Cassie schooled her features into a mask of composure as she awaited the selection. Glancing at Shane, she wondered if their proximity to each other affected him as it had her. She met his eyes—smoky and probing—and immediately knew that it had.
His gaze lowered to pause lingeringly at the curve of her breast. She met his gaze and flushed, not from embarrassment but from desire.
Cassie tore her gaze from Shane’s when the actor began to speak, reciting a Shakespearean sonnet. The townspeople applauded enthusiastically when he reached the end of the first reading.
While the actor recited the second selection, Cassie looked around the room at all the intent faces, then glanced up at Shane, who also seemed absorbed in the actor’s words. She couldn’t quash the smile that hovered on her lips as the actor got closer to the portions of the poem she knew so well.
“‘…This is the press of a bashful hand…’”
She placed her hand softly in Shane’s. He glanced down at her, eyes darkening further in pleasure as the actor continued. Cassie’s tongue slowly traced a path around her lips while Shane watched in fascination.
“‘…Press close bare-bosom’d night…’”
Knowing she was playing with fire but unable to resist the temptation, Cassie flicked a long raven curl over her bosom as Shane’s eyes followed her every movement. He swallowed and straightened up a bit on the pew.
“‘…O unspeakable passionate love…We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry…’”
Refusing to dwell on where her actions might take her, Cassie languidly unfastened the button on her cuff as Shane’s eyes widened, and his breathing visibly changed. Holding his gaze, she ran her finger lightly up his arm and watched him turn an unhealthy shade of red.
“‘…the hand roaming all over the body, the bashful drawing of flesh…’”
Cassie raked her nails lightly across Shane’s thigh, then met his tortured eyes. Wrapping a strand of hair around her finger, she twirled it slowly while Shane fidgeted on the hard planking. She wondered suddenly if his discomfort was physical and possibly visible. Allowing her eyes to drift downward, they fell on the straining cloth of his Levi’s. Raising her eyes, she saw the muscle in his cheek twitch nervously.
“‘…takes his will of her, and holds himself tight till he is satisfied…’”
She drew a tantalizing finger across Shane’s palm. He jumped slightly and picked up his hat, fanning himself with the Stetson. Smothering her grin, she noticed that the room was aflutter with fans and handkerchiefs. Woe to the good people of Keenonburg!
Cassie tapped her fingernails lightly against Shane’s knee, and he jerked sideways. She smiled into his eyes, doubting he could take much more. Was that a nervous tic he was developing?
“‘…winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me it shall be you!…’”
Bending her head to control her smile, she then slowly flicked her tongue around her lips again. Shane’s eyes bugged a bit more. When she heard the next words, she almost wished she hadn’t.
“‘…phallic thumb of love, breasts of love, bellies pres’d and glued together with love…’”
Unable to resist, Cassie dropped a deliberate wink at Shane, who in turn, dropped his hat on the floor. As he bent to retrieve it, Cassie bent over, too, her breath brushing close to his. When their eyes met, Shane looked like a condemned man. Finally, taking pity on him, Cassie retreated a bit and only held his perspiring hand, sitting sedately through the last few stanzas.
When the actor finished, an uncertain spattering of applause was heard throughout the room. Most of the townspeople weren’t sure if they’d been culturally enriched or morally outraged. Uncertain, they simply smiled weakly at one another as they headed outdoors. When they reached the boardwalk, Shane drew Cassie aside.
He pulled her down the walk before she could utter a word of protest or agreement. “You trying to make me crazy?”
“Did it work?” she asked, remembering how he’d set her astir in church and in the buggy.
“You’re a pip, Cassie darlin’, a real pip.” Shane raked his hands through his hair, a sure sign of his agitation.
She smiled slowly, seductively, and he almost dropped his hat again. He wondered if Cassie could possibly know the effect she was having on him. He wanted nothing more than to drag her off into the night, the consequences be damned.
Still she didn’t speak, instead swaying close to him. Not touching him, just tantalizing him with her nearness.
To hell with it, he was going to drag her off! Before Cassie could offer more than a moue of surprise, Shane swept her off the boardwalk and through the dark alleys.
“Shane, where…?”
He didn’t answer, instead walking so quickly down the alleyway they were almost running. Just as abruptly, he stopped. Having found his destination, Shane opened the double doors of the livery. Cassie stared with wide eyes as Shane flung the doors open. Standing stock-still, she moved forward with a jerk when Shane pulled her inside. He released her long enough to set the heavy wooden board in place, effectively locking out any intruders.
Cassie’s eyes strained in the darkness as she heard the clanking of a lantern and smelled the quick flare of sulphur when Shane struck a match against the sole of his boot. The soft glow of the lantern cast a golden aura over the shadowed corners of the livery.
Her breath grew ragged when Shane’s eyes lit on hers. There was no threat in his expression, only a promise that her teasing had heightened his desire, fired his determination.
Involuntarily she stepped backward as Shane advanced. Each long, muscular stride brought him closer. When he was within inches, she stopped suddenly, finding she no longer wanted to back away. The heat that always curled within her at Shane’s touch now ignited with the mere expression on his face.
His grasp pulled her firmly against him, and it took less than a second to feel the evidence of his intent. Heated by the fire in his eyes, Cassie felt her own blood thunder through her veins. Suddenly reckless, she wanted him now. Not after gentle strokes of love, but now.
Boldly she reached downward, her hand cupping the hard bulk that strained against his denims. Hearing his sudden hiss of indrawn breath, Cassie ran her hands up over his lean hips. Restless, her hands continued their journey until she eased them between the buttons of his shirt.
Smiling devilishly, she ripped the buttons loose. Before she could finish shredding his shirt, Shane shifted. With swift, sure movements he tugged her skirt and petticoat out of the way, then began untying her pantalets. Cassie felt her undergarments drop to her feet and she kicked them away impatiently. Her hands flew to the fastenings on his denims, but Shane’s hands were there first.
Her breath grew even more ragged when Shane bunched her skirts upward around her waist, pulling her forward with an impatient tug. Feeling herself being lifted, Cassie was scarcely ready when Shane impaled her on his waiting shaft. But it took only seconds to fit her moist warmth around him.
Shane’s strong hands massaged her buttocks as Cassie milked the strength of his manhood, thrilling as the tip of his shaft seemed to penetrate to the center of her being. Each forceful stroke thrilled her anew.
Scarcely noticing the rough bark of the wall behind her, Cassie clung to Shane’s shoulders, riding the crest of his powerful strokes with a frenzy she could scarcely believe was her own.
Rotating her hips in an ancient ritual, she heard Shane moan aloud in pleasure. Feeling an equal measure of heightened sensation, Cassie again milked her own warmth against him, sending showers of fire through her body. Sensing the bursting crescendo she rocketed toward, she again ground her hips against Shane’s.
Shane grasped her buttocks tighter, emptying himself into her waiting womb. The massive shudders eventually trickled into a thousand tiny shivers.
Still holding their bodies intimately together, Shane reached for her lips, telling her without words the marvel of their shared exchange.
Cassie loop
ed her arms around his neck as Shane gently lifted her and laid her down amidst the fresh hay of the stable.
With tender hands he smoothed her skirts and reached for her pantalets, easing them up her shaking legs. When his hands found the juncture of her thighs, his long fingers teased the curls. She gazed at him in surprise.
“We have a lot to share, Cassie darlin’.” And then he brought the pantalets up to her waist, tying them carefully. After smoothing her skirts once again, Shane refastened his own clothes.
He lifted one side of his mouth in a sardonic grin as he gazed at his ruined shirt. Plucking a wayward piece of hay from Cassie’s hair, he smiled at her.
“No doubt about it, woman. The townsfolk will know for sure you’ve had your way with me.”
Cassie frowned in mock protest. “Me?”
“You.” Shane fingered the rent material of his shirt and then growled deeply as she shivered in delight. “I still have three buttons left. Do you want to make a complete disgrace of me?”
The soft glow of the lantern beckoned in the stable as their laughs grew into gasps. The chestnut bay stood in a stall, contentedly munching his oats while the man and woman across the stable satisfied a more intense hunger.
37
Cassie stood, hands on hips, as she watched the men hauling the heavy boulders into place. The horses provided the strength, but the job still took a lot of labor. Cassie resented having to rebuild the dam. But with Evan’s court order resting happily in her pocket, she felt confident again.
It seemed that her neighbors’ court order, causing her dam to be blown apart, had been the catalyst for even more maliciousness. She had hoped the teaching would thaw her neighbors. But rather than backing down and leaving the Dalton ranch alone once the water had been freed, the attacks had been escalated. More sheep had been slaughtered. Someone had taken a shot at Millicent on her way home from town. And the poison pen letters arrived in droves.
Cassie knew, of course, that she could sell either parcel at any time and end her problems. Shane continued his offers, each time more heatedly than the last. And Albert Fredericks had intensified his campaign to “help” her. But now she was determined to hang on. The only way to prove that her uncle’s death was not accidental was to stay in place until whoever killed Uncle Luke made his move.
And hope she was prepared when he did. Her heart tightened at the thought that the mysterious “whoever” could be Shane. Cassie refused to accept that fact. Even so, she couldn’t discount the evidence: so far, he apparently had more reason to hate her uncle than anyone else. But why?
As though in answer to her unspoken question, Cassie spotted Shane riding over the mesa. She quelled the smile that rose automatically to her lips. Shane was going to be furious when he saw that the dam was going back up.
She was right. As his horse thundered to a stop, Shane jumped off. “What the hell do you think you’re doin’? This one’ll be blown too!”
“I don’t think so, Shane.” Cassie’s voice was controlled even if her emotions weren’t.
His face was livid as he moved closer.
“What do you mean?”
“I have a court order, overthrowing the original restraining order and staying anyone from a repeat performance.”
“And so now you’re gonna step into your uncle’s boots and ruin the whole territory.”
“There’s no need to ruin anyone. I’m rebuilding the dam so I can release or stop the water anytime I want. If I’m left alone, the water will be too. If I’m not, the water’ll be stopped up.”
Shane raked an impatient hand through unruly hair as he stalked away and then just as quickly closed the distance between them again, his eyes narrowed.
“Why should I believe you have a court order?”
“Because I have the document,” she answered, not wanting to produce the paper and have him see the incriminating signature.
“Then where is it?”
“I have it,” she returned, trying to sound confident and in control.
“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”
“I have it in my pocket,” she blurted without thinking. She followed his eyes as they traveled to the small pocket over her breast where the folded paper was resting. She moistened her lips and backed away. “There’s no need for you to see it. It’s perfectly legal.”
“Then why don’t you want me to see it?” Shane advanced on her as she continued to back away, stumbling over rocks in her haste.
“There’s no reason at all,” she replied huffily, trying to command some force into her voice. “I simply don’t like my honesty questioned.” The last word came out as a squeak when she nearly tumbled backward over a large cactus.
“You think your neighbors are gonna take your word for it, Cassie?”
“That’s not the point. I don’t like your tone,” she accused, trying to keep moving away with a semblance of dignity.
“Hell, I don’t like what you’ve got to say. Now, let me see that paper!”
Cassie decided to stand her ground, convinced he was only bluffing. “I don’t think so.”
“I do.” Shane reached into her pocket, his intimate touch searing her through the shirt. She blushed mightily, feeling like a fool. Despite what they’d shared in the past, she hadn’t expected him to be so boldly callous in broad daylight with workers nearby.
But after a moment her embarrassment was forgotten as she watched his expression move rapidly between disbelief and anger.
“What the hell does this mean, Cassie?”
“It means that I have the right to—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” His voice was a feral growl, and Cassie felt the hackles on the back of her neck rise. “What did you do to make Evan help you?”
“I didn’t make Evan help me,” she replied indignantly.
“Then what did you do to convince him?” Shane’s implication was clear and insulting.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“What did you promise him, Cassie? God, you must have thought we were fools, playing us both like fuzzy-cheeked boys who couldn’t figure out why you were so eager to share your favors.”
Her slap split the morning air, but Shane grabbed her arm before she could connect a second time.
“Don’t give me a reason to get even,” he warned.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she taunted him, not sure why, but still reeling under his insults.
He dropped her hand suddenly. Regret and sadness warred with the anger on his face. “If I were the man my father hoped I’d be, I’d say yes. Hope you get a good laugh out of this, Cassie. Because the answer is no—I wouldn’t like that.”
Cassie felt bands of pain digging into her heart. The love for him she’d denied stung painfully. Regardless of her suspicions, she could no longer delude herself. She loved him.
Unable to stand his condemnation, she protested. “It wasn’t like you think, Shane.”
His face was still and closed, but she could see the pain he tried so hard to control. “I’ve heard all I have to.”
Cassie tried to take his arm, but he shrugged it off. She stared after him as he rode away, until only the wind remained where he’d ridden.
“I told you why I did it!” Evan’s voice began to hold more anger than frustration.
“What about your sense of family, Evan? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“Of course it does, but what I feel for Cassie means something to me too.”
Shane shuddered beneath the iciness that reached into his heart and then wrapped around his throat, strangling him. His voice was low as he questioned his younger brother. “And just how much is that, Evan?”
“I don’t know, dammit, I just know I care about her.”
“Have you slept with her?”
“What?” Evan’s face contorted with anger.
“You heard me!”
“I heard you, but I don’t believe you.” Evan clenched an
d unclenched his fist. “I wouldn’t take that from any other living human being, and if you say it again, I’ll forget how much I respect you. You’ve been a fool about Cassie from the start. And it doesn’t look like you’re ever going to wise up.”
Evan stomped away, and Shane stared after him. Watching Evan’s retreating back, Shane realized bitterly that a Dalton had once again ruined another precious relationship in his life.
38
Cassie picked her way through the rocks on the cliff, her surefooted mare finding a path through the crevices that lined the mesa. She wasn’t sure what she was seeking. But since Shane’s visit the day before, she’d felt compelled to look for some evidence of her uncle’s death. She needed to prove to Shane that her actions were based on more than a scattering of suspicion, that she’d had good reason to ask for Evan’s help.
Skirting the big boulders, she searched the ground for something, anything that would give her a clue.
The sun, despite autumn’s encroachment, beat down relentlessly. Feeling uncomfortably warm on the Indian summer day, and knowing she had neglected chores to come on a wild-goose chase, Cassie started to head back. Just then she spotted a flash of gold amidst the rocks lining the cliff.
Her curiosity aroused, Cassie headed toward the shiny nugget. Just as she neared the top of the cliff and bent over, she heard the distinctive sound of hooves. Before she could retrieve the elusive piece of gold, she straightened up and glanced down the narrow path.
The sight of Jacob Robertson’s sneering face sent shivers of fear bolting up her spine. Her stomach suddenly felt like yesterday morning’s mush, while her breathing became labored and uneven. She couldn’t have picked a worse place to encounter him. Looking around wildly, Cassie saw that his horse blocked the path, and the only other way out was off the edge.
Remembering her uncle’s fatal plunge from the same spot, Cassie gulped convulsively and tried frantically to think of another way out before he got any closer.
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