Junction City Cowboy

by Jet MacLeod

“Why’s that?” I questioned him.

  “She’s been waiting for you in the parlor. You won’t make it past her to the stairs. She’s got you,” he added, matter-of-factly.

  “Well won’t that be fun,” I stated, “Thanks for the warning, Silas. Take care of him for me. I have a feeling that I might be needing him real soon.”

  “I will, Reece. I’ve got some fresh oats for Scout, squirreled away. I’ll take care of the ol’ boy,” he said.

  I shook my head, bucked up my courage and made my way to the ranch house. My heart was racing so fast and hard that I could hear my pulse in my ears by the time I reached the front door. My hand was shaking so bad when I reached for the knob; I thought that it would break off.

  I summoned up every ounce of courage that I had and opened the door. I waltzed right in like nothing was wrong, first mistake. I headed for the stairs trying to avoid Rayne, strike two. She was waiting for me in a chair at the base of the stairs. I tried to move around her and get up the stairs.

  “Where do you think that you are going?” she asked me, violently angry.

  “Going to bed,” I said, nonchalantly.

  “I don’t think so,” she replied.

  “I am tired and I am going to bed,” I said.

  “NO, you aren’t. Not until you tell me what is going on with you. I am not letting you up those stairs,” she told me.

  “Fine, I’ll go sleep in the bunk house,” I replied, turning to leave.

  That was it, strike three, last mistake of the night. She was so damn pissed at me I just knew something bad was about to happen. I was trying to prepare myself for it.

  She grabbed at me so lightening quick that I didn’t see it coming. She held my Colt Peacemaker in my face, and that woman had the audacity to even cock it. She won, I would stay. I backed up and took a seat on the settee.

  “Good choice,” she stated.

  “Well, a man has to know when he has lost. Since you got my gun, pointed at my head, I guess I’ve lost this round, so you win. What is it?” I replied, cockily.

  “I want to know why you left me out there,” she stated, “You just saddled me up and rode off.”

  “I needed to think. I am sorry,” I offered.

  “Try again,” she responded.

  “I don’t know what you want, but that is the truth. I needed to think. You get my head so clouded and confused sometimes that I can’t even think straight with you there. I needed to be alone. I am sorry. I should have been better about it, but like I said, I wasn’t thinking clearly,” I explained.

  “Better, but why? What did I do? What is it?” she questioned me.

  “It isn’t you, really –“ I started to say.

  “Don’t give me that. Reece, talk to me. I want to know what is going on in your head. First you tell me you love me. Then, you put me on a horse and shove me away. And you tell me, you’re leaving. What am I supposed to think? Have you lost your mind?” she inquired.

  “No, I’m not crazy, maybe misguided sometimes, but not crazy. I am sorry for the way I have treated you, but I didn’t mean anything by it. I was trying to keep you at bay and it didn’t work. You still managed to get in and that bothers me. I didn’t want to fall in love you, because I knew that it would complicate things for me,” I said, finally giving her some truth.

  “Complicate things? I complicate things? I don’t leave women stranded in the prairie. I don’t tell someone I love them and then walk away like it was nothing,” she said.

  “I am sorry,” it was all I could say.

  “Not good enough,” she replied.

  “What do you want from me? I can’t give you what you need. I am not the right person for you and I am sorry for that. I have a ranch of my own. I need to tend to it before I can tend to yours. I have over stayed myself here in Junction City. I let myself get bogged down in the niceties of the town. I have to go. It isn’t about you, Rayne, it never has been. It is about me,” I told her.

  “You expect me to believe that?” she asked.

  “Believe what you want. I can’t make you do anything that you don’t want to do,” I said, frustrated.

  “That’s right, you can’t,” she said, hissing at me.

  I couldn’t blame her for her anger. I was the cause of it and I would be again when I left. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to make her forget all the good times that we had so she would hate me. It would be easier for her to let me go that way. I figured I was on the right track.

  She came at me like a tornado. She was fuming and the smoke was thick. I knew I was in for it, but I wasn’t prepared for her at all.

  She grabbed the back of my head and gave me a searing kiss. It bruised my lips and slightly hurt. She wanted to punish me for hurting her and I was going to let her.

  The only thing was that I responded. I don’t mean that I was just kissing her back. I softened my lips and softened the kiss. If she was going to hurt me sexually, I wasn’t going to let her hurt me physically.

  She moaned, strike one. She continued her progression. I let her. She came to my neck and I moaned in response, strike two. My head shot up and I threw her on the couch. I mounted up over her, prepared to do my worst, thinking about how much I really wanted her. She beckoned me with her arms, strike three. I was gone.

  I took her mouth with an abandoned passion and kissed her wildly. I ripped her dress down and exposed her breasts. If she wanted it, then I would give it to her. I had to control myself because I was afraid that I would rape her if I wasn’t careful. I didn’t want it to be her first time, not like this. It wasn’t right.

  “REECE!” she pleaded.

  I was on her, kissing and shredding that dress out of my way. I didn’t care that it cost her fifty dollars and it was shipped from New York. It was in the way and it had to move. She bucked up off of the couch and gave me better access to her ample bosom. I suckled her nipples, nipping and biting them to a full attentive state. She moaned and ground her hips against mine.

  My alertness was only focused on her. I squashed the alarms that were going off in my head telling me to stop. She wanted me and damn it, I wanted her, too. I was going to have my dessert, even if it cost me my whole heart.

  I kept her hands pinned behind her head as I continued my onslaught of her body. I kissed her all over. I played with her breasts and nipples. I tore the dress right off of her. It laid in ribbons and tatters on the floor. I pulled her around so that she was sitting on the couch. Her legs spread wide for me.

  I knelt down in front of the couch and took my position. She moaned as she felt my hot breath on her thighs. I moved in for the kill. She wanted to die in my arms tonight, I was ready to oblige.

  My tongue flicked over her skin and she melted into the couch. My head began to swim with the sweet and succulent smell that she was giving off for me. She was hot and ready and I knew it. I dove in and started licking her with a furiousness that I didn’t know that I possessed.

  She came right off the seat of the couch when my tongue touched her. Her hands buried themselves in my hair, urging me to give her more. I wasn’t about to stop. I was so far gone that I wouldn’t have stopped even if she told me to do so.

  I wasn’t about to let up, no matter how much she screamed. She was begging for me. She didn’t want me to stop either. Within minutes, she soared to heaven and back. I carried her up the stairs and put her in her bed.

  I laid down on top of the covers and slept with her. I didn’t want to leave her, not like that, after what I had done. I had given into my passion and I was beginning to hate myself for it.

  I knew that we were leaving for Amarillo and that round up in the morning. I could only hope that she wouldn’t think that this was going to be a nightly thing. I wasn’t her whipping boy. I was a horseman and damn it, I was going to stay one.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Reece, somewhere outside of Amarillo, early Fall 1873

  We had been running hard and fast trying to catch the rogues tha
t were picking cattle off. I knew that Rayne was pissed. I had to admit that I would be too if it was my cattle.

  She was amazing. She mounted her horse as deftly as any of the other men and rode up beside me. She was determined to find her missing heads of cattle and have some heads rolling, too. She was not a rancher that you wanted to make mad. I had seen her temper flare over something trivial, so I really felt sorry for the asses that were about to get her full wrath rained down upon them. I had to admit that her fire was turning me on.

  I shifted uncomfortably in my saddle, hoping that my arousal wasn’t evident on my face.

  Rayne turned to me and smiled that delicious smile. That same smile that had only months ago made me drunk with lust, enough to follow her to her ranch. It was the same smile that she used when she wanted me to do something.

  “Thank you,” she stated.

  “For?” I asked.

  “Last night…” she answered blushing.

  “Ooohoo, yeah, well, you need to relax,” I replied.

  “How do you do that?” she questioned me, leaning closer to me.

  “Do what?” I asked.

  She leaned over further towards me on my mount. She put her hand on the back of my saddle to steady herself. I could feel the warmth of her body near me. My head began to swim with the thoughts and my blood began to boil as it all ran to my core.

  “How do you know what to do to me?” she whispered in my ear.

  I sat straight up in my saddle. I couldn’t tell her now. It would break her. I smiled at her to hide my true feelings.

  “I…” I started to tell her it was because it was what I wanted to happen to me as well.

  “Rayne, they’ve found the trail,” Jed told her, as he rode up, eyeballing both of us.

  “Good,” she said flatly. She turned to the rest of the crew and shouted, “Let’s go get ‘em, boys.”

  And with that, we were off.

  To be honest, the trail wasn’t hard to find. There was a swatch of torn up landscape that anyone could have found and followed. These rustlers must be idiots.

  We followed the trail for most of the day with no end in sight. I was tired, as were the boys, so I rode up to Rayne’s position.

  “Rayne,” I stated, as I came up behind her.

  “What is it, Reece?” she asked, in her honey sweet voice.

  I shook my head, knowing that the edge was gone. She had calmed down some.

  “We should stop. The horses and the boys are tired. It wouldn’t do us any good to be wandering about in the dark anyhow. We should stop for the night,” I stated.

  “Maybe, you’re right. We’ll move at first light. Besides, how far can they get with that many head of cattle before they have to stop, too,” she replied, “I’ll go tell Jed to settle down for the night.”

  I nodded in agreement. I started to dismount, when she pulled back up.

  “Don’t go too far, Reece, I want to talk to you,” she stated riding off to find Jed.

  My feet hit the ground, but my heart was in the air. She wanted to talk to me. I had to calm down. I reached up behind my saddle and pulled out my bed roll.

  I prepared my little camp. I laid out my bed roll and then tied my horse, Scout, up to some nearby trees. I was nice enough to give him enough room to eat some of the shrubs and berries. I started a small fire. I took some canned food out of my saddle bags and put it near the fire to heat up. I placed my saddle near my bed roll. I had my rifle near me and kept my sidearm close by as well.

  I was just about to open a can of meat when she pulled up near me.

  “Reece, we need to talk,” she started.

  My mind raced. Here was this proper woman, dressed in jeans and a cotton shirt, with her Stetson pulled down low over her eyes, telling me that we needed to talk. I knew that line. I knew it wasn’t good. I looked up at her, as I took off my own hat and draped it over my saddle horn.

  “What can I do for you, Miss Rayne?” I answered, trying to be proper, again.

  Her deep green eyes met mine. My head swam with delight. The desire was mutual and I could see it in her eyes.

  “It’s…well…Reece, why are you here?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t understand,” I replied.

  “Why are you with me? Why aren’t you married? You are a very attractive boy, with some very marketable ranching skills. Why are you riding for me? Why are you here and not at your own place?” she questioned.

  “I don’t have the money or the want to do so, ma’am,” I lied, “I am happy doing what I am doing. If at some point, the right woman comes along, I do plan on marrying, but until then, I’ll just rope and ride. It’s what I am good at.”

  She stared at me. I think my answer gave her some more questions. She cocked her head towards me as I opened the can of meat and divided it up on a plate that I had fished out of my saddle bag and handed her the plate. She looked at me as if she wanted to ask me something else. I sat there patiently waiting for it.

  “I don’t understand you, boy,” she stated finally.

  “Neither do I, ma’am, neither do I.”

  “I can’t understand how someone so beautiful could have such haunted eyes. I can’t grasp how someone who has ridden and roped for so long could have such tender hands on my skin. I can’t fathom how someone who I shouldn’t want, I find myself wanting to be alone with every time I am next to you. What is it about you, Reece that makes me want to know you?” she asked out loud, like she was not sure that she wanted me to respond.

  “I don’t know, Miss Rayne,” I answered.

  God, I wanted to touch her. I wanted to feel her naked beneath me. I wanted to make her scream. I wanted something that I should have never had. I needed to get control of myself.

  “Reece, why did you come on this ride?” she probed.

  “Because you asked me to come, Miss Rayne,” I answered truthfully.

  “Is that the only reason?” she questioned.

  “Miss Rayne?” I asked, “I am not sure that I know what you are asking me.”

  “Yes, you do, Reece,” she told me, pointedly.

  “Miss Rayne, I am sure that I don’t.”

  “Reece, you fool,” she said, standing and coming to sit closer to me. “What was the other night, then, Reece? It certainly wasn’t nothing.”

  “That…that…that…was something that I shouldn’t have done.”

  “Boy, you weren’t the only one there, remember?” she accused.

  “No, ma’am, but I shouldn’t have done such things to a lady such as you,” I replied, “I forgot myself.”

  “Oh, so, I was just another tumble for you, like some hot saloon girl,” she stated through clenched teeth. She was mad and rightfully, so. I had done nothing to make her think otherwise.

  “No, Miss Rayne, that isn’t it. I had no right to touch you. I am not your intended. I should not know such things about you. You must forgive me and forget it ever happened,” I started. “I will not be doing it, again,” I told her, finally, more for myself than for her.

  “Really, forgive and forget? I don’t think so,” she whispered in my ear, “I think I like it when you touch me. I think I will let you do it some more.”

  She sat back down next me. Her words were still ringing in my ears causing heat to build in my loins. I turned to look into her deep emerald eyes, dancing with mischief. I was lost. This woman had me and she knew it.

  “Miss Rayne, I am a child of the South. What I have done, well, ma’am, it is wrong. I … well … I should have never let the fever between us get that far. I apologize for that now, too late, I am afraid, but that doesn’t change anything. You are my employer and I am your hired hand. I’ll not overstep my boundaries again,” I said, then took a swig from my canteen.

  “Reece Bradley, I think that you should rethink your words, boy. You might not have noticed but if there is something I want, I get it. And right now, I want you. So, watch out, because I mean to have you,” she stated and
then finished her plate.

  It was a threat, pure and simple, but I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. What would I tell Jed? I couldn’t get away without raising suspicions; more then was already on me.

  I put some fresh wood on the fire. I cleaned up my plates and other things and put them back into my saddle bags to be ready to go in the morning. I let the fire die somewhat before I retreated into my bed roll. I was staring at the stars, thanking God that she had moved her bed roll away from mine after our little discussion.

  I felt myself start to go to sleep. I was on the edge of the camp, away from the rest of them. It was more because I liked the solitude and to keep my distance from Miss Rayne, than anything else. I never did fit in with the rest of Miss Rayne’s hands, nor did they try to include me. I was not ready for their revelry. I could still hear them playing guitar and singing of broken hearts as I finally drifted off.

  Sometime later, I awoke in the silence. All the fires had died down and everyone was asleep. At least, I thought everyone was asleep. I never saw her outline but I felt her near me.

  “Miss Rayne?” I whispered.

  “Shh, boy,” she answer in a whisper as she crawled into my bed roll with me.

  “Miss Rayne, what are you doing?”

  “I would think it is obvious to you, boy,” she answered, deftly.

  “Rayne, we can’t. Not again. Not here. Not like this,” I pleaded.

  “I want you,” she said, pulling at my clothes.

  “Miss Rayne, stop,” I stated as I grabbed her hands in mine.

  “Reece, touch me…love me,” she begged.

  “Rayne, I do. But, this is not the place for things,” I told her, running a hand through her hair.

  “Reece…”

  She was breaking my heart. God, I wanted her so much, but she wouldn’t understand. I rolled her onto the ground and put myself on top of her.

  I leaned on my arm and slowly touched her face. She mewed in pleasure. It was my undoing. I couldn’t help myself. I pulled her cotton shirt free of the jeans that she was borrowing from young Silas. She arched up to help me. I ran my hand over her skin under that shirt. I could feel her heat and heart burn with need.