Catalina opened her mouth to protest, but Honor cocked her head and looked at her with a smile and Catalina knew when she was beaten.
Carver, who had been watching the sisters, now said,
“Well, you can count me in too. But what are we going to do? Before dying, our posse managed to whittle down their number as well, but there must be at least fifteen of them bandits left!”
Catalina turned to look at him.
“I don’t have a plan yet. We are gonna need some information first. The fact that you are free, Honor, means that Foster is either in rough shape or dead. Which is it?”
Honor half-smiled at the recollection of what happened at the shed.
“After what I did to his face, I believe he would have a difficult time finding someone to lay with him even in a whore house.”
Catalina as she loved to do, she bumped Honor’s shoulder good naturedly. “As long as he can talk, that’s all this cowgirl needs!”
A few minutes later, after Honor Elizabeth took delight in landing a series of slaps across his face to rouse a freshly bound Foster who was propped up against the wall of the now doorless woodshed and was being peppered with questions by Catalina.
“Tell me about The Gourd,” she said in a tone that told him that he had no choice.
CHAPTER 21
* * *
The lights of the grand Cedar Ledge ranch house were fading behind the elaborate carriage owned by William Henry Wilde. His six children continually joked that the coach was his seventh child because of the way he continually doted on it.
The judge wasn’t a man who put on a lot of airs about the wealth Cedar Ledge brought his family, but the coach had been his one major indulgence. He had purchased it from a fabled coach maker in Mexico’s Verde Abundante valley that he had first learned of while he was courting the beautiful Mercedes Corderro.
The coach makers had built it to his custom specifications for style and comfort. As a circuit judge, he did a lot of traveling and preferred to do it in ease, now that he was getting on in years. His beloved daughter, Honor Elizabeth, often volunteered as his driver because it gave her the twin pleasure of commanding the team of horses, which she excelled at, as well as giving her a chance to spend time with the father she adored. More often than not, when she was driving him on the trips, he would forgo the plush velvet interior and sit next to her and they would talk for hours.
Tonight, however, it was not Honor Elizabeth at the reigns of the sleek black carriage and its immense wheels painted red, but rather, Lijuan, and no passenger sat behind the glass windows within the coach. That didn’t mean Lijuan was alone, however, because Jaden Jamison accompanied her on the bench seat.
When they had brought the Huangs back to Cedar Ledge, the Chows had started fussing over them, as they were always delighted to spend time with people from the old country. Mrs. Chow properly bandaged Mr. Huang’s arm and then fixed them a hot meal of traditional Chinese food. When Whip had volunteered to have them stay over, they had eagerly accepted. Jamison, however, still had to get back to his own ranch and Lijuan had volunteered to drive him.
As much as she would have loved to spend time visiting with her older brother, the constant presence of Bright Feather always spoiled it for her, and she chose to remove herself from the scene by shepherding Jamison home. She also intended to use the man as a means to an end. That old frustration was rising within her once again, and Jamison was the only person at this moment who could possibly slake it.
As they traveled between the ranches, the pair said little to each other, as each stayed with their own thoughts. Lijuan, now that the rush of the danger had long since subsided, found her mind was morphing back into the calm analytical one that served her so well when she was carrying out her duties running the family’s lucrative ranch.
She had the dual handicap of being a woman and Chinese when dealing in the world of men that controlled the various businesses she had to work with to keep Cedar Ledge running. The businessmen had been dismissive of her at first. Putting her calm, cool, levelheaded business acumen to work, however, she had won them over. Unfortunately, it was a process she had to repeat with every new person the ranch did business with.
Now sitting there on the bench seat, as she snapped the reigns turning the horses onto the road to the Double J, she knew her actions in the cave had been the complete opposite of a calm and rational person, and it scared her. The worst part was this wasn’t the first time she had frightened herself.
What had I been thinking? she now wondered. True, she had formed these thoughts when she was first swinging into action, but had forged ahead, anyway. Now, the weight of her decisions, the rashness and perhaps, the foolishness of what she had done pressed down on her.
What if the cave-in inside the tunnel had not been movable? She would have condemned herself to die. In fact, she knew she wouldn’t have even been able to make it back to the cave in hopes of any rescue from her father. Franks would have drowned her on the way back. Lijuan let out an involuntary shudder that was not lost on Jamison.
“You all right over there?” he asked with some concern.
What could she say? It was not like she could tell him that sometimes, her own actions terrified even her. All she could do was hope to control the dangerous and reckless side of herself that so often reared its head as it had done earlier in the night. Everyone called her a hellcat, perhaps the time had come to start proving them wrong?
She had no answer for herself. For this moment in time, she at least contented herself, knowing that once they were at the Double J, she intended to engage in an activity that would sweep all of the night’s tableau out of her mind.
“I’m fine, Jaden, but I’m not sure the same thing can be said of you. You’ve been awfully quiet,” she said with a warmth to her voice.
“It’s the Huangs. I don’t blame them for staying at your dad’s place. I doubt if they will ever want to set foot on the Double J again. After all, it was my so-called foreman that was behind all the hell they went through,” Jamison said with sadness.
“I don’t think they will blame you,” she said to him.
He was quiet for a long moment as Lijuan turned the coach again, this time, onto the semi-circle drive way leading up the front of the ranch where her adventure had begun so many hours ago.
After a few minutes of silence, he spoke again.
“They should. I picked the man. When he came around, I didn’t even look into his background. I just took him at his word and now, look, one dead guest and another kidnapped and nearly murdered if not for you. I’m sure when Mr. Huang gets back, he will spread it all over San Francisco. I’ll never see another guest from that city again and probably Texas, too, once it comes out what happened to the ferryman.”
Lijuan smiled. “I can promise you that the Huangs will not spread bad words about the Double J when they return.”
Jamison looked at her from a corner of his eyes. “How can you be so sure?”
Lijuan smiled once more. “They owe me! Not only did I save their lives, but I fooled his partner in crime into thinking all the money was in the bags when I only put a little bit of it in. So, I saved them a fortune too.”
Jamison nodded quietly then.
“That reminds me. If I am not prying, l … well, I saw Mr. Huang giving you a stack of money. Was that some sort of reward for his rescue?”
Lijuan shook her head. “Not at all. I recently received a reward for a job I did with Cassie and the girls. But I would never take money for doing what I did for the Huangs. Like I told Shuen Yi, we Chinese have to stick together.”
Jamison nodded again. “So, what was the money for?”
“He did try and offer it as a reward, but I took it only so I can turn it over to Cassie. She still got a lot of friends in the Pinkerton National Detective Agency from her days there. The money I got from the Huangs will be more than enough for them to track down this Mister Ping and see that he’s brought to justice!�
��
Jamison shook his head in wonderment.
“Tying up a loose end! My lady, you are nothing if not thorough!”
Lijuan laughed lightly. “Thank you. And as I said, don’t worry. When I return to the ranch in the morning, I will ask the Huangs not to bury the reputation of the Double J.”
Jamison was grinning from ear to ear now.
“Wonderful! Thank you so much … wait … when you return in the morning?”
Lijuan pulled the coach to a stop in front of the house. She looked over at him. Her eyes focused on the blue orbs of the man next to her, then her hand reached out and she ran her fingers through the blond hair. Inside her, she felt a rising excitement as the time was coming to satisfy her desires.
“I assumed you were going to ask me in, Jaden.”
It was a lie, of course, but she didn’t care because all that mattered was she could see the sudden hunger in his face when he realized what she was offering.
***
No sooner had they walked into his bedroom with Lijuan in the lead than she turned around abruptly and jumped on him, wrapping her short legs around his waist and looping her arms behind his head. Lijuan opened her lips to accept his kiss slowly, at first, and then more intensely.
In a mad rush of a mixture of lust and excitement, their kiss deepened. He was kissing her all over her body as he undressed her too. His hands roamed all over her body and seemed to be too excited to stay too long on one spot. She violently pushed him up against the wall and slammed her body against his.
With his back up against the wall like that, she ravaged him. She seemed to have unleashed a part of her that was insatiable and thirsty. She put a hand to her hair clip and pulled it off with one sweep of the hand and the hair came tumbling down her shoulders. Her kisses were wet and demanding and he felt like he was being devoured.
His shirt came flying off and slipped to the floor. She slid to her knees in front of him, gently forcing his legs apart and kneeling in between them as if she was about to take delivery of a baby. Then she ran her hand over the already thick bulge that was the evidence of how much he wanted her too. She rubbed it through the fabric of his pants, and he threw his head backwards and sighed with pleasure. As one hand rubbed his bulge tenderly, the other hand worked deftly to release the bulge its captivity. It bounced out of the pants with a pop and she cooed in delight.
Just as impressive as she remembered from their one and only tryst! She chuckled to herself.
He didn't respond. He just groaned like a drunken sailor. She then bent towards it and flicked her tongue over it with a naughty smile.
She licked while stroking the shaft with her hand, mewing sweetly. Slowly, she started licking down the shaft, being sure to leave it nice and moist. She brought her tongue back to the head, licking a few more times before letting the head slip into her mouth.
He moaned, eager to feel the inside of her mouth more. She brought the rest of his cock in her mouth inch by inch, letting loose little cries of pleasure more and more. When she reached the base of his dick, she went back up and continued to move her head up and down on the man slowly, making sure to tease him a bit. He was trying his best not to continue groaning.
He was too excited for words, so he stood plastered against the wall as she worked on him feverishly. She sucked him in and pushed him out over and over again. Her tongue would be taut one minute and soft and moist and gently sucking the next.
Soon, his knees were shaking and he knew that his dick couldn't handle it all without cumming too quickly. He grabbed a hold of her head, with his fingers digging into her hair and tried to hold it in place while she, in turn, tried to continue the movements. He moaned a little louder with a few more strokes, then released her head. She pulled away, her breaths short gasps, and then she stood up and took him by the hand
Take me she said to him in a whisper that even his surprise couldn't filter out. He took a firmer hold of her hand as her eyes traveled to the bed in a clear message. One look at the bed filled him with vivid thoughts of all that was about to happen and he felt his dick grow harder. He carried his petite lover over to the bed and laid her back on it with her legs wide apart.
Her hand shot out to grab his butt and pulled him into her. Swallowing him up completely, she wrapped her legs around him and held him there, tightening her vaginal muscles as she started to perform some sort of pelvic contraction exercise with him still snugly within her.
Jamison covered his mouth with hers and put his hand to her nipples. Realizing just how much he had missed making love to the Chinese beauty, he decided to enjoy every last moment of this new encounter. He rolled her over such that she was now on top of him and holding her waist in place with both hands, he started to give her the full dose of the whole length of him. He wasn’t thinking. He couldn’t afford to because at that moment, all that he wanted was to offload the tension that was in his body into this amazing woman.
She was nimble, flexible and amazingly able to do everything that he tried to do. He bent her in different angles and hit into her from all manner of different angles. Lijuan’s cries of contentment filled the air and he started to fear that someone, especially his guests, would hear them and wonder what they were doing and come into the room. Despite his worries, he couldn’t stop. Not that she would have let him stop even if he wanted to. After all, this was Lijuan Wilde, he thought.
Her firm supple boobs bounced up and down as her ass took all the pounding that he was visiting upon her. Jamison gazed at her in admiration. Her beautiful pale body was molded perfectly to his and he felt like he could go on forever. His pelvis slapped into her and the fact that both their skins were wet from sweat and her juice made the sound of skin slapping against skin very loud in their ears.
He pumped, she humped. He pushed, she pulled, and as her nails dug into his back, he felt the urge to just continue and never stop, but he knew that he was close to the edge. So he pulled out and tried to gain his breath back.
Lijuan smirked and held on to him. She dug her nails into the backside of the large man that was in her arms. She saddled him onto her so that the head of his cock just barely touched her dripping pussy. With her arms around his neck, she just rubbed her pussy on his member, leaving trails of her own juices on him.
He didn't care for the teasing, so he took hold of her hips to hold her still and pushed down hard into her. She gasped and then loudly began repeating the word yes as he entered her, holding onto him tightly. He pounded her vigorously like he wouldn't get another chance if he stopped now and maybe that was true. It had been so long since they had been together in this way. He gasped with desire as he squeezed her ass cheeks and nibbled on her bouncing breasts.
Her accompanying screams filled the room. Sweat dripped down their bodies, making them both slippery and smelling of hormones and sweat.
The continued sound of their moist skin slapping together seemed to make him more excited, causing him to move faster with more frenzy. Her shouts could probably be heard all down the hall and maybe even downstairs. Jamison truly hoped the guests were sound asleep at this late hour. It was a pitched call for more and a sound of appreciation at the same time.
He suddenly stopped and threw Lijuan around such that she now on her knees, though still on the bed. For a few seconds, she thought that he was about to take her doggy style, but he surprised her when he came towards her slowly and with calculation, he licked and sucked at her pleasure button that was already red and swollen with arousal.
She gripped the sheets as his tongue traveled from her clit to her moist opening. She bit her lip, enjoying the surprise treatment. He lapped up her pussy juices, pushing his tongue inside her for just a moment before retracting it, breathless. Jaden then got up on top of her and shoved his dick back into her, gripping the headboard tightly. She let him take her with as much force as he did before, making the bed bounce and her tits bounce once again.
"Yes! Yes!" Lijuan screamed returning to her mant
ra from before.
He grunted, then pinned her arms down and kissed her hard. His tongue found its way into her mouth and tangled with hers. She whimpered into his mouth as his pace quickened. She felt his cock throb and he pulled away, breathless las he splashed his release above her sex and across her heaving stomach. Then he pulled away after a minute and Lijuan laid there panting, satisfied.
In the afterglow, they laid on the bed, their naked bodies glistening with sweat from their lovemaking. Jamison’s sheets and blankets laid on either side of the bed, kicked and pushed off in the throes of passion. Even if she hadn’t been so hot, Lijuan would not have covered herself up afterward. She had always rolled her eyes whenever any of her lovers had done so after the deed had been done. “What was the point?” she had always mused. After having committed acts of indescribable intimacy, suddenly, now was the time for modesty? It made no sense to her analytical mind.
Though she had no answer for those questions, one thing she knew for sure was that she was thirsty. Lijuan propped herself up on her elbow and laid her hand on Jamison’s bicep. He rolled over and mimicked her stance with the elbow and beamed at her.
“Jaden?"
“Yes?”
"You still got that fancy wine cellar in the basement for all those city slickers that come here?”
“Oh, absolutely?" Jaden happily confirmed. "Would you like something?”
Lijuan nodded. “I would.”
“Whatever you want, Li."
Lijuan smiled and rolled back with her head on the pillow and stared up at the celling. “I find myself having a sudden craving for … some Amontillado!”
CHAPTER 22
* * *
What had once been only a slight discoloration on the distant eastern horizon had spread across the heavens and was transforming into the deepest shadow of blue. As Honor Elizabeth stared pensively at the skies from her hiding place, she thought that she loved dawn just as much as anyone else, but right now, she longed to be able to wish it away.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 28
