Hannah's Gold

by Hannah's Gold (lit)

  Adding to her awkwardness, she caught the tie of her gown when she stepped away. It loosened and separated a little, revealing the dark valley of her breasts. Self-consciously, she pulled it back together and refastened it more tightly around her waist as a pink flush flooded her cheeks.

  “I don’t think anything is broken,” she announced, practically. “But I’ll wind a bandage around your ribs just in case. It may help your breathing.” Luke watched her lovely face twist, yet again, in concern for his well-being.

  Her still-damp hair fell about her shoulders and she had to keep sweeping it off her face as she bent over him. Transfixed by her every movement, Luke stared at the long line of her neck and the creamy smoothness of her throat. Slender and elegant, he wanted to reach out and nibble his way around the tender flesh and watch her skin turn to gooseflesh as desire flooded her veins.

  Except he didn’t. Instead, he wrestled his thoughts that, if Jed was successful, he might soon be in competition with the man for whom she would lay her honor on the line. He reached out and took her hand.

  “You can walk away from all this, you know. It isn’t even your fight.”

  She gazed into his imploring eyes. She removed her hand and tilted her chin defiantly.

  “Don’t you think I’ve been telling myself that for months? But I made it my fight and I’m a woman of my word.”

  “But he’s nothing to you. Not your family. Not even your husband.”

  “But he’s my friend,” she said. “And I have principles. I shall stand by them even if no one else is prepared to do so. Someone has to show these people that they too can have the strength to stand against McCabe, however despicable he is. I saw what weakness did to my father. There is no way I shall ever be like him.”

  Luke admired her spirit. She was right. Her father had been weak, taking the coward’s way out. She put him to shame. He could have learned much from his vibrant, steadfast daughter. She had the strength and fortitude of a lion. His heart swelled. He felt so proud to know her. He took her hand again and squeezed it affectionately.

  “You are one gutsy lady, you know that?” he smiled and, despite the bruising to his groin, that tell-tale tingle of desire resurfaced. Hot blood flooded his manhood and he quickly shifted the cold compress, although this time more to cool his ardor than ease the pain. It suddenly throbbed so much more intensely, even though, with Jacob on his way home, and he in so much pain, now wasn’t the time to nurture a love affair.

  However, common sense was a terrible thing when faced with a barrage of emotions. He couldn’t help himself. He caught her fingers again and pressed them to his lips.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The air between them sizzled, and the heavy looks Luke gave Hannah only added to her quandary as she wondered how life could be so cruel as to deal her such a hand.

  She thought she’d loved Jacob but, now, she wasn’t sure anymore. She even began to question whether she’d just been lost in the excitement of her adventures in this wonderful, new land. Had she just been in love with love? Had she just reveled in the excitement of the lust and carnal joy Jacob had taught her to enjoy and not really loved him at all? So many questions and thoughts gnawed at her very being. Her heart ached with every one of them.

  What if Jacob did make it back? Would it mean she’d never see Luke or Jed again? Much to her chagrin, the memory of Jed’s hands and tongue upon her, manipulating her sensual, wanton body, excited her as much as Luke’s.

  And what if Jacob didn’t make it back?

  She didn’t even want to think about what that would mean.

  Because it would mean Jacob would be gone forever.

  Yet Luke would be, too.

  McCabe had made it perfectly clear to Luke exactly what he was capable of. If he ever dared to cross him again, no way would he let him live. At least Jed was safe and out of the picture, for now.

  Her mind spun with the turmoil.

  “So, where has Jed gone for help?” she asked a little too brightly, needing to dispel the thoughts suddenly crowding her brain.

  She also hoped the distraction would ward off the flush that suddenly stained her neck and cheeks. As she’d fastened the bandages and touched his bare skin, it only served to remind her once more of the beautiful night she’d spent with him. She’d also seen how his hand had shifted to cover his growing erection at her delicate touch. She needed something to divert her thoughts quickly away from his firm, lean body and long, muscular legs with their forest of blond hairs. Her thoughts were in overdrive, remembering how she’d run her fingers over them that very morning.

  She’d stroked all the way up the length of his calves and thighs until she’d reached the bush of darker ones nestling in his groin, where his hard shaft had protruded proudly in all its glory. Taking the rock-hard organ in her hand, she’d stroked along its silken sheath and then impaled herself on it.

  She struggled to stifle a moan at the memory, forcing herself to concentrate on wrapping the binding cloth around his torso. At the same time, she inhaled sharply to help her focus. Earlier, Luke had told her Jed had ridden off to get help, although he’d seemed reluctant to say more. She put it down to the pain he suffered.

  “He won’t get anyone from round these parts to stand up to him, you know,” she continued softly when Luke didn’t immediately answer. No one had raised a finger yet against McCabe to help even themselves. They weren’t going to do so for her. They’d always been friendly and polite to her, but she knew they blamed her for taking Jacob away from Becky. That she was an intruder into their lives.

  “I know,” he answered quietly. “I tried earlier. Everyone is shit-scared. But I’m not going to let you give yourself over to him. The man’s an animal.”

  She slid her fingers reluctantly from his warm grasp. His lips, pressed against her flesh, felt so good. But this wasn’t his fight.

  “I made a deal,” she said resignedly. “I’ll stand by it. It’s not your problem.”

  “You haven’t seen what he’s capable of. What he’s done to those two saloon girls. I’m not letting him do that to you.”

  Emotion welled up and a huge lump filled her throat that Luke would do this for her. She ran her hand over his scalp, weaving strands of his hair through her fingers. The ends tingled and fired little shockwaves through her arms and down through her spine. He was such a good man.

  He slipped his free arm around her waist and drew her close while, at the same time, he buried his face against her soft belly. Sliding her arms around his neck, she stooped a little and kissed the top of his head. Her warm lips pressed against Luke’s skull and the wetness of silent tears ran from her cheeks into his hair. He gently drew her down to his level and held her face lightly between his big hands, a look of grim determination etched into his face.

  “I mean it, Hannah. I don’t care what bargain you made, you’re not keeping it. I’ll kill him first.”

  Hannah sniffed. The lump that still filled the back of her nose and throat now threatened to choke her. She reached forward and kissed him ever so lightly on the lips. She didn’t want to add to the pain of his injuries. She tasted the saltiness of her own tears as he kissed her back.

  “Thank you. You’re a good man,” she whispered hoarsely. As they broke apart, she slipped to her knees in front of him. “But I can’t ask you to do that. His men would kill you before you even got to him. And I did sign a legal document.”

  Luke slid his hands from her face to her shoulders. He gripped her firmly and fixed his eyes purposefully on hers.

  “Legal documents can be undone,” he said. “Let him take you to court over it. I don’t think there’ll be a judge in the country that would uphold such a scandalous deal. In fact, I doubt whether it’s legal at all. And let me worry about me. We’ll barricade ourselves in here with plenty of ammunition so that McCabe and his men can’t get in. We have a couple of days to organize ourselves. And hopefully by then, Jed will be back.”

  For the first
time in nearly a year, Hannah couldn’t deny her relief that she had a champion at last.

  And she’d been without a champion for so long.

  Her body ached.

  She loosened the tie of her gown and let the garment fall open.

  * * * *

  Luke inhaled sharply. His eyes, drawn to her soft curves, fixed on her smooth, creamy breasts. They hung like two perfect globes before him and their rosy tips contracted into tight little buds. They invited his caress and warm lips and tongue to suckle and tease them, circling and nibbling, and lighting the fire that extended all the way down to her womanhood. He moved his hands to her hips and felt the soft roundness of her buttocks beneath his hands as he gazed upon her golden bush, which nestled in a V at the junction of her thighs. The cold compress failed miserably at its job. He brushed it aside and drew her closer to him.

  Burying his face into the naked skin of her belly, he inhaled her unique scent and slipped his fingers into her creamy cleft. But a sharp pain seared through his ribcage and made him gasp. He withdrew them and dug his fingers into her round, peachy cheeks as he buried his head against her chest, struggling to catch his breath.

  “I’m sorry,” he panted. “I don’t think I can.” He gave a little groan. The swelling in his groin nearly killed him, too. “The spirit is willing but the body hurts too damn much.”

  Hannah’s gaze dropped to his engorged shaft. When she lifted her eyes to meet his, she had a cute little smile playing on her mouth.

  “Don’t you worry yourself about that,” she purred hoarsely. “I’ll make you feel better. Lay back and let me help you lift your legs up onto the bed.”

  Luke tried hard not to groan as she helped him lie down. The picture before him appeared just too outrageously beautiful to result in such a negative sound. Her gown had now slipped completely from her and she stood totally naked. Her curves swelled in all the right places and her breasts jiggled with every movement. His eyes feasted upon every part of her and he felt like a man drunk, but from imbibing beauty not hard liquor.

  Having made sure of his comfort, she knelt astride him with her back to his face. She slowly bent over him until she took his cock between her lovely lips and stroked the tip of her tongue across its tender tip, twirling and circling. It drove him to distraction, although he was already distracted enough as he gazed upon her heart-shaped derriere. Her tiny butt-hole and rosy cunny on display for his visual pleasure, she slowly moved back and forth, gently teasing, with every stroke of her lips until she took his full length into the warm, wet cavity of her mouth.

  As endorphins flooded his body, the pain magically disappeared. She drooled and licked spit and juices all around his throbbing dick, while he clasped her rear firmly between his hands. Drawing her down to meet his mouth, he jabbed and probed, and lapped and licked her sweet juices. Beneath his palms, he felt the tiny rotations of her hips as she began to move slowly and erotically against him. She gave a little cry.

  Luke drew away for a moment to watch the moisture leak from her glistening slit. She teetered on the brink while her breath grated in her throat. Determined to make her wait a little longer, he tormented her rising libido. That way, it would be better for her when she did come. When she started on him again, he lifted his mouth to her clit and clamped his teeth firmly round it, flicking his tongue across it and searching for the trigger.

  As she approached her pinnacle, Luke felt the intense rhythmic stroke of her mouth along his cock begin to slow down. Eventually she released him as she gave a little tremor and came, fast and hard, bucking against his face. Luke held on for dear life until her pleasure reached completion.

  She collapsed against him, her face lying against his groin. She sighed against his burning shaft. Her hot breath traveled its full length, and all the way to his balls and round to his ass. He swelled further as his cock lay strained and rock-rigid against her cheek.

  At long last, her mouth fell upon him again, resuming its steady rhythm. It built to a crescendo that finally opened the floodgates, bringing with it the heaviness of blissful release as he pumped warm semen out of his body into hers.

  He supposed he ought to feel a little guilty, screwing around with another man’s woman and not telling her that he could soon be coming home.

  But, in that moment, he couldn’t give a fuck.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jed had ridden all night and most of the morning. At first, only the moon and stars had been his guide. Later, the rising sun brought with it a clear blue sky, dotted with tiny, puffball clouds. It filled him with a renewed zeal for the freedom of wide open spaces.

  This was what life was about, he told himself. Riding the plains and moving from place to place, he’d lay his head wherever the journey took him. After nearly twenty five years in one place, surrounded by the cut and thrust of city life, he welcomed the freedom of his new one. Thank goodness his brother had made him see sense and rescued him from Rose’s plot to saddle him with another man’s child. He’d been such a fool back then but he knew better now. He loved the fairer sex but, since Rose, he made sure he always stayed one step ahead. He’d never let himself get trapped like that again.

  She’d been a hot little hussy once she got her claws into him. She’d really turned his head. He should have suspected something was afoot but he’d been bowled over by her beauty and a sexual appetite that more than matched his own.

  She’d been so cool with him for so long. As the son of one of the nouveau riche, Jed was not of higher class like herself. Consequently, she’d always treated him with total disregard. His father had worked hard to build up his business, but his roots still lay in the lower classes, and Rose and her family made that very clear. That someone of Rose Chandler’s social standing should even consider a match with the likes of Jed Daniels would be nothing short of impossible.

  However, with a child in her belly, left by her married lover and which she was eager to conceal, she suddenly became desperate to find someone to shoulder the blame. She decided she could do no better than blame Jed, and his morals, considering where he’d come from.

  Her lover had taught her well in the art of seduction, and she seduced Jed with accomplished skill, although he’d not taken much persuasion. He’d teased and flirted with her for weeks but to no avail. When she suddenly reacted to him, he mistakenly thought his charm and perseverance had won the day. It was only when she lost the baby, and his big brother proved he could work out the dates better than he could, that he realized just how wrong he’d been. It also coincided with the bank crash, when their father lost almost everything. Consequently, Jed’s life had been thrust into complete turmoil.

  It didn’t take Rose long, he thought ruefully, to decide she wanted nothing more to do with him either. With no child left to conceal, and Jed’s father virtually penniless she didn’t want a husband who couldn’t maintain her standard of life. So, she set her cap at someone more suited to her station in society, the man, ready to bail out Jed’s father and invest in his company. Matthew Holden.

  Along with her family, Matthew was one of the few to survive the debacle created by Cornelius Turner’s scandalous monetary shambles He was also the very gentleman who’d recently been rebuffed by the said man’s daughter. For some reason, Matthew Holden seemed to fancy himself as the savior of families who found themselves in shocking circumstances. After all, he’d even been prepared to marry Hannah Turner and support her now widowed mother and brood of sisters, although, he’d watched her catch a train to God-only-knew-where instead.

  Jed had heard all the stories about this Hannah. The town had been rife with the scandal. Gossip-mongers had a field day, saying Matthew was plain stupid where women were concerned. Wherever Jed went, there was someone only too ready to pass on the juicy details.

  At the time, Jed had merely shrugged them away, grateful to have had a lucky escape from Rose’s scheming, little mind. However, despite never meeting this Hannah, he secretly admired the girl’s guts.
It took a lot of courage to do what she had done. Now, by a strange quirk of fate, he could see just what attracted men to her, with her strong, forthright manner and pleasing looks.

  It was one of the many things he and Luke had discussed earlier in the barn. They agreed she had enough problems without telling her that they already knew everything that had happened to her family, especially as Matthew Holden’s broken heart was the talk of the town after she left. He’d milked it for every dime. Women fell over themselves to console him and tell him the girl was off her head to give up all that he offered her, and to travel out West to find her equally troublesome brother. She’d no doubt end up working as a whore, and it would serve her right.

  It didn’t take long for Rose to wield her charms on Matthew, either, and she returned to treating Jed with unequivocal disdain. She made it plain for all to see. Who needed a poor boy when rich pickings were available?

  That was when Luke stepped in. Five years his senior, he’d always looked out for Jed. He made sure he did so then. He wouldn’t allow anyone to treat Jed, or his family, with such blatant disrespect, especially a snotty-nosed little hussy who couldn’t keep her legs together and try to lay the blame at another man’s door.

  The uproar that followed became nothing short of absurd. Instead of Rose being humiliated by his denouncement of her morals, Luke and Jed were denounced as the bad guys. Matthew slated their un-gentlemanly behavior as jealous revenge that Rose had sought to rid herself of such a cad who had foisted his unwanted attentions on such a sweet girl. Such was Matthew’s outrage that the plans he made with their father came close to collapse.