The Kissing Stars Read online

  He’d brought the bottle back to his mouth for a full tumble into idiot when the door to his room burst open. He dropped the bottle and the whiskey spilled, soaking both his britches and the bed Gabe barely noticed. He was too busy being shocked sober. “Tess? What the hell are you doing here?”

  She drew herself up, arrowed a glare his way, and stepped inside, slamming the door behind her. Uh oh, Gabe thought. His wife was wearing her warrior goddess persona again.

  “Get up and get dressed, Gabe Cameron or Montana or just plain Idiot.”

  Ooh, had he crossed that line after all?

  She continued, her voice razor sharp, “You are leaving this place here and now. I won’t put up with this, Gabe. You won’t shame me this way. You and I are married for better or worse, and I won’t have you using some two dollar pleasure bunny just because I am trying to do the right thing.”

  Two dollar pleasure bunny? “I ordinarily spend more than that, darlin’.”

  Her glare was hot enough to set the alcohol afire, and Gabe thought he’d better get moving before he got burned to bits. “All right, I’m getting up. Fair warning, though. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m naked.”

  “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  He considered that. “No, that’s not totally true, Tess. You’re bosom isn’t the only thing that grew in the past twelve years.”

  Damned if it didn’t work. Her gaze dipped to his crotch, then shot back up again. “Give me half a minute and I’ll be even bigger, sweetheart,” he said with a wicked grin, watching the pretty blush spread across her face.

  “Just put your pants on. We’re leaving.”

  “Where we going?”

  “The hotel. I took a room so we can have some privacy to talk. After that, you can either come home with me, or hop a train. But we’re not leaving matters in limbo any longer. I can’t go on this way. We must choose one or the other. Marriage or divorce.”

  If Gabe hadn’t already sobered up, that would have done it.

  Hell. The woman is bound and determined to spill her damned guts. Glumly, with a headache beginning to pound at his brain, he dressed. The sense of impending doom that settled on his shoulders had him grabbing up the bottle of whiskey as he followed her from the room.

  Sally met them in the hallway. “Winnie told me you were here, Tess. I guess you didn’t come for more chocolates, hmm?” Then she laughed and said, “Now I understand why what happened happened. Just so you know, he turned down every one of my girls. Your man was faithful to you, missy. You have yourself a good one, there. I’d hold on to him if I were you.”

  Tess eyed him sharply, and he sent her that sheepish, boyish grin that he saved for getting out of trouble with women. She reacted to his smile and Sally’s information with a lifting of her chin and a smile of feminine confidence. “I’ll give the matter some thought.”

  Damn right she will.

  They didn’t speak as they made their way to Eagle Gulch’s lone hotel. Gabe collected the room key from the front desk and ordered a bath.

  “But Gabe,” she protested. “I want to talk.”

  “Well, right now I’m going to clean up. Surely you can wait another half hour to say your piece, can’t you?”

  She obviously didn’t like it, but he didn’t care. A man didn’t fight the battle for his heart when he smelled like a still.

  “Get some supper, Tess. I’ll be back down as soon as I wash the stink off.”

  She lasted twenty minutes before invading the room. By then Gabe had bathed, shed his headache, donned and halfway buttoned his pants, and started shaving. He watched her in the mirror and took her obvious distraction by his bare chest as a positive sign.

  “Gabe, I need to tell you what happened when Billy died.”

  He nicked himself and grimaced “Don’t you believe in easing into anything?”

  “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing for these past few weeks?”

  “Well at least wait till I finish shaving,” he grumbled. “I’d just as soon not have a straight razor near my neck while we chat about how I killed your brother.”

  “Oh, Gabe.” She sank down onto the bed as the air drained from her sails. “That’s the one topic we have covered. Let’s not go into it again. You and I both know you didn’t kill Billy.”

  Gabe shrugged, then finished shaving. When he’d rinsed his face, he reached for a towel and turned around. His wife was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, her jade green riding skirt spread around her like leaves framing a flower.

  It was all Gabe could do not to lay her back then and there.

  He wiped the moisture from his face, then tossed the towel away. Padding on bare feet across the room, he sat on the end of the bed and said, “Quit plucking at the loose threads. You’ll unravel the bedspread.”

  “Since I feel like my life is unraveling, I guess it’s only appropriate.”

  Her sadness was painful to watch. “Tess, listen. I owe you an apology for last night. Not for wanting to make love to you—I’ll never apologize for that— but for how I reacted when you refused me. It wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry for it.”

  Her spine straightened and she looked him in the eye. “You shouldn’t have tried to blackmail me into your bed, Gabe. Such behavior is beneath you.”

  “Yeah. But what I want is you beneath me, Tess. I wanted it so badly that I lost my good sense.”

  “Oh, Gabe.”

  Silence fell like a mist between them. He could tell she was working up to her revelations. He wasn’t inclined to help her at all with that task. Instead, he quietly studied her, watched the lamplight dance across the streaks of fire in her old gold hair, wondered at the thickness, length, and curl of the lashes framing the bluest pair of eyes in Texas. He was, as always, struck by her beauty. “I always knew you’d grow up pretty, but you outshine my expectations. You are breathtaking.”

  “Don’t try to distract me, Gabe.”

  “How about I seduce you instead?” He reached out and pushed a stray curl behind her ear. “Do you know that you are the only woman I’ve ever truly wanted? I’ve dreamed about you for twelve long years. It’s killing me for us to be apart.”

  She shut her eyes and visibly shuddered. “Don’t. Please.”

  “Did you ever dream of me, Tess?”

  “Always.”

  “Then let’s forget about everything else and live our dreams, even if it’s just for a little while. What would it hurt?”

  He felt himself drowning in her eyes as she looked at him and said, “I tried to tell you this the other night. I don’t want it to be a mistake.”

  Tenderness washed through him. “Aw, darlin’.” He stroked a thumb down her cheek. “You and me will never be a mistake. Not when we were little more than kids and not now.”

  “But first I should tell you—”

  Now he lay his thumb against her lips. “I don’t want to know, Tess. Not tonight. Right now, all I want to hear is that little kittenish sound you make when you climax. I want to play like we did on the way back from town the other day, only take it all the way this time. I want you naked and hot and hungry, Tess. Like you used to be for me. Like we used to be together.”

  “But it hurt so bad when you left me before. It destroyed me, Gabe. I couldn’t live through that again.”

  “You’re the strongest woman I know. But who’s to say it will come to that? We might make it this time.”

  “But we might not.”

  “Such a pessimist.” He clicked his tongue. “Tell me, sweet, was the pain so bad that it wasn’t worth the memories? It wasn’t for me. The pain of losing you was dreadful, true, but the joy of loving you…well, it’s kept me warm for a full dozen years.” Wetness pooled in her eyes; a single drop overflowed. He leaned down and kissed the tear away. “I used to pull my memories of you out one by one and savor them like a peppermint stick. Let’s make a new memory tonight, Tess. Let’s give ourselves that gift. Let’s give ourselves ton
ight.”

  She swallowed hard. He could all but see her walls tumbling. “You are doing it, Gabe.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Seducing me.”

  “I hope so,” he said with a soft smile. “Heaven knows you’ve been seducing me for weeks now. Please, Tess.” He pulled her into his arms. Dipping his head he trailed sweet kisses from the corner of her mouth across her cheek until he could whisper in her ear. “Let me make love to you.”

  She shuddered “I can’t fight you anymore.”

  “I don’t want to fight, darlin’. I want to love.”

  “God help me, but so do I, Gabe. So do I.”

  He wanted to shout for joy. Instead he laid her down upon the mattress like a pirate’s prize and paused just long enough to savor the moment. A dozen different sensations rolled through him in that instant. Anticipation. Elation and awe. Tenderness and reverence.

  Gut-wrenching, fever-hot, wild-and-pulsing hunger.

  “Remember what it was like, V-for-Venus?” he murmured, following her down, determined to take it slow despite the insistent demands of his body. He wanted it to last. He wanted it to be perfect. “Remember how we kissed?”

  Sprawled across her, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, soft and gentle. Testing. “Remember this?”

  He spent a moment savoring, moving his lips over hers, brushing, rubbing, seducing. Then with his tongue he traced the outline of her mouth, coaxing it to open as her arms finally lifted and wrapped around him. He growled in satisfaction and deepened the kiss, his tongue delving into the slick wet of her mouth. He drew a breath, caught hers, and tasted elderberry wine and Tess. The flavor took him home to the Big Thicket, home to happy times. Home to his wife.

  Then her tongue began to dance with his and Gabe abandoned all thought of the past in favor of the present. Arousal twisted through him, hard and hot, and he wanted—no, he needed—to touch and feel naked skin against naked skin.

  He ended the kiss and rolled back on his knees above her. His fingers moved to the buttons on her bodice and one by one he worked them, pausing to kiss each inch of skin he bared. With determination and skill he hoped escaped her notice, he soon stripped away her riding skirt, unhooked her corset, and unbuttoned her camisole leaving her bared to his gaze.

  Gabe drank in the sight of her. She was exquisite, even more than he remembered. Lush breasts beckoned him, their coral peaks hard. “Beautiful. God, Tess, you take my breath away.”

  She allowed him no more time to savor the view. “Don’t,” she murmured, before pulling him down to her and demanding his kiss. Gabe obliged, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, taking it, a carnal prophecy of the mating to come. Tess tugged at his pants, wordlessly demanding them gone. Swiftly, he granted her wish, and when they lay together, flesh to flesh, he sighed with pleasure. “I remember this,” he murmured, smiling against her neck. He nipped her just below the ear where he knew she liked it. She groaned and trailed a teasing fingertip down his spine, just how she knew he liked it.

  He rolled onto his back, pulling her atop him. His hands slicked up and down her back and over her buttocks. He cupped her, kneaded her, squeezed her. He pressed her against his arousal.

  “Oh, Gabe,” she gasped.

  He wanted her breast so he lifted her forward and took it. He fastened his mouth around the turgid nipple and sucked hard over and over and over. She whimpered with need, arching up to him, rolling her hips. Her fingers wove into his hair, and she held him to her. He scented her passion, recognized her desire. While treating her other breast to the same delicious pleasure, he slipped a hand in between their bodies and found her wet and ready.

  But Gabe wanted her fevered, so he replaced his hand with his mouth. Though she gasped a protest, her legs parted, revealing herself to the onslaught of his tongue.

  While he attended his thirst with the taste of her sweet honey, she sobbed his name again and again, a chant of driving need. She pounded his shoulders. “Damn you, Gabe. Not by myself. Not this time. You come with me.” And she wrenched her hips away.

  Even as he groaned a protest, she reached for him. Her lips pressed fervent kisses across his chest and her small hand wrapped around his pulsing shaft.

  Gabe shuddered. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving. Her gentle touch was pure torture, and he gritted his teeth as he strained for control. Her fingers teased and played; her lips kissed and licked. Sweat beaded on Gabe’s brow, and his muscles quivered from the effort of resisting the urge to give up, to give in. He both wanted to end it now and have it go on forever. “God, Tess, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so damned much.”

  She lifted her head and their gazes met. What he saw in the depths of her deep-ocean eyes stole his breath.

  “Then show me, Gabe,” she said, her voice sweet and needy. “Show me.”

  His control hanging by a thread, he slipped into her, easing forward inch by delicious inch, until he was buried up to the hilt, their bodies fully joined, their souls united.

  He kissed her with all the love in his heart, gently, hotly, purposefully. “You are my heart, Tess. You have always been my heart.”

  She lifted her hips, urging him, and so they moved together in the age-old rhythm, their lovemaking at the same time both old and new. She closed her eyes with his name on her lips. Gabe watched her. Her face, her breasts, the point where their bodies converged. This woman. His wife. His love. His need grew more urgent; his thrusts drove deeper. He felt his control start to give.

  Then without warning, she came apart in his arms. She cried his name out wildly and strained against him. Deep within her body, her muscles milked him. And Gabe could hold out no longer.

  He threw his head back and erupted, shooting his seed in short bursts of pleasure. Losing himself in the hot surge of satisfaction.

  Then exhausted, he collapsed. Just like the old days, she pushed against his chest. “Lift up, I can’t breathe.”

  And, just like the old days, without opening his eyes, Gabe rolled onto his back and smiled. “I’m numb from the waist down. Thank you, wife.”

  Then, just like the old days, he started to snore.

  SNUGGLED AGAINST him, Tess smiled smugly. She hadn’t felt this good for twelve years. Physically, anyway. Mentally was another matter altogether.

  But she wouldn’t think about that now. She’d take this moment like Gabe said. As a gift. A little holiday from the realities of life. For as long as this interlude lasted, she wouldn’t mention Doc or Will or Rachel.

  It’s my time, she thought. Mine and Gabe’s. I’ll be selfish about it.

  And she wouldn’t feel guilty about it, either. After all, he’d given her permission.

  She sighed and snuggled a little closer. Gabe gave a satisfied groan.

  “Still take your three minute naps, I see,” she said, drawing circles with her finger in the whirls of dark hair dusting his chest.

  “I’m older now. Think it’s stretched closer to five.”

  “I used to hate when you did that. It made me feel like you lost interest in me. You never started falling asleep until after we were married.”

  He snorted. “Tess, that’s because we made love in haystacks, not a bed.” He shook his head and frowned. “Remember how itchy that was? Never could get comfortable.”

  She laughed. Then, reminded how their pillow talk often took wild and curious courses, she indulged herself by asking, “Where is the most uncomfortable place you’ve ever slept? Alone, mind you.”

  “That’s easy. I was on a stage from Montana to Idaho. Sat next to a woman with digestive problems and an aversion to baths. That was the longest month I ever spent.”

  “A month to go from Montana to Idaho?”

  “Well, this trip was three days. It just felt like a month. So how about you? What’s the worst place you ever slept in?”

  The smile faded from Tess’s face. The worst place was their bed once he’d left her. “The most uncomfortable place was the telescope
tower at Birr Castle.”

  “Birr Castle?” He lifted his head from his pillow. “You went to Ireland? You saw the ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’?”

  She nodded. “The biggest telescope in the world. I wish you could see it, Gabe.” She described the huge, seventy-two-inch telescope and told him of her studies. “Actually seeing the pinwheel swirl of a nebula with my own eyes was such a thrill.” She also mentioned the constant wet chill of a winter spent in an Irish castle. “That’s what convinced me to come back to Texas,” she added “I couldn’t wait to be dry and hot again.”

  “Living out here I expect you got your wish.”

  “Yes, I warmed up quite nicely, thank you.” Then, before he could voice the suggestive comment she saw forming on his lips, she asked, “How about you, Gabe? You’ve mentioned Montana and Idaho. How did you end up back in Texas and working as a railroad investigator?”

  “It’s a long story and not all that interesting. My partner and I hooked up in Nevada—Mack Hunter, the fella you sort of met here in the jail. Anyway, he had a friend who had money and was fixin’ to buy into the Brazos Valley Rail Company. He wanted men he could trust when problems arose so Mack and I signed on to help.”

  Though she knew she should hold them back, the questions slid from Tess’s tongue anyway. “You like the work? Is it something you’ll want to keep doing?”

  His chest rose as he drew in a deep breath She leaned over and kissed it. He said, “Actually, I’ve had another job offer.”

  He explained about the letter he’d received from the governor. Tess was torn. She felt proud for Gabe, but concerned for herself. He intended to leave Aurora Springs by the new year. So where did she fit into his plans?

  He must have seen the doubt upon her face because he rolled over on top of her and said, “Don’t.” His gaze delved deeply into hers. “Let’s save tomorrow for tomorrow, all right? For now, for tonight, I want to focus all my energy on making love to my wife.”

  Her breath caught as he eased her legs apart and slipped into her again. He was hard. Hot and pulsing, like the Kissing Stars, she thought. He moved within her, stroking that fierce, fiery need back to life. This was the gift, what she needed now, tonight. Gabe’s love. She had it tonight. Tomorrow was a long time away.