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.“Nothing to worry about.Kiss me, so I’ll know I’m not dreaming—that it’s really you.”Virginia leaned down, shielding his face, as she covered his cold lips with hers.Tears mingled with the raindrops—Virginia’s tears, Channing’s tears.But to be in each other’s arms again washed away all their pain and loneliness.“I was coming to see you.Couldn’t stand it any longer.Had to hold you, to tell you I still love you …” Channing’s words drifted off.“Don’t try to talk, my love.Let me help you to the barn.Father and the boys are still at the house.I’ll hide you, until they leave in the morning.”Struggling through the darkness and the heavy rain, they finally made it to the barn—a warm, dry place that smelled of horses and clean hay.Ginna wondered if she had made the right decision.All the Swan men’s mounts were stabled here for the night.They might find Channing, when they came for their horses in a few hours.If they did, they would have to shoot her to get at him, she decided.Besides, one of the stable boys would saddle the horses.She hoped so, anyway.In the very back of the barn, where broken harnesses and tools were stored for repair, she made a bed of straw for Channing and put a blanket over it, then found another blanket to cover him.He sank gratefully onto the soft, warm pile and offered her a weak smile.“Come lie with me, darlin’.Warm me.I’m so cold.”“I need to see to your wound first.Let me have a look at that arm.”She was relieved to find that it wasn’t too bad.Painful, certainly, but not life-threatening, unless it wasn’t tended and went septic.She found a crockery jug of com whiskey, where one of the stablehands kept it hidden.Strong drink was strictly forbidden among the Swan slaves, but she knew they kept a bit on hand for special occasions—births and deaths.First, she gave Channing a few good swigs, then, when he was looking happily glassy-eyed, she poured some of the whiskey over his arm.He winced.“I’m sorry, darling,” she said, “but it will clean out the wound.”He gave her a goofy grin.“Pain from the woman I love is better than a kiss from any other woman.”“Oh?” she said archly.“And just what other women have you been kissing that you can make such a comparison?”He chuckled.“Only my mother and sisters.Rest easy, girl.You’re the only one I want to kiss.The only one I want to love.”The whiskey had not only eased his pain, but stripped away his inhibitions and made him amorous.He grabbed Virginia with his good arm and drew her close, kissing her so deeply that the whiskey-taste of his mouth made her feel quite lightheaded.“Come lie with me,” he begged.“Make me warm, Virginia.”She hesitated.What if someone found them together this way? But it was still a good two hours until dawn.No one in the house would be up yet.Any slave who might happen in could either be bribed or threatened into silence.Virginia lifted the blanket and slipped underneath, next to Channing.She closed her eyes, savoring this long-awaited feeling of his nearness.But when his hand slipped beneath her shirt, she stiffened.That reaction lasted only for a moment.He was doing wonderful things to her breasts—teasing, stroking, kneading.If Channing wanted heat, he was certainly getting it.His touch was burning her alive.“Are you still going to marry me, Virginia?” he asked, between fevered kisses.“Except for the final promises of the ceremony, I’m your wife already.I have been, since the night you rode away, darling.” Her voice was breathless, her words trembling with emotion.“Then why don’t we finish what was so rudely interrupted that night at the parsonage? Right here, right now, just the two of us? Do you, Virginia, take me to be your lawful wedded husband?”“Oh, yes, I do!”“Now, you ask me.” As he spoke, his hand was easing down toward the belt of her brother’s trousers.“Do you, Channing, take me for you lawful wedded wife?”“Yes, darlin’, I most certainly do! To have and to hold from this day forward.So, I now pronounce us man and wife.And I mean to kiss my bride.”He drew her close, so close that their bodies were touching, from their lips down.Her breasts quivered against his hard chest.Through her brother’s pants, she could feel Channing’s heat and hardness.“We’re married now, Virginia,” he said, pointedly.“Yes,” she breathed, “forever and ever.”He waited a moment more, before he finished his thought.“I want to make love to my wife.”A thrill of excitement and fear rippled through her.“But you’re injured.”“That part of me isn’t.It’s alive and well and throbbing for you, darlin’.”Virginia said nothing; she couldn’t speak.She held perfectly still, as Charming eased her shirt up, until she felt the chill of the night air and the scratch of the rough blanket against her bare breasts.But most of all, she felt Channing’s touch on her flesh, a thousand times over, like tiny, licking flames of pleasure.He shifted a bit.A moment later, she moaned, as his lips touched her nipple.When he dragged his tongue over her tender flesh, she squirmed in his arms.“This isn’t much of a honeymoon,” he said with a nervous laugh, “but it’s wartime, after all.”His mention of the war broke down her final barrier.Channing was right.He would soon go back into the thick of the battle.Could she let him go without having known his love? No!“Any honeymoon with you is more than I could ever have hoped for, Channing.I love you.I’ve grieved for you, since the night you left.I’ve been so worried.I have a bag packed up in my room this very minute.I had planned to leave here in the morning to find you.Now—wonder of wonders—I have you
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