“And you'll let me help if I can?”
Daniel smiled. “I'll let you help if you can. But don't expect to live a highwayman's life judging from today. Most of what I do is just paperwork, trying to help people find their footing after being knocked down by the war. Most days here are no more adventurous than back home in Indiana.”
“Does Aunt Rosy know about what you're doing here in Texas?”
“No. And I hadn't planned on you knowing about it. We're just a few men trying to prevent a handful of sour Union officers from being harder than they need to be and a few Rebs from taking the law in their own hands.”
“A small group of men and one woman,” she corrected.
Daniel laughed and moved several inches away. “Shall we seal our bargain with a handshake?”
“No.” Karlee felt like she'd just stepped to the edge of a cliff, and it was time to jump. “With a kiss,” she blurted out, taking the plunge.
He wasn't touching her, but she could sense his body tighten. She'd gone too far, she knew it. But there was no turning back now.
“Karlee,” he finally found his voice. “I can't feel anything… there can never been anything between… I'm dead inside since…”
“I don't care,” she hardened herself against the rejection. Her hands balled in fists. If she were changing her life to one of adventure, she might as well start now. “You don't have to feel anything and neither do I, but I've made it to the ripe old age of spinsterhood without ever having a man kiss me. I'd like you to correct that problem, and I'll never ask again for such a favor.”
Daniel remained stone.
“I know I'm not one of those pretty, petite, young girls every man longs to embrace, but I'd still like to at least understand what the act's all about.”
He didn't answer, making her feel dead-toad ugly. She tried to shrink a few inches shorter and wondered if she'd combed her hair at all today.
“You do know how, don't you?” she asked, more angry at herself for proposing such a thing than him for hesitating. But there was no way to back down now.
“Of course I know how,” Daniel answered, equally as angry.
He probably didn't want to kiss her any more than anyone else ever had, but she was twenty-three, and since no man had made a move, it was time she did the asking. He didn't seem to find her all that repulsive- after all, he'd pecked her on the cheek. That almost counted, she reasoned.
“Then kiss me and seal the bargain between us. Once, just once, but it has to be real.”
He didn't respond, and she realized her “good idea” was crumbling like an overbaked corncake. Embarrassment rose, firing into her face. She'd probably burn him if he did touch her. He must be so shocked by her request, he couldn't speak.
“Oh, forget it!”
Karlee ran into the house, welcoming the cool darkness that closed around her. Tears blurred her vision as she hurried toward the stairs. When was she ever going to learn to keep her mouth shut? The aunts were right. She was an idiot destined to make a fool of herself at every opportunity. If the aunts were here, this story would keep them laughing for a month.
Her hand touched the railing a moment before Daniel caught up with her. He closed his grip over her shoulder so suddenly the force pulled her backward against him.
She cried in surprise when he twisted her around and flattened her back against the wall. Fear danced in her blood as he held her upright and leaned toward her.
“We seal the bargain. Once and for all, you'll be able to say you've been kissed, Spinster Whitworth.” Angry words brushed against her cheek as the weight of his body pressed against her.
His mouth closed over hers, hard and strong. His body pushed her to the wall.
Karlee fought to free herself. This wasn't what she wanted, not at all. She'd seen couples kiss at weddings and a few times when they thought no one was watching. A kiss was soft and petal-light on the lips, not bruising hard. He wasn't supposed to press her mouth against her teeth. He must know even less than she did. Or maybe he'd forgotten? Or maybe he wanted to hurt her?
As she struggled against his hold, Daniel's fingers moved down her arms, pinning her limbs with the length of his body. She jerked her head away, but his followed. When she tried to cry out, he invaded the inside of her mouth, taking her breath away.
Tears of anger bubbled in her eyes as she tried to kick at his legs and jab at his chest.
After a while, she stopped struggling, exhausted at the wasted effort for the force of his advance never lessened.
When she went limp in his arms, he loosened his hold on her and moved his fingers into her hair. With her head held still, the kiss changed, softened. He no longer demanded her response. He silently asked.
Karlee closed her eyes and let the wave of sensations wash over her. The pounding of his heart against hers. The feel of his strength all along her body. The warmth of his hands on her face. The demands of a kiss unlike she'd ever dreamed existed.
She relaxed in his arms, letting him guide her. He was not taking, but giving her what she'd requested. A kiss, a real kiss. It was so much more than she thought it might be. She'd never be able to forget. She'd been kissed, fully and completely kissed.
His hands turned gentle, almost hesitant, as he touched her face and brushed her hair back. She joined in the embrace doing as he did, letting his lips teach her with tender patterns. He brushed her arms, catching her hands and bringing them to rest on his shoulders. When she raised her arms to circle his neck, he sighed and leaned into her body, pressing her gently along the length of him.
The kiss changed once more. A fire seemed to build between them. A fire that might consume them both. He wove his fingers in her hair and closed his hand into a fist as though he needed to hold on while the kiss raged through them both. The taste of him was a part of her now. The feel of him, a need growing as he pressed against her. Even her breathing matched his as though they would forever be the same now they'd found the same rhythm.
Just when she thought she'd surely died and floated up to heaven, the kiss ended as suddenly as it began. He shoved away from her with such force she felt the wall creak.
“There.” He was out of breath as if he'd been running for miles. “You've been kissed.”
Karlee waited. It couldn't be over! It couldn't be. Surely he wanted to continue as desperately as she did.
She opened her eyes.
He was gone.
NINE
DANIEL STORMED FROM THE HOUSE AND CIRCLED it twice before he figured out where he was going. He couldn't believe what he'd just done. He kissed Spinster Whitworth! And not a polite, formal peck, either. He'd really… fully… completely kissed her.
He walked to the barn calling himself every kind of fool. How could he have done such a thing? It was crazy. He must be insane to allow it to happen.
Sliding the railing that concealed a room, Daniel vanished into a hidden corner of the barn he called his own. Since he'd been a boy, he'd always needed a place to disappear away from the world. It wasn't much, little more then a shack. Sometimes, he practiced his sermons here, sometimes he drank. Here he could drop his guard and be himself, or better yet, be nothing for a time. Not preacher, or father, or widower… just a man.
He pulled a velvet blue hair ribbon from the folds of a book and told himself he still loved May. He loved and missed her with every ounce of his being, just as he had the day she died. She'd been his private angel, his reason for living, his Heaven on earth.
He twisted the ribbon around his finger, but it didn't seemed to hold as tightly as it had in the past.
How could he have kissed Spinster… Daniel's frown deepened. Maybe since he'd had his tongue in her mouth, he should call her Karlee.