soft lips before rising and slipping into his clothes. Marston
could feel her eyes on him as he buttoned his trousers. “You better
stop looking at me like that, woman, or I won’t leave this
room.”

Rose smiled. “That would be fine with
me.”

Marston was chuckling as he finished pulling
on his clothes and boots. He stooped low and kissed her tousled
hair, taking a moment to simply admire her before standing straight
one again. She was beautiful. Wild red curls, kiss reddened lips,
cheeks lined from the pillows and eyes heavy with fatigue from
their night of little sleep. His gaze dropped to her freckled
shoulders and then lower to the sheet wrapped around her chest—a
chest that was covered in scars as well.

The scars there were different and Marston
suspected someone had carved on her with a knife. He would be sure
to find out who someday and return the favor.

“
You better go, Marston,”
Rose warned. “Or I won’t let you leave the room,” her voice was
full of promise.

With a groan, Marston forced his boots to
carry him to the door. “Get some more rest, love. I’ll be home in a
few hours.”

Quickly he left the room and closed the door
on the very tempting picture she painted.

***

Rose had been floating all morning. She
hummed and twirled as she bustled about the kitchen cooking
breakfast and readying bread dough for supper.

Langley had been staring at her as if she’d
lost her mind as he sat at the table eating his breakfast, but Rose
simply couldn’t be her usual subdued self. She was the absolute
happiest that she had ever been in her life. Marston was hers and
she was his—and he loved her son as if he were his own. What more
could a woman ask for?

“
Mama, you feeling okay?”
Langley finally asked when Rose spun and placed the flour jar back
in its place with a flourish.

“
Perfect Langley. I am
absolutely perfect,” she replied with a smile.

He tilted his head, shrugged and then smiled
back at her before diving back into his oatmeal.

A knock sounded at the door and Rose
motioned for Langley to stay put when he made a move to rise. “I’ll
get it. You finish your breakfast so you can see to your chores,”
she urged.

Wiping her hand on her apron, Rose made her
way to the door. “Who is it?” she called.

When no one answered, Rose frowned. Had they
been hearing things? She glanced out the peephole but saw no
one.

“
Mama, be careful,”
Langley warned, getting to his feet.