Bushedwhacked Bride (29 page)

“Yes, I understand,” Jessie whispered back. Indeed,
she had had all of the emotional upheaval she could
abide—Cole with Lila, Cole apart from her. Drawing a
shaky breath, she added, “And maybe I need to protect
my own, too.” Then she grabbed Cole and kissed him
hard enough to pop his eyes out.

His response was immediate and fierce. He crushed her
body close, lifted her, and pressed her into a nearby tree. His hands roved all over her body, squeezing her breasts, kneading her bottom, as his mouth devoured hers with a
voracious intimacy that left her reeling. She felt almost
small and helpless in his powerful embrace, and reveled in the feeling.

“Jessie, Jessie,” he whispered, his hot lips roving down
her throat. “Woman, I’m on fire for you.”

“Me, too,” she replied achingly, stretching on tiptoe to
press her mouth into his.

His voice shook with passion. “We’re not stopping this
time, you hear me?”

‘Try to stop and I’ll kill you,” came her fierce reply.

He groaned in pleasure. A moment later, he lifted her into his strong arms, his gaze burning into hers. “Now let me show you who I
really
want, sugar.”

Chapter Twenty-six

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“Cole, you shouldn’t be doing this,” Jessica pleaded as he
strode across the darkened yard with her in his arms,
heading straight for the front porch.

“Damn right, I should.”

“No, I mean taking me into the house, with your
mother there.”

He chuckled. “But, sugar, you should know by now
that I’m a man who likes to live dangerously.”

She fell silent as he climbed the steps, opened the front
door, and slipped inside. “Cole, she’ll wake up.”

Cole didn’t reply as he stepped inside Jessica’s dark
bedroom, crossed the room to the bed, and set her down on the soft feather tick. A loud sawing sound could be heard from the adjoining room. “Hear that snoring?” he
whispered. “A box full of dynamite couldn’t wake her up.”

“Cole—”

Cole leaned over, silencing Jessica with his lips, and
she was lost. After a moment he whispered, “Hold on,
sugar.”

She lay in the darkness, watching his shadowy form
cross the room. She heard a soft click as he shut the door to his mother’s room. As he returned to her side, a breeze
ruffled the curtains and she could hear leaves rustling out
side. The sound seemed sexy. Then Cole was leaning
over her again, kissing her urgently, tangling his fingers
in her hair.

“I’ve wanted to do this for so long, since the day we
first made love,” he murmured. “And I’m not waiting any
longer.”

“Me, too.” Indeed, Jessica was through waiting. She
kissed him feverishly, holding his face to hers.

Abruptly he moved away from her, standing at the side
of the bed. His eyes burned into hers as he began unbut
toning his shirt. “I want you naked, Jessie,” he said
hoarsely. “I want nothing between us as we lie together.”

At his sexy words, waves of desire flooded Jessica,
along with torrid memories of their previous lovemaking.
Yet the fire now burning in Cole’s eyes told her he in
tended to love her with an intensity that would make that
experience pale by comparison.

With trembling fingers, she began unbuttoning her
dress. Meanwhile Cole all but flung off the rest of his
clothing, and soon stood proudly naked before her. At the
sight of him, Jessica went weak, no longer able to con
tinue disrobing. He appeared so glorious in the moon
light, his body all hard, sexy muscles and angles, his
manhood engorged with passion. Instinctively, she
reached out and touched him.

His reaction was violent. He groaned, then tumbled her
beneath him on the bed, overwhelming her with a shat
tering kiss. “I said nothing, Jessie. Nothing.”

And he began tearing at her clothing, stripping her
naked with a dispatch that took her breath away—until a
feather rising from the tick made her sneeze.

She heard him chuckle in the darkness. “Bless you,
sugar.” He rose to his knees and spread her legs, staring
down at her. “You’re so beautiful, Jessie,” he whispered,
tracing a teasing finger over her face.

Shamelessly aroused to have him viewing her so inti
mately, Jessica sucked Cole’s finger into her mouth. He groaned and pulled it away, trailing it seductively down
her throat.

“That face of yours, your eyes,” he whispered. “So
damn beautiful and big.”

“I have big eyes for you.”

“And your breasts are enchanting.” Cole glanced down
ward and grinned. “You’ve got a feather on one of ‘em,
sugar.”

She writhed. “Yes, I can feel it tickling.”

“Can you?” Cole grasped the small feather and trailed
it seductively over Jessica’s breasts. She moaned, and
felt herself break out in shivers, her nipples hardening pleasurably, even as desire for Cole throbbed in her
womanhood.

The feather lingered teasingly on a taut nipple. “Look how tight you are, love. Do you want to feel my mouth there?”

She drew his entire rough, huge hand to her breast.
“Oh, yes.”

Yet Cole pulled his hand away and continued the
feather’s tormenting descent, moving it down her belly,
until he tickled the curls between her thighs. Jessica
tossed her head and whimpered.

A muscle worked in Cole’s jaw. He let go of the
feather, and his fingers found the center of her desire, parting her, caressing so boldly, so pleasurably.

“Oh, Cole.” She moved with him, panting softly.

“You’re so hot, so wet and ready.” He pushed his finger inside her.

Jessica gasped, writhing her hips, unwittingly increas
ing the exquisite, pressure inside her. Cole continued to ply her passions, stroking her with his thumb as his finger probed deeper.
She sobbed.

He froze. “What’s wrong, sugar?”

“I . . . nothing. I just can’t stand
. . .
I want . . .” Gasp
ing, she held out her arms to him.

He smiled, his hand sweetly torturing her. “No, Jessie, not yet. This time we’re going to savor it—and I’m going
to taste every inch of you.”

He covered her, his hot hard chest crushing her breasts, his mouth passionately ravishing hers, even as his fingers moved more boldly between her thighs, coaxing an over
whelming response. Jessica couldn’t help herself. With a low cry, she began to climax. Cole drowned her with his
tongue until she tumbled over the edge.

Afterward, he pulled back and stared into her eyes. His
expression was awed. “Just how I want you, Jessie.
Flushed. Open to me. All mine.”

Then his lips began following the same path the feather
had taken. Jessica could not bear the frustration. “Please, Cole, I want you—”

“Not yet.”

His hot tongue licked at her breasts, and she screamed softly. When his lips followed, his hot mouth sucking in her nipple, she could bear no more. She reached between
their bodies and grasped his manhood, squeezing
roughly.

He groaned violently. “Jessie, damn it—”

She spoke hoarsely. “Inside me. Now. Please.”

She got her wish as Cole surged upward and plunged
deep, filling her tight womanhood with hot, pulsing plea
sure. The rapture was so intense, she moaned. When he
began to move, the pressure and friction were unbearably
sweet. She writhed beneath him, digging her fingers into
his spine, unable to contain the waves of rapture swelling
and peaking inside her. She raised her hips into his and met his deep, virile thrusts.

Cole’s mouth took hers in a crushing kiss. He gripped
her bottom and pumped into her until incredible torrents
of pleasure consumed them both, sending them spinning away to paradise. They clung together, joyous and deliriously sated.

***

By the time Jessica awakened, her room was flooded with
light and Cole was gone. Sitting up in bed, she smiled, re
calling how he had claimed her two more times during
the night. Although she was uncertain as to what all this
meant, she was all but convinced now that she loved him,
and knew it was futile to continue fighting the attraction between them.

She quickly saw to her toilette and dressed for break
fast. Combing her hair, she spotted the cameo on her
dresser scarf, the piece she’d found in the stagecoach just
before she’d traveled across time. Fingering it, she won
dered if the brooch had previously belonged to Lila. Per
haps she should return it.

Then doubts seeped in. What if the cameo were indeed blessed with mystical properties, and held the key both to her traveling across time in the first place, and to her pos
sible return to the future?

But did she want to leave this time? Her throat ached.
Much as she remained conflicted about the life she’d
left behind, Jessica found the thought of leaving Cole
devastating.

Jessica held the cameo up to the light. She spotted none
of the unusual sparkles of light she’d seen that first day.
Perhaps the piece had lost its magical properties, if indeed
it had ever had them. Perhaps she should return it to Lila.

Resolving that she would decide the matter later on,
she slipped the brooch into her pocket.

When Jessica walked into the kitchen, everyone was
present drinking coffee, Lila and her girls still in their
jaded, tawdry costumes. Wearing an expression of mar
tyrdom, Ma was at the stove stirring a pot of grits. The air
was redolent with the smells of coffee, bacon, stale tobacco and liquor, and cheap perfume.

Cole at once jumped to his feet, smiling at Jessica as he
pulled out her chair. “Good morning, sugar.”

Noting the mixture of mischief and tenderness in his expression, Jessica felt her heart fluttering, and resolved
not to give away too much. “Good morning,” she returned
with a smile.

Meanwhile, Lila eyed Jessica suspiciously. “You look awfully happy this morning, Miss Jessie.” Lifting a brow
at Cole, she continued, “Maybe you fared better than the
rest of us last night, huh?”

Jessica groaned. So much for her attempt to keep her
and Cole’s secret. While the other whores tittered and the
boys exchanged curious glances, Ma surged forward with
the pot in one hand, a wooden spoon in the other. She frowned murderously at Lila.

“What do you mean, she fared better?” Ma ranted,
waving her spoon. “Hush, up, Jezebel, before I make grits
outta you. If Miss Jessie looks happy, it’s because she has
a pure heart, unlike you creatures of
Sodom
.”

Jessica felt relieved to discern that Ma hadn’t overheard her and Cole. While her female cronies tittered,
Lila squelched an amused look. “Yes, ma’am, whatever
you say.”

After hurling the fallen woman another fulminating
look, Ma stalked around the table, slapping grits down on
each plate with a vehemence that made several of the
women cringe. “Eat up, harlots, then it’s on your way
with you. And ain’t you got nothin’ to wear but them
hurty-gurty gowns?”

“No, ma’am,” Lila answered. “This is all we got.”

“May as well paint a sign on your buckboard saying,
‘Traveling Sin Wagon,’“ Ma grumbled.

Lila winked at Cole. “We used to have one of them.”

Ma glared, Cole chuckled, and Jessica tossed him a scolding look. At once he sobered up.

“No more of your lip, missy,” Ma scolded Lila. She
turned to her youngest son. “Billy, after the vittles, you
and Gabe see if’n you can scare up some old britches and
shirts for these . . .
females.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Billy said.

“We’d be obliged,” Lila said with a simpering look at
Billy.

Ma harrumphed. “Ya ain’t welcome.”

***

An hour later, Ma, Jessica, Cole, and the boys saw the
women off in the yard. Jessica’s jealousy spiked anew as Cole lifted the overall-clad Lila onto the wagon seat and
handed her a wad of folded bills. “You girls take care, now.
Buy yourselves some respectable duds, and try to make a fresh start.”

“Sure, sugar—and thanks,” Lila purred back to Cole.
Glancing at Jessica, Lila for once appeared sincere.
“Good to meet you, ma’am. Take care of our man, now.”

Cole grinned at Jessica, and she felt her cheeks heating
as she caught curious looks from Ma and the boys.

“I—I will,” she replied awkwardly. On impulse, she stepped forward, dug in her pocket, then handed Lila the
cameo. “Here’s a going-away present.”

“My cameo!” Lila gasped, staring at the brooch.
“Where did you find this?”

Jessica glanced at Cole to see his lips twitching. “I
found it between the seats of Buck Lynch’s stage.”

“You did? Well, I’ll be hanged.” Lila turned to Cole.
“What was she doing in Buck Lynch’s stage?”

Cole coughed. “It’s a long story.”