“Has this ever happened to you before?” Rose sank on the step beside her. “Maybe you should go see a doctor.”
Jen smiled. “I’m okay, Rose. No doctor can help me with this. How can a doctor help me when he refuses to believe what I tell him? My father and brother are both doctors, and they don’t even believe me when I mention my abilities. My brother used to.”
Silence filtered through the air as Jen looked down the main street of the early morning lit ghost town toward the dim livery and corral.
“Well.” Barb leaned into her. “Are you going to answers Rose’s question or not? I’ve always known you had sharper senses than most other people, but visions? I can’t believe you have visions.”
“It’s not an everyday experience for me.”
“Has something like this happened to you before?” Rose asked for the second time.
“It’s happened before.” Jen looked at her. “But this time seems different.”
“How?” Barb asked as she stood up from the step. “I remember a time a few weeks ago when you acted kind of like this. I didn’t mention it to you, because I figured you were just preoccupied with the shit going on at the college. I didn’t think you wanted me to pry.”
She remembered. “Yeah, it was the day William came back after talking to those people at the hotel. But that was nothing like this. That time I just felt real uneasy, like we should watch our step with the hotel’s manager. I didn’t trust her, still don’t. But this is different.”
“What do you mean?” Barb asked. “You told us something was going to happen here.”
Jen couldn’t quite recall what she’d seen now. “I’m not sure. It feels almost like a dream, but I know it was real.”
“Yeah, it was real,” Barb added. “You scared the living hell out of me.”
“And me,” Rose added with feeling. “Do you think we should warn the people running the stable?”
“His name is Thornton,” Jen said. “Adam knows him.”
“I’ve met him.” Barb moved closer to her. “He’s seems like a capable person.”
Jen only nodded at her before standing on her shaking legs. Both of her friends reached over to help her.
Rose asked, “Are you all right now? You look better.”
Jen touched the blonde woman’s shoulder lightly, and smiled. “Is the invitation to share a bottle of wine with you still open?”
“More than one bottle,” Barb said. “I think the three of us are going to get stinking drunk.”
“Sounds good to me.” Spirits revived, Jen glanced from Barb to Rose. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“So when do you think you’ll be back in Winter Creek?” Rose asked. “You said you needed to go with Adam to see his cows this afternoon.”
Barb stood straighter at the male name, staring hard at Jen. “I still don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s not by choice, Barb.” Jen added lightly, “Believe me.”
“I wish I could go,” Rose whispered. “I like cows. I think it sounds like fun.”
Too bad, Jen thought. The first true hint of joy in her friend’s face shined at the thought of riding one of those filthy beasts up to a stinking field of cows.
“I wish I could go with you.”
“I wish you could go instead.”
* * * *
The vague vision stayed with Jen the rest of the morning, drawing her to the batwing doors of her saloon time and time again. Yet all was quiet at the building next door to her, as quiet as a dozen or so men shoring up a large building and rebuilding a few hundred feet of corral could be.
So when Adam showed up a few minutes before noon, on the same black horse he’d been riding when she’d first met him, Jen forced her mind off her lesson plans and test grading and wandered out of the saloon. A feeling almost like relief warmed her skin now.
Almost but not quite, she thought.
Dark Day looked even more furious and dangerous than he did the first time she’d had the unfortunate privilege of meeting him. To Jen the horse seemed to have grown.
“He’s the same size, Jen,” Adam said, fighting his laughter. “And you need to stop mumbling bad things about my horse. He’s a sensitive guy.”
“I didn’t mumble anything bad about your horse.”
“Yeah, you did,” he said. “I don’t know why you insist on hurting his feelings.”
“He’s a horse,” she said. “How can I possibly hurt his feelings?”
Adam only laughed.
“You’re in a good mood this afternoon, aren’t you?”
“I am now, beautiful.”
She huffed at his comment but didn’t reply. And, anyway, it was nice to have a man see her as beautiful. What harm could it do? Her sister was living in California, hundreds of miles away from her.
And Jen wasn’t planning on falling in love with this cowboy.
Her sister’s psychic abilities only came out to haunt both of them when Jen let her guard down and allowed her heart to get involved with a man. If she kept the relationship merely a physical one, everything would be fine.
And why was she thinking about her sister now?
“Are you ready to go?” Adam asked. “It’ll take a good half hour to get to the cabin.”
Shaking her younger sister’s image from her mind, Jen said, “A cabin? I thought you said we were going to the summer pasture.”
“We are.”
“You have a cabin in your cow pasture?”
Adam laughed again.
Jen liked the sound of his laughter, a little too much. Heat spread through her at the real, unforced sounds emitting from the cowboy’s tanned throat. Like fingers caressing down the small of her back, the echo of his laughter moved through her.
Maybe being alone with him, up in the hills, near a cabin wouldn’t be a good idea.
“Come on,” he said, motioning with his hands toward the horse. “If you want to see my cowboys move the last of my herd down to the corral, we’ll have to get going now.”
“I’m ready.” Yet she didn’t step any closer to the horse. “I’ve been ready to go since eleven.”
He gestured to her again, the corners of his mouth crinkling. “Come on, Jen.”
As she tentatively stepped forward, the horse snorted loud and shook his head hard, causing the metal and leather of the saddle to creak and groan under the pressure of his violent movements.
She froze. “I don’t think I can do this.”
Adam frowned.
“I’m in really good shape, Adam. I could walk with you,” she pleaded.
“Yeah,” he agreed, trailing his hot gaze down the length of her front. “You’re in good shape, but—”
His right arm clamped around her waist, swinging her easily up and into the saddle before she even had a chance to protest. He swung his legs up behind her and settled his chest against her back, grabbing the reins wrapped around the saddle’s horn in one hand while placing the other on her left thigh.
“Let me down.”
“You’re not walking.”
When the horse started to move away from her saloon, past the hooting calls of the men working on the livery stable and corral, Jen froze against him.
“Relax, beautiful.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Why?” Heated breath singed the shell of her ear. “You’re the prettiest history professor I’ve ever known.”
“I doubt that.”
He nipped at her earlobe, sending a blaze of fire racing down her frozen spine. “Relax, Jen, I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”
And she believed him.
The ride seemed to last forever, with every step of the horse’s hooves bringing her a double torture. The combination of the horse’s rough rump and the man’s hard body combined to set her teeth on edge and her body on fire. And soon the ache in her backside didn’t come close to the aching wet need spreading between her thighs.
When they arr
ived at the rugged cabin, well hidden in a clump of Ponderosa pines, Jen felt a mixture of relief and disappointment.
“You call that a cabin.”
“It’s one insult after another with you this morning, isn’t it?” he whispered near her sensitive ear. “I hope you don’t complain about everything I do today.”
No one would miss the double meaning of his words.
And, damn, she wanted this man.
“I’m getting off now,” he said, slipping with ease off the tall horse. “Here, let me help you.”
Jen lifted her right leg from the stirrup and turned to Adam’s outstretched arms, sliding slow and easy down the front of his body to the ground. He trapped her weakening flesh between the horse’s side and his aroused front, placing both of his hands on the saddle behind her head.
“Have any more complaints, beautiful?”
Oh, Granddad, why did I ever make that promise to you?
Something in her expression must have shown him her changed mood because Adam sighed softly and stepped back.
“Sorry,” he said.
And the chilled coldness of late October replaced his fiery warmth.
The end of the semester couldn’t come soon enough for Jen.
As Adam moved closer to the cabin, the mountains came into view, and she gazed at the beauty of the scenery. Snowcapped peaks rose up in the dark blue of the sky with a heavy coat of white, surrounded by the tan and brown bark of the bare trees. Nearer to her, the green of the Ponderosa pines partly hid the old rugged cabin from her eyes.
The view took away her breath.
“It’s breathtaking here.”
Almost as awesome as the man standing near me.
“Yeah, I like it,” he whispered into her ear. “And the scenery isn’t bad either.”
Oh, would this weak body of hers make it to the end of the semester?
Chapter 8
Jen was pretty sure Adam wasn’t referring to the mountain scenery.
But either way Jen felt her body relaxing in the chilly, fresh breeze blowing across the area.
“Glad you made the trip?” His flannel covered chest and jean clad middle—long duster blowing slow in the wind between his spread legs—pressed into her again, leaving her no doubt that he was referring to her. “Even if it was on the back of a wild beast?”
Her laughter erupted out of her throat so unexpectedly it startled even her.
He stepped back. “What’s so damned funny?”
“I’m not sure.”
He frowned. “You shouldn’t laugh at a man when he’s—”
“Hey, boss.” A lean man stood by the opened cabin door. “Is this the lady professor you were telling me about last week?”
Adam glared at her for a long moment before he finally turned to his friend. “Yeah, believe it or not, she’s a history professor.”
“History professors aren’t allowed to laugh?” the man asked.
“None I’ve ever known did, Wyatt,” Adam replied. “If they did I might have enjoyed history more.”
“I loved history,” Wyatt said.
Adam studied the man standing still in the cabin’s doorway. Another bigger man, sporting a major leer, now stood behind him. “A lie will not impress this lady, Wyatt.”
“It’s not a lie,” the lean cowboy said lightly. “I really did enjoy my high school history class.”
“Was it because of the teacher or the subject?” Jen asked the grinning cowboy. “The majority of my students are males.”
“That’s understandable, ma’am.”
Adam huffed under his breath.
“I wish it wasn’t that way,” Jen said softly.
“It wasn’t so bad,” Wyatt offered. “I may have lusted after my teacher, but I still learned my lessons.”
Adam huffed again.
“And what’s wrong with that, boss?” Wyatt stepped out of the doorway toward them, bringing the bigger man to the entrance and a third man slouching behind him. “You’re just pissed you didn’t have a beautiful history professor in school like me.”
Cowboys are literally coming out of the woodwork here.
“Didn’t you have some old guy two years younger than dirt?” Wyatt continued his childish, but sweet comments. “Looking at a sexy, young thing beats an old geezer any day. You’re just jealous, boss.”
“Yeah,” Adam muttered. “You had one then, I have one now.”
Jen twisted toward him. “What?”
He didn’t take back his words.
“You’re a dreamer, Adam Craine.”
“I don’t think so, Jennifer Ferguson.”
Her heart accelerated, beating hard and rough to the tone of her breaths. Whether from anger at his presumption or lust, she wasn’t sure.
“If you two are done bickering…” Wyatt stood in front of her now. “Maybe we should get on with the herding.”
“No one is bickering,” Adam declared.
“Could have fooled me, boss.”
“Just round up the men and get moving.” He stared hard at the leaner man. “I’m going to take Jen up to the… I’m going to take her to a place where she can see the area better.”
Wyatt leered.
“So she can see you herd the cattle to the pens,” Adam said with emphasis. “She’ll get a better view of the land from the lookout.”
“She’ll get a better view of something,” Wyatt muttered. He turned to the men at the door and said, “Come on, boys. You heard the boss. Let’s get a move on.”
Confusion flowed around Jen as she watched half a dozen cowboys exit the small cabin and follow Wyatt to a roughly built corral at right angles to the building. Sly looks and telling glances peeked at her as she stood beside Adam, sending a vague image of a thinly populated square of land into her mind’s eye. But, for some unknown reason, these leering looks didn’t bother her.
Jen looked up the gently sloping hill.
And she concentrated.
Assorted ghost-like images of naked limbs wrapped around bare behinds, images of flinging arms and sweaty backs assaulted her senses. Soft moans and loud cries of release filtered through her, freezing her feet to the ground.
Jen shook the images away.
More went on at this lookout than just looking, Jen sensed.
Anticipation and lust raced hot into her lower body as she glanced at the cowboy beside her, frightening her with its intensity. A year ago she would’ve gladly gone with this guy to that outdoorsy make out place, but not now.
She’d promised her grandfather.
“Come on, Jen.” His large hand firm around her upper arm, Adam eased her toward the well-footed trail.
“No, I can’t.”
“Jen?”
“I made a promise.”
He dropped his hand from her arm and touched her cheek. “And you made a promise to me to watch my cowboys herd the cattle to the pen.”
“I can see just as well right here.”
Puzzlement widened his brown eyes as he angled his cowboy hat to the back of his head. The sudden, slightly wicked grin forming slow around his full mouth startled her. “It must be a bitch to be psychic.”
Jen didn’t respond to him.
He lowered his head, brushing his lips quickly over her opened mouth. “I’m not looking for a quickie with you, Jen.”
“Good,” she said, jerking away from his tempting mouth. “Because you’re not getting one.”
He pulled her back to him, his lips inches from her trembling mouth. The fingers of his left hand spread wide under the heavy brown strands of her hair.
“Let me go.”
“When we make love—” His warm breath singed her lips. “I want it to be nice and slow.”
“Adam, please.”
“Yeah, you’ll be begging for more.” He dropped his hand from the back of her head. “You’ll be begging, lady.”
“Adam.”
“But…” He pulled at her hair lightly before backing away from her. �
��If I have to wait for you, I’ll wait.”
* * * *
“Those are baby cows, aren’t they?” Jen asked fifteen minutes later. “You have calves to move.”
“Yes.” Adam moved her away from the edge of the hillside, pulling her tight to his front and wrapping his arms around her waist. “You’re not going to let those tiny creatures freeze, are you?”
She shivered, filling him with emotions he didn’t understand. He wanted this woman, yes, but he was content just holding her.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Will those calves really freeze?” She shivered again, craning her head out and to the left to follow the docile herd. “It’s not that cold yet.”
“I was kidding, Jen.”
“Oh?” She pushed her neck out again, giving him a sweet view of her lightly tanned skin. “So it’s not imperative they be moved right away.”
“No.” Dragging his heated gaze off her neck, he looked toward the bare hills. “I like it here.”
“Is the view the reason you and your cowboys bring your ladies up here?”
He straightened, stiffening up at her accusation, then relaxing when he realized she wasn’t accusing him of anything bad.
“I can sense something…mesmerizing about this place.”
“You can?”
“Yes,” she said. “My senses are telling me more than looking happens at this lookout point.” She grinned. “You and your cowboys use this place for more…lustful…reasons, don’t you?”
“What a bitch!”
“Hey?”
“Relax, honey,” he said while caressing his hands down the length of her covered arms. “I wasn’t calling you that.”
“But you don’t believe me either.”
It wasn’t a question.
“All my life,” she said softly, pressing her back into his chest, “I’ve been different. My dad said I knew who was calling on the phone when I was a toddler. I knew before everyone else when my grandmother had died.”
“That must have been hard for you.” He wanted to believe her, but he just couldn’t. And he didn’t understand why. So many things would make sense if he was willing to believe she saw visions. “How old were you when she died?”
“Ten,” she said, in a vague way. “I remember waking up one morning with tears running down my face, my heart aching so bad I thought it was about to break in two. But when I mentioned it to my mother, she didn’t believe me. Even after finding out her mother was dead, she still didn’t believe me.”
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