The Promise of Jenny Jones

by Maggie Osborne

  The question and the husky timbre of his voice made her twitch and feel strange inside. Her skin suddenly felt hot and itchy. "I've been kissed," she said defensively, scowling at him.

  He grinned. "Must have been a brave man."

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

  "You're an intimidating woman." His gaze traveled lazily over her face and throat. "I imagine most men would back away from a challenge like you."

  "Huh!" Instead of patting her hair as she had a sudden idiotic desire to do, she blew a smoke ring toward the shadows in the corner. "Most men don't even see me.Which suits me just fine. "

  "If they don't see you, it's because you don't want them to.That's why you hide yourself under that shapeless poncho and wear an old hat pulled down to your ears." He released a stream of smoke and watched it drift into the darkness. "If you'd grow out your hair and wear a pretty dress, you'd have men lined up to get at you, darlin'."

  Jenny wet her lips and swallowed. "Like that's what I want." When she realized this conversation was making her hands tremble, she stubbed out her cigar in disgust and made a face. "I don't want to talk about this."

  "Instead, you wear that chip on your shoulder and dare anyone to pay you a compliment. You talk and act like one of the boys, so you don't have to deal with being one of the girls."

  "Just shut the hell up."

  "If I were to kiss you…" He paused, dropping a lazy lingering glance to her mouth. "Do you know how I'd do it?"

  Her heart lurched and knocked against her rib cage. She gripped the edge of the table and squeezed her eyes into a warning squint. "I'm telling you for the last time … shut up."

  He kept his gaze on her mouth, studying her through eyes that seemed to smolder in the depths. "I'd start out slow. Realslow, so's not to spook you. I'd put my hands on your waist, low, almost on your hips. Then I'd draw you up against me. Let you feel what I was thinking." A smile touched his lips.

  She understood the reference. Jenny tried to swallow, but her mouth was suddenly as dry as a desert bone. Eyes locked to his, unable to move a muscle, she held her breath and waited, wanting him to stop but helplessly wanting to hear more.

  "I'd rub against you, slow like, getting the feel of you, letting you get the feel of me." His eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched hard before he made it relax. "Then, I'd move my hands up your waist, under that poncho, right up your rib cage until I could feel the soft heat of your breasts resting on the tops of my hands."

  "Shut up," Jenny whispered, staring at his mouth.

  He flipped his cigar out the door of the shack and dropped his hands to his thighs. "I'd lean over you and put my mouth down next to yours, but I wouldn't kiss you yet." They stared at each other in the lamplight falling over the table. "I'd breathe you first. I'd sip your breath and hold it inside. Then I'd touch my tongue to your bottom lip."

  The air ran out of Jenny and her shoulders collapsed. Her arm slid off the table, and her cigar dropped out of boneless fingers. "Oh my God," she murmured. Her heart slammed against her ribs and she heard her pulse thundering in her ears. The night gathered around he; dry and hot, and she felt as if she were strangling.

  His gaze fastened on her mouth. "I'd run my tongue around those lips, tracing the shape and size. And then…" He rose to his feet, his face moving out of the light and into shadow. "Stand up, Jenny."

  "I can't," she whispered, staring at him. Her knees had turned to soup. This time he hadn't even touched her. This time he'd melted her bones with words. Helpless to resist whatever would happen next, she gazed up at him with fear and confusion widening her eyes.

  Ty took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Instantly, she felt the heat of his body and her own quickened response. Eyes fastened on his firm, hardmouth, she licked her lips nervously and tried to speak. "Don't." The word emerged as a croak, totally lacking conviction.

  She blinked and swallowed hard. She saw the smoldering desire in his narrowed gaze, and she thought he would kiss her. Thought she would surely die if he didn't. Instead, he raised a hand and drew his fingertips along her jaw, then slowly down her throat.

  Jenny gasped. Pinpoints of fire sparked on her skin, lanced deep into her body. A tremor began in her toes and swept upward, shaking her as if she had the ague. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

  She could easily have repulsed crude talk or a rough direct grab. God knew she'd done so plenty of times in the past. But she had no experience with and no defense against gentleness and seductive words.

  Holding her hand, not speaking, Ty led her outside into moon-washed shadows. Helplessly, Jenny followed on trembling legs, not resisting when he leaned her against the wall of the shack. Unable to utter a word, she gazed up at him with large round eyes, waiting for whatever would happen next.

  He placed a hand on the wall on either side of her face, then slowly, he leaned in to her, enveloping her within his heat and scent The solid weight of his hips meeting hers made her suck in a sharp deep breath, and she closed her eyes on a low groan. He moved against her deliberately, pressing her against the wall, letting her feel the full power of his arousal.

  Dropping his head, he murmured next to her ear, his voice thick and husky. "I wanted you the first time I saw you." His breath was warm and heavy, the pressure of his body hot against her. "I saw you go after Luis and I thought,there is a magnificent woman, a woman worth taming."

  She wanted to object, wanted to laugh and tell him that no man would ever tame her. But she couldn't speak. Her heart slammed in her chest. Her skin was on fire. Hot weakness pervaded her body, and she felt a warm dampness spreading between her legs.

  A sound almost like a sob caught in her throat. And she felt her hips moving against his as if imbued with a will of their own. His lips grazed her forehead, searing her nerve endings, and still the words murmured against her skin, but she scarcely heard.

  Touch overwhelmed other sensations. She was blind to the white moon suspended in warm darkness, deaf to the hoarse whisper against her temple. Dimly she sensed the scent of him, hot and male, but it was touch that kindled a blaze in the pit of her stomach. His lips whispering against her temple, the pressure of his hips pressing her against the wall, the power of an arousal so hard that she felt the outline on her own flesh.

  "Please," she whispered, lifting parted lips. His words, his touch created a wild need inside her, stripped her emotions raw, and crushed any thought of resistance. Unable to live another minute without his mouth on hers, she grabbed his shirt and pulled his upper body toward her, then circled his neck with her arms.

  Instantly, his hands dropped to her waist and he shoved her roughly against the wall. When she gasped in surprise and pleasure, he ran his hard callused hands up her rib cage, holding her against the wall with his hips.

  His mouth hovered an inch above hers. "Slowly," he whispered, his breath flowing across her lips, hot with the sweetness of pulque and the torment he inflicted on her.

  Panting, squirming under the heat of his hands, Jenny let her head fall back against the wall as his thumbs caressed the underside of her breasts. She trembled violently, her hips returning the insistent pressure of his, her hands tugging and releasing in convulsive movements on his shoulders. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think; all she could do was feel the wildfire his touch sent shooting along her skin.

  "Jenny." His voice was a hoarse, tortured command.

  Swallowing hard, feeling the sweat trickling between her breasts, the wetness between her legs, she opened helpless eyes.

  And finally, finally, his mouth came down on hers—hard, deliberate,possessive . Her arms tightened around his neck and she pulled him in to her, wrapped so tightly against his body that she could feel his heart pounding against her breasts, could feel the hard grind of his hipbones.

  Wild and crazy with wanting, she opened her lips to his tongue and thrust back with her own. Her fist closed in his hair, and she pulled him harder against her. Beneath her poncho, his hands clo
sed over her breasts, and the sudden heat through her shirt scalded her and made her gasp and break from his kiss. His lips trailed down the arch of her throat, then returned to her mouth to conquer and ravage and leave her breathless and panting and mindless with need.

  Then he was holding her, whispering against her ear, his hands stroking warm circles on her back. Gradually her violent trembling subsided and her breath quieted. She rested her head on his shoulder and wondered what in the hell had happened to her.

  "I think we should get some shut-eye. We didn't have much sleep last night," he was saying when his words began to sort themselves out and make sense.

  Easing back in his arms, she blinked at him, too dazed to fully grasp his words. When she did, she didn't understand what had happened. She had felt his powerful desire, had expected him to drag her to the ground and take her. As crazed as she had been, she wouldn't have resisted. He must have known that.

  Stumbling, trying to steady her mind, she moved back into the shack and checked on Graciela. The kid was sound asleep, unaware that minutes ago the world had tilted and spun out of orbit.

  When she turned, Ty was standing in the doorway, a dark silhouette with the moonlight sharpening his lean angular form.

  Jenny licked her lips, tasting him there. "Why?" she whispered.

  He knew what she was asking. "It has to be your decision," he said in a voice still raw with desire. "When you're ready, you'll come to me." A match flared, and he lit a cigar. "Get some sleep."

  Suddenly she felt bone tired, as limp as a washrag. "What are you going to do?"

  "Have a smoke. Do some thinking."

  For a long moment, she didn't move. Then she sat on the edge of a hammock and swung herself inside, listening as he sat at the table and poured another tumbler of pulque.

  "Ty?"

  "Yeah?"

  She stared up at the dark rafters. "I was wrong. Until tonight, I'd never been kissed."

  "I didn't think so," he said softly.

  CHAPTER 13

  I n the morning, nearly thirty people accompanied them to the railroad tracks. Although the train steamed past every day, it seldom stopped; therefore, the villagers made a festive event of the occasion. Women wrapped themselves in their best rebozos, and the men wore starched white shirts and embroidered sombreros. While Ty and Jenny's horses were being loaded into a boxcar, a boy ran alongside the train holding an armadillo up for passengers to see. Women sold husk-wrapped tamales through the train windows and tortillas folded around hot chorizo. Someone strummed a guitar, and two men danced around their sombreros, puffs of dust following the rowels on their spurs.

  Once the horses were loaded, Ty led Jenny and Graciela into one of the middle cars and found seats for them and a place to store their saddlebags.

  "I hate the train," Graciela stated. "It's hot and it smells bad." Making a face, she shoved a chicken off the end of the bench seat. "When will we get there?"

  Jenny used the end of a newly bought shawl to fan her face. The air was stifling and stank of roosters and dogs and greasy food and old sweat. "You don't even know where 'there' is," she said, looking out the window at the villagers waving at the faces peering back from inside the train.

  Before he sat down, Ty scrutinized their fellow passengers. Most were women and children. Two old men sat together at the rear of the car, three men appeared to be traveling with their families. They looked hot and uncomfortable, but not dangerous. No one displayed more than a cursory interest in the new arrivals.

  Once the train got under way, he leaned to pull up the window against the soot and cinders that flew inside and speckled the clothing Jenny had purchased from Senora Armijo. Beneath a gray shawl she wore a white blouse tucked into a faded blue skirt. The clothing was worn, but clean and pressed, and attracted less attention than her trousers and poncho would have. Graciela's new clothing was similar; both wore untrimmed straw hats.

  "You look beautiful," he said, smiling at them after settling his lanky frame on the hard wooden seat.

  Graciela returned his smile and patted the thick bun pinned on her small neck. Jenny glared,then returned her gaze to the window.

  She'd been strangely subdued this morning, tossing him quick glances that he couldn't read, hastily looking away when he caught her studying him. He suspected she was remembering last night, just as he was.

  Lighting a cigar, Ty smoked and watched the desert roll past the streaked window. Occasionally the horizon revealed glimpses of distant mountains, but largely the short grass and dry shrubs pocking the Central Plateau offered little distraction.

  His thoughts drifted from the hot light of day to feverish moonlight kisses. He didn't regret kissing her. Considering the level of tension between them, kissing had been inevitable.

  What had surprised him most was Jenny's innocence. She was a tough, skeptical woman who had lived an unconventional life. He doubted there was much that she hadn't seen, hadn't experienced. As a result, she had learned to place a distance between herself andothers, had learned to shield her emotions and the central kernel that was herself. She was a loner, asking nothing, expecting little.

  But when it came to lovemaking, Jenny Jones was a babe in the woods, as vulnerable as an adolescent. Drawing on his cigar, he studied the clean firm line of her profile.

  Even before he led her outside the shack, he had sensed that she would surrender. There was no guile in her, no coyness. In the seduction arena, she had no defense; she wore her emotions like a beacon pointing the way. Her wide eyes and trembling lips had informed him that she would follow where he led. Instinctively, he understood that Jenny had been taken, but never wooed or seduced. She'd experienced sex, but not lovemaking. He would have wagered his horse that she'd never been fully aroused before last night.

  The question raised by the light of day was why hadn't he pressed his advantage? God knows she had been willing, as wildly and wonderfully responsive as any woman he had known. Fully aroused, she had been ready and eager to give herself, so why had he pulled up short?

  Frowning, he listened to the ratchety click of the wheels and the din reverberating inside the car. The squawk of chickens, the cries of children, the sawing buzz of conversation.

  God knew he'd wanted her, had been hungry for her. His desire had been powerful enough that he'd ached for hours afterward. Even now, sweat slicked his brow at the memory of her heavy breasts resting on top of his hands. He didn't dare let himself recall how she'd twisted her hips against him, wild and uncontrolled, hot with promise.

  Leaning over his knees, he crushed his cigar under his bootheel, then pulled the scarf from his neck and blotted sweat from his throat and face. When he saw her watching, he commented defensively, "It's like a Turkish bathhouse in here."

  "Youever been in a Turkish bathhouse?"

  "Once. InSan Francisco."

  "What is a Turkish bathhouse?" Graciela asked. She sat next to Jenny, as prim and proper as a tiny schoolmarm, her hands folded in her lap, her spine straight against the seat.

  Today he saw Robert in Graciela's eyes, in her chin, in the curious way she tilted her head. He also recognized an echo of his mother, his father, perhaps himself. He wondered what old man Barrancas would see in this child, the thought surprising him. Would Don Antonio see Marguarita in the shape of Graciela's mouth? When he noted the child's aristocratic carriage, would he rediscover the wife he had buried? Would he glimpse himself?

  Ty flexed his shoulders in an effort to find a comfortable spot against the hard wooden back of the seat bench. Cigar smoke circled his head, expelled by a man sitting directly behind him.

  "The train's going to stop at Verde Flores in about three hours," he said quietly, looking at Jenny. She met his gaze and pressed her lips together. "Maybe we should talk about that."

  "What's a Turkish bathhouse?" Graciela asked again.

  "People go there to take baths," Jenny snapped. Shifting on the seat, she adjusted her shawl, letting Ty see the pistol shoved in her wais
tband. He also saw the shape of her breasts curving beneath gathers of thin material. Christ. She had breasts to haunt a man's dreams.

  "I figure the cousins are going to have someone checking every northbound that rolls through."

  The first time he'd seen her, he had thought she was attractive in an untraditional, rawboned sort of way. The memory now impressed him as strange. It seemed impossible that he could have overlooked her beauty.

  Her mouth was wide and firm, the lower lip lushly full. Coppery brows capped eyes as blue as a summer sky, fringed by thick, pale lashes. Her face and throat were tanned, but that no longer seemed unusual. Instead, the rose and gold tones enhanced her vitality and the richness of her coloring. Although he'd grown accustomed to her short hair, he could imagine it long, flowing down her back like a sheet of silken flame.

  "Sanders?" She glared at him. "What the hell's the matter with you? Are you listening?"

  Graciela elbowed her in the ribs. "You said hell."

  "Sorry." She rolled her eyes,then narrowed them into a squint. "What are you thinking about?"

  There was so much accusation and warning in the question that he almost laughed. The sudden color in her cheeks confirmed that she had guessed his thoughts.

  "We need a plan," he said, speaking to her mouth. She raised a hand and covered her lips, the self-conscious gesture making him smile. The warning in her stare didn't mask a flash of helplessness opening at the back of her eyes.

  Suddenly he understood why he hadn't pressed his advantage last night. He didn't want her feeling helpless or confused, not this particular woman.

  The night she had left him hog-tied in the desert with his nose in the dirt, he had sworn that he would find her point of vulnerability and use it to punish her.

  Well, he'd found her soft spot, and he'd proved that he could level her with seductive words and a little tenderness. It surprised and irritated him to discover that he was loath to do so. He wanted her helpless from a point of strength, not helpless from ignorance. He wanted her to surrender to him , not merely to skill and experience.