Jessie's War (Civil War Steam) (31 page)

Jessie sighed, but even she
could tell Elizabeth had no intention of harming her—not unless she
thought Jessie deserved it, anyway. “Fine. Tell me something only Luke would
know.”

“Well, he was pretty put out
when he found out you weren’t in the house with him,” she offered.

“Anyone could guess that.”

“He said he knew you a long
time ago.”

“That’s not much of a secret
in my hometown. Doesn’t take a spy and a saboteur to figure that out.”

“Oh, is that how we’re
described? Splendid.” Elizabeth grinned, as if she thought the label was a
compliment. “He says you’re married.” At these words, she appraised Jessie with
her eyes. “Married by a shaman, even. My brother will be fascinated.”

“I said as much to the men at
the house. Try again.”

“Oh, all right,” Elizabeth
groaned. “He said you wouldn’t believe any of that. He said to tell you he
heard the voices in the mine too. He said you don’t belong to them yet, so get
your ass in the coach and come home.”

Jessie started to laugh,
hearing Luke in those words.

He was alive. He was well. Nothing
else mattered after that.

Elizabeth smiled. “I do apologize
for my language. But Mr. Bradshaw said I needed to say it in just such a way or
you wouldn’t trust me.”

Jessie laughed until tears
ran down her face and her sides ached, and when Elizabeth led her to the coach,
she climbed in without complaint. They sat together on the plush leather bench,
and Jameson deposited a blanket onto her lap. Elizabeth gave her a little pat
on the leg before she moved over to sit next to her husband, who put his arm
around her shoulders in a way that spoke of intimacy.

“Let’s go home.” He banged on
the coach to let the driver know it was time to get underway.

Though the house she’d grown
up in was nothing more than ash, Jessie couldn’t have agreed more. She was
going home, too.

She was going back to Luke.

“I do apologize for the
misunderstanding.” Elizabeth handed Jessie a cup of tea.

They’d been back for almost
an hour, and Jessie had washed the grime of the slums from her body. Elizabeth
had lent her a black skirt elegant in the cut of the fabric and the simplicity
of the lines, and a white silk blouse. All the items were tailored and well
made, the clothes of a wealthy woman. They fit well, as if they’d been made for
her.

Jessie accepted the tea
Elizabeth offered and sat down heavily in a scarlet and gold brocade chair. “Any
word from Luke?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Sorry.
If I’d known he would run out of here the moment I turned my back, I would have
made sure he stayed put.” She frowned into her cup. “I never should have told
him where you were.”

Carefully placing her cup on
a small, mahogany table etched in gold leaf, she stood, unable to keep from
fidgeting. She paced the floor. “Not your fault. Luke makes his own decisions.”

Elizabeth’s expression was
sympathetic over the lip of her delicate teacup. “I’m sure he’ll come home
soon. Why don’t you have a seat? No need to be nervous.”

Her footfalls loud against
Elizabeth’s gleaming parquet floor, Jessie continued to pace. “I’m not nervous.”

“Sure you are.” Elizabeth
gave Jessie a lopsided smile and patted the space on settee next to her. “You’re
the
girl, aren’t you?”

Her words drove into Jessie
like bullets. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Elizabeth gave her a
suggestive smile. “Yes you do. You’re his girl. The one back home.”

Jessie sat down in the chair
across from her, her back ramrod straight. “I guess that depends on where
home
is for him these days.” She twisted
her hands in her lap until her knuckles ached.

Amusement lit Elizabeth’s
brown eyes. “Mr. Bradshaw not much of a talker, but when I first met him, he
was the only man on the team Mordecai trusted to be with me, because Mr.
Bradshaw doesn’t have a wandering eye like the others.” She laughed. “Or a
wandering anything else. Though once he told me he had a girl back home, and no
one else mattered after that.”

Jessie didn’t dare hope.

Elizabeth stared out the
picture window at the view of the mountains. “He’s like a brother to me. They
all are, in their own ways, but Bradshaw is special. I’d hate for him to get
hurt. He’s been hurt enough.”

Jessie thought of the wild,
homeless boy she had once loved, and the scarred man who had stolen her heart.

Elizabeth was silent for a
while. “I have to say, we were pretty shocked when he told us he’d gone and
gotten himself a wife.”

She hadn’t really had time to
think about it before, when Elizabeth had mentioned this in the street. But now
it dawned on her that, despite his suggestion no one had to know they were
married, Luke had told his people about her. About the two of
them
.

He’d claimed her as his
wife.

Then she sobered and shook
her head, just once. “He didn’t exactly want to get married. My grandfather
insisted on it.”

“The shaman?”

“Yeah.”

“Mr. Bradshaw never mentioned
a wedding by force to me, but I honestly don’t think of him as someone who’d do
anything he didn’t want to do.”

Unable to abide staying
still, Jessie stood to pace some more. She stared out the picture window at the
snow-covered peaks rising up in the distance. “He didn’t know we were getting
married until it was done.”

It was true enough. Didn’t mean
she didn’t want the husband she’d married.

Jessie turned, and Elizabeth’s
expression was doubtful.

At that moment, the front
door crashed open and a voice roared, “
Where
is she
?”

Luke.

He stormed into the sitting
room. The instant he saw Jessie, he skidded to a halt, his eyes blazing.

For a moment, she stood
frozen and stared at the concern and the joy and the heartbreak in his
expression.

In the space of mere seconds,
she thanked every one of her ancestors and her father’s God he had survived, a
prayer of thanksgiving to whatever deity would listen. She thanked them for
Luke’s life and hers, and for the gift of this moment.

“Jessie.” His voice was
jagged.

“Luke.”

He wrapped her in his arms,
surrounding her with his warmth and his scent, and she held him tight. When she
lifted her head, his expression shifted, and his dark brows knit.

“Oh, Jessie. I’m sorry.” His
lips brushed against her eyelids, and only then did she realize he had kissed
away her tears.

Jessie stroked the back of
his neck and toyed with the hair peeking out from underneath his hat. “Where
have you been?” Her voice broke.

“I was being debriefed, and I
couldn’t leave before today.” He glanced in the direction of Elizabeth only
fleetingly. “It was only a few days, Jess. Why didn’t you stay put? I told you
I had people. You didn’t have to run.”

Jessie’s heart shuddered at
the emotion in his voice. “They told me you didn’t want me.”

“After everything we’ve been
through, you have to know that’s not true.” His voice shook.

“I know,” she whispered. “But
I lost you once before. I couldn’t do it again. I had to find you.”

Luke cupped her head in his
hands. He kissed her mouth, her nose, and laid gentle kisses upon her eyelids.
Brushing his lips against her forehead, he inhaled deeply. “If anything had
happened to you, I—”

Jessie leaned back and put
her fingers against his lips. “Don’t. You’re here now, and that’s all that
matters.”

“Not to me.” He kissed her
fingertips and rested his forehead against hers. The heat of his body
surrounded her as he pulled her closer still, tucking her head under his chin.
His pulse thundered in her ears. “I’ve missed you Jess.”

She looked up. “I missed you,
too.”

He brushed her still-damp
hair back from her forehead and pressed his lips against hers. His kiss turned
her upside down and inside out as she tasted the moist heat of him, like mint
and sage. His fingers tangled in her hair as he kissed her.

The way he touched her
stirred her blood more than anything ever had. It rushed hot in her veins, her
flesh on fire. She shivered from the force pounding beneath her skin, a thing
so heady she could scarcely breathe around it.

He pulled her head back so he
could kiss her more fully, his tongue teasing hers. Breaking the kiss, he
scooped her up in his arms as if she weighed next to nothing.

“Put me down. You’ll hurt
yourself.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

His footfalls echoed as he
carried her down the hall. If other people watched them, Jessie didn’t notice.
If Elizabeth quietly slipped out of the sitting room, Jessie didn’t see that,
either.

She had eyes for no one but
Luke.

He kicked a door open, walked
in, and kicked it shut. Setting her on her feet, he took off his hat and his
jacket. He removed his holster and the knife strapped to his thigh and draped
them over the back of a sturdy, armless chair. His hand gripped the back of the
chair until his knuckles turned white.

“I don’t want to be your
friend, Jess.”

Grief and fear formed a knot
in her throat. “What?”

“I’m not looking for a
friend.” He undid his black braces and set them on the chair with his other
clothes. “You want a friend, turn right around and take up with Lizzie, because
that’s not what
I
want.”

Hands on her hips, she
struggled against the emotion threatening to choke her. “Then what
do
you want?”

He took off his white shirt,
exposing the wide expanse of pale skin and sleek muscle. His newest scar ran
puckered and red across the landscape of his chest, and Jessie fought the urge
to trace it with the tip of her finger. He took her by shoulders, his
expression severe.

“I want my wife.”

Jessie’s pulse went off like
fireworks, her mouth as parched as desert sand, and heat rose to her cheeks.
She stared at his chest, unable to bring her eyes to his face. “All right.”

Luke inhaled sharply, and his
grip on her arms tightened. “I want this to be clear. I can’t pretend to be
your friend. If you stay with me, you stay as my wife. If you can’t handle
that, I promise I’ll make sure you’re safe. But I can’t stay with you.”

His features were tight, his
silvery eyes stormy. “It won’t be an easy life I’ll give you,” he said gruffly.
“I’m a hard man, and I don’t lead a gentle life. But I promise you, everything
I have and everything I am… it’s yours.”

No one had ever looked at her
the way he did. No one ever would.

Tears started flowing and she
didn’t bother to stop them. “What sensible girl could turn down an offer like
that?”

Her pulse pounded in her
ears. She pressed her hand to his chest, and she realized his was doing the
same.

He hesitated. “Is that a yes?

Bright, painful joy sang
through her, and she laughed and cried all at the same time. “Yes. Of course it’s
a yes.”

Luke claimed her mouth with
his, the need in his kiss plain. His hands shook as he caressed her face and
toyed with the buttons of her blouse.

He moved the fabric away to
expose her collarbone. He pressed a kiss there, and her blood simmered to a
boil.

Before she knew it, she stood
in front of him dressed only in her corset and plain undergarments.

His fingers deftly undid her
corset, and she shivered as his hands ran down her arms and stroked her neck.

She ran her hands over his
chest, touching him with desperate hands, and she forgot to breathe.

She discovered breathing didn’t
matter.

Desire pulsed through her
veins like the wail of air raid sirens, as the heart she once thought she’d
lost became something she couldn’t control, and didn’t want to.

Once she was dressed only in
her chemise and drawers, he sat on the bed. “Take it off. I want to look at
you.”

Jessie swallowed against the
dryness of her throat. Slowly, she unfastened the buttons of her chemise, and
allowed the garment to fall to her hips.

Luke’s nostrils flared. “The
rest of it.”

What was left of her clothing
hit the floor.

Luke sat stone still for a
moment, unmoving. He took his time appraising her, running his eyes over her
form, as if memorizing every detail of her body.

In the space of those
heartbeats, Jessie was so overwhelmed, tears stung her eyes. She wanted to
cover herself. She didn’t.

Tearing his eyes away from
her body, he met her gaze. “You’re so beautiful, Jess.” He went down to his
knees in front of her, pressing soft kisses against her belly, running his
tongue along her hipbones.