She feigned a gasp of insult. “In that case, I’ll leave you to your own devices.”
He laughed and caught her wrist. “Don’t go, nurse Jennie. I may need you yet.”
He was only playing, she knew, but her heart leapt at his touch, at the thought of him needing her, and suddenly the small felt even smaller.
“Why are you here, Jennie? What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Melvin Parks.” She latched onto the reason for her visit and pressed the washcloth against his bruised cheek again. “Why hasn’t he been arrested? The man should be in jail by now.”
“He will be.”
“He murders a young woman and nothing happens.” She shrugged. “It infuriates me.”
“Be patient. Once he is in jail, you want him to stay there, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then let justice take its course.”
He held her gaze and she felt herself drifting into the warmth shining there. She looked away from his seductive eyes, but only found more of him to admire. His golden hair. His chiseled jaw. She removed the cloth and examined the red spot on his cheek. “That will bruise.”
“I’ll live.”
“Why don’t you take off your shirt and I’ll wash out the blood spots on your collar.”
“I can do it later.” He tilted his head as if he was struck by a wayward thought. “Where’s Oliver?”
“At the boarding house with Dottie and Molly. He is enjoying the riding lessons, Zach. I can’t thank you enough for spending time with him.” She heard herself babbling, rushing from thought to thought. “You’ll never know what it means to me. To him.”
“I enjoy it as well.”
“Well, the least I can do is repay you by helping you with your shirt.” She raised the washcloth to his collar and tried to erase the pink spots. “This isn’t working,” she said with a frown. “This blood needs to be scrubbed out first, before you wash it.”
“You have to get your way, don’t you?” he asked as he began unbuttoning his shirt.
Jennie scowled playfully at him. “You have to be a stubborn mule, don’t you?”
He chuckled and pulled his shirttails free from the waistband of his trousers. “Jennie, I don’t want you to fly off the handle about this, but I think I have found a loophole.” He shrugged out of the garment and handed it to her.
“What do you mean?” No longer as focused on the stains as she was on the lights dancing in his blue eyes, she smiled, wondering what he was up to now. “Did Judge Bishop have a big row with Luna?”
“I can’t discuss it yet.”
“What? Why not?” Impatience blew through her and she tossed aside his shirt. “But I’m your client. If anyone should know what’s happening, it’s me. Is this about putting land in a trust for Oliver?”
“No, it’s even better than that.”
“I get the land?” she heard her tone soar along with her hopes.
“Not quite yet, but things are looking better. I figure that he’s powwowing with Luna now. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in that house.” He chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Luna will blow her top.”
Almost beside herself with excitement, Jennie placed her hands on his chest. “When will you know for sure?”
“Tomorrow.” He rested his hands on hers, pressing her palms against his skin. “I’ll know more tomorrow.”
From the pleasure emanating from his face, she knew that the scales had tilted in her favor. With a laugh, she pushed away from him and pirouetted in the center of the room, her skirts twirling around her legs.
“Tomorrow! It can’t come soon enough,” she said, breathlessly. Looking at him, she acted on pure instinct and threw her arms around his neck. She landed a quick kiss on his parted lips.
His response was instant and exuberant. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him. He took her mouth in a full, deep kiss that offered passion and joy and hope. Her heart leapt in response. That was exactly what she wanted, she realized. More than news, more than land, more than a house in the country. In this instant, this kiss, this man, these feelings were succor for her soul.
His skin was warm and supple. Muscles rippled under her fingertips. He smoothed his hands over her head and his fingers combed through the inky silk of her hair.
“You’re so beautiful, Jennie.”
“Be careful or I will believe you.”
“Believe,” he breathed, his lips brushing hers.
“I thought we weren’t going to do this,” she murmured, loving the touch of his lips and the feel of his fingers tangling in her hair.
“I’ll stop. Just give me the word.”
She closed her eyes in sweet surrender. “Don’t stop.”
He began unbuttoning the front of her dress and a shiver of anticipation coursed through her.
“Don’t start this unless you mean to finish it this time,” she said.
His eyes smoldered with blue fire and he cupped one hand at the back of her neck, angling her toward him. Their mouths met in a soul-ravaging kiss.
Her clothes were suddenly tight and confining. She unbuttoned, unsnapped, and tugged her arms out of the sleeves, then shimmied out of the dress to let it pool at her feet. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up off the floor. He took a few steps and pressed her against the wall.
Clinging to him, she matched him kiss for kiss, her passion heightened with each stroke of his tongue. He set her on her feet and turned her around to untie and loosen her corset.
She rested her hands on the wall. “Yes, yes,” she whispered as the tight garment fell away, giving her more freedom. She pushed down her petticoats and kicked out of her shoes. Whirling around, wearing her chemise and stockings, she grabbed at the waist of his trousers and unbuckled his belt. Their hands moved deftly, urgently, to discard the rest of what kept their skin from touching, sliding, caressing.
He lifted her again and then the feather mattress embraced her along with Zach. This is what she had been yearning for, she thought, running her hands freely over his shoulders, his back, his hips. He felt taut and hot. She parted her legs, allowing his lower body to nestle into hers. She felt his rock-hard arousal and ached to know it more intimately. Her fingers closed around him.
“Good God,” he breathed before nuzzling her left breast and then her right. When his lips latched onto her nipple, she arched her back in sizzling pleasure and released a long, shuddering moan.
The dance of their bodies began, and although she knew the steps, she was unprepared for the improvisation of his clever hands, his seeking mouth, and his talented tongue. He touched her in places that had been private until that night and delved so deeply into her she thought she might fly apart into a million shimmering sparks like fireworks.
Their union was a frantic thrust and parry. His lovemaking was so different from what she had known before. He took the lead, lifting her, positioning her, encouraging her with his hands, his mouth, and his whispered words – “Good, yes, there, there, that’s right, touch me, do you feel that?” The words buzzed in her mind and made her feel drunk with power.
When he finally emptied himself deep inside her, a veil of perspiration covered her body and his, and their breathing was fast and hoarse. She felt like she was drifting down, down, down from a very high place. Muscles twitched in her core as he slid out and off of her. She turned onto her side and ran a hand across his chest where a patch of reddish-blond hair curled. She kissed his freckled shoulder. Although she had never felt so satisfied in her life, she wanted more. She wanted him again.
She kissed his reddened cheek. “Judge Bishop must have been very angry at you.”
“He was lashing out because he’s trapped.”
“By Luna?”
“By his love for Luna. I feel sorry for the old boy. His first wife was a good woman and Judge Bishop thought all women were like her, I guess.” He curved an arm around her shoulders and his hand skimmed down her ba
ck to her hip. “He was lonely and vulnerable and Luna struck and wrapped herself around him so fast that he didn’t have time to think that maybe she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Jennie rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “That’s what happened to Charles.” The truth of that rang in her with the clarity of a bell. “He was lonely and vulnerable, too. She saw that. When he told her he had purchased land, she probably thought he was a man of means and she pounced.”
“And when she learned that he didn’t have any money left, she made his life a living hell.”
“That’s why he came back to me.”
Zach sighed. “She played him for a fool.”
“He couldn’t admit his failures to me, as usual. He was raised to blame everyone else when things went wrong. It makes more sense to me now. I’ve wondered how it happened – what was so special about Luna that she could erase me from his mind.”
“Shhh.” He smoothed a hand along her hip and kissed her forehead. “Don’t you think for one second that Luna was a better woman than you in any way. Luna is a viper with a cold heart. You are any sane man’s dream.”
She looked up into his eyes, his words like sweet music to her ears. “Am I your dream?”
“In every way,” he whispered. “If I died right now, I’d die a happy man.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.” She bit him softly on the shoulder.
His gaze held hers for a few heart-stopping moments before he turned onto his side, his arms coming around her, his nose an inch from hers. “Yeah, you’re right, but I do believe that this is the first time I actually mean it.”
Chapter 15
The next morning Jennie stood before the mirror in her room at the boarding house. The morning light fell over her from the open window. She leaned closer to her image, marveling that there was no measurable change in her appearance. Yesterday when Zachary had walked her back to the boarding house from his office after their tumultuous tryst, she had expected Mrs. Philpot or one of the boarders to take one look at her and know that she had been with a man. But no one said a thing to her – not even Mrs. Carter, who was like a sentry, keeping watch on everything and everyone from her perch on the front porch.
After supper Dottie asked Jennie if she was feeling well because she had been so quiet. “I hope you’re not catching what Oliver had,” Dottie had said, worry lies forming between her wide-set brown eyes.
Smiling, Jennie tipped her head to one side and regarded her reflection. Amazing how no one could tell that she was a changed woman. In Zach’s arms she had abandoned herself to a passion so consuming that she felt cleansed – cleansed of the lies, the innuendoes, the insults, and the confusion she’d known since arriving in Guthrie. For those searing minutes of the joining of their bodies and souls, she had known she had met her match in Zach, her equal, and a man she trusted to take the lead. That night, in her bed, she had realized with a start that Charles had never entered her mind while she’d been with Zach. There was no comparison to be made. Coupling had been predictable with Charles. What she and Zach had done was so far beyond that. While it had been their first time together, they had known each other’s pleasure points. He had encouraged her to explore him and herself, to climb higher and higher, to release her pleasure with moans and writhing exuberance.
She blushed now just thinking of how he moved her, how his mouth conquered every part of her, and how she cried out his name at the moment of her ecstatic release.
“I love him,” she whispered to the dewy-eyed woman staring back at her. “Does he love me?”
Only one person could answer that for her. His answer would either complete her dream or shatter it.
When he arrived at the courthouse the next morning, Zachary went straight to the corner office on the ground floor where Judge Enos Olson kept an office. He had made an appointment yesterday afternoon, wanting to be sure he would have an audience with the judge and not have to postpone delivering his findings any longer than necessary.
Approaching the office, his step slowed as he went over in his mind what he would say and what the reaction would be. Mainly, he wanted advice on what he should do next or if Judge Olson would take it from here.
He entered the office and gave a nod to the judge’s secretary, a tiny woman in her late forties. She wore her pale brown hair braided and piled on top of her head. Zach wondered if she had ever cut it. “Hello, Mrs. Haney. I have an appointment.”
“Yes, you do. Please, have a seat, Mr. Warner. I will let the judge know you’re here.” She stood up from the desk and went down a short hall. She tapped on a door, waiting a few moments, and then went inside.
Zach paced, feeling as taut as a guitar string. Now that he had the evidence he needed to help Jennie, he wanted to proceed with lightning speed. The sooner this was over, the sooner he would no longer be her attorney and he could devote himself to being her man. The thought of that filled him with longing. Would he ever be satiated? Yesterday after he had walked her to the boarding house, he hadn’t been more than a few yards away from her when he had felt the stirrings of desire. He’d had half a mind to march back to the boarding house and ask her to spend the night with him in his room so that he could get lost in her over and over again.
But was he lost in her … or had he found himself in her?
“Mr. Warner?”
Shoving aside his daydreams, Zach spun around to face Mrs. Haney. “Yes, ma’am?”
“You can go in.”
“Thanks.” He walked briskly down the short hall. The judge’s door was slightly open and Zach gave it a push and entered the office. Judge Olson sat behind his desk. He was a stout man with a shock of red hair and a walrus mustache. Zach opened his mouth to greet him, but the words died on his tongue when he realized that another man stood off to one side. Judge Bishop.
“Good morning, Warner,” Judge Olson said. “Now that you’re here, let’s sort through this sordid business. I believe you have some documents to show me.”
“Yes, sir.” Zachary tore his gaze from Judge Bishop, whose face was as pale as fresh-picked cotton, and removed the documents from his jacket pocket. He handed them to Judge Olson. “Has Judge Bishop told you about the fraud he committed?”
“He has, and we can both appreciate his desire to save what is left of his integrity. Let’s see here.” He slipped on a pair of glasses and peered at the documents carefully. Removing the glasses, a frown covering his face, he shifted in his chair to glare coldly at Judge Bishop. “Why don’t you both have a seat?” He motioned to the two wingback chairs in front of his desk. “Warner, when do you have to be in court this morning?”
“Not until eleven.”
“Good, that will give us sufficient time to thrash this out.” He squinted his brown eyes at Zachary. “Looks as if you’ve already been thrashing about.”
Zach smiled and sat down. “Judge Bishop didn’t take kindly to my visit to his home yesterday.”
Judge Bishop lowered his frame into the other chair. He looked grumpy, like a child who had been caught stealing candy. “What is there to talk about?”
“Beg your pardon?” Judge Olson leaned forward, hand clasped on top of his desk. “Do you think this ends now, Silas? You’ve been found out and all you have to do is march in here and apologize to me?”
“I explained that I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“To hell you say,” Judge Olson said, frowning mightily. “I believe that you had to think quite a bit to hatch this plan. Or, perhaps, your wife did the planning and you simply carried out her wishes.”
“Leave her out of this.”
Zachary whipped his gaze around to Judge Bishop, amazed that he was defending Luna. “Luna is as guilty as sin. She has been aware of these fraudulent documents. She knows that Jennie Hastings hired me to untangle this mess you all made that put her and her son off the land that should lawfully be theirs.”
“Simmer down, Counselor Warner,” Judge Olson said. “Does yo
ur client know about this development?”
“Not yet. I wanted to discuss this with you first.”
“I appreciate that.” Judge Olson shifted his gaze to Judge Bishop. “What do you have to say for yourself, Silas? Are you going to take full responsibility for this or share it with your wife? She could not have been in the dark about this. Charles Hastings was divorced in March, not in January as so stated in this forged document. The court docket shows that Luna married him the following June. He was not divorced long enough for that marriage to be legal. Someone knew about that and decided to make it legal by creating a false divorce decree for Mr. Hastings.” He tapped the papers on his desk.
“I was only trying to help … we didn’t know about his other wife —.”
“His only wife,” Zach corrected him.
“Ex-wife,” Judge Bishop said with a surly scowl. “When we received word of his death, it seemed the land would go to waste and Luna should inherit it because she had married the man and been callously abandoned by him.”
Zach made a scoffing sound.
“This is your reasoning?” Judge Olson asked. “How would land go to waste? Say, there was not another wife and a son. What would happen to the land? It would be sold again to someone, so how is that going to waste?”
“What I meant to say is … it would go to a stranger and that would seem such a waste.” Judge Bishop ran a finger around his shirt collar.
“If your wife did not own it, it would be a waste,” Judge Olson repeated. “That is flawed logic and certainly not clear thinking. Greedy, yes. Opportunistic, yes. Logical, no.”
Zach sat back, beginning to enjoy the interchange between the two judges. Bishop, on the defensive, and Olson moving in slowly for the attack.
“I admit I didn’t think it through, but I didn’t think anyone would be harmed by the — uh — the alteration.”
“Forgery,” Judge Olson said, his eyebrows jumping up and down in consternation. “Let’s not mince words. You forged a document, Silas. You not only committed a crime, you have, in effect, disbarred yourself. Your career has been forever tarnished by your own doing.”
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