“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Annie sighed with despair when she heard herself. Her voice wasn’t firm. Wasn’t strong. More like a thready whimper. “The rules—”
“There’s none where pleasure’s concerned. And this—ah, yes, sweet, give me your mouth just like that.”
She felt the rasp of his beard stubble against her cheek and the smooth, heated texture of his mobile mouth skimming butterfly kisses that lured her into forgetting who she was and who he was.
With mesmerizing slowness Kell lifted his lips from hers, smiling to see a quick frown. He cupped her chin, lifting her face. “Annie, don’t think about rules and should nots. You’ll miss out on all the good things. Don’t you want to know what you’re missing?”
Rich promises were in his voice and his eyes. Annie was tempted. She felt herself wavering. His kisses only made her want more. She didn’t know where she found the will to resist him.
“I can’t do what you ask. It’s not right.”
“The hell with right. I made you feel good, didn’t I?”
“Don’t swear.” She had thought his features sharp, but now there was softness that enticed her. Bright was his hair, and his eyes gazed at her with a look that made no secret of his desire. You’re strong, Annie. You can overcome this, but oh dear, do watch his mouth.
“Conscience at war, darlin’?”
She nodded, angry that body and mind were indeed warring, annoyed that he knew it. Her hands snapped down to her sides and clung to her skirt as if it were an anchor that would ground her firmly in reality. She refused to look away from him, refused to give in to the clamoring little voice that begged her to let him kiss her once more.
“Guess the lesson’s over for today.” Kell stepped back and away from her. He squelched his laughter at her chagrined expression. Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced at the stitched sampler hanging over his bed. Well, he had tried.
“Since I’m obviously out of practice at seducing virginal curiosity seekers, the schoolroom’s closed.” Raking back his hair with both hands, he turned around and snatched up his discarded shirt. It was just as well she had stopped him, she wasn’t anywhere near ready to make use of the bed, and he had had enough of this insanity.
He wished he could quell his arousal as quickly as she had caused it. A first for him. The desire was vivid, accounted for, he thought, by the fact that she stood there and watched him. Every intention to have nothing to do with her came rushing back.
“What are you waiting for, Muldoon? An encore? I said the lesson’s over. Since I’m paying for the privacy of this room, leave.”
His abrupt turn from seductive to dismissive set Annie’s teeth on edge. She couldn’t recover as quickly. She wanted to leave as much as he wanted her to go. Despite the feeling that her knees were about to crumble, she felt along behind her until her hand closed over the doorknob. Her gaze held the flex and play of his muscles beneath the shirt that covered him. She retained the imprint of his heated mouth on hers. But, most damning, Annie was now left with the coil of strange tension that lured her into staying right where she was.
Foolishness! She twisted the knob just as a sharp rap sounded on the door.
Chapter 8
“Kell? You inside?”
“The door’s open, Li.” Kell turned around, still buttoning his shirt. Annie moved toward him with a start. “Hold it. Out you go, Muldoon.”
“I intended—”
“Just tell me one thing. You have a rule that covers your presence in a male boarder’s room?”
“I’ve never needed one.” Annie spun as the door opened and scooted past a surprised Li.
“You wait for an invite next time, Muldoon.”
Fencepost rigid, Annie froze, then faced Kell through the doorway. “There will not be a next time, Mr. York.”
“Don’t go bettin’ on it, Muldoon. Innocents like you are easy pickin’s.”
Disdain laced her voice. “And you must not judge everyone else by your lack of morals.”
He started toward her. “I’ll show you what you can do with your morals.”
“Kell.” Softly said, Li’s voice held warning.
“You’re right.”
With a look of apology to Annie, Li closed the door.
Annie was tom between allowing Kell the last word and demanding the chance to say her piece. Still shaken, she muttered, “The man has no morals. I would only waste my time.”
“You’re right there, honey.”
Annie turned around and found Laine leaning in the open doorway to her room. Smoothing her apron front, Annie bought herself a moment. She didn’t know how to answer the woman who had overheard their conversation.
“Best you remember what you said. Kell is more man than you’d know how to handle. Kinda like baying at the moon.”
“You’re mistaken,” Annie snapped. “I have no intent of handling Mr. York. And baying is something wild animals do.”
“Yeah,” Laine answered. A smug smile came with a direct look. “That’s Kell, all right. Wild.”
“You are welcome to him.” Annie didn’t wait to hear more. She walked rapidly toward the stairs.
Since neither woman had made any effort to lower her voice, both Li and Kell heard them clearly.
“Kell, I will speak to Laine.”
“No, leave it. Anything and anyone that serves to keep that prissed spinster away from me has my full approval.”
“A man lies to his enemies with good reason, there is none for lying to a friend. And a man who lies to himself is a fool.”
Shoving his shirt inside his pants, Kell shot Li a damning look. “Don’t read more into this. The woman irritates the hell out of me.”
Li glanced from the mussed bed to the obvious proof of Kell’s lie. “Does she take the hell out of you or put you there?”
Kell paused and with a rueful smile glanced down, then at Li’s amused expression. “A little of both, since you won’t stop until you have the truth. But you didn’t come here to discuss Muldoon.”
“Muldoon? After what I have seen—”
“Muldoon she began and Muldoon she’ll end. Now, I’m a man in dire need of a drink, so if there’s nothing more—”
“There is. I discovered our missing dove, Charity, and with her, Pockets’ attacker. I may even,” Li said, settling himself on the single straight chair in the room, “have some information about the missing wagonload of whiskey.”
“At least you’ve made some accomplishments.”
“Do not discount what you accomplished, Kell. Miss Muldoon will certainly not darken your doorway again.”
“Your point is taken, Li, but save your breath. Muldoon is a green meadow I’ve no intent of plowing.” Too restless to sit, Kell refused to give Li the satisfaction of seeing him pace. He settled himself in a slouch before the window, leaning back against one side of its frame with his long legs extended and crossed at the ankles.
He was about ready to kill for a glass of good whiskey. Something strong enough to remove the lingering taste of Annie from his mouth.
Meeting Li’s knowing look, Kell scowled. “Am I to be treated to one of your silent studies or are you going to tell me what you found out?”
“Tell you, of course. You are a complex man, Kell. The more I believe I understand you, the less I do.”
“Well, be at ease, friend. There’s times when I don’t understand myself.”
Li let the remark go unanswered. “Our missing Charity was the cause of Pockets’ injury.”
“Charity socked him?”
“No. Her young man did. He thought they would be discovered together, something I gather your brother frowned upon. Jessup Beamer is young, believes he is in love with Charity, and is a sometime stage and freight driver.”
“My missing whiskey?”
“That, too. An interesting tale,” Li added, stretching out his legs, then folding his arms over his sto
mach. “Beamer claims he was delivering the whiskey, but he was met on the road outside of town and told to take the load down to Fort Worth to sell it. I believe he said the Bank saloon was mentioned as a possible customer.”
“He was told to sell my whiskey? Don’t tell me he got religion and voices whispered to him?”
“Nothing so imaginative. Beamer said he was stopped by a man driving a buckboard. He did not have a detailed description to give me, for it was dusk. Beamer remembers he thought it strange that the man was bundled in a coat with a hat pulled so low he wondered how the man could see. But that is who gave him the orders, from you, I might add, to sell the whiskey.”
“Hell!”
“Not quite. The whiskey’s outside around the back of the house.”
“He never sold it? This doesn’t make sense, Li.”
Contemplating the tips of his boots, Li murmured agreement.
“Did this Beamer say why he changed his mind?”
“He was almost to the fort when he realized he had never been told what to do with the money from the sale. Once that thought entered his mind, he claimed he smelled a rat. An odd saying, that. I do not believe one can smell the rodent.”
“News for you, Li. I smell one, too. Who could have given such an order? And why?”
Turning to brace his hands on the sill, Kell looked out on the dusty street below. Heat waves shimmered, and the only sign of life was a skulking, emaciated brown mongrel near the mercantile. Thin wisps of clouds floated in the distance of the bright blue sky. His gaze swept over the buildings once again. It appeared as if time had stopped and frozen this moment to remind him that he wasn’t going to be run out of any place again.
“Have you then decided that Miss Muldoon and her group are not responsible?”
“I haven’t ruled them out entirely.”
“I believe Beamer. He had no way of knowing that that order did not come from you. He had not seen you. Kyle’s dead and you are the new owner. The story is too simple—”
“The best lies sometimes are.”
“True, Kell. But once more I say I believe him. He is waiting with the wagon. Talk to him.”
“How far would Muldoon go?” Kell mused, half to himself. “I can’t see her dressing up like a man to divert a wagonload of whiskey.”
Li glanced quickly at Kell, a dusky silhouette standing against the window’s glare. Interest brightened his eyes. The speculative note in Kell’s voice told him that his friend was imagining the very thing he denied. Or something more. It was unusual for Kell to dwell on one woman for any length of time.
“If you ask for my opinion, Miss Muldoon in a man’s pants is as likely as my discovering the man who abandoned my mother to a life of slavery. Were you to mention it to her, the mere thought might send her into a swoon.”
The words were matter-of-fact, but Kell closed his eyes briefly. Li’s search would never end, though he had long ago lost the bitter hate that had fueled him. But Kell bit back a groan at Li’s deliberate need for his pound of flesh. He didn’t want to picture Annie in any man’s pants. Except maybe his. Damn that woman! He gripped the sill, forcing her out of his mind, angry that he had to make an effort to do it.
“Point by point, Kell, we agree that she had nothing to do with the fire. Since the front door is always open, anyone could have come in that night, gone to her room, and taken the cap Bronc found. Like you, I thought of a woman because of the bulky coat Beamer mentioned as being worn by the one who stopped him. If that is true, someone does want you out of Loving.”
“Of course it’s true.” Kell turned around. “Only a coward would use a fire. Fine, I know men who would do it.”
“There is still Laine. She knew about the whiskey. She has reason to want you gone.”
“Sure. That makes the best sense of all. No building, no whiskey, no business. I leave, Laine starts it up again, and this time she doesn’t have to share the profits with anyone.”
“Sound reason. Yet I hear doubt in your voice.”
“I won’t rule out someone in that corset contingent that blindly follows Muldoon.” Kell shot a studying look at his friend. The rough beginning of a plan formed. One that Li wasn’t going to like. “Even if you’re against my rebuilding here, you do intend to help me, right?”
“You ask that of me? I owe you my life, Kell. No. Do not make that dismissive motion. There is nothing I would not do for you.”
“There’s damn little you haven’t already done. I’ve told you and told you that you’ve repaid me more times than I want to count, Li. No one has a better friend to protect his back and share a fire with. But be at ease. I don’t want you to kill anyone. I’ve got a plan.”
“Why can I not find comfort in your words?”
“Beats me.” Kell shrugged and glanced down at the floor.
Li patiently waited. When Kell looked up at him, Li sat up straight in his chair. He knew that smile. It was one the angels would envy. His dark eyes narrowed. Kell’s smile boded no good for him. But he listened. Kell’s first words, his cajoling manner, only reinforced Li’s warning to himself.
Minutes later, when he left Kell, Li knew himself to be a fool. “A wise man,” he muttered, heading down the stairs, “learns to listen to his inner voice of wisdom. An intelligent man understands there are times when ignorance can bring peace. Lastly, only an unworthy man embraces friendship with conditions.”
“Pardon?” Annie asked, finding it difficult to look up at Li. Busy with her account book behind the lobby’s counter, she saw his frown. “Is there something wrong?” She removed her spectacles, chiding herself for being afraid to face the man. She would have to do it sometime.
“I spoke aloud to clear my thoughts. Have I alarmed you?”
“No. Not at all.” Annie tried to smile and failed. Just as she failed to hold his gaze. “When I’m vexed, I do that, too.”
“Just so.” Li paused, and thought about what he had witnessed between her and Kell, but loyalty to Kell kept him silent. With a curt nod, he continued on his way toward the dining room.
Annie sighed and reached for her spectacles just as the soft strains of a waltz tune came from beyond the closed back parlor doors. Pockets was talented, and he had been entertaining Aunt Hortense for most of the morning with his playing. Fawn had taken the shopping list and would be gone for at least an hour, since Annie had urged her to buy a length of calico for her new dress.
For the first time since the fire, a peaceful solitude descended. Annie wished she could enjoy it. Images of Kellian York formed in her mind, some as thin as mist and others as solid as the floor she stood on. His features tantalized her, especially his mobile mouth that went easily from wicked grin to sensual snare. The sweet taste of desire appeared to have seeped below the fragile layers of skin that formed her lips, for no matter how she licked them, the taste remained.
Her body was under the siege of some malady akin to the dreaded influenza. She could account for the sudden onset of feverish tremors, chills, and aches no other way. Don’t forget the breathing, Annie, a small voice reminded her.
How could she? She hadn’t drawn a normal breath from the moment he’d set foot in her room.
Admonishing herself to stop being no better than a flower stalk buffeted hither and thither at the mercy of the wind, Annie set her mind to dismiss him.
The neat columns of numbers made no sense, despite her fierce concentration.
Own up to the fact, my girl, that removing him from thought requires aid. If you sat in a patch of cactus, you couldn’t pull out the spines without help. A painful but necessary process.
The creak of the stair startled Annie. She glanced up and saw the tips of boots. Kell’s boots. Not now. It’s too soon. She ducked down, crouching low behind the counter.
Nothing short of physical force could make her face him now. She was humiliated to remember she had put up as much defense as a cotton crop attacked by dark brown stai
ners.
She counted his footsteps, heard him pause, and thought he was standing near the front door. It was hard to determine the direction of sound when her heartbeat pounded like the wings of a frightened bird trying to escape a stalking Dewberry.
What was he waiting for? Why didn’t he leave the lobby? Now that she had hidden herself, Annie felt foolish, but she was not about to let him discover her.
Her calf began to cramp. Annie gritted her teeth. She was afraid to move, sure that along with everything else, Mr. York would have an acute sense of hearing. Holding on to the small shelf beneath the counter for balance, she tried to count slowly. Her damp palms slipped, another sign that her nerves were growing more agitated with each passing second.
The cramp spread down to her toes. Annie bit back a moan. Too much time had passed. She couldn’t suddenly stand up. If the cramps squeezing her muscles continued, she would never stand at all. The thought of falling out from behind the counter in a sprawl at Kellian York’s feet lent her new strength.
“It’s reassuring to know what a meticulous housekeeper you are, Muldoon,” Kell called out softly.
The fiery sheen of Annie’s hair popped into view. But her stunned look as she raised her head above the counter filled Kell with an immense satisfaction and enough amusement that he had to stop himself from laughing.
“I offer you the sincerest of compliments, Muldoon. From the moment I met you, you haven’t managed to bore me. A rare woman, indeed.”
Still beset by the agonizing cramp, Annie couldn’t stand up and face him. But she refused to allow his remark to go unanswered.
“I am boring. And the only thing rare about me is the way I cook my steak for Saturday night’s supper.”
“We have more in common than you think, Muldoon. I wish I had time to discuss appetites and disprove your claim, but I don’t. Later, perhaps.”
Annie croaked a protest, struggling to rise. She heard him open the front door, but the pain in her leg demanded her attention.
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