Turning away from her about-to-depart family she crossed the threshold seizing the edges of the two double doors and slamming them shut behind her, hard enough to make one of the colorful, oil landscapes on the wall to droop crookedly.
“I damn well hope you are ready because you are about to get it in spades!” and in one fluid motion she closed the gap between them and thrust her arms out knocking him onto the bed, where he threw his head back and roared in laughter.
Lijuan’s hands were balled up into fists and rested firmly on her curvaceous hips.
“You find something funny?”
“I’ve never been manhandled by someone your size! But after everything you did today, I’m guessing I shouldn’t be surprised!”
Lijuan was starting to feel her old self again now, the feeling of power that was beginning to course through her was no stranger but a welcome old friend.
Maybe she couldn't control the fact that David was wasting his life with that Yavapai woman, but here and now in this situation, she could control everything and quite adeptly at that!
She lost little time scrambling up to straddle him, her long brownish/black hair hanging down from around her slender face as she smirked over him and grabbed his shirt. “You haven’t seen anything yet!” she told the man as the hotel room filled with the sound of tearing fabric as she ripped open his shirt, two of the buttons pelting her in the face and the rest scattering about.
He gave her an appreciative look just before she lowered herself, her tongue diving deep within his mouth as her left hand dropped between his legs, feeling for the ever-growing bulge between them. When she found it, she gave a squeeze that made him jerk up in pleasure.
Lijuan closed her eyes as she imagined what she wanted him to do to her. His muscled hands were working on her body finding the mounds of the large, ball-like breasts all four of the women from Cedar Ledge were known for and began to massage them with delight as a spark that had been burning within Lijuan erupted into a full-blown flame.
She ran her hands over his hairy biceps before bringing them lower to travel across the cowboy’s jeans held in place by a brown hide belt. One hand once more glided to the promising bulge that lay beneath them. His hands slipped behind her and cupped her heart shaped ass but she reached back and brought them back around front. Lijuan leaned in slowly as she took his coarse hand and placed it on her breast, cupping her hand over it. Cauley made to cup the other boob but she slapped his hand away. She scowled as Cauley grinned but she had to show him she was going to be the one in charge of their carnal adventure.
Drawing back, she swiftly, unbuckled the belt and pulled down the jeans which were hampered by Cauley’s riding boots at his feet. Lijuan tugged at the boots and off they came, throwing them on to the hard wooden floor. Taking a step back from the bed as she began to pull out of her own clothes; off came her boots, jeans. Blouse and underwear. She ran a hand down her long blackish/brown hair and shook her head to give it spread.
In his eyes he could see the man's lust for her as they drank in her sizable boobs, capped by good size areolas, swaying above her narrow waist that blossomed out into curvaceous hips holding the dark triangular patch at their center that was the prize of many a man before him. Those same men who had seized those very hips as they hefted her petite frame down on their rigid cocks.
Yes, Lijuan was very familiar with the look he was giving her. She was beautiful and she knew it. All her sisters were. Lijuan didn’t consider it prideful to feel that way. It was simply a fact. She knew full well if they weren’t men who might normally hesitate to lay with women outside their race wouldn’t trifle with them but their beauty combined with their figures were catnip to the male persuasion as well as a few females in the case of her youngest sister Cattie.
His eyes, however, weren't the only ones feasting this night as her own indulged in enjoying the sight of the long, thick rod he was packing. The rannie interlocked his fingers behind his head and continued looked at her with desire. To her delight, he twitched his large dick from side to side as an invitation for her to come get it.
She was about to move in on the snaking cock when outside she heard the cheer of the crowd. So, this was it she thought…the family was heading back to the beauty that was their ranch with Bright Feather in tow as she always was. Determined to free herself from the stress the day had put her under she drew on one of the two sure-fire methods she possessed to do that.
Besides throwing herself into her work of running all of the five hundred square mile Cedar Ledge ranch her other true way of dealing with the stress and frustrations that came with being Lijuan Wilde was through sex. Given all the pent-up emotional turmoil swirling within her due to the fact it had truly been a day from hell, she hoped Jim Cauley was locked and loaded because they were in for a marathon. Licking her lips, she pounced.
THE BANKS OF THE LITTLE MESCALERO
ARIZONA TERRITORY
CHAPTER 1
* * *
EARLIER
“You had enough, Beautiful and Graceful one?” Dutch Wilde called out using the Chinese meaning of his younger sister Lijuan’s name as he was often known to do. It always elicited a grin from Lijuan and he was happy to do it. He knew full well that his sibling took pride in her culture and heritage even though her time in her homeland had been spent as a mere infant with no memories of it.
Lijuan retained her grip on the rocker arm that she was kneeling next to and ceased her seemingly tireless rocking. Her eyes scanned down into the rocker and to no surprise, there was nary a glitter of gold. She looked up at him and smiled as she blew out a long breath.
"I'm afraid so, David. For the one-millionth time, it looks like it's still not looking to surrender any treasure!" she replied invoking the use of his given name which she alone was allowed to do. As a child, he had taken a liking to the name Dutch and began calling himself that, and it had caught on with the world, except Lijuan. He didn’t mind though. If it made her happy to do so, it made him happy.
“Then it looks like I won’t be needing these!”
With a grin that couldn't be contained, he let go of his grip on two buckets that hung from his hands and they splashed below the water before rising again having spilled out the soil he had shoveled into them. With them empty, he snatched them up again and with his strong arms, he flung them back up on the bank.
“I especially think this is the right time to pack things up! Take a look at what is coming,” She laughed.
Dutch glanced up the stream to see a copious amount of cow pies floating in their direction, buoyed along by the current. A slight tremor they had felt earlier now explained itself.
“Looks like someone just moved a herd across the creek upstream! Yes, it’s definitely time to pack it in.”
Lijuan was further up the edge of the Little Mescalero Creek and he was farther out from the shore when he yanked the shovel out of where he had stuck it into the bottom of the creek bed earlier. Dutch trudged his way towards her as the knee-deep water became shallower the closer he moved in her direction, the cow pies floating by behind him. In no time at all the pair working together had picked up the ancient gold sifting device he had purchased years ago at Treadwell's Assayer Shop, and they hefted it up onto the bank.
With their equipment now all out of the water. Lijuan dropped onto the checkered blanket she had spread out earlier when they had first arrived and Dutch fell in next to her. Lijuan was wearing pants and a shirt that had both been rolled up as high as possible to keep them dry but she had still gotten soaked during their gold panning efforts. Dutch, too, had rolled up his pants to his knees but, being a man, had the advantage of going bare-chested. The intense Arizona sun coupled with the challenging work they had done left him bathed in sweat.
With thanks, he accepted a towel Lijuan handed to him at the same moment he had handed her a canteen that lay on the edge of the blanket. She took a long pull from it before handing it back to him so he could take an equally large
swig off from it.
For a long moment afterwards, the siblings sat in silence and just looked out on the bubbling Little Mescalero as it traveled along its way to the eventual completion of its journey by spilling into the Rock River that snaked its way through the heart of their beloved ranch known as Cedar Ledge or its nickname of Half Breed Haven.
That nickname had been originally used by those long ago who had hoped to hurt the unquestionably unique family of Judge William Henry “Whip” Wilde. The girls, however, had eventually turned it right back on them by having the letters HBH crafted in a large metallic circle that to this day stood atop the gate to the family’s ranch. More than that they had adopted the nickname for themselves and were known to many as the Daughters of Half Breed Haven.
The women now delighted in their moniker and how it bonded them, but sometimes Dutch wondered if they ever noticed that he not ever, not even once, had used it for them or for the ranch. The reason for that, which he kept to himself, was he could not let go of the fact of its origins to wound the girls and his half-Indian brother Blue River. He loved them all so much, that the idea of those wishing to hurt them because they were different caused a fury within him still. Yes, he loved them all and though he probably would never admit it even to himself, none more so than the woman that sat next to him now.
When Whip had returned home after being presumed lost at sea following a shipwreck off China it had been to a joyous reunion with his family. Adding to the joy was he did not come alone. With him was a baby girl he had fathered during that lost time. Dutch was still very young himself at that time, but the words his nanny Miss Lizzie kept saying to him stuck with him. “You gonna be a big brother now, child! You gots someone to look out for now!”
He had lived by those words ever since. The young boy doted on his little sister as they grew older and the whole family, looking back knew it had been a good thing that he had. As children, Cassandra had been consumed with jealousy at not being the only girl in the family any longer. The immature child had even refused to believe Lijuan was really her blood sister for the longest time.
When Honor came into the world, sadly at the expense of Miss Lizzie’s life from the rigors of childbirth, Cassandra had sung a different tune. She welcomed her latest sister because she had loved Miss Lizzie who had for all practical purposes raised her and Dutch. However, she still kept Lijuan at arm’s length. It had that stayed that way, even as the other children came along, until one fateful day when it had all come to a head in an explosive situation between Dutch, Lijuan, and Cassandra. In the aftermath, a healing had begun between the twelve-year-old Lijuan and sixteen-year-old Cassandra.
Now, as all the Wildes would do for each other, Cassandra would give her own life for Lijuan, and a deep abiding love flowed between them. Dutch knew Cassandra would never forgive herself for how she had been to Lijuan as a child and he also knew that she was grateful Dutch had been there for their little sister sparing Lijuan from the lonely childhood her actions would have caused but not for him. Their closeness remained across the years right up until this very day as the pair carried out their annual tradition on the banks of the Little Mescalero, though thanks to Dutch it had nearly not happened this year.
“Let’s eat!” Lijuan called out cheerfully as she reached for the picnic basket the ranch’s cook Old Mrs. Chow had packed for them before they set out on their prospecting mission that morning.
Dutch gratefully accepted the ham on rye sandwich she handed to him after she pulled out a turkey on white for herself. Long ago Dutch had ceased to marvel over the size of the sandwiches Mrs. Chow would make and instead concentrate on enjoying them.
Lijuan plucked out some deviled eggs and put them on a plate and passed them over to her brother while placing some on a plate of her own. Before wolfing down the first one she paused for a moment to reach behind her head and feel for the ribbon. Before they had set out that morning, she had tied her long hair up in a bunch so it wouldn't get in the way as they went out their gold panning activities. Now that it was done, she pulled the ribbon out.
Dutch watched as her tresses tumbled down on her shoulders and back and she shook them, leaving them with something of a wild appearance.
“I look a mess, don’t I?” she laughed.
“Not at all, Lijuan. This is the West, remember.”
"Tell that to Honor Elizabeth. You know how she won't wear the identical hat the rest of us do or any hat for that matter. The way she's always fussing about ‘my hair, my hair!'"
The siblings burst into laughter, and Lijuan playfully leaned over and bumped her shoulder into his and they continued laughing. As they did, Dutch thought about how many years the pair had been coming out here. Had he really just been a fifteen-year-old boy then? Yes, one who their father had decided needed a lesson.
A warm feeling rolled over him as he watched Lijuan dig into her sandwich and he thought about how he came to own this worthless gold claim. In the years since Whip and his new bride Mercedes Corderro had first created Cedar Ledge ranch, it had grown more prosperous year after year. Sadly, Catalina's mother had not lived long enough to enjoy seeing the success of her vision continue to grow.
The abundance of money led Dutch to wantonly charge up numerous expenses at several of the general stores in Alamieda. When Whip had received the bills, he had confronted the young man. Cavalierly, Dutch had said that he knew the ranch was doing very well and couldn’t understand the big deal about spending money so freely.
This had made his father livid that the youngster didn't appreciate the value of being judicious with one's own money. To Dutch's surprise, he opened his safe in his office at the ranch and plucked out a small bag of coins and tossed them across his office into Dutch's hands. Whip had told him that he had been holding onto that for years. It was an inheritance from a long-dead grandparent of Kelly Wilde, Whip's first wife and he and Cassandra's mother.
Whip in no uncertain terms had told him that was his money and it was the only money he would be allowed to spend going forward and to use it wisely. As he raced out of Whip’s office with glee he heard Whip saying to the teenage Cassandra who had been standing in the office with them with her arms crossed that he would blow through that money in record time, leaving him with nothing but a lesson to spend your own money wisely.
As the Arizona sun continued to glint off the creek and Lijuan went about cutting them both a slice of apple pie, he shook his head in laughter at how right Whip had been. The next time he had gone into town he had come upon a group of men gathered around a heavyset man, whose jowls on his hound dog face shook every time he laughed. He was showing the crowd a bag of gold dust from property he had owned along the Little Mescalero, several towns away over by Stanton’s Gap.
Accompanying Dutch that day had been Cassandra and Lijuan. Cassie had urged for them to be on their way to the general store to shop as they had planned, but Dutch wanted to stay and listen to the man. As soon as the man poured the gold dust from the bag into his hand the young teenager was overcome by gold fever as so many men before him had succumbed to.
Cassandra especially wanted to leave when the man said he was selling claims along the river to serious buyers. Dutch chuckled inwardly that it was probably the future Pinkerton in her that was telling her the man was up to no good. She had scoffed to her sibling that if there was really gold there then the man wouldn’t be selling it, he would be keeping it all to himself, but Dutch wouldn’t listen. The bug had bitten him and there was no escape.
Right on the spot, Dutch said he was going to use the money he carried with them for the shopping trip to buy a claim. Lijuan, with wide eyes, became excited for him. The girl practically worshiped him and she shook her head enthusiastically at his plan. Cassie had simply thrown her hands up, knowing her father had been right. Dutch would find a way to blow that money and now that way had just presented itself. She walked away as Lijuan encouraged Dutch to get the man's attention and tell him he wanted a claim.
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To the surprise of no one, the claim turned out to be worthless when Dutch having spent the rest of his money on prospecting tools had set out with Lijuan to pan for gold. Dutch of course refused to admit he had been duped by the man whose bag of gold dust was either fool's gold or actual gold he had gotten from some other source. Doggedly, he and Lijuan returned to work the claim each year and Dutch's cry that this was the year when they would actually find the gold had been part of the tradition. They never did strike it rich and the time came when Dutch would go off to West Point and eventually to fight the War Between the States.
Finally, Dutch had returned home at the end of the war. That battle-hardened soldier had ended his duty with the twin nightmares of a stint in the notorious Andersonville prisoner of war camp and his involvement in a tragic incident on the Mississippi when prisoners of war were being transported home. All this had led to a very difficult time adjusting. He had wished to return to his duties with the cavalry as soon as possible, but the Army had ordered him to take time off to recuperate.
Desperate to get through to her withdrawn brother, Lijuan finally cajoled him to leave Cedar Ledge and ride over to the claim with her, and they would work it just like old times when they teenagers. Dutch had enjoyed himself immensely and the walls he had put up since his return had begun to start tumbling down and it had been Lijuan who had worked the hardest to bring him back from the dark place he had been in.
By 1868 he had become nearly his old self again and just in time too, because that was when he had become reacquainted with his brother’s older half-sister. Bright Feather, who was the woman who had brought him the deepest, truest love he had ever known, was also the woman at whose side he should be this very moment instead of panning for gold. Yet here he was through her graciousness, and he loved her for it he thought as his chin dipped to his chest.
Sing The Death Song: Dutch Wilde & Bright Feather Western Adventure (Half Breed Haven Book 6) Page 2