One Bright Morning (42 page)

“
Your leg still hurts,
Jubal. I know it does,” said sweet Maggie softly.

“
I don’t care how much it
hurts. I’ve got to make love to you or die, Maggie.”

Jubal had an awful thought then. “Don’t you
want to?”

He looked so forlorn that Maggie giggled.
“Oh, yes, Jubal. I want to. I just don’t want you to hurt. You’ve
been on that fool horse every day for almost two weeks now, and
every time you come home, you can barely walk, and I know it hurts
you.”

“
I don’t care, Maggie. I
need to make love to you.”

“
You need to?” Maggie smiled
at him with infinite love.

Jubal was lying on his back, with his
condition stiffly evident. He was caressing Maggie’s arms, and his
hands were making occasionally forays over to her breasts, where he
would lovingly massage her rigid, pouty nipples.

Every time he touched her, Maggie felt as
though lightning were throbbing from his fingers straight to her
core, her reaction to his touch was so strong. Her nipples were so
sensitive that every caress sent goose bumps shooting down her
arms. She loved the way he touched her.

Right now she was running her nimble fingers
through his curly chest hairs. She absolutely loved to feel his
chest. It was so hard and the way his hair sort of thinned out into
a straight, dark line that pointed right smack to his sex drove her
to distraction. She liked that a lot. In fact, her hand began
stroking lower and lower on Jubal’s belly until he groaned deep in
his throat and growled, “God, Maggie, take me in your hand.”

So she did. “I just don’t want to hurt you,
Jubal,” she whispered.

“
There’s no way you can hurt
me by doing that, Maggie,” came out in a ragged croak. His hips
bucked under her soft caress.

Maggie had begun feeling bolder as the days
progressed. Tonight, she had an almost killing urge to kiss him in
places she wasn’t sure were supposed to be kissed. She sighed.
She’d never dreamed, even in her wildest, wickedest imagination,
that people could do the things she and Jubal had been doing these
last few nights. She was sure Kenny hadn’t even known about most of
these things.

She leaned over and kissed his belly button,
and Jubal sucked in a quick breath of pleasure.

“
Oh, yes, Maggie. Kiss
me.”

So she kissed him there. Then she dipped he
tongue into the little hole. When Jubal shut his eyes and groaned
in ecstasy, she took it as a good sign, and licked a little lower.
In fact, she made a little wet trail of kisses down his belly and
right to the curly brush of hair that grew around his manhood. Then
she decided that since she was already there, she might just as
well taste what it was that had been driving her to such incredible
peaks of ecstasy these past few days.

When she began to nibble his shaft, Jubal
thought for sure he was going to die. When she began to lick it
with long, delicious strokes, he groaned. When she took it into her
mouth and began to love it very much the way he had loved her with
his own tongue, he just about lost his mind.

Maggie was delighted with his reaction.
Knowing how much pleasure she was giving him increased her own
longings, too, until she was sure she was going to erupt into
flames of desire. Her hips began to rock in the rhythm of love even
before she straddled his hips and impaled herself on his aching
shaft.

“
Oh, my God, Maggie. Oh, my
God,” Jubal whispered. He was just about to burst. But he didn’t
want to finish before Maggie did, so he sneaked his hand between
them and found the core of her desire. He lovingly stroked her
until he heard her gasp and felt her tighten around him.

Maggie had been spiraling higher and higher
as she rode Jubal’s sex. She had never felt so powerfully in
control. Then when his fingers began to work their magic, she
soared. Her climax was shattering. She thought for sure she was
going to get lost in the burst of ecstasy that overwhelmed her.

She collapsed on Jubal’s chest and could
feel him pouring burst upon burst of his seed in her. She knew by
now that Jubal wasn’t quite sure what to do when she cried after
they made love, but she couldn’t help it. It was so wonderful. Her
tears of ecstasy soaked his chest.

But Jubal didn’t mind. He was almost getting
used to her reaction. He anticipated it. He was proud that he could
do this to her. He held her tight as he tried to catch his
breath.

“
It’s just getting better,
Maggie,” he whispered when he could talk. “It’s just getting better
and better and better.”

Maggie was still sobbing, so she couldn’t do
more than nod her head in agreement.

Chapter Seventeen

Prometheus Mulrooney had to spend a couple
of days at a hotel in Santa Fe, recuperating from the rigors of his
uncomfortable journey back from Lincoln.

Ferrett and Pelch took every moment they
were given away from his presence to hie themselves over to his
train carriage and try to saw through the wrought iron railing on
his private observation deck. It was slow going.

“
I don’t think we’ve even
made a dent, Mr. Pelch,” said Ferrett, wiping his forehead with a
red bandanna he’d bought at a local mercantile. Ferrett had never
owned a red bandanna before. It made him feel very
Western.

Pelch sighed and stared at the railing. “I’m
afraid we’re going to need more saw blades, Mr. Ferrett.”

Ferrett eyed the now-dull blade mournfully.
“I believe you’re right, Mr. Pelch.”

“
I shall fetch them, Mr.
Ferrett, if you will continue to saw.”

“
That’s a wonderful idea,
Mr. Pelch. We still have two hours left to work before the devil
wants us back.”

“
I’ll hurry, Mr.
Ferrett.”

“
Thank you, Mr.
Pelch.”

They worked for hours and hours every day
while Mulrooney rested. By the end of the fourth day, Ferrett
believed he could see a tiny indentation where the saw blade had
nicked the metal, but Pelch seemed dubious. Both men were very
unhappy that their plan didn’t seem to be working as well as they
had hoped.

“
If this doesn’t work, Mr.
Pelch, I don’t know what to do,” admitted Ferrett.

“
I don’t either, Mr.
Ferrett,” said Pelch.

They sat and stared into the starry sky for
a few moments without speaking. They had been sawing for hours and
it was late.

Pelch sighed. “Still,” he said. “You did
have this one idea. It was a good one, and it isn’t your fault that
the iron is difficult. Perhaps you’ll have another idea, Mr.
Ferrett.” Pelch’s voice was bracing, as though he were encouraging
his friend to think hard.

Ferrett sighed, too. “I thought it was a
good idea at the time, Mr. Pelch. I guess it wasn’t, though.”

“
Well, we don’t know that
yet, Mr. Ferrett. We can still work on it.”

“
I guess so.” Ferrett didn’t
sound exactly pleased at the thought.

“
And you might well think of
another brilliant idea, too, Mr. Ferrett.”

“
Maybe,” said Ferrett
glumly.

Pelch sighed again, deeply.

“
Yes,” he said.

# # #

Even though Jubal had finagled Maggie to
himself while in El Paso, he had to take guards with him on the
road there. It was more than a four-hour drive in the wagon and,
although most of the travel was across his own land and he hadn’t
heard from Mulrooney for a long time, he didn’t believe for a
moment that he and Maggie had faded from his enemy’s mind. And
anybody who remained on Prometheus Mulrooney’s mind remained in
danger. If Mulrooney’s hired thugs chose to attack Jubal on his own
land today, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Still, the journey was a pleasant one.
Maggie’s attention was unfettered by concerns for Annie, and she
was no longer shy around Jubal. Or, at any rate, she was not very
shy around him. Maggie hadn’t yet figured out exactly what Jubal
Green wanted from her, although he had proposed marriage to her. At
least she thought he had. That wasn’t altogether clear to her. And
she hadn’t yet decided what she wanted from him, either. She was
happy, though. She was very, very happy.

She sat close to Jubal and held his arm.
Since it was his right arm she was clutching, she made sure her
grip wasn’t tight, and she smoothed his flannel shirt every now and
again as if to rub away any aches. Jubal smiled at her concern.

“
It’s all right, Maggie. I
like it when you hold me.”

“
Well, I don’t want to
squish you, Jubal. Your wound is still too tender for
that.”

“
I don’t think you could
squish me if you tried, Maggie,” Jubal chuckled.

Maggie pinched one of his large biceps just
to test it. It was remarkably hard. “I think you’re right,” she
announced.

Her eyes swept the landscape and she hugged
Jubal’s arm again. “Oh, Lordy, Jubal, just think. When we go home
again, I’ll be able to see all this. I mean, I’ll be able to
really, really see it, ‘cause I’ll have on my new spectacles.”

Her voice held barely subdued rapture and
Jubal smiled. He felt good, too. It did not slip his notice,
either, that Maggie had referred to his ranch as “home.”

She still hadn’t said she’d marry him. Of
course, she hadn’t said she wouldn’t, either. Then again, he hadn’t
asked her except that one time, and he wasn’t altogether certain
that counted since he hadn’t actually come right out and said,
point blank, that he wanted her to be his wife. For the rest of his
life. For the rest of her life.

Jubal wasn’t sure why the
thought of marriage held such terror for him.
Probably an heirloom left over from my parents’
example
, was his dour
assessment.

Maggie chatted happily about the patio and
about how much she enjoyed being around Beula as they bumped along
in the rough ranch wagon. Jubal was surprised that he didn’t find
her chit-chat annoying. He usually didn’t enjoy listening to women
gab. In fact, he hated it. But Maggie was different. She didn’t
blither.

After a while, though, Maggie ran out of
chat. She sat on the hard seat and hugged Jubal’s arm and stared
about her. Jubal noticed that a sigh escaped her occasionally.

After about the fourth one of those sighs,
he began to worry about them.

“
Is everything all right,
Maggie?”

Maggie was a little taken aback at his
question. “Of course everything’s all right, Jubal. Everything’s
just fine.”

Jubal frowned slightly. “Then why aren’t you
talking anymore?”

Maggie looked up at him in surprise. “Why, I
don’t know. I guess I don’t have any more to say.”

Jubal scowled down at her. “Then why are you
sighing?”

Maggie eyed him for a second or two before
answering the question. Then she sighed again.

“
Oh, I don’t know,” she
admitted. “I guess I’m just thinking about how nice it is to be at
your place and to be fixing up that pretty patio and having a
friend and Annie having friends and all that. And—and being with
you. It’s going—Well, I guess it’s going to be real hard to leave
it all.” She swallowed hard after that admission.

Jubal’s scowl was growing more ferocious by
the second. There she went again, rattling on about going back to
that blasted farm of hers. At least she’d stopped yakking about her
dead husband every other second.

“
I wish you’d stop talking
about going back,” he grumped.

Maggie blinked up at him. She opened her
mouth and then shut it again with a snap. Her brow furrowed and she
looked a little bit confused.

“
Well,” she finally said, “I
don’t guess there’s anyplace else I can go, is there?”

She sighed again. Of course, she might be
willing to consider staying with Jubal Green, if he’d ask her.
Maggie had tried and tried to remember what exactly it was that
he’d said to her the night they arrived, but she couldn’t quite put
her finger on it, no matter how hard she pondered. She was
absolutely certain, however, that he hadn’t looked at all happy
when he said he’d been thinking about marrying her. And he hadn’t
asked again.

The thought of marrying Jubal Green actually
appealed to her a great deal, but she’d be roasted in hell before
she’d make him marry her if he was reluctant to do it. Besides, she
really did have to go back to Kenny’s farm. She was honor-bound to
go back. It was Kenny’s dream.

Maggie felt ashamed of herself when she
realized just how far away from being her own dream Kenny’s farm
had slipped. In fact, the thought of returning to that
hard-scrabble farm was becoming downright depressing. She sighed
yet again, and knew she had to go back. The farm was not merely
Kenny’s dream; it was Annie’s legacy.

“
Will you quit that?” Jubal
was near to shouting now.

“
I’m sorry, Jubal. I don’t
mean to fret you.” Tarnation, this man was touchy. Maggie tried to
keep her annoyance tamped down.

“
And stop apologizing to me,
damn it!”

Maggie didn’t know what to say for a second.
Then she gave up trying to figure out what he wanted and cried, her
voice brittle, “Oh, Jubal, I can’t help it. I really don’t know
what else to do. I don’t want to leave you. I can’t give up my
farm. I’ve got to make a decision that I’m going to hate one way or
the other. And you won’t even let me apologize for making you mad.
I don’t know what to do!”

She was kneading her hands together now and
looked up at him with such a poignant combination of emotions
playing on her features that he couldn’t stay angry. He realized
that she was unsure of her future and knew it was his fault. That
made him feel bad and he wanted to reassure her. But, although he
wanted to, he didn’t think it was appropriate to declare his
intentions right this minute, as they sat together on the hard
plank seat of a rough wood wagon while they bounced along through
the dust devils on the dry dirt road towards El Paso.