by Linda Broday
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Did he give a name?”
Tobias January’s face darkened. “Will Spencer’s his name. Hung around Cimarron quite a bit, always watching people.”
“I know him. There’s not much chance of catching him unless Tally hurt him bad.” Luke’s dark gaze told Jack there was bad blood between him and Spencer.
“I say we ride out and see if Spencer stopped to patch himself up,” Jack suggested.
Nora stayed silent but moved closer to him. He knew she was worried. Damn, they’d just gotten home, and he was filthy and tired. Now he had to ride out again in his dirty clothes, on little sleep, and missing his bath as well.
Ridge shifted his weight. “I agree. Even if there’s a small chance of getting Travis back.”
“It’s what we do. Everyone in this town is my responsibility.” Clay put his arm around Tally. “I should’ve been here to stop the bastard.”
Dallas Hawk flushed with anger. “Are you saying the rest of us ain’t capable? Me and the others raced out, guns drawn, but the bastard kept Travis in front of him the whole time until they got on the horses.”
“I’m not laying blame, Dallas.” Clay rubbed the back of his neck. “I know you did your level best.”
“Stop hem-hawing around or I’ll get my horse and go get Travis myself.” Rebel’s chest was heaving. She turned toward the corral.
“Go back to those kids, Rebel,” Clay said softly. “This is my job.”
“We should take our new bloodhound,” Jack suggested. “We can use her nose.”
“Good idea,” Clay answered, calling the animal.
Nine-year-old Ely and four-year-old Jenny Carver raced up and latched on to Rebel’s waist. Poor kids. If they lost Rebel, they’d have no one. Clay and Tally had rescued the brother and sister when they’d raided the Creedmore Asylum last year, burning the hellhole to the ground. It was nothing but a place of torment, and for a price, the asylum had taken in healthy family members that others wanted to get rid of. They’d kept Tally for a year before she escaped.
He couldn’t let these two kids lose a home again.
Jack kissed Nora’s cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”
She clutched his shirt. “Be careful. I don’t want this man to get you too.”
With a nod, Jack mounted up and galloped away from Hope’s Crossing with the other men—Scout loping alongside. Spencer hadn’t gone south to Saint’s Roost or they’d have crossed paths on the road. Jack’s bet was on the wild and wooly town of Mobeetie. Probably had a passel of friends there, ones who’d do whatever Spencer asked.
As he rode, Jack thought of Travis. He was a nice-looking man of about twenty-seven. His dark-blond hair and the deep cleft in his chin made him popular among the ladies, but he had eyes only for Rebel. Folks expected them to tie the knot soon enough.
Only now it might not be possible. Travis had a price on his head, and a judge might be inclined to hang him.
Scout led them to every place Spencer and Travis had stopped and tracked blood the first ten miles. Spencer must’ve gotten the bleeding stopped somehow.
Luke removed his hat and wiped his forehead. “Appears a wasted effort to go farther.”
“Let’s ride on a ways,” Jack suggested. “We might get lucky.” He hated having to go back and tell Rebel. Damn! The former saloon girl was tough, but he didn’t know how she’d take this. Probably not well. But she had those two kids to think of, and that would help.
Finally, at twenty miles, they stopped again. The saddle leather creaked under Jack as he shifted his weight. “Are we going to ride all the way into Mobeetie?”
“I’m ready for a fight, but that might not help us find Travis.” Clay drew his sack of Bull Durham and papers from his pocket. “We’d have to whip the whole damn town.”
“It’ll be dark before long.” Jack sighed. “I’m too beat to whip anyone.”
The rest voted to turn back, and Jack was relieved. He was dead tired. Sometimes a man had to know when to fight and when to back away. “Maybe we can send Dallas or Skeet Malloy to ride over and quietly ask around. I’d feel better knowing what happened to Travis. I’ve been mulling something over in my mind, and with Travis’s deal, I have to speak.”
The saddle leather creaked when Clay leaned forward, all ears. “Don’t be shy now, Jack. Spit it out.”
“I think we have a traitor in our midst. Think about it. How else would Marshal Dollard have known where I was and set a trap? And now how damn convenient that a bounty hunter waltzed in and took Travis while most of us were gone.”
Luke’s face darkened. “If there is, you’d best root him out soon, or no one will be safe here.”
Clay pulled out his small sack of tobacco and cigarette papers. “You’re not saying anything that I haven’t thought, Jack. That whole deal with you stunk to high heaven, and Dr. Mary even said something wasn’t right. The woman in childbirth she went to help had a normal delivery, not a risky one as the rider who came to get her said.”
“But who?” Ridge asked. “Most have been with us from the beginning, and I will not believe the traitor is a woman.”
“Me either,” Clay agreed. “But we’ve had recent single men appear in town and we don’t know anything about them.”
“We’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open.” Jack glanced up at the sky. “Let’s head for home.”
All murmuring agreement, they set their sights on Hope’s Crossing. The sun was setting when they arrived.
Nora ran from the house when Jack trotted in. “Did you find Travis?”
“No.” Jack wearily stepped from his big dun. “Looks like they reached Mobeetie and we voted to fight another day.”
He put his arm around her and stared toward the corral where Clay and Luke were talking to Rebel. Her wails reached them. Damn, she was taking this hard. Dreams died a hard death for people who had little to keep them going.
Tally put a hand on Rebel’s waist and aimed her toward the woman’s little soddy.
“I feel so sorry for her, Jack. She loves him and now her life seems over.” Nora glanced up. “I’d be devastated if anything happened to you. And it could, so easy. You’re all wanted men. I don’t know how you live your lives.”
“One minute at a time and we try not to think about it.”
“I have supper ready. You must be starving.”
“I’m hungry enough to eat a rabid coyote.”
“You are not. No one would be that hungry.”
“Pretty darn near.” He nuzzled her neck. “There’s something else I can’t wait to do.”
“Any hints?”
“It involves getting you naked and a bed.”
Sawyer raced from the house. “You’re back, Jack.”
“That I am.” He noticed the boy’s indecision. Apparently, Sawyer wanted to hug him but didn’t know if Jack wanted him to. Jack reached for him and put an arm across his thin shoulder. “Did you help Nora?”
“I got to feed Willow and got her to sleep. I think she likes me.”
Nora laughed. “She likes anyone with a bottle.”
Jack kissed the top of the boy’s head and held the door. A warmth dropped over him. The house he’d built for his mail order bride seemed to welcome him with open arms.
He’d lived his life not daring to look beyond tomorrow. But tonight, even as tired as he was, he’d fight like a badger to keep what he had.
Sawyer glanced up and Jack could see he struggled to say something. “Jack?”
“Yeah.”
“When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” The boy’s words were soft but struck Jack like a sledgehammer.
“I’m no one to look up to.” He took Sawyer’s shoulders and faced the boy. “There are lots better men than me. Why walk in my footsteps?”
“Well, you’re not like Bittercreek. You�
��re an outlaw and I know you did lots of stuff, but you care about people. You didn’t have to take me from Bittercreek, but you did. I think you were ready to die for me.”
Jack couldn’t speak past the lump blocking his throat. He finally cleared his voice, but when the words came out, they were gruff. “Always. For you, Nora and Willow too.”
“But not just us. Maybe even a stranger if they need help.”
“How you came to this I don’t know, but maybe you’re right.” Jack watched Sawyer blink back tears, trying not to let his emotions get the best of him.
Sawyer dragged his sleeve across his nose. “Jack, thank you for being good to me. You and Nora let me be a kid again.”
Again, Jack felt he’d been knocked to his knees. “Because you need that. As far as anything else, be your own man. Don’t follow anyone else. You have a good heart and a strong mind and someday you’re going to change this land.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You go on in. Tell Nora I need to see to my horse.”
Sawyer’s eyes lit up. “I’ll do it. Please, Jack, let me.”
“Okay.” Jack watched the kid take the reins and stride off with his dun. This night called for some serious thinking.
But first, he meant to make love to Nora—even if it harelipped the damn governor.
Twenty-four
The night was late when Nora tucked Sawyer in and kissed his forehead. Scout was already asleep on a rug beside his bed. Then she fed Willow and rocked her to sleep. Laying the babe in the crib in the corner of their bedroom, Nora put the rosary that belonged to Willow’s mother into a drawer. She’d give it to Willow when she got old enough and tell her about her mother.
She undressed and straightened her hair in the mirror. Anticipation leapfrogged inside her as she made her way to the bathing room.
The next hours would belong to her and Jack. Finally, they would cement their marriage.
She opened the door and took in the sight of her husband, lounging in the big tub. Water slickened the parts of his body she could see. Muscles that she’d only felt next to her as she slept on the trail rippled in his chest and arms. Freshly washed hair curled against his neck.
Oh my!
Thank goodness he didn’t know what he did to her.
Excited goose bumps rose, her skin prickling, already yearning for his touch.
He’d freshly shaved, all except for a closely trimmed mustache. She found herself missing the stubble that had added a whole other element of danger.
His lazy gaze slid over her, a crooked grin transforming his face. She sucked in a breath. Gone were the grim lines slashing around his mouth that she’d seen on the stagecoach. The sharp angles had softened, and the ice had melted from those hard, gray eyes. He’d been an outlaw fighting to stay alive then. Now, the handsome features and warm smile of the man she’d married underneath the stars replaced the dark, brooding cloud.
A wolfish grin curved his sensual mouth. He crooked a finger. “Come here, Wife.”
Nora’s knees threatened to give way and her heart raced. She clutched the doorframe for support, intimately aware that she was naked beneath the light wrapper she wore.
“The water’s warm and I won’t bite.”
Her breath caught and hung in her throat at Jack’s low teasing. “You promise?”
“As much as I’m able. You sure tempt a man mightily though.”
The need to feel him under her proved too much. She slipped off her cotton wrapper, letting it glide to the floor.
A sinful grin reached Jack’s eyes, and they glittered like stars under the oil lamp. He wanted her and, oh, how much she wanted him.
A tendril of heat curled along her spine as she slipped into the close confines of the tub, next to all that temptation that she no longer had to resist. He curled an arm around her, and she relaxed her back against his chest as a rush of emotion turned her insides to a quivering, feverish mess.
The heat, the scent of the soap filled the room, and Nora had the sensation of floating. If this was all a dream, she didn’t want to wake up. She ran a flattened palm over the muscles of his arm, conscious of the hard planes of his body pressed against hers. She could scarcely contain her nervous jitters, trying not to let Jack see how aroused he made her.
“I’ve waited forever for this moment, Jack.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “And now that it’s here, I don’t quite know what to do.”
“Don’t worry about that. There’s nothing to do except open your heart and let the feelings take control. You’re a beautiful, desirable woman, Mrs. Bowdre.” Jack’s deep voice, the warmth of his arms, sent shivers tumbling through her. He pushed her hair aside and dropped kisses on the sensitive skin on the nape of her neck.
“I’ll bet you say that to all the ladies,” she said breathlessly.
“Only this one.” He pressed gentle kisses to her temple and to the delicate skin behind her ear. “I’ve waited as long as I care to. Tonight, I intend to make love to you if I have to lock the door and hold you hostage.” He nibbled his way across her shoulders. “Barred to everyone—with the exception of the children of course—and they’d best stay asleep for the next two hours.”
His tender declaration swept past the last of her nerves. Though it wasn’t easy, she managed to turn to face him and ran her palms across the hardness of his chest, traced the scars, the hollows along his ribs, the fresh cut on his arm that had come from Bittercreek’s knife.
Hot tears burned behind her eyes. But for lucky breaks, he wouldn’t be alive. Wouldn’t be here with her.
Straddling his lap, she felt Jack’s arousal against her bottom, sending delicious heat to her core. A sweet ache she’d never felt before thrummed inside her.
Nora drew in a quivery breath and kissed her way across his collarbone, then nuzzled his muscular neck. “You’ve been through so much pain, Jack. It’s a miracle you survived.”
“But I did. You did too, and here we are.” He lifted the soap, worked it up into a lather, and moved his slickened hands along her arms and back.
When he moved to her breasts, lifting the heaviness in his big hands, she thought she’d die from sheer pleasure. Never had she been touched like this. And when he captured her swollen nipples between his thumb and forefinger, she hissed in a breath, waves of pleasure crashing over, around, and through her.
“Please, Jack. I want more.”
His voice came out hoarse. “We have all the time in the world, darlin’.”
“No, I want you now.”
“Some things need to be savored.” He slid his hand under the water to cup her hot, pulsating core, then massaged the sensitive folds with his fingers until she quivered with a need that was hard to explain. Something teased just beyond reach, a release she craved.
“Oh, Jack, love me.”
When she thought she couldn’t stand another second more, he eased a finger into her wet entrance. The sensation of pleasure overpowered her, stole her last bit of sanity. She gasped and thrust her hands into the wet strands of his dark hair, pulled his mouth to a breast that seemed to be straining for him.
The real world spun and careened on its axis. She clutched him to her.
“Ride the ecstasy,” he murmured, flicking a tongue across the swollen nipple, drawing the protruding bead of flesh into his mouth.
She was alive with searing heat and something strange that demanded fulfillment. Though she was out of her mind with sheer joy, she knew something more waited. Jack Bowdre possessed her, body and soul. And she would never be the same.
The waves became towering peaks that seemed to reach beyond forever, but she didn’t care where it took her as long as she was with Jack. The friction of his fingers. The sucking sensation that wrung every morsel of passion from her. Sudden loss of control sent her mind cartwheeling.
Bone turned
to liquid. She clung to Jack, gasping for breath, grabbing for every bit of the last uncontrolled, throbbing shudder.
He filled and consumed her so completely she couldn’t tell where she left off and he began. She belonged to him.
Love for Jack flowed through her veins like warm, luxurious honey.
She barely knew when he lifted her from the water, dried her with thick, soft cotton, and carried her to the bed.
Heat built in his eyes as he covered her with every inch of his hard body.
A fleeting moment’s pain shot through her when he eased into her wet tightness, then blessed spirals of ecstasy replaced it. She began the slow, sensual climb to the stars again—giving pleasure, taking pleasure, knowing immense pleasure each step of the way.
The same kind of raging heat that his fingers had aroused took over her body again, only this time much deeper. With his fullness inside her, she felt each ripple of the delicious shudders and spasms.
Nora clutched Jack to her, tumbling end over end, falling from a tall cliff, exploding in a downpour of fiery sparklers. Jack lowered his lips to hers and the kiss swept her to a place so beautiful and serene, where nothing bad could touch her.
From now until forever, she’d belong to Jack Bowdre.
Twenty-five
Jack shuddered and found himself swept along a raging current, one of the most powerful climaxes he’d ever felt. Making love to Nora was beyond anything he’d ever experienced.
She was sexy as all get-out, funny, frustrating, and maddening all rolled together into one package. Nora Kane was the only woman for him and would always be.
His breath raspy, he rolled off and onto his side facing her. “Have mercy, woman.”
“Jack, I’ve never felt this way before—so complete, so happy.”
He trailed a finger down her sweat-slicked throat. “Me too.”
“We waited a long time for this. Maybe the anticipation played a big part in this deep emotion wreaking havoc inside me.”
“Several times this past week, I didn’t know if I’d ever get to make love to you. So many things tried to keep me from it.” Jack brushed a knuckle across her cheek, wishing his hands weren’t so rough. “You make me a whole man, and I haven’t been that in a long while.”
