by Connie Mason
Toward the middle of the long afternoon Ida noticed Sam’s preoccupation and wondered if she was feeling ill. She appeared to be recovering from her injury nicely, but one never knew. She could be driving herself too hard.
“Sam, business is slow right now, why don’t you take the rest of the day off,” Ida suggested kindly. “I’ll close up and be home around seven. You look like you could use a long nap.”
“I am tired,” Sam admitted. She hated lying to the kindhearted woman but she knew Ida would try to dissuade her from doing something shocking. “If you’re certain—”
“Absolutely, dear, you run along. I’ll see you at home later.”
Sam directed her steps up the street toward Ida’s house but turned into the Palace Saloon instead of taking her usual route home. She was relieved to find the main room nearly deserted at this time of day. Few of the bargirls were in attendance; several men were scattered around but most paid her little heed. She was pleased to note that Dolly was nowhere in sight.
“Can I help you, miss?” Though Dirk hadn’t personally met Sam, he knew her by sight from her trips into town with her father. He was more than a little shocked to see her in the Palace, although he needn’t have been. More than once he’d heard the beautiful girl described as being headstrong and somewhat unconventional. Her father’s death was a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened.
“Is Mr. Andrews in his room?” Sam asked with more confidence than she felt.
“He was out earlier but I believe he’s in now,” Dirk replied, scarcely able to contain his curiosity.
Sam directed her gaze to the stairs and the several doors visible along the open balcony. “Which room?”
Dirk hesitated for the space of a moment. Sam’s unorthodox request startled him. Well-bred young ladies didn’t visit men’s room. But it was obvious this young woman defied convention. He couldn’t help but admire her spunk. She neither offered lame excuses nor apologized for her brazen behavior. Yet there was no denying she was a lady, albeit a somewhat bold one. Besides, it was none of his business if the girl chose to damage her reputation.
“Room three.”
“Much obliged.” Turning, Sam mounted the stairs, refusing to be undone by curious onlookers.
It took a long time for Colt to answer the door. When he did, Sam was dismayed to find he wasn’t alone. Dolly Douglas stood in the middle of the room looking charmingly flustered in a revealing robe of clinging blue satin.
“Sam!” Colt gasped, stunned. “Christ! What are you doin’ here?”
Sam’s violet eyes slid to Dolly, then back to Colt’s partially clad form. It was obvious she had interrupted more than friendly chit-chat. Colt was naked to the waist, his gleaming torso intimidating in the small room. He was very muscular with a honed, lean kind of strength. Sam couldn’t help but admire his sun-bronzed chest or the curling patterns of tawny fur narrowing to a thin, fine line disappearing into the waistband of his buckskin trousers. Virility and power oozed from every pore, and Sam made a supreme effort to concentrate on her mission.
“I… I need to speak to you—privately.” Her eyes slid to Dolly, who appeared vastly amused by the intrusion.
Colt knew it must be important to bring Sam to the Palace looking for him. He had deliberately kept his distance from her these past weeks hoping to exercise her from his mind and heart. Yet somehow, even when he made love to Dolly, Sam’s face had a way of intruding into his most intimate moments. He didn’t have time to analyze the feelings she evoked in him, and wasn’t entirely certain he wanted to.
Turning to Dolly, he said, “Do you mind? We’ll … talk another time.”
Dolly raised a slim eyebrow, slanting Sam an assessing look. “Sure, honey, I got things to do anyway.” She pulled her robe about her and sailed past Sam and through the door.
“Come in, Sam.” After a moment’s hesitation, Sam stepped inside. She stiffened when Colt closed the door behind her but did not protest.
“This better be important, darlin’, to be riskin’ your reputation over.”
Sam flushed. “I think it is. I want to return to the ranch,” she said, tilting her chin at a defiant angle. “I just learned from Vern that the new owner offered to let me live on the Circle H until he claimed the property.”
“Christ!” Colt cursed. He’d forgotten about that damn note. He’d written it before he knew both Will and Sanchez had skedaddled. “No!”
“Why? I won’t run away, if that’s what you’re worried about. You can still put me in jail anytime you please.”
“Aren’t you unhappy with Ida? I thought—”
“It’s not that. Ida is a dear and I truly like her, but—”
“It’s out of the question, Sam.”
“Hellfire and damnation! Haven’t you punished me enough? Why can’t you allow me this small concession?” A tiny sob caught in her throat, and Colt’s heart did a flip-flop.
“This has nothin’ to do with punishment. Where are your brains? I’m thinkin’ of your safety.”
Dismay followed by disbelief marched across Sam’s face. Colt Andrews struck her as a man with little or no compassion and even less conscience. Why should he care what happened to her? “Why, Colt?” she couldn’t help but ask. “Why should you care?”
“Do you want me to be brutally honest?” Suppressing a shudder of apprehension, Sam nodded. “You intrigue me, darlin’,” Colt drawled, grinning wickedly. “I’ve thought of nothin’ but makin’ love to you since the day I discovered you were a female.”
Sam inhaled sharply, Colt’s admission shocking her. Obviously women were a challenge to a man like Colt whose experience was wide and varied. His kisses had been sheer bliss to someone as inexperienced as herself, and she was glad she hadn’t succumbed, though her willpower was sorely tested whenever those tawny eyes settled on her—like now.
“I admire your honesty, Colt,” Sam conceded, color staining her cheeks, “but it hardly solves my problem.”
“No, but it sure as hell complicates mine,” he muttered, moving closer. “You can’t begin to realize how badly I want you, how I’ve deliberately put space between us these past two weeks. You’re dangerous, Samantha Howard. I sense it every time I’m near you. You’re a threat to me. Every instinct tells me to turn and run, yet something deeper in me wants to do this—”
Before his lips crashed down on hers that roguish smile appeared again, transforming his rugged face into a mask of pure masculine aggression. He kissed her with a fury that surprised even him. Sam felt a pleasant numbness creeping through her body. Heat seemed to radiate from deep inside her until she warmed and tingled all over. She felt fevered. She ached. A throbbing began deep in her core.
His lips slid across her cheek to her ear where he tasted its sweetness, flicking his tongue in and out with a deftness that left her gasping for breath. She knew she should resist—knew exactly what he meant to do to her.
“Please let me go,” Sam begged, struggling unsuccessfully against the splendid passion overwhelming her senses.
“I don’t think you mean that, darlin’.”
“Hellfire and damnation but you’re a bullheaded varmint! I didn’t come here to … to bed you.”
“You’ve thought about it,” Colt ventured wickedly. “I dare you to tell me differently.”
“You … you … braying jackass!” Doubling her fists, she pushed ineffectively against his bare chest.
Daring to look into his eyes, Sam saw a smiling warmth there, sign of an emotion she least expected. He stood towering over her, tall and bronzed, and the tense silence was made even more pregnant by the drumming of her heart. Her lips parted, her breath grew labored as Colt’s hands slid down to her hips, pulling her fiercely close, with a violence that made her cry out. He tasted the hot sweetness of her mouth, his kiss stirring something volatile in both of them. Time shuddered to a halt.
The awakening pleasure deep within her was fertile with the promise of fulfillment. Strong warm fingers
expertly loosened and discarded her clothing as Sam watched in mute fascination, eyes half-closed, panting breathlessly. She was mesmerized by the glistening bronze of his body as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. The heat of his kisses flooded her senses until a raging desire destroyed the last of her will and scattered her self-control. Colt sensed her capitulation and rejoiced.
“You want me,” Colt murmured huskily. “I can feel you tremblin’, darlin’. Every silken inch of your luscious flesh is quiverin’. You’re on fire for me.” All Colt could think about was to have her long golden legs wrapped around him and her violet eyes liquid with desire.
Sam could not deny she wanted Colt. Her purpose in coming to Colt’s room scattered like ashes before the wind as his strong arms enclosed her, his open mouth settling over hers with maddening insistence. She found herself moaning softly beneath the brute force of his need and his expert touch. Suddenly she burned for him, a totally foreign feeling, as she was rendered incapable of speech or thought or anything but the hot liquid melting in her core, his to do with as he pleased.
Encouraged by the unexpected passion he found simmering beneath the surface, Colt’s hand cupped a swollen breast, fondled it, went down to touch her thigh.
Sam groaned. His fingers felt like live coals on her satin skin. Her traitorous body wanted to arch up, to seek what he offered with no quarter asked. The male musky scent of him came to her, and the scent excited her, enticed her; repulsed her.
One questing finger sought out her tender flesh, teasing it to fullness, torturing it until she gasped and writhed against his palm. Emboldened by her response, the finger plunged into her moist, hot depths. Sam cried out in delicious agony, her passion sparking his. Suddenly the brief limit of his control expired when Sam cried out, “Colt!” The ache to have him inside her reached a fevered pitch.
“I know what you want, darlin’,” Colt answered her silent plea, “‘cause I want it just as badly. But if you’re the virgin I think you are, the first time will hurt. There’s no holdin’ back now, Sam, I’m beyond that point. I’ll give you the most pleasure I’m capable of if you relax and go with your feelin’s.”
The ache he had aroused within her demanded immediate easing, but he would not grant her that. Instead he stoked the delicious agony with his tongue, hands, and voice. The intimate touch of his tongue on her nipple sent Sam soaring. When he took the swelling bud into his mouth and gently sucked, she nearly shot off the bed. He moved to the other nipple with the same delicious torment, and a hot flame flooded her body.
Sam cried out in deprivation as suddenly his warmth left her. But before she could voice her protest he was back, without the restriction of clothing between them. Then he was looming above her, his eyes scorching her with blazing intensity as slowly he lowered himself into her. Sam stiffened against the intrustion. “Relax, darlin’.” Exhaling softly, Sam heeded his words, trusting him. The moment he felt her muscles relax, he thrust sharply forward, severing the membrane. Sam’s response was a cry of pain and a shudder.
“I’m all the way in, darlin’,” Colt exulted as he felt himself being squeezed by her tightness. “Christ, you feel good!” The splendor of the feeling severely taxed his control. He could feel his shaft pulsing wildly as he slid further and further into the moist depths of the most welcoming place he had ever entered. His heart soared as he sensed her answering passion, so alive, so vibrant that it almost shattered his steely reserve.
Sam gasped from the hugeness of his shaft. She had never imagined that anything so huge would fit and feel so good inside her. Once the initial pain subsided, she thrilled to the pleasure he was creating within her. She wanted to move wildly beneath him, seek the ecstasy he promised as swiftly as possible. As he sensed her impatience, a chuckle rumbled from Colt’s throat.
“Pace yourself, darlin’. Don’t get greedy. Let it come naturally, don’t hurry it. Let the emotion carry you—risin’, fallin’, buildin’ till you reach that jumpin’ off place. Don’t be afraid, I’ll be there to catch you.”
His body moved with masterly expertise as he pumped rhythmically against hers. Deliberately he withdrew when he felt her coming to the brink of explosion, then entered her again as soon as the fire abated. Then he thrust deeply in unbroken tempo until almost driven to the point of no return. But somehow he gathered the remnants of his self-control and withdrew again, until their boiling passion cooled.
When he entered her again, her body screamed for release and her thighs clamped tightly together lest he try to escape her, holding him in place and squeezing. A lusty roar escaped his throat as his hot seed spurted into her receptive body. Sam’s own climax brought a scream to her lips as she exploded in a million tiny fragments. For a long time they clung together as if suspended in time, neither of them willing to break the spell, and both afraid of what lay ahead. The sweet taste of passion turned to bitter reality all too soon.
Colt stared at Sam with sheer incredulity at what she had done to him. Why did this slip of a woman have the power to make him forget everything except the promise of her sweet lips and tempting body? His every physical sense urged him to claim and hold this offering of something rare and valuable, but his mind resisted. He had fought too long against entanglements, seen many a good man ruined by a woman to allow it to happen to him. He valued his freedom far too much to fall under the spell of a spitfire named Samantha Howard.
“What happens now, Colt?” Sam asked softly.
“You’re better than I imagined, darlin’,” he murmured, his words like a slap in the face to Sam’s pride. She had hoped for something tender and loving after what they had just shared. “You’re the damnedest hellion in bed I’ve ever had, and,” he laughed with devilish delight, “as wild and untamed as the Texas prairie. I could grow addicted to that kind of lovin’.”
The look he gave her was magically stirring and tantalizingly sensual. “If I didn’t know better I’d swear you were experienced. But the blood on the sheet is proof that I just took your maidenhead.”
Startled, Sam looked down and saw the red splotch beneath her thighs. A deep crimson spread up her neck to her cheeks.
“Don’t blush, darlin’. I appreciate your offerin’ though I usually don’t mess with virgins. They’re too much trouble and demand things I’m unwillin’ to give.”
Sam snorted. “I take that to mean you won’t consider my request to move back to the ranch.”
Colt’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Did you come here intendin’ to seduce me into givin’ in to you?” he asked, his voice laced with contempt. “If you did, you sacrificed your innocence for nothin’.”
“The only seducer in this room is a cantankerous billy goat who thinks with that thing hanging between his legs,” Sam sputtered angrily.
Colt’s scowl disintegrated as he broke into raucous laughter.
“What are you laughing about, you cross-eyed rattlesnake?”
“Your language hasn’t improved any, has it?” Colt said, leering at her heaving breasts. “I reckon I’ll have to find a way to shut you up.”
“I don’t—” The words died in her throat as Colt seized her open mouth and the magic began anew. It didn’t end until the last sigh, the final moan, was wrung from her.
Colt still slept soundly when Sam slipped from his bed. Glancing at Colt’s pocket watch lying on the dresser, she was shocked to discover it was six o’clock. She had been in his room over three hours! Gathering her scattered clothing, she hastily dressed, noting that the sun was a red ball low in the western horizon. She hoped to reach home before Ida arrived and asked a lot of uncomfortable questions. She couldn’t help pausing for one last looked at Colt, thinking how innocent and young he looked with his ruffled tawny hair falling across his forehead. Yet she knew him to be anything but innocent. He was a devil—a womanizer with a heart as cold as stone. She found him utterly without morals or conscience. She didn’t expect marriage from him—and he didn’t offer. But the least he could d
o was let her live on the ranch until the new owner showed up.
A kind of hopelessness settled over her when she thought of how easily and totally she had surrendered to Colt’s seduction. Why? she wondered bleakly. Why hadn’t she resisted? Why had she allowed him to capture her senses so thoroughly and seduce her so effortlessly? A part of her heart which she kept guardedly locked held the answer to those questions. But she dare not turn the key and confront the truth. Fully dressed now, she tore her eyes from Colt’s magnificent body and left the room.
As she stepped into the corridor, the sound of boisterous laughter could be heard from below, and the terrible realization struck her that the saloon was now crowded with customers. She hadn’t meant to stay so long in Colt’s room, but she seemed to have had little control over what happened that afternoon. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to descend the stairs with as much aplomb as she could muster.
“Miss Howard.”
A groan of despair slipped past Sam’s teeth when she whirled to find Dolly Douglas standing behind her.
“I began to think you’d remain in Colt’s room all night.”
Sam flushed. “You spied on me,” she accused.
“There’s not much going on here that I don’t know about.” Dolly shrugged carelessly. “If you’re interested, there’s a private stairway at the end of the hall. To preserve your reputation as well as mine, I suggest you leave as unobtrusively as possible.”
“Why should it make any difference to you?” Sam asked curiously.
“Idle talk could ruin my business. It wouldn’t do for the townspeople to learn that an innocent girl was seduced in one of my upstairs rooms.”
“You don’t know that!” denied Sam, incensed.
“I know Colt,” Dolly said bluntly. “You were in his room for over three hours. He’s not the man for you. Miss Howard.”
