Godsend (Hell Yeah! Heritage), page 5
Jolie dipped her head. “I need…to go outside.”
“What?” he asked, leaning nearer. When it hit Austin what she was asking, he had to look away, he was a grown-ass man who was blushing at the idea of a woman needing to go to the bushes. “Oh, of course, let me grab my gun. We don’t want to be meeting a panther out there unarmed.”
“No.” Jolie thought about the bear. “No, we don’t want to meet a panther.” She tugged on the sides of the white homespun shirt, trying to make it as long as possible. Jolie found herself wanting to tell him what she’d been through. He really had the kindest face. Handsome. Rugged. His eyes looked at her with what appeared to be tenderness, a look she hadn’t seen from anyone but Charlotte in a long, long time. Thoughts of Charlotte made her feel something akin to homesickness. But she held her tongue, knowing that while sharing her story might be a relief, it could also seal her doom.
Even though the interior of the small cabin was dim, the outside was as black as sin. There was a moon, but it was hidden behind a cloud and the dense forest on either side formed a dense, impenetrable curtain. Jolie found herself wanting to find Austin’s hand and clasp it tightly. She certainly did feel safer with him than she had wandering around by herself. Any other woman might have been in hysterics at finding themselves alone with the big man – but for some reason she trusted him, it was as simple as that.
Austin was acutely conscious of the beautiful woman next to him. They weren’t touching, but he could feel her heat on his skin like a firebrand. “I want to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I can’t believe you’ve been through so much. Where are you from?”
Jolie weighed her words, careful to be vague. “Not too far from New Orleans.”
“It’s hard to believe that you’ve come so far.”
Jolie was about to say more, when she stepped on a sharp rock which caused her to stumble and cry out. “Oh!”
Austin didn’t even think twice. He swept her up in her arms. “No shoes! Your poor feet. I should have thought about that, I’m sorry.” Hell, he wasn’t comprehending anything but how absolutely beautiful she was and what a joy it was to have her close.
She gasped, but held onto his shoulders tightly. “I didn’t have any shoes to start with. I lost everything.” No truer statement had ever been uttered.
“We’ll take care of those cuts and scrapes as soon as we get back inside the cabin. Frost Thorn has a trading post over in Nacogdoches. He has shoes.” Austin was trying to think coherently, when all he really wanted to do was bury his head in her neck and kiss the softness he’d find there.
“I don’t have any money,” she admitted in a low voice.
“Don’t you worry a moment. I’ll get you some shoes and anything else you need.” Austin said, without a moment of hesitation. “I’ve been needing to go in for supplies before winter sets in, this is a perfect reason to do so quickly.”
Jolie felt tears begin to rise. “I can’t let you do that; I don’t have any way of paying you back.” Her mind began to race even as her heart began to pound. Would he take her to the settlement and leave her there? How would she survive? What would happen to her? Would someone be looking for her?
“I’m not asking for any payment.” Stepping close to the privy, Austin set Jolie on the ground gently. “Here you go. There’s a pile of nice soft leaves on the seat.”
Pushing aside the disturbing thoughts, she focused on the moment at hand. She’d used enough outhouses not to be embarrassed. Oak Hill had a water closet for the family, but she hadn’t been permitted to try it. In the bungalow, they’d had an outdoor privy that her grandmere had painted pretty colors with a crescent moon decorating the door and in the winter they’d used a chamber pot. “Thank you, I’ll hurry.”
“Do not rush. Sandy and I will wait over there.” Austin smiled, then moved a few feet from the door to do his own business and give her a bit of privacy, yet be near if she needed him. A warm feeling of excitement raced through his veins. There was so much he wanted to say to her, to ask her. It had been so long since he had someone to talk with other than the dog. He didn’t get to visit with his friend, Chireno, nearly enough. Jolie would probably be sleepy when they returned to the cabin, but maybe they could converse tomorrow.
As soon as Austin processed that thought–another struck him. Sleep! Where would they sleep? All of the societal expectations about propriety and chaperones slammed into his mind, but he also knew those things just didn’t apply to them at this moment in time. This young woman needed his protection, his sanctuary and he would give it to her.
Austin would sleep on the floor and give Jolie his bed.
His bed.
He closed his eyes and sought calm. The longing he had for companionship, for a woman in his bed, set his whole body on fire.
“I’m done, Austin.” Her small voice broke him from his contemplation.
“Of course, let’s go back.” He’d just turned to her when she touched him, placing her hands on his chest. Austin drew in his breath sharply, but then he realized she was waiting for him to pick her up. Her faith in him made Austin weak. “Up you go.”
Jolie felt a jolt of surprise – not from his lifting her into his arms, but from her response to his action. She felt…at home. What manner of sorcery was this? How could she feel this instant rapport with a man she did not know? Words whispered by her grandmother came to mind. Always trust your heart, Juliette Jolie, you have been blessed with the sight. While it was true she’d experienced some forebodings and insights, Jolie hadn’t always known what to do with the thoughts that came to her or how to interpret them. The fitful dreams that had plagued her in the nights before Coffi came to collect her hadn’t helped, because she hadn’t known what they meant. And now, now she felt like Austin McCoy was the answer to some undefined question, some momentous revelation hovering just beyond her reach. She didn’t know what to do with these thoughts either.
Jolie cleared her throat, trying to find something proper to do with her hands. “How did you come to live in this wilderness territory of Texas?”
Holding her close made Austin feel dizzy. Nothing in his life had ever felt so right. Her sweet natural scent wafted to his nose and a lock of her hair tickled his face. Sweat beaded on his brow and his manhood twitched in his trousers. Being near to her was the sweetest torture. He walked carefully, slowly, conscious he was bearing precious cargo. Clearing his throat, he endeavored to answer Jolie’s question with a clear head. “My father remarried and I decided to move west to find my destiny and my fortune.” His explanation didn’t exactly tell the whole story, but the resentment he’d felt before seemed far away as his heart beat hard against Jolie’s warm body.
“Are you lonely?” When his arms abruptly tightened around her, Jolie gasped. Had her question been out-of-place? “This world is so different from my own.” Even as she said the words, she grieved. Her world had turned against her. She belonged nowhere.
Austin cleared his throat, confessing a truth that had never been more evident. “Yes.” He lifted his head, listening for the sounds of the vast wilderness – the wind in the trees, the distant howl of a coyote, and the pervading chorus of crickets and frogs. “Very lonely. I have friends and neighbors, but they aren’t close enough to visit regularly. Sometimes a month or more will go by when I don’t even get the chance to speak to another human being.” He closed his eyes, savoring the gift of her presence. “I’m not lonely tonight, though. I have you.”
Jolie trembled. Impossible possibilities began rushing through her mind. How crazy was it that she felt safer in this stranger’s arms than she had since losing her parents? “I’m glad you don’t consider my barging in on your life an imposition.”
“No, you aren’t any kind of imposition. You are more than welcome.” Approaching the door of his cabin, he raised his leg to help support Jolie’s weight while he let loose of her long enough to open the front door. The cabin’s puncheon floor was made of logs he’d hewn and finished with a smoothing plane. They weren’t as finely crafted as the floors back home, but they were free of splinters. Reluctantly, he set his houseguest on her feet and noticed that she tried to hide a big yawn. “All right, my lady, you’re tired. Let me see to those feet, then it’s bedtime for you.”
While he gathered water, a rag, and some salve, she looked around on the floor, seeing Sandy lying on the rug next to the fire. The sight made her smile. “I’ll have a bed fellow to share the rug with.”
Austin wanted to be that bed fellow.
“Sit here.” He directed her. “No. You’re sleeping in my bed. I’m sleeping on the floor.” He hoped his tone wasn’t too brusque, but he brooked no argument.
As he knelt at her feet and took one of her small feet in his hand, she lifted those big doe eyes to his and Austin thought his heart would stop.
“I can’t put you out of your bed. Let me sleep on the floor.”
What he saw made ignoring her offer easy. “Oh, my God, girl. Your feet are in tatters.” Tenderly he washed them, his own nerves jangling when she would wince at the pain. “Why didn’t you tell me they were this bad?” He couldn’t imagine what she’d done or what kind of ground she’d walked over to have damaged them this way. “Did you run over sharp rocks? Over cacti? What?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I walked and ran over whatever was in my way.”
As Austin cleaned and doctored her feet, he had to refrain from raising them to his lips. More than anything, he wanted to kiss her hurt away. After soothing them and spreading on some healing salve, he dried them gently. “I think that will have to do.”
“They feel so much better,” she told him, totally enchanted with the care he was giving her. When he rose and walked to the bed, pulling down the covers, she again made her case. “I promise; I will be fine on the floor.”
“Absolutely not.” Austin shook his head, not considering her proposition for even one minute. “What kind of gentleman would I be to allow a lady to sleep on the floor?”
Jolie twisted the material of the shirt he’d given her to wear between her fingertips. She didn’t think she was a lady by anyone’s standards. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, I am.” He gallantly gestured for her to climb up into the bed he’d made with his own hands, the mattress stuffed with soft grass, the pillows filled with goose feathers. Over the last year, Austin had bartered with Frost Thorn and other distant neighbors, trading honey and hides for merchandise. His home wasn’t grand, but at least he could offer this wandering angel a comfortable night’s sleep. “Having you here is worth much to me, I don’t mind at all.” He grabbed the extra pillow and tossed it down next to Sandy.
Reluctantly, Jolie sat on the bed, crawling under the covers, her eyes never leaving Austin McCoy. “You’re a very nice man,” she admitted without hesitation. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
Austin shuddered slightly. He didn’t know what she would’ve done either. Just the idea of this defenseless, delicate woman being at the mercy of the wilderness was almost his undoing. “Don’t you worry about that, I’m glad to do it.” Not allowing himself to think what the future might hold, he decided to enjoy the present. “You just shut your eyes and sleep. Rest. Sandy and I will be close by.”
After taking care of a few housekeeping chores he’d left undone, Austin turned off the lamp. The only illumination came from the fire and moonlight filtering through the slats in the shutters covering the windows. One day, Austin intended to have glass in the windows, like back home. He smiled. A woman would want glass in the windows so she could see the wildflowers growing in the field next to the house. With that thought, he cut his eyes toward Jolie. Her slight form lay in the large bed, large enough for two. He could see her even breathing, her dark hair flowing behind her head, covering the pillow. Standing stock still, he let his eyes caress her face, her lips were parted slightly. Austin wondered if they would taste as sweet as they looked.
With a heavy sigh, he turned away, moving farther into the shadows so he could shuck the clothes from his body. Stepping over to the wash basin, he wet a small cloth to wash off the sweat of the day. Normally he slept nude, but he’d wear a shirt tonight in deference to his houseguest.
Across the room, Jolie wasn’t asleep. She’d closed her eyes in exhaustion, but knowing Austin McCoy was so near made it hard to relax. Opening her eyes to tiny slits, she peered at him in the dim room. He didn’t know she was watching, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. The light from the fire, coupled with the illumination from the moon coming through the cracks at the window, gave enough light for her to see.
And she couldn’t look away.
Never before had she known a man to be beautiful, but this one was breathtaking. He resembled the statues of the Greek gods that decorated the formal gardens of Oak Hill. She stared, fascinated, as the firelight played over the rippling muscles of his back and shoulders. Her eyes slid down his form, closing abruptly when they encountered the curve of his backside. Jolie held her breath, opened one, then the other and let out a sigh as her gaze traveled on down thick thighs and long powerful legs. She’d never seen such a body on a man before. Her heart rate sped up and she moved restlessly beneath the covers, causing him to jerk his head around.
Jolie stilled, squeezing her eyes shut, afraid he’d know she’d been gazing at him with unabashed fascination. A deep longing to be close to him swept over her, almost unbearable in its intensity. She clutched the fabric of the pillow in an effort to anchor herself to the bed.
Austin hastily pulled his homespun shirt over his head, the long tails giving him privacy. The idea of Jolie seeing how she affected him almost caused him to blush. “Calm down, McCoy. Act your age, you’re no randy schoolboy,” he lectured himself in a low whisper.
“Did you say something to me?”
“No!” he almost shouted, then realized and lowered his tone. “Sorry. No. I was just mumbling to myself. Did I wake you?” Hastily, he slipped back on his doe-skin breeches.
“No, I’ve been resting my eyes. I guess too much has happened, I can’t seem to sleep.”
Austin moved a bit closer to her, leaving his shirt untucked, hoping the dim light hid the bulge of his arousal. “Do you want to talk? I could keep you company.” Jolie sat up in the bed and he sat on the rug facing her, loving the play of shadows on her beautiful face.
“Please. I’m nervous,” she confessed quietly.
Her admission tugged at his heart. “Why? Are you afraid of me?”
“No.” She shook her head, twisting the quilt between her fingers. “I don’t know.” She sighed. “I trust you.”
“Why are you nervous?” he asked gently.
She swallowed, looking down. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”
Austin hesitated, not wanting to broach a subject that would upset her even more. “What do you want to happen? Do you want to go home?” Emotions warred in his chest – a compassionate desire to help her battled a selfish urge to wrap his arms around her and hold on tight. Awaiting her answer, he shook his head slightly. Where were these thoughts coming from? He did not know this woman well enough to be feeling what he was feeling.
Jolie didn’t look at him, too afraid he’d read the shame on her face and ask questions she couldn’t answer. “I don’t think I can go back.”
When she didn’t elaborate, Austin took a risk. “Tell me about your home.” He wanted to know, and he thought she might need to talk about it.
Jolie felt a tightening in her chest. Before she knew it, the words began to flow. She didn’t speak of Oak Hill, that was never her real home. Rather she spoke of the colorful bungalow, surrounded by lush flowers where Grandmere watched over her and Abraham as they played. “I loved to run along the banks of the bayou. We played pirates, always digging for buried treasure. We looked for fairies in the moss and fished in the stream.”
Jolie smiled and Austin felt his heart contract like it was being squeezed by a fist. “I bet you were a cute little girl.”
“I was a terror. I’d rather fish for crawdads than learn how to cook.”
“Oh, you can’t cook?” Austin laughed.
“I learned how to make mud pies.”
“Awww, I have a sweet tooth; I was hoping you’d bake me something.” He looked sad.
“Oh, I will. I can!” Jolie assured him, then blushed at her outburst. “I want to.”
“I don’t know…I’m not too fond of mud pies,” Austin teased.
“I finally learned. I make a really good cake.” Jolie insisted, pooching out her lips.
Sandy barked at the noise they were making, which made Jolie giggle.
Austin couldn’t quit smiling. He hadn’t had this much fun in so long. “Tell me more,” he urged.
Jolie laid her head on the pillow and began to weave tales about her childhood adventures. Speaking of her grandmere, her mother, even her father in terms that didn’t reveal her private shame. “Grandmere taught me all about herbs, I can go out into the woods and bring back enough edible greens for a salad. And I know which ones to take for medicine.”
Austin listened raptly. “How about headaches? I have them often. Could you help me with those?”
Jolie nodded her head as it lay on the pillow. “I’ll hunt some willow bark tomorrow and grind it up for you.”
Mesmerized, Austin hung on her every word, urging her on with questions, hungry for anything she’d tell him. She spoke of games she and her father played, a cat she’d loved, the lessons she’d shared with Abraham at her mother’s table. They spoke of books they’d read, of songs they knew, finding they had more in common than they’d ever dreamed. As their conversation progressed, Austin moved closer until he sat mere inches from the bed, close enough to see every expression as it flitted across her sweet face. He listened until her words began to slow, then stopped altogether as her eyes closed in sleep. Still, Austin didn’t move, content to watch her sleep.
CHAPTER FIVE
