An Outlaw in Wonderland by Lori Austin Page B

they soothed. His breath,
     harsh like hers, arousing. His hands both rough and strong, but with her, ever so
     gentle. The hands of a healer. She pulled one to her mouth and kissed the palm.
    “Beth, you should—”
    Her tongue snaked out and tasted where her lips had been. His eyes widened. He looked
     away, swallowed, then looked back.
    She patted the cot at her side. He shook his head like a child who did not want his
     medicine. She merely patted it again. “You wanted me to hold you.” She opened her
     arms.
    He came into them with a sigh of surrender, kissing her with a desperation born of
     pain. She tangled her fingers in his hair, ran them across his shoulders, down his
     back, across naked, warm, smooth skin. She had never touched anyone like this, never
     wanted to. She couldn’t think why.
    She’d like to spend a lifetime learning every inch of him, but while they might have
     tonight, they also might not. Who knew when someone might remember her and come calling.
    He freed the buttons of her bodice and everything else that needed freeing—her corset,
     his trousers, their shoes. Wherever he touched, she burned; wherever he kissed, she
     yearned. She welcomed his weight; they fit together just right. Though the night seemed
     theirs alone, the room a place far removed, they knew better.
    “Please,” she whispered, wanting him, needing him now.
    He kissed her brow, began to lift himself away, and she clutched him tight. “Don’t.”
    “This isn’t a good idea. Not now. Not here. There’ll be time enough—”
    “Will there?” She locked her fingers at the base of his spine, pressed him ever nearer.
     “I could walk out the door and be hit by a cannonball.”
    He lifted a brow. “In Richmond?”
    Despite the constant movement of the armies in the area, the city itself had remained
     relatively unscathed. Because it was the capital of the Confederacy, the troops protected
     Richmond as if it were made of gold.
    She brushed her lips across his jaw, relishing the tingle brought about by his beard.
     Still nestled between her thighs, Ethan’s hips moved forward on their own. Her head
     fell back, her neck arched, her breasts pressed into his chest, and he clenched his
     teeth.
    “Don’t,” he managed.
    She cupped her palm beneath the jaw she’d just kissed and left it there. “I don’t
     want to die without knowing this. I don’t want to live without loving you.”
    “Don’t talk about dying.”
    “Death is all around us, Ethan. Not a cannonball? Fine. Then a runaway carriage. A
     stray bullet. A deserter.”
    “Don’t,” he said again, and his voice broke.
    She understood. The idea of a life without him devastated her, too.
    “Anything could happen to you,” she whispered, leaving unsaid what they were both
     thinking.
    Like it happened to Mikey.
    “Make me yours, Ethan. So I can never be anyone else’s.”
    She waited, holding her breath, hoping, praying, and when he closed his eyes, pressing
     his forehead to hers, whispering her name with anguish, she believed she had lost.
     She lifted her mouth for one final kiss, and when their lips touched, everything stilled.
    Then he was kissing her as he never had before. As if she were already his, as if
     she always would be. His teeth scored her chin, tasted her neck; his lips closed on
     a breast and drew deep.
    “Please.” She begged again for the unknown.
    She was so empty, she wept. When he filled her, something broke with a tiny ping of
     pain.
    “Oh,” she murmured, more fascinated than afraid. Understanding bloomed with her smile.
     “I’m yours.”
    “Yes.” He kissed her brow as he began to move within her. “Mine.”
    She wanted to examine that statement further; she wanted to kiss and touch and cuddle,
     but what he was doing was so delicious. The rhythm of their bodies echoed the beat
     of their hearts. She’d never felt so enveloped, so loved, so chosen.
    The emptiness was filled again and again. There was