Rivers’s knees began to fail her. They buckled entirely when Paxton’s mouth flirted with her own. He ably caught her in his arms, however, and pulled her to him, never breaking the seal of their lips. Rivers found herself oddly short of breath and turned her head from him. Paxton took her chin in his hand and brought her face to meet his once more. She looked up into Paxton’s eyes for only a moment before they narrowed as he kissed her again. The blue of his eyes was mesmerizing in their near translucence, and as he kissed her this time, she knew he watched her, and she began to tremble. The power of his kiss coupled with the intensity of his narrowed stare stole Rivers’s confidence from her. She wondered what he thought of her, if he enjoyed kissing her and the taste on her lips. She was intensely aware of the scent of him—of his whiskers as they scratched the tender flesh around her mouth—of the power contained in the muscles of his chest and arms. She knew she would feel ashamed for it later, but finally, closing her eyes, she let her arms slide around his waist and returned his powerful, moist, delicious kisses.
Time evaded Rivers’s senses, and she had no idea how much had passed when he broke their kiss and rested his forehead against her own briefly.
He whispered, “Consider my winnin’s as paid.”
Paxton’s own mind and senses were a tornado of emotion. This confirmed it. He had to lock himself away from her inwardly. She was, indeed, dangerous to the way of life he’d come to accept. And he didn’t want that life to alter. He’d worked far too hard to achieve it. He had nobody to be responsible for, no one to worry about but himself and Jolee. And he was certain his sister would soon marry Weston and leave him to his own chosen solitude.
Paxton released Rivers and tucked his shirt tail into his trousers. “Well…guess we oughta be headin’ back in now. They’ve had long enough to get over bein’ bashful with each other.”
“Yes.” Rivers cleared her throat, trying to act as unaffected as he did. She took several steps toward the house before her knees gave way from the lingering effects of his kissing her, her body enveloped numbingly in goose bumps.
“Whoops! Watch out now,” he warned, lunging forward and catching hold of her arm to steady her.
“Gopher hole,” she lied. “Better watch your step. It’s so dark now.”
When Rivers and Paxton entered the house, it was to be greeted by Jolee’s and Weston’s beaming, smiling faces.
“We’ve finished the dishes while you two were out…doin’ whatever it was you were doin’,” Weston announced.
“Fixin’ the stall,” Paxton informed him, grinning mischievously.
“It oughta be right sturdy by now,” Weston added.
Rivers was all too aware of the understanding winks passing quickly between the two men.
“Let’s all sit down in the parlor. Do ya have time, Weston?” Jolee asked.
Even the beaming smile radiating from the sweet face of her friend couldn’t erase the euphoric feelings and thoughts bouncing around inside Rivers’s mind and body. She could still feel Paxton’s breath on her cheek, his arms around her, his firm chest crushing against her. She could still taste the warm flavor of his mouth.
“Where were ya all anyhow?” Weston asked innocently as they all took seats in the parlor. Rivers knew she blushed and hoped with all her heart it was too dark in the room for anyone to notice.
“Same as you,” Paxton said.
“What?” Jolee exclaimed, and Rivers noticed the blush on her face as well. “I mean,” Jolee continued, “dishes?”
“No, Jo,” Paxton chuckled knowingly. “Playin’ in the water. We were down at the pond skippin’ rocks.”
“I hope he warned ya ’forehand, Rivers,” Weston said, smiling.
“Of what?” Rivers asked, curious.
“That he can skip a rock at least twelve times ’cross the pond if’n he has the mind to,” Weston answered.
“No, he didn’t,” Rivers said, glaring at Paxton, who only shrugged his broad shoulders.
“I let her win once,” Paxton chuckled. “Played my harmonica for her.”
“You didn’t! He’s lyin’, Rivers! He don’t play for nobody!” Weston exclaimed.
“He plays beautifully,” Rivers stated truthfully, as humiliation at his toying with her began to course through her veins.
“Beautifully?” Paxton questioned, as his voice went high and squeaky with disgust. “Good, maybe. Perfectly, even. But, ‘beautifully’? Only kind of men that do things ‘beautifully’ is the same kind that uses curlin’ rods in their hair.”
“He must be takin’ to you all right then, Rivers,” Jolee remarked. “He doesn’t play for anybody but himself and the stock usually.”
“I guess I’m at least as privileged as the stock then,” Rivers said.
“Don’t get too all confident there, girl,” Paxton chuckled.
Rivers glared at Paxton and stuck her tongue out at him quickly. She was instantly horrified as he winked at her, licking his lips with insinuation. He chuckled and shook his head, satisfied at having obviously unsettled her.
Rivers glanced at Jolee, who was too involved in her quiet conversation with Weston to have noticed her brother’s shameless flirting. And Rivers was thankful for it.
The four sat talking for nearly two more hours before Weston finally stood to take his leave.
“That was the finest meal I’ve ever had, Jolee,” Weston said, taking one of her hands and pressing it between his own. “I hope you’ll be askin’ me over again soon.” He smiled at her and tipped his hat to Paxton and Rivers.
“Thank ya for comin’,” Jolee called as he walked out the front door.
Paxton stood smiling at his sister, and she blushed as she turned and saw him staring at her.
“What are you grinnin’ at, Pax?” she asked shortly as she moved past him and into the kitchen.
“Oh, nothin’. Nothin’ at all, Jo,” he said chuckling. “Just that you’re glowin’ like a firebug in the summer dark! Did he give ya a big lickery kiss while ya were doin’ up the dishes?”
Jolee’s mouth dropped open as she turned to scold him. “No! Of course not! He’s a gentleman, Paxton. Course you wouldn’t understand that,” she teased. “And anyway, what were you all doin’ out by the pond? Skippin’ rocks? That’s about the dumbest story you’ve ever come up with, Pax,” Jolee snapped.
“Ain’t no story, Jo. It’s the truth, ain’t it, girl?” he said, turning to Rivers.
“Yes,” she answered shortly.
Rivers felt the hurt and humiliation deepening at the siblings’ light treatment of what she considered a very serious situation. Without a word, she turned and walked toward her room.
“Hey. Aren’t ya gonna say good night?” Paxton asked as he caught hold of her arm just outside her bedroom.
“Good night,” she snapped, wrenching her arm free of his grasp.
“Hold on. Hold on. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have teased ya that way. I just…” Paxton began in a hushed voice.
“Teased me? You weren’t teasing me. Don’t think I’m stupid enough to believe it was just a friendly teasing. Men. You’re all so…that’s what women are here for, aren’t we? For you to humiliate, to enable you to make yourselves feel superior and powerful?” Rivers accused in a whisper, glancing toward the kitchen to ensure that Jolee couldn’t hear her.
The frown capturing Paxton’s face was complete. Not just eyebrows and forehead, but also mouth, eyes, and jaw. Rivers was at once incredibly uncomfortable. Yet she wanted to reach up and entangle her fingers in the soft, sable-colored waves hanging at his forehead. She wanted his kiss on her mouth again. What had happened? The moments at the pond under the tree had changed things. She would never be able to leave him now.
“Yep. That’s it, all right,” he growled and, before she could think to escape, he pulled her brutally against his body and nearly smothered her with his hard, angry kiss.
Rivers knew he meant for it to hurt her—to make her feel
as if he were using her mouth for the sheer pleasure of his own. Even so, something in his kiss thrilled her. She sensed it wasn’t fully as cruel as he intended it to be.
“You’re exactly right,” he growled after breaking from her. “In fact, since you’re on to me now…I guess I’ll have to satisfy my manly needs somewhere else.” He stormed across the hall to his own room, slamming the door behind him.
Rivers scolded herself as she climbed into bed. Jolee had told her weeks ago about Ruby. No doubt memories of her were the reasons Paxton took what Rivers had accused him of so fully to heart. Paxton was a tease! That’s all it was. He hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings out under the willow. He’d only been playing with her—a friendly flirtatious playfulness.
Rivers tossed and turned and was utterly guilt-ridden for at least an hour. Sleep evaded her guilty conscience to the point she was driven to put it to rest. Quietly she crept from her room and put her ear to the door of Paxton’s room across the way. A light shone from the crack at the bottom of the door, and she could hear his bed squeaking. She swallowed hard, mustering every bit of courage she could, and without knocking opened the door and entered his room.
“Before you throw me out…I’ve come to apologize,” she blurted out. “I…” She couldn’t finish her sentence as she looked up at him then. Paxton was sitting on the bed in nothing but a towel, having obviously just finished bathing.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I…I’ll come back later. I had no idea…”
“Naw. You go on ahead and say your piece now. We’ll both sleep better,” he grumbled, standing and walking toward her, gripping the towel firmly at his waist.
The surprise of finding him in such a state had swept all coherent thought from Rivers’s mind. What had she planned to say? It was gone—every word of it.
“Yeah? So?” Paxton coaxed as he stood directly in front of her.
There were still beads of water covering his chest, arms, and shoulders. As Rivers’s eyes wandered a fraction, she noted his stomach, too, was still damp. “I…um…” she still couldn’t organize her thinking into words.
“I’m sorry,” Paxton seemed to finish for her. “I was only teasing ya, Rivers,” he whispered as a grin broke across his handsome face.
“I know,” she said, casting her gaze downward. “I guess I was just tired out or something.”
“Yep. My kisses can have that effect on some women,” he chuckled.
She looked up ready to do battle, but smiled, relieved as she saw the twinkling mirth in his eyes. “I don’t think you’re as tough as you like to pretend,” she whispered.
He smiled. “Ya got me by the gills there, girl.” He lowered his voice again and whispered, “Tell ya what. Double or nothin’.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. “I’ve learned my lesson about betting with you, Paxton Gray.”
“Now, just hear me out. Double or nothin’…you let me kiss ya one more time, to make up for that mean thing I did in the hallway earlier, and I won’t go teasin’ ya beyond what ya can handle any more. Deal?”
Rivers looked up into his dazzling smile. She shook her head nervously. “No, no, no. That’s all right. I understand. Really, I do. I provoked you before.” She began to back away.
He ignored her answer and reaching out took hold of her arm. As his head descended toward hers, he whispered, “I just wanna make sure ya know there’s somethin’ besides playin’ the harmonica that I do ‘beautifully.’ Even if I don’t use curlin’ rods in my hair.”
Then Paxton’s lips touched hers so tenderly that if it hadn’t have been for the pure tremor of titillation moving through her like thunder echoing in a mountain valley, she wouldn’t have felt his kiss at all.
He gently pulled her into his arms. The beads of water still clinging to his body united with the warmth of his skin, moistening her nightdress like a hot, sweet, summer cloud burst.
His mouth began discovering hers once more. Now, the uncompromising, powerful, thrilling kisses they had shared under the sweeping boughs of the willow returned. Rivers was bound helplessly in the confusing yet ecstatic thrill the feel of his mouth toying with her own sent resounding through her.
“Now,” he whispered as his body seemed to unwillingly separate itself from hers. “I clean forgot to keep hold of my towel. So, unless you’re wantin’ to see me bare neked…ya better…”
Rivers gasped and, without waiting for him to finish his sentence, turned and fled across the hall to her own room. She could hear his mischievous chuckle as he closed the door behind her.
Climbing back into her own bed, a contented smile donned her beautiful cherried mouth. The knowledge he had forgiven her the cruel words she’d spat at him earlier sent her off to a peaceful, if somewhat dreamy slumber—dreams dominated by the perfect kisses of the man who, in fact, held her heart captive.
CHAPTER FIVE
After the night Weston Warner came to supper, Jolee lost some of the extreme nervousness that had previously enveloped her in his presence. Weston spent more of his time visiting with Jolee when he dropped by now and again and even escorted her to one of the church socials in town.
Yet as Rivers watched Weston and Jolee becoming more familiar, her own anxieties deepened. She knew she could no longer stay in the Gray home once Jolee married Weston and moved to his farm, as she had no doubt she would. But returning to her grandparents seemed a dismal prospect. Furthermore, Rivers knew she could not continue to hop boxcars from town to town, living the existence of a drifter. She’d grown beyond posing as a young boy to find work—grown beyond the lonely, unsafe life of an orphaned girl. She was a woman and longed for a home, a life, to be loved and to love in return.
Trying to push the necessity of leaving to the back of her mind, Rivers attempted to go about her existence each day happy for Jolee and Weston and yet selfishly hoping their engagement, when it was announced, would be a long one.
Rivers tried in vain to push other thoughts to the dark recesses of her mind too. Thoughts of a strong, handsome, untouchable man whose kisses still burned through her memory! Paxton had become increasingly less friendly. Ever since the night Weston had come for supper, the night she and Paxton had shared such intimate moments, he seemed to withdraw into an impenetrable hull. He smiled seldom, talked even less, and seemed to wear a perpetual frown across his brow. Rivers knew he’d regretted his flirting with her. He rarely met her eye to eye, and he was brief in his conversation with her. He was polite to everyone, even to Rivers—coolly polite. Still, Rivers sensed his discomfort with her.
Several times, she’d tried to find the courage to leave them, these people she was in love with. But each time, the now-fading courage that had carried her through so many of life’s trying situations abandoned her completely. Often at night, she’d hear the distant rumble of the train on the tracks and listen to its mournful whistle seeming to warn her, calling to her. But each time she let the train echo into the distance without an attempt at joining its journey.
And then, Jolee was bitten. The horrible guilt Rivers felt toward the incident, coupled with Jolee’s need for help, kept her from leaving when she came closest to finding the will to do so.
For Rivers, the events of the day Jolee was bitten began with an unpleasant interaction with Paxton. As she stepped out of the house on her way to the barn, Rivers’s shoe caught on a loose front porch board. Consequently, she stumbled, landing on her hands and knees, a painful splinter puncturing the palm of her hand, burying itself under her flesh.
“Ow!” Rivers exclaimed. Sitting down promptly on her behind, she studied the large sliver of wood imbedded in her palm.
“Let me see it,” Paxton growled, as he mounted the front porch steps. Hunkering down before her, he took Rivers’s hand in his own, studying the splinter.
Rivers gasped as, without pause, he drew her hand to his mouth, taking the exposed end of the splinter between his teeth tugging on it. “Ow!” Rivers exclaimed
once more.
“Oh, quit your whinin’, girl,” Paxton scolded impatiently. He drew a small knife from his pocket.
“What are you doing?” Rivers asked.
“I’m gonna cut your hand off, girl. What do ya think?” he grumbled.
“You don’t have to…” she began, trying to draw her hand away from him.
But he held it firmly, placing the tip of the splinter between his thumb and the knife blade. He pulled the splinter out quickly and rubbed the sore area of Rivers’s palm vigorously to ease the pain.
“It’s takin’ too long,” he stated.
“What?” Rivers asked, puzzled. She wasn’t at all certain what he meant.
“Weston and Jolee,” he answered.
“It’s only been a couple of weeks since…”
“Somethin’s not right. Somethin’s keepin’ them from goin’ ahead,” he muttered, standing and offering his hand to Rivers. She took it, in return of his offered courtesy, and dusted off the back of her skirt.
“Something like what?” she asked.
“Somethin’ like you,” he stated. For the first time in days, the intensity of his sapphire stare met hers.
“Me?” she asked, placing one hand to her bosom. Her heart began to throb with the intense pain stabbing her there as realization hit her. “You mean because I’m here…and she thinks I don’t have anywhere to go? You think she’s…”
“I think she wants somethin’ to be goin’ on between you and me, and that’s why she won’t give herself to him,” he interrupted.
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