They never talked about it again after that, but he suspected Mason had enjoyed it as much as he did, at the time.
He’d loved Laura so much, but she’d have tempted the angels themselves. Being young, he’d wanted her. And with only three weeks before their wedding, neither of them saw a reason not to give in.
And then she was dead just weeks later.
Deep down, he suspected Dorchester Junior, who’d made statements about wanting to court her despite her rejecting him once already, had a hand in it. The way the sickness had suddenly come on her, Joe had suspected poisoning, even though the doctors thought perhaps it was caused by a ruptured appendix brought on from a fall from her horse the day before.
The doctor insisted she was delirious when she tightly clutched Joe’s hands as he sat with her. How she begged him not to trust the Dorchesters.
The way Junior seemed to sneer at him at the funeral before disappearing.
The Dorchesters hadn’t dared cross his path since.
He’d never told Mason or anyone else his suspicions after the doctor warned him. “They’re powerful. They’re evil. And I don’t want to be burying any more people if they did have a hand in this.” The doctor shook his head. “I’m willing to bet this was natural, just unfortunate timing, son. Don’t let fantasies eat you alive. And don’t plan revenge.”
Joe hadn’t planned revenge, but if the opportunity darkened his door, he wouldn’t refuse it. No one could convince him the Dorchesters were innocent. Especially not Junior.
Chapter Eight
The repetitive, melancholy sound of a whip-poor-will awoke Katie just after false dawn the next morning. Confused, she didn’t recognize the room until she realized the warm body comfortingly pressed along her back was Joe.
Closing her eyes again, she felt like laughing and crying at the same time. They’d made love yet again sometime in the dead of night, when she awoke with her face pleasantly snuggled against his bare chest. Then he’d shifted position slightly, rolling toward her, placing his lips within kissing distance and…
She sighed.
“Good morning.” His deep, sleep-thick voice rumbled through her.
Afraid to respond and break this wonderful dream, she cuddled tighter against him. Maybe if she pretended this wasn’t real, there would be no hurt, no scandal.
No heartbreak.
His arm circled her waist as his lips brushed the nape of her neck. “You okay, Katie?” he softly asked.
“Yeah,” she finally admitted. “I’m all right.”
“Please don’t regret what we did. I love you.”
She squeezed his arm. “I love you, too.” Working up the nerve, she rolled to face him. “How do we tell Mason about this? I can’t break his heart.” She swallowed hard as she stared into his eyes. “I love you, but I love him, too. I can’t lie to you, and I won’t lie to him, either.”
He stroked her cheek. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded.
“Then let me handle this. Please?”
“You can’t run him off.”
He sat up. “That’s the last thing I have planned, believe me.” He clasped her hand to his chest. “You love us both enough to be with us?”
She nodded, afraid to say it out loud. Dreams spoken aloud rarely came true.
He brushed his lips across her knuckles, sweetly, yet lighting fires inside her. “Then trust me to handle this,” he repeated. “Please.”
She worried it wouldn’t be that easy, but she nodded. After all, he knew his cousin a fair sight better than she did.
She wondered how Mason had spent his night, and if he was safe.
Worry filled her heart. What if something happened to him while he rode with the posse? What if she never got a chance to tell him how she felt?
What if something horrible happened and she had to live with this burden of guilt for the rest of her life?
Joe leaned in and kissed her. “Let’s get up and I’ll help you with breakfast,” he said. “Then I’ll take you into town.” His face hardened, and he squeezed her hand, just a little, firmly but not painfully. “And today, when I tell you to stay put until I come for you, you mind me. All right?”
That made her smile. “All right. I promise.”
A smile lit his face. “That’s my good girl.” He helped her out of bed.
She returned to her room to wash up and dress. The sight of Paul’s picture filled her with sadness. No, he was gone even though her love for him would never wane. It didn’t make it any easier to look at his visage and feel heat rise in her again at the memory of Joe’s hands and mouth on her.
She carefully wound the clock. “I’m so sorry, Paul,” she whispered. “I hope you’re not ashamed of me, but they’re good men, and I’m so damned lonely without you. And you did tell me you wanted me to be happy.”
As the sun peeked over the woods beyond the eastern pastures, she stepped outside and checked the clothes she’d hung the evening before. They’d mostly dried, still a tad damp in the seams from the evening air, but they wouldn’t sour if she brought them in.
They ate breakfast in a comfortable silence, frequently pausing to look at and smile at each other. When he finished, before he stood he took her hand in his and brushed his lips over her knuckles, clasping it between his warm, strong palms.
“Please, Katie, believe me when I tell you this will be okay.”
She nodded.
“You think you can handle two men chasing after you all the time? Because you realize once I talk with Mason, we’re both going to be after you.” His lips quirked in a delicious smile that made her pussy ache in a pleasant way and started another trickle of moisture between her thighs.
Heat rose in her face. “After more than a year alone, believe me, it would be nice not to spend my nights alone anymore.”
He drove her to town and left the buggy at the livery before riding his horse to the sawmill. She tried to keep herself busy, to not think about either man, but whenever her eyes fell upon the chair she and Mason had shared during the rainstorm, worry crept in.
What if Mason didn’t want to share her? What if she caused a rift between the men?
What if Mason hated her? Thought her a whore for so easily settling for this solution?
She couldn’t let herself think that, so she threw herself into busy work, dusting and rearranging and organizing her shop. That’s why she didn’t look up at first a little before lunch time when the bell jangled on the front door. She was standing on the top step of a ladder and struggling to reach and dust the far corner of an out-of-the-way shelf. “I’ll be right with you.”
“You should be careful there, Katherine. You wouldn’t want to fall and have an accident.”
She dropped the feather duster with a terrified squeak and grabbed hold of the ladder as it swayed under her. Her former brother-in-law, Edward Dorchester, Jr. stood just feet away from the ladder.
Anger and fear coursed through her, and she immediately scrambled down to safety, retreating toward the doorway leading to the back room. Just inside, the shotgun lay propped against the wall where she could reach it. “Get out of my store!”
“Aw, I haven’t seen you in a while and you treat me like that? Father sent me to try to talk some reason into you.” She hated the pleasant tone of voice he used, fake sweetness she knew hid a rotten, evil core. “I wish you’d let me court you. I can understand how—”
“Get out!”