Chapter 96- Touch

*More Mundane Married Moments… Hope you don't mind… Slight steam ahead

Nathan woke at the crack of dawn to find Charlotte's soft body molded against his. Her head rested on his arm, and his other arm wrapped possessively around her middle. Her hand covered his. Without thinking, his fingers brushed against her skin, and her body responded to his touch. She moaned softly and wiggled closer to him. His unsteady breath blowing wisps of Charlotte's hair about her neck.

"Nathan?" her sleepy voice rasped.

"Go back to sleep, sweetheart," Nathan whispered, his lips finding the sensitive skin below her ear. "It's still early."

Charlotte sighed softly as her body twisted until she faced him fully, resting against his shoulder as she buried her cheek into the curve of his neck. Nathan sucked in a deep breath of air and his gut tightened when she draped her arm around his waist. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, and a veil of warmth wrapped itself around his heart.

He remembered all the times he slept alone out on the cold trail, tracking criminals through the foothills. All the times he moved from posting to posting, in search of a place to finally call home. The years he spent trying his best as a single father to raise a little girl into a young woman. He remembered those times when he would be making his final rounds of the evening through Hope Valley, seeing families and couples strolling down the street hand in hand. The sad, silent watches of the night when he noticed everything and everyone around him, but seldom received the same acknowledgement in return from those he'd sworn to protect. He remembered wondering if they knew how blessed they were to have someone.

But with the woman who lay in his arms, Nathan knew he would never again feel alone. Yes, there would be hard times they faced ahead. There would be days he would be called out of town or away on assignments, but he knew he would no longer be lonely. The love they shared would always be with him, until he was able to return home and hold her once again.

For a man who had long yearned for the simplest touch of a loving hand, he now felt the long tremble and heartbeat of his wife as she curled into him. Charlotte stirred in his embrace and Nathan eased his hold on her. Her face moved away from his chest, and she lifted her head toward him. Her foggy grey eyes fluttered open. In the dawning light, through frost covered windowpanes, she looked breathtaking. Her head nestled in the crook of his arm, staring up at him, a hint of confusion in her sleepy gaze.

Nathan moved his hand from Charlotte's waist to tuck a strand of tousled hair behind her ear, brushing his fingertips along her delicate neck, to the constellation of freckles that dotted her collarbone and shoulders. He traced across her skin, committing to memory every small and intimate detail of his wife. His hands already knew the curve of her hips, the topography of her chest, and the angle of her jaw, but in the early morning glow he savored learning the rest. The shades of her skin, the light hairs on her arms, and the small asymmetrical birthmark above her right hip. A leisurely journey of discovery.

Her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to say something, then closed again. A soft content smile spread across her face, her eyes still unfocused in the chasm between sleep and wakefulness. A wave of heat and tenderness crashed into his heart, and his chest constricted almost painfully. The love that rushed through him was almost more than he could bear.

"You know…" Her voice was thick with desire. "You make it mighty hard to 'go back to sleep' when you are looking at me like this and your hands are…"

"I'm sorry," Nathan flashed a wry smile as his fingertip continued brushing along her skin, causing her heart to skip several beats. "I was just thinking…"

"Thinking?" Charlotte hummed, her own fingers beginning to trace over his body. Discovering the rise and fall of the muscles in his arms and chest.

"Thinking about how I never knew it could be like this between two people," Nathan's hand caught Charlotte's where she had been touching him softly and lingering in the places that sped his heart rate and breathing. He brought her hand between them and pressed their palms together. Her petite hand was so much smaller than Nathan's. Her graceful fingers only reaching part of the way up his. Their hands fused with the energy that passed through the simple touch. They were always meant to be.

"It's a heady feeling," he grinned, moving to entwine their fingers. Fitting them together like a puzzle piece. Life had broken her, just as it had broken him. But when their journey came together, their pieces became whole. Mended as one. "It's like we were made to be a part of each other's lives in this way."

"Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife," Charlotte wiggled her eyebrows. "And the two shall become one flesh."

Head propped up on his hand. Nathan toyed with her hair. "Didn't you tell me once that you wanted to wake every morning with the feeling of being curled up in my arms. With my fingers threaded through your hair and the soft feel of my breath on your skin."

"Mmmmhmmm…" Charlotte hummed.

"Now that you've experienced exactly that, is it everything you expected?"

"Not in the slightest."

He gave her a solemn look.

"Nathan," she whispered his name, and reached her hand up to touch his face. "Being with you… in every way… has completely shattered any expectation I ever had about marriage and married life. Like you said… I never knew it could be like this between a husband and wife. If I did, there is no way I could have said no to you that first time you asked me to marry you. Not if I knew it would feel like this… being with you."

Nathan gave a short, husky laugh.

"This…" Charlotte squeezed his hand. "This feeling of being curled up in your arms with our fingers intertwined and the soft feel of your breath on my neck can never be put into words."

Charlotte's fingers moved to float over the morning stubble of his jaw. "I can, however, tell you that this is where I belong, and it is in your arms I will always feel at home."

Nathan gave her a disarming smile, pulling her closer into his side. Charlotte turned to nestle her head against his shoulder and relaxed into him. Putting her arm across the broad expanse of his chest. His warmth seeped into her. The strength of his arms enveloped her body. Wrapping her in safety and protection. Nathan's long fingers grazed back and forth over her upper arm and shoulder, the action putting them both in a dream-like trance as they watched the sun rise higher through the snow-dusted windows of their bedroom. The sky outside shifted from deep purples, the same shade as Saskatoon berries, to brilliant colors of crimson and orange as the golden rays of dawn filtered into the valley and into their life.

"Since sleep seems beyond us," Nathan broke the silence once the sun had risen over the horizon. "How about I, make you, breakfast this morning?"

"I thought you said you didn't cook, Mr. Grant?"

"Well, that's not completely true. I've had to learn a few things over the years in the kitchen. I just can't say I'm great at it. Thankfully, I'm not too picky about what I eat, and neither is Allie."

"I know you can cook trout. Are you planning something fishy for breakfast?"

"No," Nathan chuckled, leaning up on his elbow to take in Charlotte's sprightly expression. "I was thinking something along the lines of bacon and eggs. I'm not very good at omelets, but scrambled tastes just as good in my humble opinion."

Charlotte smiled, reaching up to pull Nathan into a kiss before leaning back, her eyes twinkling with humor. "I think that all sounds like an egg-cellent idea, Mr. Grant."

"You've been holding out on me, Nate," Charlotte said, taking her dirty breakfast dishes to the kitchen sink. "You're not as bad in the kitchen as you've made it seem."

"Maybe if you want to live on scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and trout for the rest of our lives," Nathan quipped, coming to join Charlotte with his own plate.

"I don't think I'd mind," Charlotte began filling the sink with water to wash their dishes from breakfast and last night's dinner.

"No?" Nathan turned Charlotte in his arms and brought her close.

"No," she smiled. "I like you being here in the kitchen with me. I'm happy to have you cook whenever you want to."

"Maybe we should start in on those cooking lessons you offered to me on your birthday. Even though I still think I'm a lost cause."

"Never a lost cause," Charlotte leaned into him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Like I said, you just haven't had the right teacher."

"I'll be happy to be your student any day, Mrs. Grant."

Charlotte beamed a smile as she handed a towel to Nathan. "It's going to be different with the students calling me Mrs. Grant when we start classes after winter break."

"Have you heard when Elizabeth will be back from her book tour?"

"I'm not sure. Rosemary hasn't received a letter from her since they sent our wedding gift from Europe a few weeks ago."

"Ah, yes. The teacups."

"The broken teacups," Charlotte reminded Nathan. "Seems from the card included, those shattered pieces of china were supposed to be 'two beautifully hand painted pansies and gilt gold teacups and saucers. Custom made from a specialty boutique in Paris'."

Nathan smirked at the way Charlotte's voice changed when she relayed the broken dishes prestigious pedigree. Talking with airs and graces, becoming such a fancy gift.

"Can't say I was broken hearted that the cups didn't survive the trek on a steamboat across the Atlantic. I would have thought by now, they'd remembered that we prefer coffee over tea."

"One would think," Charlotte said, handing Nathan another plate to dry. "Don't worry, I sent them a very nice thank you note, explaining how beautiful and thoughtful the gift was. Let's just hope Elizabeth never asks to see those teacups, if she comes over for a visit."

Nathan chuckled. "Good point."

"Looks like the storm from last night has cleared out of the valley," Charlotte changed the subject, turning her attention to their view out the kitchen window.

"I glanced out the back door earlier. There's at least a half foot of new snow, and the wind blew it into some pretty good drifts."

"After we are done cleaning up here, let's work together and scoop a path to the barn so we can feed Newton and Realta."

"I can scoop it, if you want to stay inside where it's warm," Nathan said, setting down the last of the dishes Charlotte had handed him to dry.

"Nathan," Charlotte turned him towards her, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I'm not afraid of the cold or being outside. I'm made of tougher stuff than that," she winked. "I can do the same jobs you can, especially with your shoulder still healing. And… Need I remind you. It is our honeymoon. I want to make sure I'm spending time with you and not sitting in that chair over there twiddling my thumbs waiting for you to return back to the house. We're partners, remember?"

"I love you," Nathan leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"I love you," she smiled back.

"I'll make my way to the barn and start there," Charlotte directed after they had finished with the dishes and she and Nathan put on their wool coats. "You can start here at the house, and we will meet in the middle."

"Whatever you say, superintendent," Nathan's eyes lit with gentle humor, earning him a playful smack on the arm from his wife as they headed outside with their shovels.

Upon walking out the door and down the steps of the porch, Charlotte was faced with a new, glittering world. A pristine blanket of snow covered everything, rising and falling gracefully with the lines of the shrubbery and trees beneath. The air was icy and still. Their breaths rose in shimmering clouds around them as rays of light from the rising sun danced across the landscape.

"That's something to see," Nathan breathed from behind Charlotte. He had come to stand by her side, almost without her noticing. Charlotte nodded in agreement.

"If there was anywhere in the world, I would choose to be snowed in… it would be right here," Nathan said, shifting his gaze from the winter wonderland around them to his wife. "With you."

Charlotte reached down, taking Nathan's ungloved hand into her own. "Thank you," she said softly.

"For what?"

"For everything."

Nathan nodded silently, watching as Charlotte walked toward the barn, pulling on her mittens. He wanted to make sure she made it safely over the drifts of snow, before he began shoveling a path.

Just before Charlotte reached the door of the barn she looked back at Nathan behind her, and she saw his gaze move thoughtfully down to land on the hand she had just touched. He drew his thumb across the knuckles of his fingers where hers had brushed his. Her heart clenched. She had come to realize, especially over the past couple of days, how much even the simplest of touches from her, meant to Nathan. A way she could easily show how much she loved and cared for him.

Nathan and Charlotte made quick work of scooping a path from the house to the barn. When they were finished, they turned the horses outside to prance through the freshly fallen snow in the small paddock. While Newton and Realta played, Nathan and Charlotte cleaned their stalls, put down fresh bedding, and made sure they had plenty of food and water.

Nathan also took the opportunity to show Charlotte his workshop that had originally been her idea. The shop was connected to the side of the barn, with a small stove to heat the space so Nathan could spend time on his woodworking projects all year long. He had the parts of their dining table splayed around the room and on various benches. They worked together at attaching a few pieces, before they both decided it was time to head inside for lunch.

On the way back to the house, Charlotte reached out and touched Nathan's arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"What?" He questioned, turning around to face his wife.

She gave a sly smile, "Didn't I once say that hill would be perfect for sledding down in the winter?"

Nathan followed Charlotte's gaze to the hill she had taken him up months before. The one they had sat and talked atop of. Where they'd admired what the property could be and what it could mean to them. It was also the hill, they had rolled down, and collided at the bottom with Charlotte coming to rest on top of him. Their legs tangled together. Nathan remembered the flutter of Charlotte's eyelashes against his cheek. The way their noses brushed as Charlotte's hands had pressed against his suspenders, pushing her body up slightly to look into his eyes.

"What do you say we race down a few times before going inside?" Charlotte asked.

"But we don't have a sled," Nathan stated.

"You and Colleen didn't have one either, remember? You made do."

"Yeah, with mom's baking sheets from the kitchen. You don't want to use your nice pans for sledding, do you?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of these scoops," Charlotte answered, lifting the shovel in her hand. "Come on, I'll show you."

Nathan followed Charlotte as she bounded up the snow-covered hill. When she reached the top, she placed the scoop onto the snow with the handle facing down the hill.

"See," she said, taking a seat on the blade of the shovel. "You just sit on it like this and hang on here…" Charlotte gripped the wooden handle. "And then just lean back with your feet off the ground and push off…"

Nathan watched as Charlotte shifted her body slightly and soon enough was careening down the bank. He followed her directions and did the same with his scoop, meeting her at the bottom. Their laughter echoing off the mountains around them.

"That was fun," Nathan gleamed. "Can we do it again?"

Charlotte's eyes crinkled with happiness. "Of course, we can do it again."

"Last one to the top, cleans horse stalls tomorrow," he challenged, darting upright, and beginning his scamper to the crest of the hill.

"Hey," Charlotte called out, climbing after her husband. "I wasn't ready."

"Snooze, you lose, Charlie!"

After sledding and lunch, they had returned to Nathan's workshop to continue putting together their dining room table. Working side by side, Nathan gave her directions on what to cut, sand, stain, and nail into place. Charlotte appreciated how much Nathan and the community had done to build their house, but she loved the opportunity they had to create this part of their home together. A place where their family and friends would gather for generations to come.

A few hours had passed, and Charlotte excused herself to the house to make them a couple cups of hot chocolate. When she returned, steaming mugs in hand, Charlotte stopped herself, happy to take a few moments just to watch Nathan from the doorway between his workshop and the barn. His blue wool shirt pulled taut across his sculpted shoulders. His waist was lean and hard. She wondered again how he had stayed single for so many years. How he hadn't garnered more female adoration. Charlotte would never understand. Nathan was strong and handsome, but more so he was kind and considerate. Funny and incredibly selfless.

Sensing Charlotte's gaze, Nathan glanced back over his shoulder at her.

"Hi." A pleased look spread across Nathan's face from catching her watching him. "I was starting to think you got lost."

"Not lost," Charlotte sashayed over, handing Nathan his mug of hot cocoa, as they turned to lean back against the workbench along the wall. "Just distracted. Very distracted."

Nathan gave a warm chuckle before taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "With your help this table is really starting to come together. At this pace, we should have it and maybe even a few of the chairs completed by the end of the week."

"I think you are very much overestimating my abilities as your apprentice."

"Not overestimating. You're good at anything you set your mind to, Charlotte. You have qualities any man would be happy to find in a wife. Sweetness. Strength. Silliness. Smarts. Not to mention, stunningly beautiful," Nathan set down his mug to take her into his arms. "Have I told you how blessed I am that you agreed to marry me?"

Charlotte smiled up at him. "I feel the same way about you." She loved that this was their honeymoon. Not some far off place, being tourists in a foreign land, but rather here, at home discovering one another as they concentrated on wringing the life out of each moment spent together.

Later, when Nathan and Charlotte had finished their work on the dining room table for the day and returned the horses to the barn for the night, Nathan took her hand to lead them across the yard to the house. When they were only a few feet from the porch, Charlotte stopped, pulling back on Nathan's arm, turning him gently to face her for a moment.

Her eyes twinkled with playfulness as she raised her arms above her head and fell back into a fresh pile of fluffy snow.

"What are you doing?" Nathan questioned.

"Making a snow angel. Don't you remember when we did this together last year?"

"Of course, I remember," Nathan smiled, and he joined Charlotte in the snow to form his own angel beside her.

How could he forget? Last year, he had just given her the handmade Christmas angel and they had put it on the top of her tree before walking back across the yard to his row house for Sunday dinner together. Charlotte had stopped him on the way and fallen back into the snow the same way she just had. Nathan remembered it as the first time he had really felt the draw to kiss her…

"Do you believe in angels?" Nathan had asked, leaning up on his elbow to look over at Charlotte.

"I think they are all around us." Charlotte answered, slowing her movements in the snow, and turning her head to meet Nathan's gaze. "You got to look hard sometimes, but they're here. Whenever anything good happens to us."

Nathan had smiled as he reached over to brush a snowflake from Charlotte's cheek, "I think I see one."

He didn't kiss her then. At that point in their relationship, Charlotte was struggling to share the simplest of touches, let alone something more.

"What are you thinking about?" Charlotte asked, breaking Nathan from his memories.

"How much I wanted to kiss you last year when we made snow angels together," Nathan was truthful. There was no sense in hiding it. Charlotte had always been able to read him like an open book.

"I wondered if you wanted to," she smiled over at him across the snow. "I think deep down I wanted too as well. I wanted all of this. Most of all I wanted you, Nathan Grant. In every way."

He laughed. "I love you," he said. "I love you very much." He drew her into his arms and lay back with her in the snow. Rolling her beneath him, he kissed her gently at first, then more thoroughly. She felt a quickening inside her, a soft, warm curling in her belly. When he drew back slightly, she saw the look in his eyes.

"What do you say we go upstairs and take a hot bath? Together." He said huskily. "To warm up."

"You're making me plenty warm already," Charlotte bit the inside of her bottom lip. Her body arching slightly under the weight of his. Bringing them into closer contact. "But I won't say no to your suggestion."

Nathan kissed her passionately once more. Standing, he drew her up with him, and in one smooth motion, Nathan flung Charlotte's body over his shoulder like a bag of feed, carrying her into the house… to warm up.