Willow

by Norah Hess

  "Would you like a piece of pie and a cup of coffee?" she invited, making a place for him beside her. "Just a cup of coffee, Corrie Mae." Thad smiled at the cook.

  You little rat, Corrie Mae thought as she placed a cup in front of the farmer. An hour or so from now you'll be in my bed, humping like a rutting buffalo. Willow is much too good for you. She belongs with that idiot Jules.

  It was but minutes later when the idiot arrived. The wide smile on Jules's face died when he saw Thad sitting beside Willow, his face clean-shaven and his hair slicked back. A pulse throbbed in his jaw when he saw that Thad had an arm drapped across the back of Willow's chair. Pride kept him from wheeling around and walking out.

  Jimmy slid over on the bench, making room for Jules to sit between him and Sammy. That placed the seething rancher directly across from Willow. He shot her a fast glance, saw her talking and smiling at Thad, and didn't look her way again that night.

  Instead, he gave his attention to Corrie Mae. When Jimmy left the table a short time later he slid to the end of the bench, and when the cook brought him a piece of pie, he swung his feet around and pulled her down on his lap. While everyone laughed at his action, he whispered in her ear, making her giggle.

  "You naughty man," Corrie Mae scolded, pulling away from him, "having such thoughts. You know we can't do that now." What none of the people at the table realized was that all Jules had done was blow in Corrie Mae's ear. They didn't realize either that Corrie Mae was on Jules's side and that she knew how the stubborn mule was hurting inside.

  The cook looked at Willow and knew that she was hurting also. What a pain in the rear this love thing was, she thought, and was happy she had never been bitten by that particular bug. It messed up a person's mind and made people do foolish things, not to mention the pain it caused.

  When Corrie Mae put an arm around Jules's neck and blew in his ear, Willow could take no more. "Should we go, Thad?" She stood up and stepped over the bench before he could answer.

  "Don't forget your jacket, Willow," Ruth called out. "It's real cool tonight."

  "I agree. That's why I think we'll stay inside, sit in front of the fire."

  When the door closed behind them, Corrie Mae slid off Jules's knees. There was no reason to pretend anymore.

  Ruth and Rooster left almost on the heels of Willow and Thad, and the others left shortly after them. Willow's two cowhands gave Corrie Mae a knowing look as they left. They would be back later.

  Jules gave Corrie Mae a roguish grin as she cleared the table. "Your bedsprings are going to squeak tonight, aren't they?"

  "No more than usual," the big, attractive woman quipped saucily. "They squeak every night."

  "Oh, yeah, what about all the time the men were gone on the cattle drive. There were no men here then."

  Corrie Mae laughed as she filled a basin with hot water. "You forget that Brian was left behind."

  "So I did." Jules chuckled. "Don't tell me that greenhorn kid could satisfy you."

  "I hope to tell you he did. I'd always heard that a male reaches his peak when he's seventeen or eighteen. I firmly believe that now. Brian went after me every night, all night. If I had to choose one man on this ranch, it would be him.

  "After Denny and Hoot have been here and gone, he will slip over here and spend the rest of the night with me."

  "Why does he have to sneak to see you? Why can't he be open about it the same way the older men are?"

  "Hah!" Corrie Mae gave a short laugh. Willow would have a hissie if she learned that one of her boys knew how to hump. Brian even has to keep it secret from Jimmy and Sammy. If those two young devils found out that their buddy comes over here every night they'd be hotfooting it over here and not being discreet about it either. It wouldn't be long before Willow would know what was going on.

  "I like this job, and I know that she would fire me if she learned I was taking her boys to bed."

  When Jules picked up a dish towel and started drying the dishes Corrie Mae was washing, she looked at him from the corner of her eye and asked, "How far do you think Willow and Thad have come in their courtship?"

  The cup Jules was drying dropped and shattered on the floor. He gave Corrie Mae a suspicious look and practically snarled as he grabbed a broom. "I don't know and I don't care."

  Corrie Mae hid her grin as she continued to needle him. "Thad is a smooth talker. He's been seeing her for several weeks now. I'd say one more visit with her and he'll have her in bed."

  It was plain from Jules's expression that he wanted to hit the cook as much as he wanted to bolt from the kitchen. He did neither. But he promised himself that he would geld the sodbuster the first chance he got.

  Corrie Mae realized that she had almost pushed Jules over the edge and spoke no more about Willow and the man who was courting her.

  "Do you want to play a few hands of cards?" she asked as she emptied the dishpan.

  "I'm not in the mood for cards tonight," Jules said as he reached over to turn out the lamp on the kitchen table. "Let's just sit and talk for a while."

  Corrie Mae started to ask, "In the dark?" but then realized what Jules had in mind. When Willow walked Thad to the door, she would see the cookhouse in darkness and Jules's horse still tied up there. He wanted Willow to think that they were in bed together. Also, he could see when the young farmer left.

  She folded her hands on the table and said, "Tell me about your cattle drive."

  Willow kept shooting glances at the clock, wondering when Thad would leave. She was sorry now that they hadn't taken their usual ride tonight. They could have ridden for an hour or so, then returned home and she could have given Thad a quick kiss before sending him on his way home.

  Her mother had spent only a few minutes with them before saying good night and going to her room.

  The minutes had seemed like hours as they dragged along.

  She was learning that she and Thad had nothing in common. He didn't know anything about ranching, and she knew little about farming, so the conversation between them was stilted with long stretches of silence between remarks.

  She thought that Thad had read her mind when he said it was time he was getting home. It was almost rude, the way she ushered him into the kitchen and held his jacket for him. When she opened the door, she caught a sharp breath. The cookhouse was in darkness, but Jules's horse was still tied up in front of the building. She was so upset, she was hardly aware of Thad grabbing her to him and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. She didn't even feel his hardness pressed into her.

  But she did become aware of his hand inching up toward her breast. She pushed herself away from him, saying "Good night, Thad."

  He reluctantly released her and she went back into the kitchen and closed the door before he had mounted and ridden away. Blinded by the tears that had gathered in her eyes, she stumbled into her room.

  Corrie Mae heard Jules's harsh intake of breath when Thad grabbed Willow and kissed her. It had been the kind of kiss that lovers exchanged and seeing it had torn Jules up inside, she knew.

  You damn fool, she thought, why don't you go over there and do something?

  On the heels of Corrie Mae's thought, Jules suddenly stood up and mumbled that he didn't feel like making the fifteen-mile ride home and that he would spend the night at his aunt's house. He left then, so upset, he forgot to say good night.

  In the dark bunkhouse, the owners of two pairs of eyes sighed in relief when they saw the cookhouse door open and Jules step outside. They swore softly when, instead of mounting his horse and riding away, Jules led it toward the barn. Was he going to spend the night in the bunkhouse? they asked each other in a whisper.

  Denny and Hoot had decided that they might as well go to bed when Jules walked past the window they had been peering through and went on toward the house. He was going to spend the night there.

  The two cowhands had already tossed a coin to see who would visit Corrie Mae first, and Jules had barely closed the kitchen door behind him b
efore Hoot, the winner, was hurrying toward the cookhouse.

  Chapter Twenty

  Tears of despair and self-contempt ran unchecked down Willow's cheeks and onto her pillow. How could she have been so completely wrong about Jules? What a fool she had been to think that she was special to him, that he loved her, would marry her. Right now he was in bed with her cook, doing all the things he had once done with her.

  She had to face the fact that he wanted only one thing from a woman, whether it be a loose-moraled one, or a simpleton like herself.

  Willow dabbed her eyes dry with the corner of the sheet, determined that she would get over the man who had made a fool of her. Exhausted, mentally and physically, from chasing burros all day, Willow was drifting off when she heard the soft click of the kitchen door being closed. She sat up in bed, terror filling her whole being. Her father and Buck had come to take her and her mother back to New Mexico! Would Jules hear her if she screamed, she wondered. The bunkhouse was too far away to hear a yell for help.

  She threw back the covers and swung her feet to the floor. She would try to handle it herself, she thought nervously, as she stood up. She slipped noiselessly across the room to the dresser and picked up the Colt that lay there. From now on it would be kept under her pillow.

  The gun in her hand, Willow eased out of her room and down the short hall. She heard a muttered curse as someone bumped into the table or a chair. She peered into the gray darkness of the kitchen and saw the shadowy figure of a tall man coming toward her.

  "Stay right where you are," she ordered. The click of the Colt being cocked seemed to echo around the room. She heard the sharp ejaculation of a surprised curse, then hard arms were wrapped around her, holding her arms tight against her sides, rendering her helpless to shoot the intruder.

  She opened her mouth to scream, but before she could, lips that she knew well were on hers.

  Her first reaction was to relax in relief But then the firm lips began to move urgently, and the arms that had held her prisoner were now across her back and around her waist. Jules was holding her so tightly, a feather wouldn't fit between them.

  She unconsciously began to respond, opening her mouth to him, pressing closer yet. When she felt the throbbing of a male hardness against her stomach, anger replaced the passion that gripped her. This man who held her so tightly was a shameless, lustful animal. How could he come from one woman's bed and be ready to climb into another one so soon after?

  Willow jerked her lips away and, raising her hand, slapped Jules hard across the face. The crack of her palm was loud in the room.

  "Why in the hell did you do that?" Jules demanded, nursing his cheek.

  "Think about it. It will come to you."

  "No, it won't. I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Do you think that I don't know where you've been and what you were doing the last hour?"

  "Whatever you think you know is no excuse to haul off and hit me."

  "Hah!" Willow gave an unladylike snort and, without another word, wheeled and ran down the hall to her room, where she bolted the door shut.

  Jules stood in the hallway, fingering the welts rising on his cheek. A slow smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Willow had fallen for his ploy. She had believed, as he had wanted her to, that he had been in bed with Corrie Mae. She was jealous.

  It had felt good, holding her in his arms again, Jules thought as he removed his boots and stripped down to his underwear before crawling into bed. Would it be so hard to be married to her? he asked himself again. He asked himself another question. Was he just being stubborn refusing to marry her? His father and Aunt Jess had always charged him with this unbecoming trait. They claimed that one day it would be his undoing.

  Had that day arrived? He frowned into the dark-ness. Was the sodbuster replacing him in Willow's affections? The farmer would marry her in a minute. And cheat on her all during their married life.

  When Jules finally fell asleep, a war waged inside him. Should he marry Willow? Did he want to give up the freedom of bachelorhood? Was he being stubborn?

  Willow had felt so right in his arms. Memories of all the nights of lovemaking came surging back. He didn't seem whole anymore without her.

  Willow awakened to the morning sun striking her face through a two-inch gap in the drapes.

  She had been a long time falling asleep last night, and this morning she had overslept because of it.

  She slid out of bed, her toes curling away from the cold floorboards as she searched for her house slippers, which had been accidentally kicked away from their usual place beside the bed.

  She was down on her knees feeling under the bed when a voice she would never forget drawled in amusement behind her. "Now that's a delightful sight, your little rear stuck up in the air."

  Willow gave a startled jerk and hit her head on the high bedframe as she scrambled to her feet.

  "What are you doing in my bedroom?" she demanded crossly, pushing the hair out of her eyes.

  "Your door wasn't closed, so I thought I'd drop in and say good morning."

  "Just because there's an open door doesn't mean you have to walk through it."

  "But I've brought you some coffee," Jules explained, his hot gaze devouring the shape of her body, which was clearly outlined through the thin material of her gown. When his study of her reached her breasts, she remembered the buttons missing there. She started to cluth the edges together, but then said to herself that she'd be damned if she would. Let him gawk. She hoped that he would become so stiff and hard that he couldn't walk.

  When Jules started toward her, Willow lost her bravado and grabbed up her robe. She barely eluded his hands as he reached for her.

  "Aren't you going to drink your coffee?" Jules asked plaintively as she tied the belt of the robe around her small waist and headed toward the door.

  "Yes, I am," she answered, "in the safety of the kitchen."

  "Don't you think you would be safe drinking it in here?" His voice became soft and coaxing. "You know I would never hurt you."

  Willow ignored his pleading tone. Her wish had come true. He was hurting.

  But she was, too, she admitted as she walked down the hall. It had been all she could do to keep from throwing herself into his arms, to share the morning desire that had once started their day.

  It didn't help her condition when just short of the kitchen door, Jules grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into the well of his hips. He ground his stiffness against her as he nuzzled her ear and throat.

  "Think about this as you hunt your burros today," he said, emphasizing his meaning with a quick buck of his hips. "And you think about this as you hunt your wild horses," Willow said softly, and reaching behind her, she caressed the edge of the hardness straining against his Levi's.

  Jules gasped his pleasure, then his pain as Willow, with a taunting laugh, pulled away from him and entered the kitchen. "You teasing little witch," he hissed in her ear just before Ruth looked up from the stove and smiled at them.

  "Good morning, children. Are you ready for breakfast? I was just about to start the bacon to frying."

  "I'll do it, Ma. You go sit down."

  "If you're sure, I'll go get dressed. It's quite cool this morning."

  As Willow went about frying bacon, slicing bread and setting the table, Jules sat down, leaned back in the chair and stretched out his long legs as he watched her. He was still as hard as a rock and every time she glanced at him, he bucked his hips in invitation to her.

  The fourth time it happened, Willow got her revenge. With her back to him she untied the robe belt, then undid the remaining buttons on her gown. Her firm breasts were fully revealed now as she turned to face him and pulled the robe apart. Then, with her hands beneath her breasts, she pushed them up and forward.

  "Oh, lord," Jules rasped and sat forward, his gaze hot on the pink, pouting nipples. They seemed to be begging him to take them into the warmth of his mouth, to feel his tongue laving them.
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  Willow let him feast his eyes on her breasts, watching through lowered lids as the bulge in his Levi's grew and strained against his fly. When she thought the buttons would surely pop off, she gave a teasing laugh.

  And that she shouldn't have done. Jules was on his feet in an instant, bending her over his arm and hungrily opening his mouth over one firm, white mound. His lips drew greedily on the hard, pink nipple, and Willow grew alarmed as thrill after thrill ran from her breasts to the core of her. Her mother could return to the kitchen at any moment.

  "Jules, stop it." She tried to force his mouth off her.

  But Jules wouldn't be persuaded. He had yearned too long for the taste of her flesh in his mouth again.

  Willow was becoming panicky as she fought the fear of being discovered and the passion that was threatening to overwhelm her.

  She was finally saved by a pounding on the kitchen door and Rooster demanding, "Willow, are you going burro hunting today or not?"

  Jules reluctantly released her and hurried to sit down at the table to hide his condition. But the heat of desire was still visible in his eyes if anyone looked closely enough.

  Willow was in the same state as she hurriedly tied her belt and stepped over to the stove. Taking a deep breath, she called out, "The door is unlocked, Rooster. Come on in."

  "Good mornin' Boss," Rooster said when he stepped inside. Willow started to answer the same, but she realized her ranch foreman was addressing Jules. She gave a wry twist to her mouth. Rooster still looked on Jules as his boss.

  "Have you eaten?" she asked.

  "Yes. I just finished." When Ruth entered the kitchen, Rooster's eyes lit up and he rushed to say, "I'll have a cup of coffee with you, though."

  Willow and Jules hid amused smiles when he pulled a chair away from the table and took Ruth's arm to help her sit down. The little woman was no longer an invalid, but it pleased the rough cowboy to treat her as one.