Her voice was so low and so very defeated, he had to lean closer to hear her. She murmured, “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
Matt sat silently, puzzling over her statement, running his fingers through his dark hair thoughtfully. Finally, he asked, “What do you mean?”
She stared out at the prairie, in the direction the drifters had ridden, seeming to speak only to herself as she whispered hollowly, “...over before it’s even begun...”
“Kitty, I don’t understand.”
She gave a mirthless laugh. “I know you don’t, Matt.” She abruptly started to stand. “Don’t worry about it...”
Matt grabbed her hand and pulled her insistently back down on the bench facing him. “Don’t go, Kitty.”
She looked surprised but held onto his hand. Then she focused her gaze down at their entwined fingers and asked sadly, “Are you ever ashamed of me, Matt?”
“Ashamed of you...? No, Kitty...”
“But what about those men?” She absently traced a finger over the back of his hand, still refusing to meet his eyes. “Weren’t you ashamed of me today because of the way they acted...what they said about me?”
“No.”
“Not even a little bit?” She tucked a loose red curl behind her ear.
“Kitty, you can’t help what other people say and do...”
“But you know what I used to do for a living, Matt.”
“Kitty, look at me.” He touched her chin, searched her eyes. “You don’t do that anymore.”
“I used to. And people from my past like those men may continue to come back to haunt me.”
“Kitty, you did what you did to survive, to make a living, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Nobody can blame you for that, honey.”
She looked up at him with big melting sapphire eyes, making his heart constrict in his chest, and murmured, “I like it when you call me that, Matt.”
“You do?” His voice rose a little in surprise.
She nodded. Then she took a deep breath, removed his hat, and touched her lips softly to his cheek.
“You really like it when I call you that?” A smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “Honey...?”
She kissed him softly on the other cheek. “Mm-hmm.” Then she looked up at him through her lashes. “And you really aren’t ashamed of me, Matt?” She traced a manicured nail over his bottom lip.
“Unh-uh...” he murmured, and he kissed the tip of her finger, making her shiver in delight.
She felt him staring at her face, his eyes traveling to her mouth. She bit her bottom lip, then asked, “You wouldn’t be ashamed of me if I were your girl?”
“Never.”
“Honest?”
“Honest, Kitty...” He placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, “Can I kiss you now, honey?”
“Oh, you can kiss me, Matt Dillon. But first I gotta know.”
“Know what?”
“Do you want me to be your girl?”
“Yes, Kitty, I want you to be my girl. Without a doubt.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Can I kiss you now?”
Suddenly she pulled back, eyes narrowed, “Say, Matthew Dillon, you’re not sayin’ that just so you can kiss me, are you?”
“Is that what you think of me? You know I’m not that kind of a man, Kitty.”
Gazing into his honest blue eyes and guileless expression, she sighed, “Yeah, I know you’re not.” Then she added wistfully, “You know, I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time.”
“You have?” He put both hands on her cheeks and smiled a sweet, lazy smile. “So have I, Miss Kitty. So have I.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, what’re you waitin’ for? Shut up and kiss me, Cowboy.”
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The wide, wheat-colored prairie fairly inched past the creaking wagon while Doc steered the team toward Dodge as slowly as he could possibly manage without actually going backwards, Kitty thought with a smile. He’d insisted on driving himself because he didn’t trust Matt not to jolt his patient and reinjure her poor head. Doc and Matt had made her a soft pallet in the back, but she couldn’t lie still. She’d been still for three days straight now and was plumb wore out with it.
Doc fussed and cajoled, trying to get her to lie back but Kitty just crossed her arms and pressed her lips stubbornly together until Matt tied Buck to the back and crawled in the wagon bed with her. He sat leaning against the side and just as stubbornly pulled Kitty halfway into his lap with her head pillowed comfortably on his chest. “Rest,” he commanded, winking up at Doc whose bushy eyebrows reached for the azure-blue Kansas sky as he turned back to his reins, smothering a smile and chuckling softly to himself. He figured fiery-tempered Kitty Russell had finally met her match with a Dodge City marshal twice her size.
Matt wrapped his arms around her slim waist securely while she folded her hands over his and gave a big sigh. He could feel her relaxing slowly against his body, muscle by muscle, within his comforting embrace. Pretty soon, she was breathing softly and evenly, and he knew she had stopped fighting it and was sound asleep.
His chest ached, thinking of all she had been through the past few days. He blamed himself for most of it. Looking down at her relaxed expression in peaceful slumber, his breath caught in his throat at the sight—dark lashes against pale, freckled , delicate skin. Plump, peach-colored lips that begged to be tasted... Matt knew without a doubt that he had it bad for Kitty Russell, the smartest, bravest, sweetest, most spirited girl in town.
But how to protect her? He thought of the Gunther brothers, jabbing the barrel of a gun into Kitty’s tender side and taking her away as a human shield. He had seen the unfortunate truth in Jed Gunther’s stone cold eyes at the moment he’d realized Kitty was special to Matt. He’d reveled in telling Matt how he’d hurt her if they were followed. That bastard was a born killer, and Matt had known he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Kitty at the first opportunity. He remembered the frightened look on her face when they’d dragged her away, but she’d been brave, telling him, “It’s alright, Matt.”
But that hadn’t been enough. One or perhaps both of the men had hurt her badly while she was their prisoner. Hitting her so hard she suffered a concussion, kicking her in the ribs... Matt gritted his teeth just thinking about it, squeezing his eyes shut trying to block out the violent, scary images that ran rampant in his tortured mind. He didn’t want that ever to happen to her again. Ever.
“Matt?” It was a sleepy voice calling to him.
He opened his eyes with a start.
“What’s the matter, Matt? Are you okay? You look upset.”
“I’m fine, Kitty.” He gave her a small, unconvincing smile.
“Matt Dillon, I can tell when something is wrong.”
Matt glanced circumspectly up at Doc, happily holding the reins and loudly singing away about a long lost love in Tupelo as he had for the past thirty minutes. He wasn’t paying them a bit of attention and couldn’t hear a word they were saying. Matt lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Kitty, can you do something for me?”
She looked up at him warily. “Depends...”
“Kitty...I...I know I told you I wanted you to be my girl...”
“Yesss...” she said cautiously. She could barely breathe, waiting for the other shoe to fall.
“Do you think we could keep it...I mean, us... a secret?”
She whispered, “A secret?” and her eyes clouded over as she looked away suddenly.
“What Kitty?”
“Nothing.” Here voice was flat and so was her expression.
“Tell me.”
“You are ashamed of me.” Her brow crinkled and her face was crestfallen.
Matt quickly rushed to explain, “No... No! Really, that’s not it at all. I’m just...afraid for you.”
“Afraid?”
“I’m afraid you’ll be hurt.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Matt...”
“No, not me, honey. I’m afraid of what my enemies might do to you.”
“But, Matt, you’re the bravest person I know. You’re not afraid of anything.”
“I am where you’re concerned. I’m afraid for you, Kitty. I have a lot of enemies, you know. I don’t want you to ever be hurt again, like the Gunther brothers did. I couldn’t stand it if anybody did anything like that to you again, sweetheart.”
A look of relief washed over her tired features with the realization that Matt Dillon was trying to protect her. “Matt?”
“Yeah, Kitty?”
“Call me that again.”
“Sweetheart?”
“Yeah, that...”
“I’ll call you sweetheart all you want if I can just keep you to myself. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise...sweetheart.” He sneaked a swift, tender kiss on her lips and then held a silencing index finger to his own mouth as he smiled, glancing up at Doc’s back while he held the reins, singing his heart out about the prettiest girl in all of Tupelo.
Kitty settled back against Matt’s broad chest, soaking in his warmth and strength and comfort. She reveled in the feel of his arms enveloping her and wondered how she’d ever manage to keep her love for him a secret from all of Dodge.
The End, unless you wish the story to go a little farther, and spicier, if you know what I mean, in an "optional" Chapter 10.
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