Schulze, Dallas (16 page)

“That’s right. He came to Pennsylvania for my brother’s wedding.
That’s when we met.”

Dot’s eyes widened. “He wasn’t gone more than a couple of weeks.
You met
and
married in that little bit of time?”

“I swept her off her feet,” Bishop said. His eyes met Lila’s and
he wondered if she was remembering the way he’d literally swept her off her
feet the night he carried her to his bed. He thought he saw color warm her
cheeks, but the light was such that it was difficult to be sure.

His comment drew Dot’s attention back to him. “Oh, do sit down,
Sheriff. I can’t think with you looming over me like that. You too, young man.”
She waved a hand in Gavin’s direction. She waited until they both sat and then
returned her attention to Lila.

“Seems odd, you marrying in such a hurry and then staying in
Pennsylvania and letting him come back to Paris alone.”

“Unfortunately, there was an illness in my family that
necessitated my staying in Beaton. It was not our preference, of course, but we
had no choice.” She spoke with such grave sincerity that Bishop found himself
halfway believing her.

Dot prided herself on the delicate nature of her sensibilities,
and her eyes shone with sympathetic tears. “Oh, it must have been terrible,
having to part so soon after finding each other.”

“It was difficult,” Lila admitted. She forced a brave smile and
gave Bishop such a fond look across the table that he nearly choked on the
coffee he’d just swallowed. “I was fortunate to marry such an understanding
man.”

“Yes.” Dot looked at Bishop, who tried to look understanding. He
was relieved when she returned her attention to Lila. “I hope whoever was ill
made a good recovery?”

“Oh, yes.” Lila gave her a sunny smile. “Uncle Duke is almost good
as new.”

This time Bishop did choke on his coffee. Duke was the name of
Douglas’s favorite horse, an ill-tempered gelding who’d tried to attack a
stablehand the day before the wedding and had managed to tear his own shoulder
open on an exposed nail in the process. The gouge had been deep and ragged, and
there had been some concern about the animal’s recovery. His eyes met Lila’s
across the table. She returned his look with one of such bland innocence that
he nearly laughed out loud. For the first time since the wedding, they were
completely in charity with one another.

Dot was called back to her kitchen soon after that, but, as if
she’d broken through some invisible barrier that had been keeping everyone at
bay, others began to approach the table, asking to meet the sheriff’s new
family. After the easy way she’d handled Dot, Bishop knew Lila didn’t need his
help, so he made the introductions and then sat back and watched his wife charm
everyone who came near.

He shouldn’t have been surprised by her easy handling of the
situation, he thought. After all, she’d acted as Douglas’s hostess from the
time she was old enough to let her skirts down and put her hair up. Douglas had
once told him that, if he made it to Congress, it would be thanks in no small
part to Lila’s ability to charm even the crustiest of politicians. Watching the
way she dealt with the citizenry of Paris, Colorado, Bishop could believe it.

This was the girl he’d met three months ago, the one whose eyes
had sparkled with such invitation that all thoughts of honor and friendship had
faded before the need to possess her. She’d been wearing green that night too,
he remembered. That gown had been cut low across the bosom, the dark silk a
potent contrast to the milky whiteness of her skin. He remembered the sound of
the delicate fabric tearing beneath his impatient fingers and the sound of
Lila’s breathless laugh as he stripped the gown from her.

Bishop shifted uncomfortably in his seat and forced his thoughts
back to the present. The poised woman sitting across from him seemed a far cry
from the spoiled girl he’d met three months ago. Which one was she? Was she the
girl who’d bewitched him or the woman sitting across from him dispensing charm
with easy grace?

Whichever it was, he wanted her, had wanted her from the moment
he’d seen her. Now she was his. No matter what the circumstances of their
marriage, she was his wife now. And tonight they’d make their marriage real in
every sense of the word.

***

“You did what?” Bishop watched in disbelief as Lila shooed Angel
through the door ahead of her and then turned to face him. They’d finished
their meal and come upstairs to their rooms. This was the first time he’d heard
about the distribution of those rooms.

“It seemed the best arrangement,” she said calmly. “I put Angel in
my room and Gavin in yours.”

“That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“Perhaps we should discuss this in the morning,” Lila said,
acutely aware that Gavin stood listening, his too-old eyes knowing.

“We’ll discuss it now.” Bishop’s eyes cut to his son. “Go to bed.”

The boy cast one last look in Lila’s direction, but the light
wasn’t strong enough for her to tell whether there was sympathy or a simple
I-told-you-so in his eyes. She waited until the door closed behind him before
speaking to Bishop.

“This is the arrangement we had in St. Louis and again last night
in Denver City.”

He was silent for a moment, his eyes shadowed and watchful on her
face. Lila did her best to look unperturbed. She’d known this moment was
coming, but that didn’t mean she felt ready for it. Bishop was an unknown
quantity. She didn’t know what to expect from him. The silence stretched until
she could stand it no longer.

“Angel isn’t old enough to take care of herself yet. Do you want
to help her undress for bed?” she asked, arching one slim brow in question.

“Help her ..Bishop glanced past her at the door, which she’d left
open a crack. Help that fragile-looking little girl undress for bed? He’d
rather skin a live rattlesnake. “No, I don’t.”

“I didn’t think so. And I doubt if you want to help her get
dressed in the morning or supervise her baths either.” Lila’s mouth quirked
with humor at the look of horror that passed across his face. “It’s not fair to
expect Gavin to do it. That’s why Angel and I are in one room and you and Gavin
are in the other.”

Bishop stared at her, frustrated but unable to argue with her
reasoning. He hadn’t given any thought to the fact that a child as young as
Angel was going to need care beyond the basics of seeing that she had something
to eat and a place to sleep. This wasn’t the way he’d planned to end the
evening. Reasonable or no, he knew there was more to this arrangement than
practicality.

“I’ll see about renting a house tomorrow,” he said, giving
grudging approval to the arrangements.

“That will be lovely,” she said with bright insincerity.

Looking at her, Bishop nearly groaned with frustration. He didn’t
plan on spending the rest of his life sharing a room with his son. And he sure
as hell didn’t plan on this marriage being one in name only, even if Lila
seemed content to keep it that way. Maybe it was time to remind her of what it
was that had gotten them into this situation in the first place.

Lila had already started to turn away, and she -squeaked with surprise
when Bishop’s hand closed around the back of her neck, turning her back toward
him. She caught a glimpse of his vivid blue eyes, their expression mixing cool
determination with a warm hunger that made her stomach clench with sudden
awareness. She put her hands to his chest but then his mouth came down on hers
and she forgot to push him away.

She’d spent weeks telling herself it had been the champagne that
had made her forget all about right and wrong, that had made her go to his room
on a trumped-up excuse to satisfy her curiosity. Just once in her life, she’d
wanted to know what it felt like to kiss a man like Bishop McKenzie—someone
wild and dangerous; someone who didn’t think of her as Douglas Adams’s sister
or Margaret Adams’s daughter or Billy Sinclair’s fiancee. She’d convinced
herself that it was champagne and curiosity that had caused her downfall.

With one kiss, Bishop proved her a liar. She might have had too
much champagne that night and she’d certainly been curious, but what had driven
her to follow him to his room had been something more elemental than either of
those things.

The gentle scrape of Bishop’s mustache was an intriguing contrast
to the softness of his mouth. She was going to push him away, of course, Lila
told herself. But she didn’t have to hurry. Safe in the knowledge that, with
Angel waiting, this could go no further than a kiss, she allowed herself to
feel the hunger that was slowly uncoiling in the pit of her stomach.

He slid his hand upward from her nape, his fingers burrowing into
her hair, wreaking havoc with the heavy knot into which she’d labored to wind
it before dinner. His other hand flattened against her lower back. Lila’s
skirts rustled as he drew her close against his body. He changed the angle of
the kiss, his mouth hardening over hers. She felt her knees go weak as his
tongue stroked across her lower lip, demanding a response she was helpless to
deny. With a soft sigh of surrender, she opened her mouth to him, welcoming the
demanding thrust of his tongue, hungry for the taste of him. Her fingers curled
into the crisp white fabric of his shirt front, clinging to him as the world
dipped and spun around her.

This was what she’d tried so hard to forget. Not just the passion
but the feeling of completeness, as if a part of her that had been missing all
her life had suddenly been found. The feeling was as exhilarating as it was
terrifying.

She was all but melting in his arms when he broke off the kiss. He
stepped back as she opened her eyes and stared at him, feeling almost dizzy at
the abruptness of his withdrawal.

“You can’t hide behind the children forever,” he told her, his
voice holding a ragged edge.

Lila watched, dazed, as he turned and walked away. She was still
standing there when the door to his room shut with a quiet click.

Lila shepherded Gavin and Angel through the lobby of the Lyman
Hotel, nodding to Clem Lyman who stood behind the desk watching their departure
with unabashed interest. She was careful not to pause long enough for him to
engage her in conversation. The last thing she wanted to do was get involved in
a conversation with the hotelkeeper. She had too many secrets in her life to be
comfortable talking to the “second biggest gossip” in town. The sooner Bishop
found a house for them, the better.

Although that was hardly without its hazards. Her cheeks warmed as
she remembered the night before and the incendiary kiss they’d shared. Standing
in a public hallway of all places! If anyone had seen them ... The thought was
enough to make her shudder. She’d had a mostly sleepless night to consider what
had happened, and she still couldn’t understand how she’d so far forgotten
herself as to kiss him back. Not only kiss him but to cling to him like ivy to
a wall.

“I don’t see why I have to go to some stuffy old store.” Gavin’s
complaint provided a welcome distraction from her thoughts.

“Because it’s the best place to meet people,” Lila told him as
they stepped onto the boardwalk in front of the hotel.

“I don’t want to meet people.” Gavin was very definite about that.

“Yes, you do.” Lila unfurled her parasol as protection against the
bright spring sunshine. “If Paris is going to be our home, it behooves us to
make the acquaintance of the people among whom we’ll be living,” she told the
boy. She’d decided that the best way to handle her stepson was to treat him
like the adult he seemed to so nearly be. She certainly wouldn’t get anywhere
treating him as a child. “We need to make a place for ourselves, perhaps make a
few friends.”

“I don’t need friends,” he muttered, scowling out at the nearly
empty street.

“Nonsense. Everyone needs friends. You must have had some friends
back in St. Louis. Boys you went to school with? Perhaps you visited their
homes or they visited yours?” She was probing deliberately, trying to get a
picture of what their life had been like.

“I had a tutor. Grandmother wouldn’t have let us bring anyone home
anyway. Nor visit them. She said she didn’t want to risk us coming in contact
with the wrong sort of people and exposing our bad blood.” The look he gave her
was defiantly casual, but there was a flicker of pain in the back of his eyes.

Lila’s fingers tightened over the handle of her parasol until it
was a wonder the finely polished wood didn’t crack under the pressure. She’d
been taught to respect her elders. It was a tenet she certainly expected to
pass on to her own children and, inasmuch as she’d found herself in charge of
Bishop’s children, she intended to teach them the same. But there were limits.

“Your grandmother sounds like a remarkably stupid woman,” she said
crisply. “If I believed in bad blood, which I do not, I would have to say that
the only bad blood you should be concerned about is what you might have
inherited from her. I count it as a great pity that I’m not able to give her a
piece of my mind.”

Gavin’s eyes grew round with shock, and he stared at her as if
seeing her for the first time. No doubt she should feel guilty for corrupting
an innocent young mind, Lila thought, but she couldn’t conjure up any feeling
of guilt. Louise Linton sounded like a positively horrible woman, and she was
suddenly, quite fiercely glad that Bishop hadn’t left the children with her.