An Outlaw's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Romance, Western, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373777013
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2012-09-24T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

This wasn’t how she’d envisioned her wedding night, Piper reflected, as she and Sawyer played game after game of checkers, on the surface of her desk—which wasn’t to say she’d ever had a clear idea of what was supposed to happen. Oh, she knew the fundamentals, of course, the strictly anatomical part, but the rest belonged to the realm of speculation—mostly. She had felt some very interesting sensations when Sawyer kissed her the night before, ones that made her want more of the same, but her fear equaled her curiosity, perhaps even exceeded it.

The congress between a man and a woman, she had been taught, mostly by inference and whispers, was mainly a nasty and painful business, something to be tolerated, endured, with the husband’s happiness as a reward and, of course, the possible conception of a baby.

To Piper, the bearing, raising and cherishing of a child of her own—and preferably several—was a sacred calling indeed. Although she loved teaching, she knew the vocation was, at least for her, a prelude to mothering.

As for the husband…well, a good one, like Clay, was a blessing. A bad one, on the other hand, would be a curse. Which kind she’d gotten remained to be seen.

Keeping her gaze focused on her game pieces—she was losing, badly, again—Piper considered Dara Rose, and the way she lit up from the inside whenever Clay was around. She hummed a great deal, Piper had noticed on visits to the ranch, and even sang under her breath while she went about her household tasks. And even though there was never any overt sign of their intentions, Dara Rose didn’t seem to dread being alone with her husband at night, behind a closed bedroom door.

The whole thing was downright confusing, and Piper wished she’d been bold enough to ask Dara Rose what marital relations were really like, in their most elemental form.

Sawyer knit his brow, and while his eyes smiled, his mouth played at a frown. “What’s going on in your mind right about now, Mrs. McKettrick?” he asked.

She didn’t protest the “Mrs. McKettrick” part, even though she thought it contained a trace of benign mockery. “Nothing I want to discuss with you, Mr. McKettrick,” she replied pertly. He’d blocked her few remaining game pieces into a corner of the board, and any move she made would result in sweeping defeat.

“Who, then?” he asked mildly.

“Dara Rose, if you must know,” Piper said, and then wished she hadn’t.

“Ah,” he said, as though that explained a great deal. Resigned, she moved her checker piece and he picked up one of his own and leapfrogged over her little band of huddled checkers, one by one. “Let me hazard a guess,” he went on, at his leisure, watching her with a smile in his eyes. “You’re wondering what to expect when a man and a woman go to bed together, not like we did, but in earnest.”

Piper’s cheeks flamed, and she knew her eyes were flashing, too. She couldn’t bring herself to refute the statement, though she would have liked very much to do just that.

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