“Thank you for bringing me here,” she said, toying with a button on his shirt. She looked up. “And thank you for getting rid of mom so diplomatically. She’s pregnant and doesn’t need to be in the middle of this. Having her and Callum take the moose back for you was a brilliant idea.”
“Ah. So you do believe you’re in danger.”
“I believe that someone besides us and the Dolans might be out here and that they might be looking for the gold.”
“So, if I were to ask you to stay here with Faol today and explore only this camp, you just might obey me?”
Sadie thought it was past time Morgan’s vocabulary got an adjustment.“Obey is one of those words women don’t really care for, Morgan. But I might be inclined to go along with yoursuggestion,” she offered instead.
He pulled her back against him, tucking her head under his chin and rocking her gently.
His laughter made her chest tingle, and Sadie closed her eyes and leaned into his strength. Yeah. She really liked being married.
“Ah, Mercedes. I’m starting to have hope for us,” Morgan whispered, kissing the top of her head and squeezing her tightly. “You can spend the rest of your life making me into a modern husband, if that is your wish.” He lifted her chin. “While I work just as hard to make you into a suitable wife.”
His eyes darkened, sending her heart racing again, this time with anticipation. Now that she knew what making love could be like, she wanted to experience it again. Tonight.
Just as soon as the sun set, she was going to attack this man like a woman possessed.
“You enjoyed yourself last night, wife?”
Sadie had to look away from his intense gaze, so she turned her attention to fingering the cherrywood knot hanging around his neck. “That depends,” she whispered to his chest. “Did you?”
All she got for an answer was silence.
Sadie felt heat climb to her face. Dammit. He’d better give her the right words. She tugged on the cord that held the cherrywood knot. “Did you?” she repeated.
“Almost,” he said quietly.
Sadie snapped her head up. “Almost? What does that mean?”
He tapped the end of her nose, dropped his arms to his sides, and stepped away. “I’ll tell you what it means in six days,” was all he said before he pivoted on his heel and strode off through the woods.
Sadie stared at his back until he disappeared around the cookhouse. Almost? How can someone almost enjoy something? Either he did or he didn’t.
She was almost ready to scream.
It amazed Sadie how quickly she hadgrown accustomed to sleeping with Morgan. And as she set up their new camp, she thought again about her decision to pretend to be Morgan’s wife for the week. Had she managed to sabotage her heart, making it impossible to walk away in six days?
For the first time since the fire eight years ago, Sadie had the hope of a future that included a husband, children, and a cozy home of her own. If nothing else—if she did have to walk away at the end of the week—Morgan had returned that possibility to her.
He had made her realize that the fire may have taken half her family, but it had not taken her future.
She could still hope.
She could still dream.
She could still love.
But could shebe loved?
Sadie finished spreading out their sleeping bag and stretched out on it and stared up at the tops of the trees. Morgan hadn’t once mentioned the wordlove, for all his peculiar vocabulary. Sadie dismissed the fact that she hadn’t exactly brought the word up, either.
He was the one talking about marriage; he should be the first one to say it.
He acted possessive, like a caring husband.
He worried about her safety.
And healmost enjoyed having sex with her.
Sadie touched the fingers of her right hand together, feeling leather touch leather. Would hecompletely enjoy their lovemaking if she had no scars? What would it be like, to go to Morgan fully naked, flawless, and beautiful?
Would he say the words to her then?
I love you.
Sadie closed her eyes and let her escaping breath turn into a smile, letting those three little words echo though her mind like a promise. And she decided then that she was not walking away from Morgan MacKeage in five days.
Sadie woke with a start,unable to orient herself for several seconds. As the treetops towering over her head came into focus, she realized that she’d fallen asleep. Feeling a bit embarrassed for having a nap in the middle of the day, she sat up and scanned the area for Morgan.
He was nowhere to be seen. Sadie decided this was her chance to have a bath while she still had some privacy. She gathered her toiletries and some clean clothes and looked around the logging camp. There had to be a water source nearby, a spring or a small brook. She hadn’t seen any signs of a dug well during her exploration of the camp earlier.
She headed into the forest, hiking north along the west side of Fraser Mountain, figuring that if she walked far enough, she would eventually run into a stream.
She ran into Morgan instead.
He stepped from behind an outcropping of ledge and used his impressive body to block her path. Sadie’s heart started to race at the sight of him. He was so incredibly handsome. So large and solid. And so damned sexy, standing there like a god of the woods.
She smiled at him.
He didn’t smile back.
“I stink,” she said, her smile rising a notch at the incredible look he gave her. “And I’m not kissing you until I wash my hair and change into clothes that can’t stand up by themselves.”
“You’ll catch a cold.”
“I don’t care. I’ll catch fleas if I don’t have a bath.”
He actually took a step away from her at that possibility. Sadie walked up to him, tapped him on the nose, and continued past him with an insolent sway of her hips.
Morgan fell into step beside her. And as they walked in companionable silence, Sadie thought about the history of this area.
Jean Lavoie’s diary mentioned that Jedediah Plum had visited camp number three for several days and had taken to wandering off at night. But he was always back in his bunk each morning, which meant the prospector hadn’t traveled far.
Jean had followed him once but had lost his trail when Jedediah’s footprints had become mixed with the tracks the horses had made that day hauling logs. Jean also mentioned that he hadn’t been the only one stalking Jedediah that night.
But on the fourth morning the prospector had not returned. His body had been discovered sticking out of a snowdrift about a mile north of the logging camp.
“That’s it,” Sadie said, pulling Morgan to a stop so abruptly he stumbled backward.
“That’s what?” he asked.
Sadie brushed the hair from her face and shifted her bundle of clothes to her right arm. “I was thinking about Jedediah’s gold mine,” she said. “And when he died.” She looked around the forest they stood in. “It was near here, according to the cook’s diary I have.
Someplace just north of the logging camp.”
Morgan also looked around, frowning. “North? How far?”
Sadie shook her head. “The diary said about a mile or so but wasn’t specific. But I remember from my dad’s research that Jedediah’s body was found near the base of a cliff that was at least a hundred feet high. Only we were never able to find that cliff because we never knew where the logging camp was.”
She shot Morgan a bright smile. “Until now. Thanks to you and Faol, I can discover exactly where Jedediah’s body was found. And I’d bet my kayak that the old prospector died close to his gold mine.”
“A tall cliff?” Morgan whispered, looking north. “About a mile from camp?”
Sadie dropped her bundle of clothes and threw her arms around Morgan’s shoulders.
“Forget our swim,” she said with a laugh of excitement, hugging him tightly. “Let’s go north and look for that cliff.”