Shotgun Grooms Read online

  Lucas moved with the swiftness of a rattler. One second he was sitting in his chair, the next he’d reached across the table and grabbed his brother’s shirt in his hand.

  “Apologize,” he growled. “Apologize or we’ll take it outside.”

  Jackson glanced around at the bar. “You always did hate a fight in your place.”

  “I don’t like paying for the damage.” Lucas didn’t allow himself to be distracted. “Which is it to be?”

  Jackson raised both beefy hands. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to disrespect your wife. I also didn’t know that you had a soft spot for her.”

  Lucas released him and slowly settled back into his chair. Anger still raced through him and he had to take deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down.

  “I don’t have a soft spot, but I won’t tolerate you speaking about her that way.”

  Jackson frowned. “Tolerate? Why’re you talking like that, Lucas?” Then his smile returned. “I suppose it comes from spending so much time in the company of a schoolteacher.”

  Lucas ignored his brother and took a drink of the whiskey.

  “Maybe when all this is over, you’ll find yourself wanting to stay hitched,” Jackson teased.

  “Not likely.”

  Not ever was the real answer, he thought grimly. His marriage to Emily was strictly about the will. He would admit that he liked her a whole lot more than he’d thought he would. She was kind, taking in both Alice and Mary, and giving Hep a job. She was smart as a whip and as fervent as a preacher when it came to her plans. And she kissed finer than a skinny, spinster schoolteacher had the right to kiss. Lucas would have bet a hundred dollars in gold that he’d been the first man to taste her lips and yet she’d left him shaken and aroused. Which was why, despite how much he wanted to, he hadn’t done it again.

  But, even ignoring his attraction and the fact that she was someone very special, their marriage couldn’t last.

  He looked at his brother. “She doesn’t know,” he said quietly. “About what happened.”

  Jackson didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. They’d never kept secrets from each other and their war experiences were no exception.

  Jackson raised his glass. “To my little brother. And his bride.”

  Before Lucas could respond, Jackson was scrambling to his feet and running his free hand through his messy hair. Lucas turned around and saw that Emily had entered the saloon. She rarely came into his place of business, preferring to wave to him from the open door of the office or send in one of the boys always lurking about.

  But it was relatively early in the day and there weren’t very many customers.

  Lucas motioned her forward, then put his arm around her. “Emily, this is my brother, Jackson MacIntyre. Jackson, my wife.”

  Jackson shifted uncomfortably. He reached for his hat, then realized he wasn’t wearing one. “Ma’am. It’s a real pleasure, I’m sure.”

  Emily smiled. “The pleasure is mine, Mr. MacIntyre.” She glanced at Lucas, then back at Jackson. “I’ve never had a brother and I’m quite pleased to be able to claim that familial relationship at last.”

  Jackson blinked as if he hadn’t exactly understood what she was saying. “Ma’am. Ah, me too.” With that, he mumbled an excuse, grabbed his jacket and hurried from the saloon.

  Emily turned to stare after him. “Will he be back? I wanted to invite him to join us for dinner.”

  Lucas thought about his brother’s weekly visit to Miss Cherry’s. “I think he already has plans.”

  “Oh, maybe next time.”

  “I’m sure he’d really enjoy that.”

  Since moving into the hotel, Emily had unpacked more of her treasures from home. The evening meal had become progressively more formal as she put those treasures into use. Lucas tried to imagine his brother carefully placing a starched linen napkin over his lap and picking the right fork. Oddly enough, Lucas found her ways didn’t bother him. He enjoyed the contrast between proper manners and the wildness of Defiance. In some ways, that contrast existed within Emily herself. He’d never known anyone as proper, well-spoken or well mannered. Yet she hired orphaned children, rented a room to a lady of questionable reputation and had married a man who ran a saloon. He wondered what other surprises Emily had in store for him.

  That evening Lucas surveyed the table in front of him. Three days before, he’d cleared out a storeroom and had found an unused table upon which they now dined. Silver and crystal sparkled in the light of the glowing candles. Emily carefully served a slice of apple pie, then set the dessert next to his fork.

  “I want to take some up to Hep,” she said when she’d served herself. “He has a real sweet tooth.”

  She smiled as she spoke and Lucas realized that in the forgiving light of the candles, she looked very pretty.

  “How are things going with him?” he asked.

  “Perfect.” She picked up her fork and smiled. “He grumbles all the time about wearing a suit, but I think he likes it. I catch him preening in the mirror when I walk by the desk.”

  “You did a nice thing, hiring him. Without him finding some kind of indoor work, I didn’t think he’d make it through another winter.”

  “I wasn’t being nice,” Emily protested. “I needed someone to stay by the desk all night. Hep’s willing to do that. I certainly wasn’t interested.”

  He thought about the cot Emily had tucked behind the desk, in case Hep got too tired to stay awake. That soft heart of hers really touched him.

  “Did you and Jackson discuss his mail-order bride?” she asked.

  He frowned. “Some. Jackson’s so stubborn. I’d like to pound some sense into him, but he’d just pound me back.”

  “You’re both big men. I can’t imagine who would win.”

  “It’s usually a painful draw, which is why I don’t bother.” He chewed a bite of pie. “But when the woman arrives, he’s going to have to marry her. Jackson talks about the mine being his and he dares any lawyer type to take him away from it. But it’s not that simple.”

  “That’s right. You have to worry about the saloon and the ranch, as well.” She looked at him. “I, for one, do not want anyone taking the saloon away from you. I have a contract allowing me to rent the upstairs for three years.”

  She was teasing him and he couldn’t help smiling at her. As he looked at her he noticed a single strand of blond hair had come loose from her tight bun. The bit of hair had a slight curl to it as it drifted past her cheek. As he had before, he wondered what her hair would look like loose, and how it would feel against his bare chest when they—

  Lucas nearly dropped his fork. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d thought about Emily’s hair being loose, but he’d never thought about them being naked together. He swore again and vowed to get his wayward thoughts under control. No way was he interested in keeping her around on a permanent basis. Consummating the marriage would only complicate things. Apparently it was time to make a visit to Miss Cherry’s and get his needs taken care of.

  “Why doesn’t Jackson want to get married?” Emily asked.

  Her question was so different from what he’d been thinking that it took him a bit to figure out an answer.

  “My brother isn’t very social.”

  “Has he always been like that? Was he quiet as a child?”

  Lucas thought about his brother as a boy. Jackson had always been a prankster, like himself. Uncle Simon used to say they’d been born to trouble.

  “He changed,” Lucas admitted. “The war changed him.”

  “Wouldn’t a wife help him change back?”

  Lucas shook his head. “Some things can’t be fixed.”

  Emily knew that was true, yet she couldn’t help wishing it were different. She’d been sixteen when the War Between the States had ended. She’d seen many boys return as very different men.

  “Were you in the war?” she asked.

  Lucas nodded.

  She wanted to ask what i
t had been like. She’d heard whispers, but no one had ever explained it to her. She knew there had been fighting and that men had died. But what had it been like? Had he been afraid? Or was that a silly question? Did men feel fear?

  “Jackson saw more fighting,” Lucas continued. “He has a bad scar on his face. That’s why he wears the beard.” He looked at her and smiled. “He’s jealous because I stayed handsome and he didn’t.”

  He spoke lightly, but Emily heard the pain behind the words. Lucas might not have any scars that she could see, but she knew there had to be plenty inside him. There was an unfamiliar darkness in his eyes; the coldness there frightened her. For the first time she wondered if his friendly teasing ways hid something very different in his heart.

  “Lucas, I—”

  “No. Let’s talk about something else. Why don’t I teach you how to play poker? With your head for figures, I’ll bet you’d be good at it.”

  “Lucas, I do not play card games!”

  “Are you afraid you’ll lose?”

  Though she allowed him to change the subject, she still wondered about his ghosts from the war. Did they visit often? Could she help? Would he let her?

  As she silently asked the questions, she realized that, despite the fact that their marriage was only to be one of convenience, she’d come to care for her husband. He was important to her and, when he told her their marriage was over, he was going to break her heart.

  Chapter Six

  “Em?”

  Emily straightened from the box she’d been sorting. Lucas leaned against her reception desk and winked.

  “I’ve been looking for you all over. I thought maybe you’d left town,” he teased.

  “Now why would I do that?”

  “We’re coming up on three weeks of marriage. I thought maybe you were having second thoughts.”

  If only that were true, she told herself. If only she could find Lucas physically unappealing, or annoying or anything worse than he was. Instead she considered her husband charming, handsome, caring and irresistible. Thoughts of him haunted her sleep and she desperately longed for him to repeat the kiss they’d shared. All to no avail. He remained friendly yet distant, and she didn’t know how to make that change.

  “I’m very content with our arrangement,” she told him, hoping the small lie wouldn’t count against her. “Did you wish to make a change?”

  “No, but I would like to make a reservation. Miss Molly Malone is due in on the Wednesday stage and I want her to have the best room in the house.”

  Emily consulted her reservation list. “Number seven,” she said, more to herself than him. “It has a view of the town, the window is large, which adds light, and it doesn’t get too warm in the afternoon. I’ll make a notation.”

  “You do that. I’m guessing she’ll be here no more than two nights. We’ll have the wedding a day or two after she arrives.”

  “How gracious of you to allow her to rest from her journey,” she teased.

  He ignored her humor. “After the ceremony I’m going to drive her up the mountain. Will you come with us?”

  Emily blinked in surprise. “Why are you driving her up the mountain? Won’t your brother do that?”

  Lucas cleared his throat, then stepped back from the desk and shoved his hands into his pockets. Emily had never seen her husband act this way before. If she didn’t know better, she would think that he was nervous.

  “Jackson won’t be here for the ceremony.”

  “What?” She didn’t even try to keep the outrage from her voice. “How can he not be here?”

  “Simple enough. We’re holding a proxy ceremony.” Lucas wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Look, Em, I saw my brother a couple of days ago and he was pretty sick.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “He looked fine when I saw him.”

  “That was over a week ago. I’ve seen him since and he was feeling so poorly he didn’t even make his weekly visit to Miss Cherry’s.”

  Emily was momentarily distracted by the need not to blush at the mention of that woman and her business. “Then postpone the wedding.”

  “I can’t. We don’t have that much time. I’m going to marry Molly by proxy. I’ve already checked and it’s legal. Then you and I can drive her up the mountain.”

  Emily didn’t like the sound of this one bit. “I’ve heard that he’s not much interested in getting married, despite the terms of the will. Will he welcome her?”

  Lucas laughed. “Jackson won’t be mad at her. I’m the one he’s going to want to kill.”

  “How comforting,” she murmured dryly.

  “Look, all that matters is meeting the terms of the will. Once Jackson is married, whether it’s by proxy or not, we get our inheritance. We need to keep what’s rightly ours.”

  “I know.”

  Emily understood Lucas’s frustration at having to answer to the whims of a dead man. She even understood why the saloon and the ranch on the outskirts of town were so important to him. But she couldn’t help feeling a little sad that their marriage was simply a convenience to him. She found herself wishing that she could matter a little, too.

  Still, there was no point in pining for the moon. All it did was make one unhappy.

  “I will be happy to accompany you and Miss Malone up the mountain,” she said formally. “I wish to assure myself that she’s satisfied with your brother’s company.”

  Lucas looked relieved. “For all we know he might like having a woman around.”

  He didn’t look very convinced of his statement and Emily thought it best to change the subject.

  “While you’re here,” she said, pulling out a ledger and opening it to the first page, “this might be a good opportunity for you to go over my books. I’ve offered them to you several times, but you’re never interested.”

  He settled on the corner of her desk. “Em, I trust you. You’re making regular deposits into my account.”

  “I know. Every week. It seemed the easiest way to handle things. But I would feel better if you would check my figures.”

  He raised his dark eyebrows. “Are you cheating me?”

  She stiffened. “Sir, I resent the implication.”

  “I wasn’t implying anything, I was flat out asking. Like I said, Em, I trust you. You’re honest. So why do I need to waste my time going over your books?”

  He was frustrating her, but that was nothing new. Lucas made her squirm, he made her tingle, he made her long for impossible things, all the while remaining completely unmoved by her presence. She’d long ago decided that life was not going to go the way she wanted, but she found this situation even more vexing than most.

  “Fine,” she said, slapping the book closed. “I suppose it is your decision to trust me. I assure you I am not cheating you by even one penny.” She drew in a deep breath to calm herself. “While you might be sorry that your mail-order bride changed her mind before arriving, you can console yourself with the thought that the woman you did marry is providing you with a good income.”

  Lucas stepped around the desk, moving until he was right in front of her. “Em, is that what you imagine me thinking? That all I want you for is my share of the profits?”

  He was so close that it was difficult for her to form words. And why had the temperature in the room just risen several degrees?

  “Not at all,” she managed to say between suddenly dry lips. “I know you married me because of the terms of the will.”

  “There is that,” he said and reached up to stroke her face. “It’s midmorning, so I’m going to guess that most of your guests are already out.”

  Her throat felt tight, as did her torso. Trembling seemed to fill her limbs. “Yes.”

  He moved closer still, which she hadn’t thought was possible. “Where are Mary and Alice?”

  “Cleaning the, ah, bedrooms.”

  “So we’re practically alone.”

  “Uh, yes.”

  “Good.” He bent slightly and brushed his mouth against hers
. “You have more to offer than your income or the terms of the will, Em. Did I mention you’re a damn fine kisser?”

  Her heart was pounding so loudly she had trouble hearing him speak. “You mentioned it before.”

  “Good. Because it’s true.”

  He might have said something else, but she didn’t care, nor was she listening. Instead she was feeling. Feeling the tender caress of his lips against her. She sighed against his mouth, savoring the sensation she’d been longing to experience again. It was as wonderful as she’d remembered. She loved the heat of his body and his strength.

  He put his hands on her waist. Without thinking she responded by placing her hands on his shoulders. The nearness of him was nearly as delightful as the pressure of his mouth against hers and the tickling of his mustache. She found herself needing to strain forward, to rest her weight against his. She gave in to the need and shocked herself by leaning closer still, until her…her…chest was against his.

  No one had ever touched her there, she thought, dazed from her boldness. While her curves were slight, she found they were exquisitely sensitive. She felt a heaviness in her chest, and a sensation of swelling. As if that part of her was somehow a little bit bigger. Low in her torso, she felt a similar heaviness, an almost aching. It was—

  He swept his tongue across the seam of her mouth. All thoughts fled her mind as she parted to admit him. This was what she’d recalled the most, she thought dreamily. The sensation of him inside of her. Touching, teasing, exploring, discovering. He was bold, but not overly so. His tongue brushed against hers, making her want to sigh his name.

  He tilted his head slightly and she moved in the opposite direction. It was easier to kiss now, and she found herself wanting to never stop. This moment could go on for eternity and she would be content. Heat filled her, starting at her curling toes and moving to the very top of her head. In between, all those places that defined her as a woman reacted as if touched by fever. In fact that same malady invaded her brain, making her think crazy thoughts.