“I can guess,” Gretta answered. “And it’s easier for you to talk to somebody like me than to her when you’re that way.”
Jake nodded. “You must have read that book pretty close to know so much about me.”
“You’re an intriguing man, Mr. Jake Harkner. What did that man you beat on say about your wife?”
He looked at her darkly. “He called her my personal whore. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“There are a lot of women like you that I respect, but Randy Hayes Harkner is no whore and doesn’t deserve to be called one in the way that man said it. It hurt her bad, and I should have stayed and talked to her, but that remark made me feel like I didn’t deserve to touch her at all.”
“And you think women like me are the only kind you have any business being with.”
He picked up the cigarette and drew on it again. “Sometimes.” He grinned. “But I’ll be damned if I can keep my hands off of her. She’s got me tied to railroad tracks with a train coming, and I just lay there and don’t even try to get loose.”
“And you’d let that train run right over you if it meant never hurting her again.”
“I would.”
“Lucky woman.”
Jake shook his head. “I’m the lucky one.” He studied his cigarette a moment. “She changed my life years ago, but changing the real me isn’t so easy. Some things are just beat into you until…” He looked Gretta over. “Here we are—just now met—and I’m talking to you about things that are none of your business.”
Gretta put a hand on his arm. “Honey, I’ll just bet that wife of yours never stays mad at you for long.”
Jake couldn’t help a smile. “Generally not.”
She stepped closer, patting his cheek. “Of course not. You reek of sex, Jake Harkner, and she just can’t resist that.”
“Reek?”
“Reek. Sex just oozes from every pore of your body.”
Jake laughed. “I’ve never heard it put quite that way.”
Gretta looked him over again. “You damn well know it’s true. And I would give my right arm to find out what you’re like in bed.”
“Ma’am, you pose a mighty strong temptation,” Jake answered with a grin. “I appreciate the offer, and I appreciate the talk, but I have a wife waiting for me in a room at the Brown Palace.”
Gretta pouted, stepping back. “How about that son of yours? He available?”
Jake set the cigarette aside again. “Lloyd is also happily married.”
“Woe is me,” Gretta joked.
Accustomed to women like Gretta, Jake had no qualms about removing the new suit pants in order to pull on his denim ones.
Gretta gladly studied the way Jake’s knee-length long johns snugly fit firm thighs. She took a deep breath at the bulge between his legs that suggested a well-endowed man. He handed out the suit pants, and she took them as he picked up his denim pants.
“Maybe you can help me some other way,” Jake told her as he pulled on his pants.
“How’s that?”
He tucked his shirt into his pants as he answered. “Let me see your hands,” he said after buttoning the pants.
“My hands?”
He reached out. “Your hands.”
Gretta obliged, enjoying the soft way he touched her hands and rubbed the backs of them. He felt her fingers, studying them. “Where’s the best jewelry store in town?”
“Bush and Company. That’s where the snobs of Capitol Hill shop.”
“Come there with me. It’s our thirtieth anniversary, and I want to buy my wife the wedding ring she should have had all these years. Your hands are the same size as hers, so you’ll need to try on whatever I pick out.”
She squeezed his hands, leaning in close. “And you know every inch of her body, I’ll bet.”
Jake grinned. “Every inch. Intimately.”
“If you want me to help you, you owe me a kiss. Just one kiss, Mr. Jake Harkner.”
He leaned down and only kissed her cheek before pulling away and grabbing his gun belt from where it hung on a hook. “The only woman I kiss the way you want to be kissed is my wife. Believe me, if I kiss you like that, she’ll know, and she won’t unlock that hotel room door.” He strapped on his guns.
“So, those are the infamous .44s.”
“They’re just guns.”
“Not when they belong to Jake Harkner.”
Jake tied the holsters to his thighs, then pulled on a suede jacket he’d purchased at another store earlier. He put out his cigarette in the sand-filled ashtray. “Where is that jewelry store?”
“Seventeenth Street—just a block over.”
“Let’s go then. I’ll have Henry fold and pack these clothes, and I’ll pick them up on the way back, along with my horse and my other belongings.”
“So you’re going to be seen walking the street with me…Gretta MacBain, who runs one of the fanciest brothels in Denver? It’s called the Range Club, by the way.”
“I know all about it.”
She shook her head. “Of course you do.”
Jake put on his wide-brimmed Stetson and took her arm. He started to lead her out of the dressing room.
“Wait,” she told him, pulling back. “There is something you should know.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
Gretta glanced at the curtained doorway, then pulled him farther back into the dressing room. “I had a visitor a couple of weeks ago,” she told him, her voice lowered. “He’s the real reason I followed you in here.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “He called himself Mike Holt.” She watched Jake’s whole demeanor change. The charming smile was gone.
“And?”
“And he bragged about…about being freed from prison and about…” She looked down, hating her next words. “About…your daughter…and about how he was going to kill your son for shooting his brother in the back.” She looked up at Jake and was startled at the complete change in his demeanor. “I’m so sorry, Jake. I thought you should know he’s probably still in town somewhere. He knew you’d be coming in with cattle. You need to be really careful.” She watched Jake’s jaw flex as he obviously struggled with repressed anger. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“I’d already received a wire from Guthrie some time back, telling me he’d been there boasting about coming after me and Lloyd. It helps knowing for sure he’s been here.” He looked her over, stepping closer and putting a hand to the side of her face. “I appreciate the warning, but that man is an animal. Did he hurt you?”
Gretta’s eyes widened in surprise. “Good Lord, you care?”
“Of course I care. After what those men did to my daughter? Men like that have no respect for any woman, and in my book, prostitutes aren’t any different from any other woman when it comes to a man hurting them.”
Gretta felt an urge to cry. “Well now, aren’t you something, Jake Harkner?” She took a deep breath and blinked back tears. She pulled the bodice of her dress down enough to show him a bruise on her left breast. “He likes to bite.” She re-covered her breast. “I kicked him out and told him never to come back and that none of the other girls would do business with him. Same with his friend.”
Jake’s eyes grew even darker. “Friend?”
“I think Mike called him Brad.”
Jake turned away. “Jesus!”
“You know who he is?”
“I killed his father and two brothers back in Oklahoma when I was a marshal there. And I beat the hell out of Brad Buckley and left him in a bad way. If he’s teamed up with Mike Holt—” He shook his head. “My God, that was four years ago. I figured we were done with all that.” He faced Gretta. “I’m more worried about my daughter than anyone else. It’s taken her all this time to totally recover from what happened to her…and I’m
not sure she really has. Her only saving grace is her deep faith and a very good and very kind and understanding husband.”
Gretta took his hand. “I hate having had to tell you all this.”
“You did right.” To Gretta’s amazement, Jake pulled her close and put his arms around her. “I’m just sorry for what he did to you,” he told her. “I should have killed that bastard when I had the chance, but my daughter—who thinks I walk on water—begged me not to go back to my old ways, so I let him live. That was a mistake.”
“Well, it got me into the arms of Jake Harkner. I don’t mind that at all.”
Jake gave her a squeeze before letting go. “Yeah, well, now I have to figure out how to go to my wife later and pretend I’m not upset. After what we’ve just been through, she needs a break from worry, and I want her to enjoy herself tomorrow night at that ball.”
“Then let’s go buy that ring. Nothing softens up a woman like diamonds.” She looked him over with a grin. “Although I have a feeling you don’t need diamonds to soften a woman up. All you have to do is smile at her.”
Jake managed a soft grin. “Yeah, after thirty years, she knows me all too well. Just a smile won’t do it.” Jake led her through the curtained doorway. “Come on. I have a feeling you know a lot about diamonds.”
“You bet I do.” Gretta paused. “Are you sure you want to be seen walking with me?”
Jake led her out. “Gretta, I long ago stopped worrying about what people think of me, and it’s too late to try to change their opinions.” He glanced at Henry. “Package up that suit, Henry, and I’ll be back for it.” He walked over and plunked the leather satchel with his other belongings in it on the counter. “Watch this till I get back.” He took Gretta’s arm and headed out. “I also need to find a florist and a garden supply,” he told her on the way through the door.
Henry just shook his head. He couldn’t wait to tell others he’d met the infamous Jake Harkner, and that the man had walked out of his store with Denver’s most notorious harlot—after spending time with her alone in the dressing room and changing his clothes right in front of her!
Seventeen
Randy heard the tap on the door.
“Randy, it’s me.”
Her heart pounded with both relief and irritation. She pulled her robe close around her and tied it, then went to the door. “I’m tempted to leave you out there in the hallway,” she called.
“I don’t blame you. Come on, baby, let me in.”
Baby. Randy closed her eyes and sighed with frustration. He knew the use of that word undid her. She unlocked the door, stepping aside as he walked in, his arms full with his personal leather bag, something wrapped in brown paper, and one hand wrapped around the paper-covered stems of a dozen yellow roses. It was already dark out, and by the soft light of two gas lamps, he looked strikingly handsome, filling up the room with his tall frame. “Well, you certainly look better than you did this morning,” she told him, “and you apparently found a bathhouse.”
“And a shave and a haircut, and I bought a new suit of clothes for tomorrow night.” He set aside his leather bag and the package of new clothes, then handed out the roses. “Your favorite color. And I found a place where we can buy all the rosebushes you want to take back to the ranch. For now, here are these. Happy anniversary.”
Every last bit of determination Randy had of staying upset with him vanished. She reached out and took the roses, smelling them. “Jake, they’re beautiful!”
“Tomorrow, I want you to buy yourself the fanciest dress in town, as long as it’s yellow, and get your hair done up. I’ll be taking the most beautiful woman in Denver to the Cattlemen’s Ball.”
She looked him over, trying not to cry. She turned and set the roses in a pitcher on the washstand. “Well…I already bought a dress, but I’m not so sure I want to go. After taking all this time to get to our room, you just come walking in as though nothing has happened, and you hand me yellow roses and pretend everything is just fine.”
“Isn’t it?”
Randy faced him. “Where have you been, Mr. Harkner?”
Jake leaned against the door, folding his arms. “I just told you. I got cleaned up and went shopping. It takes time to try on clothes. Then I went over to the stockyards to see how Lloyd did. By the time we got through with the buyers, it was getting dark. And, by the way, we made a killing. The price of cattle is up right now, so we picked the perfect time to bring them in. We even talked to that government agent about buying that land with the old fort on it, which is why I’m later than I planned. Lloyd just went to his room and wants to go out to eat. Do you want to go?”
Randy frowned. “No! I mean, look at me. For heaven’s sake, I’m not even dressed.”
He raked her over with his eyes. “I noticed. And you know how much I love your hair brushed out long like that. I guess maybe we should stay here in the room tonight at that.”
Randy stepped back. “Well, they do have room service here.”
Jake looked around. “Damn nice room, isn’t it?”
“Yes. And they brought up a bathtub for me, and a maid even washed my hair. The service is wonderful, and it feels good to be pampered after that long trip. Even better, after going through what I went through the last couple of days!”
Jake grimaced as though she’d just hit him. “I was hoping for a better reception.”
“I’m sure you were.” Randy studied him closely. “Let me guess,” she said, watching his dark eyes as she stepped closer. She breathed deeply through her nose. “I am getting the distinct smell of perfume, and it’s not the kind I wear. You’ve been with a prostitute, haven’t you?”
He just stared at her a moment. “Jesus, woman, how in hell do you always know?”
“Because I know you, especially when things go a little haywire in that head of yours. You fell back into that mood of thinking you aren’t good enough for me. When you get like that, and especially when that rage against your father comes out in you, you turn to the kind of people who used to understand and make you feel better. Dixie is still in Oklahoma as far as we know, so who was it this time?”
He stepped closer, grasping her face in his hands. “Gretta MacBain, and she runs a place called the Range Club. And I did not go there. And I didn’t even go looking for her. She found me at the clothing store where I was trying on that suit over there. She knew who I was, and we struck up a conversation. I told her what happened, and that’s all there was to it. I always say it like it is, Randy. When have I ever lied to you?”
She let out a long sigh and grasped his wrists. “It’s not that, Jake. That has never bothered me, because I understand that little boy down inside the magnificent man you are. But I’m right here, Jake, and I’ve always been right here. You don’t need to turn to someone else when these things happen—not to Lloyd or to Evie or some prostitute.”
He moved his hands into her hair. “I had to leave those couple of days because I was afraid I’d yell at you again. I’m so damn sorry, mi amor. What Clem said made me sick inside. I couldn’t even look at you, and I hated any of the men looking at you.”
She closed her eyes. “Jake, what do you ask me every time you make love to me?”
His breathing deepened, and her need for him rushed through her with heated force.
“Who do you belong to?” he replied.
“And what do I answer?”
“Jake Harkner.”
“And you always say…‘every inch of your beautiful body.’ And I do belong to you. I’m your wife, Jake, so anything you do with me you have a right to do as the man who loves me, as long as I want you to do those things to me. And I do want those things, because you make me feel beautiful and wanted and needed. How many times have I told you that I only feel safe when I’m in your arms?”
He cut off her words with a deep, hot, groaning, almost savage kiss as h
e walked her backward to the bed.
“Jake, we aren’t done talking,” she tried to protest.
“I am.” He pulled off her robe. “I want to make love to you, Randy. I need to make love to you.”
“Jake—”
He grasped her nightgown at her hips and pulled up. “Get this thing off.”
“This isn’t what I planned.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No. I mean, not right away.” She was forced to raise her arms as he pulled off the nightgown. She was naked under it.
“Do you still want to tell me you didn’t plan this?” He enfolded her in one arm as he pulled down the bedcovers. “You’re the one who said it was all right for me to do whatever I want with you because you belong to me.”
She grasped his arms, studying his eyes. “Only if you’re all right now.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t all right. That’s why I waited. I’m always all right when I come to you.”
“Then do that. Come to me. I only like making love to the Jake who is in the present, not the past, but I can help the old Jake when I need to, and you know that.”
He drank in the sight of her. “Woman, I am definitely in the present.” He picked her up and laid her on the bed, then threw aside his jacket and unstrapped his guns. He sat down on the bed and pulled off his boots. “You want to know what Gretta told me?” He stood up and unbuttoned his shirt, taking it off.
“I’m not sure I want to know,” Randy answered, pulling the covers over her nakedness. She could see the strong, loving Jake moving back into his eyes, the one who loved to sometimes tease her relentlessly and use just the right words to make her give in, even when he’d done something to upset her.
Jake unbuckled his belt and pulled off his pants, taking his underwear off with them. He removed the sleeveless undershirt and crawled into bed.
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