Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4

by Patricia Hagan

  Colt thought about the house, not for the first time. What in the world was he going to do with a fourteen-room mansion? It was a far cry from the two-room cabin they’d lived in when he was a child. There was a sweeping front porch, and there were pillars and marble steps. On the first floor there was, besides the study, a grand entrance foyer, a large formal dining room, and a smaller dining room for family gatherings. There were two parlors as well, a formal one and a family one, each with an ornate fireplace. Also on the first floor was a small room for Kitty to do her sewing and studying. She was forever reading about the latest medical developments.

  The kitchen was at the rear of the house, connected by a long, enclosed porch, where Kitty lovingly tended her many flowers and plants. Guiltily, Colt reminded himself yet again to water them all.

  Upstairs, his parents had large, adjoining bedrooms, each with its private dressing room. They had told him he could move into either one, now that he had the house to himself, but he preferred the room he’d always had, at the far end of the hallway. Between his room and his parents’ rooms were three guest rooms. One, of course, was meant for Dani. She had lived there only for a couple of years.

  Dani.

  He sighed. Colt wasn’t sure how he felt about the half sister he hadn’t seen in thirteen years. True, they’d had that vicious fight the day she left, but they’d been children, and he held no grudge there. What he did resent was that Dani had been able to turn her back on their father. In all the years of her estrangement, there hadn’t even been a letter from her.

  Colt thought about the conversation he’d had with his father the night before his parents left for France, when Travis went over the, papers the family lawyer had prepared, documents that divided the silver mine and the ranch equally between Colt and Dani. Travis and Kitty had enough money to live on comfortably for the rest of their lives without the mine or the ranch.

  Colt figured it was his father’s property, to do with as he pleased. If he wanted to give half of it to a daughter who didn’t give a damn about him, well, Colt just kept his mouth shut. Still, he couldn’t help wondering how long it would be before Dani showed up to claim her share…while he Colt, did all the work.

  The silver mine was not worth what it had once been due, in part, to the federal government’s limiting the role of silver in the monetary system in recent years. As silver prices declined, a lot of mines had closed down. Bustling mine towns became ghost towns. Silver Butte, once the biggest mining camp in the West, had simmered down and was now a respectable town like many others.

  What had kept the Coltrane family from suffering, and also made them very rich, was Travis’s wisdom in not depending solely on his silver mine for income. Travis threw himself into cattle raising, building up a large herd, and he’d been very successful despite unpredictable beef prices, high railroad rates, and several severe winters.

  All of that had been dropped in Colt’s lap. Oh, sure, he knew what to do. He’d worked the ranch and mine since he was old enough to hold a rope or a pickax. But he’d never expected to run it all, far from it. In fact, he’d been planning to hit the trail, travel the country for a few years, try to satisfy an itch for wanderlust.

  Well, he told himself grimly, that had certainly changed. Suddenly he had more responsibility than he’d ever dreamed of. He felt trapped, truth to tell, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Hell, he might as well be married. He poured himself another drink and shook his head adamantly. Charlene had almost quit trying to rope him in after the talk he’d had with her in New York. Then she heard the news about Kitty and Travis leaving, how he’d have to settle down and take care of things, and she’d started right in again. He did not want to hurt her, so he had almost stopped going to see her. Damn it, he didn’t want to get married. Not yet, anyhow.

  He leaned forward and started looking through the papers. It was the end of the month, so tomorrow he’d have to go into town to draw the payroll for the hired hands. Maybe he’d just stay in town awhile. He could use a good time…

  He froze, then leaped to his feet, drawing his pistol. Someone was walking in the hall. He doused the lantern on the desk and positioned himself directly in front of the door, waiting.

  Two sounds broke the tense silence: the creak of the door opening…and the ominous click of his gun hammer.

  “Colt?” a soft voice called.

  “Damn it, Charlene, you almost got yourself shot!” Disgusted, Colt shoved his gun into the holster and went to the desk to light the lantern again. He sat down, making no effort to mask his annoyance. “What are you doing sneaking around here?”

  She crossed to the desk, perched on the side, and gave him a coquettish smile. Her voice husky, she said, “I wanted to surprise you. I was hoping I would find you already in bed, and I was going to just slip in beside you and—”

  “Are you crazy?” he exploded. “You want your daddy to shoot me? How’d you get out of the house this time of night, anyway?”

  She trailed her fingertips down his cheek, but he grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “Don’t be mean to me, Colt,” she said in her baby voice. “Momma and Daddy are away for the night. Momma’s sister in Pine Bluff is sick, and Daddy took her there. We’ve got all night.”

  He stood up, declaring firmly, “No. You aren’t spending the night here, Charlene. I’m not insane.”

  Her lower lip dropped petulantly, and she blinked her incredibly long, silky lashes, gazing at him with those beautiful blue eyes. “You don’t want me, Colt? You don’t want…?” She pulled her bodice down, exposing full, firm breasts. Nipples already taut with anticipation looked like ripe berries, just waiting to be savored in his mouth.

  Colt felt a quickening of desire. It had been a while since he’d known pleasure with a woman, and Charlene knew how to give him the ultimate. She hadn’t been a virgin that first time, that night so long ago in the back of Harley Jernigan’s wagon behind the grange hall while the harvest dance was going on inside. But that didn’t bother Colt one bit. His father had told him through the years that virgins were trouble. “Stay away from virgins unless you’re looking for a wife,” Travis had said. “Virgins make a man feel guilty for being the first one. Also, they don’t know what they’re doing and you have to teach them. Why bother teaching her if you aren’t planning on making her your wife?”

  Colt hadn’t had to teach Charlene anything. She knew it all and managed to teach him a few things. Oh, she was no whore, not Charlene. Like every other male around Silver Butte, Colt figured she’d been broke in by Billy Earl Lassister. They’d courted for over two years when Billy Earl was caught fooling around with a girl in Pine Bluff and her daddy marched him to the parson with a shotgun at his back. Everybody said the baby that arrived six months later was born with hot feet because he tried to arrive in time for the wedding.

  Charlene was hurt and humiliated, and people said she was going to wind up an old maid because she had a broken heart that wouldn’t heal. But then Charlene set her sights on Colt, and the gossips had another field day.

  The way Charlene was fondling him between his legs, Colt was fast losing his resolution. With every bit of willpower he could muster, he caught her wrist and held it as he said tightly, “I want you to get the hell out of here, Charlene. This is trouble for both of us, and you know it.”

  Smiling, she stepped back, and Colt released her.

  But Charlene had no intention of retreating. She lifted her long skirt, exposing shapely, bare legs. “Tell me you don’t want this, Colt,” she taunted, giving her head a flirting toss that sent her long blonde hair flying. With one more tug, she jerked her skirt all the way to her waist.

  She was naked beneath the skirt.

  Colt’s gaze fastened on the golden thatch of hair between her legs. He wanted to speak but no words came.

  Hands on her hips, she taunted, “It’s yours, Colt, all yours. All you have to do is pick me up and carry me to your room. Then you can have me all ni
ght long, any way you want me.”

  He wanted her—hell, yes. With a deep groan, he lunged for her, lifting her easily and cradling her against his chest. He carried her into the hallway, making his way through the house and up the curving stairs. He didn’t bother with lights, for he knew the way.

  “Hurry, oh, please, please, hurry,” she urged, lips and tongue setting his neck on fire. “I want you so.”

  In his room, he lowered her to the bed and quickly removed his clothing. He settled himself beside her, and was about to pull her close, but she positioned herself on her knees and straddled him, giggling. “My turn first!”

  She laughed, her blonde hair blending with the silver light flowing through the windows. She lowered herself upon his rigid shaft, taking all of him and squealing with delight over his size. “See how easily we fit together? We’re made for each other, you know.” She began moving rhythmically, undulating her hips; grinning at him all the while.

  His hands were tight around her waist. The sensation was near torture as he struggled with the urge to release himself. He wanted the joy to last.

  Charlene gasped, nearing her own pinnacle of ecstasy. Her eyes were closed now, her teeth biting into her lower lip, head thrown back, hair tossing like the mane of a bucking bronco. She moaned, as though deep in agony, “So good, my darling…going to be…like this…all the time…when we’re married…”

  Then she was caught up in the spasms of her climax, her screams of delight echoing in the quiet night. He held her to him, still impaled as he flung her on her back, rising to his knees to thrust into her deeply, taking himself to his own zenith as she writhed and moaned beneath him.

  At last spent, Colt withdrew and lay on his stomach beside her. Regret washed through him. It had been good. It always was. But he was playing with fire. Her daddy would crucify him if he ever found out.

  Charlene was snuggling close to him, fingertips dancing lovingly across the rock-hard muscles of his perspiring back. “You know,” she cooed, “we’ve never slept together, Colt. We’ve always had to part afterward, but tonight I’m free.”

  “You’re getting out of here, now,” he grated, more sharply than he’d meant to. “If your parents come home early and find you gone, they’re going to go crazy. I sure don’t want them to find you here.”

  He sat up and pulled on his trousers, urging, “Come on, Charlene. I’ll ride into town with you. I’m not going to send you out alone this time of night. I’ll see you to your door. Now, let’s get going.”

  She snuggled back against the pillows. “I’m staying right here. We never get the chance to sleep together, Colt, and we’re going to tonight. Relax. It’s going to be wonderful. We’ll rest, make love again, then I’ll fix us a lovely breakfast before dawn and get home long before Momma and Daddy get back.”

  He stared at her incredulously in the semidarkness. “Stop fooling around, Charlene. We have to get out of here. Now!” He held out his hand, but she didn’t take it.

  Colt was dangerously close to losing his temper. He jerked her out of the bed and stood her on her feet. “Fix yourself, and meet me out back. I’m going to saddle my horse.”

  Suddenly Charlene burst into uncontrollable sobbing. “If you make me leave, so help me, I’ll hate you forever,” she gasped.

  Colt shoved his hair back from his forehead, exasperated. Women. He’d rather have all the responsibilities of running the ranch and the mine and a hundred wranglers than attempt to cope with a wife.

  The muscle in his jaw twitched. “Charlene, I don’t like throwing you out, but you never should’ve come here, and I was a fool to let you stay, even for a little while.”

  She flung her arms around him and begged, “Please, Colt, don’t make me leave. Let me have this one night with you. How can you just throw me out? You just made beautiful love to me…” Her voice broke with sobs.

  Colt didn’t like himself very much right then. She was right. They had just made beautiful love, and he was treating her like a whore. What a louse. Still, his every instinct told him to get her home. “We’re taking a big chance,” he said helplessly.

  Sensing surrender, Charlene stood on tiptoe, raining kisses all over his face. “No, no, we’re not,” she assured him. “I know Daddy. He won’t leave for home till after he’s had breakfast. The bank doesn’t open till eight thirty, and it’s a two-hour trip to Pine Bluff, so he won’t get back till just in time to open up. I can leave here at first light, slip into the house through the back way, and no one will ever know.”

  As Colt gave in, he promised himself that they were going to have a talk later, and no matter how much she cried, he would make her realize once and for all that he was not going to be pressured into marriage, and further, that if she kept pestering him about it, he’d stop seeing her, period.

  She protested again when he left her to return to the work she had interrupted, but he ignored that outburst and went back to the study, flinging himself into his chair. He was angry—with Charlene and, even more, with himself.

  He directed his attention to the work before him, vowing that at first light she was getting the hell out of there even if he had to drag her.

  Charlene opened her eyes and blinked against the light streaming in through the window. Instantly she was alert, sitting up and looking around wildly. The sun was up. Dawn had come and gone and—where was Colt? Why hadn’t he awakened her? “Oh, Lord,” she whispered in the empty room, panic welling in her throat, “I’m in trouble now!” Her parents would be home, and would have discovered her missing by then. They would never suspect her of doing something so scandalous as sneaking out to be with a lover, so they would assume something terrible had happened to her. They would call the sheriff, and—oh, what was she going to do?

  Grabbing her dress from the floor, she pulled it on, then ran from the room and down the hall, calling Colt’s name. Reaching the stairs, she took them two at a time, almost fell, and grabbed the railing for support.

  Colt groggily lifted his head from his desk when he heard screaming, shaking himself as he struggled to clear his mind. What the hell was going on?

  Charlene burst into the room, a madwoman, golden hair flying, blue eyes bulging. “Colt! What time is it?” she screamed. “Why did you let me sleep? Oh, God, God, we’re in trouble now…” She ran to him and threw herself into his lap.

  Colt got shakily to his feet, almost dropping her to the floor. Two things told the story, he realized with a sick feeling: the empty whiskey bottle and the clock. It was nine a.m.

  “Oh my God!” He sank back into the chair, his head in his hands.

  Charlene paced up and down in a frenzy, wringing her hands as she wailed, “What are we going to do? They’re home by now. Daddy’s probably called the sheriff, and they’ve probably got a posse out looking for me. There’s no way I can keep him from finding out I’ve been here all night. He’s going to kill me! He’ll kill you, too, and the whole town is going to find out. I’m ruined! I’ll never be able to face people again!”

  On and on she raged. Colt watched, his own thoughts torturing him. There was going to be big trouble, all right, trouble he damned well didn’t need. Everyone knew Carleton Bowden adored his only child, and he was not going to look kindly on the man he would blame for besmirching her. Charlene wasn’t exaggerating when she said her father would kill Colt. He’d probably try.

  A sound in the hall told Colt that the servants had arrived. He got up and called into the hallway that he didn’t want to be disturbed, then closed the door. He went to Charlene and gripped her arms, forced her to meet his burning gaze. “All right, now, calm down. Let’s see if we can figure some way out of this mess. Your going all to pieces isn’t getting us anywhere.”

  She searched his face for a miracle, whispering tremulously, “Colt, you’ve got to believe me. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I really was going to leave and get home before my parents did. I swear I was.”

  He ran agitated fingers through his hair an
d turned away from her. “I know, I know,” he told her absently. Hell, she was cunning, but he doubted that even she would pull a dumb stunt like this.

  He walked to the window, stared out at the grassy plain beyond, the sleepy river rolling along lazily in the bright morning sun. Then he turned to face her once again. “We’ll say I invited you out here for dinner. We drank too much wine and fell asleep. I’ll get the cook to lie and say she was here all night, that we didn’t leave the parlor. We’ll say we were chaperoned.”

  Charlene shook her head firmly. “It won’t work. Even if Momma and Daddy believed it, there’d be too many busybody gossips that wouldn’t, so there would still be scandal.”

  “Our word against theirs. Let them believe what they want.”

  She shook her head again. Colt stared at her, realizing suspiciously that the despair and terror in her eyes had gone. She looked—what? Relieved? Triumphant? “That’s our story,” he said with finality.

  She moved to him, touching his cheek with loving fingertips. Voice soft, she proclaimed, “No, Colt, it won’t work. We’ll just elope. We’ll go away for a few days, and send a message home so they won’t worry—”

  “No!” He grabbed her wrist as he declared icily, “No, we are not getting married, Charlene. I’ve told you over and over, but you won’t listen. I don’t want to marry you. I don’t want to marry anybody. I’m not going to be roped into marriage because of what happened last night. It was my fault for taking you to bed, but I didn’t invite you here, and I’m not going to be suckered into anything because of it. So you just get that fool notion out of your head right now.”

  He flung her away from him, and she saw how mad he was. It was starting to dawn on him that maybe, just maybe, she had planned the whole thing. It made sense.