Legacies Read Free Page A

slipped from the gathering, unobserved, and sought the quiet of the side garden.
    Once there, Lije pulled a laughing Diane into the shadows of a trellised arch laden with honeysuckle. Her laughter died as she looked into his eyes. His gaze was intense, a hot, hot blue that made her throat grow dry with anticipation. He bent his head to hers, their lips met, brushed, his breath a warm caress against her skin.
    With a half-smothered groan, he dragged her to him and claimed her lips in a driving kiss that was warm, hard, and demanding. Her mouth was like silk, smooth and clinging. The desire that had simmered between them all evening rushed to the surface. Lije gave full rein to it, taking his fill of her lips, but it wasn't enough. He knew it even as he felt the tremble of longing that shuddered through her. In an attempt at control, he shifted his attention to her cheek, her jaw, the delicate lobe of her ear.
    "Lije," she whispered his name, going soft and pliant in his embrace. "You have no idea how much I wanted this."
    "No more than I." He rubbed his lips over the blue vein in her neck that throbbed so heavy and fast.
    "You don't understand," she said with a small shake of her head, then pulled back to look at him, her eyes shimmering with a mixture of wonder and need. "I have adored you since I was a child. When the government closed Fort Gibson, and we had to leave, I was heartbroken." She paused and smiled, raising a hand to run her fingers along the smooth line of his jaw. "It sounds silly, doesn't it? I was only a girl. What did I know about love? That's what I used to tell myself. But I never stopped hoping we would meet again someday. And I was always terrified that if we did, you would be married to someone else. I'm glad you're not." Her fingers slid into his hair, drawing him down. "Kiss me again, Lije."
    He obliged her and lost himself in the softness of her lips, the heat of them, the bottomless pleasure of them. Just for the moment, he thought of nothing but her—not the past with its ghosts and not the future with its vague forebodings. He knew it was madness to forget his priorities and sink into her spell. But she was all softness and strength, all trembles and demands. The scent radiating from the skin of her neck made his head spin.
    "I love you, Diane." He wanted her, in his arms and in his life.
    "And I love you." Her voice trembled with deep feeling. She laughed a little shakily, then bent her head to rest the top of it against his shoulder. "Who would have guessed it would all turn out so glorious?"
    Gripped by a feeling of urgency, he said, "Diane, I'll be leaving soon—"
    "No." Her head came up, her eyes bright with confidence. "I won't let you go."
    "I can't stay—" Regret riddled his voice.
    "Of course, you can. Just the other day I heard Judge Wickham mention that Senator Frederick was looking for a bright young man to fill a position he had open in his Boston office. Judge Wickham likes you. I know I could persuade him to recommend you. Don't you see how perfect it would be, with both of us in Boston?"
    "Diane, no." He took her by the shoulders and held her gaze, needing to make it clear to her. "I'm going home."
    She hesitated only fractionally. "Naturally you want to go home and visit your family, your parents. I understand that. Afterwards you can come back here and—"
    "No."
    "No?" She stiffened, then pulled away and turned from him in agitation. "Why? What on earth is there for you back there? There are so many more opportunities for you here, so much more you can do, so much more you can be."
    "I have to go home. I need to go home." Lije didn't know how to put into words the unease he felt, the fears that never left him, the images of the past that haunted him and turned that need to return home into a compulsion. "Come with me, Diane."
    "Come with you?" She swung back around.
    "I want you to be my wife."
    "Just like that? You can't be serious."
    "But I am." His eyes frosted