Victoria Thompson: Texas Blonde

Felicity felt her eyes fill with tears as she remembered her own bitterness over what she had considered his desertion. She reached up and clasped the hand that still rested by her face and placed a kiss on the roughened palm. "But we were happy when I came back home," she reminded him.

He smiled sadly at the memory. "For a very short while, but then we realized you were pregnant."

He did not need to explain. She remembered only too well the strained desperation she had felt during that time to continue the carefree charade. He, too, must have known the same desperation.

"Joshua, all that is over now. The reasons we were miserable no longer exist. I know you love me, and we don't have to be afraid anymore…"

"But that isn't enough," he insisted, and once more she listened with dread to what he wanted to tell her. "Like I said, the only times you've been really happy are when you were here… and when you're taking photographs. You've never said anything, but I know how much you love that work and how much it meant to you when your pictures were displayed. I… I'm starting to agree with your grandfather that you should have your own studio here and-"

"Are you saying I should live here, with Grandfather?" she asked in horror.

"No!" he hastily explained. "At least not all the time. But if it's that important to you, maybe you could spend part of the year here and part of the year with me…"

Felicity watched his silver eyes cloud with pain as he said these words, and for the first time she understood, really understood, what he was telling her. He believed that she preferred this life to the one they had in Texas and that the fame she had achieved was vitally important to her. The old Joshua would have feared such feelings and would have packed her off to Texas and kept her locked safely away from these temptations. But her new Joshua was willing to share her, was willing to let her have her life that was so alien to his own. This new Joshua was willing to risk losing her in order to give her what he believed would make her happy.

"Would you be with me while I was here?" she asked, testing her theory.

"As much as I could," he affirmed.

"You'd have to be away from the ranch," she reminded him, recalling his fierce devotion to the land, a love that ran so deep she had once actually believed he would leave her just to conduct a roundup.

"Other people can take care of the ranch," he said. "You're more important to me."

Once more tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. Now was not the time for weeping. This was the happiest moment in her life. "Joshua, you're more important to me than photography or Philadelphia. Don't you know that?" He looked as if he wanted to, but couldn't quite. "Joshua, listen to me! I do love photography, but I can be a photographer in Texas. I can't be your wife here in Philadelphia, without you, and I'd rather be your wife than anything else!"

His gray eyes searched her face for a long moment before he finally trusted himself to feel the surging joy her words produced. Reminding himself of her delicate condition, he resisted the urge to grab her up and crush her to him. Instead, he carefully leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her upturned mouth.

The kiss was long and infinitely sweet. When at last he lifted his lips from hers, he smiled. "You'll be the best photographer in Texas."

Felicity smiled back, easily reading the love and gratitude on his beloved face. "I'll settle for being a good photographer and a happy wife," she replied.

Josh trudged wearily up onto the ranch house porch. He hated coming home to an empty house, knowing Felicity and baby Claire would not be there to greet him. But as he stepped over the threshold into the front room, he sensed a change, as if the room were charged with some sort of electricity. Candace greeted him with a knowing smile.

"They're home," she reported, confirming what he had instinctively known. She motioned toward the bedroom door.

Inside the bedroom, he found Claire nursing happily at her mother's breast as the two females he loved most snuggled together in the rocking chair. Claire paused long enough to give her father a milky smile before returning to the task before her. Felicity reached out her free hand to him.

"Welcome home," he said, crossing the room in long strides to kiss her smiling mouth.

"Did you miss us?" she asked.

"Terribly," he said, kneeling down beside the chair so he could flirt with his daughter. He captured one baby foot and nibbled at her toes, making her giggle but not distracting her long from her feeding. "I thought you'd be gone a few more days."

"Blanche ran us off," Felicity reported cheerfully. "She said she didn't need any more help."

Josh made a face. "She thinks she can handle twin boys all by herself?"

"She claims she's been handling men all her life, and since these two are so small, they're hardly even a challenge," Felicity explained. "Besides, now that the shock has worn off, even Asa has started to pitch in to help."

"I don't believe I ever saw a man so surprised as he was when you told him the news," Josh recalled with a chuckle. For a few minutes they reminisced about the birth of Blanche's sons and considered the possibility that one or both of them might one day court their own daughter. "I got the cutest photograph of them, too. There's only a slight blur where one of them-I can't tell which one it is-moved his hand just a bit."

"Can anyone tell them apart?"

Felicity shook her head. "Blanche claims she can, but how would any of the rest of us ever know if she's right?"

Josh smiled his understanding. "Well, if Claire's going to marry one of them, I hope she can tell the difference." Josh glanced down at where his daughter still suckled at her mother's breast. He grinned wickedly. "That looks like fun," he remarked.

Felicity grinned back and with her free hand slipped aside her chemise to reveal her other breast. "Help yourself," she offered provocatively.

Josh caught his breath on an overwhelming surge of desire. "I can wait my turn," he responded hoarsely.

Felicity looked down at her daughter and determined that the baby was practically asleep. Gently, she removed her nipple from the baby's mouth and carefully laid her down in the nearby cradle. Felicity patted the little girl a few times to make sure she was safely in dreamland, and then she turned back to her husband.

"Your turn," Felicity said coyly, only to find herself being thrust over her husband's shoulder and carried off to their bed. She whooped in feigned outrage as Joshua tumbled her down on the mattress, but he quickly silenced her protests with his own lips.

Felicity slid her arms around his neck and buried her fingers in the silky softness of his silver hair. His kisses were devouring, and she surrendered, eager to be consumed. His hands worked magic as they pushed aside the barrier of her clothes to caress the breasts he had earlier coveted. Her nipples puckered to aching readiness, and he soothed them with his mouth in an erotic parody of infant eagerness.

Felicity cried out as pleasure swamped her senses, turning her desires into compulsion. "Joshua, please!" she begged. He needed no further encouragement. Tearing away the clothes that restricted them, he took her with an urgency that matched her own. Together they strove for the ultimate union, clinging with hands and lips until their bodies convulsed as one, melding them into a single being.

Joshua lifted himself on his elbows so he could watch her face as the aftershocks rippled through her body. "You're so beautiful," he whispered.

She smiled slowly, savoring the moment. "This reminds me of the first time," she murmured, glancing down at their partially clad bodies. But when she lifted her gaze to Joshua's again, she was surprised to see him frowning.