Angry at his impudence, she grabbed his chin and forced him to lift his face to hers again. She would not have him gaping at her as if she were on display for his lascivious amusement! She had every intention of ordering him to leave her alone, when those black eyes latched on to hers and she knew she had made a terrible, terrible mistake.
Dropping his chin, she took a single step back. His fingers seemed to twitch as they hovered over the matching, fancy six-guns he wore.
When she heard Jed’s heavy footfall on the stairs, relief rushed through her. She turned her head and looked at him, and he, unsmiling, stared at the man who had irked her.
“Cash,” Jed grumbled.
The black-eyed man turned his head to the stairs. Eyebrows lifted in surprise. The unmistakable danger that had lurked on his face disappeared. “Jed?” He looked Jed up and down almost as audaciously as he had her. “Is that you?”
“Hannah,” Jed said, stepping quickly down the remaining stairs, “what have you been up to?” He glanced at Cash. “I can’t leave her alone for a minute.”
“She’s yours?” the man Jed called Cash said incredulously.
To Hannah’s dismay, he hesitated before answering. “Yep.”
Cash lifted his hands in surrender and backed away, smiling once again. “I should’ve known.”
Jed placed himself at her side, almost protectively, she thought.
“When did you get back?”
“Just now.”
“Nate?”
Cash nodded his head toward the stairway. “Upstairs.”
“Staying for a while?”
Cash shrugged his shoulders. “I reckon.” He turned to Hannah, winked at her, and bowed in a courtly manner. “Sorry to have bothered you, ma’am,” he said, more than a hint of sarcasm in his smooth voice. “But to be honest, any woman who can get Jed Rourke to shave and wear a suit is too much woman for me.”
Jed took her arm and they turned their backs on Cash. She wasn’t certain that was a good move, but decided to trust Jed’s judgment in the matter.
“That cretin is your friend?” she asked as they entered the deserted dining room. One table, in the center of the room, had been prepared for the late diners. It was lovely, with a spotless white tablecloth, two burning candles, and Eden’s best china and silver.
“Yep. He’s also the one man in Rock Creek you really don’t want to take on,” Jed snapped. He was obviously disturbed. Maybe even angry.
“And why is that?”
“Because if he ever does draw one of those guns on you, he will kill you without so much as blinking.” Yes, he was definitely angry. His smooth jaw was tight, his eyes piercing.
“Why is a man like that your friend?” she asked as he pulled her chair out for her.
Jed took his seat, shaking his head dismally. “You fight long enough with a man and he becomes like a brother. You can’t turn your back on him just because what happened marked him more than it marked you.”
She nodded. The war. “Is that why you’re so angry? Did you think he’d really shoot me?”
The expression on his face hardened. A muscle in his jaw twitched. “No,” he muttered reluctantly. “I got angry because I came downstairs and found you talking to a man who could charm the drawers off a nun.”
He was jealous! No man had ever, ever been jealous of her before. Hannah leaned slightly forward, moving herself closer to Jed and staring at him through the soft light of two flickering candles. The new position practically offered her exposed cleavage for inspection. “Lucky for you I’m not a nun,” she whispered.
His eyes lit up. “Lucky, indeed.”
This was a night to end all nights, a night to take what she wanted without reservation. “Doubly lucky for you,” she said, lowering her voice to not much more than a breath, “I’m not wearing any drawers.”
Jed grinned at her, bringing that dimple into play. Any anger he had been harboring a moment ago was gone. The emotion on his handsome face was not hostility. It was passion, pure and simple.
“Are you really hungry?” he asked, just as Eden emerged from the kitchen with a tray laden with food.
“Yes,” she said, leaning back in her chair and smiling.
Eden sniffled as she placed the food on the table. She’d obviously been crying.
Hannah’s smile faded. “Are you all right?”
Eden sniffled some more, and laid weepy eyes on Jed. “I’m fine.”
Jed squirmed, just a little. “Sullivan did tell you everything’s okay, didn’t he?”
Eden nodded quickly. “I’m sorry. I’m just overly emotional these days. I was the same way when I was carrying Fiona.”
With the food on the table and no other customers, Eden could’ve returned to the kitchen or headed upstairs. But she seemed determined to stay in the dining room, and near the table, until Jed called her over with a crook of his finger and placed an arm around her waist. “Nate and Cash are here. They just headed upstairs.”
In spite of her continuing emotional affliction, Eden’s face lit up and she smiled down at her brother. “They are? Oh, I haven’t seen Daniel and Nate in ages.”
“I bet they’d be grateful if you took ‘em up some leftovers and a pot of coffee.”
She hurried to the kitchen, and Hannah laid her eyes on Jed. He had purposely run his sister out of the room. Just as well. She wanted to be alone, even now as they shared dinner.
Something nagged at her, something coming together a small piece at a time.
“Daniel Cash?” she asked, as Jed poured her a glass of wine.
“Yep,” he said simply.
“Bertie has a dime novel about a gunslinger named Daniel Cash. What a coincidence.”
His eyes found and held hers. “Nope. Not a coincidence,” he said lowly.
Hannah felt herself pale. She had called a deadly gunslinger a grimy wretch and threatened to thrash him. “Oh.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m almost positive some of those stories are exaggerated. Some might even be out-and-out fiction.”
Some. She shook her head, then took a long swig of the wine. If even a fraction of what she’d read were true... “I suppose I should be more careful who I antagonize in this part of the world,” she said. “You do things differently here.”
“That we do,” he agreed.
“The story about Dallas...” she began.
“Oh, that one’s true. I was there.” He shook his head and grimaced slightly.
“And Kansas City?”
“Mostly true.”
She had grabbed his chin and called him... several nasty names. “And...”
“Hannah,” Jed interrupted, lifting his glass to her, pinning intense blue eyes on her face. “I don’t want to talk about Cash tonight. You’re beautiful. You’re mine. Can’t we talk about your drawers some more?”
She smiled at him, more than happy to dismiss all unpleasantness and move on. “What drawers?”
Chapter 16
Hannah couldn’t eat more than a few bites, and the problem with her appetite had nothing to do with the tight corset she wore. Her heart fluttered, and her insides tightened and quivered. And Jed stared at her like he wanted to eat her up. No one had ever looked at her this way before.
It was the fancy, revealing dress, she reasoned, or the touch of lip rouge Lily had insisted upon that stirred Jed so completely. He couldn’t possibly want her this much.
In the darkness of a cave, lost with possibly no way out, he had made love to her. She remembered every sensation, would always remember the way it had felt the first time he’d kissed her, the first time he’d touched her, the moment he’d become a part of her.
Wonderful as those memories were, one night to remember wasn’t enough. She craved more, with her heart and with her body.
“You’re not going to finish your pie?” he asked, nodding at her untouched dessert.
She shook her head slowly. She could not eat with this lump in her throat.
Jed stood and rounded the table to pull out her chair and help her to her feet. Oh, she needed help. Already her knees wobbled uncertainly.
With his big hand on her chin, Jed tipped up her face and kissed her briefly, his mouth barely touching hers. “If you’re having second thoughts, now’s the time to tell me,” he said, his voice low and gruff. That soft, warm voice shot through her, crept under her skin and into her heart.
“No second thoughts,” she whispered, the lump in her throat dissolving.
Jed took her hand, threading his fingers through hers, and led her from the dining room, up the stairs, and down the hall to her door. With every step her heart beat harder.
Outside her door, Jed hesitated with his hand on the knob. He glanced up and down the deserted hallway, then pushed open the door and whirled her inside.
With the door closed behind him, the room was dark, lit only by moonlight through the lace-curtained window. After the complete darkness of the cave, the soft moonlight was comforting, friendly and gentle.
Apparently it was not sufficient for Jed, who lit the lamp on her dresser and turned it low. There would be no hiding this time, no cover of darkness.
In the center of the room, he held and kissed her. There was no rush to tumble to the bed, no instant demand. Instead, Jed kissed her deep and held her close, his hands comforting at her back, his mouth enticing and promising, arousing and possessive.
When he took his mouth from hers he smiled wickedly and removed the flower from her hair. “Did I tell you how beautiful you are?”
“Once or twice,” she whispered.
“Did I tell you that I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you tonight?” he asked gruffly. “That if I’d had my way I would have had you there on the stairs?”
Her heart lurched, and at her very core she shimmied. “No, I don’t believe you did.”
His fingertips brushed the swell of her breasts, setting off a powerful new surge of desire with the simple touch.
Hannah reached up and loosened his tie. “Did I tell you that you’re strikingly handsome tonight?”
“Once or twice.”
She stared at his tempting, masculine neck and licked her lips in anticipation, as she wondered what it tasted like. “Did I tell you that if I didn’t still have some shred of decency buried somewhere deep inside me, I would’ve done my best to seduce you right there in the dining room?”
“Decency’s highly overrated,” he said lowly, his able hands finding and releasing the fastenings at the side of her dress, loosening the gown one hook and eye at a time.
“So I’m discovering,” she said as she ran her hands up his chest and to his shoulders, pushing his frock coat off and to the floor.
He gently tugged the neckline of her loosened gown lower and bent his head to kiss the swell of her breast. With her hands in his newly shortened hair, she closed her eyes and savored the pleasure that shot through her. Ah, he really did want to eat her up. One nibble at a time, apparently.
One thing was clear as Jed touched her: this would be no quick tumble, no fast coming together simply to satisfy their mutual physical need. He took his time as he devoured her, moving his mouth over the swell of her breasts with slow deliberation.
When he took his lips from her flesh and stood tall once again, she reached out to unfasten the buttons of his boiled shirt and slip her hand inside the opening to touch his bare chest. She found and held her hand over his heart, then flicked her thumb over a small tight, flat nipple. While she circled her finger around the nipple, she rose up on her toes and laid her mouth over his neck, lips slightly parted as she tasted and teased with her tongue.
While she raked the tip of her tongue over his salty skin, he let down her hair and threaded his fingers through the strands.
Hannah nibbled and kissed and sucked on Jed’s suddenly intriguing neck, and she was rewarded with a low growl from deep in his throat, a sure sign that he was losing control. Oh, she liked the sheer power of making a man like Jed Rourke shudder and moan with something so simple as a flick of her tongue.
He tugged her gown off her shoulders and pushed it down past her waist and to the floor. She stepped out of it and kicked away the pile of silk and lace. All that was left was a black silk petticoat, dainty satin slippers, a low-cut chemise over the too-tight corset, black stockings... and a small surprise for Jed.
She pushed gently at his chest, and he obediently backed up a step. With a short distance between them, she grabbed the petticoat in her hands and lifted it, an inch at a time, revealing a black-stockinged leg and, as the petticoat was raised to above her knee, a shockingly red garter.
“Oh, honey,” Jed whispered, his eyes on the garter. He groaned and whipped his shirt off and over his head.
She had seen men’s chests before, on a working plantation, but she had never seen anything like this. Wide and muscled and dusted with fine brown hair, there was not an ounce of wasted flesh on Jed’s torso. He was perfection; she should have expected no less.
She scooted out of the petticoat, kicked off her shoes, and unbuttoned the chemise to reveal the corset beneath.
“You are wearing entirely too many clothes,” Jed said, reaching out to unfasten the tight corset.
While he unfastened the restraining undergarment, she boldly unbuttoned his trousers, her fingers dancing down the front opening as his danced down her torso. What clothes remained on their bodies, loosened and all but falling off, they stopped to kiss. It was a need, Hannah realized with complete surrender, a need too fierce to fight. She had never truly needed anything, but she couldn’t kiss Jed long enough or deep enough.
With the corset peeled away, Jed lifted her off her feet and laid her on the center of the bed. He landed gently on top of her as she fell, his hands and mouth caressing her exposed breasts with hunger and tenderness. When he took a nipple deep into his mouth, the tug deep inside took her breath away, made her quiver from head to toe.
Jed removed his boots and shucked off the trousers, and when he returned to her the only items of clothing worn by either of them were her black stockings and the red garter. His fingers teased the garter and her inner thigh as he hovered above her, golden and muscled and exquisitely male. Hard and warm, long and powerful. And aroused.
He lowered his head to kiss her while he fondled the garter, and when his fingers inched higher he took his mouth from her to rub his smooth cheek against hers, to nuzzle and caress and kiss while his fingers stroked and teased.
Her body throbbed with need, her legs trembled and parted wide. She had never needed anything the way she needed Jed right now. She had never felt desire this way before.
Just before she broke down and begged him to fill the ever-increasing void he had created, he guided himself to her and pushed inside. She stretched to accept him, held on tight, and lifted her hips. He slipped one hand beneath her leg and raised it, and she obediently draped her leg over his hip, bringing him closer, deeper, as he pushed into her again. She raised the other leg as well, wrapped it around his long thigh, lifted her hips, and waved up and into his ever-increasing thrusts.
She closed her eyes and listened only to the demand of her body and his. They danced, coming together and moving apart. What began as a warm, tender dance swiftly turned into a fierce, hot mating.
The bed rocked and creaked, the very air in the room was charged with their shared lust for each other. The room shook; the world trembled. Hannah opened her eyes to watch Jed’s face as he loved her. She wouldn’t hide in the dark, not this time. Beads of sweat broke out on his skin and hers, and they gleamed by lamplight. She laid one hand against his chest, so close, and ran her fingers over his damp, muscled skin. She loved the feel of him, everywhere. Could never get enough, could never be close enough. She lifted her breasts so they pressed against his chest, and raised her hips to meet his increasing surge.
A wave of release hit her when he pushed deep inside once more, coming as a force of intense pleasure that
made her cry out, and then billowing through her entire body. She felt her inner muscles squeezing Jed, milking him as he gave over to the same release, a powerful culmination that made him moan and growl and whisper her name.
He collapsed to cover her, resting his head on her shoulder and covering one of her trembling hands with his. Again, his fingers threaded through hers. His breath came as hard as hers did, and his heart beat so hard she could feel it pounding against hers.
How was she going to walk away from him in a week? A week! How was she supposed to ever again be satisfied with anything else when she knew what it was like to depend on another person, to open herself to him, to look forward to every moment he was with her and dread the moments when he was not? How was she supposed to keep pretending that she didn’t love him?
She raked her fingers through his waving hair. The last thing she wanted or needed was to fall in love! A brief affair was one thing, but love? Surely not.
When he lifted his head and smiled at her, she knew it was much too late to fight what she felt. “You do have a weakness for red, don’t you?” she whispered.
“I have a weakness for you,” he said, kissing her sweetly, lazily.
“Sweet-talker,” she cooed.
“Temptress.”
“Shameless rogue,” she said, draping one arm around his neck.
“Lover.”
Oh, she liked the sound of that word on his lips. “Lover,” she repeated.
* * *
He’d never been one to need much sleep. Not since the war, anyway. Not since he’d learned to never completely let down his guard, even for a full night’s rest.
The sun would be up soon. Soft, gray light lit the sky and Hannah’s room, Hannah’s face, and the bed they shared.
He had never known anyone like her. The women in his life had been sweet and naive, like Eden, or calculating and weepy, like Sylvia, or coarse and raunchy, like the women who worked in the saloons he frequented.
Hannah was none of that. She was honest and open, smart and straightforward. And he never looked at her and wondered what was going on in that head of hers; she told him without reserve what she thought.
Jed (The Rock Creek Six Book 4) Page 18
