Brides of Durango: Tessa

by Bobbi Smith

  “It doesn’t matter. Talking about it won’t change anything.” He paused for a moment, and then decided to tell her the truth. “I came to Durango looking for revenge.”

  “Revenge?”

  “There was only one thing I wanted when I rode into town, and that was to find the men responsible for sending to me prison.”

  “I didn’t know you’d been in prison,” she said quietly.

  “I was finally released when the law in Arizona discovered I’d been wrongly convicted, but by then I’d already spent months locked up. I learned a lot during those months—and a lot of what I learned, I never wanted to know.”

  “That must have been terrible for you!” She looked up at him, shocked by his horrible revelation. “How did it happen?”

  “I was framed by the men who really committed the robberies.”

  “How did you manage to prove your innocence?” She could well imagine the frustration he must have felt being convicted and sent to jail for a crime he’d hadn’t committed.

  “They finally caught one of the gang, who confessed that I’d never been involved. Only then did they let me go.”

  “And you believe the gang is here now?”

  “I read a newspaper account about one of the stage robberies you’d had in the area and thought it might be the same gang. But I haven’t seen any sign of the men I knew here in Durango.”

  “How did you get your reputation as a fast gun in the first place?”

  “I was just a kid, barely sixteen. There was a shooting contest at a fair in our county, and I won it. I always did like to handle a gun, and I was naturally good at it. Later that night, the man I beat got one of his friends, and the two of them came after me. They beat me up pretty bad.”

  “Where was your family? Why didn’t someone help you?”

  “There was only me and my pa, and by sundown most nights he was already drunk and passed out.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged indifferently. “The man I’d bested in the contest called me out. I guess he figured that if they’d beaten me up, I wouldn’t be in any condition to draw on him.”

  Julie couldn’t help herself. She reached out and took his hand in hers. She could just imagine the terror a sixteen-year-old boy would feel, being beaten and then forced to fight a real gunfight.

  “It was a fair fight,” he said tightly, “and I won it.” Steve suppressed a shudder at the memory of killing his first man. “His friend was so shocked that I’d killed him that he was ready to draw on me, too. I’d had enough by then. I turned on him and told him to get the hell off our land or he’d be dead along with his friend. He took the other man’s body with him, and I rode straight in to the sheriff’s office that night to tell him what had happened.”

  “That must have been terrible for you.” She stopped walking to look up at him.

  “It wasn’t too long after that that the rumors started about what a fast gun I was. From then on, it was kill or be killed. I learned real fast what was important in life, and it’s not what your boyfriend from back east was talking about. It’s survival.”

  “Roderick’s not my boyfriend,” Julie protested quickly, suddenly finding the very idea abhorrent.

  “But I thought . . .” Steve frowned.

  Julie was glad that they were alone on the street when she looked up at him. “You thought wrong. He’s only my friend Ellen’s brother. He means nothing to me.”

  Steve was confused. “That night at Tessa’s, though—”

  “What night?” She didn’t know what he was talking about.

  He looked a bit uncomfortable. “When you came over for the dancing lessons. I heard you and Tessa talking about him when you were standing out on the porch. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you were talking right under my bedroom window. It sounded like you cared for him.”

  “At the time I thought I did, but I’ve learned a lot in these last few days. What I used to think was important, I’ve discovered doesn’t matter quite so much.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Julie was frustrated, but excited as she gazed up at Steve. Her heart was beating a frantic rhythm as she decided to risk everything for love.

  “Kiss me, Steve.”

  He needed no further invitation as he gathered her close and kissed her. He knew they were standing on the street, where anyone might happen by, but right then it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Julie had just asked him to kiss her. It was a request he couldn’t—and didn’t want to—refuse.

  Their lips met, tentatively searching, then blending in a hungry exchange that expressed without words the depth of what they were both feeling.

  When they broke apart, Julie gazed up at him. Her eyes were aglow with joy.

  “Let’s hurry,” she whispered, taking his hand again and starting off down the street once more. She felt decidedly wild as she hurried toward her home. Her parents would be at dinner for a while, so she knew they would have the whole house to themselves.

  Steve needed no further encouragement. He stayed with her every step of the way. The very idea of being alone with her was a dream come true for him.

  When they reached the house, Julie unlocked the door and let them in. It was dark. She did not rush to light a lamp, but went straight into Steve’s arms.

  “Steve,” she said in soft invitation as she looped her arms around his neck and drew him down to her for a kiss.

  Steve groaned as his lips met hers. She was beauty and innocence and everything that was good about life, and he needed her. He crushed her to him, wanting to hold her close. The heat of his desire flared to life as he parted her lips and deepened the exchange.

  Julie responded without reserve, kissing him back, moving against him, wanting him as he wanted her. When his hand sought the curve of her breast, she whimpered softly at the sensations his caress evoked. She did not try to stop him, but shifted in his arms to offer him more.

  Her innocent invitation was almost his undoing. He went still, trying to slow his driving passion. He was no saint—Lord knew he wanted her—but he knew what could happen if he didn’t leave her now. She was too much of a temptation for him.

  “Julie,” Steve said in a hoarse voice, “I’d better go.”

  She had been caught up in a sensual web that his kisses and caress had woven around her, and any semblance of sanity had vanished. She didn’t want Steve to stop kissing her. She didn’t want him to go.

  “No,” she whispered against his lips, teasing him, enticing him with small, soft kisses.

  “No?” Steve was stunned. “But your parents—”

  “Won’t be back for ages.”

  She led him into the parlor and drew him down on the sofa. Leaning back, she lifted her arms to him in invitation.

  Steve told himself he should leave her right then. She was a virgin, unschooled in the ways of men. With his last shred of sanity, he cautioned himself to go while he still could, to protect her from himself. And then she touched him, running her hands up his chest, urging him down to her, and all reason was lost. It was only the two of them, alone in the darkness of the warm night.

  They came together in a frenzy of desire. Each touch, each kiss, stoked the blaze of their need to a white-hot passion. He worked at the buttons at the bodice of her gown, then slipped her chemise from her shoulders, baring that sweet flesh to his kisses.

  Julie gasped in delight and held him to her, reveling in the sensations the touch of his lips evoked. She had never known a man’s touch or kiss could make her feel this way. But then she realized it wasn’t just any man’s caress that was thrilling her—it was Steve’s. She shivered in excitement as she worked to unbutton his shirt.

  Steve rose up over her and helped her free him from his shirt; then he bent to her, capturing her lips in a hungry exchange. The heat of his body seared her, and she wrapped her arms around him, caressing the sleek, hard-muscled width of his back. Instinctively Julie moved restlessly against him. He
r body ached with an empty, driving need to get even closer to Steve.

  Brushing her skirts aside, Steve fit himself more intimately against her. The contact was electric, and Julie arched up to him. She whimpered as her excitement built to a fever pitch.

  “I want to love you,” Julie told him, her gaze passion-dark as she looked up at him. “Love me, Steve.”

  “I do, Julie. I do.”

  He could no more have stopped loving her at that moment than he could have stopped breathing. He drew back only long enough to help her slip off her undergarment, then freed himself to take her.

  Julie gasped as Steve sought the depths of her womanhood. Pressing forward, he pierced the proof of her innocence and claimed her as his own.

  Steve had never known joy so sweet as that he found buried deep within the heat of her slender body. He continued to caress her and kiss her, wanting to tell her by his actions what she meant to him. He was not a man of words. He could only show her how much he cared.

  With care and gentleness, he moved within her, introducing her to the joy of love. He kept his rhythm steady and arousing until he felt her matching him in his need.

  Julie had known a little about the actual act of lovemaking, but the whispers she’d heard were nothing compared to the reality of being with Steve. Loving him was pure bliss. She was caught up in the excitement of Steve’s loving. His every touch and kiss left her more and more breathless. An aching delight grew within her that left her clutching at him, wanting some mysterious release that only he could give her. And then it happened—the burning need within her crested in an explosion of ecstasy.

  Steve had been holding himself back, wanting to please her. When he felt her reach love’s peak, he quickened his own pace. He whispered her name as he, too, reached the heights of rapture. They clung to each other as they quietly marveled at the beauty they’d just experienced.

  Enfolded in Julie’s arms, Steve rested, knowing true peace for the first time in his life.

  It was long moments later when their sanity returned. Steve finally tore himself away from the haven of Julie’s embrace. He didn’t want to leave her, but he had to. She was too tempting. Just being that close to her aroused him, and he had already put her at risk tonight.

  “Julie, I’m—”

  “You’d better not say you’re sorry,” she told him, her eyes aglow as she gazed up at him.

  He leaned toward her and kissed her one last, passionate time. “I’ll never be sorry for loving you.”

  “Oh, Steve.” She reached for him, wanting him again.

  He moved safely away.

  “I’d better go,” Steve said regretfully.

  “Do you have to?” Julie wanted to hold him to her heart and keep him with her forever.

  He grinned at her. “I don’t think your father would be too pleased to find us like this.”

  “Then marry me,” she said boldly. “Tonight. Right now. I don’t care about a big, fancy wedding. We can go to the justice of the—”

  “No, Julie.”

  His answer was so sternly spoken that she was startled by it. She looked up at him, shocked.

  “But—”

  “I can’t even think of marrying you. Not until I’ve done what I came here to do.”

  Steve’s expression turned grim as the reality of his life intruded into the loving haven they’d created. The need for revenge was too great within him to let it go. It had been driving him for months; he had to find the gang. Until they’d paid for what they’d done to him, he would have no rest.

  “But I could help you. We all could,” she insisted, devastated by what he was saying. “You can start a new life here. You can forget your past and—”

  Steve pierced her with a cold glare. “There is no forgetting my past, Julie. Young fools like Avery Hanes won’t let me forget it. I have to live with who I am every minute of every day, never knowing when someone might pull a gun on me.” He realized in complete misery and fury that he’d been a fool to think he could fall in love with Julie and have any kind of future with her. But he had wanted her so badly, needed her so much.

  The painful truth of Steve’s words silenced her. She looked on as Steve straightened his own clothing. When he came to her wanting to help her with her clothing, she refused his help and quickly buttoned her own bodice. She stood up, wanting to go to him, to somehow reach him, but he moved away from her.

  “Good night, Julie,” he said.

  Their gazes met for an instant as he stood by the door, and she could see even in the darkness the pain etched onto his handsome features. She said no more as he let himself out of the house.

  Julie stood alone in the parlor staring after him. She was confused by what had happened. Steve had said that he loved her, but he’d refused to marry her. She bit her lip to fight back the tears as she ran upstairs to her room. She threw herself on the bed and cried until the tears would come no more. When at last she was quiet, she changed clothes, hiding the petticoat that showed the proof of her lost innocence. She knew she was going to have to sneak it out of the house somehow. She couldn’t let her mother know what had happened.

  When her parents returned home sometime later, and her mother opened her bedroom door to check on her, Julie feigned sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Tessa hadn’t been able to get away from the Women’s Solidarity meeting fast enough. She’d smiled at the few people who’d spoken to her as she was leaving, but she had not lingered and she had not looked back to see if anyone was coming after her. Judging from the way Melissa had been gazing up at Jared so adoringly, she doubted he would be in a hurry to leave her anytime soon.

  When Tessa had reached the house, she’d gone inside and shut the door behind her. She was tempted to ignore the loud knock at the door when it came, and she did for a moment or two, but then Jared started calling out to her.

  “Tessa, I know you’re in there, and I want to talk to you.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Tessa.” His tone grew more stern. “You can come out, or I can come in. I’ve broken this door down before. It won’t bother me to do it again.”

  The last irritated her, and she all but stomped to the portal and threw it wide.

  “Yes, Jared?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Why? Didn’t you get much conversation out of Melissa?”

  His gaze narrowed at her declaration, and then he smiled slightly. “You’re jealous?”

  “Of what?” She started to turn away.

  “I need to talk to you—now.” Jared was not a man used to having to beg for favors or explain himself to anyone. He was always honest and straightforward. He said what he thought whether people wanted to hear it or not. When it came to women, though, this one had the power to leave him sounding like a babbling idiot. He wasn’t used to begging for things, and he damned well wasn’t ready to start now.

  “So talk.” She turned back toward him and stood with her arms folded across her chest, regarding him with less than welcoming warmth.

  “Come outside with me?” Jared held out his hand to her. “Please.”

  It was as close as he’d come to begging in years, and he found that with Tessa, somehow he didn’t really mind.

  “Why? Anything you have to say, you can say here.”

  Her stubbornness was testing him, but he told himself she was worth it.

  He dropped his hand away. “Tessa, if I wanted to be with Melissa, I’d be with her right now. I was planning to meet you earlier so we could go to the lecture together, but the Moore brothers caused some trouble and I ended up dealing with a couple of rowdy, not-too-happy cowboys. Believe me, I would rather have been with you.” He lowered his voice as he said the last.

  “I could tell,” she replied coolly.

  Not used to explaining himself, he went on in exasperation. “When I got to the hall, there were no seats by you. I was standing just inside the doorway and Melissa grabbed me and took me b
ack to sit with her. There was no way to refuse without everyone noticing. I was trapped.”

  “Marshal Jared Trent trapped by a young woman?” she repeated, a bit disbelieving.

  “Come outside with me. I want to talk to you now.” His patience was at an end. He had tried to be reasonable, but it wasn’t working.

  “Jared, what a nice surprise. We missed you at the lecture tonight,” Maggie said as she came up the sidewalk with Jim, Sludge and Henry.

  “I was late,” he explained, greeting them as politely as he could. He was irritated by the interruption. He wanted to talk to Tessa, but right now he could do nothing about that. “I had to make a couple of arrests.” He cast a sidelong, taunting glance at Tessa.

  Tessa’s expression faltered a little as she imagined him “arresting” Melissa.

  “Everything turned out all right?” Jim asked.

  “Eventually, but by then Roderick had already started his readings.”

  “You didn’t miss much,” Sludge said with a grin.

  Henry chuckled in agreement.

  “It was . . . different,” Maggie went on. “A little too dull for my tastes, but then how often do we get to hear a real, live author reading from his own works? It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m glad we all went. Let’s go inside and have a cool drink, shall we?”

  “I’d love to, Miss Maggie, but first I have to talk to Tessa.”

  “Well, you two go right ahead. We’ll be inside.” Maggie bustled indoors with the others following her.

  “Tessa?” Jared looked at her, his expression challenging.

  Reluctantly she stepped out onto the porch, but she kept her distance from him. “Yes?”

  Jared had been anticipating this moment all day. He’d practiced what he was going to say to her. He had been excited about seeing her tonight, just so he could propose—and he’d wanted to do it romantically. He’d wanted her to understand just how much he loved her. It had been a difficult thing for him to admit his feelings for her, but he was ready to declare himself. Yet here she was, frustrating him at every turn, and after the time he’d had with the Moore brothers and Melissa, that was dangerous.