Although there was no light in the room, the faint rays of moonlight filtering through a pair of windows was enough to illuminate the bed. It was covered with a patchwork quilt and, for a moment, the homey image sent a shaft of panic through Kerry.
Jared would never be her husband. He would never make a family with her, share a house, a home, a future with her. Yet he was the only man she wanted to lie with on a patchwork quilt.
Sensing her hesitation, he paused, his hands lingering on the tiny circle of her bare waist. “Kerry honey, is this okay with you? Do you want us to stop right here and now?”
Lifting her face to his, she searched his solemn gaze and as she did, something in his eyes, some long, lonely need spoke to her and settled the last vestige of her doubts.
“No,” she whispered fervently. “I don’t want us to stop. I want to be your woman, Jared.” Now and for always, she silently added.
With a grunt of satisfaction, he tossed her and himself backwards and onto the wide bed. The mattress bounced beneath their weight and he chuckled wickedly as the front of her collided softly with him.
“I know we don’t have much time,” he said as his hand slid possessively over the curve of her hip. “But don’t ask me to hurry, Kerry. I’ve wanted you for too long to rush this.”
Her hands came up to cradle his face. “How long?” she wanted to know.
His hands were slipping around to her back, drawing her tight against his hot naked skin. The contact sent shivers of pleasure pulsing through every inch of her body.
“I think I wanted you from the first time I saw you with a coffeepot in your hand, weaving your way through the tables at Woody’s Café.”
“You’re such a liar,” she said, but there was a smile on her face that brightened his heart.
Pressing his forehead against hers, he murmured, “I would never lie to you, Kerry. Believe that and remember it. Okay?”
At this moment she was drunk on desire for this man, she realized. She would believe anything he said. Except I love you. She wasn’t that far gone—yet.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll remember.”
Her answer appeared to give him a great sense of relief. With a sudden chuckle, he rolled the both of them so that she was resting on top of him and his laughing eyes were looking into hers.
“Now I have you where I want you,” he said thickly.
Feeling wanton and oh so wanted, she brushed her breasts against his chest. “You might not be thinking that—in a few minutes.”
Sliding his hand into her hair, he cupped the back of her head and tugged her face down to his. “You talk way too much, my woman.”
He closed the last gap between their lips and in a matter of seconds the desire between them flared as he tasted her mouth, her throat and the budded nipples of her breasts. At the same time her small hands explored the corded muscles of his arms, chest and washboard belly.
Jared had told her he didn’t want to hurry this time between them and he’d meant it. But her soft lips and searching hands were quickly changing his plans, building a fire in his loins that threatened to consume him.
He’d never wanted a woman like this. So much, so swiftly that his mind was emptied of everything but her taste, her smell and the feel of her warm, pliant body draped over his.
“Kerry…I can’t wait,” he spoke through gritted teeth. “I’ve got to have you. Now!”
He started to roll her beneath him, but she pressed his shoulders back against the patchwork quilt. “Let me love you like this, Jared,” she whispered hoarsely.
Jared wasn’t sure if it was at this moment that he lost his heart or later, as the silky heat of her body slipped over his manhood. Either way, by the time her cries of release were joined by his own guttural groans of pleasure, he knew he had to have this woman until the very end of his days.
Chapter Ten
“Kerry, if last night didn’t convince you about Jared Colton, I don’t know what will.”
Enola’s remark had Kerry looking up from the squash vine she was searching to the opposite end of the garden where her mother was picking green beans.
Could her mother tell she’d spent part of the night making passionate love to Black Arrow’s newest hero? Kerry wondered. Maybe the pleasure he’d given her was still on her face. It wouldn’t surprise her, she’d felt as if she’d been glowing all day.
“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, trying to sound totally at ease instead of dreading another one of her mother’s lectures.
Enola raised up from her bent position and jammed both fists against her back. “I shouldn’t have to explain, Kerry. The courthouse is on fire and he drags you inside to help him try to put it out. If the man cared one whit for you, he wouldn’t have allowed you to be anywhere near that burning building.”
Even though Kerry desperately wanted to jump to Jared’s defense, there wasn’t much she could say. She couldn’t explain what had really taken place last night. Not when Bram had asked them to keep the real story under wraps. And even if she could tell her mother, she wouldn’t. It would worry Enola sick to think someone had intentionally meant to harm her and Jared.
“Jared would never put my life in danger,” she said. “Have you forgotten that he risked his own life to save your granddaughter’s?”
Enola glanced over her shoulder to a spot in the lawn where Peggy was pushing Claws and a bewildered Fred in a doll buggy. In spite of the playful scene, the woman’s lips were set in a grim line. “I haven’t forgotten. But he’s used your daughter to get to you. Don’t try to deny it.”
Kerry reached for the yellow squash hidden beneath a wide spiky leaf resting on the ground. “I’m not going to deny anything, Mom. How Jared and I got together isn’t important. I’m only going to tell you that you might as well get used to him being in mine and Peggy’s life.”
Enola stared at her as though she’d just uttered a filthy word. Forgetting the bucket of beans at her feet, the woman marched toward Kerry. “Have you lost your mind, daughter? Have you forgotten what Damon did to you?”
How could I, you’ve been reminding me of it every day for the past four years. Out loud, she answered, “I’m trying to, Mom. I want to have a normal life again. Not waste it with bitterness and mistrust.”
Enola’s head swung back and forth in disbelief. “Don’t tell me you trust Jared Colton? I know you have more sense than that.”
I would never lie to you, Kerry.
Jared’s whispered words filtered through her mind and she realized she did trust him. She had to. Because she’d fallen in love with him.
That conclusion hadn’t come to her suddenly last night, but rather in gradual stages today as she’d worked at her desk. Slowly she’d come to realize that for the past four years she’d been going around with her heart and mind closed to any sort of love and happiness. Maybe she’d convinced herself that she didn’t deserve another chance after the horrible mistake she’d made with Damon. Or maybe she’d simply been too downright scared to even think about trying again. Either way, each minute, each hour she’d spent with Jared since Peggy’s mishap had changed her.
Now, just to think about the future without Jared in it, was like imagining a life without sunshine.
“So far Jared hasn’t given me any reason not to trust him, Mom.”
Enola snorted. “No. He’s too smart for that. He’ll dangle you along until it’s time for him to go. Then you’ll be left behind. Just like all the other women he’s had.” The shake of her head made the turquoise thunderbird earrings dangling from her ears appear to take off in flight. “What has he promised you?”
Her face devoid of emotion, Kerry turned away from her mother and gathered up what squash she’d picked so far. “That’s between Jared and I.”
“In other words, he hasn’t promised you anything,” she said dryly. “Well, at least he’s being honest up to a point.”
No, Kerry thought. After the two of them had made love last nig
ht, he’d not promised her undying devotion or a beautiful home with a picket fence. She’d not expected him to. For him, their relationship was only beginning. And even though she already loved him, she would have to be patient, to wait and see if he wanted a future with her.
Dumping the squash into a five-gallon bucket, Kerry turned toward the house. “You must have a very low opinion of me.”
The pained look on Enola’s face said Kerry might as well have stabbed her. “Kerry,” she said, her tone suddenly placating, “I only want you to be happy.”
“Like you’ve been all these years, Mom?”
Enola’s mouth fell open and she stared at her for long moments, then wordlessly she walked back over to the row of beans and resumed her picking as though she’d never heard the question.
Her heart heavy, Kerry called to her daughter and headed into the house.
Dusk was falling when Jared parked behind the Arrow Feed and Grain store. Since it was past closing time, he expected to find his sister Willow inside tallying up the cash register, but instead he spotted her tall, strong figure rolling a spool of goucho wire through the double doors of a storage shed, which was built onto the side of the main building.
Hurrying over to help her, he took her by the shoulders and set her to one side out of the way. “Let a man do this, little sis.”
Willow wiped at the messy strands of hair that had escaped from her long black braid. “Where were you hours ago, when I had to load two hundred cedar fence posts for one of my customers?”
He gave the spool one last kick with his boot to shove it in a space next to a stack of metal fence posts. “Working, honey. I’m like you, I have to make a living.”
She chuckled as she tugged a pair of leather gloves from her hands. “I know how you work. You stand around and point while your crew does all the sweating. Then you get paid the big bucks.”
Jared slung his arm around his sister’s shoulder and squeezed. “That’s why I went to college. You know, it’s still not too late for you.”
Willow shook her head. “That’s just not me. The Arrow Feed and Grain has always been in the Colton family and I’m going to see that it stays that way. Besides, Gran needs me.”
Jared released his hold on her and Willow closed the double doors and locked them. As the two of them headed through a back entrance of the feed store, Jared asked, “Speaking of our grandmother, where is Gran?”
“I sent her upstairs about an hour ago to lie down, why?”
“I thought I might talk to her, but if she’s not feeling well I guess it’ll have to wait,” Jared told her.
Willow glanced at him as they continued to walk to the front of the store where the cash register was located. “I think her blood pressure is up. Her face was red and she hardly had the energy to walk across the floor. But she refuses to go to the doctor.”
“Does she still insist on helping you here in the store every day?”
Willow grimaced. “She wouldn’t have it any other way. And you know how stubborn she can be. What did you want to talk to her about?”
Jared watched his sister open the cash register and carefully pull out the take for the day. The stacks of bills were thick and he knew the store’s success was due to the long hard hours she put in to make sure her customers’ needs were met.
He leaned his hip against the counter while she began to count. “I guess you heard about the fire last night.”
Willow let out a short laugh. “I doubt there’s a person in Black Arrow who didn’t hear all those fire trucks last night. I thought the whole town must have been on fire. Bram called and told me a little about it.”
“Uh—did he happen to tell you about me and Kerry?”
“Very little. Only that you two saw it and tried to put it out before the fire crew got there. What’s that got to do with Gran?”
“Probably nothing. Except that a stranger was seen at the courthouse earlier this week asking to go through records pertaining to our family.”
“A crazy coyote is stalking our family. All of us must watch out for his tracks.”
The sound of his great-grandfather’s voice caused Jared to whirl around. “Hellfire, George! What are you doing sneaking up on us like that?”
The old man lifted his bony hands in a gesture that was both innocent and amusing. “What do you expect an Indian to do, make a lot of damn noise?”
Jared heaved out a breath and arched an accusing eye at his sister. “Why didn’t you warn me he was around?”
“He hitched a ride into town with his neighbor, Annie McCrary, because he had a feeling Gloria wasn’t feeling up to snuff. He’s supposed to be upstairs watching out for his daughter,” Willow said as she concentrated on her money count.
“She’s asleep,” George said. “And I want to know what we’re gonna have for supper.”
“Pizza. There’s two in the freezer. All you have to do is put them in the oven,” Willow told him.
“I know how to cook, missy,” George retorted.
Taking pity on his sister, Jared took his great-grandfather by the shoulder and headed him toward a back staircase that led up to Willow’s apartment. “Come on, Granddad, I’ll help you. And maybe while the pizza’s baking you can give me some answers.”
Upstairs in the compact kitchen, Jared found the frozen disks of pizza, ignored the part about preheating the oven, and tossed them straight on the rack. After that, he set George at the table with a long-necked beer.
Willow would frown on him for giving the old man the bit of alcohol, but Jared understood that his great-grandfather wanted to be treated like a man, not a child.
“You were at the courthouse last night with your woman,” George said as though he’d known even before anyone had told him. “And someone tried to burn the place down with you in it.”
That pretty much summed it up, Jared thought, as he twisted off the cap on his own beer. Aloud, he said, “We don’t know that for sure, Granddad.”
“Maybe you and Bram don’t. But I do.”
The beer in Jared’s hand paused halfway to his mouth as he cautiously eyed his great-grandfather. “If you know that much, then you must know what this person wants.”
George closed his eyes and scratched the top of his head. “No. Except that he means to hurt us in some way.”
“Us” meaning the Coltons, Jared silently translated his great-grandfather’s words. “Do you think Gran would know what any of this might be about?”
The old man narrowed his eyes shrewdly at Jared. “I wouldn’t ask her.”
Grimacing with frustration, Jared asked, “Why? If she can help solve this thing.”
“It would only worry her. To make her remember the past only hurts her. And she’s too fragile now.”
Old George was probably right, Jared thought. Unlike most people who’d reached their eighties, Gloria refused to talk about the bygone days. Especially the time she’d spent in Nevada. Even if she’d been up and about this evening she probably wouldn’t have told Jared anything.
“You make it sound like Gran has something to hide,” Jared said thoughtfully.
George’s wrinkled face creased into a cagey grin. “Everyone has something to hide. Even you, my son.”
Jared let out a good-natured chuckle. “I’ve never tried to hide the kind of man I am.”
The old Comanche didn’t reply. Instead he took a long drink of beer and stared across the room as though he were looking at the vast Oklahoma plains, back in a time when his ancestors drove mighty herds of horses over great grasslands and took their raids as far south as the Texas coast.
After a minute or two had passed Jared decided his great-grandfather’s mind had wandered completely off their conversation so he rose to his feet to check on the pizza.
“You are trying to hide what’s in here.”
George’s unexpected words had Jared turning away from the oven to see his great-grandfather thumping a fist against his chest.
Knowing he’
d probably pay dearly for this, Jared asked it anyway. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You love the woman and her little dove, but you want to hide it away and keep it to yourself.”
For a moment Jared felt as though he’d had the wind knocked out of him. Sure, George had prophesied that the Great Spirit had meant for Jared and Kerry to be together and the foretelling remark had come true in a sense last night. But Jared had not expected George to be so perceptive about what was going on in his heart.
“And how do you know that I love Kerry?”
George grunted with amusement. “Because I can see that you’ve changed.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “You haven’t even seen me in several days. You don’t know what I’ve been doing.”
Another grunt sounded from the old man. “I don’t have to see you to know what’s been happening to you.”
Apparently not, Jared thought. Then wondered a bit sheepishly if his great-grandfather had somehow envisioned the passionate love he and Kerry had made last night. Just the thought of the totally selfless pleasure she’d given him still had the power to curl his toes.
Walking back over to the table, Jared sank down in the chair across from George. “Okay, Granddad. You’re right. I do love Kerry. I never thought I’d say that about any woman, but I’m saying it now.”
The old man’s wrinkled face took on a pleased look. “So why are you scared?”
Jared wasn’t going to bother asking him how he’d recognized his grandson’s fear. That part of it didn’t matter anymore. And for some reason it was reassuring to know that George understood him. Maybe even more than he understood himself.
Sighing, Jared ran a hand through his thick black hair. He hadn’t come to Willow’s this evening to get a lecture on women from his great-grandfather. In fact, he was still mostly in shock over his newfound love for Kerry. All day he’d been thinking, wondering how he was going to fit Kerry and Peggy into his life. He’d never planned to be a husband or a father. He’d never expected to want to be those things. But now he was suddenly seeing the world through different eyes.
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