That was just fine with her, Della thought, then said aloud, “Oh, yes. I saw the Indian’s squaw in town with the teacher they’ve hired to run the school at the ranch. She was dressed fit to kill, but everyone that’s anyone refused to have anything to do with her. She’s pregnant again. Does this make three? Good God, Papa! You’re going to have descendants all over the territory.” Della couldn’t resist bringing up a subject that was sure to rile him.
“Hush that stupid twaddle! That red ass and his mites are no kin of mine.”
“That red ass is your son—there’s no way you can deny it, Adam darling. He’s got your crooked finger, so has his boy.” Della kissed her fingertips and laid them against Adam’s mouth. “But, don’t get all worked up about it now. Save all that delicious anger for later.”
Adam asked about Kain as they walked arm in arm to his office after the meal.
“He’s got some women there cleaning up the place as if he were going to open it. If he does I’m sure he’ll have someone run it for him. He won’t stay around long. Junction City is too dull for my world-traveled brother.”
“Hmm . . . hmm . . .”
“What do you mean by hmm . . . hmm? It sounds as if you had something on your mind.” Della drew back the velvet drapes that hung over the door and they entered the office.
“Kain turned out to be a good man—”
“There’s no such thing as a good man!”
“You said I was,” Adam replied with a grin.
“As a lover you’re . . . wonderful. As a man you’re rotten! That’s why I love you so much.” Della had studied men all her life. She knew just how to stroke their egos. She watched the pleased expression settle on Adam’s face.
“I could use a man like Kain.”
“You’d not be able to manage him, Papa,” she cautioned. “He’s stubborn, and so very self-righteous. He’s like Mama —all wrapped up in right and wrong. I’m like my Papa. He knew what he wanted and went to any length to get it. That’s how he amassed a fortune.”
“And left it to your brother.”
“Yes, left it to my brother, and he lost a lot of it when the New York Stock Market crashed this year.”
“Then he might be reasonable about an offer from me.” Adam had sat down in the big leather chair, and now he pulled Della down on his lap. He opened her dress immediately and pressed his face between her bare breasts. “There’s a smell to you, girl, that’s different from that of any woman I’ve ever known.”
Della fumed inwardly. He hadn’t paid a bit of attention to what she had said about Kain.
“It’s the expensive perfume from France.”
“It’s more than that. It’s hellfire and brimstone. You’re hot for a man and you smell like it.” Laughing huskily, he slipped his hand up under her skirt and felt his way up her bare thighs to the dampness that he knew he’d find. He chuckled again with pure pleasure. “I’m glad you’re not one of them women who wears drawers. Open your legs, girl.”
Della let her arms circle his neck. He had been a good lover in his day. But now the skin on his chest was beginning to sag and his middle thicken. He was still an attractive man and would stand out in any crowd with that magnificent head of white hair and the way he carried himself. Adam Clayhill was born to give orders, not take them. But he was still only a man, Della mused, with the majority of his brains in that piece of flesh that hung between his legs.
“You’re my horny stud, Papa Adam,” she whispered, and her tongue poked moistly into his ear. What he was doing was pleasant, she admitted moments later. Sex of any kind was a necessary part of her life. But as badly as she wanted it now, she’d make him wait a little longer before she would let him have it all. Before she was through she would make him desperate for her, make sure she was like life’s blood to him. The strong cantharides she had brought from the Middle East would help. Once she took him she would have to work on him everyday. She would drive him crazy with what she’d do to him. Kain wasn’t going to come waltzing in here and share in her inheritance. Clayhill Ranch was the largest holding in the northern territory and she meant to have it all.
Adam was still a lusty man, she reasoned, even if some of the lust was in his head and not in his pants. She had something Kain didn’t have and she’d use it, by God; she’d use it to get what she wanted. She opened her legs to his seeking fingers, wound her arms about his neck, and pressed his face between the soft mounds of her breasts.
“Cecilia might poison me for stealing this from her,” she murmured in his ear as her hand slid slowly down his chest and her fingers delved between them to find firm flesh that took longer now to harden than it had just months before.
“I . . . got enough for both of you,” he panted and bit her nipple roughly. His lovemaking had become almost painful of late because he was so desperate to reach fulfillment.
Della smiled down on his bent head. She didn’t mind the pain at all. She squeezed his hand between her thighs. The old man, she thought, had nothing! But if he wanted to think he did. . . .
“Ahh . . . Papa Adam, you know just what to do. I love that. You know I love it, but I want more, much more. I want this big thing . . .” She gripped him hard. “I want it, but we can’t now. I’ll ruin my dress.”
“To hell with your dress,” he growled. “Take it off!”
“It’ll take too long to undo all these buttons, and then I’ll be out of the mood. Come to me tonight. We’ll do everything we’ve done before and more. I’ll show you something a Turkish sultan taught me to do.”
“Now! You hot little bitch! You want it as much as I do. Don’t you put me off again, hear?” he shouted. “You do and I’ll beat your ass!” He pulled his hand from between her legs and grasped her arm to hold her.
“Don’t yell so loud,” she cautioned. She slid from his lap, jerked free from his hands and stood back. Her dress was open and her naked breasts exposed, but she made no attempt to cover them. “The servants will hear—”
“Screw the black sons of bitches! You don’t give a gawdamn about the servants you fuckin’ little tease!” He sat up in the chair, yanked off his belt, and worked at the buttons on his britches. “Get over here you little slut, and finish what you started.” His face was florid, and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead.
Go ahead, old fool, Della thought. Have a heart attack. If she thought it would help she’d screw him to death, but it would just be her luck that he’d thrive on it.
“You’re not so bad off, darling.” She reached down and stroked the hardness he was trying to release, letting her breast brush his face. “You can hold it for awhile . . . it’ll make it better.”
“Better, hell! Gawddamn you!” he snarled. “I want it now! Are you playing the whore, Della? Are you wantin’ me to pay first?”
“Well! If that’s how you’re going to talk.” She sniffed daintily. “I thought there was something . . . special between us.”
“Special my ass!” he shouted.
“I love you. You know that—”
“All you love is money and a thick prick!“
“Hush talking like that.”
“You love dirty talk! The dirtier the better. Well? Are you going to stand there or are you going to bring that tight little ass over here?”
Della slowly shook her head and saw his face swell with rage.
“Then get that hot twat of yours out of here!” His bellow could be heard in every corner of the house. “Cecilia! Cecilia, get your fat little ass in here!”
Della went out the door as the Mexican girl slipped in. The bitch, Della thought. She had been waiting.
“I’ve done all the hard work. He’s primed and ready for you,” Della said sweetly, pulling her dress over to cover one bare breast.
“But he wants me.”
“He needs something to poke it into. A cow would do!”
If it hadn’t been so funny, Della would have slapped the satisfied smirk from the Mexican girl’s face.
Chapter Fourteen
Kain waited a full ten minutes after the buggy was out of sight before he went into the house. What stood out in his mind was that Della was in town and she wanted the place he had planned to give to Vanessa and the Hills. Would they be strong enough to hold out against her without his being there? Would Della be able to go to court and take it regardless of the will?
An idea began to take root in his mind. As his wife, Vanessa would have the place and whatever of his assets the solicitor could salvage from the stock market crash. He would have to make sure his death was recorded in order for her to inherit.
He took the makings for a cigarette from his pocket and began to roll a smoke. Although he had tried to blot from his mind the fact that he was dying, he thought about it now. Thank God he’d had only one attack since he was shot. How much time did he have left? He knew as the end drew near the time between attacks would shorten, then come daily. When that happened he’d simply disappear in the middle of the night.
His mind kept going back to the idea of making Vanessa his wife. Was he being foolish to want her, knowing he might leave her with a child? At the mere thought of a son, his own red-haired son, growing in her body his somber features softened and a smile curled his lips. A part of him would pass on to the next generation, marking his time on earth. Perhaps he would live to see his child, although it seemed unlikely. The sheriff in Arizona had lived only a month or two after he started vomiting blood.
The door behind him opened and Ellie walked out. He dropped his smoke and stepped on it, grinding it to fragments before sweeping them away with his foot.
“Are you all right, Kain?” Ellie asked quietly.
“Sure. That was my sister, Ellie.”
“Your sister? My, my. Why didn’t she stay?”
“I told her to leave.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be, Ellie. I’ve seen very little of her during the past twenty years. She’s not the type of person to be around you and Vanessa. She’s a completely self-centered, greedy woman who caters only to her own peculiar needs. I don’t talk about her or think about her.”
“All right, Kain. Has your stomach been bothering you?”
“Not except for a constant little nagging pain.”
“I wish you’d see a doctor.”
“And have an old quack tell me I’ve got worms?” He smiled down into her concerned face. “Don’t worry, Ellie. I may go along like this for weeks with only an occasional attack.”
“I think what you eat has a lot to do with your attacks. I remember Vanessa’s father telling a man back home to drink milk for a bad stomach. Of course he wasn’t as sick as you are.”
“So that’s why you insisted on getting the cows right away. Ellie, I may hug you.”
“Feel free to do so anytime.” Her soft eyes smiled up at him and her expression was gentle.
“Ellie . . . do you think I’d be a selfish bastard if I asked Vanessa to marry me?”
“No, Kain. I think it would give her something to hold on to . . . later on.”
Kain’s hand went to her shoulder and squeezed it thankfully before they went back into the house.
* * *
Vanessa heard Kain walking up the stairs and slipped into her room and closed the door. She needed just a few more minutes to compose herself before she faced him. While he talked to the woman in the parlor she had had time to think about the shards of jealousy that had knifed through her, and about the life Kain had lived before he met her. No doubt he had known many beautiful women well enough to call him darling. She could accept that. The fact that this beautiful woman had neatly regulated her to the position of a servant was what had so angered her. Even that, she told herself, wasn’t as bad as the insolent way she had looked at her, and the inferior feeling that had followed that look. This new, strange feeling was one Vanessa had not had before.
She looked at a sliver of sunlight on the floor without seeing it. A calmness came over her. She knew herself, knew what she was. She’d not let the woman’s insensitivity touch her. She heard Kain’s voice calling her name and opened the door to look into tawny gold eyes that smiled at her.
“You’re not up to climbing those stairs,” she scolded gently. “I was coming down.”
“I’d climb clear up to the heavens if you were up there waiting for me.” He came inside and closed the door. “Did anyone ever tell you that it isn’t proper for a young lady to entertain a man in her bedroom?”
“It seems to me that I’ve heard something about that not being nice. But as you know, I don’t pay too much attention to what’s proper.”
“I’m glad.”
Vanessa wanted to bury her face in his chest and cry with relief. He was the same Kain. His feelings for her hadn’t changed with the coming of the beautiful woman. The light, quick intake of his breath and the subtle narrowing of his eyes told her that he knew her thoughts and that her light words were to cover deeper feelings.
“I love your eyes, sweetheart,” he said and drew her to him. “They’re so honest. They don’t know how to deceive.” His lips found her, touching her nose as they moved over her cheeks with small kisses until he found her mouth. He covered her lips with a deep, hungry kiss. The kiss ended abruptly as he dragged his mouth away. He picked up her hand and slipped it, palm down, into his shirt, laying her fingers over his heart. She felt the warmth of his skin, and, as he held her hand there, the increasing thud of his strong heartbeat. “You do that to me, pretty little red bird. You and no one else.”
“Now it’s my turn to be glad,” she answered softly, smiling into his eyes.
“Do you suppose we can sit down on the bed? I’ll try not to attack you, though I’ll be sorely tempted.”
“If you promise to not try too hard,” Vanessa said as Kain sat down on the edge of the bed. She wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. “You’re still weak,” she murmured when his arm reached out and pulled her down beside him, pressing her close.
“That woman was my sister.” He entangled her fingers in his and lifted their locked hands to his mouth so he could kiss the back of her hand. “The beautiful Della Clayhill,” he announced dryly with an expression of distaste.
“Your sister?” She repeated the words blankly.
“You knew I had one?”
“Yes, but I thought she lived in Denver.”
“She does, part of the time. She’s now out at Clayhill’s ranch.”
“She’s very beautiful. I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman.”
“Yes, she’s beautiful . . . on the outside. On the inside, she’s filth.”
“Oh, Kain! No . . .”
“Yes.” He tilted her chin and looked into her eyes. “My sister is a whore. She’s a whore because she wants to be one. She enjoys her work. She has a place in Denver where a man can have a woman, any color, any age, any size, and any way he wants her. She specializes in the exotic. She’s opened a place in Greeley, and she wants this place, The House, so she can open another. I’m telling you this because I want you to know the facts about my family when I ask you to marry me.”
“You want to . . . marry me?”
“Is that so strange? You’re beautiful, lovable, exciting, and the most desirable woman in the world. I want you more than I could tell you if I talked all day.”
His words sent a shower of joy whispering through her. She closed her eyes for an instant and shivered with pleasure. She opened them to look into the amber depths of his eyes, and what she saw there was more love for her than she had ever thought she’d ever have. His fingers smoothed the hair back from her ears.
“I want it too.” Her voice was low and full.
“I’ll love you forever.” His mouth found hers and covered it with fierce, hungry kisses, random and violent, different from the gentle kisses he had given her before. Clasped tightly to h
is chest she could feel the hammering of her own heart. “I want you so much,” he whispered against her lips.
“You have me . . . for as long as you want me.”
He pulled back to look at her. His eyes were bright, raw with feeling. He brushed her lips with another kiss. “I was just thinking—this feeling is a miracle. Do you suppose anyone else has ever felt like this?” His voice was gently curious.
“Not like this. I think I could fly!” She felt free, glowing and a little crazy. Her hands cupped his face. “When?”
“Now. The next five minutes.” He turned his face and kissed her palm. “Whenever you say. I want you to be mine, wholly mine . . . soon. I want to be yours. I want what I have to be yours.”
“I want you, too.” She placed her lips on his and kissed him gently and sweetly, and with deep dedication. “I won’t ask you how long we’ll be together like this. I know you’ll be in my heart forever.”
“Sweetheart! Don’t stop loving me.” His voice was no more than a ragged whisper, a strand of breath. “It’s so good to know you love me.”
It had been so long since anyone had loved him, almost a lifetime. He wondered if she realized that or guessed how her sweet, caring presence filled that vacant place in his heart. He drew her close so he could feel the lovely fullness of her small breasts pressing into his chest. He moved his hands to her hips. She was perfect and perfectly desirable, the source and fulfillment of all his dreams.
They sat quietly for a long while just holding each other. The wonder of the love they felt for each other kept them in an awed silence. Vanessa no longer felt drab or inferior. She felt beautiful and loved. She loved this man with the golden eyes. She loved the sound of his voice, the line of his jaw, the curve of his mouth and even the scar across his cheek that had given him pain.
She made a silent vow to do everything in her power to keep him with her forever, but if fate tore them apart, she would have a thousand sweet memories to cherish. She would store them away inside so that when she was alone she’d be able to take them out of her heart like little treasures. She didn’t want it to be that way, but if that was all she could have. . . .
Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] Page 22
