“This is wonderful,” Mesa sighed, looking at Jory with relief. “You can have the room across from Uncle Rance and when we get a nurse, she can take the room next to his. Raale and I will take the up-stairs rooms, that is if you’re alright with that.”
Jory laughed. “It doesn’t matter to me.” He turned and looked out the window at the lake. “We should have come home a long time ago, precious. This place is beautiful.”
Mesa shrugged. “As lovely as this place is, it looks a whole lot better knowing I won’t have to live with my mother.”
The cowboys were finished and exited the front door, heading back to the pick-up they’d all arrived in. They loaded back up and were waiting for Bob to join them when one of them honked the horn. “Let’s go, Bob. Ms. Howell’s coming down the road.” Gibby called. It was obvious that they didn’t want to be there when Mesa’s mother arrived.
“Great,” Mesa muttered as she followed Bob to the door. “The arrival of the wicked witch of the Rocking H.”
“Bring the little one down to the barn when you can. I know she’s wanting to look around.” Bob said as he hurriedly climbed into the back of the truck.
Jory sensed Mesa’s tension. “I’ll take Raale down to the lake for a while.”
“There used to be a path along the side of it. It’ll do her good to take a nice walk along the edge. There might be some screaming going on here.” Mesa suggested as she watched Jory lead her daughter out the back door.
Shirley had stopped the truck the hands were in so by the time she pulled to a stop in front of the cabin, she knew Mesa was inside. She stomped up the steps and pushed the door open, barging into the room as if it was her home.
“What the hell’s going on here?” She demanded, her bleached blond hair swinging in rhythm with her angry stride.
Mesa drew in a deep fortifying breath before she turned and looked at the older woman. “Hello, Mom. It’s so good to see you, too.” Her voice shimmered with unconcealed sarcasm.
“What are you doing here, Mesa?”
Mesa forced a smile. “I’ve come back home to make sure Uncle Rance is taken care of and to help him run the ranch.”
“Like hell, you are. You steal money out of my purse and run off to God only knows where and I don’t hear a thing from you for years and now, out of the blue, you think you can just come waltzing back in here and take over the place?” Shirley fumed. “This is my ranch now, and you can just pack up and go back to where ever the hell you came from.”
“I’m still an equal owner in the ranch and since Uncle Rance and I have agreed to this arrangement, I’m afraid you don’t have much to say about it.” Mesa was proud that she was still in control of her temper.
“We’ll see about that.” Shirley snatched a cell phone out of her pocket and pushed in a number. After a minute she spoke, her brows knotted in anger. “I want to speak to the Sheriff. ----What do you mean he’s not in? You get him on the phone and tell him to get his ass out to Shirley Howell’s place. I have a trespasser here who is refusing to leave. -----I don’t give a flying flip if he is at a roping and no I do not want to talk to the deputy in charge. I want Rafter Storm Horse out here and I want him here yesterday!” She slammed the phone shut but opened it again almost immediately and pushed in another number. It appeared no one answered so she closed it again. “I’ll have my lawyer out here before dark!”
Mesa shrugged. “You do that, Mom. This is one battle you’re not going to win. I’ve already been over all the papers with my lawyer and with Uncle Rance’s lawyer and they’ve assured me that I’m well within my rights as an equal owner, to come back here to live.”
“You relinquished all claim to this place when you sneaked out of here in the middle of the night.” For the first time, Shirley began to doubt her own conviction. “I don’t need you coming in here turning my life upside down.”
“I left because the man you had living in the house with us at the time, tried to rape me the night I graduated from high school and you were passed out in your room, too drunk to help me or to care that I needed help.” Mesa’s voice had raised an octave and she struggled to regain control of herself. “I left because I thought I’d killed him.”
Shirley’s eyes stretched wide and she shook her head. “That’s a lie! You were just a kid and Melvin wasn’t interested in you!”
“Well, that wasn’t what he said when he pranced into my room naked, so eager to show me what he wanted to give me as a graduation present.” Mesa turned away from her mother’s fury. “I screamed for you to help me, but he just laughed because he knew you were too drunk to give a damn.”
“I don’t believe you.” Shirley said, but her voice sounded uncertain. Vaguely she remembered Melvin having a cracked head the morning they discovered Mesa gone.
Mesa shrugged. “That night I was forced to realize that unless I wanted to become a part of the arrangement he had with you, I needed to leave, so I did.” She turned around and faced her mother. “But now I don’t need anyone’s protection and I’m here to stay. Go on back up to your big house on the hill and don’t worry about me turning your life upside down. I don’t want to be involved in your life any more than I want you involved in mine. Between Uncle Rance and me, we’ll continue to see that you have your share of the income from the ranch deposited into your account just the way he’s been doing it all these years.”
“I’m staying right here until the sheriff shows up and throws you off the place,” Shirley replied firmly. “You don’t belong here anymore. I’ll go to the nursing home and make Rance sign whatever papers he needs to sign, but you are not welcome on the Rocking H and I mean to see you gone!”
Mesa walked over and pulled the front door open. “The rocking chair on the porch will be very comfortable while you wait. Until someone with official authority orders me off, I’m staying and I don’t have any intention of entertaining you while we wait.”
Shirley walked to the door and stopped, anger flashing in her eyes as she faced her daughter. “I will never understand how I could have been a mother to such an ungrateful child.”
A sad smile touched Mesa’s face. “If you’d been any kind of mother after Daddy died, I doubt we’d be having this conversation.”
The older woman snorted loudly and stepped out onto the porch.
Shirley had barely cleared the opening when the solidly built door slammed shut behind her, and then to make sure she didn’t barge back in, Mesa turned the deadbolt lock, feeling a surge of perverse satisfaction, knowing her mother could hear the bar slide into place.
Inside she was quivering like a puddle of gelatin, but she was thankful that she hadn’t given in to the urge to scream curses at her mother. In spite of the past, she had stayed aware that the woman she was dealing with was her mother, and Raale’s grandmother. It was hard to believe that Shirley Howell would ever embrace that relationship, but if the child had anything to say about it, they would eventually become, at least, sociable. Raale didn’t seem to recognize negativity, or maybe she just chose to ignore it, Mesa wasn’t sure which.
Then she remembered the phone call Shirley had made. She’d summoned Rafe and Mesa was pretty sure he’d respond. Before she would have time to prepare herself, he’d be there. She’d known that coming back here meant meeting him again was inevitable, but despite the weeks she’d already had, she still wasn’t prepared to face Rafe.
She remembered vividly the night he’d walked so casually into Howell’s Hideaway. She’d recognized him as he lifted a mug of beer from the bar and strolled across the floor to lower his big frame into a chair at the table closest to the stage where she was sitting on a stool in front of the microphone. She remembered she’d been so surprised, she’d messed up the lyrics of the song she’d been singing, but thankfully it was one of her newer pieces, so no one seemed to notice. It had been a night out of one of her dreams. Rafe had not so much as looked at another woman despite the fact that every woman in the place was eyeing him. He co
uldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. He kept telling her what a beautiful woman she’d become and later, upstairs, he’d finally kissed her.
Trying to plan a quick meal she’d asked him what he’d like to have and he told her.
“You, Mesa,” his voice was rough as sandpaper. “I want you.”
His eyes held hers as he lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. That gentle touch snatched her breath away.
His chocolate eyes sparkled. “I’ve been wantin’ to do that for years.”
Mesa could hardly breathe as his head dropped again. Just before his lips touched hers for the second time, his eyes closed, his sooty lashes resting against his bronze skin and then she couldn’t see anymore because her own eyes closed and she lost herself in the movement of his lips on hers. The first kisses were tender, lingering and almost chaste, but then Rafe’s lips separated and his tongue traced the crease where hers came together, seeking entry. Mesa wasn’t even aware that she responded by letting her lips part, but the feel of his tongue slipping into her mouth, ignited a fire that shot through her body like a charged flux. She groaned into his mouth and he pulled her close against him.
Then he pulled his mouth away from hers. “Lord, Mesa, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything like I want you.” It was something between a whisper and a growl, and his hot breathe against her ear only increased the heat rushing through her body, pooling below her stomach. When he found her mouth again, he took possession of it, exploring, coaching, encouraging, inviting, and daring her to respond in kind.
Timidly, at first, she did, but when she sensed the tremor of desire shoot through him, she grew bolder, finding confidence in her ability to arouse this intensely masculine man. It was a fierce, empowering aphrodisiac, knowing that she had the ability to produce such passion in him.
“Baby,” he growled. “I don’t think I can keep this up. I’ve got to slow down.” Reluctantly, he lifted his head, afraid his overwhelming desire would push her away. “I’m not usually so…desperate.”
She was dazed and shaky not sure she wouldn’t fall without him holding her up.
“It must be all those erotic fantasies I’ve allowed to play out in my mind over the years.” He was still captivated by the heat in her response, the soft yielding of her body against his.
“Fantasies?” she queried.
He nuzzled her neck. “Mmmm hmm, when I fantasied what would have happened if I hadn’t stepped back from that bathroom door that night. In my fantasy, I walk inside and pull it shut behind me closing the world out and us in.” His tongue traced a small circle just below her ear.
Mesa shivered, and then pressed her hands against his broad chest, pushing away from him. Smiling she took his hand and led him to a closed door. “Give me a minute and a half,” she instructed before she slipped through the door, closing it in his face.
Rafe later confided how he’d stood there for a minute bewildered. Had he been too desperate? She’d seemed so timid, but when she’d slipped her tongue between his teeth and started to explore his mouth, his whole world had tilted. Gradually his breathing was beginning to return to normal, but the ache in his lower regions hadn’t eased at all. At first he thought it was his imagination, but then he heard her call his name again, softly. Hesitantly, he opened the door and his heart dropped. There revealed in the muted light filtering through the window from a street light somewhere outside, stood Mesa, as naked as if she’d just stepped out of the shower like she’d been that evening when he’d walked in on her. He swallowed, his blood pounding through his veins at an unbelievable rate.
“Damn, Mesa,” he growled and then stepped into the bathroom and closed the door, shutting the world outside and them in. He didn’t hurry. He wanted to savor this moment. He took his time looking, his eyes memorizing anew every line and curve bare before him. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he breathed softly as he stepped slowly across to her.
“I’ve had a few fantasies of my own Rafe,” she confessed, raising her eyes to look at him. Then she smiled shyly. “I’d prefer it if I’m not the only one naked.”
He lifted his hands and tore the snaps open on his shirt, but she stepped forward. “Let me.”
She lifted each arm and unfastened the snaps at his wrists one at a time, then placed her hands on his shoulders and slowly pushed the shirt back off his wide torso. His skin was smooth and hot beneath her hands and he groaned. “Ohh, damn, woman.”
She placed the index finger of one hand over his lips. His lips parted and he stroked that finger with his tongue. “Shhh, it’s my turn, Rafe,” she whispered, her breath catching in her throat as his tongue stroked sensuously along her finger. “I don’t know much about this, but I want to look at you and feel you. You take my breath away. You always have.” Her hands explored the hard plains of his almost hairless chest, before dropping gradually to stroke the rigid muscles of his stomach. Her eyes followed the thin line of hair that dropped below his navel and disappeared beneath the big oval belt buckle at the front of his jeans. When she began moving her hands down, he quickly captured them in his.
“Not yet,” he gasped as he buried his face in her neck. “I need to do a little exploring of my own.”
He released her hands and slowly covered her breasts, his hands stroking gently, cradling firmly, heat emanating into her from them. He found her mouth and expressed with his tongue what his body desired. Finally he swept her up in his arms. “To hell with this bathroom, we need a bed.”
He followed her directions down the darkened hall through the bedroom door and placed her carefully in the middle of her bed before he settled his big body down next to her. “This is so much better than a fantasy,” he murmured, rolling over so his body was canted across hers.
Mesa’s lack of experience left her waiting, breathlessly eager to learn what Rafe would teach her. His hands left trails of fire burning as he explored her body. She’d never known that being touched by a man could be such an overpoweringly exciting experience. She groaned when he took her breast into his mouth, his tongue tracing circles around it. His hands slipped over her body, learning the small touches that made her shiver with delight, or caused her to gasp with unexpected pleasure.
“Tell me what you like, sugar,” he whispered into her ear.
Mesa couldn’t think. She didn’t want to think. She just wanted to feel Rafe’s hands and mouth against her skin, stirring feelings she’d never imagined.
He repeated his question, slowly kissing his way around each breast, then down across her ribs. When she didn’t answer again, he chuckled, deep in his throat. “Do you like this?”
“Mmm hmm,” she managed, feeling a growing heat building between her legs in that secret place that no man had ever touched.
“How about this,” Rafe growled; kissing her belly button as intimately as he’d kissed her mouth.
Mesa groaned. “Yeah.” His fingers stroke gently over the coarse hair that covered her most intimate recess and her breathing stopped.
Slipping a finger between the folds of her flesh, he stroked that nerve centered bump slowly. “And this?” he asked.
She couldn’t answer and then his fingers drew the folds back and wet solid heat stroked against her. She gasped. “Rafe.”
He didn’t answer; instead his tongue probed the opening below the nub, his mouth closing as he stroked it in the most intimate kiss possible. Mesa’s hips moved involuntarily, rocking in time with his tongue.
She whimpered softly and Rafe chuckled as he continued that intimate stroking, the heat building there as his tongue stroked her closer to something she couldn’t dream. “Rafe,” she whimpered, “it---it,”
He lifted his head only slightly. “It’s damn good, Mesa. Just let go baby and enjoy it.”
He reclaimed his possession of her body with ease, simply by returning to his former ministrations of her sensitive core. She groaned again and her hips tilted toward his mouth. His tongue delved deep, slidin
g against that center of nerves as it stroked deep again and again. Suddenly she was besieged with an explosion of pure, sweet bliss, quaking through her entire being, wave after wave. She was groaning as her hips bucked beneath his head, and then gradually slowed.
“Oh my God, Rafe,” she gasped. “What was that?”
He hadn’t moved away from her, his mouth still in place and as she started to relax, his tongue stroked her again, feeling her body instantly respond to him. She gasped and experienced the sudden surge of bliss melt her again, her hips bucking, his tongue giving such pleasure but now Mesa wanted something more. She didn’t know what, but she wanted deeper contact with him.
“Oh, Rafe, please. I want…I want…more.”
He slipped up her body, knowing it was time. He’d already kicked his boots and jeans onto the floor and as he positioned himself at the opening of her hot wet cavity, he hesitated. “Look at me Mesa. I want to see you as I feel you tighten around me.” Then he swore softly. Leaning off the bed, he fumbled through his pants and then returned to lean back over her, placing the small foil packet next to him. He grinned. “I almost forgot.”
She met his eyes. “I’ve never done this.” It was a confession she’d dreaded.
“What?” his movements stopped.
“I’ve never done this,” she repeated, her timid voice quaking with emotion.
He pulled back from her. “You’re a virgin?” He couldn’t remember being so shocked. Mesa wasn’t a kid anymore. To his thinking, he’d never met any woman beyond twenty that was still a virgin.
She nodded, “but please don’t stop, Rafe. I want you. I want what is happening here.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Mesa, how could that… how…”
Her hand slipped down his body, onto his buttocks, she pulled him toward her while pushing her hips up toward him. “I want you,” she whispered. “You feel so good.”
His resistance melted. “It’s going to hurt you a little, and I can’t prevent it.” He allowed her to pull him against her, feeling her wetness easing his entry. He pushed a little and her hips lifted urging him deeper.
Sweet Talking Lawman Page 6
