Trail of Destiny (Hot on the Trail Book 5)

by Merry Farmer

  The pile of hay cushioned and prickled Alice, but both sensations were pale in comparison to the weight of Jarvis on top of her. It had been so long since she had felt that glorious pressure and had her arms wrapped around the strong, firm torso of a man who loved her. He continued to kiss her, with tight, impassioned sounds that tried to form themselves into words rumbling from him.

  “Alice,” he managed to say.

  She silenced him with a kiss, sliding her hand from the small of his back down to his backside, squeezing the strong muscles there. Even through layers of clothing, she could feel him stiffen. She wanted this, needed this. She needed him in every way that a woman needed a man. Why hadn’t she seen it sooner? She might not have been ready to give her heart away, but her body longed for a man’s touch.

  Jarvis broke their kiss long enough to look into her eyes. “Do you love me?” He pushed out the question in a low growl that sent tingles across Alice’s skin.

  Those tingles pooled like the heat of a thousand fires in her core. She needed him. She needed to feel him inside of her, powerful and insistent. She needed to give herself to him and feel that burst of pleasure that she’d only experienced a handful of times before. Her heart wanted him as madly as her body did, but her throat closed up. She opened her mouth, but no sound would leave her lungs.

  She couldn’t say it. That hook in her gut, holding her back, twisted and tugged on her. She couldn’t let it win, though. Instead of telling Jarvis she loved him, she nodded.

  Blessedly, that was enough of an answer for him. Jarvis let out a breath of relief and leaned down to kiss her with a searing passion. She met that passion with a moan of approval and pleasure, pressing her hips up against the hardness of him. She may not have learned much in her time with Harry, but she’d learned how to let a man know she was his. She lifted her knees over his hips until he fit perfectly against her.

  “Alice,” Jarvis murmured the word like a prayer.

  He left her lips and knelt above her to tug his shirt from the waist of his trousers. In the dim light of the barn Alice caught only a glimpse of the sun-kissed skin of his torso. The memory of his broad, strong chest was enough for her. She reached for him, spreading her hands across the firm plains of his stomach. Yes, this was what she wanted. This was what she needed.

  Jarvis groaned and leaned forward, balancing himself on his hands above her so that she could feel more of him. She smoothed her hands up to the muscles of his chest, teasing the hardened points of his nipples with her fingers. Her breath came in jagged gasps. More. She needed more.

  He bent down to kiss her, drawing a long, desperate moan from her lungs. Her hands shook as they teased their way down to the waist of his trousers, fumbling with the buttons. She needed to free him the same way she needed to breath. As soon as his trousers were loose, she pushed them down over his hips and closed her hands around his hot, hard spear. She gasped at his size, hips squirming to feel him inside of her.

  Jarvis moaned as she stroked him, something that might have been words unable to form. Alice was beyond listening to him. She sighed at the reactions of his body to her touch. He rocked above her as she stroked his staff, reveling in the thickness and heat of it. He was softness and iron together. He was power and life. Tension and desire radiated from him as she explored him from his flared tip to the tight weight of his balls. It was wicked of her to want to handle him this way, to feel as though she owned this part of him somehow. He didn’t scold or pull away. In fact, he pressed himself into her hands in an imitation of what she really wanted from him.

  She couldn’t wait any longer. She let go of him long enough to tug at her skirts, pulling them up over her waist to expose her hot, waiting core. The borrowed knickers she wore were open at the crotch, and all she had to do was part the thin, overlapping layer of fabric to lay bare the part of her that was screaming for his touch.

  With a low growl that raised the hair all over Alice’s body, Jarvis pressed closer and teased his fingers across the aching heat of her center. She was so ready for him that the slightest brush made her cry out with wordless ecstasy. His fingers teased her, delving into her folds to find the nub of her pleasure and circling it. She tilted her head back and cried out for joy, hips pressing into his touch. Jarvis responded with a satisfied groan, and bent to kiss and nip at her neck.

  It was all too much, and Alice was so primed and ready that she burst into the bloom of pleasure. Her body tightened and convulsed in approval. Jarvis slipped one finger and then two inside of her to feel the waves of her pleasure. The wicked hum of victory that escaped from him pushed her joy higher.

  “More,” she whispered as her tremors began to subside. “More.”

  He heard her, shifting his weight above her to bring his staff to her opening. Without hesitation, he pushed into her. There was something so wild and uncontrolled about his thrust that Alice cried out with desire.

  “Yes.” The word slipped out of her unbidden, and more with each thrust. “Yes, yes, yes.” His deep, possessive thrusts matched the intensity of her heart’s cry.

  He wasn’t gentle, but she was far from caring. She wanted him like this, carried away by instinct and a need as old as time. She clasped her legs around him, her own quakes of pleasure starting anew as he grunted with more abandonment. By the time his body tensed and a deep cry escaped from him, Alice was floating high on a wave of pure happiness.

  Jarvis came down slowly, his thrusts losing their power as all energy left him. Alice let her body relax as well, embracing him more with her arms than her legs, with her heart rather than her body. He had given her exactly what she needed, made her feel like the woman she used to be, if only for one moment.

  “Alice,” Jarvis panted as he pulled himself out of her and rolled to the side. “That was wonderful.”

  All Alice could do in reply was to hum her approval, legs still spread as he lifted his weight from her. She was warm and sated. Part of her wanted to laugh that they’d done the whole thing without her removing a stitch of clothing or undoing a single button.

  Her laughter was stifled by a bump against the outside of the barn door.

  In an instant, reality smashed back into her. She gasped and sat, launching to her feet at the sound of some of Ginny’s men laughing outside the barn. They weren’t close. They probably hadn’t heard or seen anything, but they’d exposed her folly anyhow.

  She dashed a few steps forward, then turned to look back at Jarvis. The sight of him lying on the hay with his shirt bunched up high enough to expose his stomach and his trousers pushed halfway to his knees, his spent staff glistening with her wetness in the feeble light, sent a pulse of longing through her. He was so strong and at the same time exposed and subservient to the whims of her desire. She could get used to seeing him like that.

  No. She shook her head to clear away her wanton thoughts.

  “We shouldn’t have done that,” she said, gasping for breath as the full impact of their actions struck her. “That was wrong.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” he argued.

  He tugged his trousers up and moved to stand, but Alice fled toward the barn door where Blossom still stood, munching on hay.

  “I have to go,” she said, grabbing Blossom’s reins.

  She skipped to the barn door to push it open, then used the bale of hay to mount Blossom. A twinge of tenderness between her legs flared as she settled in the saddle. It was as glorious as it was uncomfortable.

  “Alice, wait,” Jarvis called after her as he scrambled out of the pile of hay, trousers fastened and shirt tucked in. Bits of hay still stuck to him everywhere, and anyone with half a brain would know what they’d done with one look.

  “Howard is waiting for me,” Alice said.

  It was the best she could do. She’d let her passions carry her away without putting a plan in place first. It was a terrible mistake. She gave Jarvis one last, lingering, apologetic look, then nudged Blossom to start forward and out the barn door so she could m
ake her escape.

  Chapter Fifteen

  It was well after dark by the time Alice walked Blossom into the stables at Howard’s house. The stable hand had waited up for her and took care of Blossom without question. Unfortunately, Howard had waited up for her too.

  “You took your sweet time.” He stood from the chair in the living room where he’d been reading a newspaper as Alice tiptoed through the front door. “Negotiations took longer than you thought they would, hmm?”

  “They… um….” Alice scooted down the hall, wishing she could escape upstairs without questions. Her face was still hot with shame, though the rest of her had cooled.

  Howard caught her before she could get away. He took one look at her, and his mouth twitched with barely-concealed mirth.

  He cleared his throat. “You have something in your hair,” he told her, gesturing to the back of his own head.

  Alice swiped at the back of her head, only to come away with a handful of straw. In the full light of Howard’s house, she now saw that a great deal of straw was stuck to her skirt, and probably her back too. Her cheeks burned and she lowered her head.

  “I… uh….” She scrambled, but for the life of her, she couldn’t come up with an excuse.

  Howard cleared his throat again, pressing his lips together to keep from smiling.

  “Did my erstwhile sister have anything at all to say about our predicament with the fence?” he asked.

  Alice had to go over each of his words in her mind. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t scolded her or pried for more information about her disheveled state.

  “She said no.” Slowly, she was able to shift to the issue at hand.

  “Did she?” Howard frowned.

  Alice swallowed and clasped her hands in front of her. “She doesn’t want the competition or the feud to drag on any longer than it has to. She doesn’t think it would be good for anyone, so she said no to delaying the competition.”

  “So we begin again tomorrow, eh?” Howard went on, his voice gruff with frustration. “Typical.”

  “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Alice took a step forward, intending to touch his arm and reassure him, but even her sleeve had a bit of hay on it, so she held back. “You could find another crew leader.”

  “No,” he barked, clasping his hands behind his back and rocking on his heels. “We said no substitutions. I agreed to that rule, and so did Ginny. We’ll just have to think of something else.”

  Alice lowered her head, wondering what on earth that could be on such short notice.

  “You’d better run along up to bed,” he went on in a far more teasing tone. “Looks like you have some cleaning up to do.”

  “Yes,” she fumbled, her glance flickering up to meet his. “Good night.”

  With that, she turned and rushed the rest of the way down the hall and upstairs to Lucy’s room, pressing her hands to her face in an attempt to cool her blush. The proof of her mistake with Jarvis was written all over her, large enough for Howard to see it.

  After cleaning up as best she could—which involved sweeping a small mountain of straw from the floor once she’d changed into a nightgown—Alice spent a restless night wondering how she was going to face Howard in the morning. Not just Howard, she had no idea how she was going to face Jarvis. She’d been a fool to lie down in the hay with him. She’d been a bigger fool to let her desire build up to the point where she lost control of it, like a clock that had burst after being wound too tight. He must think she was a shameless hussy now.

  Then again, he’d gotten as carried away as she had. Her body tensed at the remembered sensation of him inside of her. The fit had been so tight and the friction delicious. It was better than she remembered things being with Harry. Of course, she was only with Harry a few times, and they had been inexperienced and giddy. They’d also had the sword of war hanging over their heads. With Jarvis, the only threat hanging over her was that they’d inadvertently made a baby—which didn’t seem likely, given the timing—or that everyone who looked at them would know what they’d done.

  That thought was reinforced the next morning when she gathered her courage and went downstairs for breakfast.

  “Ah, Alice. There you are,” Howard greeted her from the breakfast table, where he sat with Franklin.

  “Good morning, Alice.” Franklin hopped up from his chair and rushed to hold one out at the table for her.

  “Good morning,” Alice greeted both men, forcing herself to meet their eyes.

  Franklin didn’t seem any wiser than he was the day before, but Howard watched her with a barely concealed grin. Alice blinked. He couldn’t actually find her indiscretion funny, could he?

  “I’ve been up all night thinking about our problem with the fence,” he said, piling a plate with bacon and fried eggs for her from the platter in the center of the table.

  “You have?” Franklin asked, pausing halfway through sitting down in his place across the table from Alice. It gave Alice the impression that Howard hadn’t said a word to his son about their problems.

  “I have,” Howard answered, “and here’s what I’ve come up with.”

  Alice and Franklin both leaned toward him.

  “The rule is that there will be no substitutions, that no new participants can throw their hats into the ring for either side, correct?”

  “Correct,” Franklin answered, brow knit in confusion.

  Alice nodded and helped herself to tea from the pot in the center of the table.

  “Only people who have been involved in the competition already can compete,” Howard went on. “Therefore, Alice should be the new crew leader for my team.”

  Alice nearly dropped the teapot on her plate.

  “Me?” she balked.

  “Yes, you.” Howard grinned as though he’d invented the wheel.

  “But I don’t know the first thing about building fences.”

  “You don’t need to. My men know all about that. All you have to do is be in charge,” Howard insisted.

  “Maybe, but I’m not already a part of you crew,” Alice insisted.

  “And what about me?” Franklin asked. “Shouldn’t I be the one to take over? Alice is a woman.”

  Howard frowned at his son. “Alice may be a woman, but she is perfectly competent. And you have been part of my crew,” he insisted. “You have been serving them refreshments.”

  “She’s been serving refreshments to both sides,” Franklin protested.

  “Which means that Ginny could have called on her to work if she had need to as well. I’m sure that as soon as I explain that to her, she’ll be more than happy to let you spearhead my fence-building operation.”

  Alice had her doubts about that, but she was proven wrong almost as soon as the idea was presented to Ginny an hour later as the two crews gathered at the stream. The spot where they’d left off work the day before when the cattle got into everything was a mess. The fences were in pieces, and the ground was churned. The mud had dried in strange indents and waves all throughout the area, and the piles of split rails that had been neatly stacked before the cattle got into them looked more like giant bundles of discarded matchsticks now.

  “I don’t see why Alice shouldn’t lead a crew of men,” Ginny answered Howard’s plan with a wide smile, her hands planted on her hips. She held her chin high and her back straight. “I’m proud to have another strong woman on the scene. Even if she is working for the competition.”

  That vote of confidence went a long way to changing Alice’s opinion of the situation. What was to say that she couldn’t be in charge? She’d spent the last several months doing more hard, physical work on the trail than she’d done in her entire life in New York, and a large part of her had enjoyed every minute of it.

  “You can’t be serious, Aunt Virginia,” Franklin complained. “Women aren’t leaders.”

  “I’d be happy to take charge,” Alice said, a little louder than she’d planned to in the light of Franklin’s comment.
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br />   She couldn’t help but peek at Jarvis to see what he thought. She’d avoided meeting his eyes since they had all arrived at the fences for fear of what she’d see there. If he had looked angry at her, or worse, if he’d tried to fuss and coo over her, she didn’t think she could handle it. But at the moment, he merely stood where he was, hands on his hips—hips that she knew the feel and power of now—smiling at her as if she was the reason for the sunny day. Her heart flipped and flopped in her chest.

  “Jarvis, do you mind competing against a woman?” Ginny asked. The look she darted between him and Alice was as much proof that she suspected something had happened between the two of them as the twitching of Howard’s lips as he tried not to smile.

  “I wouldn’t mind at all,” Jarvis answered. He stepped forward and held out a hand to Alice. “As long as she plays fair.”

  In the end, it was Franklin’s sour, smug look that gave her the courage to take Jarvis’s hand and shake it. The instant skin touched skin, Alice’s heart fluttered. In all of their passion the night before, she had missed out on the joy of having him touch her. What she wouldn’t give to have his hands trace the lines of her body the way she’d smoothed her palms across his stomach and chest.

  With those disastrous thoughts hot in her mind, she met Jarvis’s eyes. He grinned. Jarvis could read her like a book. She was a fool if she didn’t turn and walk away right now, running back to her father at Ft. Bridger and her quiet life, the way a widow should live.

  Apparently, she was a fool.

  “I will play fair as long as you will,” she told Jarvis.

  “All’s fair in love and war,” he answered, sending prickles of excitement up and down her spine.

  Those prickles weren’t going to help her build a fence, or rebuild her life. She let go of Jarvis’s hand and took a step back.