The Sheriff (Historical Romance)

by Nan Ryan

  Instantly it was gone, replaced by the cool, cynical gleam she’d come to expect.

  Travis grinned devilishly and said right out loud, “Taken any naked moonlight swims lately, Miss VanNam?”

  Twenty-Five

  “Shh!” Kate scolded, and anxiously looked around to see if anyone had heard. She struggled vainly to free herself from Travis’s encircling arm, and muttered under her breath, “You are despicable and I will not spend one more minute dancing with you. Let go of me you…you…”

  “Bastard? That the word you’re searching for?”

  “Yes! That’s exactly what you are and I refuse to—”

  “Better be careful, Kate. Your knight in shining armor is looking this way.”

  Kate glanced at Winn. He appeared concerned. She waved a hand as if to say nothing was wrong. And forcing a smile, she said to Travis, “Why do you insist on harassing me, Sheriff? What have I ever done to you?”

  “It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you could do,” Travis said, his grin slipping slightly, “if I let you.” That enigmatic look was in his eyes again.

  Sensing she momentarily had the upper hand, Kate wasted no time pressing her advantage. Rising up onto tiptoe, she suggestively whispered in his ear, “Know what I think, Marshal? I think you’d like to take a naked moonlight swim with me.” She pulled back to judge his response.

  But Travis was grinning impishly once more. “Only if you twist my arm.”

  “And you’re afraid,” she added, taunting him, “that I might be taking those moonlight swims with Winn DeLaney.” Travis made no reply. “Aren’t you, Sheriff?” she needled. “Think about it when you can’t sleep.”

  “I sleep like a baby,” he assured her.

  “You won’t tonight.” Again she rose up on tiptoe and whispered, “You’ll lie there in the heat, miserable and perspiring. And while you’re burning up, I’ll be slicing through the cool, clear waters of the lake. Gloriously naked. And you’ll wonder if I’m swimming alone or if…” She lowered her lashes and let her words trail away.

  She could tell she’d gotten to him when he said, “Don’t be a fool, Miss VanNam. You know nothing about Winn DeLaney.”

  “I know enough,” she replied with a meaningful smile, intent on leaving the wrong impression.

  The music ended.

  Kate slipped out of Travis’s arms. Winn stepped up beside her and possessively took her hand. He turned to Travis. “Am I not the luckiest man alive, Marshal?”

  “So it would seem.”

  It was late. The dance had lasted until well past one in the morning. Now it was after 2:00 a.m.

  Kate and Winn stood on the front veranda of the mansion saying their good-nights.

  “I really must go in now,” Kate said for the second time.

  “No, wait. I’m curious, my dear. What were you and the sheriff talking about while you danced?”

  “Oh, I don’t remember. Inconsequential things like the weather, the turnout for the dance. Nothing, really.”

  “Nothing? You looked angry, Kate. Did McCloud say or do something that…”

  “No. Certainly not,” Kate said.

  “You’d tell me, wouldn’t you?” When she nodded, he continued, “I’m not sure McCloud is a man who can be trusted, Kate.”

  “Whether he can or can’t is of no importance to me,” she declared.

  “You sure about that?”

  “What’s this all about, Winn?” Kate asked, her brow furrowed. “I danced with the town sheriff. So what? I danced with at least a dozen miners as well.”

  Winn smiled. “So you did. Enough about Mc-Cloud. Let’s forget about him.”

  “He’s forgotten,” said Kate, wishing it were true.

  “Let me come inside,” Winn murmured persuasively.

  “No, Winn. I’m very tired and it’s late.”

  “Just for a few minutes,” he coaxed. “You know I won’t take advantage of you. Don’t you trust me, Kate?” He clasped her waist lightly in his hands.

  “Yes, I do,” she said, her own hands resting on his chest. “But I’m so sleepy I can barely hold my eyes open.”

  Winn smiled, brushed a kiss to her lips and said, “I’d love to hold you while you sleep.”

  Kate laughed it off. “Good night, Winn.”

  She turned, went inside and closed the door behind her. Cal roused from a nap when she walked into the darkened drawing room. He followed Kate to the front window. She peeked out, saw Winn exiting the front yard, and sighed with relief.

  She looked down at Cal, smiled and said, “You may stop that infernal rumbling, he’s gone.”

  As if he understood, the cat rubbed against her skirts, meowed contentedly, then stretched out beneath the window to go back to sleep. Yawning, Kate didn’t bother lighting the lamp. She undressed in the darkness, drew on her nightgown and got into bed.

  She turned onto her side, folded an arm beneath her cheek and thought about Sheriff McCloud. Her eyelids closing, Kate smiled foolishly, sighed deeply and drifted toward slumber, recalling how handsome Travis had looked when she’d turned to face him on the sidewalk in front of the Golden Nugget. And how it had felt to be in his arms when they’d danced.

  Her last waking thought was to wonder if he was now sound asleep, or if he was as wide awake and miserable as she had predicted.

  It was hot—miserably hot—and there wasn’t a hint of a breeze to stir the warm air in his Spartan quarters behind the city jail.

  Travis tossed restlessly in his bed, unable to fall asleep despite the lateness of the hour. The damnable heat was making it too hot to sleep. His restlessness had nothing to do with the fact that every time he closed his eyes he saw Kate VanNam as she’d looked when she had turned to face him on the sidewalk outside the Golden Nugget.

  No, his sleeplessness had nothing to do with her.

  “You won’t be able to sleep tonight,” she had taunted. “You’ll lie there in the heat, perspiring and miserable. And while you’re burning up, I’ll be slicing through the cool waters of the lake naked.”

  “Damn you, lady!” Travis muttered aloud. “Think you can devil me? Lots of good old-fashioned luck to you!”

  He convinced himself, as he lay there in the darkness, that the only reason he paid Miss Kate VanNam any attention was to try and keep her off balance so that she wouldn’t fall under Winn DeLaney’s spell.

  Travis considered himself a good judge of character, and he found DeLaney suspect. Something was not right. Why was DeLaney in Fortune? What was the man up to?

  Travis mused on it, and not for the first time. He’d done his homework. Correspondence with San Francisco authorities verified what he strongly suspected. There was indeed a connection between the Cavalry Blue Mine Kate had inherited and Winn DeLaney’s arrival in Fortune.

  Kate’s late aunt Arielle had accompanied her husband, Benjamin Colfax, a noted geologist, out here on Freemont’s earlier explorations. And the widowed Arielle Colfax had been living in San Francisco at the time of her death. From his own crime ledger, Travis had learned that around that same time, the assayist George McLoughlin had been murdered in San Francisco and his records stolen.

  Winn DeLaney was from San Francisco. And DeLaney had shown up in Fortune less than six months after Arielle Colfax’s death, seemingly coincidental with Kate’s arrival. He’d immediately begun courting her.

  Travis frowned. Pieces of the puzzle were missing. He’d have to investigate further. He couldn’t help worrying about Kate, even though she annoyed the hell out of him. She was so stubborn and combative he couldn’t just come right out and warn her about her choice of companions. She would think he was jealous.

  And maybe he was. No getting around it, he felt the blood zing through his veins anytime he caught sight of her gleaming golden hair. The sound of her soft, cultured voice never failed to warm the heart he had sworn would remain forever cold.

  Travis felt his bare chest tighten. Holding her in his arms at tonight’s dan
ce had been sweet agony. He had wanted her, desired her, yearned to make love to her. And she had tormented him, hinting that she allowed DeLaney to swim naked with her in the lake.

  Travis cursed them both.

  He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. He lit a cigar and drew the smoke down into his lungs. He rose, pulled on his discarded white underwear and stepped outside, hoping to catch a breeze.

  There was none.

  It was just as hot outside as it was in. Travis exhaled with irritation and sank down onto the stoop, his cigar clamped firmly between his teeth, his forearms resting on his raised knees. He sat there in the late night silence and vowed he would try to save Kate VanNam from herself where DeLaney was concerned.

  But he’d be damned if he would allow the willful young beauty to get her soft hands on his heart.

  Twenty-Six

  On Sunday afternoon the town was quieter than usual, the streets nearly deserted. A majority of the revelers from the previous night’s street dance hadn’t yet ventured out of their rooming houses or tents or campsites. Many lay prostate on their cots, suffering with headaches and upset stomachs from drinking too much rotgut whiskey. They cursed anybody who made so much as a peep.

  A trio of rowdies who’d tried to shoot up the town were now sleeping it off in the city jail. Their loud, annoying snores had driven Travis and his deputy outdoors.

  With their chairs tipped back and their booted feet resting on the hitching rail in front of the jail, Travis and Jiggs relaxed. They were enjoying the rare tranquillity.

  “So…” After nearly half an hour, Jiggs finally broke the silence. “Valentina gets back this afternoon, does she?”

  Travis nodded. “Around five.” His hands laced on his stomach, he twiddled his thumbs restlessly.

  “You going down to the river to—”

  “No. I’m to join her later this afternoon. We’ll meet up at her suite above the Nugget around six o’clock. She wanted it that way.” He smiled and added, “Valentina’s a vain woman. She’ll want a chance to bathe and change before I get there.”

  “I see.”

  Another ten minutes passed in silence.

  “I’m bored, Jiggs,” Travis finally announced. “Think I’ll take a walk. Kill some time before I head up to Val’s.”

  “Sure,” said Jiggs. “Go on. I’ll hold the fort here.”

  Travis took his feet off the rail, tipped his chair legs back down and stood up. He raised his long arms above his head, stretched and said, “You having supper with Alice Hester again tonight?”

  Jiggs’s narrow face lit up like a summer sunrise. Bobbing his head, he said, “Chicken and dumplings and cherry pie.”

  Travis grinned. “Same time as always? Eight o’clock?”’

  He shrugged narrow shoulders. “Or thereabouts.”

  “Eight is fine, Jiggs. Val will get ready to sing around eight, so I’ll be back here to spell you.”

  “Good enough,” said the deputy.

  Travis considered going inside to get his hat, but decided against it. He stepped down off the sidewalk and crossed the street. He had no particular destination in mind, but within minutes he had sauntered into the dense forest. The cooling shade was a welcome change from the harsh August sunshine.

  Travis knew every inch of this pine forest and every landmark for miles around the town. Ducking tree limbs and weaving in and out, he soon began the climb to a favorite spot, a place he’d discovered on his first week in Fortune. At timberline, high above the town a smooth, flat shelf of rock jutted out from the side of the mountain.

  Travis had gone there often during his first year in California. Young, homesick and lonely, he had found solace on the lofty windswept overhang. He hadn’t been there in a long time. Not in two or three years. He didn’t know why he was going there now.

  Halfway up, Travis was perspiring. He stopped, unbuttoned his shirt, yanked it out of his trousers and whipped it off. He dropped it where he stood. He’d pick it up on the way back down.

  He trudged rapidly on up the sharp incline, his legs growing weak, his breath short. At last he stepped out of the forest and onto the rocky overhang.

  And then he saw her.

  Kate VanNam was lying on the sun-heated promontory, drying her golden hair. She was barefoot. She wore a beribboned camisole and cotton pantelets. Her petticoat and dress lay folded neatly beside her.

  Travis didn’t dare move or take a step toward her. He stood as still as a statue and stared.

  When Kate turned her head and saw him, she felt her stomach clench. He was bare chested and bare headed, his raven hair gleaming in the sunlight, his muscular torso and shoulders glistening with a sheen of perspiration. His gun belt rode low around his hips. So did his tight trousers. His belt buckle rested well below his navel.

  Kate shaded her eyes with her hand and stared. She did not scold him or order him to leave. Nor did she anxiously reach for her dress and cover herself.

  For a long, tense moment they simply stared at each other. Then Travis, holding her gaze, slowly unbuckled his gun belt and laid it down on the rock. Kate said nothing. She didn’t move.

  Travis edged closer.

  When he stood looking down at her, Kate lifted a hand. She gently grasped the fabric of his neatly creased trousers and tugged playfully at the pant leg. She saw him swallow anxiously and she felt a sudden surge of female power. Sliding her fingers around the back of his leg, she felt the muscles bunch and flex.

  Travis tensed at her touch, and his low-riding trousers fell away from his drum-tight belly. His heart was racing as he sank to his knees beside her. Kate slowly sat up. A strap of her camisole fell from her shoulder and down her arm. Travis hooked his little finger beneath the fallen strap and drew it back up into place.

  Kate looked into his beautiful midnight black eyes and her lips parted. She nervously smiled. Travis clasped a handful of her damp golden hair, lifted it to his face and inhaled deeply of its perfumed scent. Kate waited, not daring to move. He released the silky hair, letting it spill slowly through his fingers.

  Then, without a word, he drew her up onto her knees to face him, gathered her into his arms, bent his dark head, hesitated for a couple of heartbeats, then kissed her.

  Just as it had been that night at the mansion, his kiss was at once utterly brazen and blazing hot. With one long arm wrapped securely around her, Travis clasped Kate’s chin with his thumb and forefinger and feasted on her tempting lips like a man too long starved for the taste of her.

  Kate thrilled to the bold invasion of his kiss. His lips and tongue plundered her open mouth, and she melted against him, having neither the strength nor the inclination to stop him. She wanted him to keep on kissing her forever.

  The instant Kate felt his heartbeat against her breasts she knew she was his to do with as he pleased. No one had ever kissed her the way Travis was kissing her, and she gloried in the intimate pleasure. When his hand left her chin and settled warmly on her bare shoulder, Kate shivered expectantly. Would he lower the camisole strap back down off her shoulder?

  As if he had read her thoughts, he teasingly plucked at the lacy strap, but did not brush it away. Instead he wrapped both arms around her and crushed her against his bare chest. While his masterful mouth molded her lips to his and his tongue did wonderful things to the sensitive insides of her mouth, Kate anxiously pressed her breasts against his naked torso.

  Through the thin batiste of her camisole she could feel the crisp black hair and the muscled flesh of his hot, hard chest. Her breasts were flattened against him and her nipples tightened and ached. She moaned softly, anxiously clasping his biceps as she arched her back in an attempt to get even closer. His raw masculinity was like a powerful magnet pulling her into a fire that was rapidly burning away all her inhibitions.

  His lips never leaving hers, Travis took hold of Kate’s slender arms and lifted them up around his neck. She clasped her wrists behind his head and clung to him. She felt his hands slide caressin
gly down to her waist, then her hips. While his tongue stroked hers and she eagerly slanted her lips to his, Travis skillfully insinuated a knee between her legs, nudging her knees apart. With his palms cupping her bottom, he drew her down onto his hard thigh.

  Again she moaned and anxiously rode him, rubbing herself against his steely thigh just as he’d intended. His hands caressed her all over as, with his heart thudding in his chest, Travis kept kissing her, exciting her, arousing her.

  While the hot August sun beat down on their heads, the pair kissed and touched and sighed until they were burning up with a sexual heat far hotter than any blinding summer sun.

  They kissed until they were breathless and wanting each other so badly they shuddered with barely leashed desire. One more minute and it would have been too late.

  But just in time, Travis came to his senses. He realized what was about to happen and anxiously tore his heated lips from Kate’s. Much as he wanted her, he couldn’t, wouldn’t allow this sudden summer madness to go any further. He was afraid of this angelic-looking blond beauty. He knew that if he made love to her, he’d pay for it, and that the price was too high. His heart for her body was too great a cost.

  No thanks.

  Kate’s eyes flew open in surprise and confusion. Travis gritted his teeth and sat her back.

  “Sorry, Kate,” he said, a tortured expression in his dark, expressive eyes. “My fault. That shouldn’t have happened. It will never happen again.”

  Too stunned and shaken to respond, she stayed there on her knees as he rose to his feet. Mystified, she watched as he turned and walked away. He stopped, yanked up his gun belt, slung it over his shoulder and disappeared.

  With her lips swollen from his kisses, her nipples stinging from being pressed against his chest, her groin aching from the contact with his hard thigh, Kate weakly sank back onto her heels.

  She stared after him, longing to have him come back and keep on kissing her. She didn’t understand why he’d left so abruptly. She hugged her arms to her chest and trembled, hurt and humiliated.