Howard Haskell Takes A Bride (The Brides of Paradise Ranch Book 0)

by Merry Farmer

  Elizabeth blushed as though everyone around could see into her thoughts and his to divine what had passed between them that morning, even though she walked with her head tilted down. She followed her parents, who had their chins raised in reflection of each other and their disdain for Howard. They stopped well on Jonas’s side of the invisible line separating the two sides of the competition.

  “You look to be in fine form today, Mr. Armstrong,” Mrs. Ayers greeted Jonas.

  How the woman could smile and simper at a man who had mistreated her daughter in front of her eyes baffled Howard. At least Mr. Ayers appeared to be more circumspect about the competitors.

  “Haskell.” He nodded to Howard, expression betraying nothing.

  “Mr. Ayers.” Howard bowed with as much elegance as he could muster in shirtsleeves and his third-best trousers. “Mrs. Ayers, how lovely to see you in such high spirits this morning,” he continued. Mrs. Ayers was too far away for him to reach for her hand, but he bowed low to make up for it.

  As he rose, he met Elizabeth’s eyes. The fire that he’d seen glowing from her very soul as she’d climaxed under his touch was condensed in the brightness of her eyes. She smiled at him, eyes averted ever so slightly, as if their encounter in the garden had taken place minutes ago instead of hours. It was a moment that would live in eternity, as far as he was concerned. He would never forget the flush of her porcelain skin as she panted in ecstasy, never remove the glorious image of her exposed breasts, nipples dark and straining with pleasure, never stop hearing her pitched sighs as tremors of desire pulsed through her.

  He cleared his throat and stood, all-too aware of what memory alone could do to him if he wasn’t careful. The strength of Elizabeth’s passion had brought him dangerously close to bursting that morning. He was not too proud to admit that he’d needed to pause in a secluded spot at the edge of her garden to release the pressure she’d built in him before he had been able to continue on to set his plan in motion.

  “Are we ready to get this over with?” Jonas asked, pouring ice water over Howard’s misplaced ardor.

  “I am more than ready to prove the depth of my love for Elizabeth and to win her,” Howard replied, even though Jonas’s question was addressed to Mr. Ayers.

  Mr. Ayers shifted his narrow-eyed glance from Jonas to Howard. He clasped his hands behind his back. “We must wait for my man, Iverson, to arrive with confirmation that all is ready at Mill Creek for the swimming portion of the competition, and that the horses are ready further upstream.”

  “You’ve brought Lancelot in from my stables?” Jonas asked.

  A grin tweaked the corner of Howard’s mouth. No doubt Jonas thought he could tilt the competition by bringing in his own thoroughbred. There was probably a tired old nag waiting to serve as Howard’s mount alongside it. It didn’t matter.

  Mr. Ayers cleared his throat, sending Howard one final glance before lowering his voice and speaking to Jonas. “Lancelot is ready. A change of clothes is waiting for the both of you at the stables where the final leg of the race will begin.”

  “Good.” Jonas nodded, cast a quick look over his shoulder at Howard, then stepped closer to Mr. Ayers. Whatever he said next was whispered too low for Howard to overhear.

  Howard couldn’t have cared less. His gaze was firmly set on Elizabeth. His dear, sweet, passionate, wonderful Elizabeth had lost the fire in her eyes at Jonas and her father’s exchange. Her lips now worked in tight anxiety, as if she desperately needed to speak but was under some spell. She begged with her eyes for Howard to do something.

  He couldn’t resist her lover’s plea. Regardless of the crowd around them or her father and Jonas’s machinations, he left his spot at the starting line and crossed boldly to her. Mrs. Ayers opened her mouth to say something to stop him, but he ignored her.

  “What is it, my sweet?” Howard murmured when he had reached Elizabeth’s side.

  “I—” Elizabeth darted a glance around, staring at her mother for a moment. When her mother did nothing but glower, Elizabeth leaned close and rushed on with, “I have prepared the tool shed in the garden as a secluded spot where we might…talk.” Her cheeks flushed as pink as her breasts had that morning.

  “Perfect, my darling, perfect,” Howard said in response to her words and her blush.

  Elizabeth shook her head, panic filling her beautiful face. “I don’t see how we will ever have a chance to make use of it. Jonas is not only athletic, he’s cunning. He has something planned with the horses, I know. And he may have something planned at the creek as well.”

  “He may,” Howard conceded. “But he has no idea what I have planned.”

  “Oh, Howard.” Elizabeth’s sigh was heavy with love and despair.

  As bold as day, Howard took her hand and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You must leave this place at once. Go to the end of Cherry Street, where the woods end and the narrower streets begin. Do you know the place?”

  “Yes, yes I do.” Elizabeth leaned back, blinking at him in puzzlement. “But why?”

  “You’ll see.” Howard chuckled. He could barely contain his excitement, knowing what he had in store. “I have a surprise for you there. It should be there in less than half an hour’s time. Do you think you can slip away to be there on time?”

  A fraction of Elizabeth’s confidence returned. She peeked at her mother, then at her father, who was still in close conversation with Jonas. For a moment, she bit her lip, then she turned back to Howard. “Yes. I can slip away. Moses drove the carriage on the way here. He’s a good and loyal friend. If I tell Mama I have a headache and cannot bear to watch the competition, Moses will pretend to take me home. He won’t say a word.”

  “A carriage.” Howard’s face lit with excitement. “How perfect. A quick delivery will suit my plan all the better.”

  Elizabeth’s brow knit. “What is your plan?”

  “Enough of that.” Mr. Ayers’s barked command cut the conversation short. “Get away from her.”

  Howard didn’t protest. He winked at Elizabeth, then strutted back to his position at the starting line.

  “I hope your words to my fiancée were sweet,” Jonas sneered. “They’ll be the last words you ever say to her.”

  “They were honeyed words of delight,” Howard told him, ignoring the venom in Jonas’s tone. “They were confections of romance, delivered by angels to another angel.”

  Jonas snorted and shook his head. “Are you a man or a simpering poet, out of place and out of time?”

  “I am a man.” He dropped all pretense of fluff, staring hard into Jonas’s beady eyes. “As Elizabeth will tell you.”

  A few gasps rose from those close enough to hear Howard’s words and grasp his implications. Jonas went red, balling his hands in his fists. Virginia buried her face in one hand and shook her head.

  It was all part of Howard’s plan.

  “How dare you insult a woman’s honor in such a crude manner?” Jonas seethed.

  “Is my ardor any more offensive than your abuse?” Howard boomed. He rushed on before Jonas could answer with, “Not at all. Every woman should feel pleasure as deeply as any man. She should never be ashamed of desire.”

  “How dare you?” Jonas quivered.

  “Mama, I cannot remain here.” Elizabeth spoke up and crossed to her mother right on cue. “My head is pounding and I…I cannot endure the baseness of this event.”

  She sent the briefest of grins in Howard’s direction. Howard’s chest swelled with pride. His dear heart had taken a page out of his book with her overflowing prose as if she had been born to it.

  “Of course, my dear. Let me take you home.”

  “Oh, no!” A flash of panic lit Elizabeth’s eyes at her mother’s suggestion. She pressed a hand to her forehead before going on. “I…I need you to stay here so that you can provide me with a full report. I wouldn’t trust an account from anyone else. Moses can take me home.”

  Mrs. Ayers narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. She se
nt her husband a glance. Mr. Ayers met her unspoken question and nodded.

  “Very well,” Mrs. Ayers sighed. “Moses can take you.”

  “Thank you, dear Mama.” Elizabeth heaved one last sigh, then turned and rushed off…perhaps too fast for someone with a headache.

  It didn’t matter. Another piece of Howard’s plan clicked into place. All that was needed now was the final coup.

  “And now, I will prove my superior strength and cunning and win my dear love’s hand, once and for all,” he declared, stepping up to an imaginary starting line.

  Jonas sneered at him. He rolled up his shirtsleeves and came to stand a few yards away from him, pointing in the same direction. “I expect you to fulfill the terms of your defeat and leave Cincinnati immediately at the conclusion of the race.”

  “Don’t you worry about that,” Howard chuckled.

  “Five dollars on Mr. Howard Haskell,” Cyrus called out behind them. “I’ve got five dollars on my friend Howard to win it all.”

  “Six dollars on Jonas Armstrong,” someone else echoed him from further back in the crowd.

  A flurry of betting followed, delaying the start of the race. Howard waited patiently, grinning and chuckling to himself. Any delay would only give Elizabeth more of a chance to get into place for the surprise part of his plan. He couldn’t wait to see the shock on her face when things finally came together. In more ways than one.

  “Enough of this,” Mr. Ayers called out at length. “We need to get on with things or it will be dark by the time the race finishes.”

  “Yes, indeed,” Howard echoed. “Let’s get on with things.” He stretched first one leg, then the other, then shook his arms out.

  Not to be outdone, Jonas cycled through a few stretches beside him before digging his feet into the dirt at the imaginary starting line.

  “The race will commence on foot,” Mr. Ayers repeated the rules they’d set forward the night of the soiree. “It will proceed from this point along the Whitewater Canal as it passes through the woods. At Mill Creek Road, both competitors will dive from the bridge and proceed to swim upstream to Coleman’s estate. From the stables at Coleman’s estate, they will ride to the marker at the top of Mt. Auburn. First man to reach that mark will be the undisputed champion and will win Miss Elizabeth Ayers’s hand in marriage.”

  “Perfect.” Howard nodded.

  “Prepare to taste defeat,” Jonas grunted.

  Mr. Ayers clenched his jaw. If Howard didn’t know any better, he would have thought that the man didn’t want Jonas to win after all. Winning Elizabeth might turn out to be easier than he’d thought.

  “Gentlemen, take your marks.” Mr. Ayers raised his hand.

  The crowd around them hushed. Jonas moved into a racer’s crouch. Howard grinned, winked at Virginia and Cyrus, then sank into his own crouch.

  As soon as he saw they were in place, Mr. Ayers lowered his hand and shouted, “Go!”

  The crowd erupted into cheers as Howard and Jonas shot forward. Jonas had the edge right out of the starting line. Howard did his level best to keep pace with the man, to watch his form and gauge his endurance. Elizabeth and the rest of them were right, Jonas was an athlete. That much was evident in the pull and strain of his muscles as he sprinted ahead, the steadiness and concentration of his stride. As fast and hard as Howard ran, Jonas began to outpace him.

  They pulled away from the crowd, although some stragglers had jogged ahead to get a view of the competitors as they passed. Howard made note of every one of them, kept a careful count of where they stood and when they began to thin out. And still Jonas pulled ahead, bit by bit. The grove of trees that they raced through became thicker and more wild the farther they got away from the city. The canal edged the road on one side as it narrowed. Howard took in every detail, making his calculations as they went.

  By the time they reached the first major curve, Jonas was more than twenty yards ahead. All his years of physical activity hadn’t prepared Howard to keep up with a runner of Jonas’s skill, but then, he didn’t need to. He only needed to stay in sight.

  Or at least stay in sight until Jonas ventured a look back. He checked over his shoulder as the road curved. His face was red with effort, but as soon as he noticed Howard falling further and further behind, he grinned. Howard was certain he even heard the man laugh. Satisfied that he was well in the lead, Jonas redoubled his efforts and shot ahead. He didn’t see Howard’s matching grin or the look of victory that burned in his eyes.

  At the second curve in the road, Howard leapt of the path and jumped into the trees. Now the real race began. He darted and dodged between oaks and maples, searching around to get his bearings. The woods were wild, but civilization was only a breath away, waiting, crawling forward to overtake the wilderness. The city was a microcosm of what was happening with the West, his heart’s true home. The wilderness was still there, but for how long?

  Howard burst out of the trees and into the back lawn of some urban farmer. No one was out working the long rows of domestic crops, so he cut across the fields, past outbuildings and the house, and on until he reached the street. He jogged further, until reaching a street sign. The second he knew where he was, he changed directions and rushed on to the intersection with Cherry Street.

  His timing was perfect. Cherry Street was only a few minutes away, and as he rounded the corner and skidded to a stop, panting, there was the Ayers’s carriage. The driver, Moses, stood on the bench at the sight of Howard.

  “Miss Elizabeth,” he said, rapping on the carriage top.

  A moment later, the door opened, and Elizabeth stuck her head out. “What?”

  Moses pointed, and she turned in time to see Howard rushing toward her.

  “Howard!” Her face lit in wonder, then she burst into laughter.

  “Elizabeth, my darling.” Howard sprinted the last few yards to the carriage, then leapt inside through the open door.

  He tumbled into Elizabeth’s lap. She embraced him, crashing against the seat with him. Laughter from both of them filled the air.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, squeezing his arm, laying a hand on the side of his sweating face to make sure he was real.

  “I’m winning, my love,” he answered, then scrambled to sit straight. He knocked on the top of the carriage. “Moses, take us to the Ayers estate.”

  Moses hesitated, glancing in through the window with a doubtful frown.

  “Please take us home,” Elizabeth seconded the command. “This is all part of the plan.” She pulled back into the carriage as Moses tapped the reins over the horses’ backs. “It is all part of the plan, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed it is,” Howard laughed. He grasped Elizabeth’s hand and kissed it. “In fact, this is the plan. And it will succeed beyond your wildest fantasies.”

  Chapter 9

  Elizabeth could hardly catch her breath through the excitement that coursed through her as Moses drove them home. Bless him, her faithful driver urged the horses on as though the house was on fire and only she could save it. In fact, there was a fire blazing, but it wasn’t the house.

  “Howard.” Elizabeth breathed his name between kisses.

  Every bump and rattle of the carriage pushed them closer together. They hadn’t untangled from the moment Howard leapt into the carriage, and now their arms and legs were twined together in a hopeless knot. She curled the fingers of one hand through his hair while gripping the hard, heated muscles of his side with the other. He’d slipped one hand under her skirt and now fiddled with the tie holding her stocking and garter in place. His fingertips brushed against her thigh, calling to mind the sensuality of that morning.

  After a few minutes, Elizabeth gave up the struggle to maintain any sense of decorum. She pushed off the carriage floor with her free foot, hiked up her skirts with one hand, and straddled his sprawled legs. When she resumed kissing him, her knees were jammed against the back cushion of the carriage seat and her arms were braced against the wall. If not for
Howard’s hands around her waist and backside—one over top of the fabric of her gown and the other decidedly underneath every layer of fabric—she would have spilled to the floor.

  Just as the ache between her legs was becoming unbearable and her head was beginning to spin for lack of air as their mouths fused and explored, Howard burst into laughter. The vibrations fueled the glorious longing in her core.

  “What a fine pair we make,” Howard laughed. “We’re each as shameless and hot-blooded as the other.”

  “Are we?” Elizabeth panted. She arched to sit straighter, blinking rapidly. The sinuous curve of her body against Howard’s sent further sparks through her veins. “Oh, dear, I suppose we are.”

  And did she mind? Not one bit.

  With a desperate sigh, she leaned into him once more, closing her mouth over his and sliding her tongue along the smiling line of his lips. Howard responded with a deep growl. He met her passion with a fire ten times as bright, claimed the nectar of her kiss with firm possession. His hand reached across the cotton of her drawers, gripping her backside and pressing her hips down to meet the growing stiffness of his masculinity. She groaned at the feel of it, of him with his arms, his heat, and his soul all around her.

  The carriage turned a corner, thrusting them off-balance. Elizabeth laughed and clung to Howard, but he pitched to the side, rolling her half to her back, wedged against the side of the carriage. The turn changed more than just their position. Howard stroked his hand down her leg—she felt her stocking sag as his fingers brushed bare skin—and hoisted her thigh up to hook over his hip. The jostling of the carriage caused his stiffness to rub intimately against her in frustrating imitation of what he could not do with his trousers and her drawers still in place.

  “We are mad,” she sighed with delight, clasping her arms around him. “We are perfectly, ridiculously mad.”

  “We’re in love,” he answered her, kneading the flesh of her thigh. “Love is madness, and it is perfect sense.”

  She didn’t have a chance to reply before he kissed her again. The sensation of his tongue invading her mouth was strange and new and overwhelming, but it stoked the fires of her passion higher. Her nipples grazed against the fabric of her chemise and corset as he pressed down on her, and the wildness he’d unleashed inside of her wanted him to grab hold of her bodice and rip the fabric from her body. She had no doubt he would be able to accomplish such a scandalous, romantic feat.