Texas Tiger

chapter 37





"Your father will take care of everything, don't you worry at all." Dolly Hanover patted her daughter's hand against the bedcovers. "That charming young Peter sent us the nicest telegram. I'm certain he'll see to everything. I never did understand why you wouldn't marry him."

Georgina waited patiently for her mother to leave. It was good to know that her father hadn't left her mother behind in the convalescent home, and she was always happy to see her; she just had other things on her mind right now. Being married to a man like Daniel had that effect.

"Peter never listened to me, Mother," Georgina answered with remarkable restraint. "And Daniel needs me." Sometimes, she amended to herself.

"Well, I'm sure that's important." Despite her words, there was a puzzled frown on Dolly's forehead as she turned to leave. "Now you get lots of sleep and don't worry about anything. We're here now."

Which was just what Georgina was worried about. Would Daniel come here if he knew her parents were back in residence? If he didn't, she would have to go out and hunt him down, and she didn't have the slightest idea where to begin if Peter had taken over the newspaper office.

She listened to the leaves brushing against her bedroom window and tried to imagine that it was Daniel coming for her. She had obediently sat here all day waiting for him to put in an appearance, and he hadn't even sent word. If he didn't show up soon, she was going to hang him. Shooting wasn't good enough.

She fingered the lace on the light silk robe she had donned after her bath. This was another item meant for her trousseau, and it had gone unworn until now. She had donned it for Daniel's benefit. She really must be mad. Why was she trying to please a man who had walked out on her?

All her life she had been cosseted by the men, told not to worry, everything would be taken care of. Maybe that attitude worked for women like her mother, but it wasn't working for her anymore. She was beginning to realize that men needed taking care of as much as women, and the thought wasn't in the least dismaying. She wanted to take care of Daniel—if the damned man would just let her.

Georgina listened to the sounds of the house settling down for the night and swore softly to herself. A normal marriage was too much to expect, she supposed, especially after the way hers started out. And if her parents' marriage was anything to judge by, she really didn't want a normal marriage. She just wanted Daniel.

She turned off the lamp and slid down between the sheets and patted the empty pillow beside her. She didn't think she was asking for much to want to have her husband in bed beside her every night. She'd come to crave the closeness of Daniel's body next to hers. She wanted to be able to reach out and touch his shoulder, slide her foot next to his, whisper sleepy questions in his ear when she woke. And she wanted to be there when that fire lit in his eyes and he leaned over her and took her in his hands and joined their bodies until they were one. She wanted that with every fiber of her being.

Georgina closed her eyes tightly against the torture of her thoughts. The wind must be picking up. The branches outside were rubbing frantically against the glass.

The branches outside. Her eyes flew wide open again. She had lived here most of her life and the wind never blew that hard from that direction.

She was out of bed and at the window in seconds. Flinging open the sash, she glared at the shadow straddling the slender maple branch, his grin growing from sheepish to delighted as she raged at him.

"Daniel Ewan Mulloney, you are the most incorrigible, least intelligent, exasperating excuse for a man I have ever met in all my life! Why in heaven's name can't you come through a door like any normal human being? It would serve you right if you fell from there and broke your silly neck. Get yourself in here now before I'm picking pieces of you up off the ground."

Daniel slid his leg over the sill, caught the window frame, and pulled through until he was standing so close that their toes touched. Georgina couldn't suppress a gasp as he slid his hands beneath her robe and cupped her breasts through the thin silk of her gown.

"Did I hear a hint of concern in that tirade? Or would you prefer it if I broke my silly neck and let you alone?"

"Idiot!" Georgina tried to pull away, but his touch was too compelling. Instead, her breasts seemed to surge forward to fill his hands, and the place between her thighs began to tingle. "I don't know why I married a man so prone to risking his foolish neck."

"Because your boyfriend held a gun on me?" he answered helpfully, nuzzling her neck.

"If that's all it was, I should have let him blow your head off and saved everyone a lot of grief." She kept her voice cool, but her body was growing warmer by the minute. Georgina slid her fingers into the unruly tangle of Daniel's hair and bent willingly to his embrace.

"Then tell me it was because you loved me, because you can't live without me." His lips continued their sensuous journey as he urged her backward toward the bed.

"You left me!" Georgina's fingers grabbed his hair tighter, jerking it from his scalp as she was maneuvered against the bed. "Why would I tell you any such thing after what you did?"

Daniel let her pull his head up until he was gazing into the wild blue of her eyes. "Because I love you? Because I only wanted to do what was best for you?"

Georgina's grip loosened beneath the intensity of his gaze. "And I thought you were so smart," she whispered scornfully. "Only an utter idiot would think I would be better off without you."

The gray of his eyes almost became silver in the moonlight, and Daniel's mouth softened into a smile of delight. "Does that mean you'll take this lame hero for husband, to have and to hold, until death do us part?"

"I will." And standing on tiptoe, Georgina raised her lips to his.

With a shudder of relief, Daniel clasped her in his arms, pulling her body into his, and filling her mouth with his kisses. Georgina clung to him with all her strength, trying not to imagine what it would have been like if she'd never held him like this again. She couldn't bear even the thought of it, and she held him tighter, desperately, pleading with her mouth and body to never let her go.

Daniel lifted her to the bed, throwing the sheets aside and kneeling over her, worshiping her with his mouth and hands. Growing frantic under the trail of his kisses, Georgina tore at his shirt, pulling it from his trousers and running her hands beneath the cotton to the hard, warm male body beneath. Not until then was she certain she wasn't dreaming.

She wouldn't let him go long enough for him to remove his clothes. She helped him with his buttons, then deliberately stroked the hard male part of him she released from the confining cloth. With wicked delight Georgina felt Daniel's shudder of desire, and she slid her fingers deeper, testing the strength of his resistance.

"Georgina." His voice was strained as he held himself propped over her. "You'd better be certain you understand what this means."

Georgina positioned her legs on either side of him and wriggled so close she could feel his heat through the thin film of silk. "Probably warehouses and cockroaches and midnight rescues," she assured him as she ran her fingers provocatively up and down his arms. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And babies, and baths together, and maybe some day a little house with roses in the front yard and horses in the back."

"How did you know?" Daniel pulled the hampering silk to her waist and touched her there, where she was warm and wet and waiting.

She arched into his hand with a moan, felt his fingers open inside her, and barely got the words between her teeth. "I read a Pecos Martin book," she murmured, and then gasped as his hand moved and something much stronger came inside her.

As Daniel surged deeper, his mouth covered her breasts, and a flame of desire raced through her from head to toe. With a cry of surrender Georgina flung her arms around him, letting him have complete possession of her body, letting him take control, until she no longer knew where her body ended and his began, knowing only that they were one in this. When he took her to that place they were coming to know so well, she whispered his name just as he forced her over the precipice, and she closed her eyes and clung to his shoulders as they tumbled together into weightlessness.

"I love you," she whispered as Daniel's heavy body sank onto hers, pushing her into the mattress.

Long brown fingers closed around her breast and teased at the nipple. Georgina felt him stiffen at her words, but she wasn't taking them back. She ran her hands over the powerful muscles of his back. "I love you, Daniel, and I'll kill you if you ever leave me again."

He chuckled against her ear at that threat. "Make me believe that, and you'll be sorry. When I go, I'll take you with me, and you might end up living in a Texas desert with cactus for company."

Georgina wriggled her hips and with satisfaction, felt him growing hard again. "I'll dress them up in shirts and ties and skirts and bonnets and take turns shooting at them and serving them tea."

Daniel placed his hands on either side of her head and propped himself over her. "You don't know anything about that kind of life, Georgina. I'd be a cad to do that to you."

Worried, Georgina wriggled against him again, hoping to distract him from the unpleasant note of this conversation. When he merely turned over and pulled her with him, she squirmed. 'Then I'm not the wife you want," she said in disappointment.

Daniel stroked her hair and wrapped his arm around her back until his fingers reached her breast on the other side. "You're all the wife I want. Why do you think I came back? I couldn't bear the thought of a future without you. We'll just have to think of some way to work this out so you can have your family and home and I can keep from killing my father."

"And he can keep from killing you." Not entirely reassured, Georgina rose up on her elbow to glare down at him. "Why don't we visit Natchez and your family and think of something safe to do?"

Daniel sighed. "That would probably be best. I just don't like leaving a job undone. If neither of us is here, things just might slip back to the way they've always been. But I can't risk you in another fire like the one last night."

Georgina returned to the safe curve of his arm. "I'm sure that must have been an accident. It wouldn't make sense for your father to bum down the factory he practically owns."

"It wasn't an accident." Daniel's grip on her arm tightened in anger. "Someone set fire to the crates of finished goods you had stacked in there. From what I've gathered, Egan and Emory decided to teach us a lesson that got a little out of hand. I don't think they knew you were in the building. And they didn't plan to destroy the whole factory. Someone had given the alarm and set the fire wagon on its way before I called for help. They just meant to destroy all your hard work."

Georgina was silent. She felt the angry tension building in the man beside her, and she smoothed her hand over his chest, wishing it away. "But your father had nothing to do with that," she said carefully.

"He could have. He at least created the kind of setting that would allow it. I heard he's fired Egan and hired some other strong-arm, one who packs a gun. It's not a healthy situation, Georgina."

He left so many things unsaid. Georgina struggled with the conflicting messages she was receiving. On one hand, he was saying he wanted her to stay here where she belonged. On the other, he was saying it wasn't safe. In neither case did he say what he wanted for himself. But judging from what Evie had told her about his upbringing, Georgina very much thought what Daniel wanted was a family, and his real family was right here. She could help him start a new one, but he hadn't resolved his conflict over the old one yet. The need to know more of his family and the need to protect her were tearing him apart. If it weren't for her, he would be out there on the front lines fighting his darnedest to close that gap between himself and his family.

Georgina twisted her finger in a hair on Daniel's chest and slid her leg over his. He had such long, muscular legs. She moved closer. "We can't go anywhere or do anything until you visit your mother, Daniel," she whispered.

He stiffened. "Don't be ridiculous, Georgie. She's better off thinking I'm dead."

"Peter told her you're alive. He says she isn't eating, that she's worried sick, or sicker. They may be poisoning her with laudanum the same way they're poisoning my mother. You've got to go see her, Daniel."

"You want me to walk up to the rattlesnake's nest and ring the bell?" he asked in disbelief.

"That's just exactly what I want you to do. It's my birthday tomorrow. That's what I want for a present. I'll send a note to Peter and arrange it."

The Fourth of July—he'd forgotten. All hell would probably break loose tomorrow, and she wanted him to walk into the middle of it. One of them was a few nickels shy of a dollar, and Daniel didn't want it to be him. But it undoubtedly was, because he was going to do it. He wasn't leaving this town until he'd made the acquaintance of the woman who had given him birth and then thrown him away. Artemis wouldn't let him live peacefully here anyway. If he meant to take Georgie with him when he left, there was no point in hiding anymore. He didn't give a damn what became of this house and the mortgage once they were gone.

"I don't suppose you have any firecrackers you can include in that note, do you?" he asked wryly as he gave in to the idea that he wouldn't be a hero.

"One or two." She sat up and began to tug the rest of his clothes off him.

Daniel placed his hands behind his head and admired the image of his Miss Merry performing such a wifely task. But the juxtaposition of rounded hips to straining loins proved fatal to his complacence. With an impatient kick he removed trousers and shoes, and with a command he hadn't known he possessed, he caught Georgina's waist and pulled her over him.

She gasped with surprise at her unexpected position, but she learned quickly. With arrogant satisfaction, Daniel felt her come over him, and in a matter of minutes, he was teaching her to ride.

He was going to enjoy teaching his little firecracker the pleasure of married life, if she didn't kill him first.

A groan escaped him as Georgina carried his little trick one step further. He barely had time to hang on and hold her still before the uncontrollable explosion overtook him and he came deep inside her.

Daniel's hands clamped her waist and held her hips tightly against his.

"I'll make you pay for this in the morning," he warned as the aftershocks rippled through them.

Georgina grinned, bent over and nipped his ear, then slid off him to her side of the bed. "You ain't seen nothing yet, Pecos."