“Delayed?” Clint asked.
The clerk nodded.
“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
The clerk shook his head.
“Is there a way for me to be notified when the Misty Morning gets here?”
“Sure,” the clerk said as he straightened up and made his way to his original spot. “Are you going to be staying around here?”
“Is there a place to stay nearby?”
“There’s the Boathouse just down the way and there’s some rooms for rent in the saloon.”
“The Boathouse it is,” Clint said.
“I can have someone run over there to let you know as soon as we get word on when your boat’s due in.”
“That’s very helpful of you.” Clint reached into his pocket, which caused the clerk to twitch. When he lifted his hand again, Clint held out a silver dollar and set it on the counter. “That’s for your trouble. Sorry if I was a little short with you before.”
The clerk reached for the dollar the way a varmint might reach for a bit of cheese in the middle of a snare. When he picked it up without incident, he tucked it away and showed Clint a nervous grin. “No problem, sir. Happens all the time.”
On his way out of the office, Clint muttered, “I wonder why that is.”
After stepping onto the well-maintained boardwalk connecting the long row of buildings, Clint looked down to the clothing shop where he’d last seen Mia. She was nowhere to be found, and judging by the look that had been on her face when they’d arrived, she wouldn’t be seen for some time.
The Boathouse was easy enough to spot since it was a three-floor building at the other end of the row. Clint noticed a livery a little farther down and took Eclipse’s reins to see about accommodations for the Darley Arabian.
Several folks wandered up and down the row. Most of them were stepping in and out of the shops or peeking into the windows. A few of them looked like sailors, and they guided Clint’s eyes directly to the saloon the clerk had mentioned. Two other men didn’t seem interested in the shops or the saloon, however.
When he first spotted them, Clint tipped his hat and led Eclipse down the street. As he’d glanced over to the riverboat docked to his left, Clint turned a bit more and found that the two men had decided to walk behind him. Since he was already looking in that direction, Clint turned and took another quick glance at them.
The men were dressed in plain, dark suits with jackets worn open to expose a few spare bullets looped into their gun belts. Although they didn’t acknowledge Clint’s glance, they didn’t look away either. Clint turned away from them and kept walking to the livery. By the time he got there, he was feeling downright foolish for being so suspicious of a few men walking down the street. If there had been more than one street, Clint might have been more concerned.
The livery was set up to keep horses comfortable for extended amounts of time, and Clint didn’t mind paying a bit extra on Eclipse’s behalf. When he stepped out of the livery, those men in the dark suits were nowhere to be found.
SEVEN
The sun was halfway down, which cast a shimmering orange glow over the Red River. Some of the water lapping against the paddle wheel of the departing Red River Runner turned the light into a brighter yellow. Clint watched the riverboat pull away, admiring the way the sunlit water actually made the paddle wheel appear to be on fire.
Some of the happier folks on the deck of the boat waved to the folks on shore. Clint waved back and lifted his drink to a kid who looked happy enough to bust out of his skin. When the kid found someone else to wave at, Clint lowered his drink and took a sip.
He was sitting in front of the Boathouse on a porch swing hanging from the awning. Stretching one arm along the back of the swing, Clint glanced toward the end of the street where Mia had gone when they’d first gotten there. Unlike all the other times he’d looked that way, she was actually there.
“I was beginning to wonder about you,” Clint said once she was close enough to hear.
Mia slowed down to come to a stop a few feet from the swing. Holding her arms out, she twirled in a quick circle and said, “I had to wait for my new dresses to be altered. What do you think?”
Mia’s dress was made out of dark brown velvet and was held in place with thin, black ribbons laced down the middle. Her skirt had a few bits of fringe toward the bottom, but wasn’t gussied up in any way. Even so, Clint wasn’t quick to take his eyes off of her.
Although the dress was nice, he was more interested in the way the material clung to her body. The velvet flowed over her slender hips and pert breasts as if it had been smeared onto her body. Mia’s curves were slight, but suited her perfectly.
Catching himself before too much time had slipped by, Clint said, “It’s pretty.”
Mia smiled as if she knew exactly why it had taken Clint so long to answer and sat down on the swing beside him. “This is nice. There’s another one that’s pretty. The other ones are beautiful.”
“I hope I’ll get a chance to see them.”
“You’re still going on the boat, aren’t you?” she asked.
“If it ever gets here.”
Mia waved Clint off and leaned back. “It’s going to get here. It’ll just be a little late, is all.”
“How do you know that?” Clint asked. “Did you sneak out of that shop for a few minutes when I wasn’t looking?”
“No. This isn’t exactly a town, you know. It’s a port. Everyone knows every boat that’s due to float by here. My seamstress told me not to expect the Misty Morning until . . . well . . . morning.”
“Damn.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I thought I’d be on the boat sipping a drink by now.”
Mia scooted in a little closer to him and said, “This isn’t so bad. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of cards to be played when the boat gets here.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
“Probably? You think those gamblers will get bored of poker by the time you step foot onto the deck?”
“No,” Clint said. “I’m just starting to think this might not be such a good idea. With you being the one who was attacked and everything, I would have thought you’d be thinking the same thing.”
“Hardly,” Mia said cheerily. “I think the worst has already happened. What better time than that to start gambling? After being shot at, losing a few dollars doesn’t seem so bad.”
Clint’s arm slipped off the edge of the swing and landed on Mia’s shoulders. Rather than lift his arm, he settled it around her and gave her a quick squeeze. She nestled against him as if she’d been waiting all day for that exact move to be made.
“You’ve got a point there,” he said.
“Good. Now buy me a drink.”
“Starting early, huh?”
“Sure,” Mia said. “What are you having?”
“Lemonade.”
“And I thought all gunfighters drank nothing but whiskey.”
“Then go get yourself a whiskey,” Clint said. “You hit more than I did when we first crossed paths.”
Suddenly, Mia’s smile dropped away. It was gone so quick that Clint felt as if it had been knocked off her face. He felt horrible when he realized that he’d been the one to make that smile disappear.
Clint shifted so he was sitting sideways on the swing. That way, he could look directly in her eyes when he told her, “I’m sorry about that. It just slipped.”
She shrugged and nodded, but wouldn’t look back at him.
Placing one finger under her chin, Clint lifted her head a bit and then rubbed the backs of his fingers along her smooth cheek. “I’m really sorry. That was a mean thing to say.”
“Do you think I’m a killer?” she asked quietly.
“Not at all. Those men came after you. I saw them. They shot first. They might not have hit you right away, but they would have gotten to it sooner or later.”
“I just want to forget about it.”
“
You can’t do that, Mia,” Clint told her. “You had every right to defend yourself, and you shouldn’t feel bad about what you did. You can’t just forget about it, though. You try to do that and you’ll only be haunted by it later.”
“So . . . what do I do?”
“Face it down right now and make peace with it. Those assholes wanted to kill you and you stopped them. End of story. Once you do that, the whole mess will just fade on its own. At least,” Clint added, “until another asshole like me dredges it up.”
Mia straightened her back and turned so her shoulders were squared to his. “I’m facing you down and making peace with you,” she declared. Soon, her smile came back again. “Now buy me that drink.”
EIGHT
Clint bought Mia her drink.
He also bought the next round of drinks.
She insisted on buying the next round.
After that, things got a little hazy.
It didn’t take long for them to notice that they weren’t the only gamblers waiting for the Misty Morning. Not only was the saloon the only building in the port that was full and noisy after midnight, but there were poker games being played on nearly every flat surface in the room. That included the bar, which hosted a game for four people who leaned on their elbows to try and keep their cards out of sight.
There was no stage in the saloon, but a man eventually sat in a corner and started to sing. He was quickly surrounded by a few sailors who drowned him out when they started singing along.
Mia wandered into a card game for a few hands, lost every one of them and wandered away. When she stumbled back to Clint’s table, he was just drunk enough to laugh at her.
“That was pathetic,” he chided. “You should just hand over all your money now and save yourself the humiliation when the boat arrives.”
Leaning over a bit too far, Mia put one hand next to her mouth as if that would help once she shouted to be heard over the raucous singing. “I let them win,” she slurred. “They’ll be easy to bluff once we get on the boat.”
“Great strategy,” Clint replied. After taking a drink of his beer, he asked, “How much did it cost you?”
“A hundred dollars. Maybe two.” Mia actually seemed proud of herself for a while. Once that wore off, she scowled and asked, “You think that was too much?”
“It was worth it to teach those stinking gamblers a lesson.”
Clint managed to hold on for a second or two before he busted out laughing. Even though she laughed a bit herself, Mia still swatted Clint on the shoulder.
“You wait and see,” she told him. “I’ll win plenty more than you.”
Clint nodded and made sure he was out of her reach. “Oh, I’m sure you will.”
“I’m not joking.”
“I know. You’re drunk as hell, but you’re not joking.”
Mia got up, pushed Clint into his chair and then sat in his lap. Draping one arm around the back of his neck, she used her other hand to poke Clint in the chest as she asked, “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“I’m sure you’ll win plenty, Mia.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you don’t believe me!”
Clint wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him so he didn’t have to yell. “You raise your voice any more and whatever good you did with those gamblers will be ruined.”
When she looked over to the card table she’d left behind, Mia didn’t so much as wobble. When she looked back, a good amount of the drunkenness seemed to have evaporated. “All right then,” she said in a fairly steady voice. “How about we place a wager?”
“Are you pretending to be drunk?” Clint asked.
“Don’t change the subject, Mr. Adams.”
“All right,” Clint said, while looking at her with a new level of respect. “What’s the wager?”
“I’ll bet you five hundred dollars that I wind up winning more than you do on the Misty Morning.”
“You want to lose another five hundred on top of everything else? Be my guest.”
“Is it a wager or not?”
Clint held a hand out to her. “Let’s make it official.”
“Sealing it with a handshake?” she asked. “I was thinking more along the lines of this.” Leaning in, Mia pressed her lips against Clint’s and held them there as she wrapped her arms around him.
Her lips were hot and became even hotter the longer Clint felt them. Just as they were about to sear into him, he opened his mouth to take a breath and immediately felt Mia’s mouth open as well. Their tongues met briefly before they eased back to catch their breath for real.
Clint’s erection had been growing the moment the kiss had started. Now Mia was shifting her hips back and forth to make it grow even harder.
“Since you feel like upping the ante,” Clint said, “why not make it even more interesting?”
NINE
Clint hadn’t gotten a very good look at the room he’d rented at the Boathouse. In fact, he’d simply made sure the key fit, dumped his saddlebags on the floor and left to get something to drink. Now that he was coming back to it, he got even less of a look at what kind of room he’d gotten for his money.
He and Mia practically fell through the doorway. They weren’t too drunk to walk, but were tangled in each other’s arms as they struggled to pull off each other’s clothes while moving into the room. Mia was getting the upper hand on that account and had already pulled open Clint’s shirt and started to unbuckle his jeans.
Clint, on the other hand, had just managed to loosen the laces holding the front of her dress shut.
“And you said I was the drunk one,” Mia chuckled as she squirmed to make herself more readily available to Clint’s eager fingers. “You’re about to ruin a brand-new dress.”
After saying that, Mia took a slow step back and ran her hand down the laces along the front of the top of her dress. Her free hand snapped forward and might have knocked Clint across the room if he hadn’t fallen onto the bed. Her strength was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one. As much as he liked the show of force, Clint didn’t like the fact that he could no longer see her too well in the dark room.
As if reading his mind, Mia reached out to the closest lamp and twisted the knob. The flame grew just bright enough to fill the room with a dull glow. There were pictures on the walls of various riverboats, and the furniture was actually pretty nice. None of that held Clint’s interest, however. The only reason he looked at all was to see what kind of space he had to work with.
Mia leaned against the wall and arched her back as she slowly pulled open the laces of her bodice. The velvet came open, but clung to her skin as if it didn’t want to let her go. Running her hands up over her breasts, Mia slid them down so her fingernails caught on the top edge of the material. She closed her eyes and smiled, and she eased the velvet down to reveal her pert breasts and dark little nipples.
Clint was enjoying the show, but he was unable to keep himself in his spot much longer. He worked his way to the edge of the bed and sat so he could reach for her with both hands. The moment he got close enough to feel the velvet against his fingertips, he was smacked away by Mia’s quick hand.
“Not so fast, cowboy,” she said.
He’d barely felt the slap on his wrist, but Clint could feel the ache of not being able to touch her through his entire body. As Mia eased the velvet down even farther to show him the tight contour of her stomach, Clint reached for her again.
Mia let him slide his hand along her side and even allowed him to move that hand up toward her breast. The moment he reached out to cup her with both hands, Mia grabbed his wrists and pushed him away again. That brought Clint to his feet, and she immediately moved to the other side of the room.
“You’re testing me,” Clint said as he pulled off his shirt.
She grinned back at him and nodded. “You think so?” As soon as Clint moved toward her, Mia’s eyes flared with the challenge
of trying to elude him in the small room. She wound up in front of a high-backed chair and yelped a bit when she felt her legs bump against it.
Now Clint was smiling as he stood in front of her and reached out to take her in his arms. “You’ve got nowhere else to go now,” he whispered.
Mia tried to wriggle away, but didn’t try nearly hard enough to actually shake free. She moved her mouth up to his and waited until Clint kissed her to make her next move. Grabbing hold of his belt, she used it to spin him around so he now had his back to the chair.
Their eyes met and locked onto one another. Clint pulled her close, but didn’t kiss her. Instead, he savored the heat of her body so close to him. Her dress was so loose on her now that all he had to do was move an arm to get the material to slide down farther along her body.
Mia writhed in Clint’s grasp as if she was trying to deny him another kiss. What she actually did was shed her dress like a snake crawling out of its own skin. When the velvet was collected around her waist, Mia took Clint’s wrists again and guided them the rest of the way down.
Her dress fell to the floor, leaving her naked except for the black boots that were laced almost up to her knee. Keeping hold of Clint’s wrists, she pushed him back against the chair. Clint dropped onto the chair and kicked off his jeans so Mia could settle on top of him.
“Now,” Mia purred as she reached down to guide Clint’s penis between her legs, “I’ve got you right where I want you.”
Clint kept his hands on her hips and held his breath as the tip of his cock found its way inside of her. He let his breath out slowly as she lowered herself onto him. As he slipped all the way inside, he could feel his erection growing until he was hard as a rock.
Mia let out a slow breath as well. When she was all the way down on him, she moved her hands over Clint’s bare chest. She got her feet settled on the floor and started pumping her hips back and forth. The moment Clint thrust up into her, Mia let out a loud moan. She leaned forward and ground her hips against his as Clint grabbed onto her tightly with both hands. From there, he gave into the passion that had been building up and pumped into her again and again.
Red River Showdown Page 3
