Hesitating, Jolie considered what to say. “You’ll get relief if you’ll mix equal parts salt with ground black pepper, added to a crushed garlic clove. Spread that mixture on your tooth and the gums around it. In about ten minutes you’ll feel better.” She could have also told him to hold a bone button over the tooth or breathe in the smoke made from burning an old shoe, but for some reason she thought that might not be wise.

  She was right.

  Celeste eyed her suspiciously. “Sounds like witchcraft to me, I’d prefer Armand go to a proper dentist.”

  “Well, there isn’t a proper dentist closer than New Orleans,” Armand muttered. “And I’m not traveling to New Orleans just for a tooth.” He smiled at Jolie. “I’ll be glad to try your remedy.”

  “We need to be going, husband,” Celeste whispered, loudly enough for Jolie and Austin to hear.

  “Yes, I suppose so.” He patted his jaw. “Maybe I can get those ingredients you mentioned over in Louisiana and my daughter’s house.”

  “I hope so.” Jolie stood, along with Austin, moving toward the door to see their visitors off.

  As they said their goodbyes, Jolie tried to process all that had happened.

  First, Austin had alluded to the fact that they were to be married. Did he mean it? Or was that a ruse designed to allay gossip? She didn’t know, and she was too afraid to ask.

  Secondly, Armand Pierce relaying news about the slave trader being attacked and eaten by the bear struck terror in her heart. Would Austin connect the timing of the incident with her arrival?

  And third, she didn’t know how Austin would feel after being able to compare her to Celeste Pierce? The woman obviously was a proper lady. Jolie had felt gauche next to the woman.

  As soon as Austin shut the door, she searched his face, trying to read his mood.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  Pulling her to him, he clasped her tightly. “I am so glad they’re gone.” He bent his head and layered his mouth over hers. Austin kissed her thoroughly. “You are so much prettier and sweeter than Celeste. I imagine kissing her would be like puckering up to a dill pickle.”

  His comment made Jolie laugh. At least Austin wasn’t acting odd. “She did seem to be a bit straitlaced.”

  “Yea, I bet she has a corncob stuck up her…”

  “Shhhh.” Jolie went up on tiptoe and kissed him again.

  Austin caressed the nape of her neck. “Did you mind what I said about us planning to marry? I knew I had to say something to protect your reputation.”

  His explanation made her heart lurch. “No, I didn’t mind.” His explanation didn’t really tell her if he was serious, but it did tell her he held her in great affection, enough to protect her. She waited, holding her breath, to see what he would say next.

  “I meant it, Jolie. Nothing would make me happier than for you to be my wife.”

  Jolie sank against him. There was no declaration of love, but love would come. She was sure of it. “I want to make you happy.”

  She didn’t want to dwell on the reasons she couldn’t or shouldn’t marry him, she just wanted to think about how wonderful belonging to him would be.

  Giving her a dazzling smile, Austin traced the line of her cheek. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me. Your coming to me has given me a reason to get up in the morning.” He leaned in to nuzzle her neck. “You’ve given me a reason to live.” Kissing the soft skin he found at the base of her throat, Austin murmured, “I can’t wait to be back in bed with you tonight.”

  Jolie shivered at his words. “Me either,” she freely admitted. Her heart soared with joy. Despite the unexpected visit from the Pierce’s and the bad news they’d delivered, Jolie was in the arms of the man who made her feel like she belonged in his world.

  “I guess I’d better get back to work.” Austin held her a moment longer, almost as if he couldn’t bear to turn her loose.

  “Lunch will be a little late,” she spoke into the fabric of his coat.

  “No matter. Just call me when it’s done.” With one final kiss to her cheek, he gave her a wink and returned to his chores.

  A couple of hours later, Jolie stood out on the front and called his name. “Austin! Come eat! The food is ready.” After making her announcement, she stepped back in the cabin and dished up his meal, a big bowl of pork and sweet potatoes. She inhaled deeply, the meal smelled delicious.

  A movement at the door, caused her to turn.

  “These are for you.”

  Jolie gasped at the sight. Big, powerful Austin McCoy stood in front of her with a handful of wildflowers. Beautiful yellow ones with black eyes and dazzling white roses, each with a single row of petals and a white center. “Oh, Austin, thank you!” She accepted the bouquet and held them near to smell their fragrance.

  “The roses grow down by the bayou, I thought you’d like them. The Cherokee women wear them in their hair.”

  “They are lovely.” She stepped close and placed a hand on his cheek, loving the feel of the scruff of his beard on her palm.

  “Not half as lovely as you.”

  Jolie beamed as she found a glass to put them in, then filled it with water, placing the bouquet in the middle of their table. “Now you’re the one spoiling me.”

  “I plan to make spoiling you my main mission in life,” he said as he took his seat, surveying the bounty that she’d prepared.

  Jolie sat across from him, filling her own bowl as he began to sample the stew she’d prepared. “Are you worried about your claim here?”

  Austin took a big bite, relishing the flavor. “This is so good.” He took a moment to enjoy his food. Seeing her concern, he held up his hand. “No, I’m not overly concerned. I bought this land in good faith with Gold Eagle coins. I have a deed.”

  “Good.” She would take comfort in his confidence.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  As the evening wore on, both willed the next few hours away, anxious for the night to arrive so they could go to bed together.

  Jolie found herself so excited that she could barely stand. After supper and their evening walk, she tried to sit in front of the fire with him and sew a few buttons on his shirt. She kept dropping things or poking herself with the needle.

  Austin had been trying to keep busy, writing in his journal. Since coming to Texas, he’d kept a daily log of his activities so he could properly evaluate what was working, crop-wise, and what was not. He also listed future projects and observations about the countryside and people. It was more a diary than anything else, something to help him pass the time. After listing the crop yields from his sugar cane, he glanced back at some of his previous entries. What he saw moved him. Over and over again, the reoccurring theme had been his loneliness. His cabin fever. His desperation, his madness of one night after another of abject solitude. He’d even made one entry about the clock, how he’d listen to the never ending lonely sound – tick-tock, tick-tock – marking the hours and minutes of his life – alone.

  But he was alone no longer.

  Glancing up, he spied Jolie and he was struck by what a blessing she was, what a godsend. When he’d been at his lowest, she’d come into his life like a gift from heaven.

  A smile came over his face.

  He wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight.

  “Dang it all!” she fussed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I poked myself again.” She folded the shirt in her lap. “I just can’t concentrate.”

  “Why not?”

  She pursed her lips, not sure if she should say. But…honesty between two people was important. Just because she couldn’t be honest about some things didn’t mean that she couldn’t be honest about others. “I want to go to bed.”

  Austin’s heart rate picked up. “Oh, really? Are you tired?”

  She felt a blush warm her cheeks. “No,” she whispered.

  Austin stood, turning off the lamp. “I’m feeling like I need to stretch out myself. Why don’t you get ready for bed?”

  The rate of speed that they used to prepare for the night must have set a new record.

  This time there was no hesitation, no dawdling, and no pillows. Austin wore the bottoms of some cut-off long johns, but no shirt. Jolie wore the shirt he’d loaned her once more, but nothing else. Once they were in the bed, they came together like two halves of the same whole.

  As soon as their lips touched, both let out a long sigh of relief. And they kissed and kissed. Deep long, drugging kisses. They kissed to their heart’s content. They lay facing one another, pressed together as tightly as could be. One of Austin’s thighs was between Jolie’s. His hands were never still. She pressed herself hard against his leg and his hands roamed freely under the shirt, caressing her back, learning her shape – adoring every inch of her he touched.

  “I can’t get enough of you, Jolie Belmont,” he whispered between kisses. “You’re sweeter than honey, more beautiful than the dawn, more precious than gold to me,” Austin breathed the words like a prayer.

  “Teach me more,” she urged.

  Wanting to please her and thus please himself, Austin pushed her to her back and came over her. With a questing touch, he began to learn the shape of her breasts, molding and plumping them through the material of the garment she wore. There was no way in the world he could have kept his hands off of her.

  He was obsessed. Enthralled. Enraptured.

  Jolie writhed beneath his ministrations, her whole being on fire, desperately craving for Austin to douse the flames. She’d never known such pleasure existed. His hands on her needy flesh set her body to singing. And when he lowered his mouth and began to suckle at her breast, she thought she might faint. “Austin,” she cooed. Even through the cotton, she could feel his lips and tongue – pulling, sucking, licking. The dampness of his mouth soaked through to her skin and she felt an intense thrill between her legs – a drawing, a yearning, a clawing desperation for him to touch her there.

  He’d settled over her, putting his knee once more between her legs, his mouth still feasting on her flesh. Jolie was mad with the sensations swamping her senses. In mindless ecstasy, she clutched at his arm, raking her fingers across his shoulder, leaving behind the mark of her possession. Arching her back, she pushed against his thigh, rubbing the pad of her womanhood across his hard muscle – again and again.

  Austin was lost in Jolie. Feasting at her breast, even with the cloth barrier covering it, was pure hedonistic delight. He would never tire of it, never get enough. And the way she rode his leg, her feminine juices coating his thigh – he thought he would die from the sheer rapture of lying with this woman. If play such as this was so pleasurable, how much more satisfying would their joining be?

  Up and down, again and again, Jolie moved her body against his leg. A buildup of tension, of marvelous heat gathered in her private place. The tips of her breasts throbbed, swollen from his mouth, poking out so hard that they seemed to be seeking more kisses from his lips. “Austin, oh, Austin,” she keened as he nipped her with his teeth. The way he pressed his leg upward and flexed the muscle was driving her insane with joy.

  Austin knew he wouldn’t last this time, and he didn’t want to. There was no shame in this. He was preserving the last of her innocence until he could find someone to marry them, but relegating his passion to the attention of his hand was unnecessary when he could find his pleasure.

  Here. With her.

  When he felt her fly apart in his arms, the spasmodic movements of her body against his, the cry of his name on her lips – he lost control. His own emissions spilled forth from his body, his own surrender to the miracle of their union. “Jolie, my dear God, you are my angel,” he sighed against her flesh.

  Neither could be still. Even as their bodies jerked with tremors of delight, their hands and lips moved, still giving one another the expression of their complete devotion.

  “Austin, I love you,” she couldn’t hold back the admission of the greatest truth she’d ever known.

  Austin thought his heart would stop in his chest. “I love you too, sweetheart. Completely. Utterly.” He kissed her once more. “Always.” Rising from the bed, he went to the wash basin.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Cleaning us up.” She didn’t understand until he returned to the bed with a rag and gently wiped between her legs.

  At first Jolie was embarrassed, but at his insistent touch, she opened her legs and let him tend to her. Emotion welled up inside of her like a rising tide. This man was like no other she’d ever met. “Thank you.” She couldn’t see him very well, only the outline of his form.

  “My pleasure.” Austin finished, then turned to tend to himself. “I always take care of what is mine.”

  * * *

  “Why don’t you travel with me when I go?” Austin asked as he ate his breakfast.

  Jolie almost dropped the dish she’d been drying. Oh, she wanted to go. But what if someone was looking for her? “I’d rather stay here and wait for you, if you don’t mind. That way I can keep the animals fed, the eggs gathered…” Her voice trailed off.

  Austin scraped his plate, getting the last of the scrambled eggs she’d perfectly prepared. “It is a long, tiring journey.” He seemed to contemplate something. “If you’re going to stay, I want you to be prepared.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you know how to use a gun?”

  “No, and you need to carry your gun with you.”

  “I have two. I have a pistol that you need to learn how to use.”

  As the day progressed, Austin sought to prepare Jolie for the time he’d be away. “I’ll be gone for five days. Two days travel each way and one day to take care of my business. While I’m there, I’m going to do some shopping, so make me a list of anything you need or want.” He also intended to speak to someone about marrying them. The ways in this new land he lived in were different than the ones he’d left behind. Here, no marriage was recognized unless performed by a priest. Because they were so few and far between, Mexico had granted permission for the Alcalde to register marriage contracts until a priest could be appointed or the couple could stand before one elsewhere. Austin didn’t know the details, but he sure has hell intended to find out when he arrived in Nacogdoches.

  “All right. I’ll help you make a list. While you’re gone, I’ll gather herbs and roots for spices and medicine. I’m sure there are many in the surrounding woods that I can use.”

  Her idea didn’t sit well with Austin. “I don’t want you wandering too far from the house. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t go out at all. I’ll find something for you to use as a chamber pot and you can just stay inside.”

  Jolie laughed. “I don’t want to be cooped up, Austin.” Since being in chains, the thought of any type of constraint made her shiver. “I’ll be careful.”

  “You’d better.” He pulled her close for a kiss. “I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you.”

  Later that day, Austin taught her to load the flintlock pistol and showed her how to fire it. “Gracious, Austin, how does anyone ever use this in a timely manner?” She struggled to follow his directions.

  “You can do it.” He was patient. “Let’s try again.”

  After another couple of hours, she finally managed to fire the gun to his satisfaction. Jolie didn’t know if she’d be able to hit the broad side of a barn, but she’d certainly try if threatened.

  As the day wore on, he gathered supplies for her to have in the house. “This way, you’ll have less reason to go wandering about.”

  Jolie threw her arms around his neck. “Stop worrying. I can take care of myself. I promise I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Austin enfolded her in his arms and cradled her close. He’d lived here for some time and never faced a viable threat. “But you’re so little.” He kissed her gently. “And so very precious to me.”

  “Show me.” She began unbuttoning his shirt. “Show me what I mean to you.” Jolie felt greedy. All day she’d followed him with her eyes, remembering what this man could do to her body – and wanting more.

  “You tempt me beyond endurance,” he murmured, his hands mirroring hers, tugging up her dress to pull it over her head. Jolie gasped at his intentions, but she didn’t resist. She halted her task of loosening his clothing to raise her arms over her head.

  Austin’s mind was arguing with his body. This wasn’t his plan. But he intended to marry this woman as soon as possible, making her his now would not alter a thing. And no, he wasn’t thinking clearly. As his manhood rose with impatience, his mind worked with less clarity.

  Lifting her garment from her body, he tossed it on the end of the bed. “I am rich beyond my wildest dreams.” Austin gazed at the woman before him and went to his knees. With awe in his eyes and heart, he ran trembling hands over the most beautiful female body his mind could ever have imagined. “You are perfection.” He couldn’t fathom the privilege that was his, the splendor of touching, kissing, worshiping her anytime he felt the desire to do so.

  “No, I’m not.” Jolie clasped his head as he rested it against her abdomen, his lips pressed to her skin. She was flawed, more flawed than she’d ever want to admit. “I’m just Jolie.”

  Austin rose, sweeping her up in his arms. “You’re my Jolie and that’s all that matters.” He laid her on the bed. “I’m leaving the lamp on. I want to see everything.” He tore his clothes off, never before had he felt such a desire to be unclothed. “I don’t want to miss a thing.”

  Jolie held up her arms. She felt no shame at her nakedness, nor did she feel shame at the fact she wasn’t married to this man. She belonged to him. This was right. No vows, no piece of paper, no prayer passing from a man’s lips could make this time more sacred. “Make me yours, Austin McCoy.”

  Austin wanted nothing more.

  Coming to her, he pulled her against him, molding his body to hers. He couldn’t seem to get enough air in his lungs. Everywhere they touched burned with the sweetest fire. Clasping her head, he melded their lips together, eating at her mouth, twining their tongues, wanting to absorb her into his being so they’d never be apart. After a few minutes of kissing, he pulled back a fraction and chuckled. “I don’t know what to do first.” His hand came up to stroke her breast. “Let me see.”

 

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