Gold Dust (46 page)

“But my pa!”

“To hell with him. This is a two-person operation.” He managed to get her trousers down around her knees. “Have I ever told
you that you wear too much underwear?”

“It’s cold out there.”

“I think we should settle in a warm climate where you don’t have to wear anything at all.” His hands slipped under the three
layers of shirts. Her breasts were warm, the nipples already hard, anticipating his touch.

“Jonah!”

“Yes?” He had unbuttoned one shirt and pushed up the others to give his mouth access.

“We don’t have time.” Her voice rang with remarkably little determination as his tongue made lazy circles over each luscious
globe.

“Mmm,” was his only answer.

“We don’t—oh!”

He pushed down her long johns and ran his fingers lightly through the mound of curls between her legs. One finger slipped
inside her, then two.

“Oh, Jonah!” Moist and ready, she arched toward his caress.

“You’re right. We don’t have much time.”

She objected with a little gasp of distress as he withdrew. Her hand reached out and firmly grasped what she wanted. “Yes,
we do,” she said with iron-hard sweetness, bringing him down to where she wanted him.

He almost exploded as her fingers closed around him. They didn’t need much time. He thrust, drowning in his need to be inside
her, to know in the most primitive way that she was indeed
his. She bucked beneath him, limited in taking him deeply enough by the clothing wrapped around her knees.

“Wait,” he growled.

“No! Don’t leave me!?”

He laughed as he withdrew. “Never. I’ll never leave you.”

Efficiently he flipped her onto her stomach, lifted her to hands and knees, and thrust home, deep and hard. Each thrust made
her gasp with pleasure. Her buttocks pressed firmly into his straining groin, sucking him more deeply inside her until he
lost all control and exploded. She cried out and spasmed around him, holding him so firmly inside her he couldn’t have escaped
had he wanted to.

They collapsed onto the bed, and he held her trapped between his legs. “God, Katy! Life with you might not prove to be long,
but it’s going to be heaven.”

She sighed in answer, then jerked away from him. “Omigod! What time is it? We’ve got to go!”

Jonah groaned as she leapt from the bed and took her silky warmth with her.

“You’re wicked, Jonah!” she said with a half smile. “We should have been out of here long ago.”

He rolled out of bed and unhurriedly got dressed. “We do have some business to take care of.”

“Jonah! You’re not going to fight my pa. Swear to me that—”

A firm knock on the door interrupted her demand. She expelled a panicked breath. “It’s him. I know it’s him!” She glanced
at the tangled bed, breathed in the odor of their love making. “Now he’ll really be mad! What have I done?”

Jonah finished buttoning his trousers. “The same thing that most women in love eventually do, but I’d venture you do it better.”

She returned his grin with a glare. The knock sounded again.

“Armstrong, I know you’re in there.”

Katy paled as Jonah opened the door. There was no place to hide. But her father merely raised a brow and smiled when
he saw her standing there. She hastily pushed her loosened braids over her shoulder as if hiding the evidence of what they
had just done.

“Katy,” Gabe greeted her calmly. “Thought I might find you here as well.”

“Don’t you touch him, Pa. This is all my fault.”

“And you should be ashamed of yourself,” Gabe commented, leaning casually against the doorframe. “From the looks of him, this
man needs some rest.”

“You don’t look like a spring daisy yourself,” Jonah told the older man.

Katy’s eyes narrowed as Jonah and Gabe grinned at each other. “What is this?” Understanding dawned upon her face. “You! You
never told him to be out of town by three.”

“Well,” Gabe replied. “The steamer leaves at three-thirty, so he’d better be on his way by three if he’s going to catch it.”

“You didn’t threaten him!”

“Hell, Katy girl. I already beat him nearly to a pulp.”

“Not quite,” Jonah corrected. “You got as good as you gave.”

“True enough. How’s the jaw?”

“It’ll do. How about your head?”

“Oh, I’ve had worse.”

“You two are friends?” Katy demanded furiously. “This was all an act?”

“Hell no!” Gabe said. He came in and collapsed in a long-legged sprawl on the room’s one chair. “I followed you up here foaming
at the mouth to drag my little girl back to Montana and pulverize the scoundrel who led her astray, but I found out that Jonah’s
a good man who can defend himself pretty well and who doesn’t turn into a bastard after a few whiskeys—and more important,
he loves you. And I found out my Katy isn’t a little girl anymore, and more important, you love him.”

“So you—you—” She turned to Jonah. “And you—” Katy sputtered, speechless, and then she laughed. “Jonah, you’re going to pay
for this.”

He grinned. “Can it wait until after the honeymoon?”

“I guess it can.”

Gabe sprang to his feet. “Come on. With luck, that steamer captain will marry you on the way downriver.” He gave the bed a
knowing glance. “We’d better get you properly wed, or Olivia will hang me by the ears, which is gentle compared to what she’ll
do to Jonah.”

Jonah picked up his backpack and leaned down to give Katy a kiss. “This is not going to be an ordinary marriage.”

“It never is,” Gabe said as he closed the door behind them.

Katy O’Connell of Willow Bend, Montana, couldn’t help herself. She told the handsome Chicago newsman that
he’d
be robbed blind, chewed up, and spit out before he got halfway to the Klondike Gold Rush if he didn’t take her—and her pet
wolf Hunter—with him.When Jonan Armstrong hired her as a guide, he’d thought the sassy imp who saved him from a bar fight
was a Wiseacre
boy.
And Katy, the surest shot and best rider in town, had no idea that her Wild Ways had Overshadowed her gender.

When the truth soon surfaced, Katy was wounded to the quick, While Jonah was mad as hell, read?,to fire her, and completely
intrigued with the green-eyed hellion who looked like the woman of his dreams. Now in the rugged Yukon, where gold glittered
and danger beckoned, Jonah would have to tame this wild filly without breaking her—and learn that true love was the greatest
adventure they could face.

“THE FABULOUS EMILY CARMICHAEL ALWAYS WRITES A TREMENDOUS WESTERN ROMANCE WITH NONSTOP ACTION AND GREAT CHARACTERS.”
—Affaire de Coeur

“AN EXCELLENT ROMANCE AUTHOR…YOU ARE GUARANTEED THE UNEXPECTED FROM EMILY CARMICHAEL.”
—Romantic Times