"Keep that in mind," she said, already brushing past him to the eastern skyline, where Inferno squatted like a horned toad on the flats.
Chapter 15
"I like a nice, soft bed," Kate purred, before she reached out for J.D. "Plus something nice and hard."
"I might be able to accommodate you there," he said.
"I'm sensing that."
She tugged at him, and J.D. went with it, rolling smoothly on top of her, easing himself between her splayed thighs. Kate wriggled underneath him, helped him find his way, then raised her hips to meet him as he thrust smoothly into her warm, wet depths. After their last coupling, short moments earlier, her shudders started almost instantly, racing along the arched bow of her naked body, then transmitted to J.D.'s where they were joined.
He clutched the sheets beneath Kate, rode the rising wave, and tried to think of something else that would distract him long enough to let her reach another climax first, before his willpower collapsed. Remembering the mountain cave and all that blood came close, but then he heard Kate panting, softly calling out his name between "Oh, Gods," and that tipped him over the edge.
J.D. had never ridden the famous "gravity railroad" in Pennsylvania, where curiosity seekers had been paying fifty cents per thrill ride for twenty-odd years, but he imagined how it must feel now, as Kate writhed beneath him, legs clasped around his hips, heels tight against his heaving buttocks, holding him deeply inside her. When the final moment came, she cried out with a drowning woman's voice, her fingers sinking deep into the taut muscles of J.D.'s shoulders. He surrendered to the feeling, hammered her into the yielding mattress, then collapsed into a shudder like her own.
"Jesus, that's sweet!" Kate whispered in his ear.
"I don't think he had anything to do with it."
"Don't be so sure," she teased. "I think I caught a glimpse of heaven there."
"Nobody standing at the gate to turn us back?"
"We were already well inside."
"I was, at least," he said.
More laughter then, until they rolled apart. A few long moments passed before Kate said, "I'm hungry now."
"One more Inferno breakfast for the road?" he asked.
"Sounds right."
They dressed quickly, and yet reluctantly. J.D. hated to see all of that firm young flesh concealed. When they were ready for the street and Kate had checked the mirror one last time, they locked the room and went downstairs. The desk clerk smiled for once, and so did half the people they encountered on the sidewalk, moving out toward the Café.
"Looks like we're not just strangers any more," Kate said.
"Just when we're leaving. Perfect timing," J.D. said.
"Better than never."
"Only if it gets us a free meal."
"You're so damned cynical."
"I like to call it 'practical,' My Love."
"Uh-huh."
They got to the Café, but Marshal Dill was waiting there to intercept them at the door. He bobbed his head and spat into the street to clear his throat, then said, "Thought you might wanna know how it turned out with Mrs. Hoskins and her young'uns."
"You've found someone who can take them in?" asked Kate.
"Not hereabouts," Dill said. "They's goin' east, back where they started from. She's got more fambly there, a spinster aunt or somethin', who's been pinin' for the kids since they came out here in the first place."
"Will they take the husband's body back?" J.D. inquired.
"Decided she should leave him here, because he loved the farm, the territory, and whatever. Anybody asks me, I'd say she's just glad to catch her last sight of Inferno."
"I can see that," Kate agreed.
"And what about the two of you?" Dill asked. "Welcome to hang around, if you've a mind to. I could always use a decent deputy or two."
"That's flattering," Kate said. "But we've got business hanging fire in Tucson, still."
"Bidness?"
"The Grayson Boys," J.D. explained. "Five thousand on their heads, we hear."
"Huh. If they's anything like Indians, I'd say that money's good as in your pocket."
"Well, then, Marshal, if there's nothing else..."
"No, ma'am. Except for me to thank you for your help with them Apaches. Doin' all the work, I mean to say. Folks won't forget you in these parts."
"Is Colonel Hungate satisfied?" Kate asked.
"He seems to be. The way I read him, anything that stops him gettin' on a horse and doin' any kind of soldier work is just aces with him."
"Long as it's not a pair of aces in a dead-man's hand," J.D. allowed.
"No, he'd stop short of that, all right. Well, if you're headin out today—"
"We are," Kate said.
"Safe travels, then. And if you're ever back this way, stop in and let an old man buy a round."
Dill wandered off and left them staring after him, until Kate broke eye contact and reminded J.D., "I was hungry earlier. I'm starving now."
"We can't have that," he said. "You need your strength."
Smiling, he held the door for Kate, then followed her inside, trailing the sweet aromas of a breakfast on the stove.
Blaze! Bad Medicine Page 10
