June 1915
Henry looked into the mayor's eyes, feeling her left hand squeeze his right hand whilst her free one remained on his cheek. Soon she released his hand and slid hers up his arm to hold his elbow as she waited for him to kiss her.
"I probably shouldn't, Abigail." He softly told her, his voice almost in a whisper.
"Why not?" She asked him.
"You are very vulnerable right now and I don't want to take advantage of that." He admitted with sincerity.
"It's not taking advantage. I asked." She informed him, her right thumb continuing to caress his cheek while her other hand moved from his right elbow toward the inside of his suit jacket to hold his ribs as if to pull him closer to her.
"Are you sure?" He kindly asked her.
"Yes, Henry." She slightly smiled at him, the tips of her fingers touching the hairs on the back of his neck.
The man's eyes fell to the woman's lips briefly before he closed them, tilting his head and allowing his lips to touch hers. Abigail gripped the fabric of Henry's shirt at his ribs as she kissed him softly but with more feeling than she'd care to admit. Her heart began to pound as she felt the rest of her body beginning to shake with every emotion she had bottled up inside. The stress of being mayor and running the cafe, the stress of being a mother, the stress of keeping hope for everyone else in the town, her sadness from the loss of Jack, her loneliness at the absence of Frank, and her confusion when it came to Henry. It was all so much at once and Henry's lips on hers always seemed to help her forget. Every kiss they had shared would make her mind go fuzzy and she would forget who she was for the time being. Something about him always drew her nearer. Her body would vibrate in his presence and her emptiness since Noah and Peter died would vanish. She loved it and hated it at the same time.
After the mining explosion, Abigail had wanted to leave town and start over somewhere where nobody knew her. She wanted to give up trying to be happy and wished she could become cold and empty the way Mrs. McCormick had without a care for herself or other people. But Elizabeth arriving and the fight against Henry for the rowhouses changed that. She stayed to fight Henry for her friends to keep their homes and rather than losing her passion and warmth…Henry, in some way, had forced her to keep it. And she stayed. And she learned that she loved to love and she loved to fight for what's right. In so many ways that she had thought impossible, Henry had taught her to never lose herself to her pain. Perhaps that is why he had become a sort of security blanket for her. Having him around would remind her of those passions that she had and that fire that she had within her.
"Take me to your room at the saloon." She told him once they had finally broken the kiss.
"Abigail-"
She stood up before he could protest, taking his hands to try and make him stand too. Looking up into her eyes, Henry couldn't resist her request and he stood as well just in time before the mayor turned around, pulling him toward the door with her. She took her summer jacket down off the hook beside the exit and handed it to Henry as if to tell him to help her put it on. She turned her back to him and he aided her in placing her arms into the sleeves before opening the back door out of the cafe for her.
They walked side by side toward the saloon without a single word to each other. Grateful that it was almost eleven at night, they were able to walk through the building without being seen downstairs whilst Tom, the saloon owner, was the only one present, cleaning up after closing. Henry allowed Abigail to go on ahead of him, ascending the stairs before him.
Once they reached the halls toward the rented rooms, Henry led her toward the left and all the way to the end where his room was. He took out his room key from his pocket and unlocked the door for her, letting her step inside first to see how empty the room really was. Aside from a trunk of his clothes in the corner of it, the room looked unoccupied yet small and cozy. Abigail noted how different it must feel for him to be here compared to his mansion and she secretly admired how clean he was able to keep such a small space.
Once the sound of the door closing behind them echoed in Abigail's ears, she turned around to face him again, just now realizing they had both been silent on their walk over. "This is nice." She tried to ease the known tension.
"It's alright." He told her. "I can take your coat." He said as he stepped closer to her and she turned around so he could pull the coat off of her shoulders. He went to hang it up on the coat rack by the balcony door in the corner of the room while Abigail watched him.
"You are a very handsome man, Henry." She told him when he turned to face her again.
"I don't know about that." He protested a bit.
"There you go putting yourself down again."
"Do I have a reason not to?" He wondered, removing his suit jacket and placing it neatly over his trunk of clothes. He got a small box of matches from the nightstand beside the bed and lit one before lighting the lantern that rested there.
The woman gently smiled at him before reaching up to pull out the small bobby pin she had in her hair, allowing the side of her hair in the front to hang over her ear again, her loose golden curls glowing in the small light from the lantern. Stepping closer to Henry, she spoke quietly. "I see your kind heart. I think this is the man you've always been. You just lost touch with yourself for a while when bad things began to happen here." She leaned up to gently kiss his lips. "I forgive you."
"Forgive me?"
"For everything." She admitted. "I think I did a long time ago and it is time for you to hear it."
"Why now?" He asked her. "Just because we are in here? Because you want something from me? In my bed?"
"No. Because I am finally brave enough to admit it….You are the only one here who has seen and heard all of my flaws. You know the darkest parts of my heart. I was too much of a coward to say it out loud. But it's true. I can no longer pretend that I am any better than you are. We ARE both the same. Only you were never afraid to show people your darkest parts. I was. Everything you have said about me is true, Henry. You are the reason I can admit to myself that I am no saint. None of us are. Yes, I came here to crawl into your bed. Yes, I enjoy every minute we are together. And yes, I want you. And I am not afraid to admit that to you."
She took both of his hands and guided them up to her hips, squeezing his hands as if to demand that he take hold of her blouse to remove it. Once Henry understood her actions, he untucked the blouse from her skirt while she let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again. Henry's hands shook as he unbuttoned the widow's blouse, unable to believe that she was finally giving him permission to do so.
As soon as Abigail felt the chill of the air on her bare chest, she removed the blouse from her arms herself and allowed it to fall to the floor, aware that she, now, was only in her corset and skirt in front of him. She pushed her skirt down off her hips to the floor, now in the white slip she had on underneath it.
Without breaking the kiss, she turned them so her back was to the bed. Pulling Henry with her, she laid down on it and hiked her under-skirt up to her hips. The man that lay on top of her felt a fluttering in his stomach as the woman's fingers moved to undo the buttons of his vest, pushing it off of him followed by his button down shirt beneath it. Abigail's hands roamed the man's chest before she broke the kiss to get a good look at him in just his trousers.
"You have seen me." He informed her. "May I see you?"
His question took Abigail by surprise as her nerves went insane again and she realized she was not ready for that yet. "No." She simply told him.
He respected her answer, remembering that she was not his.
He leaned over to kiss her neck as she tilted her head for him, letting out a small sound. He was gentle with her tonight. Something she was not used to from him. But she was not complaining. It still felt good. So good. And she felt wanted again.
She was surprised to feel his hand slide up her leg and under her under-skirt to tease her as he hummed against her neck. His fingers between her legs made her softly whisper his name and her heart pounded harder against the inside of her chest. She squirmed underneath him, impatiently beginning to unzip his suit trousers, his fingers only making her need more.
It wasn't long before his member replaced his fingers and they moved in a slow, yet passionate rhythm together. It was more gentle than she had anticipated, yet she could feel every emotion from him which made it feel even more amazing.
They soon flipped over so she was on top, riding him in the same rhythm as he had moved. Her eyes never left his as he slid a hand up her corset to rest on her cheek. She took his hand in both of hers, moving it away from her cheek and kissed his fingers before placing one in her mouth. Henry let out a breath as he watched her do that, his heart leaping in his chest. He sat up to pull his hand away so he could kiss her with a moan, his hand now moving into her hair, gently pulling at her curls.
Their kiss grew sloppy as Abigail began to move faster, their breathing both becoming more uneven. The cheap saloon bed began to squeak a bit with them and Henry's grip on her hair unintentionally tightened. The woman broke the kiss to let out a small squeal as she felt the pull of her hair and she looked into his eyes again. "I-I thought we would nev-er get to do this ag-ain." She told him, softly smiling as she realized that testifying for him in court was the best decision she could have made.
"I-I know." He smiled back at her, thinking the exact same thing.
"I thought I would never…..s-see you again." She said, her heart hurting at the thought of how she felt the day he was arrested.
He nodded at her, massaging her hair with one hand and caressing her back with his other. "You saved me, Abigail."
"Oh, Henry." She said softly before gently pushing him to lay down on his back again. She hovered over him, kissing him passionately as she moaned into his mouth, resting a hand on his cheek as the other moved between them and under her skirt.
She massaged her own clit in time with her movements as she whimpered into the kiss over and over again. She thought of his words to her. Thought of all the things he had done for her. Remembered the way he held her tonight after the news about Jack. It didn't take long for those thoughts and the way he felt inside of her to cause her climax to jolt throughout her, her body shaking on top of him with pleasure. She tried her best to maintain their kiss but the pleasure was almost too stimulating as she parted her lips against his in a shaky, high pitched moan. She said his name again just before she felt him cum inside her and they moaned together.
She opened her eyes to look into his as his climax wasn't over yet and she smiled at him. Her hand caressed his cheek before moving into his hair, massaging it while he finally calmed down from his orgasm. He smiled back up at her once he caught his breath and they gently kissed with a small hum.
She soon moved off of him but laid her head on his chest as he pulled the blanket over them, his fingers tracing small circles on her shoulder. "Is that what you needed?" He finally broke the silence to ask her.
"Hmm, yes." She admitted to him, her fingers tracing small circles on his chest. Her smile slowly faded and she remembered what happened to Jack and she began to softly cry.
Without a word or a question, Henry already knew why. He just held her through her pain, allowing her to let it all out. The sounds of her sobs and sniffles gave him a sharp pain in his chest, but he never let go of her. He held her for hours and let her sleep for a bit before eventually waking her.
She got dressed and thanked him before quietly leaving, sneaking out of his room with the smallest steps she could take, hoping not to make the floorboards in the old saloon creak. Once she arrived back at the cafe, she went upstairs to get to bed and wondered how her relationship with him had come to this.
She couldn't describe it, but she knew she didn't want it to end. Whatever it was.