Lake Roosevelt

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  A wagon road also led up into the hills and eventually to Portland. But from here it was a lot easier to take a ship out and into the Columbia River and up to Portland.

  She and Jesse had decided to take the longer route to get here. They had taken a train from Boise to Portland and then down the Willamette Valley to Salem. The ride had been wonderful, but very bumpy, and they both had berths so small one person could barely turn around in it. So they had spent most of their time in the dining car, eating and drinking coffee and enjoying the time talking.

  In Salem, they had bought two horses and headed for the coast. The ride from Salem over the Coastal Mountain Range to a small town called Taft had taken them two days, stopping in the small town of Grand Ronde on the first night.

  From there they had gone north up the coast, sometimes having to wait for low tide to use the beach as a trail, other times following a wagon road through the trees inland. The ride up the coast had taken three more days, stopping in two small hotels along the way.

  She glanced back at the handsome man behind her again, but he seemed to be looking out over the ocean at the spectacular blue waters and light waves.

  Even though they had known each other for less than a day in their real timeline, they had been in the past for a year and still hadn’t slept together. It seemed that finding privacy in 1906 was not an easy thing to do, especially when not officially a couple and living in the home of two close friends all winter. Plus Boise was a town that valued propriety of its wealthy.

  Something about screaming and moaning just down the hallway in Bonnie and Duster’s home would be too embarrassing to talk about at breakfast. And she had a hunch that once she and Jesse got started, there would be a lot of both screaming in pleasure and moaning in delight.

  Even without the Humpty Dumpty sex, she had really enjoyed her time with Jesse, the walks along the river, the wonderful planning sessions. But if she didn’t jump his body pretty soon, there was going to be hell to pay.

  So tonight she was going to change up how they traveled. Instead of traveling together as two people of means, she wanted Jesse to sign them in as a married couple and get the largest suite in the hotel if it was available.

  They had met here, why not take their relationship to the next level here?

  Besides, they planned on staying here for some time, waiting for Bushnell to show up. So why not make the best of the time.

  And sex with a handsome, smart man, seemed like a damn good use of her time.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  July 9th, 1906

  Oregon Coast

  IT DIDN’T TAKE them long to get the horses into the stable and start down the boardwalk with their saddlebags over their shoulders. Kelli also carried a carpetbag in her hand and he carried two small satchel-like bags, one hers, one his.

  “Let’s change this up,” she said, smiling at him as they walked toward the diner and the white hotel beyond. The sounds of the ocean below the town seemed to almost pause for a moment as she stared at him.

  He frowned. What in the world was she talking about?

  She pulled a gold band from her pocket and held it up. “Bonnie lent this to me.”

  His heart skipped a beat he was sure. Either that or the world just stopped for a moment.

  She stopped, put her bag down on the sidewalk, and as he watched, she slipped the gold band on her wedding finger and held her hand up. “How about we sign up as a married couple and take this relationship up a step?”

  Damn he liked that idea. He had been thinking about that very thing himself.

  “But we’ve only known each other for less than a day,” he said, smiling at her.

  “I’ve had quicker,” she said, smiling back as she picked up her bag and they kept heading for the hotel.

  “That sounds like a fun story for later,” he said, grinning at her. “So am I Mr. Rae or are you Mrs. Parks?”

  “Since this is 1906,” she said, “lets be traditional. But we can switch off as we go along.”

  “Kinky, Mrs. Parks,” he said.

  She laughed and at that moment the smell of fresh baking bread hit them both.

  They both turned like someone had pulled their strings and stared at the restaurant. It didn’t look like it had any customers at all.

  “Feels to me like we have flashed back to 2016,” she said, taking a deep breath of the thick-smelling air.

  Jesse was almost sure he could taste the bread and how it would melt in his mouth.

  “I think I’m going to be hungry sooner than later,” he said. “Amazing.”

  They somehow kept on going down the boardwalk past the front of the restaurant, even though doing that felt difficult at best for Jesse.

  But Duster and Bonnie had trained them well. A person of means in this time would get checked into their room first, then freshen up, change clothes, and go out for dinner. Even in a small town on the Oregon Coast they needed to maintain their image.

  The four stone steps in front of the hotel led up from the boardwalk and through two open large wooden doors. Inside, the lobby had high ceilings with a large crystal chandelier hanging down in the very middle.

  A massive smooth-rock fireplace dominated one wall of the lobby and the windows were a good fifteen feet tall, letting in a lot of the afternoon light.

  The floors were polished pine and area carpets were under some dark brown overstuffed couches and chairs to one side. One wall near the fireplace was filled with books on what looked like dark cedar shelving.

  “Those look interesting,” Kelli whispered, nodding toward the shelves of books.

  “Are you saying with all the sex you’ll have time to read?” he whispered back.

  “God, I hope not,” she said, laughing.

  There was no one in the lobby at all except for a man behind the main wooden desk at the far wall, but Jesse had a hunch that on rainy days, this large room would serve as a gathering place for town locals to sit, read the papers, and talk around the fire.

  Jesse immediately felt at home here. He wasn’t sure why, but he could feel himself relax a little as he moved across the lobby, placed the bags beside a large wooden column and moved toward the front desk.

  “This is really nice,” he heard Kelli say behind him.

  The man in a suit and tie and vest nodded and bowed slightly. “Welcome.”

  The guy looked almost out of place in the suit. His face was weathered and tanned dark from far too much time in the sun and weather. Clearly before taking this job he must have been on a fishing boat, or he had worked as a logger.

  “Jesse Parks,” Jesse said, reaching out his hand.

  The man took it and shook it and again bowed slightly. Clearly that man knew he was facing a couple of means.

  “My wife and I,” Jesse said, glancing back at Kelli who smiled, “would like your best suite for upwards of a week.”

  “We have that available,” the man said, nodding and turning for the key to the room.

  He slid the key to Jesse, then asked him to sign the big black register book that was open on the counter.

  Jesse signed Mr. and Mrs. Parks, which felt very strange. He didn’t mind it. It just felt strange.

  Then he noticed the name two above his own, and also dated today.

  John Simon Bushnell.

  Bushnell was already here.

  Their research had been off just slightly. Nothing to worry about. At least Bushnell was here.

  Jesse slid the man behind the desk enough money to cover the room for the week. “Please put any extra on the account and we can settle at the end of our stay.”

  “As you wish, sir,” the man said, opening a drawer and putting the cash away quickly. “I will leave a receipt in your letter box.”

  “That would be fine,” Jesse said, nodding.

  “Would you like me to help with your luggage?” the man asked.

  “Thank you, but no,” Jesse said. “We are traveling light this trip to the coast, so I thin
k we will be fine.”

  “The suite is on the third floor,” the man said, nodding. “Simply turn right at the top of the stairs. First door on the right. The room is named Shipside.”

  “We’ll find it fine,” Jesse said. Then he slipped the man a decent tip and turned for the luggage.

  With Kelli leading up the wide, white-painted staircase with a dark maroon carpet runner down the middle, they headed to their suite.

  On the third floor he handed Kelli the key.

  “Aren’t you supposed to carry me across the threshold?” she asked, smiling at him.

  “I’ll get you over more than enough thresholds later,” he said, smiling.

  “Damn that sounds wonderful,” she said, pretending to fan herself before turning and opening the door to the suite.

  And it did sound wonderful. He just hoped Bushnell’s early arrival wouldn’t mess things up.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  July 9th, 1906

  Oregon Coast

  KELLI WAS STUNNED as she opened the suite door and walked in. The place felt very, very familiar in a way she couldn’t quickly place.

  The massive tall windows looked out over the Pacific Ocean and gave the room a feeling as if the room were built on a patio. A stone fireplace dominated the wall to the left going all the way up to the tall ceilings and the corner of the room extended out into the round tower.

  All the windows in the tower and along the ocean side of the building were tall and the brown drapes were pulled aside on all of them letting in a massive amount of light.

  The floor was polished pine with brown area carpets under two dark-colored couches and three large chairs grouped in front of the fireplace. A light-wood table with five chairs with cushion pads on the seats sat in the round area of the room. That would be a stunning place to work and eat breakfast and plan.

  To the right was a large bedroom with a huge bed and open closet next to a dresser. Beyond that Kelli could see a bathroom.

  “Wow,” Jesse said, as he put the bags down and closed the door, looking around.

  Suddenly she remembered why this was familiar. “This is patterned after the Idanha Hotel suites in Boise,” Kelli said. “One day, while Bonnie and I were in the downtown Boise area, she wanted to show me the suites there for times when we came back and needed a place to stay. But those suite sure didn’t have this view.”

  She moved over and stood staring out at the ocean. The swells were gentle and the sun was still fairly high in the sky. Only a few wispy white clouds littered the sky.

  From where she stood, she could see the muddy street in front of the hotel and the boardwalk, from where it ended in the road down to the docks to where it went to the stables on the other side of town.

  But at the moment, it wasn’t the view of the small town that had her attention, but the vivid blue ocean and lighter blue sky as far as she could see.

  Jesse came over and put his arms around her. “Pretty special place.”

  “Let’s make it special,” she said, turning and kissing him.

  They had kissed before, but it has always been guarded kisses. This one, for both of them was a full-on passionate kiss.

  And after a moment they both came up for air.

  His face was flushed and she knew hers was as well. She could feel the heat and the passion.

  She then kissed him again, almost as hard and for almost as long.

  Then she pushed away and said, “I have to get out of these clothes and cleaned up.”

  With that, she turned and started taking off clothes as she headed into the bedroom.

  She managed to get out of her riding coat and her blouse, leaving only her modern sports bra on before she asked for help with her boots.

  He had managed to get out of his duster, his shirt, and had his pants unbuttoned and his belt loose.

  He came over to her as she dropped onto the colorful quilts covering the soft featherbed. She lay on her back and put her feet up in the air.

  He eased off one of her boots, then the other one.

  “Now help with these pants, would you?”

  She unbuttoned her pants and had him pull them off her, leaving only her blue modern underwear on.

  Then she pointed at his pants. “Get those off.”

  She slipped out of her sports bra and underwear and sat there on the featherbed watching him get his boots off and then his pants and then his underwear.

  She just stared at him, stunned at how wonderfully he was built and how his muscles in his back seemed to ripple as he moved.

  Then he turned and stared at her.

  He was clearly aroused and the most handsome man she had ever seen with or without clothes.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said, moving to her and pushing her back on the bed and kissing her.

  His skin felt wonderful against her and she pushed against him.

  It was as if electricity was holding them together.

  He pushed back.

  And frantically they worked at doing what they had both wanted to do for some time.

  And if there was screaming in ecstasy or moaning in satisfaction that alarmed the neighbors, or even the fish down in the ocean, she flat didn’t care.

  It was just so damn good.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  July 9th, 1906

  Oregon Coast

  JESSE LAY BESIDE Kelli, his head propped on his hand watching her naked chest heave up and down as if she had just run a fast mile. He felt the same way completely.

  That had been fast and intense.

  He stroked her chest and then let his hand move down her stomach to rest there.

  “Sorry that was so fast,” he said, laughing. “After a year of lusting after your wonderful body and flirting and fleeting kisses and falling for that wonderful brain of yours, it’s amazing I didn’t explode when you took your blouse off.”

  She laughed. “I think I had my first orgasm looking at you standing there naked.”

  He kissed her again, and she turned and pressed into him.

  And once again he pressed back.

  And this time he took much longer, and it was even better than the first time, if that was possible.

  They just fit together in so many, many ways.

  After they finished yet again, she looked up, her dark eyes intense. “This is better than I had imagined,” she said. “And I imagined some pretty intense stuff over the last year.”

  “That’s what that noise was coming down the hall at night at Bonnie and Duster’s,” he said.

  She laughed and kissed him, then said, “It might have been.”

  “So how about we get cleaned up like a proper couple and see if the food in that restaurant is as good as it was in 2016?”

  “I would love that,” she said.

  She rolled out of the bed and headed for the bathroom. He watched her go, hoping beyond hope that this would be something he would watch for many years to come.

  She stopped in the bathroom door and looked back. “You coming?”

  “Admiring the wonderful view.”

  “Well,” she said, turning and facing him completely naked. “Get in here and admire it while we get cleaned up. After that many orgasms, you have to feed a lady.”

  With that, he joined her.

  Thirty minutes later, they again looked like a 1906 couple of means as they left their suite.

  As they were headed down the stairs, he realized what he had forgotten to tell her.

  “In all the excitement,” he said, keeping his voice low so it wouldn’t carry, “I forgot to mention to you that Bushnell signed in right ahead of us.”

  She nodded, then said, keeping her voice low as well. “So our timing was off by a day or so. But he’s supposed to have stayed here for five days.”

  “So we have time to get eyes on him,” Jesse said. “That’s what I figured.”

  “I just wish we knew what he was doing here for those days,” Kelli said.

  “
That’s what we’re going to find out,” Jesse said. “If we can stay out of bed long enough to follow him.”

  “So what we did was exciting?” she asked, smiling up at him as they reached the still-empty lobby and headed for the front doors.

  “I would call it more mind-blowing amazing,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

  “You really know how to sweet-talk a girl, don’t you?”

  “You’re the writer,” he said, laughing. “Come up with a better description.”

  “Nope,” she said, squeezing his hand back as they went out into the warm summer evening on the Oregon Coast. “I think mind-blowing amazing described it just perfectly.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  July 9th, 1906

  Oregon Coast

  IT WAS STUNNING how little the restaurant had changed in 2016 from its original look now. Stools were gone, but tall chairs were tucked up against a wooden-covered bar. The booths weren’t there, instead were tables with checkered tablecloths and wooden chairs.

  But the shape remained the same, the kitchen was in the same place, only closed off more, and the floors were pine instead of a new tile.

  And the smell in the restaurant was to die for. Sizzling steak smell added into frying fish and baked bread. Kelli had no idea just how hungry she was until Jesse opened that restaurant door for her.

  A small woman with red hair moved toward them with a wide smile on her face that made her freckles stand out.

  “Welcome,” she said, bowing slightly.

  “Table for two,” Jesse said and the woman indicated a table against the front window looking out over the ocean. Kelli would never get used to that stunning view. She could just stare at it for hours at a time.

  As Jesse held the chair for her and then went around the table to take off his coat and hang it up with his hat, Kelli glanced up at a man eating alone two tables away.