Silver-Tongued Devil

by Lorelei James

  Then again…he should be, since she’d made him that way.

  Ruby had barely caught her breath after he’d used that wickedly talented mouth to give her two orgasms and he was back at her, greedy for more.

  He was stringing kisses up her torso from side to side, gripping her legs with his big, rough-skinned hands, creating space for himself to do what he did best: fuck her into a whimpering, mindless, sweaty mess.

  It was great to be her.

  Except…he was using those hands to flip her over onto her belly.

  Her body—boneless and sated—was his for the asking. Silent asking, since Jonas in this hard and horny state was a man of few words.

  Then he hiked her ass into the air, spreading her wide open for the hard snap of his hips as he drove his cock into her.

  Ruby arched up, only to feel Jonas’s hand between her shoulder blades, holding her in place as he picked up the pace.

  So this was how he wanted it. Hard and fast. She was good with that.

  Turning her head to the side, she happily absorbed the intensity of this man’s passion as he pounded into her, his fingers digging into her butt cheeks, holding that soft flesh apart so he could watch his cock tunneling into her pussy. His breathing was a series of harsh grunts, a secret language between lovers that only she had been privileged to hear.

  Drops of his sweat plopped onto her ass crack and rolled down her spine, the heat of her own skin causing the moisture to evaporate before it reached her neck. The sheets—although fine silk—abraded her nipples, nipples he’d spent a long time teasing through her lace nightgown, turning them more sensitive than usual.

  “Touch yourself,” he gritted out.

  “Jonas, I’m wrung out. I’ll just—”

  He stopped moving.

  After pulling out, he gently rolled her back over, his big body looming over hers. “I’ll not take my pleasure while you just lie there until I’m done. I’m not like other—”

  Ruby placed her fingers over his lips. “I know that.”

  “Do you?” His dark blue eyes blazed with a mix of desire and vulnerability.

  “Yes. But this is better.” She parted her legs and latched onto his hips with her calves as she canted her pelvis. “Because you can watch my face and see how much I love the way you fuck me.”

  “That right?” he said in a conversational tone as his cock found its way back inside her.

  He stilled. Balls deep, his shaft pulsing so hard she felt it against her inner walls.

  “You gonna give it to me sweet, Deputy?”

  Then he was nose to nose with her. “No. Brace your arms above your head.”

  Maybe she smirked a bit because he’d fallen right into her honeytrap. Gripping the spires of her headboard, she said, “I’m ready.”

  Jonas rolled his hips in a long, sinuous movement like a big lion stretching after a long nap. “I know what you’re doin’.” A slow glide out, a pause, then an equally slow glide in. “But you’re not callin’ the shots; I am. Get ready to come for the fourth time.” He kissed her neck in the spot that drove her wild and lowered his full weight onto her.

  She gasped and felt him smile against her throat.

  “Like that, do you?” His groin pressed against her clit with every single stroke. “Mebbe I’ll keep us close like this. Short, shallow pumps do it for me.” His mouth migrated to her ear and he whispered, “I’m pretty sure they’ll do it for you too.”

  “You’re a menace.”

  “Mmm-hmm. You created a monster, Ruby girl.”

  For some reason she melted when he called her that. But she wasn’t feeling soft and lovey-dovey. She turned her head to sink her teeth into the ball of his shoulder then said, “Show me the beast, Jonas.”

  That’s when he unleashed himself on her.

  It was a hot, wet, sticky romp that left her moaning from another climax as he emptied himself into her.

  Jonas kissed her after he’d begun to breathe normally again. Touching her face with reverence, petting and soothing her, settled something inside him too. He cared for her in the aftermath, using an old handkerchief from her nightstand to clean between her legs. Fetching her a drink if she needed one. He always returned to the left side of her bed and gathered her into his arms, patiently waiting until she found the spot on his chest that perfectly fit her head.

  She never had allowed herself the luxury of snuggling and falling asleep with a man…until Jonas.

  Her hair spilled across the pillows and he reached for it. Toying with the strands, twirling sections around his fingers, smoothing pieces away from her face. He’d done this from their first time together, proving that he enjoyed touching all parts of her, not just the obvious ones.

  The man had a sweet side as wide as the Yellowstone River.

  Ruby knew by the preoccupied way he stared into space he had a matter on his mind.

  After a bit he said, “So Silas intends to court Miss Thompson, the schoolteacher.”

  “This came about at Doc’s tonight?”

  “Nope. Guess he’s been workin’ toward it for a few months. Was the first I’d heard of it.”

  She ruffled her fingers through the hair on his chest. “Do I hear disapproval?”

  “Not sure yet. I like that she laughs off his charm. She also ain’t put off by his fightin’ nature. That worries me some. But at least since she’s been getting medical trainin’ with Doc he’ll have someone to patch him up after he finds trouble.”

  “Maybe she’ll be a reason he stops fighting.” What she meant was: hopefully Silas would have someone besides his brother looking after him.

  “This wasn’t the first time she’d tended to him; they were all familiar like.” He kissed the top of Ruby’s head. “Neither did she let on that you were the one who brung Silas to Doc during the blizzard.”

  “Sounds like you admire the young schoolteacher.” She paused. “Or maybe you’re jealous? Wishing you’d thought to court her first.”

  Jonas went still beneath her. “There’s only one woman I’m interested in courtin’ and she’s turned me down every damn time I’ve brought it up.”

  This was a sore point between them. Jonas wanted to thumb his nose at the locals and let everyone know they were together.

  She disagreed. She wouldn’t put his job in jeopardy, nor have people questioning his character because they thought so poorly of hers.

  TJ Louis, the deputy previous to Jonas, had been forced to leave his post after he’d fallen for one of Ruby’s girls. Jonas could argue all he wanted that it wasn’t that TJ had taken up with a whore; it was that he’d knocked her up and was living with her without the respectability of marriage that had aided in him losing his job.

  But Ruby knew better. Big Jim, the other part-time deputy, had questioned whether TJ would show “poor judgment” enforcing the law in other instances. Big Jim and his wife were god-fearing, morally superior, judgy do-gooders who’d ban every activity except for church and daily bible study groups if they had their way.

  As far as Ruby knew, Big Jim and Jonas got along well enough. But that’d change the moment Big Jim realized that his fellow lawman had spent the past two years secretly fucking the madam of the local whorehouse. Jonas hadn’t even told his brother he’d gotten close with Ruby, mostly because Ruby forbade it. She’d seen this scenario play out too many times, with family relationships broken beyond repair due to disapproval, and she couldn’t live with that for him.

  So her only option was to live without him.

  But the more time they spent together, the harder it was to watch him leave in the morning.

  “Please tell me your silence is because you’re rethinkin’ that no courtin’ stance,” Jonas said softly.

  Ruby sighed. “My answer hasn’t changed. But I’m wondering how things will change for you when Silas is paired off.”

  Jonas took his time before answering. “I’d likely need to find a new place to live. That cabin is small for bachelor brother
s. Be mighty cramped with three of us.”

  “Surely your brother wouldn’t kick you off the land you both own.”

  “That land has never felt like mine.”

  “Why not?”

  “I come to work in an office; Silas works on the range.”

  It wasn’t bitterness she detected but his resignation. “You’ve mentioned a few times that you don’t love being a deputy in an unincorporated township, but I’m sure if you told Silas you’d like to be more involved running and expanding the ranch, he’d welcome your input.”

  “That’s the thing—I don’t want to do that either. Silas would love nothin’ better than to become a Wyoming land baron with thousands of head of cattle. I had enough of that life the six years we worked the cattle drives. As soon as I had a chance to make my own way, I did.”

  She tipped her head back to look at him. “Do you miss that part of who you used to be?”

  “Sometimes. I mean, it was heady stuff getting deputized at age nineteen due a shortage of lawmen. Some outlaws took advantage of the Indian raids goin’ on all over territories. They robbed, then killed, raped and butchered entire families, makin’ it appear that those poor homesteaders had been set on by savages.”

  “And you saw that brutality?”

  He nodded. “Still get bad dreams from it. Once the white men doin’ them acts were featured on wanted posters, we went after them. Caught ’em too. Then other outlaw gangs started causin’ problems for the railroads and the bounties were a big payout, so five of us banded together and we spent the next two years huntin’ ’em down.”

  He rarely spoke about that time in his life and she wanted to keep him talking. “What kind of men were you ridin’ with?”

  “Determined. One guy was a former Texas Ranger, another one was rumored to’ve been a Pinkerton agent.”

  “Rumored to be,” she repeated. “They don’t wear that distinction like a badge?”

  Jonas snorted. “Pinkerton agents are super-secretive. I’ve adopted a few of their ‘don’t tell’ tricks and it’s the damnedest thing that even other bounty hunters don’t question you. Another guy had been an army soldier. Last member was part Blackfeet. Best scout and tracker I ever met.”

  “And you.”

  “Yep. Still don’t know why they asked me to mount up with them. Bein’ the youngest member of the posse…I learned more in them two years than in the previous nineteen years combined. During that time, Silas had gone on his first cattle drive without me and afterward, they dumped off here. He loved the area and bought a piece of land that already had improvements. Then he staked a claim for the land abutting it for me. He had to join up with another cattle drive before he could live on his place full-time. The outfit he worked for taught him where to find stray, unclaimed cattle. If he came across any here, he added them to his herd. Every penny he earned, he bought up more abandoned claims. Small acreages. Tough to make a living between sellin’ cattle in the fall and calving season in early spring, so he worked for the railroad for a spell.”

  “He did? Is that how he knows Zeke?”

  “I suspect that’s where their bad blood started. Plus, Silas….ah…supplements his income with gambling, and West can’t walk past a card table without losin’ his shirt. Or so Silas says, and he takes advantage of that fact whenever possible. My brother is the luckiest damn card player I’ve ever known. After quittin’ at the railroad—I’m guessing because of a row between him and Zeke—he hired out as a ranch hand. He’s never said so, but it feels like he resents me. When I showed up here after takin’ a break from the chasin’ outlaw life, he’d already done all the hard ranch work. Now he’s courtin’ Miss Thompson. If anyone deserves a helpmate, it’s my brother.”

  “Jonas. I asked about you,” she reminded him.

  “I know. But I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Silas.” Jonas sighed. “Most days, I feel a whole lotta guilt. If I was a better brother, I’d give him more of my salary so he wouldn’t hafta play cards to try and win the money. Or I’d resign as deputy and go after more bounties and invest the money in the ranch.”

  “Would that make you happy?”

  “Probably not. You’re about the only thing makin’ me happy these days, Ruby. I know you don’t wanna hear it, but it’s true.”

  Ruby didn’t comment on that.

  Silence stretched between them.

  He yawned. “Sorry, I’m whipped.”

  She pressed a kiss on his chest. “It’s fine. I am too. Go to sleep.”

  “I like talkin’ to you, Ruby girl.”

  “I like being with you like this too, Deputy.”

  “Don’t forget to blow out that candle.”

  Always looking out for her. “I won’t.”

  After he dozed off, Ruby watched him. The glow from the bedside candle highlighted the masculine beauty of his face, a rugged handsomeness he normally masked beneath the brim of his cowboy hat.

  Her thoughts rolled back to the first time she’d met the new deputy. Working in an illegal vocation guaranteed she had no love for law enforcement, but maintaining a civil relationship was a necessity. So Madam Ruby had shown up in the deputy’s office, presenting herself as a businesswoman, donning her smartest outfit—a pine green, brushed wool skirt, a tightly fitted short jacket the color of ripe plums that ended at her natural waist, and a crisp white shirtwaist. She’d pinned up her hair with silver combs, and worn no facial enhancements.

  It had been an unexpected delight to see Deputy McKay’s tongue nearly hit the office floor—usually that reaction happened when she was completely naked, not fully clothed. Her attraction to the dark-haired, deep-voiced, blue-eyed lawman had been equally unforeseen, but she’d hidden her interest much better. At least at first.

  The man had been completely baffled when she’d inquired how much it’d cost for him to continue looking the other way, skipping regular raids on her “boardinghouse.” Then he’d immediately become indignant, assuring her the morals—or lack thereof—of her clientele was no concern of his…unless her girls or the men they serviced were in danger or blatantly breaking the law.

  She’d liked him so much more after that little speech.

  A few weeks after their talk, the boardinghouse needed his official presence after a drunken customer had nearly strangled Julianna. The deputy ended up knocking the drunken fool out cold and dumping the man on his front porch, informing his wife that he’d been permanently banned from Ruby Red’s—not Sackett’s—so there wasn’t any confusion about where he’d been. Ruby also suspected the personal visit from the deputy was for him to discover whether the guy had been violent toward his wife too.

  When Deputy McKay returned to see if there’d been any more trouble, Ruby had invited him into her rooms. What Jonas hadn’t known at the time was Ruby never entertained men in her private space.

  The poor guy had been uncomfortable from the moment she’d lured him into her parlor. Ruby wasn’t one to shy away; her job was to get men to relax. So it wasn’t until her second invitation and half a bottle of whiskey shared between them that he’d finally loosened up enough to tell her the truth of why she made him so nervous: Big, strong, tough, steely-eyed, Jonas McKay…was a virgin.

  A twenty-three-year-old virgin who hadn’t taken advantage of the few opportunities he’d had to shed his virginity, since he’d spent his youth riding the range, and his adulthood chasing outlaws, solely in the company of other men.

  So Ruby had seduced him. Deflowered him. Instructed him. Turned him into a confident, caring sexual beast. Helped form him into the type of exciting lover she craved.

  The first few months were spent teaching him stamina and all the ways to bring a woman to climax. Then she’d focused on communication so he could tell her exactly what he wanted or what he wanted to do to her. In explicit detail.

  His innate sexuality had blossomed. He knew when to be rough. When to be gentle. When to take control and when to surrender. When to start teasing and when to stop
. He learned the difference between passion and desire. Between longing and lust.

  In mixed company they were professional. Cordial. Friendly, even.

  In private they were untamed, unapologetic sex fiends, gorging themselves on pleasure.

  Maybe Ruby could’ve kept their relationship strictly about physical release if Jonas had ever sneered about her profession, called her a whore or acted as if he was doing her a favor by fucking her.

  But that wasn’t the kind of man he was.

  It truly did not matter to him what she did outside the time they spent together.

  Jonas never offered to pay her.

  He also never asked if she serviced other men between the times they were together.

  Looking at him now…she could hate herself for letting him get so entwined in her life and in her heart. At one time she’d dreamed of finding a man like Jonas McKay. But now after she’d found him, she couldn’t keep him.

  It would shatter her soul when the day came that she’d have to turn him away.

  Until then, she’d enjoy each moment as if they’d never have another.

  She blew out the candle and pulled the coverlet over both of them.

  Chapter Six

  When Silas woke up, his head didn’t hurt nearly as much as he’d thought it would.

  His body, however, felt like he’d been drug by a horse for a mile or ten.

  He groaned and rolled to his side. Then he jackknifed into a sitting position. Keeping his eyes closed, he counted to ten before he opened them.

  Not bad. Not too dizzy.

  He heard a snort and peered over to see young Jimmy sprawled, snuffling pig noises floating out of his open mouth. Kid probably hadn’t slept that well in ages.

  Needing to take a piss something fierce, Silas lowered his feet to the floor, grateful his boots were still on. His ribs hurt worse than the gouge in his gut. Seemed to take forever to reach the door. But finally he shuffled out into the sunny morning.

  He crossed over to the stand of scrub oak behind the barn and relieved himself, staring at the sky to try and figure out the time. Had to be after ten, which meant he was hours late checking cattle.