Page 33 of The Prospector's Only Prospect
He kicked the last of the fire down. “You can all go home now.”
…
In the morning, Virgil kept thinking about what his partners had said about how anyone would want Marigold. It was true. In their short acquaintance, he’d seen that Marigold wasn’t afraid to work, was good with his children, and was easy enough to look at.
He caught himself staring at her when he checked on Harley. The kid had spent the evening stealing bites off of every plate he could reach, flashing his cheeky grin as he did. For the first time since he’d gotten here, he wasn’t waking up hungry, begging for something in his belly so he could finish sleeping.
Virgil was pleased about that but missed his morning cup of milk with the little squirt. It had become his habit to take a few minutes with his children in this dawn hour, checking in with whichever older one was stirring enough to be left in charge of the baby until Leyohna came across.
That was on Marigold now. Should he wake her to tell her he was leaving? Her mosquito bites were fading, leaving her cheek pale and smooth in the dim light. Her lashes were sooty and thick, her hair a ribbon that trailed outside the blanket, tempting him to give it a tug.
As if he had, she took a long inhale and snapped her eyes open, turning her head and widening her eyes as she found him hanging over her like a vulture looking to pick bones.
He gestured toward Harley to explain himself, then got the hell out of the cabin before his cheeks turned a guilty pink.
When he came out of the john a minute later, Marigold was coaxing the fire to life with one hand, clasping her shawl over her shoulders with the other.
“You didn’t have to get up.” The sky was still purple-gray, the stars not yet faded.
“I’d like to cut some fabric for the children’s clothes today.” She copied his quiet undertone. “So I can sew in the evenings. I wanted to ask you where you left the scissors?”
He looked around, trying to recollect. Somewhere Harley couldn’t reach them. The shelf outside the door?
“Since you’re up…” He fetched them. “I’ll take that trim.”
“Oh. Um. Of course.” She nodded at one of the log rounds and removed her shawl so it wouldn’t hinder her.
“Not too short. Nights will be cold soon,” he warned and took off the straw hat he wore to keep the sun off his head. “Take my beard up, too.”
“All right. Um.” She moved behind him and began tucking his collar down.
Her fingers caressed the back of his neck in a tickling touch that feathered its way straight down his spine, slithered under his tailbone to tickle his balls, and filled his cock with heat.
Ohshit, this was a terrible idea.
He gathered himself to stand, but the weight of her hands came onto his shoulders.
“Sit straight. Dip your head forward.”
He swallowed and tucked his chin.
The cold metal began to clip along his nape. He watched his broken, dirty nails curl into his palms.
The blades made a few passes against his neck, barely warming from the heat of his body, then began to clip around his ears.
“Don’t move,” she warned softly.
It was downright erotic, holding still like this while she petted his hair and gathered it in bunches. He held his breath but heard hers along with the soft rustle of her clothes. Her short skirt brushed his knees and the back of his hands.
Theclip-clipof the scissor blades worked around his head and down the side of his face, making his beard itch. Just as he was about to scratch into it, she began pinching sections of whiskers. Her knuckles brushed his cheekbone and grazed his lips.
He was caught in ecstatic torture. His mouth watered. His pulse was throbbing in the tip of his stiff cock, dampening the eye. Her clothes smelled of flour and the familiar must of the cabin and the warm musk of a woman.
As he spread his knees, she stepped between. He opened his eyes enough to see the swells of her breasts beneath her coat. Were her nipples hard? Did she like them to be sucked?
He felt as though his skin had shrunk and he would split right out of it if he didn’t put his hands and mouth on her. Everything in him wanted to grab her and kiss her and fuck the daylights out of both of them.
“You have a widow’s peak. I didn’t realize…”
