He carried them over to Haley’s bed and sat down on the tarp. “It’s not champagne and roses, but here you go.”
He pulled the tab on a beer and handed it to her, then fished the two candy bars from his pocket. “You choose first?”
They were both Snickers.
She deliberately brushed her fingers against his palm when she picked one up. “This is even better than champagne and roses. I never thought I’d look forward to beer and chocolate.”
“Never miss the water till the well runs dry,” he said.
“That is true in more than beer and candy.” She tore into the candy with her teeth, afraid to set the beer down for fear she’d knock it over, and she wasn’t wasting one drop.
A quarter moon hung in the sky and stars danced all around it. The night air had turned chilly when the sun took its warmth away. They were in flat country again where trees were scarce and the land stretched out on all sides to meet the blue sky. A few scrub oaks and willow trees lined the edges of Little Turkey Creek, and the spring rains had given the creek enough water to make it flow along gently as if it had nowhere to go and all summer to get there. Even though it wasn’t even lukewarm, after the guys were all asleep Haley stripped down naked and eased herself into the water.
She held her breath until she got used to the water and then quickly bathed, shaved her legs by the light of the moon, and washed her hair. She’d gotten out of the water, shivered as she dried off on her shirt, and had clean underwear in her hand when Eeyore snorted.
She jumped and tried to cover herself with the shirt.
Dewar chuckled and stepped out from behind a tree.
“Good evening. You are beautiful in the moonlight.”
“How long have you been there?” she gasped.
“Let’s just say your guard donkey didn’t tell on me for a long time. It’s pretty sexy watching a woman wash her hair in the creek by moonlight.”
“Any woman or this woman?” she asked.
He pushed away from the tree and walked toward her. “I’m talking about you, Haley.”
His voice was deep and husky, want and desire coating every word. He scooped her up like a bride and carried her back into the shadows of the trees, sat down on a quilt with her in his lap, and brushed her damp hair away from her neck. He started a string of hot, passionate kisses right below her earlobe. The next one landed on her eyelids, and then his lips found hers in a scorching clash that tightened every nerve in her body. The heat surrounding them warmed her quickly and fried every sane cell in her brain. One moment she was sitting on the quilt with Dewar kissing her, the next they were lying down. Like magic he flipped the edge of the quilt and they were encased in it like it was their own private cocoon.
The kisses grew hotter and more demanding as his hands roamed her body. She arched against him, felt stiff denim in places where she wanted bare skin, and without breaking the sizzling kisses, she undressed him. One shirt button at a time, taking time to run her hands over his broad muscular chest before she unbuckled his belt, unzipped his jeans, and released an erection that throbbed in her hand.
“Your hands feel like cool silk against me,” he murmured in her ear.
“And this,” she squeezed, “feels like hardened steel.”
She flipped over until she was on top and then rose up, a knee on each side of his body. She guided him inside and then put a hand behind her on his thigh and started a slow motion.
“God, Haley…” he groaned.
“Even though I like the idea of you thinking I’m a god or goddess, I’m not, darlin’,” she said.
His hands circled her waist. “Right now you couldn’t convince me of that.”
“Do you like this?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said.
She bent forward to taste his lips and he rolled to one side with her, taking over the thrusts and turning up the heat level of the kisses from sizzling to searing. She opened her eyes and the stars were like lightning bugs dancing around the moon.
“Dewar, this is spectacular,” she whispered.
“And so are you.” His face had a full day’s dark growth on it, just enough scruff to tickle her cheeks, and then he whispered, “You are so sexy I can’t keep my eyes off you in the day and I dream about you at night.”
No one, not even Joel, ever talked to her during sex. There was foreplay in varying degrees, sex, and then snoring. She shouldn’t compare, especially in the middle of the most earth-shattering sex in the world, but she couldn’t help it. She kept expecting the moon to fall right out there on the other side of Little Turkey Creek and the stars to follow, landing like the burnt-out ends of a Fourth of July sparkler on the water and sizzle as they drowned.
“Lord help us,” she mumbled.
Dewar lowered his lips to hers. “I don’t think even He has that much power.”
The whole world, complete with thoughts, disappeared as she gave in to her body’s needs and let desire take over. At the climax, the stars all exploded, creating the most gorgeous array of sparkle she’d ever seen.
So
that’s what it’s supposed to be like,
she thought as she fought to regain her breath.
“Age-old question? Was it good for you?” he gasped.
“Yes, sir, it was very good for me,” she said.
Somehow he’d moved and she was snuggled up against him. It had to be the magic that had re-situated him without her even knowing.
He flipped the edges of the quilt up over her and hugged her tighter. “We can sleep for a while, but it would probably be best if they didn’t…”
She covered his lips with her finger. “I understand, Dewar.”
He kissed her fingertips and buried his face in her hair.
She shut her eyes but the beautiful warm feeling still lingered. Would it go away when they peeled back the quilt? That was the question on her mind as she dozed off into yet another dream about Dewar.
Eeyore nudged her back and awoke her an hour later. She quickly looked at the horizon to see if the first signs of the sun coming up heralded a new day and squirmed out of Dewar’s tight embrace.
“Don’t go,” he whispered.
“I’ve got to go rinse off and get dressed or else I’m going to smell like sex all day.” She giggled.
He threw the quilt back and carried her to the creek. He sat down with her in his lap with the cool water rushing around them. He bathed her with his hands and rinsed the soap away with double hands full of water.
“I’ve heard that a woman never believes anything a man says when he’s having sex with her so I want to say something,” Dewar whispered.
“And that would be?”
“You are so beautiful that you make my brain go to pure mush when you are near me. All I want to do is drag you off to a private place and make love to you all day and night,” he said.
She was speechless. Nothing anyone had ever said to her had been so simple and yet the depth of his words were so romantic.
“Well?” he asked.
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “I just don’t know where it can possibly lead, though. We’re almost half-done with the trail run and what happens when it’s over?”
She kissed the scar on his cheek. “Let’s don’t borrow worry from tomorrow. We’ll just enjoy the miracles of today.”
He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought her lips to his.
“You make me hot as hell,” she panted when he broke the kiss.
“Yes, ma’am, and you do the same to me.” He laced his fingers in hers and led her back to their cocoon quilt. He helped her get her clothing on before he quickly dressed himself.
One
of
a
kind,
she thought.
There
will
never
be
another
real
cowboy
in
your
life, so you’d best cherish every single memory.
She flipped the quilt over to the dry side and sat down, reluctant to let the night come to an end. He sat down beside her and ran his fingers through her hair, combing out the tangles gently. Then he deftly French braided it, weaving wildflowers he picked from around the quilt into the twists and turns.
Her scalp tingled at his slight touch and she would have given her job to a beggar on the street for a mirror to see what she looked like with Daisy Mae braids complete with wildflowers. When she looked at him, he smiled and she could see herself in his eyes. With no makeup, no fancy haircut, no high-dollar stiletto shoes, and not even a mist of exotic perfume, he thought she was wonderful. And it felt right.
***
Eeyore snorted and started back toward the camp.
“I know,” Dewar told him. “We can’t stay here until daybreak.”
He’d never known a woman as strong, as determined, or as willful as Haley. Not even his red-haired sister, Colleen, and she was a force. But sitting there with her eyes shut, half her face in shadow, the other half illuminated by the moon, she looked soft and sweet. She had two sides, his Haley did.
My
Haley! Whoa! Hold the horses. She’s not mine and probably never will be. But there will never be another woman who’ll make me feel as alive as this one.
Eeyore snorted again.
“Okay, I hear you. It’s time, isn’t it?” He moved away from Haley and together they gathered up her things.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and mumbled, “I’d rather stay here and be in trouble. I was dreaming about you when Eeyore woke me up.”
“What was happening?” Dewar asked.
“If I tell it before breakfast it will come true and that’s one dream I do not want to come true,” she said.
“You are superstitious?”
“I come from Cajun background. Of course I’m superstitious. How long until daybreak?”
“Two hours tops. Coosie will be up puttering around in an hour.”
“Where did you get this quilt?” she asked.
“Are you always full of questions?”
“Seems that’s the way I’m made.”
Dewar chuckled softly as they tiptoed toward the chuck wagon. “From the wagon. It’s for emergencies. Guess last night was an emergency.”
“I don’t imagine he was thinking of using it for what we did,” she said.
Eeyore followed them and waited a few yards back until Haley was safely tucked into her sleeping bag before he went back to the herd.
Dewar kissed her on the forehead. “I swear he is just like a dog.”
“And he’s going to have a wonderful life at your ranch,” she said.
Would
I
have
a
wonderful
life
there
or
would
I
grow
tired
of
it
after
the
glow
wore
off?
she wondered.
She was already sleeping when he returned from putting the quilt away. He laced his fingers under his neck and wondered what she’d been dreaming.
It seemed as if he’d just shut his eyes when he heard Coosie cussing the donkey.
He sat up and glanced over at Haley to see her rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“What’s happening with Eeyore?” She yawned.
“Damned critter, wakin’ me up before I was ready to get up. Just come right up to my sleeping bag and commenced to snortin’. I thought a coyote was about to bite my ear damn near off, but it was just your jackass,” Coosie fumed.
Dewar bit back the chuckle. The damned jackass was probably tattling about what he’d seen down at the creek the night before. Thank God Coosie didn’t understand jackass lingo.
Haley stretched, reminding him of the old momma cat out in the horse stables when someone stroked her back. She wiggled the kinks out of her. “What makes everyone think that critter belongs to me alone? Evidently he loves you too, Coosie. He didn’t want you to oversleep.”
“First time he’s ever done that and it better be the last. I swear he scared the hell out of me. First thing I see is his ugly nose when I open my eyes. My soul shot right out of my body like a bottle rocket.”
“Did it go up or did it go down?” Haley giggled.
Coosie grumbled as he flopped the morning biscuits into the top part of the Dutch oven and hung it above the fire. “You are too damn happy to be just wakin’ up. You must’ve had sweet dreams about somebody and I bet it wasn’t that pesky jackass.”
“No, it wasn’t and yes, I did, and, no, I’m not telling what my dreams were. Is that sausage I smell?” Haley changed the subject.
“Yes, it is. Gravy can boil and thicken while the biscuits cook. Coffee is ready, so get up and help yourself. It looks like another rainy day so you’d best be gettin’ the idea in your heads. I’d forgotten about the spring rains in this season.” Coosie cocked his head to one side and drew his eyebrows down when he saw the flowers in her hair. “You goin’ to a dance or something?”
Dewar caught the look Haley flashed him when she realized the flowers were still woven into her hair and graced her with his most brilliant smile.
Haley touched her braids. “No, just thought I’d put a little sunshine in your world this morning. You like my new hair decorations? Since we don’t have a hairdresser out here, I had to make do with what was available. I had a bath in that creek last night after everyone was asleep.”
“Bet the water was cold,” Dewar whispered.
“Don’t pay no attention to him,” Coosie said. “He’s always grumbling about something. That’s the way of a trail boss. I think they look almighty fetching and it’s nice to see a woman takin’ care of herself. Just don’t go braidin’ flowers in that damn donkey’s tail.”
“Yes, sir.” She whistled shrilly and Apache came trotting across the field to her side.
Sawyer sat up and grabbed his head. “That’s a hell of a way to wake a man up. Reminds me of that damned alarm clock Momma sent to college with me. First time it went off I thought a freight train was coming right up the middle of my bed.”
Finn rose up on an elbow. “Is it morning? What’s our job assignment today, Callie?”
Rhett dug his fists into his eyes. “Sorry, cousin. You’re in a different type of war zone this morning. That wasn’t a bomb threat. It was Haley whistling for Apache. I didn’t know a girl could do that.”
Dewar looked up to see Stallone trotting across the field. “You told me you couldn’t whistle.”
“I did not. You asked me if I could whistle and I asked you why I needed to. I didn’t want to or need to until now.”
Dewar frowned. “Well, it looks like she’s done called all the horses up. You been holdin’ out on us, girl. Where’d you learn to whistle like that?”
“From my Cajun cousins,” she said with a shrug.
“What else did those wild cousins teach you?”
Haley rubbed her hands across Apache’s back and removed one small burr, tested again, and tossed the saddle blanket across him before hefting the saddle up. “They taught me lots of things, but I’m not telling all my secrets. Apache and Eeyore and I keep some things real close to our hearts.”