Texan's Touch

Rose cut her gaze to Charles for she knew who the doctor planned to give the other coffee to. “I’ll do that. And I’ll remember you like one there with a few cookies on the saucer.”

He left the kitchen and by the time he reached his bedroom door, Rose was behind him with the other cup. “Thanks,” he whispered as he took the cup from her and moved inside his room.

Rose winked. “Anytime.”

Nichole still lay sleeping in his bed. She looked so soft and sweet curled up in a quilt with her hair half covering her eyes. He remembered how passionately he’d kissed her in the shadows before Wes arrived. Adam never thought he’d feel that for any woman. Passion just wasn’t a feeling he saw himself losing control over. Or any other feeling for that matter.

But she brought a side of him to the surface he didn’t know existed. She made him want to forget everything else in the world and just hold her. When he did, he felt powerful and lost all at the same time.

“Nick,” he whispered as he sat the cups down. “Nick, wake up.” He couldn’t resist touching her hair. Curls circled around his fingers in welcome. Midnight curls just as she was somehow his midnight woman.

Beautiful green eyes opened, then closed again. “Go away,” she mumbled, and turned to her side. “I just got to sleep.”

“No, you didn’t.” He pulled her back to face him. “You’ve been sleeping all day, which makes me wonder what you’re doing besides sleeping at night.”

“Nothing,” she answered as she lifted her head following the smell of coffee.

Adam handed her the cup with the cookies on the saucer. “We’ve got to talk, Nick, but I only have a minute now. I’ve two more patients to see, then I’ll saddle a couple of horses. Do you think you can be dressed and ready to ride out to Wes’s herd by dark?”

“Sure.” She took a sip and smiled as the coffee warmed her. “I’d love to go for a long ride.”

“On the way out, we’ll have a long discussion as to where you were last night before you climbed in my window. And just out of curiosity, I’d like to know where these black clothes came from. They seemed to have just appeared like you did last night.”

The memory of how they’d kissed in his office filled his thoughts once more, but he pushed it away. “Lock the door when I leave.”

He stepped away from her. “And stay out of sight until I bring the horses around to the side of the house.”

Nichole looked at him as if he’d just told her to remember to breathe.

As his hand touched the knob, he added, “And sleep in your own bed.” If someone had walked in early this morning, they’d never believe she’d just lie beside him to cuddle. He knew his words were harsh, but he had to protect her even against himself. He’d lost control so easily, he no longer trusted his own actions. If Wes hadn’t shown up, Adam wasn’t sure what might have happened.

All day his mind had drifted to the possibilities and none of them were what he should be doing with Wolf’s little sister who’d been put in his care. In his care. Adam almost laughed aloud at the words. She was no more in his care than she was in control. The problem was that her lack of control seemed to be spreading to him.

“Any other orders?” Her words were cold.

“No.” He opened the door and stepped into the hallway. A moment later, he heard the lock snap. Good, he thought, at least she’d followed one order.

“You pestering that child?” Sister Cel whispered from a few steps up the stairs. She was leaning over the railing looking down at him as though he were a boy. “Because if you are, sir, you’ll answer to me. She’s not like other women. She knows no fear and leads with her heart. A rare combination.”

“I wasn’t pestering her,” he defended. “She’s the one driving me crazy. And as for the ‘like other women,’ I’ve yet to find two alike enough to be able to mold a standard of comparison.”

The nun relaxed slightly. “Well, if she’s bothering you, that’s another matter. That, sir, is none of my concern. I came to tell you the patients are ready.”

Adam followed the nun down the hall, wondering why Nick bothering him was no crime, when him pestering her seemed to be a capital offense. Most of the time he felt like Sister Cel extended all her charity to others and never allowed him a drop. Maybe the Lord sent her here, all gift wrapped in her habit, as some punishment for a sin long forgotten. No, Adam thought. He already had Bergette. Surely there could be no added punishment?

An hour later, the sun was a golden red on the western horizon as Adam and Nichole rode out of town. Clouds fenced the northern sky, promising a cool evening. But at sunset, nature was cloaked in green.

Suddenly, this land he’d thought was so barren and gray only months ago was bright and alive. Wildflowers dotted the rolling land, and oak and cypress trees followed the river like children frozen in play as they ran alongside the water. This location had been a wise place to station a fort with plenty of water and high ground. Adam felt like he could see miles in all directions.

Nichole kicked her horse into a faster gait and laughed. “I’m glad to get away from the smell of people.”

“I wasn’t aware I smelled,” Adam said as he caught up with her.

“Not you, the entire town. Anywhere folks collect there’s the same smell that follows them. Cookstoves and lye wash and bodies and blood and breathing through tobacco-tinged air. Sometimes I think of civilization as one huge deformed, splintered creature that settles in a place just long enough to smell it up. At night, when I pass by each home, I can tell if the laundry was done that day, or if they killed a chicken for supper, or if there’s sickness, just by the smell.”

“You’re right,” Adam agreed though he’d never thought of it before. “I remember during the war, I could find the hospital tent or the mess tent just by the smell. Some mornings before dawn, I would swear that I didn’t open my eyes until I was putting on my white coat at work.”

For the first time since they’d met, they talked, just talked. Each told of where they had been and what they’d done. Adam was surprised how many times during the war their paths had almost crossed. He wondered if he might have gone into some town for supplies and not noticed her passing him. Or if she’d walked silently past his tent at night when crossing the line.

Adam wondered where the time had gone when they reached the herd almost an hour later. He’d meant to question her about where she’d been the night before, but somehow they’d started talking. And they talked of everything, not just subjects she might be interested in. Except for May, he could never remember talking with a woman so.

Wes waved them into the camp with a wide smile, but Adam didn’t miss the guards posted around the herd. Double the men that would be needed to watch sleeping cattle. He slowly looked around, searching the land beyond the herd for trouble as he neared Wes.

“I know,” Nick whispered. “I feel it, too.”

He glanced at her, realizing she’d read his thoughts, but the night hid her face. As their horses walked toward Wes, he heard the leather of Nick’s gun belt sliding into place about her waist.

“I was about to tell the cook to throw out the stew!” Wes shouted as he stepped forward and held their mounts. “You city folks may dine late, but on the trail we eat at sundown.”

Adam stepped around his horse to Nichole’s left side as she swung from the saddle. Her long, limber body needed no assistance, but he let his hand slide along her side as she stepped to the ground.

“Stew sounds great,” Adam said as he touched Nichole a moment longer than needed even in his pretense of steadying her. “Sorry we’re late. Seems every wife in Fort Worth is pregnant these days. Lucky all the menfolk didn’t make it back home on the same day or I’d have a landslide nine months to the day after the war.”

Adam kept his voice casual as his hands circled Nichole’s waist in a gesture that told her he wanted her closer to him.

Wes was busy tying the horses and didn’t hear Nichole whisper, “You’re in my world now, Doc. The night.”

Her words haunted him through the meal, for he knew she was right. He’d never liked the night, not even when he was a child. But she was a creature of the darkness, more comfortable there than in day. Another reason they didn’t fit together, he thought. Another reason to stay a proper distance away.

But what bothered him was that in the darkness, she seemed to set the rules, not him. He might tell her in the light to sleep in her own bed, but he knew if she came to him in the shadows, he wouldn’t push her away.

“I figure I’ll lose ten percent of the herd along the trail, maybe more.” Wes pulled Adam back to the present. “But for every cow that gets to rail, I’ll make five times what I paid per head.” Wes sounded excited. “Some of