by Sky Robinson
Emma went just outside the mine entrance and grabbed an armload of wood from the pile James had cut and stacked. Within a few minutes, the sparks were crackling and the little mine shaft was almost too hot. She tossed all the wet clothes onto the dirt, near enough to the fire that they would dry quickly.
But as she worked she could feel his eyes on her, watching her every move. When Emma turned in his direction and caught him, he didn’t turn away but continued to stare. His eyes studied her bare legs, showing he was appreciative and something even worse. Unabashedly lustful.
Emma turned and moved the clothes, flipped them over to dry on the other side. She did anything she could think of to keep busy, to keep her mind off the effect James had on her body.
He sat up and the blanket draped over his lap, almost showing too much. Muscles of his shoulders and arms and stomach flexed as he moved, and now it was her turn to stare.
“Sit down beside me.” He patted the blanket. “The clothes aren’t going to dry any faster because you’re fussing over them.”
He was right. There was nothing left to do but wait. She might as well sit, save her energy for her own work later.
Emma let out a frustrated breath. “Okay.”
She plopped her butt down on the edge of the blanket, curled her knees to her chest under the big shirt and stared straight ahead. Afraid if she looked at him he would be able to read her mind. She didn’t want to encourage any advances from him. Part of her didn’t, anyway. There was also that part that wanted nothing less than his hard cock pounding into her over and over until she lost all control.
She must be crazy.
“I do really want to thank you for saving me.” His voice was low, seductive and the hair on the back of Emma’s neck stood up in anticipation. If just his voice could cause this reaction, what would it be like if he touched her?
She could have his touch. It wasn’t as if Emma was a virgin looking for a man to take care of her, and she had no interest in ever getting married again. But her independence was very important, so having anything to do with James would not be smart.
“I was just doing what I had to do.” Emma stared at the dancing fire that was nothing in comparison to the flames burning inside her. There shouldn’t be anything burning for James, but her body was oblivious to that fact. Her body wanted one thing, needed one thing.
“You didn’t have to do anything. You could have just watched me wash away. Not many women would jump into action like that. I guess all that piss and vinegar can be a good thing.” He chuckled at his words.
He wasn’t very good at this, but she was going to take his speech as a compliment anyway. “Thanks. You would have done the same for me.”
He already had.
The smell of burning wood hung in the air and the flames were close enough to heat up her skin, not that she needed any more heat. Sitting next to James created plenty of that.
“Why do you keep coming back here after…you know?” he asked.
“You mean my husband dying?” She turned to look in his eyes and caught a glimpse of compassion before he turned away. He did have a heart. It was buried under layers and layers of gruff manliness, but it was there.
“Yeah, that.” It was James’ turn to stare at the fire uncomfortably.
“Probably the same reason you do. You don’t need to have a man or to be a man to feel the draw to search for treasure.”
Men were so thickheaded. They thought they were the only ones in the world who enjoyed the thrill, the adventure of searching for gold. They thought women were weakling creatures who should sit inside and sew all the time and not crave anything more in life.
“And I feel obligated. I can’t let Ben’s dream die.” It was more honesty than she had planned on giving him.
“Were you with your husband when he wrote the story—about the gold here?” James fisted the blanket. Was it out of nervousness or anger for the position Ben had put him in? It didn’t seem like anger.
“I wasn’t.” She wished she would have been. She would have gotten a better read of the honesty of the people. Ben, God rest his soul, had been gullible to a fault, a charming but dangerous quality for a man to have.
It was looking real likely the gold story was possibly all someone’s brilliant concoction. Not a single person who bought a claim from the lucky couple Ben interviewed had found anything, and the couple left town as soon as the claims were sold.
“Do you think they really found gold here?” James asked.
“I don’t know.” She felt partly guilty for his predicament. He spent good money to buy his claim and was getting the same payout as her. Nothing.
Emma didn’t write the article, and she didn’t come along with Ben on that first trip. Her instincts were good. She would have seen through the fraudulence. She could have saved them both a lot of time and money.
“I haven’t found a damn thing,” she admitted for the first time to anyone.
“Me either.” He ran his finger in the dirt, drawing a line at the edge of the blanket. “How much longer are you going to try?”
“I’ll probably stop after this summer if I don’t find anything.” She shrugged. Partially in defeat and partially in frustration. “I hate quitting but there’s no use to keep pounding my head against the wall. I don’t want to leave Alaska though. Maybe I’ll find someplace to work up here.”
“It’s a tough life. Wouldn’t you be happier back in a city somewhere?” He turned to look at her again as he spoke. There was sincerity in his expression, a true curiosity in his words.
“No. I love it here. The mountains, fresh air, being surrounded by the wild. There’s no way I could go back to living in a city.” She hated the thought of ever having to leave Alaska. It felt good here, felt right.
“It is a pretty great place to live.” His eyes moved past the rock walls that surrounded them and out into the spruce trees beyond the cave walls. Blue skies, interrupted only by puffy white clouds, were just outside the door. And to make the scene even more spectacular, a huge eagle flew across the horizon.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” She loved Alaska, loved the nature, loved the freedom.
“You are a strange woman. Strange and frustrating and beautiful.”
The breath sucked out of her chest at his words, at the desire they caused to surge through her.
James brought his hand up, touched her cheek and turned her face toward him. His eyes narrowed as he moved his lips closer to hers, and she froze, torn between common sense and need.
She shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t let him kiss her, but Emma didn’t back away when his lips came closer. She couldn’t move away once his lips touched hers and the lightning hit. Her core tingled, and she wanted more, needed more.
James pulled her to him and her hands automatically moved to the bare skin of his back. Strong muscles flexed and relaxed beneath her fingertips, bringing out the human instinct in her to hold on tight and go for a ride.
“Mmmmm.” The low growl coming from her was unintended and completely inappropriate, but showed exactly how she felt.
Emma moved her fingers down the warmth of his skin, needing to touch him, to feel the strength of James under her fingertips. She paused at the scar, the four-inch claw mark left by the bear. The bear he saved her from.
James was a man she would want in her corner when the going got tough. But what surprised her was how much she thought of him as the man she would want for other things as well. Her body’s reaction to James wasn’t something she could control, and right now she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Emma opened her mouth, letting his tongue in, letting him taste her. His hands roamed up the bare skin of her legs.
Feelings that she thought she’d closed off, thought had possibly died with her husband, came rocketing straight to the surface, hard and fast.
Yes, Emma definitely wanted this. It had been too long since she’d felt the touch of a man, and the skin between her thighs tingle
d with pent-up need.
James reclined on the blanket and pulled her down on top of him in one smooth motion. His hands roamed up her naked butt and pulled her firmly against his hard cock.
Heat and wetness rushed to her opening. It was all so natural, so earthy. She needed his cock to quench the fire inside her.
“Mmmm.” The moan escaped her lips again.
“You have a beautiful body.” His words came out as a growl and caused a shiver to shoot through her.
James’ hands moved up her back, under her manly oversized shirt, brushing the sides of her breasts and sending intense heat straight to her crotch.
“Thank you,” Emma said, struggling to come up with any words.
He was the one with an amazing body. All hard muscle, powerful, manly. She’d tried to avoid noticing him, tried to stay away, but he wasn’t the kind of man a woman could ignore.
Emma rubbed herself against his cock. She couldn’t help it. She throbbed for him, needed him to satiate the need.
James groaned and then grabbed her by the hair, pulling her mouth down to his, hard, tongue tangling with hers. He was barely containing control, showing her just how badly he wanted her.
Her desires echoed his exactly. She hadn’t had relations with a man in two years and her body was ready for the drought to be over. More than ready.
But this was James—take whatever he wanted, just the way he wanted it, James. He wasn’t the kind of man she could have a relationship with. Wasn’t someone she wanted to spend her time with. Just a body to use for her own pleasure. Could she be that woman?
“I guess we’re going to be good neighbors after all.” He grinned, but his words were just what she needed to snap her out of her own stupidity.
James was her neighbor. The neighbor she didn’t get along with. Just because he was good-looking and her body craved him so damn badly didn’t mean she should do this with him. She didn’t need to be tempted into coming over to visit him while she should be working her claim. Didn’t want James to try to gain any control over her.
Emma sure as hell didn’t need the distraction of a man in her life, and she was too old to have children. She turned thirty-five this year, and while children were still a possibility, it wasn’t what she wanted. Not anymore. Those dreams had disappeared with the death of her husband. She wanted to enjoy the outdoors in peace, and having a relationship would only complicate things.
Especially with a man like James. His views were just too conventional for her. He would expect her to start spending more time with him, and cooking for him and cleaning his house, and it would eventually end badly. She would save them both the trouble.
“We shouldn’t be doing this.” She forced herself off him, and the effort was a lot more difficult than it should have been.
“What?” He stared at her, eyes narrowed as she moved toward the clothes and gathered them in her arms.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she repeated.
“Don’t tell me you don’t want it. I can see that you do.”
“Here.” She tossed his clothes beside him on the blanket. She couldn’t say with any sense of honesty that she didn’t want him, so she said nothing.
Emma put her clothes on quickly. She had to get dressed, get out of there before she lost her nerve and jumped back into his arms.
When she had all her clothes on, she looked over at James. He hadn’t moved, just sat silently, completely naked, his thick cock pointing toward the sky as he watched her. His eyes held a mix of anger, lust and confusion, but she couldn’t stick around to talk about all that. If she did, she might do something she would definitely regret.
“See you around,” Emma said as she walked away. She had to leave. It would never work out. They were just too different.
“Yeah.” He snorted. “See you around.”
Emma didn’t turn around and she didn’t hear any movement from behind her as she walked away, but she could sense his eyes still on her. Wanting, watchful eyes making her want to run away as fast as she could and run back to him at the same time.
She wouldn’t do either.
Chapter Two
One week later
Emma had successfully avoided James while she worked her claim for the past week and was back in the little town of Ketchikan. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be out in the hills, searching for gold. But two passenger ships came in today, and she needed to rent out the upstairs rooms in her house. The first possible renter stood on the boardwalk in front of her.
“I assume you are a prostitute then?” Emma wasn’t going to pussyfoot around the topic. She wanted everything out in the open just to make sure they both understood the situation.
“I prefer sporting woman, but yes, I plan to exchange the pleasure of my body to men in return for a fee.” Opal Stewart didn’t back down one bit with the bluntness of Emma’s question. She readjusted her dress, breasts practically falling out of the low-cut purple material.
Opal knew exactly what she was getting into, and wasn’t ashamed. Good. Not that Emma agreed with prostitution enough to partake in it, but she didn’t condemn the girl for choosing this lifestyle either. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and Emma wasn’t here to judge anyone. A girl had to do whatever it took to survive, but it seemed that Opal was proud of her chosen career.
“I didn’t buy this house to become a madam. You’ll have to take care of all business on your own.” Emma stood with her hands on her hips and an unexpected tenseness in her muscles. She didn’t want to have to share her house.
By letting a prostitute live there, she would probably earn the reputation of one as well, but Emma didn’t care about that. She had no desire to consort with the town folk, and she didn’t give a damn what they thought of her. She needed the money to survive.
“I don’t have a problem with that.” Opal looked Emma in the eye as she spoke, giving Emma a little bit of comfort in the situation.
River water rushed below the boardwalk. Emma never loved the fact that her house was built practically over the water, but it provided a spectacular view. She also didn’t love that she would now have to rent out rooms to keep her house. But she was doing what she had to do. There was no shame in that.
“Your customers will need to use the side entrance, and your rent will be due at the beginning of each month.”
Opal stood with her head held high. She had the mannerisms of a girl who’d been through finishing school, definitely not the typical prostitute.
“When I find another girl to rent the other upstairs room, you will have to work out business details together, if she happens to be a prostitute too,” Emma continued.
There wasn’t much chance a woman of any other profession would be coming alone to Ketchikan, Alaska. Prospectors, fishermen and prostitutes made up most of the population of the growing little town
“Sounds good.” Opal nodded then pulled a wad of cash from her corset. She counted the appropriate bills out and handed them to Emma.
“Well, welcome to Ketchikan, Opal Stewart.” Emma squeezed the cash in her hand. It would be enough to get her through for a while. She wouldn’t have to leave this place just yet. A sense of relief that came with that knowledge helped her to relax a little.
“Thank you.” Opal lifted her bag and carried it up the staircase to the side entrance. She didn’t look back, but opened the door and disappeared inside without the slightest bit of hesitation.
Emma went through the front door and plopped onto the couch with her legs spread wide like a man, and knew if she were in a relationship with James he wouldn’t think it was appropriate of her to sit like this. Why did men get all the comforts in life?
The sounds of Opal moving around upstairs putting her things away was vastly different from the silence that usually consumed Emma’s surroundings.
Her life was a little bit lonely, but Emma liked silence. In her view, silence was much better than chaos. It was the life she chose, the life s
he loved.
Out her front window, she had a view of the stunning dark waters of the bay and the fishing boats coming and going, but the best view was behind the house. Mountains rose from the sea, covered with lush, green foliage. It wouldn’t be long before they were submerged in white again. Summer never lasted long enough, and she shouldn’t be sitting on the couch wasting the day.
Twenty minutes later, a knock at the door eased her irritated soul. If this was another renter, she would be able to relax with the knowledge she would have enough money to make it through another summer, and she could be done wasting her time in town.
Emma walked to the door and was greeted by a blonde girl with bouncy curls and a freckled face. Beside her stood a skinny red-haired boy who couldn’t be much older than eighteen.
“What can I do for you?” Emma had to work to keep from showing her disappointment. She needed another prostitute, someone who knew exactly what Ketchikan, Alaska, was all about. Not some young couple with no idea what they were getting into.
“I was wondering if you could take care of my girl, Kate, for me while I’m up making my fortune?” His accent held a hint of Ireland, but he’d definitely been living in America for some time. The girl looked at him in adoration, and then smiled at Emma.
“I am not in the business of taking care of anyone. I do have a room for rent, but this is not a boarding house. You will be responsible for your own meals.” She turned her focus to the boy. “What’s your name?”
“Sean O’Riley,” he answered with enthusiasm.
She obviously wasn’t being serious enough, wasn’t giving them a glimpse of the hardship they were in for by coming to Ketchikan. Most people were a little disillusioned after they came here, thinking it was going to be easy living and easy money. Neither one of those things were real. Not here anyway.
“Well, Sean O’Riley, how do you propose to make the payments?” Emma didn’t have the resources to support some lovestruck couple with unrealistic expectations.