by Sarah Hegger
Moving as quietly as he could, he stopped outside her door and knocked softly.
The door opened a crack and Ellie peered through. “Cole?”
The familiar smell of roses crept out the room and beckoned him closer.
“Evening, Ellie.” He let her know with his smile what he was doing here. “Fancy some company?”
Ellie blinked at him, blushed and then took a deep breath. Not the reaction he had been expecting, but he got distracted by the way her flimsy red silk robe didn’t so much hide her shape as accentuate it.
Red was a good color on Sugar Ellie.
“Come in.” She pushed the door open and stood back.
Her room was almost the same as his, except for a different counterpane.
Cole had everything he needed for a good night. A half-decent bottle of whisky, a big old bed and the sweetest armful to share it with him.
Hooking an arm around her waist, he tugged her close to him. Her full breasts flattened against his chest.
Ellie gasped and hid her eyes from him.
He’d been waiting too long for this to let her cheat him. “Look at me, Sugar.”
Those brown eyes crept up past his chin, lingered a moment on his lips and found his. She breathed his name in a whisper that went straight to his cock. “Cole.”
“I was playing cards, and I got to thinking about you in here all on your own.” Damn, she smelled so good and felt like heaven pressed against him. Not able to resist he cupped her round ass and pushed her against his erection. “Denver is a little ways away still, and I thought we might keep each other company.”
He dipped his head and gave in to the lure of her silky shoulder. He trailed his lips from her shoulder to the curve of her neck, and breathed her in.
She took a deep breath. “Have you been drinking?”
“Not that much.” He got a bit distracted by the rise and fall of her breasts, but not distracted enough. Ellie didn’t seem that into the idea of them putting the night to good use. Pulling back enough to see her face, he dropped a soft kiss on her lips. Some whores didn’t like to be kissed, and maybe Ellie was one of them. “May I kiss you?”
“Um…sure.” Color spread over her cheeks.
Cole was getting an off notion. “Ellie?”
“Yup.” She squared her shoulders and looked at him. “Everything is fine, honey.” Draping her arms over his shoulders she pressed against him. “I stand by the deal I offered.”
For a small woman, Ellie had the ripest curves. And her mouth! Dear God, it was a dream of pillowy softness that he’d spent many a night fantasizing about.
Kiss her. Take her.
Damn it to fucking hell. Cole put her at arm’s length. “Deal? This has nothing to do with that.”
“It doesn’t?” She looked up at him with those sleepy kitten eyes. “You know I like you Cole.”
That was much better. He dipped his head to take the kiss he craved.
But…
“Like me?” Women liked their brothers, their friends and white fluffy kittens. Like didn’t mean they wanted to get hot and bothered with a man.
“Cole.” She stamped her foot. “Just do it already.” She threw herself against him. “Take it. Me.”
There were times when a conscience was a definite liability, and this was one of them. Ellie had a look on her face like she was about to swallow a spoonful of castor oil. He forced his reluctant arms away from her and took a step back. “I’m missing something here.”
“No, you’re not.” She rolled her eyes. “I want this. Let’s do it.”
“Yeah.” And therein lay the rub. “I hear the words, Sugar, but I still get the sense I’m missing something.”
“Like what?” She eyed him askance.
“Enthusiasm.” He shoved his hands in his pockets before he grabbed her again. “Desire. Lust.”
“Why do you have to be so contrary?” She actually stamped her foot. “Any other man would be finished by now.”
“Um.” And he rather thought not! “I’m sure you’ve seen more than your fair share of that type at the saloon, but I’d just be getting started.”
“Cole.” Dragging his name out, she flounced over to the bed and plopped onto it. “It’s nothing to do with you. It’s me. Something about me.”
“You have the pox?”
She scowled at him. “I do not!”
“Then what?” His gut whispered that here lay a vital piece to the mystery of Sugar Ellie, and he pushed. “As we’re not rolling in the sheets right this minute, you owe me this.”
“Oh, all right! I suppose you need to know whatever happens between us.” She sighed and blew out a long breath. “First, you have to swear this goes no farther than this room.”
He waited.
Ellie twisted her hands in her robe. “I might not be as experienced as you believe me to be.”
“As in life, travel, adventure, or are we talking about sex?” He already knew Ellie hardly ever took a client anymore, but she must have before. “How inexperienced?”
“A lot.” She swallowed. “Like no experience. None. At all.”
“None?” An odd sort of notion crept into his brain. “Like nothing?”
She nodded.
“Ellie.” Cole couldn’t actually believe he was going to say it, and he must have been a whole lot drunker than he thought, but there he went. “Are you telling me you’re a…” The words got stuck, so he cleared his throat and tried again. “Are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?”
Ellie went bright red and dropped her head. “Yes.”
“Shit!” Cole got the fuck outta there.
Chapter Eight
That had not gone how Ellie had imagined it would. Her closed door stared back at her.
The door opened again, and Cole walked in. He threw his arms wide and glared at her.
“I suppose you’d like an explanation?”
He scowled at her and dragged a chair over to the bed and sat in it.
“Right.” She had known she would have to have this conversation with someone at some point. Her girls always spoke about first times being awkward and going a lot better if the man you were with knew he was going where none other had before. “It really was Theo’s idea.”
“Your brother put his virginal sister in charge of a whore house?” Cole gaped at her.
Yeah, it sounded bad when he strung it all together like that.
“It all came about after Pa died,” she said. “Theo and Jake had been running a still in the woods for a few years before he died. Only they didn’t want to tell him about it because he always took any money they made and pushed it down that played out mine of his.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen.” She tried to keep it light. It didn’t need to be a big deal. Minnie was right about that. One poke and she’d be done. Only, this way, she got to choose who did the poking. “Pa and the boys had been keeping me quiet and out of sight as much as possible.”
Cole flinched. Everyone knew how rough mining towns could get. Certainly no place for a young girl.
“After Pa died and we didn’t have any money, the boys came up with the idea of opening a saloon, and they didn’t know what to do with me.” She shrugged. “The plan was to send me back to my aunt, but she died about six months after Pa. My brothers are the only family I had.”
“I’m still not getting how you ended up running the girls.”
Ellie shrugged, because it hadn’t been one single decision so much as a series of events. All in all, Cole was taking it rather well. “Jake came up with the idea of having the girls, but none of the boys wanted to run them.”
“So they gave you that job?”
“Well, I kind of started doing it one day, and one thing led to another.” Then life had rolled on with her. “And everybody assumed I was a whore as well. I never corrected them. People believe what they see.”
Cole nodded and leaned his elbows on his knees. “And once you
were cast in the role of madam, you had to keep your lack of experience hidden.”
“Yup.” Now that it was out there, she felt relieved. “But if you want to sweeten your deal, I’m totally willing.”
“Ellie.” He looked at her. “I was never taking that deal.”
“No?” She didn’t want him thinking she was welching. “You should you know because I need to get rid of it anyway.”
He stood and went to the window. “You may as well tell me all of it. Why are you running from Jake?”
“I’m not—”
“Ellie…” he growled.
Well, she’d come this far. “Jake wants me to start working the saloon. As one of the girls. He came up with the idea to auction off my virginity.”
Cole gaped at her. “Son of a bitch. Shit, Ellie!” He winced. “Beg your pardon for my language ma’am, I—”
“Cole!” She wanted to stamp her feet at him. She wanted to hug him for being a big idiot. “I’m the same girl you flirted with all these years. The same girl you tried to buy for twenty thousand dollars.”
He blushed. “Well, obviously that’s not going to happen anymore.”
“Obviously?” She really didn’t see any obvious about it. “I want it to be you. I choose you to deal with this little detail for me.”
“Hardly a little detail.” He stared out the window.
Ellie’s sense of humor rose to the fore. “My girls tell me it’s a very little detail. One prick and—”
“Ellie.” He glared at her. “Could you give a man the chance to get this all straight in his head before you start the thigh slappers?”
“Sorry.’ But she wasn’t. Not really, and she grinned.
“But if I’d known what the son of a bitch was up to, I might have shot the bastard,” he said.
“Yeah. I might have held him still while you did.” It still seemed unreal to her, Jake’s plan. “I’m not sure it was his idea. I think Minnie has been whispering in his ear.”
If anything, Cole looked angrier. “That’s no excuse, Ellie. If Minnie had told him to shoot you and bury the body out back, would he have done that too?”
He had her there, and it was a depressing thought. She and Jake had never been close, but this went beyond that. “Of course, the twins sided with him.”
“I’m gonna be honest with you here, Ellie.” Cole looked at her. “I don’t like your brothers.”
“Me neither.” And for some reason that made her giggle. “But with your help, I’ve gotten away from them.”
He went back to staring out the window.
As there was nothing out there, and he had that look of a man about to confess to something, she waited.
“Actually, Ellie, this complicates matters a bit more than you think.”
Here it came. When one ran a brothel, one got to know men real well.
Cole rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m…ah…not staying in Denver.”
“Really?” That could mean many things but the way he was hemming and hawing had her thinking he meant something more final.
“No. I never meant to live out west for the rest of my life. I came out…well, that’s a long and boring story.” He turned to face her. “Suffice to say I’m heading back east. For good.”
It surprised her how much that cut. Cole drifted in and out of her life, but he always drifted back again. This last absence had been the longest one yet. Apparently a much longer absence was to come. “Okay.” She nodded. Things weren’t dire. She had the money she’d taken, and she knew how to fend for herself. “That’s fine.”
“I don’t think you understand, Sugar.” He came to sit again, his knees touching hers. “I’m leaving Denver, which means you’ll be there on your own.”
She almost laughed at him, but she could see by those compelling golden eyes of his, that he was dead serious. “Which part of me running a cathouse since I was fifteen made you think I couldn’t take care of myself.”
“Ah.” He reared back and studied her as if he was only now seeing her. “I suppose…well, nothing.”
Ellie pressed her advantage home. “And as for you getting all honorable about our deal, I may not have lain with a man myself, but I’ve seen plenty of it done. And other things as well. Things I couldn’t unsee if I tried. As far as I’m concerned the deal stands.”
“Ellie.” He gave a nervous laugh. “I’m not taking your innocence.”
“I lost that years ago.” Her virginity had been a burden for a long while now. Finally, she had the chance to get rid of it and move on. Besides, doing it this way beat the hell out of what Jake had planned for her. “In a peculiar way, you’d be doing me a favor.”
Cole looked horrified. “That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it isn’t. Nobody expects me to be what I am. And I’d much rather you than some stranger who bought me from Jake.”
“Thanks.” He gave her a sardonic look. “But that part of this is not up for discussion.”
Ellie needed to bring some of her experience to bear. She put her hands on his knees and leaned far enough forward for the neckline of her nightgown to gape.
Cole’s gaze went right where she thought it would.
She slid her hands higher up the rock-hard muscle of his thighs and dropped her voice into a husky whisper. “Are you trying to tell me you didn’t come here tonight for exactly that reason?”
“Ellie.” His gaze grew hotter, and he swallowed. “That’s before I knew you weren’t…experienced.”
“Hmm.” She slid closer, dropping to her knees between his spread thighs. “You don’t look like a man who’s changed his mind.” Her fingers stopped shy of his cock and she pressed her breasts to his chest as she whispered in his ear. “You look like a man who’s seen something he wants.” She sucked his earlobe and nipped it lightly.
Cole hissed in a harsh breath. “Sugar, you are not playing fair.”
“Poor Cole.” She teased the strong line of his jaw with her lips. This close, her senses woke to him. Her breasts pressed full and swollen against his hard chest. He smelled like leather and sandalwood soap and she wanted to rub against him like a cat and take that scent on to her skin. If she shifted her hand one inch inward, she could touch him intimately.
His erection tented the front of his pants and nudged her belly. She moved against him and he screwed his eyes shut and groaned. “Sugar.”
“Mmm?” She stopped with her lips a breath from his. She wanted to kiss him, but the next step had to be his. “What do you want?”
He gripped her face, his fingers spearing into her hair. Pressing one hard kiss on her mouth, he let her go and stood. “You’re trouble, Sugar.”
Ellie sank back to her bottom.
“Ellie.” His heated gaze licked at her exposed legs. “I would have paid twenty thousand dollars to tumble you. You know I want you, but what you told me.” He heaved a sigh. “It changes everything.”
After Cole left to his own room, sleep was even further from possible. She poured herself a drink, took it to the window and stared into the dark street.
A lone dog sniffed at the shadows and trotted away
She hadn’t been fair to Cole. If Jake found them, he might take his anger out on Cole. True, Cole could defend himself—at least that’s what she’d always heard. What if that wasn’t anything more than gossip and Jake found them? She’d seen Jake fight, and he was mean and quick, and he liked his knives.
When she’d arrived at Cole’s hotel room that night, she’d been alone and scared and not really thinking straight. She and Cole might have known each other a long time, but if they collected all the time they had actually spent together, it probably wouldn’t even fill up a small pail. They were certainly not the sort of friends who demanded favors from each other. Cole had agreed to help her thinking one thing, and now she’d gone and changed the dang rules on him.
That was not fair play. But she could fix it. In the morning, she would thank him for his trouble, pay him what she owed
him and be on her way. She already knew where Theo had gone. It couldn’t be too hard to find him. Theo was not the sort who got overlooked either.
And that was the plan, until she stood outside Cole’s door the following morning. A woman’s giggle from inside stopped her before she could knock.
Well, Cole sure hadn’t hung about waiting for her any. Not that she had any right to get jealous about it. Cole and she were…she didn’t really know what, but they weren’t what was happening inside his room.
Turning about, she grabbed her bag and headed down the stairs.
Chapter Nine
Cole needed coffee, and he needed it before he dealt with his newest screwup. What was his thing with charging in and rescuing the damsel anyway? Somewhere between leaving Ellie’s room last night and this morning, he’d picked himself up another damsel. The details were still hazy.
Ellie was one thing. He liked Ellie, more than liked Ellie, last night’s unwelcome revelation aside. A virgin posing as a brothel madam was a real head scratcher. Ellie hadn’t posed as a madam; she’d been one. When they caught up with fucking Theo, Cole had some hard questions for him.
“I like cakes.” Bridget, his latest poor decision, bounced on his bed and giggled. “I was never allowed to have cakes at the saloon because they didn’t want me getting fat.”
At least Ellie knew when to stop talking, and she didn’t have Bridget’s high, breathy voice that drilled a hole in your ear. “We can get you cakes.”
Right after he found the coffee and tossed it down his gullet.
“Yay!” Bridget clapped and squealed.
It ricocheted through his sore head.
Bridget’s smile reminded him of why he’d taken it into his head to rescue her in the first place.
Cole had seen more lovely women than he could rightly remember, but Bridget had them all beat. With wavy, chestnut hair and indigo eyes, she was soft in all the right places and willowy in all the others. Her skin was a delicate pink and white confection that looked too perfect to be real. Pairing her beauty with her sad life story had brought out his knight in tarnished armor.