Katie nodded. “Yeah—but did ya never see a ghost when you was alone? I did !” she swore emphatically, shifting Elizabeth’s thoughts.
Elizabeth chuckled at her tone. “No,” she replied as soberly as possible, shaking her head thoughtfully. “I don’t believe I ever did. I wonder what your ghost looked like,” she pondered aloud, gently tousling Katie’s soft hair.
“Like my mommy,” Katie responded at once, sending a quiver down Elizabeth’s spine. “And I wasn’t even scared,” Katie said, “but my granpapa said it was a dream ghost, anyhow, and I shouldn’ta been ascared, anyway. Do ya wanna know what the dream ghost tol’ me?” she asked, with just the right hint of intrigue.
Elizabeth stroked the back of her fingers against Katie’s cheek, smiling fondly at her. Without even trying, Katie had somehow become so much a part of her. And it had happened so easily, and so swiftly. “What did the dream ghost tell you?”
Katie’s eyes were wide and haunting in the darkness. The lamplight falling across her face made her skin pale, her features ethereal. “She tol’ me you was gonna be my mommy now.”
At the unexpected declaration, Elizabeth’s heart twisted violently.
“I asked my granpapa, and he said you was. Are ya?” she wanted to know, her dark eyes round and hopeful.
Again, Elizabeth’s chest constricted. “Do you want me to be your mommy?” she asked with a catch in her voice. The sweetest smile touched Katie’s lips, and she nodded slowly. Smiling faintly, her heart as full as it had ever been, Elizabeth bent to kiss the child on the forehead, tucking the blanket higher about her little chin. “Then I would like that, too—very, very much!” she assured her. She rose, but her fingers continued to caress Katie’s cheek. “Good night, sweetheart.”
Like a satisfied kitten, Katie stretched, and Elizabeth could almost feel the tension leave her. “Night, Aunt Lizabeth,” she replied.
Elizabeth dimmed the lamp slowly, waiting for a protest. When it didn’t come, she snuffed it completely, and then bent again to kiss Katie’s soft little cheek, thinking, with a sigh, that this day had easily been one of the most emotional she’d ever endured. Katie’s sparkling eyes followed her as she went to the door, opening it.
“Sweet dreams,” Elizabeth whispered, feeling suddenly as drained as she’d ever felt. Stepping out, she drew the door closed behind her, touching it briefly, her eyes closing as she turned away.
On the way back to her own room, Elizabeth decided with a weary sigh that it would be silly to pace the floor all night waiting for Cutter, fully dressed. Cutter and Elias might very well “butt heads” until late in the night, and it just didn’t make sense for her not to go on to bed.
Besides, it wasn’t as though there were a reason to wait up.
With that decision made, once she was in her room, she quickly stripped down to her drawers and camisole, and then she divested the bed of its top cover, placing it upon the chair for Cutter. Savoring the luxury of clean, cool sheets against her flesh, she crawled into bed. As an afterthought, she put out the lamp, snuggling deep into the sheets.
Little more than fifteen minutes had passed when Cutter sauntered in. Closing the door, he immediately began unbuttoning his shirt in the darkness. Elizabeth said nothing, only watched, the tiniest part of her feeling guilty because she was straining through the shadows to catch even the smallest glimpse of him. To her disappointment, she couldn’t see a thing, because the curtains were closed and the darkness was impenetrable.
As though he’d read her thoughts, Cutter suddenly stepped toward the window, shrugging off his shirt on the way and dropping it onto the end of the bed. Drawing open the drapes, he let in the silvery moonlight, and Elizabeth squeezed both lids closed, not wanting him to know that she was still awake. A moment later, when the stillness of the room piqued her curiosity, she peered through her lashes.
He was standing, gazing out the window, his face in profile to her. The light that fell across his features made him appear harsh. Made his broad shoulders glisten. As she watched him, he turned abruptly, and she snapped her lids closed, only this time, not all the way.
Through her lashes, she watched him as he released the top button of his trousers, and the sound of it popping loose sent a shiver of remembrance down her spine. In another moment, he’d tugged his denims down just so far, and then sat on the chair facing her to remove them the rest of the way. He tugged off one boot, and then moved to the other, grunting as he loosened it. Finally he jerked it off, but not without issuing what sounded suspiciously like a groan of... Was it pain?
With a muttered curse, he threw the offending boot to the floor and then shrugged the rest of the way out of his denims. When those were discarded, he rolled off his socks, sighing long and hard as he dropped them to the floor as well. And then, for the life of her, Elizabeth couldn’t tell what he was doing, but it appeared that he was inspecting the sole of his foot in the darkness. For what reason, she didn’t know, but she felt like lighting the lamp. Honestly, how did he expect to see anything at all in the dark?
He swiveled toward the window suddenly, lifting his left foot up to probe it by the light of the moon. “Damn,” he swore softly.
Forgetting in her concern that she was supposed to be asleep, Elizabeth lifted herself a fraction. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a glimpse of his foot, but saw nothing. She cursed her eyesight.
Hearing the sheets rustle, Cutter dropped his foot abruptly, glancing at the bed.
Elizabeth froze.
“You awake?”
Cutter sighed irritably when there was no response. He’d come in hoping to find her up, but had opened the door to find the lights out, instead, and Elizabeth snuggled in so cozily that he didn’t have the heart to wake her. Hell, his foot was aching enough that he’d wanted her to look at it, but he wasn’t about to wake her just for that. He’d suffered a helluva lot worse. Besides, he’d downed enough deadshot that it should have been anesthetized by now, and it probably would be soon.
“Cussin’ foot,” he muttered. The moist heat of his boot hadn’t done it much good. But now that the fresh air was soothing it, it felt better. Leaning forward, he rested his forearms upon his lap, letting his hands dangle tiredly between his legs, his fingers linking, while he stared somberly at the bed.
How had she done it? he wondered. Snagged his heart without ever trying? He shook his head in self-disgust. He must be getting soft in his old age, because that chocolate-eyed niece of hers had somehow managed to do the same. He could look into the kid’s eyes and almost believe she was his and Elizabeth’s.
With that thought, he closed his eyes, and with primeval pleasure, tried to imagine what a child of their own would look like, only to realize the mistake he’d made in following that train of thought. His body responded at the barest hint of their mating, rousing in the space of seconds.
Hell, he’d been walking around in a state of half arousal all day because his pride wouldn’t let him make love to her again without her asking him to do so. He’d come too close this afternoon to baring his soul, and it hadn’t moved her a’tall. It still galled him that she’d preferred to sleep in the chair than with him.
Lifting the blanket she’d left for him, Cutter shook it out with a scowl, then settled back into the chair.
