Well, at least he’s suffering for his behavior.
“You can fuck me, Cy,” I croon in his ear after making him wait a bit longer. “I was only going to suggest we find a more private location. Don’t want to scare her off already with how loud I can make you moan.”
There’s a flash in Cypress’s eyes that shows he’s taking my words as a challenge, which is precisely how I’d meant them.
“I’ll meet you by the water, wolf.”
Aiden still seems to be in somewhat of a hurry when he finally appears and tells me that he and Cypress are going to go wash up before dinner, though he still takes the time to check in on me. As well as to check that my gun is safely at my side while I sit and mind the fire.
“You’ll be all right by yourself?” he asks as he hovers. “After earlier?”
I nod, a little surprised that I mean it. That I am almost looking forward to having a few minutes alone again to collect myself after the day’s events. Or, at the very least, to try to determine why I am having a harder time recovering my senses after what happened with Cypress by the wagon than I am from watching him gun a man down.
The way it had felt to have him holding me like that, to have him talk me through it…Eyes on me, Cora.
Before I can help it, I shiver, the flush in my cheeks likely making it clear that I’m not the least bit cold, but Aiden takesoff his coat, crouches down, and wraps it around my shoulders anyway.
“Will have to find the one Cypress says you bought,” he says, chuckling as he buttons it up. “Getting colder.”
“He bought it, really,” I confess. “Insisted.”
“He does that,” he says, the corner of his mouth lifting, and I think of Aiden’s flashy gun and his watch. How I’d wondered about both of them before I’d even known them.
“You did good, Cora,” Aiden continues, his eyes soft. “You held your own today.”
“I knew you and Cypress would come back.” My eyes drift shut when the back of his finger brushes my cheek. “I thought if I could just make it until then, I’d be okay, but then he tried to grab me and I—”
“You did good,” he repeats, and I think I see a flicker of sadness in his expression before he leans forward and presses a kiss to my forehead. “You did so good, baby.”
I sigh, wanting to wrap myself up in the praise the same way that I’m wrapped up in his coat, in his smell, in the way it feels when he tips my chin up so that his mouth can take mine. A small sound escaping me that he returns with something deeper, rougher. Something so distinctlyAidenthat it makes me smile, and he returns that, too.
“You really are going to be trouble, aren’t you?” he mutters. “Going to make me crazy.”
“You seem to like that,” I say back, thinking of Cypress again, and he laughs.
“Suppose I do.” He lightly scrapes his scruffy mustache along my neck before placing one more kiss against my cheek. “You should get some rest.”
“I’m not tired,” I say, and it almost sounds like a plea.
His dark brown eyes meet mine before dropping to my mouth as he teases, “You will be.”
He slowly stands and releases his hold on me, and I actually sway, the most movement I appear capable of until long after he’s walked away and is no longer giving me those knowing looks over his shoulder as he goes.
Even after, I only huddle more firmly inside his coat, sticking my hands in the pockets. As the happy feeling in my chest threatens to spill over, I’m not even sure why I’m trying to hide the fact that I’m grinning like a fool when no one is here to see except the stars above.
Then my fingers graze a small slip of paper in his pocket, my first thought that it must be his list of supplies from town before I pull it out, recognizing it as I hold it up beneath those same stars to read. All that happiness dims.
One coach ticket.
One passenger.
One way.
Transportation to Boston.
Cypress is waiting by the water just as he said he’d be. So clearly antsy that I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at his expense. Hard not to enjoy it, though. Very rarely do I see Cypress ruffled. Let alone in the type of mood to beg.
His head whips up when he hears a twig snap under my boot, the water behind him moving too slowly to drown out the sound.