He’d come to mean a lot to her, had become very special to her. She could not understand how it was possible for her to feel such fondness for a man like
Roman Montana, but she could not deny her own affection for him.
And she could not imagine how she would feel when the day came that they would part. “Theodosia?”
Gently, she touched the cleft in his chin, then slipped her fingers through the raven silk of his hair. “Tell me when I gave you permission to address me by my first name.”
He grinned down at her. “Calling youMiss Worthwhile practicing the sweet art of passion just didn’t seem to occur to me. What about you? You called me by my first name, too.”
“Did you know,” she murmured, her hand still lost within his thick hair, contentment still whispering through her, “that the nameRomanis from the Latin wordRomanus?It means ‘a person from Rome.’”
“Don’t tell me—the nameTheodosiais from the Latin wordTheoknowsia,which means ‘a person who knows everything.’”
She lowered her hand to his chest and drew lazy circles around his dark nipple.“Theodosiais Greek, meaning ‘divine gift.’ When my sister Lillian was sixteen years old, my parents despaired of ever having more children. When I was born, they thought of me as a present from heaven. Thus, their choice for my name.”
Her explanation caused him to realize how little she’d told him about her past. She’d certainly delved into his past enough times, but she didn’t offer to share her own memories with him. He decided it might be fun to coerce her into talking about them.
But not now. Later, after he’d made sure she wasn’t sorry about what they’d done. “I asked you a question, and you haven’t answered it.”
She laid her head on his shoulder, marveling over the fact that she was completely naked and felt no shame or timidity. “No, Roman, I am not sorry. The pleasure satisfied my physical need as well as my curiosity, which has continued to build ever since you first mentioned the importance of sexual fulfillment. Once again, you have taught me something that I did not know, and for that I am truly grateful.”
As it had in the past, her gratitude pulled at something in his chest that was beginning to feel a lot like his heart. “Why did you cry, Theodosia?” he asked, absently running his hand through the warm moist hollow between her breasts.
She recalled her eyes filling with tears. He’d told her she was beautiful. She’d never imagined how much the words would mean to her. Indeed, before she’d met Roman she’d rarely thought about her looks but had concentrated only on her studies. Smiling, she felt the corner of her mouth spread against his smooth skin. “I wept because you made me happy, Roman. The happiest I have ever been in my life.”
Her admission of happiness, the first any woman had ever spoken to him, strengthened the tug he felt in his heart.
And when she snuggled closer to his chest and wiggled in his arms, he thought about how right it felt to have her there.
Chapter Ten
With Secret tied to the backof the wagon, Roman drove the buckboard down the moonlit dirt road, Theodosia fast asleep at his side. As he’d vowed to do, he’d taken her out of Kidder Pass in the middle of the night. Sleepy as she’d been, she’d voiced little objection but had quietly done as he’d asked.
When they reached the town of Singing Creek at dawn the next morning, he carried her into the hotel. She never woke up, not even when he took off her clothes and tucked her into bed. After seeing to the wagon and horses, he joined her and promptly fell asleep beside her.
Hours later, when Theodosia awakened, she found herself in a strange room. She had no clothes on and was lying in bed next to Roman. Her first thought was that he was as naked as she was, but the feel of his buckskin-clad legs assured her he was not.
“What is Tibet?” John the Baptist asked from within his cage, which sat atop the small table in front of the window. “A land of giants? Who the hell is Ingrid?”
Theodosia watched her bird fling water onto the windowpane. Where on earth were they? she wondered, examining the small but clean and well-furnished room. She remembered Roman waking her up in Kidder Pass and telling her something about throwing the Jisters off the trail, and she had vague memories of traveling down a long stretch of dark road. But beyond those things, she had no further memory of the night’s activities.
Sweeping her gaze over Roman’s face, she decided her confusion didn’t matter. She was fine. Safe and sound. Roman had seen to that.
Warmed by her own thoughts and the heat of his body, she looked at his hat and gunbelt, which hung on the hatstand near the door. The familiar sight made her smile. Closing her eyes, she allowed her thoughts to drift through her mind like a gentle mist through lazy sunshine, and she wondered what it would be like to wake up beside Roman every morning for the rest of her life.
Married to him.
Her eyes opened. She gasped so quickly that she almost choked. Jerking herself away from him, she shook her head to clear it of such a ludicrous thought.
“Oh, Theodosia,” she whispered.“Married to him?”
It was one thing to enjoy Roman’s company and attentions and to worry about the inner wounds his disturbing past had inflicted. It was even permissible for her to feel warm regard for him.
But it was quite another thing altogether to fantasize about being hiswife.
What in heaven’s name was happening to her? It wasn’t like her at all to indulge in daydreaming. Such fanciful thinking had no bearing at all on reality, and she’d always prided herself for keeping both her feet firmly on the ground.
She’d misplaced her wits, that was what. So flattered was she by this devastatingly handsome man’s compliments and passion for her—so touched was she by the tender feelings he drew forth from her—that she’d lost complete sight of her all-important objectives.
