Claire, Angela - Heart of Stone (Siren Publishing Classic) (13 page)

Either alternative was just fine and dandy with him if she insisted. He groaned, not adverse to a bit of guidance though. “Put your mouth over the head while you stroke it,” he croaked.

She was a good little learner, he remembered from last night, proving it again now. He closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her warm mouth on his cock for a moment. But the view was just too good to miss. When he wove his fingers into her silky hair and opened his eyes to watch her at her ministrations, she rewarded him by glancing up and sucking more of his shaft into her mouth. A wave of pleasure threatened to overwhelm him, and he felt on the verge of coming in her mouth. He tried to push her head away. “Stop, Melinda, honey. Stop or I’ll come!”

Whether she didn’t understand the significance of the warning or she welcomed his release, he didn’t know. She just ignored him and sucked harder until with a hoarse cry, he felt himself ejaculate, stronger than he would have thought possible given the night they’d had last night.

She didn’t pull away until he did. He was immediately contrite, grabbing part of the cover sheet to wipe her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Melinda. Did I scare you? Are you okay? You don’t have to do that, you know.”

She batted his offer of the edge of the sheet away and licked her lips, then leaned forward to kiss him. “That was incredible,” she smiled.

Lord, what had he done to deserve this gorgeous girl’s sweet attentions, and would he ever get enough of them?

Chapter Six

Melinda snuggled underneath the downy quilt on Jake’s bed. She would have to get up eventually, but the time it would take Jake to get to the
Wilsons
’ spread and back gave her plenty of leeway. She really should have gone with Jake to pick Ginny up. But this thing was all so new. She was afraid she would give herself away if she didn’t have a little more time to collect her thoughts. She didn’t delude herself. She was crazy in love with Jake Stone. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he was in love with her. He’d been straightforward from the start.

She heard the front door open. He must have forgotten something. “Jake?”

The silence that greeted her call unnerved her, and she sat up, gathering the quilt around her.

“My, what a pretty picture this is.”
Winthrop
was suddenly in the doorway to the room, lounging against the doorframe. “I thought Jake looked mighty pleased with himself riding out just now.”

“Mr. Winthrop…what are you doing here?” She brought the comforter up to her chin as, incredibly, the man had the nerve to approach the bed. He ripped the cover out of her hands and threw it on the floor, exposing her nakedness, and with a yelp, she leapt up, trying to cover herself.

“No need to be shy, girl. You and I are going to have a little fun before I do my business.”

“Jake will kill you!”

“If he ever found out, maybe. But we’re not going to linger around hereabouts and give him the chance. You’re coming with me, you whore. I have just the place where you and I can be alone.”

She made a wild lunge for the doorway, and
Winthrop
caught her around the waist, swinging her around and knocking her to the floor. Her head banged painfully against the wood.

“Don’t make me kill you here, girl, and have to lug your body around to get rid of it. I like tail as much as the next fella, and I’m too old to be carting a hundred pounds of deadweight around, but I’ll shoot you here if I have to.”

Holding her throbbing head, she noticed he had drawn his gun and had it pointed right at her.

“Get up now.”

“You’re insane,” she muttered, but she got up.

“Now put that gown on over there. Can’t have you dying of exposure before I get my turn.”

She picked up the nightgown on the foot of the bed where Jake had thrown it when he took it off her that last time. Jake. She felt a terrible pang of loss. Lord, by the time he and Ginny got back and saw she was gone, who knew where
Winthrop
could have her hidden away? She pulled the gown on, eager at least in this to cooperate with him so she could shield her naked body. Once she’d complied, he grabbed her arm and started leading her out of the house. His grip was bruising for an old man, not to mention the cold barrel of the gun he kept on her back as they walked.

Outside by his horse, he took a length of rope from the saddle and tied her hands and legs. Her brief struggle at the beginning earned her a backhanded slap that nearly whipped her head off. When she was tied, he hoisted her up to the saddle, laying her face down and climbed up in front of her.

“This will all be over soon, girl.”

* * * *

Jake couldn’t ever recall feeling quite this good. The sun was shining, the sky was clear blue, and he was on his way to pick up his baby girl. He hummed a long forgotten tune. Of course the fact that he’d just had the best sex of his life didn’t hurt his mood none either.

He heard the riders before he saw them, the hard pounding of hooves telling him somebody was riding fast this way. He slowed the horse at the head of his wagon. In no time flat, Jesse reigned in a huffing beast right up next to him, Regina Winthrop right behind him. What the…?

“Where’s Melinda?”

“She’s back at the house. Why?”

“You left her alone? Jesus.”

“What is this, Jesse? What’s wrong?”

“Get on behind me, Reggie. Jake, take her horse and follow me back to the house as fast as you can. We may already be too late.”

The speed with which
Regina
transferred herself from her horse to Jesse’s and they took off was damn worrisome. Jake jumped down from his wagon and up onto the saddle of the big mare and spurred her on after them, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was just a split second behind them when they got to the house and jumped off the horses, not bothering to tie them up. The door to the house was open.

“Melinda?” Jake called, heading to the bedroom. The blue quilt lay in a tumble on the floor, the side table was knocked over, and Melinda was nowhere to be seen.

Jesse crouched down and touched his finger to a dark stain near the discarded coverlet. He looked at his finger and then up at Jake. “It’s blood.”

“Goddamn it, Jesse. What the hell has happened? What’s wrong? Where’s Melinda?”

Regina Winthrop hesitated in the doorway.

Jesse stood up. “Tell him.”

“It’s my father, Jake. He’s gone insane. I’m afraid, well, I’m very much afraid he’s taken Melinda and…and will hurt her.”

“Melinda? Why would he hurt Melinda? What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, Jake.”

“Just tell me.”

“When your wife died—”

“What does
Victoria
have to do with this?”

“Well, when she died, I, well, I worried that it was a little too convenient. My father, he-he talked all the time about how nice it would be if she passed and you could marry. I, well, I told myself that daddy had nothing to do with it. Everybody said she was sick, and I…I decided to put it out of my mind and just do what he wanted so nobody else would get hurt. So I tried. I tried to make you want me.”

Jesse swore. “Tell him about today,
Regina
.”

Regina
took a deep breath. “Ever since the dance last night, Daddy’s been crazy, saying things about Melinda, acting…well… and when he called this one worker into his study this morning, this awful man who just showed up a few months ago and makes my skin crawl just to be in the same room with him, I listened in outside the door. I was worried, you see. They were shouting. This man said it was one thing smothering an invalid, but…”

“Fuck.” Jake felt such a rage, but he clamped down on it. He had to find out what this all had to do with Melinda, though he very much feared he knew.

“He said smothering an invalid and making it look like a natural death was one thing, but abducting and—”
Regina
’s voice cracked. “—killing a woman and getting rid of her body was another. He wouldn’t do it because there was too much risk of getting caught. So Daddy said he would just do it himself and then he burst out of his study and saw me there. He knocked me out cold before I could say a word.”

Jake suddenly noticed the purpling along
Regina
’s cheekbone.

“When I woke up, he was already gone. I came here as fast as I could, and I saw Jesse on the way and thought he could… he could…” She started a soft pitiable weeping. “But we’re too late.”

“We’re not too late,” Jake said fiercely. “They can’t have been gone long. I just left a little while ago. Think. Where would he have taken her if he wanted to kill her? There’s not enough blood for that to have happened here.”

Regina
whispered, “I think I might know…”

* * * *

They were in some sort of a cave in the corner of a rock ledge.
Winthrop
had left the horse a while back and, for all his talk of being an old man, carried Melinda the rest of the way. Her hands were still tied behind her back, but when they’d gotten there, he flopped her onto the dusty ground and untied her legs. He reached a clammy hand between them. “I got to have these open, don’t I?”

He stood over her and took off his gun belt.

“Why are you doing this? Can you at least tell me that? What have I ever done to you?”

“You fucked Stone.”

She didn’t bother to deny it. “Why would you care?”

“I don’t, long as he keeps you just as a whore. But when he starts to talk about making you his wife and looks at you the way he did last night, like the sight of that no-good Jesse Whelan taking a turn with you around the dance floor was like to kill him, well then, I got a problem. Cause Jake Stone ain’t gonna marry no one but my
Regina
. See, for all he plays at being just some rancher, working his spread, hiring a few cowhands, that man has a shitload of money back in some Boston bank, money that could save my spread, could build my spread into something. Money that’s gonna be mine once
Regina
marries him, and then of course he’s gonna have to have a little accident of his own.”

“You’re insane.”

“You’ll pardon me, Missy, if I don’t much care about your opinion of me at this point.” His hand was on his zipper. He didn’t appear to be an old man in this respect either. She could tell from the bulge in his pants and the lascivious look in his eye that he was capable of raping her. With her hands tied behind her back, the most she could do was try to place a well-aimed kick. That might slow him down. He had flung his gun belt to the side. If she could just unman him and then get to it in time, she might have a fighting chance.

“You touch her,
Winthrop
, you’re a dead man.”

She had never been so happy to hear another human voice in all her born days.

“Jake.” But before she could even get the single syllable out,
Winthrop
rolled to the floor and grabbed her, pulling both of them to their feet, and suddenly her throat was in his big rough hands. She gasped as he squeezed a little, apparently just to show Jake who was in charge.

“I don’t think so, Stone. I can snap her neck before you can even shoot me, I swear I can.”

“Just let her go. It’s over,
Winthrop
. I know what you did to
Victoria
, and you’ll hang for that, let alone what you tried to do to Melinda … if I don’t shoot you first.”