Chance McCall

by Sharon Sala

  “Damn you, Chance! You left me. You didn’t even have the guts to tell me you were going, you just left.” Jenny’s words were muffled, her voice accusing. She was struggling hopelessly against the firm grip in which she was being held. Her fists hammered against his chest. “And now, I find you wrapped in some floozy’s arms. Why is it always someone else? Why do you—”

  “I’m sorry,” Victoria said, as she walked up beside the couple. “I think it’s my time to make an exit. Please,” she said, gently touching Jenny’s back. “It’s not what you think. He’s my brother!”

  Jenny’s struggles ceased. “Brother?”

  “I guess so,” Chance said softly, and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “I have to take her word for it. Just like I took yours, Jenny. Do you understand?”

  Jenny’s breath exited her body in a whoosh. Suddenly the adrenaline that had sent her flying into the room in a frenzy left her weak and shaking. She nodded. It was then she realized that he still had no memory.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Chance. And Jenny…I look forward to meeting you when we’re all under less…stress?” Victoria smiled. “I’ll see myself out.”

  The door shut behind her. And then they were alone. Jenny was right where she needed to be. In the arms of Chance McCall.

  14

  Jenny began to cry. Not loudly. Not at first. The tears slid out of the corners of her eyes and down her face. It was Chance’s groan of regret that sent a sob bubbling up. When he wrapped her in his arms and lifted her off her feet, she finally gave in to the pain.

  “You left me,” she sobbed, pounding weakly against his chest with her fists.

  “I know, baby,” he said softly. “And if I had it to do all over again, I’d bring you with me.”

  “You didn’t call. You didn’t write.” She tried to push away from him, but his grip tightened. She gave his chest one last thump and then collapsed into his arms.

  “I know, Jenny,” he answered. “If I could change that, I would. But I can’t. All I can do is ask you to forgive me. Okay?”

  She moaned as he pressed against her, reminding them both that their bodies were awakening to a deeper need.

  “Please, Jenny. As God is my witness, I did it for you. For us. I couldn’t think of a way to tell you how I felt without compromising you with a past I didn’t remember. Do you understand?”

  “No,” she said. “But I’ll accept it as long as you promise you’ll come home with me.” Her voice lowered, her hands touching him constantly as she continued. “I nearly didn’t survive this stunt, mister. I can’t bear another.”

  There was something about the way she said it that made Chance know there was more to her statement than just physical longing. He tilted her face up and stared deeply into her eyes, for the first time since her arrival really looking at the woman in his arms. It was then that he saw the tiny cuts and scratches on her face, and the healing bruise on her lip. His stomach turned. Something had happened to Jenny and he hadn’t been there to help. She’d been hurt and suffered…alone.

  “What in hell happened to your face?” His voice was dark, his tone ominous. He pinned her against the wall, turning her face in first one direction and then the other, searching the surface for every telltale mark.

  Jenny shrugged. She felt his body tensing, and knew it would only be a matter of moments before he got it out of her. She’d never been able to keep a thing from him.

  “What happened, sweetheart? Did you have a car wreck?”

  She shook her head and tried to bury her face in the curve of his shoulder. He grabbed her by the chin and turned her, firmly, but gently, back around to face him.

  “Did you fall…or have you…?” Suddenly a thought occurred, and it was one he didn’t like. One that sent cold chills through him.

  “Jenny, look at me! Did you ride that goddamned horse?”

  She didn’t even have to answer. He could see it in her eyes. “What were you trying to do, kill yourself?” She hesitated a fraction of a second too long for his peace of mind. He held her, desperate for her denial. “Tell me that’s not the truth! Tell me I didn’t do that to you! Please…Jenny!”

  The torment in his voice shamed her. She threaded her fingers in his hair, pulled his face down to hers and whispered, “I promise, Chance. I wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt myself. I was just at my wits’ end. I didn’t think. I just reacted.”

  “My God!” he whispered. “If anything had happened to you…”

  He took instant possession of her lips, smothering her sigh of relief. She was soft, compliant, and at the same time on fire. He could feel it as she moved beneath him, giving him access to any or all of her that he desired. It was so giving, and so loving a gesture, he didn’t even try to resist.

  “I want to make love to you, Jenny. If I’ve learned anything these past few days, it’s that I don’t have to have my memory back to know I love you.”

  A sob caught in the back of her throat. She’d waited a lifetime to hear those words. “Thank God for small favors,” she whispered. And then Chance descended.

  They tore at the clothing that lay between them, buttons, snaps, zippers…unbuttoned, unfastened, undone. A sob drifted through the quiet, and then a whispered endearment, a gentling of the emotions that had flared.

  Jenny had one swift moment of panic, knowing that there was still a secret between them of which Chance was not aware. He thought that they’d been lovers. In Jenny’s heart, it had been so. But their bodies had never shared what was about to happen. Jenny had no intention of revealing prematurely what would soon be obvious enough. By then, she hoped and prayed that Chance would be too far gone to care.

  Chance slipped the blouse from her arms, letting it fall to the floor below. His fingers slid across her skin and then around, unfastening the catch on her bra with one smooth, slick, snap. He held his breath as her breasts spilled into his hands, willing himself not to think about the growing passions of his own body. Jenny was driving him into a need he couldn’t control. She sighed and moved beneath his touch and sent his senses reeling.

  “Jennifer Ann, I’m about to love you in a way you’ve never known. In a way you’ll never forget.”

  You have no idea how true your words are, Chance.

  The last of their clothes fell to the floor. Chance lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her down and then almost lost what control he had left as she coiled herself around him like the tendril of vine. Her arms and her legs, her hands and her mouth…they encompassed and completed him.

  Chance moved across her body, pressing her down into the mattress, reveling in the feel of silky skin and body heat, the moans of satisfaction as his mouth moved across her face, her neck, her breasts, and then her stomach. His hands began a foray at the back of her knees and around, sliding up and down, around and behind, slowly, sensuously, seeking, touching.

  And then his mouth and his hands met at the core of Jenny and she felt the need to tell him, to say that the joy he was giving her was more than she’d dreamed, and still not enough. But coherency was impossible. Her body moved of its own accord, a puppet to the sensuality that Chance had unleashed. She moaned, she begged. She arched up to meet the touch, and then dissolved as her nerves came alive beneath the strokes of his fingers. His name became a chant, a cry for completion.

  Chance couldn’t think. He could only feel. Jenny’s body was hot beneath his mouth and hands. She moved against him in a fevered need. His blood thundered, his heart pounded. Every muscle in his body was rock hard and tense. She slid her hands downward and grasped his shoulders to urge him up. His breath came in thick, tortured gasps as he tried desperately to control himself as he moved above her.

  “I love you, Jenny. Never forget…”

  What she did next drove everything else from his mind. There was nothing left but sensation…and Jenny.

  Her hands caressed his hard aching manhood as she opened beneath him. She guided him down, and then lifted
herself up, an offering he could not refuse.

  He plunged…and then froze. For a heartbeat he thought he’d imagined the resistance. But the swift look of pain that came and went on her face told him he hadn’t imagined a thing.

  “What the hell…?”

  There was no time for answers. Jenny began to move beneath him, and he forgot the words. He forgot everything but the wild, wet heat and her hands on his back. The feel of her mouth and her legs wrapped around him. And then Chance…and the bed…and the world rocked on its axis.

  Jenny felt it coming. It was more than she’d imagined. The feeling was spiraling from somewhere around her heart downward, building in intensity as it coiled low in the pit of her stomach.

  The iron hard thrust of Chance’s body as it moved in and out, over and over, was focusing the feeling into one, huge, aching need.

  And then, before she had time to prepare, it was there and she fell. She fell up and then down, lost in the black space of a little death that had come at the hands of Chance McCall. She called his name aloud, once, and then the fall ended as he caught and held her, tightly, and securely, and loved her all the way back down.

  He was so quiet. It had been almost an hour since they’d fallen into each other’s arms, replete from the intensity of their lovemaking. Not a word had passed between them.

  Jenny knew that a reckoning was due. She’d seen the knowledge that she’d been a virgin nearly pull him undone. And then everything had vanished but the passion between them. Then there had been room for nothing else. Now was a different story.

  She ventured a quick glance upward. Her heart stopped. He was staring at the ceiling overhead with a look of total disbelief on his face.

  “Chance?”

  “What could you possibly have to say that will explain that away, Jenny?”

  “You have to understand…”

  “What kills me,” he whispered, “is wondering what other damned lies you’ve told me that I’ve yet to uncover.” He rolled her over on her back, pinning her down with his body and a stare.

  Jenny pushed herself out from under him, leaped out of the bed, and pointed at him in accusation.

  “Lies? There were no lies between us. You were the only man who’d ever shown me passion. You were the only man who’d ever made that kind of love to me. But, unfortunately for me, it was one-sided. You made me take, but you wouldn’t let me give. I hated you for what you made me feel alone, when all I wanted was to share what I’d saved for you!” Her dark hair tumbled around her face, hiding her tears.

  Chance was dumbstruck. “Why, Jenny? Why did I do that?”

  “I don’t know,” she moaned, and buried her face in her hands.

  Chance pulled her back down beside him, cradling her as he whispered, “I’m sorry, baby. And I guess it doesn’t matter whether this was the first or the fortieth time we’ve made love. I just know it won’t be the last. Ever since I left the Triple T, you’ve been in my thoughts all day, and my dreams all night. In fact you should be getting worried now, lady.” He pulled gently at a curl beside her ear.

  Jenny wrapped her arms around his chest and sniffed. “Why? What do I have to be worried about?”

  “I’m seriously considering the idea of never getting out of bed again,” he drawled. Before she knew it, he’d lifted her up and then lowered her down, moving within her in a gentle, teasing manner.

  Jenny’s mouth formed a perfect O as she slipped over him in one smooth motion. His hands held her down on him, unwilling to release her, yet unable to resist the plea in her eyes. Relenting, he let her move just once, testing, teasing, and then it was no longer a game. Just as he’d feared. Just as he’d hoped.

  Chance watched her body above him until he could no longer focus, until he could no longer feel the silken heat around him. All he could do was hang on as his body erupted, spilling into the woman who’d given herself to him.

  Fire danced across the wall in front of him, trapping him with flames that licked and singed. A woman’s laughter turned into screams. His breathing became labored as he ran. A finger pointed accusingly, but he couldn’t see the face behind the hand. Someone called his name, aloud! Over and over. He turned, trying to see, trying to help…

  “Chance, please!” Jenny was shaking him gently, trying to pull him out of the nightmare that obviously held him in its spell. “Wake up! You’re dreaming!”

  He sat straight up in bed, coming awake instantly, drenched in sweat. The room was dark, the shadows on the walls coming from the neon lights that slipped through the loosely woven curtains. Curses fell from his lips, slowly and methodically, as he staggered from the bed and headed for the bathroom. God in heaven, would this never end?

  Jenny was shocked. She knew that he’d been suffering, but not to this extent. The fact that he’d gone off on his own began to make sense. For the first time since he’d left the ranch, she almost understood his need to know his past.

  Oblivious to her nudity, she quickly followed him into the bathroom and stood in the doorway as he leaned over the sink and slapped water onto his sweaty face.

  “Can I help?” she asked.

  Her voice was quiet. It settled the boiling intensity in his gut almost instantly.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just more of the same as far as my mind goes. I can’t remember a damn thing during the day. But when night comes, and I try to sleep, I think everything stored in my memory tries to come back at once. And I don’t have a point of reference to keep it all sorted. It’s like watching thirty years of living fast forwarded into thirty seconds.” His voice deepened as he grabbed for a towel. “Scary as hell.”

  “Sounds to me like you need a change of scenery.” She waved her hand at the faded wallpaper and rusty spigot in the bath.

  “No, Jenny. What I need is you.” The fact that they were standing mere inches away from each other, stark naked and available, overwhelmed him. “Come here. I think we could both use a cooling off period.” He pulled her into his arms and walked them into the shower.

  As usual, the flow came out one measure stronger than a trickle. Yet Jenny gasped as the shock of the cold water hit the middle of her back…and then gasped again as Chance’s hands followed the water’s path, turning her slowly, around and around, letting the water catch her cheek, run down her neck and across her breasts, and then slide between their bodies and down the front of their legs. Everywhere the water went, Chance was sure to go.

  She’d witnessed his pain as he slept, and was witnessing another pain that was growing as their bodies touched. He was fully erect, pulsing gently against her leg as his hands continued to work their magic on her body. But, this time, it would not be Jenny who received. It would be Jenny who gave. Passion was heavy in his eyes as she reached down and cradled his manhood in her hands.

  “Let me,” she said.

  Chance’s breath caught. He tried to speak. Nothing escaped but a moan. Jenny’s hands were moving…too close…for comfort. Her lips slid across his chest, catching droplets of water just before they ran down past his waist, using her mouth and her tongue to torture his senses. Between her hands and her lips, Chance was a lost man.

  Jenny’s mouth slid down his body and finally covered him. He could do nothing but concentrate on breathing, because what she was doing with her hands and her mouth threatened to stop his heart. All sensations intensified. There was nothing in his world but water buffeting his face, his hands wrapped in the shower curtain as he struggled to stand, and her touch. Then it came—the feeling, the need.

  “Jenny!” The word was one, long, cry. It came in the form of a wave that rushed through his body. He moaned, shuddered, and dropped to his knees.

  Jenny wrapped her arms around him and clung. The shower continued to sluice. Chance tilted her face away from the water, circling his thumbs across her temples in wonder at the intensity of her giving spirit.

  “I love you, Jenny. More than you can ever know. I don’t know what’s going to happ
en tomorrow, but I don’t care, as long as you’re beside me.”

  “Oh, Chance, for the last twelve years of your life I’ve been beside you…every waking hour of your life. And I’ve been trying to tell you for years that I’d be willing to do it for the rest of mine.”

  “My God!” He pulled her up and out of the shower. “And to think I almost lost this.”

  “You up for more of the same?” Jenny teased as Chance turned off the water.

  He turned and stared, mouth slightly agape as he grabbed a towel and began drying her off. “Lord have mercy,” he said. “I’ve created a monster.”

  “Yes, you have,” Jenny said, “an insatiable monster. And this time it’s your turn to do all the work. I think I’ll just lie back and relax, and enjoy the show.”

  Chance grinned. “You can try to relax, baby,” he promised, “but I don’t know how relaxed you’re gonna be when I’m through with you. If I don’t wind you up tighter than a spring, I’ll just have to start over and do it again until I get it right.”

  “Wipe that smug grin off your face. One thing you don’t have to worry about is getting it right, and you know it.” Jenny glared. “All I can think of are those Saturday night women you practiced on.”

  “I have to plead innocent to those women you keep mentioning,” Chance whispered, as he laid her down on the bed. “You remember. I don’t! All I remember is waking up in a hospital and seeing your blue eyes staring down at me with enough love to stop a war. It scared the hell out of me then, and it scares me now, but I’d be a whole lot more frightened if I thought I’d never see them again.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Jenny said, threading her fingers through his hair.

  “You’re telling me,” he said as he covered her body with his own.

  Chance woke first. He could tell by the sun’s rays halfway up the wall, that they’d overslept. He was hot. Possibly because Jenny was stretched out, full length, head to toe, on top of him. Her legs were wrapped on either side of his, her breasts pushing against his chest, her arms dug in beneath his rib cage, holding on for dear life. She’d fallen asleep in his arms. Chance smiled. A man could get used to this.