And she did, gloriously, shouting her pleasure to the granite walls of their wondrous heaven, gasping as each rocketing spasm took her spiraling upward. Morgan shouted his own pleasure, tightening his grip on her hips to help her ride out the light storm they
’d created together.
Sadie sprawled on top of him, tucking her head into the crook of his neck, feeling the lingering pulse of her pleasure still throbbing around him.
And they lay together that way, both breathing hard, until their racing hearts stopped trying to out-thump each other.
“It kind of sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?” Sadie mumbled into his chest.
“What does?”
Sadie tilted her head back and opened one eye to the sleepy laughter she heard in his voice. “The passion. I thought I was going to spend an hour driving you insane. But I was the one who didn’t last five minutes.”
He patted her bottom affectionately. “I’m guessing we’ll calm down in about thirty years,” he said with a chuckle. He rolled them both over until she was beneath him, then kissed her on the forehead. “We’ll practice until we get it right.”
He brushed the hair from her face with repeated, gentle strokes, staring down at her with shining eyes.
“I love you, Mercedes,” he whispered. “As God is my witness, I love you more than life itself, lass. Will you marry me, Mercedes? Just as soon as I find that crazy old priest, will you do me the honor of making our vows legal?”
Sadie stretched her arms over her head like a lazy cat and thought about making Morgan wait for her answer. But she was too sated, too happy, and too much in love with him to let him suffer one more second.
“There must be a priest somewhere around here,” she told him. “And as soon as you find him, I’ll marry you, Morgan. Do you think we can make babies in heaven?”
He rolled off her and stood up, then leaned down and picked her up. He waded into the shimmering pool until the water reached his waist and dropped her without warning.
Sadie sank to the bottom, retaliating by touching him intimately and kissing his erection.
She could hear his shout even under the water.
They practiced getting it right three more times, moving from the warm, shimmering water to the sandy shore to the far side of the pool under the thick spray of the waterfall.
Sadie lay exhausted on top of Morgan on the rocks, not even possessing enough strength to let out a respectable sigh. Morgan, though, could still manage enough energy to stroke her bottom gently with a lazy hand.
He lifted her chin to look at him. “You’re a scary woman, wife, when you lose your shyness.”
She wrinkled her nose and tiredly patted his chest. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, husband.”
Sadie didn’t know where the man found the strength, but he lifted her away from him and gently set her on the rocks beside him. She looked out over the waterfall. They’d ended up underneath it somehow, and the unusually warm water ran in a curtain that sparkled like sun-washed glass before it crashed into the pool at their feet.
Sadie’s stomach rumbled, and she laughed. “I guess you can get hungry in heaven,” she said, rubbing her belly. “But I’m simply too tired to eat.”
“And I’m too tired to hike back to the logging camp right now and get our stuff,” he said, standing and holding out his hand. “How about a small nap first, then I’ll go get our stuff?”
She took his offered hand and stood up, looking around the water-walled chamber they were in.
“Oh my God!” She gasped, shaking off his hand and walking in small circles, staring at the ground.
She was walking on small pebbles of gold.
“This is it, Morgan!” she squeaked, whirling to face him. “Jedediah’s mine. We found it!”
He scuffed at the ground with his bare toe, bending down and picking up one of the nuggets so that he could hold it up to the light of the waterfall.
“It seems we have,” he said softly, his voice barely audible over the noise of the falls.
Sadie walked back to him and examined the nugget in his hand, letting out a weary sigh.
“Fat lot of good it does me now,” she grumbled. “The park will never be built.”
Morgan looked at her, his smile sad and his eyes dark. “What would happen if we were not dead, Mercedes? What if you were alive and had all this gold at your disposal?
What would you do?”
“I’d build the park.”
“And then what would happen to this magical place?” he asked, dropping the gold and turning her to face him. “If we’re alive, and this place really exists, then what will happen to it when all the tourists come to visit your park?”
She frowned at him. “It’s a moot point. We’re dead.”
He shook her slightly. “But if we weren’t,” he persisted. “What would happen to this gorge?”
She had to think about that, and she didn’t like what she was thinking. “It would be ruined,” she told him. “Once it was discovered—and it would be—then the people would trample over every square inch of this ground, trying to get to the gold.”
He nodded and released her shoulders. “That’s right, they would. Your park, your father’s legacy—it would all be forgotten, overtaken by the mystery of this special place.”
“But we’re dead, Morgan,” Sadie insisted. “Simply based on the fact that nothing like this can exist in the real world. It isn’t possible.”
Morgan said nothing more. He took her hand and led her around the edge of the waterfall and along the shore of the pool until they were back on the sandy beach. He picked up the shirt she’d discarded and settled it over her shoulders, wrapping her up and grasping it closed over her breasts. He kissed her nose.
“Let it go for now,” he softly entreated. “There will be plenty of time to worry about this later. We both need some sleep first. Then I’ll find us something to eat, and we’ll deal with our problems on full bellies.”
He used his grip on her shirt to pull her down as he spoke, and Sadie happily let him.
She cuddled into his embrace the moment they landed, closed her eyes, wrapped her arms tightly around him, and quickly fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty
Sadie awoke to the strong odorof a wet dog. She opened her eyes and reached up to push Faol’s tongue away from her face, but her hand stopped in mid-reach and changed direction to poke Morgan in the shoulder.
“We’ve got company,” she whispered, quickly wiggling to sink farther behind him.
“Father Daar’s here,” she squeaked a bit louder, poking him harder.
Good Lord. She and Morgan were as naked as the day they’d been born, her shirt thrown off and lying behind her. And if they weren’t dead already, the scowl on the old priest’s face likely would kill them.
“Ya have two minutes to get up and get dressed,” Father Daar snapped, pointing an age-bent finger at them. “Or you’ll be saying your wedding vows naked.”
Morgan sat up and used his body to shield Sadie from the scandalized gaze of the priest. She took advantage of his broad back and quickly found his shirt and slipped it on, buttoning it all the way up to her neck.
“Turn around, old man,” Morgan growled. He waited until the priest complied, then looked to see that Mercedes was modestly covered. He grinned at her furiously blushing face.
“Are you ready to say the words, lass?” he asked, feathering a finger over her red-hot cheek.
Mortified beyond any ability to speak, Sadie nodded.
Morgan stood up, sauntered past the still waiting priest, and gathered the clothes he’d dropped by the end of the pool. Sadie scrambled to her feet and made sure she was decently covered to her knees, thankful that Morgan’s shirt had long tails.