Page 15 of For the Roses (Claybornes' Brides (Rose Hill) 1)

  “I wondered if you heard Cole,” she stammered out. “He came inside to check on you.”

  “Thank you for worrying about me.”

  She looked startled again. “Why do you think I’m worrying about you?”

  “The liniment,” he replied.

  She relaxed. She turned toward him. “Harrison?”

  “Yes?”

  “I was telling Cole I’m going to make a very special supper Sunday. I’m cooking everything myself. You’ll be sure and be here, won’t you? I’m going to an awful lot of trouble. I might even invite Dooley, Henry, Billie, and Ghost.”

  He was trying hard not to laugh. “That sounds nice.”

  She smiled. “Would you like to meet my friend one day? I think she’ll like you.”

  “Crazy Corrie?” He was immediately intrigued.

  “Please don’t call her crazy,” Mary Rose asked. “She isn’t, you know. She’s shy, and cautious. Wouldn’t you be if you’d been attacked by Indians?”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Did she talk to you?”

  “No, but she’s getting ready to,” she answered. “I could tell.”

  “If she didn’t talk to you, how could you tell she was going to? Did she smile at you or ...”

  “Oh, I didn’t see her. She wouldn’t let me.”

  “Then how could you possibly know she’s not crazy?”

  “She didn’t shoot me.”

  He closed his eyes and counted to ten before he started questioning her again.

  “Tell me exactly what happened. Did you knock on the door? Did you go inside?”

  “I never got near the door. I didn’t even get as far as the porch. She really is very shy, Harrison.”

  “How close to the cabin did you get?”

  “I made it as far as the clearing in front,” she answered. “She shot the ground in front of my feet. She deliberately missed me. She was letting me know she didn’t want me to come any closer.”

  “Then what did you do?”

  “I told her who I was and that I had only just found out about her. I also mentioned how difficult it had been finding the cabin. It’s hidden, you know. Anyway, then I visited with her. I told her about my family. I had to shout every word, of course, so she could hear me, and when I knew my voice was going to give out, I told her about the basket I had for her. There were jars of jellies and baked bread, and cookies too. I asked her if I could please leave it for her. I made certain she didn’t misunderstand my motives. I wasn’t offering charity, just friendship. Every woman has a little bit of pride. I didn’t want to offend her. I believe she understood. She let me walk a few feet closer. I didn’t try for more. I left the basket and told her I’d come back tomorrow with another basket full of welcoming gifts. I also asked her to please leave the empty basket in the clearing so I could take it back home.”

  “Do you plan to go there every day?”

  “No, I couldn’t do that. There wouldn’t be enough time for anything else, and I have so much to do around here. Once Corrie starts talking to me, and we’ve gotten to know one another, then I’ll probably go just once a week for a nice long visit. I believe we’ll become good friends. You haven’t told me yes or no yet.”

  “About having dinner on Sunday?”

  She nodded. “If you’re going to go to the trouble to cook a special meal of course I’ll be here.” He paused. “Adam was angry you left without telling anyone where you were going, wasn’t he?”

  “He wasn’t angry. He was disappointed.” She let out a sigh. “That’s far worse. If he yelled at me, I wouldn’t have felt as guilty.”

  “Are you going to tell him about your plans for tomorrow?”

  “We already discussed it. I have his approval. Understand, Harrison. He doesn’t want me to ask his permission to do anything. He realizes I’m capable of making my own decisions. He just wants me to be cautious. I promised never to go there alone. You’re going to catch a cold,” she added. “You should put a shirt on. Good night.”

  She turned to leave. He wanted her to stay a little longer. He grabbed hold of her arm and said, “Wait.”

  She turned back to him. “Yes?”

  “I’ve never met anyone like you.”

  God, he couldn’t believe he’d said that. He felt like a simpleton. “You’re very kind,” he said.

  Mary Rose remembered all the terrible things she’d said to Cole about Catherine Morrison just a few minutes before and couldn’t in good conscience go along with Harrison’s misconception.

  “No, I’m not kind,” she admitted. “I try to be, but sometimes I turn into a shrew. I can even be cruel.”

  Harrison didn’t let go of her arm. He started to pull her closer to him. He knew he had lost his mind, because for the first time in his life he couldn’t and wouldn’t let good sense prevail. He had already decided not to get personally involved with Mary Rose.

  He was still going to kiss her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Bringing you close to me.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to kiss you.”

  She was astonished. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.”

  He’d drawled out the word, made it sound incredibly seductive. She almost sighed out loud, but stopped herself in time.

  “Do you want me to kiss you?”

  “That isn’t the issue.” She paused. “I don’t understand,” she admitted then. “You have barely spoken to me all week, or even looked my way . . . and now you want to kiss me? Harrison, I don’t believe you’re being very logical.”

  She sounded stunned by her own conclusion. He laughed. “I’m not being logical.”

  “Why do you think you want to kiss me?”

  She’d turned the tables on him. Now she was being the analytical one.

  “I believe in fair play.”

  She still didn’t understand. He pulled her up tight against his chest, lowered his head, and kissed her forehead. Then he took hold of her hands and put them around his neck.

  She didn’t resist. She still looked thoroughly puzzled, but not at all uneasy. He hadn’t put his arms around her yet, and wouldn’t if she gave him any indication of fear or refusal.

  “You kissed me,” he explained. “Several times I recall. Now it’s my turn, and that, Mary Rose, is what I call fair play.”

  “Oh, God, you weren’t sleeping, were you?”

  She sounded mortified. She turned her gaze to his chest. Harrison nudged her chin back up with his hand. He kissed the side of her cheek, just the way she’d kissed him, then kissed her on the bridge of her nose.

  She got over her embarrassment almost immediately. “You must have enjoyed it,” she whispered.

  “No, I didn’t,” he told her.

  “You didn’t? Why not?”

  “You were driving me crazy. You kiss like a girl.”

  Her fingers began to toy with his hair. She was surprised by how silky it felt. She let out a little sigh and moved closer to him. She loved the feel of his skin against her. The heat, and strength, radiating from his body warmed her.

  “Show me how you would like to be kissed, Harrison.”

  He finally put his arms around her. Then he told her to open her mouth.

  She tried to ask him why, but then his mouth settled on top of hers and she forgot all about asking him anything. A shiver passed down her spine and she instinctively tightened her hold on him.

  It was the most amazingly wondrous kiss she’d ever experienced. His mouth was almost hot against hers, demanding and yet gentle, and then his tongue moved inside her mouth to rub against hers. The passionate way he kissed her made her weak with pleasure. She clung to him, squeezing herself tight against his chest. She felt embraced everywhere. Her softness was surrounded by his arms and his thighs. She felt him shudder, knew then he was just as affected by the kiss as she was, and suddenly realized she was every bit as powerful as he and just as much in control of what would or wouldn’t happen.

>

  His mouth slanted over hers hungrily, with blatant ownership, but all of her inhibitions were gone now, and she kissed him just as eagerly.

  He ended the kiss much before she wanted him to, but she refused to move away from him even when his hands dropped down to his sides. She rested the side of her face against his chest. She heard the thundering of his heartbeat. Or was it hers hammering inside her head?

  He was breathing as raggedly as she was. “I didn’t want to stop.”

  Her whispered confession sounded bewildered. Harrison took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of control. He was still reeling with his own bewilderment and astonishment, for in truth, he’d never felt such instantaneous hot passion with any other woman.

  “Did you want to stop?” she asked.

  She sounded breathless. He was pleased to know she’d been just as affected as he was.

  “No, I didn’t,” he admitted. “And that’s exactly why I did. Let go of me, Mary Rose. It’s time for you to go home.”

  She didn’t want to leave, but she guessed she would have to. It wouldn’t have been polite or ladylike to try to nag him into kissing her senseless again. She slowly turned around and walked to the doorway.

  She looked back at him when she reached the step. She wanted to tell him good night. The words got trapped in her throat, however, and she simply stood there staring at him. He looked so amazingly perfect. He stood in the glow of the oil lamp, and in the light, his skin took on a golden tone. He leaned against the bedpost, and when he shifted his position, she could see the muscles ripple under his skin. Douglas had told her Harrison had the strength of three men, yet she knew he would never use his physical power against her.

  “I feel safe when I’m with you.”

  She was surprised she’d said the words out loud. Harrison smiled. “You should feel safe with me. I would never hurt you, Mary Rose.”

  “Did I kiss like a girl again?”

  He shook his head. “No, you kissed like a woman. What happened tonight can’t happen again. I never should have started something I can’t finish.”

  He threaded his fingers through his hair, his frustration apparent with the action. “We can’t become involved.”

  “We’re already involved.”

  “No, we aren’t,” he said, his tone hard, unbending.

  She didn’t understand what had come over him. She nodded, then turned and walked away. She tried to reason it through while she got ready for bed. After an hour of trying to sort it all out, she finally gave up. She knew Harrison was attracted to her, for the way he’d kissed her told her so. She wasn’t the patient sort, but she decided she would have to try to be patient until she figured out what his problem was. There had to be a good reason why he didn’t want to pursue a relationship with her. The man had a reason for everything he did. She guessed she would have to wait until he told her what it was.

  And then she would find a way around whatever obstacle was holding him back.

  She put on her slippers and her robe and went downstairs to the library. Adam was inside, rereading one of his favorite books.

  Her brother was sitting in a worn, brown leather easy chair. A fire crackled in the hearth, warming the room.

  “Adam, may I interrupt you?”

  Her brother looked up and smiled. “Of course,” he agreed. He closed the book he’d been reading and put it on the table next to his chair.

  There was another identical brown leather chair flanking the other side of the fireplace, but she walked past it and sat down on the footrest next to Adam’s feet.

  “I wanted to talk to you about Harrison.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” she assured him. “Nothing is wrong. I like him . . . very much. I think he likes me too. He seems to, anyway.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  She looked down at her lap. “I asked him to kiss me last week. He finally got around to agreeing tonight.”

  She looked up at her brother to see how he was taking her confession. Adam didn’t show any reaction. He took his spectacles off, carefully folded them, and put them on top of the book.

  “He kissed you.”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “And then what happened?”

  “He told me he wasn’t ever going to kiss me again.”

  “I see.” A slow smile eased his expression. “Did he tell you why?”

  “Yes, he did,” she answered. “But his explanation didn’t make any sense at all. I know he enjoyed kissing me. He looked like he did, and he felt like he did, but he only kissed me once, and now that I’ve had time to think about it, maybe he didn’t like it as much as I did.”

  “You said you liked kissing him. I think we need to talk about that.”

  “I did like kissing him, very much. I like him, Adam. He told me we couldn’t become involved, but he wouldn’t give me any reason why we couldn’t. Maybe he’s trying to protect me from heartache,” she continued. “Perhaps he knows he’s going back to Scotland, and he doesn’t want to begin a relationship only to leave. He might also be like Cole.”

  “How exactly is your brother?”

  “Cole doesn’t want to be trapped by any woman. He’s always telling me he’ll never get married. Do you think Harrison feels the same way?”

  “I don’t know him well enough to answer your question, but I do know Cole. He’s all talk, sister. He just needs time to meet the right woman. Then his attitude will change.”

  “Why do men think of marriage as a trap? Women aren’t taking away their freedom, for heaven’s sake.”

  “In some ways they are,” Adam replied. “Once married, always married. If a man has made the wrong choice, he’s trapped, isn’t he?”

  “I suppose, but the woman is also trapped.”

  Adam’s mind began to wander. He was thinking about Harrison now. He realized he needed to find out more about their guest. If Mary Rose was becoming involved, it was Adam’s duty to make certain Harrison didn’t hurt her.

  “Adam?”

  “Yes?”

  “What were you thinking about just now?”

  “Harrison,” he answered. “I realized we don’t know all that much about him. I believe you should give yourself some time to get to know him better before you ask him to kiss you again.”

  She agreed with a nod. “I’ll try.”

  “Cole told me I needed to have a talk with you about men and women and . . .”

  “Intimacy.” She supplied the last word before he could.

  “Yes, intimacy.”

  “We already had our talk years ago.”

  “I remember, and I thought you remembered too, but your brother said you asked him to tell you all about the facts of life again. He doesn’t think you understood. Didn’t you?”

  “Yes, you made it all perfectly clear.”

  “I thought I had. You certainly asked a lot of questions.”

  “And you patiently answered every one of them. You’re the only brother who made any sense. Travis started out giving me all sorts of parallels about trees and bees, and then he jumped into a couple of parables from the Bible. When he recited the one about the loaves of bread multiplying, I was completely lost. He told me I was like a loaf of bread and that one day I would also multiply. I asked him how. He threw up his hands and sent me to Douglas.”

  “And what did Douglas tell you?” Adam had heard all of this before, but he enjoyed the retelling just as much.

  “He told me to use my head. He was extremely gruff. The topic made him terribly uncomfortable. He wouldn’t even look at me. He reminded me that I lived on a ranch, kept adding, ‘for God’s sake,’ and suggested I look around me. Then I’d be able to figure it all out. I told him I had been looking around for all of my eleven years and I still hadn’t figured anything out. In desperation, he pointed to the horses and told me that when I was all grown up, I’d be just like a filly and a man would come to me just like a stallion.”

>

  Adam laughed until tears came into his eyes. “Now tell me again how you reacted to his comparison.”

  “I was highly insulted, of course, and disgusted. That’s when he sent me to you.”

  He dabbed at the corners of his eyes with the backs of his hands and finally calmed down. “If you remembered our talk, why did you ask Cole to explain?”

  “I couldn’t stop myself,” she admitted. “His reaction is so amusing. He blushes, Adam, really blushes. He gets all flustered too, and that’s very unusual for him. I’ll probably ask him again and again, until he finally catches on.”

  Adam laughed again. “Go right ahead. I’m dying to know what comparison he’ll eventually come up with. It’s bound to be a dandy.”

  He let out a sigh, then turned to a more serious issue. “And now I think we had better talk about how you felt when you were kissing Harrison.”

  And so they did. Mary Rose didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable or embarrassed because she was with Adam. He always put her at ease. There wasn’t any subject she couldn’t discuss with him. She could say whatever was on her mind and not worry he would be appalled or disappointed. The bond between brother and sister was as strong as iron, and her trust in his judgment was absolute.

  He was concerned she might have been frightened by her physical reaction to Harrison. Passion was sometimes misinterpreted, and often, what one didn’t understand, one feared. He didn’t want his little sister to be afraid of anything or anyone. She should embrace life, not hide from it, the way he’d had to all these many years.

  “A man can want to bed a woman without loving her. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, I understand. A woman can behave in the same manner, can’t she?”

  “Yes, she can.”

  “You want me to realize that wanting and loving don’t always go hand in hand.”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t worry about me. You’re worried because I’m innocent, but remember, being innocent doesn’t mean I’ll be foolish.”

  “Exactly right.”

  They talked for a few more minutes, until she became too sleepy to stay up any longer. She kissed her brother good night.

  “I wish Mama were here. I miss her.”