The Beloved Woman (30 page)

He kicked his trousers onto the floor and knelt beside her, one hand resting reassuringly on her belly. “Aw, Katie, Katie, I hope it won’t.”

He lay down next to her, and she molded herself to his side. The unhurried atmosphere of a moment earlier was
lost in a whirlwind of swift, bawdy caresses. His hands roamed over her. Finally he manacled her against him with one arm and pulled her topmost leg over his thighs, while he kissed her roughly, his mouth open and utterly without inhibition. She rubbed her leg up and down on his. When she put a hand on his arousal he threw his head back and shut his eyes.

“You got no qualms about pleasurin’ a man there?” he asked hoarsely.

“No. Is that bad?”

“Good. Katie. I can’t believe anything could be so good.”

She carefully stroked one thigh, then the other, marveling at the size and strength of his body, the lean, ropy muscles and their soft covering of reddish-brown hair. She raised her hand and slowly rested it on his arousal again. “So smooth,” she murmured, barely breathing. She ran her fingertips along the shaft, then explored the taut pouch beneath it. “Does it feel good when I do this?” she whispered.

“Like I died and went to heaven.”

She pressed small kisses to his shoulder and neck. “When my sisters and I were little, we saw two people from the Talachee village lying together in the woods. So we watched. We thought all the odd things they did to each other were
very
funny.” Her fingers brushed up and down his belly. “The woman did something to the man that I never understood. Until now.”

Trembling, not knowing what he’d think of her boldness, she quickly sat up and leaned over his thighs. She kissed the tip of his arousal, then feathered several more kisses down the shaft. The taste and texture were a primitive enticement that made her want him even more.

His low moan of shock and delight told her she’d done the right thing. He grasped her head and pulled her toward him. His hooded, starkly sensual gaze sent fire
through her blood. “Have you no shame, woman?” he teased hoarsely.

“Not where you are concerned. And”—she studied him closely for a reaction—“I wasn’t raised to be delicate, as a white woman is.”

He stroked her hair, wound his hands into it, and said between gritted teeth, “That’s why I want you. Not just in bed, either.”

She kissed him happily. “We will be grand together, then.”

“Katlanicha.” He whispered the name across her mouth. “Katlanicha.”

They traded slow, damp kisses. She copied everything he did and measured her success by the small, thrilling noises he made. He rolled her on top of him. “Just let me see the need in those black eyes.”

“See it?” she murmured, emotion nearly trapping the words in her throat. Her eyelids felt weighted, her face warm.

“Like a promise.” His thumbs moved over her cheek-bones, then slid to her mouth. She kissed them, then sucked the one that he slipped between her lips.

She straddled him because it was a very pleasant way to remain where she was, but as soon as her knees sank into the soft mattress she settled atop his arousal. The tip was so close to entering her, it tantalized her silky, swollen flesh and made her hips move languidly.

“Be still now,” he crooned. “You’ll loosen up real good if we play awhile. Then I’ll put you on your back and take you gentle and slow. Lord, it’s hard for me to wait too.”

He slid his hands down her spine and cupped her hips. She looked at him with bittersweet adoration.
I love you
. “For you,” she whispered.

“No, Katie!”

His hands dug into her buttocks to stop her, but she slid herself swiftly onto his thick shaft. He grabbed her
shoulders as she cried out in distress. She bit her lip to keep from whimpering again, but the stinging pain made tears pool in her eyes. She tried to smile.

“Sweet, stubborn gal,” he muttered. He folded her close to him and stroked her back. “Lie still.”

She burrowed her face into his shoulder and drew long, shaky breaths. “I’m glad I did it, but, oh, it hurts.” She felt as if everything inside her were stretching to accept him.

He molded his big, gentle hands to her and massaged her from neck to hip, crooning soft sounds in her ear, tickling her cheek with his mustache. “That’ll learn you to listen to my advice.”

“
Teach
you.”

He slapped her rump lightly in rebuke, then rubbed the slapped spot. “
Teach
you.” He added in a growling voice, “I sure will teach you.”

As he slowly flexed his hips under her, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the torturous pain. But he slid back and forth gently, nudging her deep inside with such care that it didn’t hurt anymore. She exhaled in relief and slowly began to squeeze his sides with her knees.

He kissed her until she could barely think, and his thighs flexed upward at a faster pace. She gazed at the slumberous, primitive heat in his eyes and knew that it was matched in hers. Pleasure, like before, made her ache. This time he stroked the ache in a different way, with even greater effect.

Her hands kneaded his chest in a quick, mindless rhythm, and she circled her hips, discovering realms of pleasure she hadn’t even imagined. Her eyes shut, she gave her senses to the feel of Justis’s powerful body thrusting into her, his belly tightening with hers, the musky, exciting scent rising from their joining, the guttural sounds he made in the back of his throat.

In the midst of a sweet daze she heard him caress her
with her own name. Its effect was so potent, she kissed him in rough, greedy response. Then she felt him begin to lift her off his thighs, to withdraw.

“No, no,” she begged. “Justis, don’t go yet. Oh, Justis.”

He cursed helplessly as she enclosed him again and cried out long phrases in Cherokee, their meaning evident in her tone of praise. She clung to him and writhed as sensation crested inside her. His back arched like a tightly drawn bow and he plunged into her deeply, then held her as he quivered with release. A fierce growl of pleasure and defeat rushed from his throat.

They looked at each other in silence, catching their breath. Katherine felt the creamy flood of his seed slip down her thighs. She searched his troubled gaze and saw a frown growing on his face. Her head drooped to his shoulder.

“My fault,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize why you were trying to stop me.”

“Shhh. I was so crazy for the feel of you that I didn’t think right. I was the teacher—I knew what was happenin’ better than you did.” His hand rose to her head and he stroked her hair. The other hand he slipped around her shoulders to hold her snugly. “No more recklessness, Katie. I promise.”

“It was wonderful,” she said with a happy sigh.

After a moment he sighed in agreement. “Better than anything.” They lay there, sweaty, still joined, emotions shimmering between them until she could barely tell whether the heart beating steadily against her rib cage was hers or his.
You will always stand in my soul
, she told him silently.

“Katie Gallatin,” he drawled in a languid, thoughtful tone, his hand still caressing her hair. “Katlanicha Blue Song Gallatin. We’re gonna have ourselves a helluva time together.”

She hugged him until her arms ached and prayed that it would never end.

CHAPTER 14

I
F
K
ATHERINE
weren’t a happily married woman, she was sure doing a fine imitation of one, Justis decided over the next few weeks. She seemed to enjoy her roles as teacher and partner, and he had no doubt that she enjoyed her role as lover. She treated him with unreserved affection and a wanton desire that matched his own.

During the day he let her go her own way, though he was eager to be with her. She seemed to want her time alone, and he tried not to wonder if she craved his company a great deal more in bed than out.

He spent his time meeting with men who had plenty of ideas on how to spend someone else’s money. His personal banker, who for the past several years had managed the accounts for the three hundred thousand dollars made from Blue Song gold, had helped Justis make some contacts in the shipping business. Chances were good that the Gallatin name would be on a pair of handsome freight brigs before spring ended.

When he got bored with businessmen’s claptrap, feeling restless in their stuffy offices and elite dining clubs, he slipped away and walked the city. Even with all of Katherine’s instructions on etiquette, he still felt awkward with the silly rules of society. He was at his best when he could find a good fire and join in the fighting of it with a group of the city’s volunteer firemen. They were nearly all Irish, and for the first time in his life he saw his heritage as something worth having, something to be proud of.

At the end of each day he and Katherine discussed the business deals he had investigated. He knew it was odd—some might even say sinful—to talk business with a woman, but Katherine was smarter than other women and most men. She read all of New York’s newspapers and used the information to give him sensible advice. With her patient help he improved his own reading by practicing on the stories she considered most important.

She was more relaxed than he’d ever seen her before. New Yorkers weren’t a problem the way people had been in Gold Ridge; they tended to be genuinely fascinated by her, not scornful. Still, when they were out in public he tried to shield her from the curious stares of strangers, and God help anyone stupid enough to ask her a rude question about Indians within his earshot.

She surprised him with the circle of well-to-do lady friends she’d already made. Katherine didn’t cultivate them for their idle gossip and prissy devotion to matronhood, but with an eye toward making business contacts. Many of her new acquaintances were the wives of important men—merchants, lawyers, bankers, businessmen of all sorts—and through their dinner invitations Justis had already begun several promising deals.

Katherine said her lady friends were merely titillated by the notion of having an exotic in their midst. Justis suspected she was right, but he told her they were damned lucky to have her anyway, and he meant it. He
was glad for her friends, no matter what their motives, because with them she could safely attend female lectures, visit museums, and shop.

And shop she did. She outfitted herself in tasteful and elegant style, and he almost burst with pride when he took her out walking. She also supervised his wardrobe with glee, dragging him to tailors and hatmakers and all kinds of fancy specialists until he had more clothes than he’d ever have needed if she hadn’t insisted on variety.

Justis leaned back in a parlor chair, tossed several shipping trade reports aside, and pulled a gold watch from his vest pocket. The watch was a gift from Katie. He smiled. The lovely she-cat had pinned it to her drawers. He’d found it one evening as he was hurriedly undressing her.

He was checking the time impatiently when a key rattled in the hall door. He leapt up to let her in. She stepped over the threshold, smiled, and held out her arms expectantly. She wasn’t a bit surprised when he pulled her bonnet and cape off as he was shutting the door, and removed the rest of her clothes as he led her toward the bedroom. She was too busy undressing him.

As he took her into his arms he prayed that she’d never leave.

K
ATHERINE FOUND IT
helpful to sit and daydream these days, lost in warm memories and warmer anticipation, pretending that Justis loved her dearly. Lounging in a tall, upholstered armchair in the hotel’s parlor for ladies, a stack of magazines lying unread in her lap, she shut her eyes and smiled.

After two months of marriage she could almost believe they would be together forever. If Justis regretted their forced marriage, he never said so. She was certain he was happy with her,
when
he was with her. He stayed out every day during the week, and often on the weekends.
He dined out several nights each week with men from his growing circle of business acquaintances.

She hid her loneliness and made certain to look preoccupied with her own duties, which included studying real estate possibilities for him and keeping an eye on all the financial news carried by the newspapers. Maintaining her resolve to build her own life, she made few demands on his time. She rarely asked him to accompany her somewhere just for entertainment, and insisted that he go to business functions even when the invitations didn’t include wives.