by Mallory Kane
Jacob stood frozen under the gentle assault of her mouth. He closed his eyes, wishing he could recapture the cotton-wrapped cocoon he’d lived in until he’d rescued Hallie. Had that only been two days before?
Saving her had ripped away his protective covering, and he knew he’d never get it back. But another part of his brain told him he’d been ready to change. Otherwise, why would he have thought of her all these past months? Why would he have waited around and watched her, just to get one more glimpse of her sweet face before he returned to his lonely cabin?
With a sigh of resignation, he let in the pain of living. It was as sweet as it was awful. His chest ached and his eyes burned. He felt like he was clawing his way through layers of cobwebs.
He pushed the blanket off her shoulders, letting his hands soak up the softness of her skin, letting his eyes memorize the curve of her neck, the swell of her breasts above the ribbons of her chemise, letting his nostrils flare to suck in the flowery smell of her.
He pushed his fingers into her soft tangled hair and pulled her to him, cradling her head in both his palms as he returned her hesitant kiss.
Hallie made a soft, yearning sound deep in her throat and Jacob reacted instantly. His body hardened as swift, harsh desire echoed through him. She was so soft, so lovely, so incredibly desirable.
He pulled her close, molding her body to his, and deepened his kiss, showing her the way lovers kiss, teaching her, coaxing her to the heights of desire along with him. He felt her shock, then her acceptance, as longing overrode shyness and she allowed him access to everything she had to give.
Jacob pressed against the small of her back, pulling her up against his hardness, taunting himself as he tutored her. She gasped, then arched against him, and he knew her woman’s instinct had taken over and she was ready to be loved.
He ached with pent-up longing. He throbbed in anticipation of the thing he’d denied himself for so long. And he somehow knew he’d been right to wait. Hallie had been worth waiting for. He was at long last ready to rejoin the living, as long as she was at his side.
He pushed her chemise aside and uncovered one taut, round breast. His fingers caressed its firmness, his mouth watered at the prospect of tasting her. On the verge of losing control, Jacob lifted his head and looked down at her. The sight of her crimson cheeks, her lips parted and damp with his kisses, almost undid him.
“Hallie?” he whispered, making it a question, giving her a chance to change her mind.
She opened her mouth to speak. At that instant, the cabin door burst open with a deafening explosion.
Suddenly, the cabin was full of men. Jacob pushed Hallie behind him as Brent Myers crashed through the door behind three of his henchmen.
“Get him!” he thundered.
Two men grabbed Jacob, twisting his arms behind him.
“No!” Hallie cried.
“What the hell is going on here?” Myers shouted. “Look at you, Hallie.”
Hallie clutched at her chemise, frantically pulling the thin material up to cover her exposed breast. The passion and wonder of a few seconds before dissolved into shame as she felt Myers’ eyes on her exposed arms and shoulders.
“You little trollop,” he shouted, his face blotched with the red flush of rage. He advanced upon her, his arm upraised.
“Stop!” Jacob shouted, his voice rasping and hoarse.
Myers stopped in surprise. He whirled on Jacob. “You crazy bastard. You can talk.”
“Leave her alone,” Jacob said, struggling against the men who held him.
Myers swaggered up to Jacob and stuck his face within inches of the taller man. “I’ll do anything I want with her. She’s mine. I own her, because I own her store. Before you interfered, I was--” Myers stopped. He gestured to his men. “Take him outside and kill him. After all, he attacked Miss Hallie, here.”
“No!” she cried, but the men were already dragging Jacob out into the watery morning.
Myers turned back to her and tried to grab her, but she threw the blanket at him, grabbed Jacob’s rifle and ran outside.
One man held Jacob while the other was reaching for his gun.
“Stop!” Hallie cried, raising Jacob’s heavy rifle. “I will kill you.”
A movement to her right caught her attention and she glanced sideways. What she saw almost caused her to drop the gun.
Astride a horse sat the man who had attacked her. She instantly recognized him, not only by his beady eyes and his beard, but also by the three red furrows down the side of his face and neck where she had scratched him.
“You,” she breathed. Backing up, so she could keep them all in sight, she shouted at Myers, who was just coming through the cabin door.
“Brent Myers, you set me up to be attacked.” The vehemence in her ringing voice caught the attention of the men preparing to kill Jacob. Hallie saw them pause. “That’s right. Were you men in on it too?”
Jacob took advantage of the men’s momentary distraction to wrench his arms out of the one man’s grasp and send him plowing into the other. Both men went down.
Despite the screaming protest of his still sore muscles, Jacob sprang to grab the man’s rifle as he fell. He backed up against the cabin and caught Hallie’s eye, silently gesturing for her to do the same. With the solid wall of the cabin at their backs, they could hold off Myers’ band of hoodlums while Jacob figured out what to do with them.
Hallie’s gaze met his and she nodded, then followed his lead. Jacob’s heart swelled. She was a fine, courageous woman.
He turned his attention to Myers, while keeping the other three men in his sight. “Myers, you are scum, preying upon a helpless spinster.”
Jacob thought he heard a noise from Hallie. He didn’t know if it was laughter or protest or merely agreement, but it made him smile. For some reason, his smile seemed to frighten the men before him, especially Myers.
“Now listen here, Crazy Ja -- uh, Mr. Chandler. You don’t need to be concerned about any of this,” Myers said desperately, holding his hands up placatingly.
“Don’t I? I was a bit inconvenienced because of your scheme. What was the object anyway? To get the store from Hallie? To force her to marry you?”
Jacob suddenly felt like laughing. “I have it on very good authority that Miss Hallie Greer would not marry you if you were the last man on earth. And as for you men who fawn around Myers. How are your wives and friends going to feel when they find out you participated in the brutal attack and extortion of a helpless spinster?” He turned his gaze on the filthy man on horseback. “You, I ought to just shoot like the polecat you are.”
The man seemed to shrink, then he turned his horse and kicked it, galloping away into the woods.
Jacob turned to the other two men who were scrambling to their feet and brushing at the mud. “You men have families? Then I suggest you get back to them and look for another line of work. Otherwise, I might have to inform the sheriff of your recent actions.”
They glanced at Myers, then back at Jacob, and as if they were trained together, they mounted their horses in concert and fled.
Jacob turned to Brent Myers, who practically cowered before him. “I believe you’re about as low a piece of humanity as I’ve ever encountered, Myers. If I hadn’t reformed my ways, I’d just shoot you. As it is, I think I’ll pay a visit to the sheriff and have a little chat with him about what you’ve done.”
“You crazy bastard!” Myers shouted. “You got no right. You don’t know nothing. All you have is hearsay.” He was practically screaming. “You can’t do anything to me!”
Jacob laughed at him. Suddenly, there seemed to be a lot in the world to laugh about. “Why don’t you haul your sorry ass back down the mountain, Myers, and tell your side of the story. I’m planning to take my time.”
He looked over at Hallie, who was watching him intently. He couldn’t quite interpret her expression, but she did not seem to be upset with him. He looked back at Myers.
“I believe
you can put the papers together on the general store, Mr. Myers. Miss Greer will accept a check for the amount that has been paid into it and she might forget any attempts at extortion or blackmail which may have occurred.”
Hallie glanced at him and a beautiful smile brightened her face.
A weight lifted off Jacob’s heart, although a different sort of heaviness stirred lower down. He jerked his head at Myers and taking his chance, Myers heaved himself up onto his horse and made his escape.
As the sound of horses’ hooves faded in the distance, Jacob let the rifle slide out of his hands. He was exhausted, and every inch of his body hurt. Still, a strange peace sat lightly on his breast.
He walked slowly toward the cabin door, then stopped and turned to Hallie, who still stood with her back against the wall, the rifle held in her hands.
“They’re gone, Hallie. Why don’t you come inside?”
Hallie looked at him, her face a confusion of emotions. He saw relief, happiness, worry, fear, all reflected in her coffee colored eyes.
He walked inside.
After a few moments, Hallie came in behind him.
Jacob turned and looked at her, suppressing the urge to rub the scar on his neck. “Are you all right?”
Hallie pushed a cloud of chestnut brown hair out of her face and looked up at him, wide-eyed. She licked her lips and Jacob almost groaned at the surge of desire that swept through him when he saw her small, pink tongue.
“Jacob--what just happened out there?” she asked, gesturing vaguely toward the door.
He shrugged, then winced. In the excitement, he’d forgotten the pain in his beaten and bruised body.
“Oh, Jacob, I am sorry. You need to rest. Let me make you some tea.”
He smiled and Hallie’s face lit up immediately. Jacob wondered if he would ever tire of seeing her like this, her face lit with happiness. He shook his head in wonder.
“Jacob, what is it?”
He swallowed painfully, his throat hurting from all the talking he’d done in the past hours. “I have accepted that my life changed the moment I chose to stop your attacker. I have accepted that you have interrupted my existence and made me feel the pain of living again.”
A little of the light faded from Hallie’s face.
“You have made it impossible for me to return to the place I was before. You offered me something, earlier.” He looked searchingly into her eyes, but all he saw there was apprehension. “Do you still offer it?”
It was up to her. He would not, he could not, go further than that. His new living skin was too raw, too exposed.
Hallie opened her mouth but nothing came out. She licked her lips and took a long breath, then tried again. “Are you, are you asking me to say it all again?” She shook her head. “It was hard enough the first time, Jacob Chandler. I’m much obliged, but even a spinster of a certain age has some pride.”
She looked down at her hands, which were clasped in front of her. She unclasped them and wiped them down her underskirt, realizing for the first time since Myers had interrupted them that she was still not dressed. Her face grew warm.
Lifting her head, she looked straight into his eyes. “I swore to myself I wouldn’t ask you again. It’s humiliating enough once, much less twice.”
Her voice faltered. “I don’t think it’s my place to be so bold. I was out of line to even come here.” Trying to swallow the silly tears that kept threatening to fall, Hallie ducked her head and went past Jacob to pick up her clammy, damp clothes.
“Hallie.”
It was no more than a word. No more than a simple name. But his hoarse voice infused it with longing and fear and hope and--. No. Hallie couldn’t put another word to it. Not yet. She turned her head and met his soft blue eyes.
“I can’t say it, either,” he said softly. “It may be a long time before either of us knows exactly what we feel.”
Speak for yourself, Hallie thought wryly as Jacob continued.
“But I don’t think I can stay here alone, now that you’ve been here, Miss Hallie Greer.” He smiled at her, and this time the smile started at his mouth and traveled up his face all the way to his eyes, which sparkled like a blue, flowing river. His face was boyish and handsome, and his eyes crinkled pleasantly at the corners.
Jacob Chandler’s smile was the most beautiful thing Hallie had ever seen.
“Look at your face,” he said, eerily echoing her own thoughts. “You smile and the whole world lights up.” He shook his head. “No. I can’t stay here alone, anymore. You’ve ruined that.”
Hallie swallowed in sudden fear as Jacob stepped closer to her and cradled her bruised cheek in his warm hand, like he had just two days ago. And like then, she leaned into his caress, turning her face into his palm, savoring the warmth and the strength.
“We could marry,” he said.
Hallie’s eyes flew open and she stared at him in shock.
“We could marry, and pledge to each other that we would do our best to love each other. Could you do that Hallie?”
Hallie’s whole body trembled. “I never thought I would marry,” she whispered. “After all, a woman of a certain age should stop thinking such romantic thoughts.”
“I know,” Jacob said, nodding seriously. His thumb moved to touch the corner of her lip.
“And we’ve only known each other for two days. That’s a very short time.”
He shook his head and Hallie raised her brows.
“We’ve known each other for years, Miss Hallie Greer. Years. It just took you until yesterday to teach me how to smile.”
Jacob leaned down and kissed her mouth. “And now that I know how to smile,” he said against her mouth. “There are other things we need to teach each other.”
“Oh, yes, Jacob,” Hallie whispered as his mouth closed over hers again. “Oh, yes.”
And outside, the cold September rain began to fall again, foretelling a long, cold winter ahead.
##
Mallory Kane has published 28 books with Harlequin Intrigue. Her next releases from Intrigue are listed below. In addition, she is working on two more Delancey Dynasty books and an anthology for Harlequin for 2013.
For more books by Mallory Kane , visit www.mallorykane.com , www.harlequin.com or Mallory Kane's page on www.amazon.com and Facebook.
Coming in 2012 from Harlequin Intrigue:
Private Security (The Delancey Dynasty) May, 2012
Death of a Beauty Queen (The Delancey Dynasty) June, 2012
Watch for more romance, romantic suspense and paranormals from Mallory Kane in the next few months on Amazon, Smashwords and B&N
Find Mallory on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mallorykane
Twitter: @mallorykane
