Chase watches her step from the room and can’t believe his eyes. She looks like an Irish dream walking towards him. Her gown leaves nothing to the imagination. His eyes trace down her body, taking in her dark pink tipped nipples and she spins slowly before stopping in front of him.
Bronnah takes the wine from his hand and drinks it, before sitting it down on the table beside him. His hands slowly move over her hips as he pulls her between his legs. "I want you, Bronnah," he demands.
“Then come and claim me,” she states and grabs a fistful of his hair before taking his mouth. Chase slides her gown up around her waist, and Bronnah climbs onto his lap all the while tasting, sucking and nipping at his lips and tongue. He stands suddenly holding onto her ass as he rises, and they land on the bed is a rush of silk and lace.
Hours later, Chase jumps up to throw more logs on the fire and grab the cold chicken. “Share!” she laughs, “You make me hungry.” He laughs and climbs back under the covers with her.
“Who made who hungry, Mrs. River?”
Bronnah blushes and grabs a piece of chicken. She eats slowly and looks around the room with a sigh. “I will miss this little house, it’s perfect.”
Chase grins, at her. “Seems small to me.”
“Love grows best in small houses,” her teasing fades replaced by raw emotion. “I would live anywhere with ya, Chase Rivers.”
Chase is humbled by her statement, and until this moment it didn't occur to him to tell him about his land. He pulls her into his arms, "I'm glad to hear it, but I'm afraid you'll have to get used to a little more than this."
“What do you mean?”
“Bronnah, my family owns a five-thousand-acre ranch in Wyoming. I’m one of five boys, we were each gifted a thousand acres. I can’t wait to show it to you.”
Bronnah twists in his arms and stares at him stunned, “Five thousand acres! Are you coddin me?” He laughs when her Irish accent flares.
“No. I mean to spoil you rotten for the rest of our days, Bronnah-mine.” He kisses her shocked open mouth, “After.”
“After what?” she murmurs as he drags his whiskered chin over her shoulder and nibbles at her neck.
“After I stop the Chen.” Bronnah drops her head down in defeat. She knew in her heart that he would have to leave her, but she didn’t think it would come so soon.
“Bronnah, I’m a U.S. Marshall, I have a plan to stop them, but first I need to get you to safety.” In his mind, he sees the bloated bodies of the four young women who were murdered on his family train.
“I could help…” he silences her with a firm kiss.
“Not this time. I need you to trust me. I can think of no safer place for you then with my family.”
Bronnah lifts tear-filled eyes and cups his face in her hands, "Chase, I can't lose ya, I won't survive it."
“I feel the same way about you. I’m very good at my job, Bronnah. When this is over, and the Chen are no longer a threat to you, I will return. I have been thinking about becoming more active in the family business. My father isn’t getting any younger, and my brother Dalton needs a partner.”
“Could you walk away from your badge? It seems to me the man and the Marshall are one and the same.”
Chase sits up and pulls her to his chest. “When I came home from the war, Bronnah, I was a changed man. I found it near impossible to be near my family. How could they go about their lives and not see the blood staining my soul? I did things, Bronnah, things I’m ashamed of…” he clears his throat and looks at her. “Becoming a Marshall was my way of washing that clean. Now, I find that I need peace. I need you.”
Bronnah sighs and kisses his chest. "I understand Chase, life has a way of dirtying up even the cleanest of souls. My years in the workhouses taught me the resilience of the human spirit. We are fighters." Sitting up she wraps a blanket around her shoulders and talks to him of life, death, and disease. She tells him of famine and poverty, "I've seen things you could never imagine, and sometimes it haunts my dreams. It was only after the nightmares stopped that I realized I'd been desensitized to the suffering. Being here with you seems like a little piece of heaven."
“Sounds like we were made for each other, Bronnah.”
She smiles softly, and love lights her beautiful eyes. “I agree, but Chase I would never ask you to try to be someone you aren’t. If being a Marshall makes you happy, I will respect that,” she states.
“You trying to get rid of me, wife?” he demands.
"Not hardly, Mr. Rivers." Bronnah rises on her knees and lets the blanket fall to the bed behind her, and she slowly crawls up his body. "If I had my way, you'd be trapped here forever.”
“I like the sound of that,” he moans as she sinks down on him. “Say it again, Bronnah mine,” he demands.
Bronnah lifts his hand and places it over her heart.
“A chuisle, a chroi beats only for you,” she whispered and louder in English, “My heart, my pulse beats only for you, Chase,” she
