Unexpected Hope (Book 2 in the Red Valley series)

Chapter 35

"God I've missed that." Hope panted as she laid her head on her husband's chest. Their bodies glistened with perspiration from their love making.

"Not as much as I have, I promise. You haven't really been in the mood or able, but I have. Every time I see you I want to make love to you." Levi groaned as he felt his body begin to stir again at the thought of having his wife again.

"It's not that I wasn't in the mood, it just wasn't really possible towards the end of my pregnancy, or after I had Mason and Emma, until now. This is changing the subject slightly, but you know that was my favorite gown."

"I'm sorry Love. I – I didn't hurt you did I?" The thought of causing this woman pain was just too much. Gently he shifted so that he could wrap his arms around her.

"No, you didn't." Hope looked up into her husband's handsome face. A fine stubble covered his strong chin. "I promise." She reached over and laid her hand in the center of his chest, loving the feel of the steady thrum of his heart.

"Um, I do want to talk to you about something, though,"

Something in her tone made him pretty sure that he wasn't going to like what she had to say. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?" He asked, then leaned down kissing her forehead.

Taking a deep breath, Hope jumped in. "Tuck asked Claire to marry him this evening."

"I'm not surprised, I fully expected him to. I really didn't think it would take him this long. I think the boy has been in love with her since the first time he saw her pull up."

"Well, I asked if they had set a date, and she said that Tuck wanted to wait until he had his own house first. So, I told her that I was pretty sure that you wouldn't mind letting them stay here in her room down stairs until we could get a house built for them."

"Wait. Until we get their house built?"

"Um, well yes. I thought that you would want to build your foreman his own house. You do want to make sure he stays here, right?"

"Well."

Hope cut him off before he could say anything else. "I thought a simple house, just over the ridge would be perfect. You know, kind of like what Cole and Grace have for Kit and Sally. That way I would still have the company of a woman while all the men are out on the range."

She did have a point, he conceded. "I guess we could do that. It will take a month or two to get the house built. When did you say the wedding was?"

"Two weeks."

"Well then, I guess we had better start on the new house for the happy couple. I'll talk to Tuck in the morning. Okay, now I want to talk to you about something."

"All right. What did you want to talk about?" She asked as she drew little circles on his chest with her index finger.

Levi looked down at her exposed creamy white shoulder. Her ebony hair lay in silky waves behind her across her pillow. God she was so beautiful! "I want to talk to you about my sister."

"You've never really talked about your family, except that they live in Charleston. Do you have any other siblings?"

Levi sighed deeply. "Yes, there are six of us in all. There's Peter, me, Vincent, Donald, Faith and Maxine. Now, about Faith."

Hope's cheeks colored at the mention of his sister's name. "If you ever let me do something like that again, I'm going to kill you Levi Matthews. I mean it. How am I supposed to face your sister and her friend John in the morning?" Hope groaned with the thought.