by Joey Light
Wes turned his attention back to driving. She sat back, keeping her eyes on him. “Watching and being around your Katie gives me a chance to feel things I’ve never felt before…do things that were forbidden, like sitting in a white dress in the dirt and digging with a spoon without fear of punishment. My mother loved me, too, but she had very odd ideas about raising a child. It would be good for me. I had a very stiff and stuffy upbringing. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“A sister. She used to be a real pest, but now she’s married, living in California with her husband and five kids. A brother. Career military. He should be home for a visit soon.”
“I wish I’d had at least one. Pest or not.”
“I’m glad you’ve decided to lighten up. You sure had no use for me when I first arrived. I understood it, but it still bothered me. Buck has been a good friend for a long time. He asked me to…offered me this job at a time when I needed something nontaxing. Right now I’m unsettled. I just need space for a while. I need to think about my goals and directions.”
“Did something specific happen to cause you to put your life on hold?”
He shifted in the seat as if he was fast becoming uncomfortable.
They were driving across the field and coming to a halt in front of the hotel. After he turned the ignition off and pushed the lights in, they were both enveloped in shadowy darkness. He put his arm across the back of the seat and looked, unseeingly, through the dirtied windshield into the night.
“I think it must be a combination of things. I watch my daughter grow and as she does I realize that life is passing me by. My job wasn’t holding my attention. I felt Katie was losing something being at the sitter’s all the time and then being alone with me in that small house in town. She needed a woman to braid her hair and get the rubber bands to stay in. She needed the smell of just-baked chocolate cookies fresh from the oven that she could help make. The police force needed a cop who could devote his attention to the job. I realized I wasn’t that man the day we had some drug runners cornered down in Redwood. We were exchanging gunfire and I found myself daydreaming and thinking about Katie ending up without a father as well as a mother…so.”
“So you quit your job and moved back home with your daughter and you feel guilty about it.”
“I quit before I became too bitter and hardened. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t trust women. I haven’t met one since my divorce who didn’t have something already on her mind, an idea already formed of who her next man was to be, except maybe you. I always felt like a fly caught in a web with the big spider using a magnifying glass to see every hair on my leg. I had to make a change. And yes, I feel guilty about leaving a job I was good at just because I couldn’t balance everything. I should have been able to.”
“Maybe you ask too much of yourself. And then I pitched a fit when Buck hired you. It wasn’t you, personally. I just wanted to show him I could do something beneficial for Glory Town by making a good selection on my own.
Like it or not, he has to realize I’m here to stay.”
“You have a real problem with proving yourself. No one is really doubting you but you. Buck is old and set in his ways, and where he comes from, a woman’s place is in the kitchen…pregnant. Give him some time. That’s all it’s going to take is time. He’ll come around.” He watched her carefully, seeing a tiny little bit of apprehension.
He tucked a curl behind her ear. His touch jerked her from her calm reverie and reminded her how close she was to him. He seemed to fill the cab of the truck as he slid around on the seat and looked at her. “Personally, I’m glad you’re staying. Your exuberance is catching. The men respect you. Nick worships you. Buck will stop being a threat. He’s an old-timer. A dinosaur. He’ll just be slow about it and never admit it out loud.”
“You like him a lot, don’t you?”
“Never met a simpler, kinder man. He and my dad go back a long way.”
“I like him, too, but I also will never say it out loud. I don’t think he could handle it. He’s real. He never once tried to hide the fact that he wasn’t happy with my decision to live here. We’ll work it out.”
He leaned forward, laying his warm mouth on hers. “Maybe a lot of things can be worked out.”
Each time he had kissed her, it had been gentle and quick. It wasn’t enough. She wanted to throw her arms around his neck and pull him to her and keep him there. Never had she been around a man who caused her blood to thunder through her veins or spin tornadoes full of butterflies into her stomach. She wondered, only briefly, how emotions could change so quickly. She wanted, just once, to sit back and just simply see how things would turn out if she jumped in without testing the water. But she wasn’t quite ready yet.
He felt his gut contract as his mouth came down on hers.
A mere touch of her mouth had him wanting and needing more. He drew his arms in, pulling her close. He knew that all this was a purely biological reaction…but his heart, the one that was thudding soundly against his rib cage, was sending new, untried emotions through him. He had vowed to find a way around becoming involved with a woman again, but she was different from any he’d ever known before.
Beneath her resentful, prideful facade, he sensed a very warm, giving, and trusting lady. He’d gotten peeks of it at different times and been enthralled. But trusting
that was going to be a hurdle to get over. And when she found out, would she ever trust him again? He deepened the kiss, teasing her tongue with his own.
She changed the angle of the kiss, knowing she should stop. Her heart cried out for more while her brain denied the wisdom of it. Her bones melted. She wondered if she would ever stand again. Wes pulled her across his lap to cradle her head in his arms. She could feel the rough brush of his jeans against the soft cotton of her dress. She felt the hard push of his belt buckle against her stomach. He broke the kiss, only to trail his lips down her cheek, her jaw, and to taste the pulse point at her throat.
Her hands dived into his hair, knocking his hat back. She pushed at it until it rolled across them to land on the floor. His fingers were at the neckline of her dress, brushing fiery points of light against her skin. She wanted this to go on forever. David had touched her. They had made love. But nothing, nothing had ever been like this. Almost unable to breathe, she pulled away from him. But he wouldn’t let her sit up. Instead he clamped her tightly against him and just watched her.
His eyes were darkened by passion. His mouth was wet from hers. Hair, usually trapped beneath a Stetson, fell across his forehead. His chest rose and fell quickly, proving his restraint. Beneath her hands she could feel the quickened thud of his heart. She idly hoped he couldn’t hear hers, but it sounded so loud in her ears.
“This is more than we know it is. It’s not just chemistry at work here. The first time I saw you, I felt something. I couldn’t have known what it was. I’ve never felt it before.”
Caught up by the swirl of her blood and the drowsy, expectant state of her mind and body, she continued to feast her eyes on him.
He moved his mouth to the sensitive place below her ear, coming back to her mouth to taste again and reveling in the confusion that danced around in her eyes. “We’ll take some time to get to know each other if it puts you at ease. But we’re going to be together, lady.”
When she thought she knew what he was going to say, she was taken aback when she heard his whispered words.
“A family. You and me and Katie. And don’t think I’ve been on a hunt to find her a mother,” he said, although the doubt still niggled him a bit. “It’s something else. Just something I know. I can’t wait too long for you to recognize what there is between us. Don’t make me wait too long.” He crushed her mouth under his.
His last words seemed almost like a threat and Victoria wasn’t at all sure she liked it. Pushing against his hard shoulders, Victoria righted herself and pushed her hair back from her shoulder.
Wes shoved the door open. Damn. So he wasn’t go
od with words. Some things couldn’t be changed. Walking around the truck, he lifted her down when she would obviously just as soon have climbed down herself. The smile was gone from her face, and he didn’t like knowing he had put the frown there.
He tilted her face so he could see her better in the moonlight. “Nothing could be as bad or as threatening as that look on your face. We had a good time together. You like me to kiss you. That’s all. The rest will come.”
He brushed his mouth across her lips and turned to walk in the hotel with her.
She wished that was all. She still felt unsteady from being in his arms, from having his mouth draw feelings to the surface that she hadn’t even known existed. She let him take her hand. It fit well, seemed to belong. But once upon a time, what seemed a long time ago, her hand seemed to belong in David’s. The churning in her stomach and the heat at her core were new and frightening. The anticipation, the wondering what it would be like to be in his arms, in his bed…
Nick had watched the truck pull onto the lot. He had remained in the shadows as he took in every movement of the passengers. His breath became ragged as he watched Wes kiss her. Now, when Wes took Victoria into the hotel, hand in hand, Nick felt sweat pop out on his forehead. He had a nasty headache. Pressing his fingers to his temples, he turned to go back to his trailer. His head threatened to split. His chest muscles tightened. Casting one more look toward the hotel, he muttered under his breath and began his long, lonely walk back to his empty trailer. Back to sleepless nights and dreams of a beautiful woman who treated him so nice. And smelled so nice, and was so soft to touch. And was in love with him. He was sure of it. If only Wes would stay out of the way.
Wes led her through the darkened lobby and up the stairs, patting the banister on his way. Victoria laughed and shook her head no.
Nick’s head came up. Out of the way. Sure that was it. All he had to do was fix it so Wes wasn’t here anymore. His handsome face was transformed as his lips curled back in an ugly sneer. Yes. All was not lost to him again. He would have her. And he would have her soon. He would get rid of Wes, and then she would come to him. She would be wearing a white gown, flowing to the ground, and he would open his arms. She would lean against him and he would tuck her head beneath his chin with his hand and stroke her hair.
He heard her laughter from inside the hotel. Coming back to the here and now from wherever it was he went was always painful, but tonight it was so much worse.
He shook his head to clear it. “Why am I here?” he tested himself, and as it all became too clear, he wheeled and continued his trudge home, alone.
Chapter Six
“Pull!” Thwang! Two bright orange targets took flight. They hovered on the same path for a few seconds before the discs separated and soared.
The gunfire spent the air, shattering first one target and then the other.
Eyes wide, Wes slapped his hat across his thigh. “Lady, when you say you shoot trap, you mean it. Nice smoke job. And doubles. That was good,” he praised, “but can you do it again?”
“Load them up and see,” she challenged.
Victoria reloaded three shells into her Ithaca SKB 700, with gold-plated game images and trigger flashing in the sunlight, and set it back against her shoulder. “Pull!”
Thinking he would be cagey, Wes cranked the target release upward, sending the orange cylinders higher and in different directions.
Once again the peacefulness of the countryside reverberated under the thunder of the shotgun.
He shook his head and smiled. “That’s a nice shotgun.”
She patted the butt end and beamed proudly. “Algerian walnut.”
Manning the target release, Victoria cranked it downward and, watching Wes, pulled the string as soon as he got the shotgun to his shoulder.
Caught before he was ready, Wes took aim and pulled the trigger. He hit the first one but missed the second. “Cheat.”
“All’s fair. Go again.” Changing the angle of the release, she put two more targets in the air for him.
This time he broke both of them and grinned as he turned toward her. “Three.”
“Oh, a hot-dogger.” Leaving the angle the same, she loaded three, one single near the top and two lined up near the bottom. That ought to throw him, she thought as she waited for his signal and set them loose.
The top single one pitched high and to the left. The two on the low end split and one sailed straight and high, the other to the right and low.
His body tight and positioned, he moved smoothly and swiftly, plowing through them, one, two, and three.
“Beautiful show. Again?”
He nodded, loading, and for the next ten minutes, Wes showed her his skill with the shotgun. He easily downed most of the targets with a swift twist at the waist, a keen eye, and a fast hand. Victoria anxiously waited her turn.
When he moved to the release to set up for her, she informed him, “International rules now. Doubles.”
At his look, she explained. “Shotgun at your hip. Signal for release and take aim after the birds are in the air.”
“All right. Whenever you’re ready, Annie Oakley.”
Flashing a mischievous grin at him, she positioned the shotgun at her hip. “Pull.”
As soon as she spotted the discs she jumped the gun to her shoulder and swung it to the first bird and through. Never stopping the movement of the gun, she picked off one and then the other just as it dove toward the wild plum thickets that dotted the hillside.
“Damn. Let me try that.”
“No way. You pull so I can show off for a while. Go on, set it up again.”
She was good at this. Let them all know it. Some of the men had straggled up the hill at the sound and were watching. She had even seen some money exchange hands. She handled the gun expertly, the pride in her stance and ambition shining in her eyes.
Wes pulled and Victoria shot. Forty-eight birds bit the dust…in a row. She wanted fifty straight with no misses. This was when she always got antsy. And the crowd had grown. She had to make this last shot. Her arms were tiring. It had been a while since she had used a shotgun. And once she hadn’t snugged it quick enough and she had taken a slam low on her shoulder. She could feel the bruise forming.
Shaking her arms to free them of the clenching muscles, she loaded two shells under and one in the chamber. A nod and he set the clay pigeons free.
The sound of her shotgun exploding was nearly drowned out by the hoorahs, whistles, and applause from the crew.
Victoria held her gun over her head and yelled Indian style. It was a very unladylike war whoop. Now, let those bullies think she was just a wimp from the East. Let them talk that one over at their Saturday night poker game. She hoped it wouldn’t be long before good ole Buck heard the story. And she was sure, in a week’s time, the total number of shots in a row would have multiplied to some stupendous number.
Wes walked over and shook her hand and then, dragging her into his arms, swung her around and around. The men were still cheering when Wes lost his balance and they both fell to the ground. Another, even louder whoop rose from the men.
“Now, woman, we’ll try guns you’re not familiar with. If you show me up with those, I’ll resign and you can take over the position of head honcho to this sorry bunch of rowdies.”
That sorry bunch of cowboys was disappearing over the hill.
The show was over for now. Now that the lady sharpshooter was sprawled on the grass with the big man.
“Let me up, and you’re on.”
Wes looked up to be sure the men had scattered and shook his head. She was beautiful lying half beneath him, fringed in blue-stem grass and cushioned by the rich green carpet beneath. “Not yet. Not yet.”
The smile left her mouth as she realized he was about to kiss her. Her heart was pounding against her ribs and she wasn’t sure it was from the excitement of the match
unless the match was his lips playing with hers, teasingly light, and then the tip of his to
ngue tracing their curve.
It felt good. So right. No matter that she doubted herself and doubted him. It was time to just go with it. She wanted to make him feel as she did. Running her hand up the back of his neck and through his hair, she pulled his mouth down on hers hard and parted her lips.
The earth melted away. The prickly grass that tickled her arms softened to silk and caressed her skin. Heat rolled through her as he took what she offered and returned it, hotter, harder, and swifter.
Jeans brushed jeans, cotton shirt glided over cotton shirt. He slid his hand down the satin column of her throat and across her collarbone and down, skimming across the gentle swell of her breasts.
One hand in his hair and one reveling in the hard line of muscles up and down his back, Victoria felt herself falling into a world of fire and speed foreign to her. The rising morning sun added to her fear that the field might burst into flames any minute.
So this was it. It had to be. No woman had made his blood course at such a speed. No female had ever lifted him from the bounds of earth to a place where he only drifted, aware of only the taste of her, the feel of her body melding with his. He wanted her but not only in the way a man wants a woman. He never wanted to be too far away from her to reach out and touch her.
He never wanted to be out of hearing range or out of sight. She was slowly becoming part of him, the very vital, extremely important point of his reason.
He reared his head, looking at her with eyes dark and anxious. “You know, you kiss as good as you shoot, lady. Right on the mark.” He thought it had to be this way. He had to want her, need her more than any woman before, because it had never felt like this. Not even come close. He was a grown man and had never known the kiss of someone he loved.
She lifted her shoulders and moved her lips over his jaw, nipping as she went. “Unless you want to be ravaged out here on the hillside, I suggest you remove your body from mine and stand up,” she teased, breathless and afraid her words were too true.
