The next two weeks flew by for Jack. When Jack wasn't busy at the blacksmith shop, he and Hawke were busy fixing up Jack's new cabin and all the outbuildings. They replaced all the furniture on the inside of the cabin so that nothing inside would be anything that Nathan had touched and Hawke had even helped Jack fill the smokehouse, woodshed and cellar with supplies.

"Allie, doll, we got the cabin all fixed up." Jack said as he and Hawke walked in Hawke's cabin just before lunch.

"You think you might have some more time to spend with me now?" Allie teased as she rinsed her hands off in a bucket of water and dried them on her apron. Lily swatted her with her dish towel.

"Hush. The man has been busting his back to get that place ready so you all can get married and have your own place." she scolded with a smile. Allie nodded.

"I know that." she said and then she turned to Jack. "Does this mean we can get married soon?" Jack laughed nervously and scraped the toe of his boot across the wooden floor.

"Yes m'am." he said. "Whenever you're ready."

"Tomorrow." Allie replied quickly. She had been waiting long enough to be Jack's wife. She had been waiting since she'd been thirteen years old to be exact. Jack choked on the jerky he'd been chewing and after several seconds of wondering whether he was going to live or die he looked up at her through watery eyes and gasped,

"Tomorrow?" Allie cocked her hip to the side and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Is there a reason you would want to wait?" Jack shook his head quickly and crossed the room to her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Tomorrow sounds good to me, doll." he promised.

"Will you take me out to the cabin so I can see the work you did?" Allie asked after he pulled away. Jack nodded and Allie called for Janna who had been stretched out on the floor and walked out the door to go saddle her horse. Hawke followed Jack out onto the porch.

"Should I expect the two of you back tonight?" he asked looking out over the woods. Jack shook his head.

"No, probably not." he replied. He had been waiting a long time to be alone with Allie. He wanted to spend all night with her wrapped tight in his arms and though Hawke had not forbidden them to share a bed together at his house neither Jack or Allie had had the nerve to try again since that first night.

"Okay." Hawke replied in that same deep voice that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking. "I will not worry then."

"You don't have to worry none about Allie." Jack promised. "I would gladly kill anyone or anything that tried to hurt a hair on her head."

"I feel the same way about Lily and Sarah." Hawke replied and Jack saw a rare glimpse of the other man's love for his family written plainly on his face. Allie came out of the barn on Buttercup.

"See ya tomorrow, Hawke." Jack said with a grin. Hawke smiled and nodded.

"I will see you tomorrow." he replied.

888

"This place is beautiful." Allie said as they rode into the clearing. The grass surrounding the cabin was long and full of brightly colored wildflowers. The river ran behind the cabin and the sun shone off of it as it splashed over rocks in the riverbed. A small waterfall filled the air with the sound of crashing water from nearly two hundred feet away.

"It's a real home now, doll." Jack replied watching Janna run to the river and begin splashing around. "We got chickens in the chicken coop, wood in the woodshed, meat in the smokehouse and the cellar is full of food."

"It's perfect." Allie said taking a deep breath of the flower scented air.

"You go ahead and look around while I put the horses up." Jack said taking Buttercups reins from her hand. Allie nodded and Jack led both horses to the barn.

Allie walked into the cabin and saw that it was bigger on the inside than Hawke and Lily's. The kitchen was spacious with cabinets and a woodstove along with a dutch oven and a big washbasin for dishes. There was a large oak table with four chairs in the kitchen as well and then the cabin opened up into a big main sitting room. There was a large sofa and two small armchairs in front of the fireplace. There were plenty of windows but they lacked curtains and Allie made a mental note to get some fabric for them.

Allie opened a door to the side and saw that it led to a small room that was probably a bedroom though there was no bed or dressers. There was a second door that led to yet another empty room. Allie walked back toward the kitchen and opened yet another door.

This led into a bedroom with a big wooden bed and two dressers. A washbasin and vanity desk were over on one wall beside a large window. Allie's eyes were again drawn to the bed. She felt a delicious little tremble pass through her as she realized she and Jack were going to be completely alone for the first time.

She knew there was more that happened between a man and a woman than what she had experienced and she wanted to feel those things. She chewed her lip nervously and wondered just what he would say if he walked in and found her in the bedroom in nothing but her thin white underclothes. She had never been accused of being a coward or of being afraid to go after what she wanted and so she quickly kicked off her ankle boots and slid out of her blue cotton dress.

Her heart was pounding as she pulled several small pins from her hair and the dark waves tumbled down her back and over her shoulders. She looked in the mirror and realized she could see the outline of her nipples through the thin fabric and the shadow of hair between her legs. She was also visibly shaking in her nervousness. She shook her hands and stretched out her neck.

"Come on, Allie. You can do this. You have to reach out and take what you want just like Lily did." she said to her reflection as she remembered how Lily had told her about going after Hawke herself when she felt he was taking too long. Allie looked over at the bed.

How did a woman seduce a man? She had no earthly idea… She knew there were women who made their livings doing just that but Hawke would have skinned her alive if she had tried to set foot in one of those places and so she had never seen how those women went about doing their job.

She sat down on the edge of the bed with her legs hanging over the edge.

"Yes I'm sure the sitting in the outhouse look will work wonders." she scolded herself. She laid down on the bed, her entire body as stiff as a board and as she stared up at the ceiling she rolled her eyes.

"I look like I'm getting ready to be a human sacrifice." she mumbled. She sat up slightly and leaned back on her elbows. She looked down at her long legs and the curve of her hips and smiled.

"This could work." she said. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and chewed on her lips nervously as she waited for Jack to come inside. She could hear the clock ticking out in the sitting room and she was sure she was going to chew a hole straight through her lip if he didn't hurry up when a loud yell, the sound of panicked chickens and a gunshot had her jumping from the bed.

The fact that she was wearing her see through underclothes did not enter her mind as she ran from the cabin to find out what was happening.

"Stupid damn, wolf! What the hell good are you to have around? You let the damn coyote come right in and go after the damn chickens and all you did was sit there and watch!" Jack ranted angrily as Janna buried her head under her paws on the ground at his feet.

"What happened?" Allie asked. Jack did not look back at her as he holstered his gun and growled under his breath.

"Stupid Janna let a damn coyote come after the chickens. He killed a couple before I shot him. I oughta shoot her since she's nothing but a waste of….." Jack's voice trailed off when he finally looked back at Allie.

Allie crossed her arms over her chest awkwardly when she remembered what she was wearing. A tremble passed through her spine when she saw the hungry look come over Jack's face and his blue eyes suddenly darkened with intensity.

"Don't call her stupid." Allie scolded but her words were too full of passion and uncertainty to carry any weight.

Jack didn't reply, he just closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms possessively around her waist, bringing her body into his. His lips found hers and attacked her with a hungry passion that took her breath away and made her knees buckle beneath her. Only his strong arms around her waist kept her standing.

"I want you, doll." Jack's voice was deep and warm as it washed over her face.

"Then take me." Allie whispered, though she wasn't sure how she spoke when she could hardly seem to breath. She let out a gasp of shock when he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and the other around her knees and lifted her into his arms.

Jack wanted nothing more than to make love to this soft, beautiful woman in his arms. He felt Janna trying to push past him and come into the cabin and he kicked her in the head with heel of his boot. She let out a snort and he kicked the door closed in her face.

He carried Allie to the bed and when he lay her down the very room seemed to catch fire. There was nothing slow or gentle about the way they ripped each others clothes off. It was all fire and heat and raw passion as they explored and learned every inch of each others bodies.

Jack braced himself over her and they stared deep into each others eyes as he slid himself inside of her. Their lovemaking was fast and full of fire. Moans and whispers filled the air. Allie felt as if her entire body was full of liquid heat as he pressed his lips against her neck and then suddenly she dug her fingers into his broad back as she felt a pleasure so consuming it stopped all thought.

They lay there still against each other for several long moments, letting their breathing return to normal before Jack moved off of her and laid on his back beside her. She curled up on her side and laid her head on his shoulder. She knew now what Lily felt with Hawke. Passion and heat and an all consuming hunger. It was no wonder her sister had gone running into the Indians arms despite her husband and the harsh judgments of society. Every woman in the world deserved to feel what Allie had felt as Jack had loved her with his body.

"How did you get this one?" Allie asked running her finger over a long jagged scar along his bottom rib and causing him to jump.

"That tickles woman." he exclaimed as he wrapped his arm tight around her and buried his fingers in her hair.

"How did you get it?" she asked again. Jack sighed. Leave it to Allie to want to talk about his scars right now while his brain was still recovering from the love they had just made. Sure he'd been with a few women in his life but they had been paid and meaningless. This was his Allie that had just loved him so passionately. The woman who was going to be his wife. The woman who had owned his heart for the last six years. He knew he did not deserve to have her but he wasn't about to voice that fact out loud.

"You probably don't wanna hear about that one." he replied. Allie propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at his stubble covered face.

"Yes I do. If you think I'll take off running then you're wrong. I don't run from anything and I love you no matter what you've done in the past." Jack couldn't help but grin. Allie was telling the truth about not running from anything. If she had any sense at all she would have told him to get lost the second she had met him in Helena.

"We were in Texas about two years ago and we took shelter for a night in a house. The people who lived there didn't want us there but that never stopped us." Jack paused and hoped he wasn't doing the wrong thing by being honest. Of course it was better to let her know what kind of monster she was marrying before it was too late.

"I was outside keeping watch. There wasn't nothing to be watching for but I didn't want to be inside cause I knew what they were gonna do. I heard the little girls screaming first and instead of doing something to help them I did what I had gotten so good at doing and turned off my ears.

"The door burst open and the wife ran out. She was sobbing hysterically and covered in blood and I knew the blood belonged to her family. I stood up, not to stop her from running but to help her hide. I guess she didn't trust me and I can't say that I blame her. She had a knife in her hand, I'm not sure how she'd managed to get a hold of it but she tried her best to kill me with it."

"Did… Did you kill her?" Allie asked hesitantly. Jack shook his head.

"No. I can't say that I wouldn't have though because I never got the chance before Brian did it for me.  I don't think I would have killed her. I wanted to thank her because I really thought I was going to die that time and most of the time during those years that's all I wanted to do." Allie felt tears fill her eyes and quickly blinked them away. She hated to cry and show weakness in front of anyone.

"I don't like hearing you say things like that." she said as she lowered her head back down to his chest and listened to the steady, reassuring beat of his heart beneath her ear. "Why would you have been afraid to tell me about that? It sounds like you wanted to help her." Jack snorted with self loathing as he traced gentle shapes on her back with his fingertips.

"I didn't do shit. I let them kill those girls and their daddy and I didn't even try to help them. I'd been taught to stay the hell out of the gangs fun if I wasn't going to participate and like the coward that I am I did as I was told."

"You are not a coward." Allie said angrily. "You got away didn't you! You stood up to them in the end even though you knew they would kill you for it. I would say that makes you pretty damn brave."

"Too little too late, doll." Jack replied sadly. Allie slapped him in the bare stomach and he couldn't help but laugh.

"What was that for?" he asked as he rubbed the red handprint she had left on his skin.

"Being stupid." she replied as she snuggled closer to him.

"Thank God for you, Allie doll. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me." Jack said kissing her hair.

"Don't ever forget it again." she replied teasingly.

"Definitely not." he promised and then he chuckled. "I have work I needed to get done around here today." he said. Allie smiled nervously, still feeling a little unsure about how to show her sexuality and ran her fingertips slowly across his chest and down his stomach.

"Can it wait?" she whispered as she pressed her lips against his ear. She felt him shiver and then he nodded and turned his face so his lips were against hers.

"Why? Was there something else you had in mind to do?" Allie giggled, yes giggled. Something she had not done in years and pulled away from him.

"Nope. Let's get to work." she said. Jack laughed and grabbed her around the waist pulling her back down onto the bed and bracing his lean body over hers.

"I don't think so, doll. We ain't finished yet." he vowed and then they made love again and this time it was full of all the tenderness and love they had felt for each other for so long.