by Candi Fox
“Why are you so good to me?”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re worth it. Now, are you going naked or getting dressed?”
She laughed getting out of bed before dressing in warm clothes. An ivory sweater, jeans, and boots. Her long dark hair pulled back into a single braid. Emma didn’t bother with makeup.
On impulse, she hugged the housekeeper on the way out. “Thank you for taking such diligent care of me and Luna.”
The older woman laughed. “I’d say it’s my job, but I enjoy it.”
Emma kissed the pup softly. “I’ll miss you, but you can’t go with me today.”
Warm tears ran down her face as she handed the bundle of love back to the housekeeper. The first several minutes of the ride passed in silence. Chandler held her hand while she cried softly.
Knowing she needed to eat, she unpacked the lunch. Roast beef sandwiches with sharp cheddar, lettuce tomato, and horseradish mayo on home-baked, thick-sliced bread.
She dug in with gusto, leaving conversation until they were both finished eating. “Do you know anything else about Evanora?
Chandler shook his head. “Not really. I’d say she’s trustworthy because she’s on staff, but we both know that’s not true considering they hired a serial killer a few years ago.”
A chill went down Emma’s spine as she remembered all too well being at the killer’s mercy. Cord and Chandler both risked their lives to save her that day.
Emma reached over taking his hand. “I survived him thanks to you.”
“Wasn’t just me darling, but I’d do it all over again if I needed to.”
“I just hope she can actually help us and bring Cord back. We all need him.”
His thumb ran across the back of her hand in a comforting motion. “We do. I don’t think she would have contacted you if she didn’t think she could help.”
“True. Thank you.”
“For what?” He chuckled.
“For being you. For always being there for me.” The last she added quietly, “For the way you looked at me earlier.”
He squeezed her hand. “Caught that huh? Let’s talk about it after we find out about Cord unless you want to do it now.”
She formed the words carefully around the large lump in her throat. “Later would be ace.”
Twenty minutes later, Chandler pulled the SUV into the underground garage of what looked to be a regular office building.
Once inside they headed toward Cord’s room. Emma entered the private waiting area outside his room, surprised to find Evanora already there, sitting with Rae and Hollis Masterson, Cord’s parents.
The woman’s resemblance to her mother once again struck her. If they stood side by side, they could have easily been sisters. Evanora’s hair was darker, her skin lighter, but the woman’s golden-brown eyes were eerily similar, as were her face shape and build.
Cord’s parents crossed the room enveloping her in warm hugs before doing the same to Chandler.
“Did you get some rest?” Rae Masterson asked
“Evanora introduced herself and told us she has an idea that might save Cord.”
“I did get some rest, thank you.”
Once everyone settled in, Evanora began outlining her plan.
“I’ve been doing extensive research for the last two decades on what I believe to be a time divergence. A portal to the divergence is located on your land, Emma.
“I believe the beast that attacked Cord is related to an incident that took place in 1875. A man named Jacque Beaufort made a deal with the devil to unleash a plague that would kill all non-paranormals.
“The devil gave him the power to twist natural creatures. Marshal Jim Masterson eventually guns Jacque down. Temporal magick from Beaufort’s efforts, however, already did some damage, allowing the beast he created to hibernate.
“I believe the only way to save Cord is to go back and stop Beaufort from creating the creatures in the first place.”
“How do you propose we go back? Like a time, travel spell?”
Evanora shook her head. “I have a potion that would get us back there. It’s over five hundred years old, originally from Merlin. It’s taken me eighteen years to put it together.
“I have enough for two people. I’d like to be one of them, and I believe you, Emma, should be the other person to take the potion.”
Cooperstown, Indian Territory May 7, 1875
“Miss Evanora, I have a telegram for you?”
Festus Figg came running into her dressing room, his hat askew. Four or five days of stubble on his face and chin. He ran the telegraph office and sometimes filled in as deputy when both the sheriff and the primary deputy were out of town.
She took the telegraph, reading it twice before responding.
“Festus, I need you to tell the sheriff I won’t be making our date tomorrow night. I’ve got to go out of town on urgent business.”
“Of course, Miss Evanora. I’ll tell him. Don’t you worry none.”
Festus turned running out the door only to return. “You can rely on me, Miss Evanora.”
Chapter 3
Cooperstown, Indian Territory
May 8, 1875
The train arrived hours late, and after the sun had fully set. She was alone in a strange town, in the full dark. Her traveling companion had taken ill about two hundred miles ago.
Her bones ached from the more than fourteen hundred miles she rode by train from New York City. It took her months to convince her parents to let her take the trip to the west ahead of them.
Her father, a lesser English noble, decided to take his family to western America to build an empire. Philip Guy Monteith lost his fortune the day he married a woman from Trinidad.
Philip fell head over heels in love the moment he set eyes on Sage Blackwell. Sage’s father, a British military man, married an island native. Making Sage half native and unacceptable in the eyes of Philip’s father, who disinherited him.
Not bothered by his father’s actions Philip made his own fortune in Europe before deciding to take on the wild frontier. He spent a year traveling to find just the right spot. He intended to build a large hotel, open a sawmill, and run a ranch in Cooperstown, Indian Territory.
She started the exhausting journey with a companion, her governess’s daughter Amanda and a hired guard named Zeke Adams.
Emma and Amanda had grown up together. Amanda was only three months older than Emma; they were close friends since the cradle. Her father met Zeke in Cooperstown while scouting for land and hired the man. He was a deputy in the town until his brother died in a robbery. Zeke left his job to hunt down the gang of outlaw cowboys that took his brother’s life.
He only agreed to take the job because he needed funds to keep hunting them. The tall, steely-eyed man with silver at his temples rarely spoke through the train ride.
A week into the journey, Amanda became so ill she couldn’t continue traveling. Emma, having promised to arrive by a certain date, went on without her.
Three days ago, their train was robbed. They took everything but the clothes on her back. Zeke, recognizing one of the robbers, went with the posse that arrived shortly after the robbers departed.
Not only was she boned tired, but she didn’t know the location of the house her father rented. It would be impossible to find in the dark with everything, but the saloon closed.
The conductor told her she could find a room above the saloon for the night. He gave her a note for the owner, letting him know they were robbed and that she could make good on paying the bill.
Emma would wire for money first thing in the morning. She managed to hide one credit note in the lining of her reticule. The reticule had a small tear in it. While the robbers worked their way in her direction, she slowly made the tear larger.
Managing to slip in the note when the robber searched it for more money, he hadn’t found it. After she saw the way other women who resisted were handled, she willingly gave up her money and what jewel
ry she had. Thankfully, her father forbade her to take more than a few inexpensive baubles with her on the trip.
The only thing she regretted giving up was her mother’s cameo. Though the piece wouldn’t bring much money, if any, it had sentimental value. It originally belonged to her grandmother.
She shivered as she thought about the robbers. Her father warned her the west was wild and untamed. Emma heard the stories, but she thought them to be tall tales.
Without any other choice, she took a deep breath and headed toward the saloon. Her heartbeat faster as she stepped onto the boardwalk and headed toward the swinging doors.
I can do this. Emma repeated the words in her head with each step toward the doors. Ladies did not belong in saloons.
A hand touched her shoulder causing her to give a frightened shriek. Suddenly a hand covered her mouth and she was pulled up tight against a hard body.
Lord help me, I’m about to be assaulted. Emma, remembering her father’s words started, to struggle. She even remembered to step hard on the man’s instep.
The grip around her tightened his arms becoming like steel. Soft lips brushing her ear before pulling slightly back. His warm breath brushing against her as he spoke.
“Easy, Nora, It’s me.”
Emma struggled. She wanted to scream, “I’m not Nora.”
She renewed her efforts trying to get away, he only pressed her harder against him. Emma gasped as his erection pressed against her.
“Damnit, Nora, calm down. It’s Cord, your new town sheriff, your lover.”
The way he said lover made her pause. She could get out of this. The man only wanted his lover. Emma need only tell him who she was, and he would release her.
He spun her around bringing his lips crashing down on hers. He tasted of whiskey, tobacco, and something undeniably masculine. His full, wind roughened lips pressing against her buttery soft ones sent fiery butterflies dancing through her stomach. His stubble roughed up her delicate skin and spread heat slowly throughout her body.
Little veins of molten lava sending unknown emotions coursing through her caused sensations she never felt.
Pushing her to do something she’d never done before. Emma relaxed into his kiss, her arms wrapping about his neck encouraging him. She heard him moan, as his hand grabbed her hair knocking her hat slightly askew.
She shivered when he pulled away feeling bereft of his warmth. His voice, huskier than before, whispered in her ear. “I’m taking you to your room.”
He’s taking me to my room. He must have realized I’m not who he’s looking for, and now he’s going to be a gentleman and give me a room for the night. Right?!
His lips once again claimed hers, sending her crashing back to reality. The sheriff intended to make love to her. Unless she spoke up and told him who she was. Could she go through with it? Let him take her flower? No, she couldn’t.
Her hand pressed against his chest to push away, at the same moment he swept her off her feet and began to carry her to the side of the building then up a set of stairs.
She needed to stop, but he was a real man, not the usual flapdoodle that tried to take advantage of her, and there was an enormous amount of those. None of them ever stirred her senses even a scintilla of what the man carrying her did to her with the first brush of his lips.
No one ever had to know. She was a virtual stranger in town. He thought her to be his lover, a woman named Nora. For once in her life, Emma could let down her guard and give in to her passions.
Her mind made up by the time he kicked open the door she kissed him back with wild abandon.
“About damn time, Nora.”
He crushed her mouth, feeding hungrily from it while he carried her over the threshold, closing the door with a backward kick before carrying her into the center of the dark room.
The bedsprings protested as he roughly deposited her on the bed before pushing her down. His weight felt delicious on top of her for mere seconds before he pulled away.
With deft movements, he pulled her into a seated position; unpinning her hat, he tossed it across the room before pulling the pins out of her thick hair.
Once he had it all down, he ran his fingers through it with care.
“I love the feel of your hair against my skin it’s like a silken waterfall. Undress for me.”
She blushed and stammered.
He chuckled. “Oh, we are playing shy tonight. I haven’t seen this side before. I think I like it.”
Strong hands grabbed her, pulling her off the bed firm but not rough, he spun her around and began to unbutton her dress, pausing to place a kiss on the back of her neck.
Her body shivered with pleasure her nipples hardening. His fingers continued to undress her sliding the now unbuttoned dress down her shoulders.
Chapter 4
Cord
He took care, helping her step out of the dress. After accidentally ruining one of her fancy dresses in the heat of passion, she refused to see him for a month. Hell, it took him that long to pay for a replacement.
Cord carefully laid the dress across the overstuffed satin chair that sat in the corner of the room. Crossing the room in two long strides, he stopped behind her pressing his nose to the back of her head.
How much had he had to drink? Nora isn’t this tall. That’s as far as his thoughts got before her intoxicating smell drew his focus on the luscious beauty in front of him.
She smelled of roses with a touch of honey, or was it lemon and something else he couldn’t name? Moving to nibble on her ear he first whispered.
“Did you change your perfume?”
“Mmhmm.”
“I like it.”
He continued nibbling on her ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth causing her to back up against him, but her damn bustle was in the way.
His fingers fumbled with the ties. It took him a few precious minutes to get the bustle off and on the chair, his patience wore thin to feel her naked beneath him.
“God damnit.”
She gasped as his curse. He chuckled. Damn, she is playing the innocent to the hilt. Fuck! It’s hot. Impatient with the ties on her corset, he pulled the hunting knife from its holster on the back of his belt. In one swift motion, he cut the corset’s ties and released her from its prison.
“I’ll buy you a new one,” he murmured, turning her around and burying his face in her breasts. Her lush unblemished skin was a siren’s call for his mouth.
Cord took one taut, nipple into his mouth, rolling the pert bud between his teeth before flicking it with his tongue.
Her knees buckled as she moaned causing a deep purr to slip past his guard. The action made him freeze. He never lost control of his lion before.
Mate.
Cord shook his head taking a few deep breaths he exhaled slowly across her wet nipple. Alcohol never affected him like this before. He got drunk off his ass more than once. A challenging task for a shifter.
With a quick study of her face, he knew she hadn’t consciously registered his purr. Fuck, I must be passed out in some alley dreaming this shit. The woman in his arms didn’t react the same, she didn’t smell the same, her body, though similar, wasn’t Nora’s.
He never saw this woman before; he must be dreaming. What the fuck did Wolf put in his bug juice? Iron Wolf, his close friend, was distilling spirits for them for the last few years. Both men rarely drank, but alcohol had many uses.
Emma
His hands still held her, yet his eyes seemed a million miles away. Only a few moments passed, but it seemed like an eternity ago his lips left her skin. She didn’t know what came over her, but she couldn’t let him stop touching her.
Not knowing what else to do she leaned in brushing her nipple across his lips. His eyes met hers briefly before he picked her up, sitting her on the side of the bed. He quickly removed her shoes and stockings, kissing his way from the inside of her ankle to the back of her knee.
When his tongue flicked against the tender skin, she ga
sped and nearly managed to pull her leg from his grip.
“Not yet, dream girl. We’re just getting started.”
She shivered as his hands reached her hips; he unfastened her bloomers before hooking his thumb in the band and sliding them slowly down over her hips in one smooth motion. Taking them off and leaving them on the floor, he stepped back to look at her.
The raw hunger in his eyes caused her breath to catch in her throat. Though she had little experience in the act, she ran into plenty of men who desired her, none of them looked at her like he did.
“Please.”
He started taking off his clothes. The long duster hit the floor; Emma saw a flash of his badge. Soon he had his suspenders down, his fingers making quick work of the buttons as he shrugged out of his shirt.
She bit her bottom lip. His broad, muscular chest, now bare, her eyes devoured every inch of skin as he revealed it. He kicked off his boots and unfastened his pants, letting them drop to the ground. Her eyes widened: he wasn’t wearing any drawers.
She swallowed as his rigidly swollen cock sprang free precum dripping from the tip. Damn her for enjoying those lusty novels Amanda brought on the trip.
Emma brought her eyes back to his face, trying to memorize every nuance. She wanted to remember this night for the rest of her life. If only she could see his eyes in the daylight. They were blue, of that she was certain; however, she longed to know the exact shade.
When her parents arrived with the rest of her belongings, she would paint him. A miniature portrait she could keep next to her, always.
She held out her hand, it trembled with trepidation and expectation. Her breath held until he took a step forward. Without a word, he gathered her up in his arms laying her on the bed before joining her.
His lips hungrily sought hers, kissing her until they were both breathless. He trailed kisses from her lips across her jaw and down her neck to the hollow of her throat.
