by Seton, Cora
When she went to work on his shirt, he tore it off himself, relishing the feel of skin on skin as he drew her back into his embrace. He couldn't kiss enough of her, couldn't touch enough of her, and he was beginning to think if they didn't reach the cabin soon, he'd have to make love to her right here on the path.
He lifted her up and carried her the rest of the way, nearly tripping once or twice in the dark, but managing to keep his feet. Up to the front porch, fumbling with the door, and then inside. When he deposited her on the bed, he collapsed beside her.
"Am I that heavy?" she asked, laughing.
"You're perfect," he growled, and pounced on her.
He soon peeled off every stitch of clothing she wore and flung it to the floor. He wanted her naked. He wanted to touch every inch of her, kiss every inch of her, and then do it all over again. As far as he was concerned the rest of the world could go to hell. He had everything he wanted here in his arms.
She lay back and held still, even when he kissed her. Jamie slowed down, afraid he'd scared her off – afraid she wasn't actually ready for this, especially after the night's events. "You okay?" he whispered.
"Yes." But she ducked her head and wouldn't meet his eye.
"What is it?"
Her voice was muffled. "Remember on the trail? What I did?"
Hell, he'd never forget that as long as he lived. "Yeah. You want to do it again?"
"Kind of. I want…you to be the one who…."
An electric jolt coursed through his body. Oh yeah. He was up for that. "You got it," he said, and tilted her chin up to kiss her. "You just lie back and let me work my magic."
Claire did just that, reaching up over her head to grasp the headboard. With her arms raised, her breasts were irresistible, and he didn't hold back. As he showered them with kisses, tugging first one nipple, then the other into his mouth, squeezing them and laving them with his tongue, her breathing quickened and she closed her eyes. He kneed her legs apart and she gasped, opening them again.
He knew what she wanted and she was going to get it, but now he wanted to take his time. He kissed a trail down her stomach to her mound and then lower still. Claire groaned and bit her lip.
"Is this good?" he asked, as if he didn't know the answer.
She looked at him with shining eyes. "It's nice," she said, but she couldn't fool him.
He dipped his head again. She was so sensual, so responsive. For once, all of her attention focused solely on him. He dipped lower, tasting her, teasing her, browsing her secret folds and places until she was fighting to keep from crying aloud. As he brought her to the peak of sensation, he pulled away, all of a sudden desperate to be within her – to be joined with her. A longer session would have to wait.
He moved over her, groaning himself when he positioned himself near her core. "Claire?" he whispered.
"I'm ready." Her fingers clutching the headboard were white.
She gazed at him with loving eyes and he was overcome by the strength of her trust in him. Unable to hold back any longer, he pushed inside her with a strong stroke and was rewarded with her passionate groan.
Jamie pulled out and thrust into her again, spurred on by her response. Sliding out and in again, slowly and deliberately, he moved within her until he could barely retain control. Then he sped up, the sensation building to crescendo inside him. When Claire cried out, he went over the edge with her, grunting his own release as wave after wave of feeling overpowered him.
He loved Claire, loved this woman he cradled in his arms. If she wasn't already wearing his ring, he'd have put it on her finger tonight. They would spend their lives together, and he would make love to her every night.
He kissed her soundly and rolled off of her, snuggling her into the crook of his arm. Claire was finally his – forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Since no one had gotten a good night's sleep, Ethan and Jamie decided to postpone the campout until the following day, and Rose and Tracey volunteered to take the ladies to Billings to go shopping. Claire helped Autumn do up the rooms and give the Big House a thorough cleaning. By the time the women returned, happily laden down with packages, Autumn had a gourmet dinner on that pleased everyone.
The following morning, everyone met early at the stables to saddle up for their overnight trip out onto the range. The party had swelled to nearly twice its intended size with Morgan and all the Matheson men joining in. Autumn had shaken her head, sighed, and packed more provisions into the saddle bags. She wouldn't be coming along. Instead, Rose was taking her place as cook on the campout.
As happy as she could ever remember being, Claire helped Jamie get their guests' horses ready for the long trek.
"I'm a little saddle sore and I haven't even been in the saddle," he said, sneaking close for a kiss before tending to the little gray mare that Angel had ridden all week.
"You think you're saddle sore." Claire smiled at the memory of their previous night's lovemaking. Slow and tender and unforgettable. "Tomorrow will be worse, you know."
"Because of the ride?"
"Because of the way I'm going to ride you tonight." She blushed a little at her own boldness. Jamie's look told her much more of that and he'd shuck off her clothes right here and now and to hell with the horses and guests.
She sobered at the thought and turned away. No illicit sex in the stable – she wasn't her mother. A pang of unease swept through her. She was taking a hell of a chance, hitching her heart to a man like Jamie. Women adored him. How long before he got bored of her and strayed from her side?
She tried to shake off the thought. Jamie wasn't Mack. And she wasn't her mother. Surely the two of them could make a go of this.
Ned came into the stable and said something in low tones to Jamie. Frowning, Claire let her fingers tighten the strap she was working on. What were they talking about?
"You don’t say. Maddy? I thought she'd be more straightforward."
"She was pretty straightforward when we got down to it," Ned laughed.
"She didn't mind the substitution?"
"She called it an upgrade." Ned slapped Jamie on the back. "Thanks, man."
"Thank you." Jamie glanced in her direction and stiffened when he caught her watching them. Ned left the stable, whistling.
"What was all that?" Claire asked the next time Jamie passed her.
He looked sheepish. "One of the guests tried to organize a little…one-on-one time with me the other night. I let Ned handle it."
"You passed up a chance for a roll in the hay? Was that before or after you found out what Morgan and I were up to?"
"Meaning would I have slept with someone else if I hadn't known you were in danger?" There was an edge to his voice. "No, Claire. I wouldn't have slept with her. I already arranged things with Rob. He passed it off to Ned when he heard about you and Morgan."
She dropped her gaze. "Sorry." She hated to admit to herself how much the thought of Jamie with another woman burned her through and through.
"Not sorry enough. Get it through your head. You're the only woman for me."
She busied herself with the horses, not daring to answer that. When they exited the barn, she caught Rose's eye. Rose was already mounted on her horse and as her gaze swept Claire and Jamie, she started in surprise, then a smile spread over her face.
Claire raised an eyebrow. What had Rose seen? Remembering their conversation in Autumn's kitchen, she looked Jamie over, then stared down at herself. Had her energy…changed?
God, she hoped so.
* * * * *
All in all, the ride went smoothly enough and there were plenty of hands to make setting up the camp at the end of the day quick work. Rose might not have been the gourmet chef that Autumn was turning out to be, but the evening meal was incredibly tasty after a day out in the fresh air, and as dusk deepened into night the group sat around a campfire telling stories and jokes, even singing a song or two.
Autumn packed plenty of beer, and the evening definitely
took on a mellow feel as it progressed. Maddy, who hadn't made eye contact with Jamie all day, sat close to Ned. Jake and Luke made a point of squiring Liz and Adrienne around. Ethan and Christine were engaged in a conversation about the best time to wean infants. Angel had already gone to bed.
Ethan headed off to his tent. Christine went to hers. Several of the other couples slipped off into the night and Jamie grimaced as he thought the Cruz Guest Ranch might get a reputation it wasn't entirely after. Still, he couldn't blame anyone. He sure planned to make the most of his time with Claire.
She was busy helping Rose pack things away for the night. Rob was looking after the horses, checking them one last time before turning in. Jamie wanted to clean up a bit before his night with Claire. He joined her where she was packing the food into a bag near a rope dangling over an overhead tree branch. Once she was done, she'd haul it up high away from marauding animals.
"Want help with that?"
"I've got it."
"Meet you back at the tent?"
"You in a rush?" She smiled.
"I've got a thing or two to do before you get there. See you soon."
He'd set up their tent a little ways apart from the others in a stand of pine trees. Claire was a ranch girl and she wasn't squeamish, but a day on the trail had him as stinky as a skunk in heat. There wasn’t a lot he could do to fix that, but he'd at least give it a try.
He hadn't been in the tent for two minutes, however, when footsteps approached and someone cleared her throat outside. "Jamie?"
It wasn't Claire. He swore softly. He'd been rummaging in a bag by flashlight, trying to find some soap and a wash rag. The tent was hard to move around in, with bedding and bags piled up to one side.
"Yeah."
"It's Morgan. Can I come in?"
He relaxed. Not one of his oversexed guests, then. "Sure thing." He unzipped the door and she stepped in, the flashlight sending odd shadows to her face. She moved stiffly and he wondered if the ride had been more than she was used to.
"I didn't want to tell Claire, because she's already so freaked out about putting me in danger," she began.
"She should be," Jamie interrupted. "That was a damn fool trick."
"I went along with it," she said shortly. "Anyway, I’m really sore."
"From the ride?"
"No. Those guys…they were pretty rough the other night. They knocked me around a bit. Something really hurts between my shoulder blades."
Jamie sucked in a breath, a haze of anger surging upwards in him again. He didn't know how much time would have to pass before he could think of the previous night's events without being overcome by the desire to pound Ledstrom to a bloody pulp.
"I can't see it," Morgan went on. "Like I said, I didn't want to ask Claire to look. She feels so bad already. I can't ask Rob, either. I'm having a hard enough time fending him off. If I start undoing my shirt he'll be all over me."
Jamie suppressed a smile. "I thought you liked him."
"I do. Sort of. But my life isn't here – it's back in Canada. Why start something I can't finish? Anyway," she sighed. "I know this is weird but would you just look at my back. I swear I won't jump you."
"Sure. Better do it quick, though, if you don't want Claire to see, too. She'll be here in a minute."
Morgan turned her back to him, undid a few buttons of her shirt and dropped it down over her shoulders so it hung near her waist. "See anything?"
Jamie held up the flashlight. "Shit." A dark blue-black bruise spread over most of her back. "Morgan, I've never seen anything like that."
* * * * *
Claire froze as she approached the tent where it lay secluded in a stand of wiry pine trees. A flashlight inside lit the canvas structure and highlighted two silhouettes against a backdrop of white.
A man and a woman.
Jamie and Morgan.
Their shadows juddered and dodged, but they stood close together, Morgan's head turned to Jamie, his hands stretched out to touch her.
"Morgan," Jamie said, his voice low and husky. "I've never seen anything like that."
Like what? What was she showing him?
Morgan moved and her shadow clarified. Something bunched around her waist – her shirt? – her breasts sharply delineated against the nylon. Half undressed, she moved closer to Jamie.
"Hold still," he said. "I want a closer look."
Rage surged inside her. This could not be happening again – not again. First her mother and Mack, then Daniel and Edie. Now Jamie? Her fiancé?
He couldn't even wait until after the wedding to cheat on her?
No.
She couldn't stand it.
With a cry of pain, she darted forward, unzipped the tent and pushed inside. "You bitch!" She leaped forward to shove her half-sister to the ground. "I knew it! I knew you weren't what you were pretending to be!"
"Claire!" Jamie caught Morgan before she hit the floor. Claire fell on top of her and all three of them crashed to the ground.
"Ouch!" The pile of bedding beside them moved, jerked, and a blonde head popped out, followed by a naked set of shoulders.
"Angel? What the hell are you doing here?" Claire said. Morgan tried to scramble to her knees, but Claire shoved her down again.
"I was waiting for Jamie," Angel said in her dreamy voice. "I must have fallen asleep. You took so long," she whined at him.
Claire's rage turned to outright fury. "Two women? Two of them? What were you planning, an orgy?"
"Jesus, Claire, calm down." Jamie lifted Morgan off his lap and slid out from under her. "I was just…"
"I don't want to hear it. I don't want to have anything to do with you. Screw your house and screw you, Jamie Lassiter!" She tugged the engagement ring she'd worn for over a month off and threw it in his face. Fumbling her way out of the tent, the pain of understanding that it was over – absolutely over between them – took her breath away.
"Claire, stop! Where are you going?"
"Back to Billings. I'm done with all of you."
* * * * *
It took forever to restore a sobbing Morgan back to Rob and escort Angel to her tent with firm instructions not to leave it again for the duration of the night. By that time, Claire and Storm were gone.
It was madness for her to set off in the dark over open rangeland. There was no path to follow – no way for her to get home without careful attention to landmarks and directions. How the hell she planned to do that in the dark, he didn't know.
"What's going on?" Ethan asked, materializing by his side as he saddled his horse.
"Claire caught me with Morgan and Angel. I wasn't doing anything," he snapped as Ethan's eyebrow's rose. "I want your sister, not your…half-sister, for god's sake."
"Yeah, I know. Where is Claire?"
"Gone."
Ethan sighed. "Not again."
"I can handle this one alone."
After a moment's hesitation Ethan nodded. "Go get her."
"That's exactly what I plan to do."
* * * * *
Claire wanted to urge Storm on to a canter, or even a full out gallop, but while she might risk it on known territory, she wouldn't do that to a horse here. She couldn't believe she'd been tricked again. Couldn't believe she'd fallen for the one man she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was incapable of fidelity. So much for the difference between flirting and cheating. If one led to the other, who cared about definitions?
Face it, she wasn't special enough to keep a man's attention. She wasn’t even good enough to keep her own mother's attention.
She swiped a tear with the back of her hand and scanned the ground in front of her as best she could. Was she even heading in the right direction? One part of her didn’t care – wanted to get lost in these rolling hills. The other part, the rational part who'd grown up here in the wide-open spaces of Montana, knew that she had little water and no food and wouldn't last long if she got lost. She'd better slow down and get her bearings.
As she rein
ed Storm in to a halt, however, she heard hoofbeats behind her and Jamie rode up before she could urge her horse forward again.
"For God's sake, Claire, would you listen to me for once? Really listen?" he said without preamble.
"There's nothing more for you to say."
"Yes, there is. There's plenty. You walked in on me back there in a situation that looked like something it wasn't. You need to let me explain."
"I don’t need to let you do anything. There's one thing I'm perfectly clear about – I'm not going to be the little woman who sits at home while you flirt and sleep with everything in a skirt. I'm not going to do it. I'm worth more than that!"
Her voice hitched and more tears slipped from her eyes. Damn it, she wasn't going to cry – she was angry, not sad.
"Claire." Jamie came up beside her and reached out. She slapped his hand away.
"Don't." Storm sidestepped beneath her and she patted her flank to try to calm the mare. "I can't do this. I can't be afraid every minute about how you'll betray me next."
"I've never betrayed you," Jamie said angrily. "I've never betrayed anyone. Morgan was hurt and she didn't want you to know. She said you blamed yourself enough already and she didn't want to add to your worry. She's got an awful bruise on her back – she shouldn't even be on this ride – and she asked me to check it out so that neither you nor Rob would flip your lids."
"What about Angel?"
"What about her? She's a lunatic. I didn't even know she was there."
"What about the others – I've seen the way they look at you."