“My senses are primed for danger, not pesky maidens.” He smirked.
“And where were your senses when it came to David?”
He frowned and set the basin on the ground. “Why do you throw him in my face at every opportunity? Don’t you know I already torment myself for my failures?”
She pinched her lips and walked past him. “I suppose it’s because you offended me by comparing me to him.”
“I never compared you to him.”
She spun around. “You most certainly did. You said you wouldn’t let some liar go slithering around your family again, as if my sister and I were of the same breed as that vile, loathsome creature.” She spat the words as if they were poison.
“I called you a liar, which you are.” He held his hands out wide. “If your own guilty conscience made the comparison, I cannot be blamed for that.”
“I have my reasons for lying,” she said.
“And David had his.”
Jess shook her head vehemently. “David lied to inflict harm. I lied to escape it.”
His forehead wrinkled as he frowned. “What harm are you escaping, Jess?”
Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.” She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. “It’s pointless to even discuss this with you. It’s not like you care. You don’t even know if I’m worth protecting, remember?”
He cringed at the reminder of his words and wiped his face with his palm. Her arms fell until she propped one hand on her right hip.
“You make no sense, Valentine Kelly. If you really think I am that bad, then why are you here right now?”
The stiff pout of her mouth, the flash of fire in her eyes, the squared set of her shoulders, the jut of her chin all made him want to pull her against him and mold his lips to hers, just to see if there was any feminine softness in her at all. The irritation was so defined on her face he almost laughed. He kept his face serious as he stalked toward her.
“Could be I feel obligated, seeing as how I put you in the situation in the first place,” he said as she took a step back. “Could be I care about Marlena and think she needs more protection than your temper and crisp tongue can provide.” She backed against the wall and he placed his hands on either side of her head. “Could be you interest me. Despite your quick and cutting words, despite your coldness and the ridiculous way you gird your head, despite the overpowering sense of unwelcome you exude in our every encounter…you interest me.”
He watched the rapid rise and fall of her chest, felt the steady huff of her panting breath on his throat, and his eyes dropped to her parted lips. Her tongue slid out to wet her bottom lip and he felt the urge to take the glistening piece of flesh into his mouth. As his eyes traveled back to meet hers, he saw something in them he’d never witnessed before.
Fear.
The hot rush of desire turned cold in his blood at the sight. Soon, the violet shifted in her eyes and overtook the blue with an intense anger, but he would never forget the look of pure, exposed fear. It had been brief, but there was no mistaking it was there. She reached up to shove him away from her.
“I’m not interested in your interest,” she spat. “In fact, I think it’s best you stay elsewhere. We don’t need your kind of protection.”
She stomped through the back door and slammed it behind her. The unmistakable clink of the metal bolt barring his re-entry echoed around the narrow space. For a long moment, Val didn’t move. He stared at the door, nursing a gnawing feeling in his stomach. Jess was the most courageous woman he’d ever met, and yet he’d somehow managed to frighten her. He didn’t like that.
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps it really was best for him to stay elsewhere. It didn’t surprise him he was physically drawn to her. He’d never been afraid to admit she was beautiful. What surprised him was he had begun to act on it. Hell, he had been one breath away from kissing her, one inch from running his thumbs over her smooth cheek bones. And this with a woman whose rancor he could barely tolerate!
Yes, it was best if he stayed elsewhere. But he would not shirk his responsibility to protect them. Even if it was by proxy, he would know they were safe. He looked down the lane at the crimson planks of Juliet’s and knew there was only one other man, besides his brother, whom he could trust with such a task. The man was there now. He was always there, for his mother owned the place, and he was charged with keeping her women safe. No one would question him loitering around the dressmaker’s shop.
Val left the alley and strode down the street to Juliet’s in search of her son, Dalton.
Jess kicked a basket of ribbons and sent the spools rolling across the floor. A rainbow of shiny silk bundled into a pile beside the table. She grabbed the back of the chair, the one he’d been sitting in during dinner and picked it up only to slam it back down on its thin legs. Once wasn’t enough. Over and over she slammed the wooden legs into the floorboards until finally shoving it away from her. It toppled over and landed beside the couch where Marlena sat, twisted, to peer behind her. The sisters locked eyes, and Jess blew out a deep breath.
“I’m afraid to ask,” Marlena said with a cocked brow.
“Good, because I wouldn’t even know what to tell you,” Jess answered as she dragged her palm over her face.
Val wanted to kiss her. She had seen it in his eyes. The desire snaked through the amber of his irises like warm whisky. Who did he think she was? One of Juliet’s girls to be seduced in the shadows? He was sure to be confined within the red walls now that she had turned him away. Why would he try to seduce her? He had already admitted he didn’t care for her, that his opinion of her was suspect, and they both knew she would be leaving town soon. Hardly the circumstances for an affair.
She stomped to the table beside the couch and poured herself a glass of whisky, draining it in one shot. It didn’t calm the racing of her pulse or the rampage of her thoughts. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the voice of truth chanted the real reason for her quivering nerves, and it wasn’t that Val had been intent on kissing her. It was what she’d seen in her mind’s eye that made her tremble.
Dark, sensual eyes blazing with the heat of desire for her; equally dark hair, clipped and clinging handsomely to his forehead; a shadowy hint of beard growth brightening the soft pink of his smooth lips; all features of the last man she had given her heart to only to lose so much more. They were nothing alike in manner or in honor, but the physical resemblance in that alley had been strong enough to rip her from the present and toss her back into the desolate abyss of her past, back into the dream of her life with Grant, and the unholy nightmare it became.
She drank another glass of whisky and poured a third before moving in front of the window. Her reflection rippled with the flames of the fireplace, and she stared at the blue lace around her throat, knowing she could never fully escape Grant. Every time she looked in the mirror, he would be there. She couldn’t afford to see him in Val’s face, too.
There was no denying the sadness she felt at having to leave town. She had begun to foster several friendships that had lifelong potential. Ellie, Lila, Emily, Juliet. And the pulse of the town was vivacious and livening, the kind of excitement that brought hope to a place. She could hardly blame Val for not bowing to Leonard Stacy. He had worked hard for his livelihood.
She didn’t like being a casualty of their feud, like Emily, but if Stacy learned she was wanted for murder in New Mexico Territory, the danger to her and Marlena would be far greater than it was with him simply suspecting she and Val were lovers. The just heart of her youth would gladly stay and stand up to the millionaire, but she had learned the hard way what happens to a person when they fight the man with all the power.
Chapter 14
The shop door opened, and Jess smiled brightly to find Dalton standing in her front room, turning the brim of his hat round and round as he held it in his hands. He tipped his head and smiled back, the light blue of his eyes glimmering. It was hard for her to
think of him as a man, for he still had the face of a boy, but he was eighteen and the effective safe keeper of Juliet and her girls. From the stories she’d heard, he was fierce and forceful when needed. His shaggy brown hair hung over his ears and had a crease around his head, evidence he rarely removed his hat. She smiled at the simple show of respect he granted her and Marlena.
“Vell, good day to you, Dalton,” she said in her shrill-Collette voice. “Vut can we do for you?”
“Afternoon, ma’am,” he said before smiling and nodding at Marlena. “Little Miss.” Jess watched the dusty rose blush fill her sister’s cheeks and her smile widened. Dalton turned back to Jess. “Ma said you had some packages ready for her?”
“Aaah, oui!” She reached into the shelf behind the counter and pulled out two brown paper packages. “Please tell your mother zat zees will be za last shipments I can get for her. Helene and I vill be leaving town soon.”
A frown wrinkled his smooth brow. “You’re leaving? As in, for good?”
“I’m afraid so. We received word a relative has fallen ill, and we must return to France to help care for her.”
It was the same rehearsed spiel she had given all of her customers for the past four days, and each one showed her the same look Dalton did. Disappointment and sadness. It both warmed her heart and broke it to know she would be missed. She discovered in the last four days she had made more friends than she realized. Odd, how most people withhold their true feelings until a time of departure.
“We will be sad to see you go,” Dalton said as he took the packages from her. “The next seamstress who comes in is not likely to be as…Christian…as you are to the girls down the road.”
“I hope zat is not za case, Monsieur Dalton.”
“How soon do you leave?”
“As soon as I can complete all my pending orders. I was hoping within za week, but it is looking like it may take a bit longer.”
“And everything’s been all right here for you ladies in the last two days?”
Jess’s forehead scrunched. “We’ve been fine, thank you. Why?”
He shrugged. “Just haven’t seen you out and about like usual.”
“Oh, vell we have been busy finishing orders.”
“Of course you have,” he said with a smile and turned back to the door, stopping to address them once more. “Oh, and if you need anything, any assistance of any kind, just remember I’m right down the street.”
She forced her smile through a frown. “Thank you. I vill remember zat.”
When he left the shop, Jess strode to the window to watch him turn the corner and walk down the road. His head was in a perpetual scan as he went. Something about his visit made her uneasy. He had picked up his mother’s orders plenty of times, and had never stayed to converse as long. And his parting message lingered.
“What are you doing?” Marlena asked.
“I’m watching Dalton.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you think something seemed odd about his visit?” Jess turned a skeptical face onto her sister.
Marlena pursed her lips and thought before finally shrugging. “Not really. What did you think was off?”
Jess chewed her bottom lip as her head tilted back and forth. “Him asking if we’ve been all right and then reminding us he’s down the road if we need anything. He’s never done that before.”
Marlena rolled her eyes. “You are paranoid, Jess. You read into everything. The man was just being neighborly. He probably offered assistance because you told him we were leaving.” She leaned forward and braced her elbows on the counter, clasping her hands beneath her chin. Her eyes focused on the ceiling as a wistful look shaped her features. “He certainly is a handsome young thing, isn’t he?”
“Yes, but still too old for you,” Jess returned as she shook her head. “When did you become so easily stirred by the opposite sex?”
Marlena gazed in thought. “Hmm…not sure, but Val is the first man I can recall ever noticing as handsome. I think he can wake the womanly part of any female, don’t you?”
“Not really,” Jess said as she busied herself folding fabric. “And before you go off chanting his list of virtues, need I remind you we have not seen hide nor hair of him for the past four days? The man puts us in danger to the point where we must leave and then abandons us. Not my notion of chivalry.”
Marlena sighed and went to the table to help Jess with the task. “You may be able to manipulate most people, but not me.”
Jess looked up with a frown. “What do you mean by that?”
“First of all, Val is not here because you ran him off. He was quite happy to stay with us.”
“Quite happy?” Jess snorted. “More like quite vexed. He didn’t even last two days before he was climbing the walls.”
“And secondly,” Marlena continued. “He didn’t put us in danger or make us move.”
Jess dropped the blue satin and placed her hands on her hips. “He put us in danger by spending the night here. If Stacy hadn’t known he’d been here, he would have never honed in on us as a target.”
“If you hadn’t invited him to stay in here, he would have never spent the night!”
Jess felt her jaw drop. “You would have rather I let him stay out in the cold night to freeze?”
Marlena sighed. “He wouldn’t have frozen, and you damn well know it. There’s no way Juliet would have allowed it. He would have gone back to her place for the night, but I don’t think you wanted him to do that, did you?”
Righteous anger burned through her. “First of all, watch your mouth, Little Miss. Secondly, I wouldn’t have had the slightest care if Val spent the night at Juliet’s. He can pass his time with any woman, or women, he chooses to, and I’ll thank you to stop building romantic notions where none exist.”
Marlena’s face twisted angrily and she threw the bolt of fabric on the floor. “Don’t talk to me like that! And I will say damn any time I damn well please. I believe I have earned that in this life as well as your respect and better treatment.”
“Are you implying I mistreat you?” Jess asked, her voice struggling between hurt and anger.
“I’m not implying it. I’m saying it out right. You treat me like I’m your ward and not your equal. I do as much sewing around here, don’t I? I stock as much, work as much, cook as much, remember as much and sleep as little, and yet you want to shove me in the shadows. You do all of the talking and I just get to smile and work. You make all of the decisions and I have no say. You’ve moved me from Mexico to Colorado to Virginia City, and now to where? All without consulting me. What if I don’t want to leave Virginia City?”
Jess’s heart hit the floor and tears brimmed in her eyes, but her voice was tight with hurt. “I had no idea living with me was so horrible for you. Perhaps I should have left you back in New Mexico? Wasn’t life so much better? Do you think this is what I wanted for my future? Making dresses in some strange town, worrying a hole in my gut over how to protect and take care of you, over what kind of future you’ll have with a past chasing you?”
“I can take care of myself. I don’t need to be your burden anymore, and I don’t need you!”
Marlena stomped into the back room and slammed the door, leaving Jess to stem the tears by taking deep breaths through her nostrils. The hurt was deep and the anger pulsed just as strong. She folded two more swaths of fabric before finally giving up on the task and throwing them to the floor with Marlena’s. She left the shop and slammed the door behind her.
There were too many bodies on Main Street, too many people to side-step, say “excuse me” to or nod and smile at. She turned the corner and headed down J Street. As soon as she was parallel to Juliet’s, the Madame and Caroline ran out to greet her.
“Collette!” Juliet called as she closed the distance between them. Her smile was wide until she noticed the distress on Jess’s face. “My dear, what’s the matter? You look on the verge of tears.”
Jess covered her face w
ith her palms and sighed, willing herself not to cry. When she dropped her hands, she took a deep breath. “Just having some problems vith Helene.”
“Aaah,” Juliet drawled and Caroline put a comforting hand around Jess’s shoulders. She is at that age. You poor thing. Dealing with a maturing adolescent is not the sort o’ task a sister should deal with. How long ‘ave you two been without your mother, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Jess frowned at the memories. “Helene never knew our mother. She died giving birth to her, our father died five years ago. I am za only mother she has ever known.” A small tear squeezed out of the side of her eye and she wiped it away. “I fear I am not very good at it, though. She hates me right now.”
Juliet giggled and smiled with sympathy. “One thing I learned as a mother is if they hate you, you are doing things right.”
Caroline hugged Jess to her. “She’ll get over whatever it is you’re fighting about.”
Jess returned the gesture. “She doesn’t vant to leave Virginia City.”
“Dalton told me you were leaving,” Juliet said. “I came out to ask if it was true. He said you had a relative who was unwell.”
“It is true. We must leave as soon as possible, and she doesn’t vant to go. She says I treat her like she is not my equal.”
Juliet sucked in a breath and tilted her head to the side. “She’s not your equal. She’s your child, even if only by circumstance. You are the one charged with looking after her, and there are some things she’ll not ‘ave a say in until she’s older.”
“I know zat,” Jess returned. “But how do I make her understand vithout belittling her?”
Before Juliet could answer, the door to her establishment opened behind them and out walked Val. Jess couldn’t help the sharp intake of her breath or the way her spine stiffened like a rod. The other women turned to see what had drawn Jess’s reaction, and greeted Val with smiles and waves. He looked up and stopped in mid-stride when he locked eyes with Jess. After a long pause, he finally joined them on the street.
Desert Sunrise (Love in the Sierras Book 2) Page 10