by Gigi Moore
She didn’t want to tell him the truth and put a damper on the night. She tried to think of something that wouldn’t alert his suspicions, searching her brain for something neutral if not optimistic to say.
“You know what I’m thinking about?” Ki asked as if he had read her mind and was coming to her rescue, yet again.
“No, what?”
“The first place I want to take you for our honeymoon once things settle down here.”
She wondered if he meant things as in their agreement and the probate, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask. “Which is where?”
“Paris or New York. I haven’t quite decided yet. Either way, it’ll be a bit of a working vacation and honeymoon for both of us as I want to introduce you to a friend of mine who owns a string of art galleries in both cities. I’d like to make arrangements for you to exhibit your work, have your own show.”
“Are you plumb loco? I’m not ready to put my work on display. I don’t have any work to put on display.”
“Maybe not now, but that’s where the work comes in. You’ll need to put that creative imagination of yours to work producing some paintings to sell. I mean, that sketch of me is very good to start, but unfortunately, I’m not parting with that, not even for a million dollars.”
“Narcissist.” She laughed. Listening to the offhanded certainty in Ki’s voice made her feel like she had the talent it took to be a famous artist. He had such faith in her, more than she had in herself.
Lucy heard a sudden murmur of voices rising up from the garden. “Do you hear that?”
Ki frowned. “Just barely. It’s probably just Ethan and my mother catching a breath of fresh air, getting to know each other.”
“At this hour?” What she really wanted to say was that she couldn’t imagine the Prentice she knew willingly entertaining Margaret, but the Prentice she once knew wasn’t exactly the Prentice that now existed.
“We’re up,” Ki said.
Lucy pushed up to her knees, which was a mite of a mistake considering it put her still tingling pussy in close proximity to Ki’s hardening shaft. When she shifted on top of him to get up, her slit brushed against the head of his cock, making her tremble.
She leaped from the bed and Ki reached for the bottom of her skirts to try to stop her as she made her way across the room to the window, but he missed.
Lucy glanced out the window and she could just make out three figures by the light of the moon above. From the looks of it, a fight was a-brewing below in the gazebo and just as she thought it, one of the figures hauled back and punched the other.
Lucy gasped then she heard Ginger McCall’s voice clear as a bell say Ethan’s name. She turned from the window and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Ki asked as he jumped up to follow her.
“There’s some trouble outside with Ethan and Ginger. Looks like some kind of fight.” Lucy grabbed the shotgun she kept behind the bedroom door.
“I think Ethan can handle himself against one young woman.”
“It’s not just her. Someone else is out there, and he punched Ethan.” Lucy came up short at the bottom of the staircase when Ki caught her arm.
“Whoa, whoa. If there are fisticuffs then outside is the last place you need to be.”
“I can handle myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but you shouldn’t have to.”
“Ki…” She eased out of his grasp, pumped the shotgun and loaded a round into the chamber. “Let’s go.”
Ki opened the door for her and she could tell he did it reluctantly, but after all his big talk about her being strong and able to do anything she put her mind to, she guessed he didn’t want to rightly tell her she couldn’t go out there to help Ethan. It didn’t stop him from taking the lead, making her bring up the rear by a few steps as they marched toward the gazebo.
“What’s going on out here?” Ki asked as they arrived.
Lucy clearly saw that Tanner Gray was the third person, the one who had hit Ethan. She was surprised Prentice had allowed him to land a punch.
“’T’ain’t none of your concern, mister. This is between me and Ethan.”
“I beg to differ, young man. You’re on my property and that makes it my concern,” Ki said. His voice was deep and firm.
“And mine.” Lucy brought her rifle up to rest on her shoulder in plain view so that Tanner would get the message. Ki’s fearless, no-nonsense manner was a good start, but a strong show of force was even better as far as Lucy was concerned.
“We’re sorry to have disturbed you, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin. Tanner and I were just about to leave,” Ginger said.
Lucy didn’t know what all had been going on out here before she and Ki arrived, but she was sure Ginger wasn’t supposed to be out this way messing around with Ethan, and Tanner had probably made it his business to come and bring her home.
“You do that,” Ki said.
Tanner tipped his hat and nodded before taking Ginger’s hand none-too-gently and dragging her from the gazebo.
Ginger, surprisingly, followed him without a word, just hastily said her good nights to Lucy, Ki, and Ethan before she let Tanner lead her down the road.
“What was that all about?” Ki asked, staring at the pair’s backs as they disappeared from view before he turned to Ethan.
Ethan shrugged. “Just a little lover’s quarrel gone wrong.”
Lucy didn’t buy it and from the looks of it, neither did Ki.
Chapter 18
Prentice was wired after the confrontation with Ginger and Tanner, more so than he had been before Ginger had arrived.
Rather than go up to bed after Ki and Lucy practically rescued him from certain bodily harm if not death, Prentice stayed downstairs in the great room and took up the book he had been reading earlier.
He turned the last page then yawned and stretched, thankful that his body was beginning to wind down, even if his brain wasn’t anywhere near tired.
It was after midnight and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except him.
He thought about the rest of the house’s inhabitants and how comfortable they must all be snuggled up to each other. Well, Ki’s mother, notwithstanding. Prentice thought how much he wanted to be snuggled up with someone—two someones—and how impossible that scenario was especially now when he thought about how much danger he was in. Before tonight and the incident with Tanner, he hadn’t considered Ethan’s killer might go after someone close to Ethan. Even if he didn’t specifically go after Ki, Lucy, or Margaret, they could easily get caught in the crossfire if he continued to stay here.
Prentice, however, couldn’t bring himself to leave. He knew he was being selfish but going “home” to live with Ethan’s parents wasn’t an option. He supposed he could go to Sabrina’s boarding house, but the very idea left him cold. He didn’t like the idea of putting Sabrina or her boarders in danger either. With the latter in mind, he was pretty much running out of viable options since he risked bringing danger to the door of anyone he stayed around.
“Can’t sleep?”
Prentice looked at Ki standing at the foot of the staircase, shocked he hadn’t even heard his approach. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts he’d let the devil sneak up on him.
Ki crossed the room on slippered feet and quietly took a seat next to Prentice on the sofa
“Shouldn’t you be upstairs with your wife doing what newlyweds do?”
“We did some of that for a few hours before Lucy finally fell asleep.”
That was a little TMI for Prentice. Obviously, he was a bit of a masochist because he asked, “So you wore her out, sex-machine?”
Ki gave Prentice his usual I’m-observing-a-being-from-another-planet frown before answering. “She was well pleased, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yes, I guess that was what I meant.”
Ki moved closer and rested his arm along the back of the sofa behind Prentice, and Prentice almost laughed out loud at the s
mooth, well-remembered maneuver.
A second later, he felt Ki’s fingers delve beneath his hair to caress his nape.
Prentice tried not to sigh and sink into the pleasure of being touched with such care and gentleness. He turned to Ki with an exaggerated huff. “Aren’t you tired from serving your wife?”
“Not in the least.”
“Well, you should still be up there nuzzling her instead of down here bugging me.” Prentice put his book down on the end table and stood to leave, but Ki stood, caught his hand, and drew him back against his chest.
Prentice closed his eyes trying to deny how much he enjoyed Ki’s touch when Ki nuzzled his neck. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other to accommodate his sudden hard-on.
“So what was going on between you and the young lady and young man earlier?”
“I told you. It was a lover’s quarrel.”
Ki brushed his lips across Prentice’s skin. “You’re a horrible liar, you know that?”
“I’m not lying.”
“Hmm, you are.” Ki grasped Prentice by the shoulders and turned him around so that they were facing each other.
Prentice lazily opened his eyes to see the determined look in Ki’s blue gaze and his heart filled with alarm at the thought of Ki finding out the truth about him. Would Ki still want him if he knew what he had done in his previous life, how much of a bastard he had been, that he had killed people as Prentice?
He had never before worried about what anyone thought of him. He had never valued another’s opinion of him enough to worry. The idea of Ki looking at him with disgust instead of lust, however, affected Prentice much more deeply than he would have ever imagined. He had seen that look of disgust in Lucy’s eyes when he’d told her who he was. He didn’t want to see that same look in Ki’s eyes. He didn’t want Ki to think badly of him or worse, to hate him.
“I don’t know why you feel you can’t tell me the truth.”
“But I ha—“
“Shh.” Ki put a finger against his lips then slowly took it away. He lowered and angled his head, replacing his finger with his mouth.
Prentice closed his eyes, anticipating the kiss, but was still shocked when he felt Ki’s lips brush his. His cock leapt to attention in his pants, straining to get out, eager for Ki’s touch. His lips parted automatically, welcoming Ki’s tongue. The thought of Ki earlier doing the same thing with Lucy, his lawfully wedded wife, spurred Prentice’s arousal rather than extinguished it.
Just as Prentice was starting to really get into the kiss, Ki withdrew, panting as he rested his forehead against Prentice’s, and cupped his face with both hands.
“I want you so much, Ethan.”
“I…I want you, too.” He had never said that to a man before and the feeling he had doing it now was…euphoric, as if a large weight had been removed from his shoulder.
“But I believe I want the truth more. And one way or the other, I’m going to get to the bottom of things with you.”
“What is that, a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
Prentice’s heart stuttered then sped with panic at the resolve in Ki’s tone, because he knew that Ki was the kind of man who always kept his promises.
* * * *
A few mornings later Ki made it downstairs to the superb aroma of coffee floating on the air and the sight of his mother making pancakes in the kitchen.
“Good morning, Mother!”
“Well, good morning to you, too! Sounds like someone had a good night.”
“I’m wondering if you had anything at all to do with that.”
“How on earth could I?”
Ki smiled. “I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with all those secret meetings you and Lucy have been having since you arrived. What exactly have you two been chatting about these last few days?”
“Oh, this and that. Just women things. Certainly nothing of consequence.”
“I highly doubt that.”
His mother laughed as she brought a skillet of pancakes from the stove and slid several from the pan onto his plate. Ki couldn’t remember the last time he had seen his mother in an apron and cooking in the kitchen. In New York, they had servants to do all that, although he did recall a time back when his father had been alive and he’d been a little boy that his mother did all the cooking and cleaning even though they had domestic help. She’d told his father she liked feeling needed and useful. Around that time his mother started to do volunteer work that took her out of the house several days a week. Her entire demeanor had picked up along with her taking on the new responsibilities. His father had even seemed happier, too.
“You’re getting a late start. Ethan and Lucy already had breakfast and headed out about an hour ago.”
And here he thought he had been getting a bright and early start, but these last few days he had been so busy making up for lost time with Lucy in their bed, he found himself sleeping in a lot of mornings. Their time together didn’t seem to have an effect on Lucy, however, but then she was quite a few years younger than him.
Ki had wondered where Lucy had gotten off to that morning when he had woken up in the bed alone then remembered her giving him a kiss while he’d been half-asleep and telling him she had decided to head over to Healing Magick early, something about more planning for Lily Baldwin’s upcoming shower.
More like running away from me the way Ethan does.
Though Ki had resolved not to engage in anymore amorous encounters with Ethan until he got to the bottom of what was going on between Ethan and Lucy and who this Prentice gentleman was, he found it sorely difficult to stay away from the younger man altogether. The last couple of days he had been slaking his physical urges for Ethan by taking up the épée with the stripling. It wasn’t exactly what he desired to do with Ethan, but it helped take off the edge of his ongoing sexual frustration.
He didn’t know how he yet remained unfulfilled after all the times he had bedded Lucy in the last few days. There was no doubt that he loved making love to her and loved being inside her, but there was something missing…someone missing in their bed. He knew he was being greedy, but he didn’t think he would ever be completely satisfied until he had both Lucy and Ethan in his bed beneath him.
In the meantime, Ki had other important things to fill his time today the least of which was uncovering the mystery of Prentice.
He had been putting off the inevitable long enough.
First on his agenda was to visit Healing Magick, confront Lucy with what he suspected, give her a chance to make a clean breast of things and tell him what was going on between her and Ethan. He would have brought it up a few nights ago, but obviously he’d had other important things on his mind, and since then…well, he still had other important things on his mind, like truly doing the things newlyweds did, mainly copulating like rabbits.
With his plans firmly outlined, Ki dug into his stack of pancakes with gusto, chewing and swallowing his first bite before sipping some of the aromatic coffee his mother poured before she finally took the seat adjacent him.
“I’m curious about what made you come all the way out here after I told you I had everything under control,” Ki said.
“Can’t a mother want to meet her new daughter-in-law?”
“I suppose. It’s awfully far to travel for just that, though.”
“Especially when you specified that the marriage was only one of convenience and wasn’t going to last long.” His mother abruptly placed a hand on her chest and innocently arched her brow. “You think I had some kind of ulterior motive?”
“Perhaps wanting to talk me out of my fool’s errand?”
“I have to admit, the thought initially crossed my mind.”
“And now?” Ki peered at his mother over his cup of coffee as he took another sip.
“I don’t think what you’re doing is a fool’s errand anymore. I think now you’re on a mission of the heart.”
Ki laughed. “There’s a differe
nce?”
“Don’t make light. I’m serious. I should think you would be, too.”
“Oh, I’m very serious where Lucy’s concerned.”
“Serious enough to stay married to her in spite of the ridiculous deal you made?”
Ki paused with his cup to his mouth. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.
When Ki didn’t answer, his mother reached a hand across the table to take his. “Do you love her, Hezekiah?”
“Mother…”
“Don’t get your dander up. It’s a simple question.”
“Not quite.” In his experience there was nothing simple about love. Of course, he had only seen the damage it did from afar and that was enough for him. People did crazy, hurtful things to each other in the name of love. His mother and father were just one, prime example. Intellectually, Ki knew being in love wasn’t all bad, just as marriage was an institution of give and take. He just felt that sometimes his father had done a lot more taking than giving where his mother was concerned. She did seem a lot more content and at peace in her marriage to Noah, which meant that there was hope for the convention itself, he supposed.
His mother sat back in her seat, staring at him as she sipped her own coffee and Ki used the opportunity to change the subject. “So, now that you’ve established I’ve married the appropriate woman, when do you think you’ll be getting back to New York?”
“Trying to get rid of me so soon? What an ungrateful son you are.”
“I am only looking out for your well-being, Mother. I know how insufferable it is for you living out here in the uncivilized Wild West without any domestic help to see to your needs.”
“Don’t you dare be impertinent. I’ll have you know I’ve survived a lot worse conditions than exist here in the Wild West.”
“I can only imagine,” Ki said, remembering his mother’s tales of her poor beginnings in the south before she met his father, cautionary tales about the importance of being grateful for what one had.
“I think I noticed a barber in town when I first arrived.”
Ki jerked to attention as his mother ruffled his hair with her fingers. He tilted his head back to smile at her standing behind him. “Are you trying to tell me I need a haircut?”