She took the padding back from him, her fingers just brushing his and sending a fresh flood of desire surging through him. He stood stone-still, not daring to move lest he reach for her.
“Jedidiah.”
He glanced at her face, seeing the acknowledgment of his own longings reflected in her eyes.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for stopping things before they got too…complicated.”
He gave her a short nod, afraid that if he tried to speak, he would beg. She turned and walked away, the gentle sway of her hips an invitation that he struggled to resist.
She said no, he reminded himself, so it was best that he keep his lusty thoughts to a minimum. He had to get them to Denver alive.
He sat down on his bedroll, his guns within easy reach, and set about eating his supper.
Susannah deposited the sopping mess that used to be her disguise into the back of the wagon, then glanced across the clearing at Jedidiah.
The firelight flickered over him, bathing him in golden light from head to toe. He looked lean and dangerous as he ate a bowl of the stew he’d cooked, his gaze moving restlessly around the perimeter of their camp as if expecting the enemy to burst from the bushes at any moment. His guns rested beside him on the ground, but she knew he could move like the wind when he wanted to. Anyone approaching their camp would be met with a Colt pointed at some vital organ.
Jedidiah would see that she made it to Denver alive, no matter what the personal cost to himself. Even though she’d rebuffed him.
Her heart swelled with tenderness toward her gallant protector. She knew she had made the right decision. As heavenly as it had been to have his hands on her, as arousing as his kisses were, she could not give herself to a man who would not stay.
She wanted to. Oh, how she longed to cross the clearing and offer herself to him. Never before had she experienced the heady power of being a woman the way she had when she’d teased him by slowly stripping the clothes from her body. She had never done anything like that in her life—but then, no man had ever caught her attention like Jedidiah.
What would she have done if things had continued to their natural conclusion? If he hadn’t asked her to make a choice? Most men wouldn’t have asked, that much she knew. Most men would have taken what they could get and then left when the time came without a second glance, leaving the woman with bitter regrets and a sense of betrayal.
But not Jedidiah. He was too honest, too much the gentleman to ever do something like that. Oh, she had been angry with him for leaving so abruptly last spring, but in hindsight, she realized she had really been angry at herself. She had been so rude to him at every turn simply because she had been disturbed by her own feelings for him. He had owed her nothing, had made no promises nor broken any. All they had shared was a kiss, and even then he had told her that he wasn’t staying around. There had been no reason at all for him to give her notice that he was leaving, and perhaps that was why she had been so furious at him. Because she’d wished there had been a reason. She’d wished there had been something more between them than just one kiss.
The more she got to know Jedidiah, the more complex he appeared.
With a sigh, she turned back toward the campfire. They were only half a day away from Colorado Springs and Abigail Hawkins. She only hoped Jedidiah’s associate had managed to stop the woman from getting on the train, or else they’d never find her.
She needed her life back. She needed to clear her name and return to her career as a singer. However, those goals came with the unfortunate consequence of having to say good-bye to Jedidiah, perhaps for good. She wasn’t willing to rush that, but outside factors—like Wayne Caldwell and the murder trial that awaited her—were pushing things along at a swift pace.
Her stomach growled, reminding her that it had been hours since her last meal. Thinking deep thoughts was getting her nowhere fast. She would simply take each day as it came, and set her priorities accordingly.
And right now, her priority was supper, followed by a good night’s rest.
They came to the town of Beecham early the next afternoon. The fairly large town sat at the crossroads of two major thoroughfares, one a stage coach route and the other a cattle trail. It was easy to see why the bustling community boasted so many hotels, eating establishments and boarding houses.
Susannah sat quietly on the wagon seat next to Jedidiah, her hands folded in her lap and her head dutifully lowered. She knew that he had elected to leave the trail for the sole reason of procuring some other disguise for her. Even with the huge sunbonnet shadowing her face, her shapely figure still drew eyes. Jedidiah glared at more than one cowboy who dared to send a hopeful glance her way.
For the first time, the appreciative masculine looks made Susannah self-conscious. She edged closer to Jedidiah on the wagon seat. He was right; she was conspicuous. And he was right about her needing a new disguise. She didn’t want to attract any attention that might give Caldwell a hint as to her whereabouts, and the closer they got to Denver, the more serious her predicament became.
The hoots and hollers of randy cowboys got positively deafening as they neared a large gray building on the corner. It took Susannah only a moment to realize that this time, the ruckus was not directed at her.
The gaudy red and gold sign on the front of the building read Loralee’s Dance Hall. On the second floor, a bevy of scantily-clad women called out enticements to the men on the street, inciting the riot of whistles and shouts.
Susannah cast a glance at Jedidiah. His dark gaze flicked over the flirting beauties, and a small smile tugged at his lips. Without missing a beat, he turned his attention back to navigating the wagon along the crowded thoroughfare, but that smile lingered.
Susannah’s breath froze in her lungs as if she had taken a punch to the gut. Why hadn’t she realized how much it would hurt to see Jedidiah smile at another woman? Turning her gaze away, she stared blindly at the buildings they passed, twisting her fingers together in her lap and squeezing tightly. She knew she had no right to feel jealous, but she did. She had refused Jedidiah’s advances for very sound reasons, but at the moment, those reasons seemed paltry in comparison to the emotions that gripped her.
Until now, it hadn’t occurred to her that he might seek his pleasure elsewhere. It had been just the two of them alone on the trail these past few days, and she had forgotten that she was not the only woman who might find him attractive. She had no claim on him. And he had every right to take care of his needs with any willing woman he chose.
She straightened her spine. She had made her decision, and she would stick to it, no matter how much she wished she could have decided otherwise.
Jedidiah stopped the wagon in front of the sheriff’s office. Determined to act as if nothing was wrong, Susannah sighed as he got down to tie up the team. “Are we going to do this again?”
He spared her a stern glance. “I need to know you’re safe while I go rustle up a disguise for you.”
“I think you just get some sort of perverse pleasure out of locking me up,” she retorted, cautiously climbing down from the wagon. She turned, then stumbled back a step as she found herself only inches away from Jedidiah’s broad chest.
He grabbed her arm to steady her. “Careful, now.”
“Heavens! You move like the wind,” she stammered, more aware than she cared to be of the scent of him, the heat of him.
“You might have noticed me, princess, if you hadn’t been so preoccupied.” He lowered his head until his mouth brushed her ear, his voice a low rumble. “You want to know about my pleasures, perverse or otherwise, you just say so.”
She swallowed hard. “I made my choice, Marshal.”
He stood staring at her for a long moment, those sherry-dark eyes hot with need in his taut face. Then he gave a jerky nod and stepped back, gliding his hand along her arm before breaking contact. “That you did. I’m just letting you know that you can always change your mind.”
She met his gaze s
teadily, starving for the taste of him. “I’ll remember that.”
Without another word, he turned and led the way into the sheriff’s office.
Ten minutes later, he stormed back out again, Susannah at his heels.
“What a lazy, self-serving son of a bitch!” he snarled, untying the team from the hitching post with one sharp jerk. “That man is a disgrace to the law!”
“I’ll say.” Susannah climbed into the wagon.
Jedidiah hauled himself into the driver’s seat with easy strength, snatching up the reins and setting the horses to a brisk trot down the street. “What kind of sniveling piece of scum charges another officer of the law for use of his jail?” he went on furiously. “Ten dollars! He should be horse-whipped.”
“I didn’t like the look of him,” Susannah said, shuddering as she remembered the way the portly sheriff’s black eyes had speculatively scanned her body. “I have a feeling he wouldn’t have stayed on his side of the bars for long.”
“I have a feeling you’re right. And I have a better place for you to go, one that won’t cost me ten dollars.” He turned the wagon towards the end of town. Once more they passed Loralee’s Dance Hall, but this time Jedidiah didn’t even glance at the buxom beauties. Instead, he headed right for the church.
The closer they came to the white clapboard structure, the tighter Susannah’s fingers grew on the edge of her seat. “You’d better not be thinking what I think you are,” she warned.
His mouth quirked in a grin. “I need to put you somewhere while I go find you a new disguise. Besides, every time I leave you in a cell, you end up in trouble.”
“Which seems to indicate you should take me with you,” she retorted.
Jedidiah laughed as he stopped the team in front of the church. “If it weren’t for that face of yours, princess, I wouldn’t even have to go through all this.”
“Oh, sure, blame it all on me.”
Still chuckling, Jedidiah tied up the team, then offered a hand to help Susannah out of the wagon. She broke the contact the instant her feet touched the ground.
Jedidiah raised his brows at her hasty retreat. “Behave yourself so I can introduce you to the reverend.”
Susannah rolled her eyes.
There was a smaller structure of matching white clapboard beside the house of worship, which was the residence of the local minister, Reverend Mathias. The reverend and Mrs. Mathias welcomed Susannah warmly and accepted Jedidiah’s story about having his wife visit with them while he ran an errand out of town. As the moon-faced preacher looked on, Jedidiah took Susannah’s hand and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek.
“Stay put this time,” he whispered as his lips grazed her cheekbone.
Unable to resist, she placed a hand on his chest and looked up at him with adoring blue eyes. “Don’t be long now, darling,” she simpered, playing to her audience. “You know how much I miss you when you’re gone.”
“I’ll be back directly.” He took her hand from his chest and squeezed it in warning before he took his leave.
“You two must be newly-weds,” Mrs. Mathias said with a knowing smile as Jedidiah closed the door behind him.
“Why yes, we are. How ever did you guess?” Susannah moved to the window and peered out, watching Jedidiah’s retreating form as he headed down the street.
“Oh, I can sense these things,” the plump minister’s wife said with a smile. “He can’t take his eyes off you. Young love,” she sighed.
“Oh, he definitely likes to keep me in sight,” Susannah replied. Jedidiah had crossed the street and was headed in the direction of the mercantile.
“He seems like a good man,” Reverend Mathias said. “You’re a lucky young woman to have such a devoted husband.”
“Yes, very lucky.” Susannah’s mouth fell open as Jedidiah passed by the mercantile and walked through the swinging doors of Loralee’s Dance Hall. Shock was followed quickly by raw fury. It was all she could do not to storm out of the reverend’s cottage and drag Jedidiah out of there by his mustache. He was supposed to be keeping her safe from Caldwell, not whiling away the day in the arms of some dance hall tart! What kind of lawman was he, anyway?
An honest one, she remembered suddenly. The thought doused the flames of her anger like a bucket of cold water. He wasn’t some snake in the grass like Beecham’s sheriff. Jedidiah Brown would never put aside his duty in favor of his own pleasures, no matter what the provocation. He must have some good reason to be wandering into Loralee’s Dance Hall in the middle of the day.
The fact that she was acting like a jealous shrew annoyed her. It was a typical reaction, and Susannah Calhoun prided herself on never being typical.
“Come have some tea, dear,” Mrs. Mathias said. “Hanging about the window isn’t going to bring your husband back any sooner.”
Grateful for the distraction, Susannah dropped the curtain and smiled at her hostess. “Thank you, Mrs. Mathias. Tea sounds wonderful.”
Chapter Twelve
Jedidiah stepped through the swinging doors of Loralee’s Dance Hall. The saloon was open for business, but since the girls didn’t dance until the evening hours, there were only a few men sitting at the bar. In the corner, two rough-looking characters played a silent game of cards.
No doubt the place got pretty lively at night. The red wallpaper and gilt molding attempted to give an element of elegance to the room, but instead it inspired a gaudy lack of refinement that Jedidiah found oddly comforting.
It was the kind of place where a man could kick back and be a man without worrying about the mud on his boots or cleaning up his language. If he wasn’t in such a rush, he wouldn’t have minded spending a relaxing evening smoking cigars and drinking whiskey.
But Caldwell was right behind them, and the sooner he got Susannah a disguise, the better. Besides, he had a feeling Susannah might not understand the allure the dance hall had for a man.
He walked over to the barkeep, an elderly man who was polishing glasses at the end of the bar.
“Afternoon,” he said with his friendliest smile. “I’d like to speak to Loralee.”
“Miss Loralee don’t come down until after sunset,” the barkeep said, turning his back in dismissal.
“I’d still like to see her. I’d make it worth your while if you could tell her that.”
The old man peered at Jedidiah with narrowed eyes. “How much worth my while?”
Jedidiah slid some money across the bar. The barkeep looked at it for a moment, then snatched it up and stuffed it into his pocket.
“Who should I tell her is calling?” the old man asked with ill-concealed sarcasm.
“A friend.”
The fellow snickered as he sidled out from behind the bar. “Yup. Miss Loralee sure does have a lot of friends.”
Jedidiah shook his head and settled down on a stool to wait. A few minutes later, the bartender was back.
“She says she’ll see you, so go on up,” he said, not bothering to disguise his surprise. “Last door on your right.”
“Much obliged.” Jedidiah ignored the stares of the other patrons as he headed up the stairs and down the hall. When he came to the last door on the right, he knocked softly.
The door opened immediately to reveal a tall, spectacular redhead dressed in a lacy dressing gown of deep green silk. In her hand she held a derringer pointed straight at his heart.
Jedidiah slowly put up his hands. “I surrender,” he said.
The redhead blinked her dark brown eyes, then burst out laughing and lowered the gun. “The day you surrender to anyone, Jedidiah Brown, is the day I join the church choir!”
Chuckling, he lowered his hands. “Aren’t you going to ask me in?”
“Sugar, I’ve been asking you in for years.” The husky purr in her voice gave the ordinary comment a seductive twist as she turned and sauntered into the room, leaving him to follow.
Jedidiah stepped inside and closed the door. “It’s been a while, Loralee.”
&nbs
p; “Too long, handsome.” She placed the derringer in a jewelry box on top of the bureau, then leaned back against the piece of furniture, unconsciously taking a pose that made the most of her curvaceous figure. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel the rush of arousal normally brought on by such a sight.
“I saw you come into town before,” she said. “Where’s your friend?”
“It’s a long story, but she’s why I’m here.” He gave her his most charming grin. “I need your help.”
A slow, sexy smile curved Loralee’s lush mouth. “Anything you need, sugar.” She straightened and came toward him, the silk and lace accenting every bountiful curve. She stopped in front of him, then reached out to glide a teasing finger down his chest. “Anything at all.”
Jedidiah grinned. A man always knew where he stood with a woman like Loralee. She used to make him hotter than a branding iron with little more than a smile. Now he felt only the fondness of an old friend, despite the fact that she was trying to seduce him. Puzzled over his own lack of response, he still played the game as was expected. “Darlin’, I need your clothes.”
“Why, Marshal Brown,” she purred. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“And a wig if you have one,” he continued. “Dark hair would be better.”
Loralee raised her perfect eyebrows, her lips curving in delight. “My, my, Jedidiah, I never suspected you had such diverse tastes. Is there anything else I can get you?”
“No, that ought to do it.”
“Are you sure?” She slanted him a seductive glance. “I have all sorts of interesting toys.”
Jedidiah raised his brows in feigned confusion. “I’m talking about a disguise for my friend, Loralee. What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about getting friendly,” she said with a wink.
He laughed. “As much as I’m tempted, I have to resist. I’m here on business.”
Loralee pouted. “You can’t blame me for trying.”
“No, I can’t. Now behave yourself, and tell me if you can help me out.”
The Lawman's Surrender: The Calhoun Sisters, Book 2 Page 12
