Claire, Angela - Heart of Stone (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

Christ, he hadn’t even got near to the point. She was likely to fall asleep on him before he did. As for him, he was wide awake now, more parts than one, wide-wide awake. He continued, “So I can’t get a chaperone to stay with us. If I could, I wouldn’t need you here, then, would I?”

“I’m well aware that I’m not your first choice for this job, but I thought with dinner and all, that we’d gotten past that.”

“We have. I mean, I have. But the fact is we’re here, together, alone and unchaperoned.”

She looked at him blankly. She couldn’t really be so clueless, especially since he’d as good as almost fucked her not two minutes ago. “What I’m trying to say is I guess you’re probably shocked by what almost happened in there, but ah, men don’t always think so clearly with a pretty woman around, and when they’re half asleep, never. So the fact is I could have really done some damage in there if you hadn’t brought me to my senses in time.”

“Really, no apology is necessary.”

“I’m not apologizing. What I’m saying is just don’t be coming into my room at night or walking around me in your nightclothes.” She glanced down at herself and, dangerously, so did he. “In fact, maybe I should sleep in the barn for a spell.”

“No. Please don’t do that. I’m not fainthearted or anything. I swear I’m not. Every little noise at night isn’t going to shake me. Honest. But I’d just feel better if Ginny and I weren’t alone in the house at night. I understand what you’re saying, and I completely agree. Of course. I’m sorry about tonight, Mr. Stone. I really am. It won’t happen again.”

The anxious tone in her voice was starting to make him feel guilty now. Hell, she’d heard a grizzly at the door her very first night. That’d give even the steeliest of back-Easters pause. She’d done what she needed to do. Wasn’t her fault he was so goddamn horny. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Melinda. And it’s still Jake, not Mr. Stone. We just need to be realistic.”

“Of course. Of course. I’ll just get back to bed now.” She scampered away.

Well, that’d gone about as well as expected. First, he accosted her, and then he nearly embarrassed her to death. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, as if he could wipe the memory of kissing her away. He was going to have to forget all about this, treat it as if it’d been a dream. Even as he wiped, though, he caught a sweet smell of her on his finger from when he’d stuck it into her. Lord, before he could stop himself, he licked his finger, tasting her.

Oh, he was in trouble, he was. He went back to his solitary bed.

* * * *

Alone in her bed again, Melinda hugged the covers to her and lamented how she had almost ruined everything after she had worked so hard with the dinner and Ginny to prove to him that she could handle this job. Next thing she knew she’s running like a scared ninny to his bed at the very first bump in the night she hears. No wonder he was leery of her.

Frankly, just about now, she was leery of him as well. For try as she might to block the memory out of her head, it was there alright, strong and vivid. The memory of his heavy weight pressing into her, his leg nudging her thighs open, his hot lips, scruffy with the beginnings of a beard wandering down her neck. Then that one wicked finger thrust into that place she tried not to think about and touched as little as possible. She’d fought to bring him to his senses, sure she had, but not because she hadn’t liked what he was doing. Lord, if she hadn’t feared who-knows-what was bursting into the front room, she may have even let him continue with his dreamy, adept seduction.

That was just what he was afraid of, plain as day, and frankly so was she now. She’d kept her expression blank with all of his fumbling explanations, both at dinner and just now, but she was no babe in the woods. It was impossible to have been one what with all the talk in and around the orphanage. She knew when a man wanted her, marriage or not. Hadn’t that been why she avoided one after the other of them back home, from the old despicable doc to that lusty husband of a trustee. She had learned to recognize the signs early—the glaze in a man’s eyes, the clenching of his teeth or biting his lip, the wandering of his gaze down her body, and, of course, the impossible to ignore bulge that would eventually appear in their trousers. But ignore it she did if she knew what was good for her. The lesson that half the little babes in that orphanage were there because one woman or another had gotten herself into trouble with a man was not lost on Melinda. She vowed she was smarter than that. Hadn’t that been part of why she was so happy to escape here, to get away?

Well, as they said, out of the frying pan and into the fire. What she had apparently not understood all this time was that a woman could want the trouble a man offered.

* * * *

The cowboy hung back as all the lights went out in the ranch house. Man, if only that damn grizzly hadn’t caused such a racket. He might’ve seen a little more of the show. ’Cause they was sure going at it when he peeked in the window, the girl with the long blond hair and Stone. She was writhing underneath him. Mighty fast work, this being her first day and all. That was just what the old man was worried about when he’d heard tell of the gal’s arrival.

Oh well, looked like grizzly had ruined the mood, and they was both back in bed. Alone. If Stone wasn’t such a big fella, and the old man wasn’t so protective like of him, he might have thought about creeping into the gal’s bed and having a little of what she was giving Stone. But hell, she’d probably holler her head off and the old man would be mad as hell if he got himself caught here.

He might as well head back and report now. Old man was so agitated about the gal he was sure to be still awake and pacing. And you didn’t make the old man wait. Put him in a bad mood.

Chapter Three

Jake rode out early the next morning, somewhere on the ranch he’d told her, to meet a few of the hands and fix some fences that needed mending. He’d be back at sundown or so and had asked her if she could feed the lot of them, just this once. These men were apt to be around the place now and then, and it was best she meet them, he said. Fine with her. She’d made a healthy inventory of the kitchen the day before, and she knew she had supplies enough for the three or so boys he’d bring back.

She timed it just about right with the biscuits warm out of the oven when she saw the dust clouds in the orange light of evening signaling that the men were back. Ginny on her hip, she went to greet them on the porch, smiling politely as Jake made some gruff introductions.

“Melinda, this here is Ike and Ed and Jesse.” The three men behind Jake nodded in time with their respective names, with each piping out a “ma’am” and swiping off their dusty cowboy hats. Melinda smiled and waved them in, a little surprised by the assortment. Ed looked like he was about a hundred years old, until he moved. He moved like a young man, spry and easy. Both Ike and Jessie were young men. But Ike was black as coal with white teeth, and he smiled as he moved by her. Melinda was glad that Jake hadn’t mentioned this fact to her. It said something, like maybe he felt the same way about skin color as she did, that it was a fact and not a judgment. A man, or a woman for that matter, should be judged on their character and not on their color. She had known a lot who felt that way back in
Boston
, but she wasn’t so sure about out here. She was glad to see it seemed to be so with Jake as Ike pulled a chair up to the table, same as the other boys.

Then there was the last of those other boys…Jesse. Oh, he could be trouble, she saw that immediately. He was tall and lanky, like Jake, and moved with that same easy cowboy way. But he was as blond as Jake was dark haired. His wavy golden hair, tinted almost white from the sun here and there, fell back to frame an Adonis-like face and a smile that showed he knew it, too. The spark in his hazy green eyes was asking her something, right off, the way that some men did. She kept her glance back light and friendly, hoping she answered it right. No, thanks, she said back silently, and resolved to treat him like an older brother.

Jesse kept his smile warm as Melinda sat Ginny in her chair and dished out the simple potatoes and beef, with a healthy dose of gravy and biscuits for each of them.

When she took her own seat at the big oak table, Ike asked. “So you’re a friend of Jake’s aunt?”

“Well, not a friend exactly. Miss Lil was a trustee at the orphanage I grew up in. More like a patron, I guess you’d say.”

“Or a guardian angel like,” Jesse added. “She must be
our
guardian angel to send such a pretty young lady out to liven up the place for us worn old cowboys.”

If anybody ever described Jesse, or Jake for that matter, as a worn old cowboy, they’d have to get their spectacles checked. But she accepted the compliment easily. “Well, Miss Lil certainly was a guardian angel to me to send me out to take care of Ginny. A sweeter little baby I’ve never seen.”

Ginny cooed on cue, and her father reached over to chuck her chubby little chin. “That she is.”

“I’d say you’re mighty lucky, Jake, to have two such pretty girls all to yourself.”

Jake glowered at Jesse for that remark, and Jesse, not seeming to notice, continued to dig in. Fact was the four men, even old Ed, plowed through the dinner and second helpings like they were starving. The conversation was light, Ike saying as how he’d been in the state for just a few months now and had hooked up with Jake after old man
Winthrop
had just about threatened to run him out of town.

“
Winthrop
? Who’s that?” Melinda looked forward to meeting the neighbors hereabout.

“Nobody,” Jake grumbled. “Just a mean old cuss who thinks
Colorado
made him king. You likely won’t see much of him.”

“I could stand to not see him at all if it wasn’t for him toting that Regina around with him half the time. Like he’s afraid she’ll bolt.”

“He may be with you around, Jesse.” Jake seemed to show a little warmth at his employee for the first time since they’d sat down. “
Winthrop
would probably shoot you dead before he’d let you within a mile of his daughter.”

Jesse didn’t seem to mind the jibe. “Probably true. I’m not good enough for her type, that’s for sure. No crime in looking, though.”

“She’s pretty?” Melinda asked

“She sure thinks she is,” Ike said, reaching for the piece of pie Melinda now held out to him.

“Now, be fair, Ike. Miss Regina Winthrop, for all she may be a pain in the…ah, back, is one beautiful girl.” If Melinda didn’t know better, she’d think Adonis had met his match in this girl, whoever she was. Well, she was welcome to him.

“Hard to see past that temper of hers,” Jake commented.

“Really? ’Cause you’re the one cowboy old man
Winthrop
would like to see beyond it,” Jesse needled.

Melinda didn’t like the sound of that, but she let it lie. Jesse didn’t.

“You watch out, Jake, or one day you’ll find yourself at the other end of a shotgun wedding.
Winthrop
wants it that bad.”

“Don’t worry about me. I know how to avoid that kind of trouble.”

“Do you?” Jesse was looking at Melinda when he said it.

“Yes. I do. Not everybody’s got the self-discipline of a rangy dog, Jesse.”

Jesse smiled. “Even a saint gets tempted. And you ain’t no saint, Jake.”

Melinda cleared the dishes noisily. “If you gentlemen would like to go outside for a smoke, I can clean up here.”

“No thanks, ma’am. We’d best be getting home.” She startled at this from Ed, realizing he’d said next to nothing the whole meal, letting the younger men dominate the conversation. “Fine meal, ma’am. Fine company. I thank you.” With that and similar words from the other two, they were gone.

As he’d said goodbye, Jesse still looked like he wasn’t sure he’d gotten his answer from her, his smile a little too knowing, his handshake a little too long. No matter. She knew how to deal with handsome rascals like him. They’d be friends soon enough, and he would drop the invite. There were a few boys back in the orphanage like that. But they meant no harm. She was sure, for all his looks and charm, Jesse didn’t either.