Page 64 of Wellspring
Erick eased down onto the wooden bench, his breath catching in his throat as Cade steadied his head with one hand, the other drawing the razor carefully down his cheek.Erick had always considered shaving a routine necessity, but in Cade’s hands it became an act of intimacy, each pass of the blade over his skin a caress.
Cade felt it too, if the way his blue-green eyes darkened was any indication.He rinsed the razor and returned to begin shaving the other side.“If this feels half as good to you as it does to me, we might have to make a habit of it.”
“I have never found it so before.”Erick swallowed when Cade gently tilted his head back before plying the razor over the tender flesh of his chin and throat.“But it feels good any way you touch me.”
“I’m glad.”Cade set the razor aside and ran the tips of his fingers over the freshly shaved skin.“Close your eyes now.”
When Erick did, Cade sluiced water over his face, washing away the remnants of soap.“There.As smooth as the day I met you.”
“On that day I would not have dared to do this.”Erick reached up to cradle Cade’s head between his hands and draw him into a kiss.“You have taken such care of me, from that day to this.”
“I wish you’d dared.We might have figured things out faster if you had.As for taking care of you, I’ll do whatever it takes to help you get back on your feet again.”He urged Erick to stand and moved behind him to begin washing his back.“Don’t complain,” he added before Erick could do just that.“You can’t reach your own back right now, and I won’t have you hurting yourself trying.Let me help you, okay?”
The gentle press of Cade’s palms eased aches Erick hadn’t acknowledged even to himself.He leaned into Cade’s strength and turned his head to brush his lips against Cade’s jaw.“I do not mean to fight you.But you must allow me to regain what I have lost, if I am ever to become worthy of you again.”
“Wor—” Cade stammered to a stop.“Erick, is that what you think?That being shot somehow means you aren’t worthy of me?What the hell?You survived something that should have killed you!If either of us should be worried about being worthy, it’s me.”He set the soap down and kissed Erick long and slow and deep.“I love you so much.I’m no good with words, not in English and not in Comanche.Maybe it comes from bouncing back and forth between languages when I was a kid.Or maybe it’s just me.But I love you.I don’t care if you never get any stronger than you are right now.You’re all I want.All I’ll ever want.”He stopped and took a breath, then another.“Tomorrow I have to go to town with Payne and Miz Roarke for the trial, but when that’s over and I come back, I will fix this.”
Erick’s heart swelled at Cade’s declaration.He knew Cade cared for him.No one took such care with another person if they didn’t, but hearing the words aloud with such force and surety erased any remaining doubts.Still, he could not let Cade believe he was anything less than the amazing man he was.“How can you doubt your own worthiness?”he countered.“You survived a childhood that would have broken a lesser man.You are strong and capable and resourceful—everything I hoped to prove myself to be in starting a new life.I am proud and humbled to have won your regard—your love.”He shook his head.“There is nothing you need to fix.If I sometimes fear I will never regain my full strength again, all I have and all I am belong to you.”
“When you spend ten years listening to men call you ‘squaw’ or worse because a tribe of Comanche were kind enough to take you in, it’s easy to start doubting yourself,” Cade admitted.“Still, they are as much or more a part of me as the white man’s world.Wellspring is the only place I’ve found since leaving the tribe that has welcomed all sides of me.”
“Why did you leave?”Erick had wondered since the first time Cade mentioned his family, but the moment had never been right.Now, after all this time, he finally felt like he could ask.
“The Army actively tried to find and rescue children ‘captured by Indians’,” Cade explained in a bitter voice.“They saw a white youth riding with a Comanche and shot first instead of asking questions.They killed one of my brothers, shot him clean in the back, never mind that we were trying to flee, not fight.I couldn’t stay after that, not when my presence put the rest of my family at risk.”
Of course Cade would sacrifice his own happiness for the safety of his adoptive family.Erick could only be grateful that fate had brought them both together from such separate worlds.
“When I decided to come to America, I scarce dared dream of finding a haven as accepting as Wellspring.”Erick picked up the soap and ran the lather over Cade’s chest.“Nor a man as perfect as you.”He placed a finger against Cade’s lips before he could speak.“You are perfect for me.I wish only to become once more the man you deserve.”
“Youarethe man I deserve,” Cade replied.“But there’s no point in arguing over it.”He ran the soap over Erick’s chest in turn.“I can think of other things I’d rather do instead.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
CADE SHIFTEDuncomfortably on the pew in the church turned courtroom.He’d changed into his cleanest outfit in the back room of Miz Hart’s mercantile once they got to Eldorado, and now he had to resist the urge to tug at the collar of his shirt where the bolo tie he wore left him feeling like he was about to choke.Reichardt sat on the other side of the center aisle, looking as disdainful and superior as always, making Cade wonder if he knew something they didn’t.Nothing Carter could have told him of Wellspring’s secrets would change his guilt, but it might sway the judge in his favor, not to mention how at least some of the townsfolk might react to hearing what was accepted at Wellspring.Carter hadn’t known about Payne and Miz Roarke, but he might have told Reichardt about Kit and Mac.If he couldn’t save his own skin, he’d revel in taking Wellspring down with him.
“All rise.This court is called to order,” Marshal Parnell said from the front of the room.“The Honorable Judge Samuel Martin Morrison presiding.”
A gray-haired man in black robes walked into the room and took a seat behind the large desk that had been moved into the sanctuary.He appeared serious and no-nonsense to Cade, but what did he know about legal proceedings and trials and, fuck, he should have insisted on driving the buckboard so Erick could be here.He would’ve been much better at this than Cade would be.
Once the judge was seated, everyone else returned to their places and the marshal outlined the charges against Reichardt: attempted murder, attempted theft, bribing a US Marshal, and the list went on, half of which Cade didn’t understand, but the longer he spoke, the more serious the judge’s expression grew.
“Mr.Reichardt, how do you plead?”the judge asked.
“Not guilty, of course,” Reichardt said haughtily.Cade resisted the urge to snort.
The judge sighed.“Very well.Marshal, present your evidence.”
“Mr.Payne, if you would take the stand?”Marshal Parnell asked.
“You’d take the word of a—”
“Mr.Reichardt, there will be no insults in my court,” the judge interrupted.“You will have your turn to speak, but I will hear the testimony of anyone Marshal Parnell calls as a witness, is that understood?”
Cade relaxed a little for the first time since he’d left Wellspring.Maybe things would be all right after all.
The judge stood with a flutter of his robes.“Before we begin, let me make it clear that I expect everyone giving testimony today to swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.If there is anyone who isn’t prepared to agree to this, let him or her leave this courtroom now.”No one moved.“Very well, then consider yourselves all bound by this oath.Now let’s proceed.Mr.Payne, was it?”
Payne rose and walked to the seat beside the judge’s desk.“Ezekiel Payne, foreman of the Wellspring Ranch.And you’d best believe everything I tell you will be the truth.”
