The Circle Eight: Tobias (11 page)

To her horror, her body warmed to his, and her nipples puckered. “You only want to save your own hide. This isn’t about me at all.” She thrust up with her hips and instead of throwing him off, she felt something move. Something between his legs.
 

Rebecca was smart enough to understand he was aroused. His cock moved again and an answering throb resonated deep within her.
 

“That’s where you’re wrong, Becca. It’s been about you since I laid eyes on you.” His voice had deepened to a husky whisper. The shortened version of her name sent another shiver up her spine.
 

What was happening to her?
 

“You don’t even like me.” She was annoyed to hear a tremor in her voice that matched the one in her body.
 

“A man don’t have to like a woman to want her.” He pressed against her core, a sensitive spot she had explored with her own hand. A fission of pleasure echoed through her.
 

“That’s not very gentlemanly of you to say.” Rebecca shouldn’t have expected anything more but she could hope for it. He’d been the man she dreamed of for months. The strong, silent man who worked alongside her family for weeks on end, rebuilding that which he had a hand in destroying. That was what drew her to him. He could have simply disappeared into the Texas countryside. No one knew how to get to his family’s home except him and his brothers.
 

“I ain’t a gentleman. Thought you knew that by now.” He pressed once more between her legs.
 

She couldn’t stop the moan that crept up her throat.
 

“And I’m thinking you’re not wanting to be a lady right now.”
 

“I don’t like you anymore, Tobias.
 

“You shouldn’t like me. Ever. I ain’t a nice man.” His hand covered her breast and her already peaked nipple rejoiced at the contact.
 

“I never said you were nice. You’re a bully.” Her words ended on another moan as he pinched her nipple.
 

“That kiss. It lit me on fire, Becca. I’m burning up.” His mouth hovered over hers, mere inches from her lips. Oh how she wanted another kiss. Many more kisses. More of everything.
 

Did she dare take what she desired? Was she adventurous enough? Did she accept the consequences of giving in to her passion?
 

Rebecca was young but she was a woman grown. Most of her friends were married. She had chosen to learn to be a doctor, a woman who could make a decision for herself. Right now, at this moment, she should tell him to go to hell, but she wouldn’t. He was offering her the opportunity to fulfill her fantasies, to find pleasure with a man she had dreamed of since the moment she saw him. She would regret it if she didn’t take the chance and seize it with both hands.
 

“So am I.” The confession slipped from her lips. Even in the dark of night, she saw his eyes widen.
 

“You don’t know what you’re playing with.”
 

She reached up and cupped his cheeks, pulling him down until their lips met. The first touch was a mere brush of mouths.
 

“Make me burn.” Her words elicited a groan and then she stopped thinking altogether.
 

His mouth claimed hers in a clash of lips, tongue and teeth. He surrounded her, bringing her down into a maelstrom of sensations. Rebecca’s hands crept around his neck and pulled him closer still.
 

It was everything she wanted and nothing she expected.
 

He kissed her until her toes curled and every inch of her body tingled. Then he broke contact and she sucked in a much-needed breath. He made his way across her jaw, nibbling and licking her skin. When he reached her ear, his breath gusted and the sensation traveled down her neck, spreading through her, raising every small hair.
 

Sweet heavens, she would not survive it when they were naked. They were still fully clothed. Skin on skin might give her the vapors. Not that she’d ever had the vapors, but they had to feel like this. She floated on air while her body pulsed and throbbed in tune with her heart.
 

His fingers found the buttons on her dress and the cool night air caressed her skin. Then he began kissing each inch he revealed. She held her breath and closed her eyes. His hair was soft beneath her hands and she held on as though he were the anchor in a sea of uncertain sensations.
 

His mouth closed around her nipple. Rebecca thought she had been ready but she was wrong. Moisture flooded between her legs and she clenched them together to ease the ache. She was alive, every pulsing, pounding inch of her. Alive.
 

He suckled, nibbled and lapped at the turgid peaks until her eyes crossed and she nearly begged. For what she would beg for, she didn’t know. She was adrift in a sea of sensations and experiences she didn’t understand. New and exciting, to be sure. Yet frightening and unknown.
 

She knew Tobias, the man beneath the gruff exterior, otherwise she might have gone screaming into the night. This was the man she wanted to marry. This magic between them confirmed for her that he was the right person to be her husband. No matter what happened after tonight, she couldn’t regret having Tobias be the man to introduce her to passion.
 

When he pulled up her dress, his fingers hot against her skin through the thin cotton of her pantaloons. She held her breath as he traveled upward, moving closer and closer to her core. She opened her legs and he slipped through the slit.
 

“Ah, Jesus, you’re wet.” He explored her folds, caressing her most secret place.
 

Rebecca bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her body had ceased to be hers. It now belonged to Tobias. The information given to her included the mechanics of the act, but no matter how the ladies impressed upon her the intensity of being intimate with a man, it could not have prepared her for this. The sensations were life changing. Rebecca would never be the same.
 

Soon he settled between her legs and his cock pressed against her opening. He was going to enter her body, a liberty most women only gave their husbands. Rebecca opened her eyes and looked into his as they joined together.
 

Pain lanced through her and she thought perhaps there had been a mistake. It wasn’t supposed to feel as though she’d been torn asunder. Tears welled in her eyes and she told herself to be strong. Perhaps there was more to this than pain.
 

Within a minute, the pain had begun to recede as he thrust faster and faster. Then before she could find the pleasure promised, he pulled from her body and grunted, spilling his seed to the ground below.
 

It was over.
 

Tobias rolled off her and lay on the grass. “It’s been some time since I enjoyed the company of a female.”
 

Now she was lumped in amongst “female” company he kept. Rebecca had wanted so much to be someone special to Tobias. She’d given him a gift, one he’d gladly taken, with little preamble and even less emotion.
 

What had she done?
 

Chapter Six
 

Rebecca didn’t blame Tobias for the fiasco in the tall grass so long ago. She made a choice and it turned out to be the wrong one. It was a harsh lesson a young, impressionable seventeen-year-old learned. Now she was older, wiser and in full possession of life experiences to make her decisions with more careful consideration.
 

At least when it came to men.
 

She hadn’t let any man close to her except for her family. No man held her interest. It didn’t matter if Tobias wasn’t the prince she wanted him to be. She wasn’t ruined for love, but simply chose not to fall into it again. Possibly ever. What had being in love brought her except for disappointment? Perhaps she’d been foolish, but no longer.
 

Taking care of the man who taught her about intimacy and how not to love was the last thing she expected to be doing. Yet she was because it was the right thing to do. She always had a choice to refuse to help someone, but she never had. And her past with Tobias wasn’t going to affect her devotion to healing people.
 

Rebecca had a few talks with herself over the first two days of taking care of Tobias. She wanted to walk away but she couldn’t. Both Will and Tobias needed her. She couldn’t treat one and not the other. Nor did Tobias deserve to be set aside because of an ancient history between them.
 

“You look vexed, Becca.” Each time Tobias used the shortened version of her name, she had to clench her teeth to stop the growl from escaping.
 

She stirred the poultice with a bit more force than necessary. “I’m not vexed. Now be quiet so I can treat your injuries.” She pulled the chair beside the bed and set the poultice on his chest. “Hold this.”
 

He frowned at the bowl. “I ain’t a table.”
 

“Shut up.” She spoke without rancor. “Your bruises are deep and the poultice will help heal them quicker. Your shoulder is also in need of poultice.”
 

“It smells funny.”
 

She rolled her eyes. “So do you. Now shut up.”
 

“You gave me a bath. It ain’t me that smells.”
 

Rebecca refused to look at his face. She didn’t want to be pulled into the debate with him. He was already confusing her, the last thing she needed was to interact more with him. She tested the consistency of the poultice with her finger and deemed it ready.
 

“Sit still while I do this. The poultice needs to set before I put a bandage over it.” She moved closer and removed the bandage from his shoulder. His skin had turned deep purple with shades of green on the edges. The boot prints were more pronounced on the side of his ribs.
 

“It’s warm.” He flinched when she started smearing the thick concoction on him.
 

“I used hot water. It helps to bind the ingredients together.” She was more comfortable discussing her work than focusing on his injuries. “This will help dissipate the blood under the skin, reduce the pain and speed the healing.”
 

“You do sound like a doctor.”
 

She managed a small smile. “I try to know as much as I can about the herbs and plants I use and how my patient will be effected.”
 

“Did you go to school?” He sounded genuinely interested.
 

She shook her head. “No, but I have read a great deal of books.”
 

He was quiet for a few minutes as she worked. For the first time in the last few days, she wasn’t fighting the need to run from the room.
 

“I can’t read much. That’s why that brother-in-law of yours swindled us. Pops could read but he trusted a handshake.” Tobias frowned.
 

Rebecca wouldn’t pity him for not being able to read. Lots of folks didn’t think educating children who worked on farms and ranches was important. Tobias didn’t have an easy life, that much she knew. His grandfather had taken him in after his mother abandoned him. Rebecca had been lucky to have parents who believed being educated was a strength and made sure all their children learned.
 

“Vaughn has apologized and made up for what he did.” She defended her brother-in-law. He had become a part of the family and her sister Elizabeth’s husband and father to their children. The Grahams protected their own just like the Gibsons did. It was one thing they had in common.
 

“That don’t make it right.” Tobias held grudges. That was obvious from the moment she’d met him.
 

“People make mistakes. We have to do our best to forgive.”
 

He pulled a face and then closed his eye on a grimace. “I ain’t never gonna forget. Good thing I don’t have to see that cheat.”
 

“You don’t have to be angry at the world, Tobias.” She wrapped his shoulder, pleased with the poultice and how well it set. “Life is easier if you find joy instead of darkness.”
 

His eye popped open and she felt the intensity of that gaze down to her marrow. She didn’t know his secrets or whether she wanted to hear them.
If she were honest, she did want the Gibson brothers to repair their fractured relationship. She knew the importance of family; the older she got the more she understood the gift her parents had given them.
 

“I ain’t had nothing but darkness, Becca. I don’t know joy.” His voice had dropped to a harsh whisper.
 

“I’m sorry.” Her eyes stung and she blinked hard to clear any emotion. Tobias wouldn’t want any pity.
 

“You can’t miss what you don’t have.”
 

It was true but so very sad. Rebecca simply moved on past the emotional lump in her throat and continued to apply the poultice to his bruises.
 

“Why didn’t you marry?” His question startled her and she smeared her fingers on the sheet beneath him.
 

“Shit.” It slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. It was Rebecca’s turn to be embarrassed.
 

To her surprise, he barked a laugh. “I like to hear a woman who knows how to cuss.”
 

“I grew up with four brothers and now I have three brothers-in-law. Two of them were Texas Rangers.” A chuckle crept up her throat. “There aren’t many cuss words I haven’t heard.”
 

“I’ve not heard you laugh.”
 

“I could say the same thing about you.” She wrapped the next bruise and poultice combination. “I think we’ve been around each other when things were topsy-turvy and not happy times.”
 

“True enough. I do want to know why you aren’t married.”