An Unlikely Lady

by Rachelle Morgan

“We got to ride Destiny today!”

  “Girls, stop pestering him,” Annie scolded the girls who clung to Jesse’s legs.

  “They’re no bother, Annie.” He caressed each cap of gold hair, then glanced around. His brows narrowed. “Where’s Justine?”

  “With Brett. She’s been begging to go to the canyon with him and I finally couldn’t resist letting her go.”

  Honesty’s ears perked. “Canyon?”

  “The Palo Duro. We had some land there until we sold it to a friend of Brett’s, but Charlie still lets my husband make a trip down there at least once a summer and look through the wild bands for breeding stock.”

  “I’d love to see it.”

  “Not this trip,” Jesse answered, shaking his head. “It’s too far out of the way.”

  “But wild horses, Jesse! I might not get this way again! And who knows? My brother may have gone that way.”

  “We will not discuss this now, Honesty.”

  She fumed from fury and humiliation when he left her to follow Annie to an outside pump by the stables. She and Jesse chatted while she washed her hands. And laughed. And touched. Innocent touches, yes—a hand to the shoulder, a playful slap to the arm—but touches all the same. A camaraderie and comfort with one another that made Honesty ache. Normally she didn’t give in to bouts of self-pity, but it was hard to fight it when these two had something she desperately yearned for.

  He returned to her side shortly and said tonelessly, “We’ve been invited to stay the night.”

  “I don’t want to stay.”

  “You’re being childish, Honesty, not to mention rude. Brett and Annie have been friends of mine for years. I’ll not insult them by refusing their hospitality.”

  “And we wouldn’t want to insult them, would we?”

  “What’s the matter with you?”

  The genuine confusion in his eyes made her feel silly for letting her insecurities and petty jealousy reveal themselves. Of course it made sense to stay with his friends; they couldn’t afford many more nights in hotels. “Nothing. Of course we’ll stay.”

  While Jesse went to settle the animals in their temporary home and choose the mounts they would borrow, Honesty followed Annie onto the veranda that wrapped around the single-story ranch house. The girls played jump rope in the yard—actually, one played jump rope while the other perfected the art of lassoing a short-haired hound.

  She took a seat in one of the whitewashed chairs, feeling awkward and unsure of herself. She didn’t know what to say to this woman who seemed so important to Jesse. They shared a past, a present, a future . . .

  “I’ve got to say, Honesty, you’re quite a surprise,” Annie said, handing her a bowl of freshly picked pea pods.

  So are you, she almost said, but bit her tongue at the last moment. “I apologize if we are causing you any inconvenience.”

  “Not at all. Jesse knows he’s welcome here anytime, and so is any friend—or wife—of Jesse’s. So where did you two meet?”

  Honesty wasn’t sure how to answer; she was almost ashamed to tell this woman, who’d probably never set foot in a bar in her life, that they’d met in a saloon. “In a little town in Colorado called Last Hope. He helped a friend of mine save her business.”

  “Sounds like something Jesse would do.”

  “You’ve known him a long time, then?”

  “’Bout ten years or so. He’s been a good friend to Brett and me.”

  They fell into a companionable silence, splitting pods with their fingernails, breaking them open, and dumping the tiny round peas into another bowl. It was a mindless and mundane chore, and yet there was something about preparing a meal for her man that made Honesty feel womanly and content and . . . wifely.

  Except she wasn’t a real wife.

  And Jesse wasn’t her man.

  “This canyon you were talking about earlier,” she said, trying to keep up with Annie as she shelled peas with enviable speed. “How far away is it?”

  “Two days’ ride south as the crow flies.”

  “Are there by chance any stones that look as if they’re flowing?”

  “There’s only one spot that I can think of that might be considered flowing. A sheet of sandstone that looks like a slide, with a pool of water beneath. It’s on the north end, near a formation called the Spanish Skirts.”

  “It sounds beautiful.”

  “Maybe you can talk Jesse into taking you there.”

  “Maybe.” But she doubted it. “He’s different with you than he is with me,” she confessed to Annie.

  “’Course he is. I’m not a threat to him.”

  She wished she could hate the woman. It wasn’t as if she was easy to talk to; she wasn’t. In fact, she was probably as wary of Honesty as Honesty was of her, and she made no secret of her place in Jesse’s life.

  But maybe that’s what Honesty liked about her. She was a straight shooter who spoke her mind. “I would never hurt him, Mrs. Corrigan.”

  The soft declaration earned her a searching look from those striking blue eyes. “Is it that obvious?”

  “That you care about him?” Honesty nodded.

  Annie smiled. “Yes, I do. And I’m glad you wouldn’t hurt him, but that isn’t what I meant.”

  “What did you mean?”

  “Jesse comes here when he’s feeling lost. Off balance. Confused. He jokes around with me, plays with the girls, wrestles with Brett. Then he leaves. We’re his friends, but he’s not so involved with us that he can’t live without us for weeks or months or even years. No threat.”

  Before Honesty could pursue the topic, the air filled with the sound of pounding hooves. Annie glanced toward the horizon. Her eyes glowed and a beaming grin split her face for a second before she checked the response. “There’s my husband now.”

  Three horses bearing an older man, a younger man, and another young girl broke over the crest in the distance. Several head of horses trailed behind by lead ropes. Annie set aside the bowl of peas, brushed her hands down her trousers, then stepped to the edge of the veranda to wait.

  The girls weren’t that patient. They dropped their ropes and tore across the prairie as fast as their little legs could carry them. Annie’s husband swooped one child in front of him, the other behind him, and carried both of them back to the house.

  “Jesse! Jesse!” called his other daughter, trotting up on a black horse that looked far too big for her to handle.

  “There’s my girl!”

  There was nothing tender about the way Annie and her husband looked at each other. It was pure sizzle.

  He swung out of the saddle, set his girls on the ground, and swept Annie into his arms for a kiss that nearly singed the hairs off Honesty’s arms.

  Jesse stood near the corral with a little girl of ten or so; their gazes met over her head, then dashed away, but not before she saw her own longing reflected in his expression.

  “’Bout damn time you came home, gambler,” Annie told her husband several moments later.

  “I missed you, too,” came his deep reply. When he could finally tear himself away from his wife, he turned to Jesse. “Hey, Jess. I thought that was your horse tied to my hitching rail. Who’s your lady friend?”

  “His wife,” Annie announced with a cheeky grin.

  Jesse sent her a glower that warned of later retribution.

  “Ace, this is Honesty. Honesty, this is the biggest cheat in Texas.”

  Piercing green eyes looked Honesty up and down with such intensity that Honesty felt a flush creep up her cheeks.

  “Have we met?” he asked.

  Oh, Gosh, she hoped not. “I don’t think so.”

  “You look really familiar.”

  Aware that Jesse was watching the byplay with avid interest, Honesty lowered her lashes. “I’m sure I would have remembered if we had met before.”

  “I’m escorting her to her brother.”

  “In the escort business now, are you?”

  “Something like t
hat.” Jesse’s smile never reached his eyes, though, and Honesty knew he’d not let go of Brett’s statement until he learned why she was so familiar to him.

  “Ah, never mind,” Annie’s husband finally said. “And please forgive me, Honesty. You probably just look like someone I know.”

  Supper at the Corrigan house had always been a lively affair that kept Jesse’s mind off his troubles. But tonight, trouble was dining with them.

  He could hardly keep his eyes off Honesty. She sat across from him, next to the Corrigan’s son Dogie, wearing a dress he’d seen on her a dozen times before—the rose print one with the bits of lace at the sleeves and the heart-shaped neckline that left her skin bare, revealing the tantalizing curve of her breasts and the slender column of her throat. She’d brushed her amber locks until they shone, and caught them up at the sides of her head with combs in a simple but flattering style.

  Honesty smiled at something five-year-old Emily said to her. It lit up her face and crinkled her eyes and made her look so damned desirable that his heart about stopped beating. Funny, he couldn’t remember seeing her smile all that much when she was around him.

  Annie and Ace didn’t make the situation any easier to bear with their heated glances and secretive smiles. Criminy, if not for Dogie’s and the girls’ presence, Jesse would have sworn they’d have gone at it right there on the supper table.

  He regretted the thought the instant it hit. Images of doing just that with Honesty sliced through his mind with such clarity that he could only thank God Annie liked cloths on her tables. Long tablecloths.

  “Justine is such a pretty name,” Honesty told the oldest girl.

  “Mama and Pa named me after Uncle Jesse, didn’t you Pa?”

  Jesse froze, and snapped a glance at Brett.

  “How do you get Justine out of Jesse?” Honesty asked.

  “Not from his first name,” Justine giggled, “from his—”

  “Girls, time for bed,” Brett announced, rising from the head of the table.

  “Oh, Papa, it’s still early!” Justine wailed. Emily and three-year-old Amelia chimed in with their objections.

  “It’s eight o’clock.” He set one hand each on the two older girls while Dogie plucked Amelia from her high chair. “Now, if you want to ride Destiny again tomorrow, I suggest you pop your little fannies in your rooms.”

  As they left the dining room, Jesse released a relieved breath. That had been close.

  Seeming to take their leaving as her cue, Honesty set down her napkin and also got to her feet.

  “Honesty, I put you and Jesse in the blue room,” Annie said as she picked up plates. “It’s the one Jesse always uses when he comes to visit. I think you’ll find it to your liking.”

  She smiled at Annie. “I’m sure it will be fine.” Then she looked at Jesse and softly asked, “Are you coming?”

  The question swept him back to the first time she’d asked it, standing on the stairs of the Scarlet Rose in that heart-stopping red silk dress . . .

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea if we sleep in the same room, Honesty.”

  He could have kicked himself for causing the hurt that flashed across her eyes. “Then I’ll see if Justine minds sharing her room with me tonight.”

  “That’s not necessary. You take the blue room. I’m gonna sleep in the barn.” If he slept under the same roof as Honesty tonight, he wouldn’t have the strength to keep away. At least in the stables he’d get a decent night’s rest without images of her taunting him.

  Or so he hoped.

  Jesse awoke drenched in sweat and so hard it was a wonder he didn’t bust a placket. Every time he closed his eyes, his mind filled with such explicit images of Honesty that he’d have sworn she’d been lying in the hay with him. Hell, the dreams he was having were a whole lot more memorable than the night he’d spent with her back in Last Hope.

  Hoping the night air might cool him down, he went outside and took a seat in a chair outside the barn. A half moon looked down on him with pity.

  He didn’t know how long he stared the damn thing in the face before his thoughts turned to Brett’s reaction to Honesty earlier. Brett had been quite the ladies’ man before he’d married Annie, but never once since the day she’d agreed to be his wife had he so much as looked at another woman. And Honesty would only have been a girl during his player days, so he couldn’t have known her that way.

  The sound of footsteps on dried grass pulled him from his musings. He glanced around and found Annie strolling toward him, her arms wrapped around her waist. “What are you doing awake?” he asked. “It’s three o’clock in the morning.”

  “I was thinking about you.”

  “Annie, we’re married to other people,” he jested.

  Her smile was brief. And sad. “She doesn’t know who you are, does she?”

  He didn’t have to ask who she meant. “Nope, and we’re going to keep it that way.”

  “You can’t judge all women by the actions of one,” she softly scolded.

  “If I did that, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “You should tell her, Jesse.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to see you make the same mistake I did.”

  “Ace always knew who you were, Annie.”

  “His knowing is one thing, my not telling him is another.” She laid her arms over the top of the fence. “She has a right to know she could be in danger traveling with you.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  “You may not be able to help it.”

  Jesse thought about the close call in Last Hope, and his jaw clenched.

  “Just what I thought—you’ve got feelings for her.”

  “Jeez, Annie, Ace is putting too many damn romantic notions in your head.”

  “I know a man in love when I see him.”

  “I’m not in love. I’m just helping the woman look for what family she’s got left.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, Jesse.” She laughed and patted his shoulder. “But a word of advice from someone who knows: be careful what you look for. You just might find it.”

  After she disappeared inside the house, Jesse leaned back in the chair with the back of his head pressed against the rough log wall. Annie had gone out of her ever-lovin’ mind. He wasn’t in love with Honesty. In lust, yes. What man with breath in his body wouldn’t be?

  But in love?

  With Honesty?

  He’d never heard of anything so ridiculous in his life.

  Still scoffing at the notion, Jesse dropped his hands to his knees and pushed himself out of the chair.

  “You lied to me.”

  Startled by the voice behind him, Jesse swung around. Honesty stood at the corner of the wrap-around veranda, looking madder than a wet hen.

  “What?”

  “You are an outlaw.”

  “Hell, are we back to that again?”

  “I heard Annie tell you that I could be in danger traveling with you.”

  Jeez, what else had she heard? “Eavesdropping, now, are we?”

  “Is it true?”

  Jesse raked his fingers through his hair. Maybe Annie was right. Maybe he should tell her.

  She walked toward him, her head tilted to the side. “Are you an outlaw?”

  “No, I’m not an outlaw.”

  “Then who are you, Jesse Jones? Or is that even your name?”

  “As much as yours is Honesty.”

  He’d cornered her there. Until Deuce’s death, Honesty would have argued herself blue in the face, but now . . . now she didn’t know anything. “Just tell me this, then. Am I safe with you?”

  “As safe as you’d be with anyone.”

  She almost laughed. If he’d meant that to be assuring, he’d missed the mark by a mile. He cupped her jaw and turned her face toward his. “Honesty, I give you my word, you will come to no danger with me.”

  After searching his eyes for several seconds, she turned into his
arms and laid her cheek on his shoulder. He tensed, but she ignored it. He was the closest thing to security that she had in this world right now, even though she couldn’t trust him farther than she could throw him. She was so tired. So afraid. So alone. “Hold me for a minute, Jesse. That’s all I’m asking.”

  Jesse stared at the head on his shoulder, protectiveness welling up inside him so strong and powerful that his chest ached. He shut his eyes and as his arms closed around her, Jesse feared that Annie might be closer to the mark than he’d thought.

  If he wasn’t in love with Honesty now, he was coming dangerously close.

  Chapter 16

  Honesty slid another sidelong glance at Jesse, who saddled his horse with swift, impatient movements. His lips were pressed in the same grim line they’d been in since she’d woken an hour ago. Not a word had passed between them.

  He wouldn’t look at her. He wouldn’t touch her. He wouldn’t speak to her. Was he so angry with her that he couldn’t bear to be around her now?

  Honesty blinked back a sudden sting of tears. She never should have gone down to the barn. Never should have overheard parts of his conversation with Annie. Never should have confronted him with it.

  It was just that she’d gotten so used to him sleeping nearby, that the room had been . . . well, so darn lonely.

  Only dimly aware of what she was doing, she buckled the bedroll onto the little gray mare Jesse had picked out for her, then gathered their filled canteens. Clutching them to her breast, she carried them to Jesse.

  “Where will you go?” Brett was asking him.

  “Tascosa.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  “Probably not, but it’s my best shot of finding someone to take Honesty to find her brother, and while I’m at it, I’ll see what I can do about getting this marriage annulled.”

  She caught Brett’s eye over Jesse’s shoulder, and wished the earth would open up beneath her feet and swallow her.

  “You sure you want to do that?” he asked Jesse, though his gaze never wavered from her.

  Several heartbeats passed without Jesse’s reply, and Honesty didn’t realize how badly she wanted to hear him say, “Hell, no, she belongs to me” until he said instead, “Yeah, I’m sure.”