Texas Rain

CHAPTER 30

When everyone but Rainey and Travis finally left the Langlands' home, the one-room apartment seemed roomy. She'd been surprised when he hadn't argued about her insisting on making more pies before leaving. In fact, he'd simply nodded and resumed his place on guard after the others left.

Surrounded in the aroma of apple pies, the silence weighed heavy between them. Even Pearl raised an eyebrow in question when she'd passed Rainey to put little Jason down for a nap. But Rainey didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. Travis didn't seem angry, or bothered. If anything, he seemed bored.

She felt like they'd been on a runaway train since the kidnapping. He'd risked his life to save her. All the other Rangers thought she was his, but he'd never once mentioned love, or even liking her. In fact, except when she visited him late at night, he barely acted as if he noticed her around.

"Want a piece of pie?" Rainey tried to shatter the ice between them.

He shook his head.

"Want some soup?"

He didn't answer. He simply folded his arms and leaned back in the chair.

"Want me?" she whispered as she turned back to work. They'd been alone for an hour, and he'd made no move to touch her, or even talk to her. She frowned, thinking of how quickly she'd become addicted to his touch and wondered if he'd mind if she curled into his bed every night to sleep. Somehow the rhythm of his breathing matched her heart's beat. When he held her at the ruins of the mission, it had been the first time she hadn't feared the night.

Rainey considered if feeling safe could equal love. She decided it didn't. Maybe she should look at the reasons why he'd asked her that first night to marry him. He could just want a wife to come home to, but she'd be the last one he'd pick for that. He'd have to find her every time. Maybe he felt sorry for her. After all she was the pitifulest person she knew even if that wasn't a real word. She could see lots of reasons why any woman, but her, would want to marry Travis, but she couldn't find one reason why he'd want her.

Rainey continued to work until the table was filled with pies cooling, but Travis never made any attempt to talk to her. Once, when he'd stood and walked to the water bucket, he'd been careful to get a dipper of water without touching her. He'd hung the dipper back on its nail a few inches from her head and hadn't touched her hair.

She wanted to ask how he was feeling, but didn't dare. He'd rubbed his left leg several times, but she didn't miss that he'd left his cane by his chair when he'd walked across the room to get a drink.

When she finished the dishes and pulled off her apron, he stood… waiting.

Pearl crossed through from the store and glanced at both of them. "Owen just pulled up. He says he'll make your deliveries today."

"Thanks." Rainey didn't try to protest. She looked at Travis. "I'd like to go by the boardinghouse and change into my other dress."

Travis nodded once as if she were no more than an assignment he'd been given to keep up with. "I'll put the wagon around back. Don't come out until I'm at the porch."

She slipped into Sage's too-big shoes and watched him go.

When he'd disappeared, Pearl moved to her side and put her arm around Rainey's shoulders.

Rainey blinked back tears. "I don't know what's wrong. It's like I don't know him at all. He held me last night, but we had little chance to talk. Now we have nothing to say."

"What do you want him to say?"

Shaking her head, Rainey whispered, "I don't know. I wish he'd talk to me like he did in his letters. I liked hearing about what he was thinking and feeling and worrying about."

Pearl shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you except your paper Ranger is there somewhere in that hard man. All you've got to do is look for him."

A few moments later they heard the wagon. Rainey ran out. Travis made no effort to get down and help her up so she climbed in beside him. When she accidentally brushed his arm, he moved a few inches away.

They rode in silence to Askew House. The roads were muddy and each time the wagon rocked, she'd touch him, and each time he moved away.

When they reached the steps of Askew House, Rainey jumped out as soon as he slowed the horses. "I'll only be a minute."

He shoved the brake stick forward, tied the reins around it, and said without looking at her, "I'm going with you."

The front door was unlocked. Their steps echoed in the foyer across air as still as a tomb. Rainey called for Mrs. Vivian and then Mamie, but no one answered. All the weeks she'd lived there she could never remember the house being silent. There had always been the sounds of someone talking, or Mrs. Vivian yelling at Mamie from the kitchen, or Dottie singing in her room.

The blood that had been spilled in the foyer had been cleaned up, but the stain still darkened the wood. Rainey carefully walked around it. She took the first few steps up the stairs and turned back. "I'll change and be back down."

Travis followed her. "I said I'm going with you."

"All the way to my room?" She took the next step. "It's not allowed."

Using only his right leg to climb, he moved up the stairs. "I'm going with you," he repeated more slowly as if he thought she'd missed a word.

By this point she was so frustrated she wanted to kick his good leg. The man was taking his guard duty to the extreme. She lifted her head and walked up the stairs not even glancing back to see if he followed.

When she reached her door, she was surprised to find him only a few steps behind.

"Turn around," she said, blushing.

"What?" He moved closer.

"Turn around. I have to get my key."

He raised an eyebrow. "Afraid I'll see where you hid it?" He glanced around, as if he could guess.

"No, I'm afraid you'll see what I hide it in."

Travis didn't move.

"Suit yourself," she finally said as she lifted her skirt and pulled the key from deep inside her petticoat pocket.

When she looked up, he seemed totally surprised and embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know ladies' underwear had pockets."

She rolled her eyes. "Did you McMurray men split one brain evenly among yourselves, or did you get shortchanged?"

He grinned. "Maybe the widow's right. Maybe I don't know much about women. Sage usually wears trousers and when she does wear a dress, she has no use for a place to put a key."

Rainey unlocked the door and he pushed it open, brushing her shoulder as he walked in ahead of her. "Lots of room," he mumbled as he took one step and bumped into the bed.

"It's plenty of room for me." She gathered up a change of clothes. "I can go downstairs to change."

"I'll turn around." He shifted until he was looking out the window. "I don't want you that far away in case there's trouble." He tested the bed. "Mind if I sit down?"

Rainey bit her lip. She wanted to say that nothing had happened all day, surely she'd be all right in the bathroom. The hip tub and washstand wouldn't harm her. "Suit yourself," she finally answered.

She unbuttoned the buttons at her throat and hesitated. "I don't think I can do this," she whispered. "Not with you so near."

He looked back at her. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do. But this isn't proper."

"And sleeping with me in your nightgown is?" he questioned, then turned back to the window. "Forget I said that. Just get changed."

She unbuttoned her blouse as he opened the window. He hadn't shown any interest in her all day; why should she think he'd change suddenly?

"What was the first sign you saw or heard that told you trouble was hear the other morning?"

She slipped out of her skirt. "We heard the four horses in the alley."

"Four?" He glanced back at her, then raised one hand as if to say he was sorry and returned to stare out the window. "I thought there were three men."

Folding her skirt and blouse, Rainey tried to remember. "Three men came into the house. One was killed in the foyer, two rode away with me. But… I remember looking down and seeing four horses."

Excited, she leaned one knee on the bed beside him and gripped his shoulders, turning him to face her. "Travis. Why would they bring four horses?"

Travis frowned. "Maybe they planned for Sage to ride one? No," he answered his own question. "You said they put a bag over you. They would have had to take the time to tie you up if you were riding alone."

"Maybe there was another man out front."

"Maybe, but why didn't he ride off with them?"

"I don't know. I don't remember them saying anything about anyone but Haskell and Frank, the brother in black whom Dottie shot." Rainey moved closer and asked, "What happened to Haskell?"

Travis turned to look at her. "They brought him in to question. He said he planned to hold Seth at gunpoint and get the reward, but when he saw them all at once he chickened out. All the money he got was the double eagle they offered him for calling the slave over."

He looked past her toward the door. "You'd better get dressed. The extra horse could be nothing, but it's a clue. We probably need to tell Dillon. If there was someone with them, who knows what extremes he'll go to keep quiet."

She looked down, realizing she wore only her undergarments. Travis wasn't even looking at her. She had a feeling if she stripped down to her skin, he'd probably jump out the window to get away from her.

She stood, walking right into his range of vision.

He looked back toward the window.

"How long until we need to be at the judge's?" she asked.

"It's another hour until dark. The judge likes to dine late in southern style. We've probably got a few hours if you want to go by the station first."

Rainey studied his profile. Her man of oak. How could he have held her so tenderly last night and not look at her now? She guessed it would be a waste of time to ask him what was wrong. He'd never tell her.

She touched his shoulder. When he turned to see what she wanted, she moved between his knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. If he was no longer attracted to her, he was about to have to prove it.

For a moment he didn't move.

She leaned into him, letting her body make contact with his as her cheek pressed against his hair.

When he looked up at her, she held his face in her hands. She could think of nothing funny or smart to say. She voiced the only thing on her mind. "Don't you want me anymore?"

He snapped. His arms circled her waist and he crushed her to him. He buried his face against her throat and breathed deeply. "Want you," he finally said in an angry rumble. "I haven't been able to breathe with the need for you all day."

Twisting, he lay her on the tiny bed and pressed her to the mattress. When they came face-to-face, he kissed her hard with a hunger that shocked her.

She shook with the sudden flood of feelings volting through her body.

Travis pulled an inch away, breathing heavy against her ear. "I didn't mean to frighten you, Rainey. I think I've answered your question; now answer mine. Do you welcome my advance?"

Trying her best to stop shaking, she whispered, "Yes."

He kissed her gently then, as he had the first time. Slowly he lowered his body over her, allowing her time to welcome him.

She lay her hands back on the pillow above her head and invited his advance. When he finished kissing her lips, he moved to her throat as if he were dying of thirst and she was his only drink. She could feel his breathing as his chest pressed against her breasts, and his warm breath tickled the flesh he'd left damp with kisses. Any doubt that he wanted her was erased as his hands moved over the cotton of her underthings, feeling, exploring.

"You feel so good," he whispered. "So soft. I've been starving for the need to touch you since the minute you left my bed last night. If I could have, I would have climbed the stairs to you."

She let out a small cry of pleasure when he covered the camisole over her breast with his hand.

"And this," he added against her ear, "feels better than anything I've ever held in my hand."

She turned her head away, trying to remember to breathe. When she looked back, she saw only worry in his dark eyes. "Are you all right? I didn't hurt you?" His hand still lay on her breast, but he was no longer branding her with his touch.

She smiled. "No, you didn't hurt me." She wanted to ask him why he'd been so cold all day. Why he hadn't touched her or even kissed her when they were alone. But his actions now told her all she needed to know.

She tugged his hand away. He watched in silence as she untied her camisole and let the cotton fall open. Then, she put his hand back on her breast with no material between them.

"Continue," she whispered against his ear.

He laughed. "I always follow orders."

A few moments later she cried again in pleasure as his kisses moved down her throat and found the breast he'd already warmed with his hand.

She rocked gently in paradise as he explored her body, kissing and tasting. The gentle warrior she'd seen before returned as he touched her in places no man had ever seen. It crossed her mind, as his fingers molded into the flesh at the back of her leg, that maybe she should be shy, or even hesitant, but Rainey could never pull off such a lie.

He took his time showing her that he thought she was beautiful, and with each touch, each kiss, she wanted more.

As the room darkened into shadows, her underthings fell one by one to the floor of her tiny room and she was wrapped in his warmth. He took great care in moving his hands from her hair down along the center of her back to her hips, then he'd turn her to face him and kiss her until she felt she was floating. While she drifted, he explored, gently pulling her legs apart until she felt a fire of need build deep in her belly.

When she stretched like a cat across him, he whispered, "I want you, Rainey. I want to watch the graceful way you move all day and hold you like this every night. I want to move inside you so deep that we won't even know where I end and you begin. Marry me."

"No," she answered, no longer angry at him because he asked. "I can't."

He pulled her close. "And I have to have you." He spread his hand wide across the inside of her thigh and gripped her flesh. Covering her mouth with his, he caught her sigh of pleasure and tasted deeply as she pressed her body gently against him in wave after wave of sensations.

She wanted to feel his flesh against hers, but when she began unbuttoning his shirt, he stopped her.

"I have about one ounce of self-control left, my fairy, so don't push this further. I have to think of your safety and be ready to act without having to look for my clothes first."

She laughed. "But it's not fair. I have nothing on."

He kissed her hand. "I agree it's not fair, and believe me I'm fully aware you have nothing on." He ran his hand along the curves of her side stopping to grip one hip.

Fisting his other hand into the curls of her hair, he pulled her head back. "You have no idea how perfect you are." He kissed his way down to her breasts. "I'll never again look at you clothed without seeing you like this."

Rainey hardly noticed the room slip into darkness as she drifted on wave after wave of pleasure. She knew there was more to lovemaking, much more, but she felt she might go mad if he went further. She'd simply float off the edge of passion and shatter into a million tiny drops of paradise.

They lay together for a long while. His hands slowly circled over her body, exploring, getting to know every curve, learning how she liked to be touched. She wanted to tell him that he could have her if he wanted. Hadn't she already made it plain that she wanted him? But she didn't talk, for she knew if they did, they'd only argue. For now maybe it was enough for both of them to hold each other. She'd start believing in marriage when he started believing in love.

The opening of a door sounded from floors below.

Travis brushed his fingers across her mouth and pointed at her clothes. She stood, fumbling in the shadows, and dressed. He shifted and lit a candle without making a sound. She could still see passion in his eyes, and when his gaze moved down her dress, she knew what he was thinking.

Silently she packed her few things and followed him down the stairs.

Mrs. Vivian sat on the last step of the stairs in the foyer when they reached the bottom. Rainey expected the woman to yell at her for having a man upstairs, but she stared at them with glazed eyes.

Travis touched her shoulder. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

She looked up. "I'm finished. I'm bankrupt. No one will ever rent from me again."

"Folks have short memories," Travis said. "They'll forget in time."

Rainey wasn't so sure. They were still talking about the French girl from years ago. "The women will come back." She tried to sound hopeful. "You can cover the outlaw's bloodstain with a rug and his death will become part of the legend of this place."

Mrs. Vivian shook her heard. "I tried to keep it going. I tried everything. But now I'm finished. When my husband comes back, he'll blame me for not keeping the house."

Travis shrugged at Rainey, but tried again. "Rainey's right, a rug would cover it up."

Mrs. Vivian looked at them with vacant eyes. "And who will cover the woman's body on my back porch," she asked as if they had the answer. "Who will wash up her blood?"