Unashamed laughter rose up in Jen as she bent down to pick up her plastic glass, almost falling to her knees on her way back up.
“It looks like Miss Kitty is liquored up too.”
“I’ll have you know,” Jen said with emphasis, “I am not drunk.”
“Miss Kitty’s also in denial,” a grinning Rose said from the saloon’s batwing doorway, closed tight against the full set of double doors behind them. “Come on, it’s getting cold standing out here. I think it’s starting to snow.”
“I hate the snow,” Barb complained.
“I love it.” Rose didn’t move into it though. “But I hate being cold.”
“I know a way to get warm.” Barb leered as she moved toward Jen to pull her into the saloon after Rose. “Too bad he has a kid. Man, I hate kids.”
“I wouldn’t mind having a child or two,” Jen mused, stopping at the bar. “I think having a couple of children would be great.”
“Wyatt’s daughter is twelve.”
“So?” Jen moved back to help the two women close the heavy double doors, blocking the harsh blowing wind. “Why should she being a pre-teen make a difference?”
“Rumor has it, he didn’t even know the kid existed until she showed up at the Craine ranch a year ago.” Barb sank into one of the rough wood chairs. “How can a man not know he has a kid?”
“The girl’s mother never told him?” Rose said with sharp sarcasm. “Before you give up on the man, you should stop listening to rumors and get all the facts.”
“I hate kids.”
Jen moved away from the bar and sat in an empty chair between Barb and Rose. “Children can wait until after I’m married. Right now I’d rather be warmed up by a certain sexy cowboy.”
“Yeah,” Barb agreed. “That’d be sweet!”
She sighed. “Sometimes I wish I’d never promised my grandfather I wouldn’t date until the end of the semester.”
“You can go out on dates, Jen.” Barb winked at her. “You just can’t have any sex afterward.”
“Sex is so addictive.”
“When you’re used to something,” Barb said with a loud laugh, “and all of the sudden you’re not getting it anymore, you’re going to go through withdrawal pain.”
“Is that what’s happening to me?” The memory of that ride up to the summer pasture sitting so tight against Adam came back to heat her. “It would be better if I’d never met Adam.”
“I know the feeling,” Rose said as she sat down in the last chair at the table. “But at least Adam notices you.”
Jen looked at Barb before focusing on the frowning schoolteacher. “So who is the man who hasn’t noticed you?”
“He must be blind,” Barb said.
Rose didn’t say anything to their teasing comments.
“Whoever he is, I’m sure he’s noticed you, honey.” Warm feeling sounded in Barb’s voice. “You’re frigging beautiful. Between you and Jen, I’m surprised any man even knows I exist.”
“Wyatt does,” Rose whispered.
She snorted. “Oh, yeah, except for the one man with a built-in family.” Shaking her head, Barb added, “Lucky me!”
“Like Jen, I want a couple of children too. Maybe one each, a little boy and girl.” Rose reached out and touched Barb’s arm. “Someday.”
Jen nodded. “If only we could find three guys who were willing to commit to more than just a quick roll in the hay a few times a week. It’d be nice to settle down and get married, have a few children and a big house in the country. That’s what Sam and I were planning on doing before I found him in bed with my…” My sister. “…another woman.”
“Sam was your fiancé, right?” Barb asked. “I would’ve kicked him right in the balls on my way out the door.”
“Barb?”
“Oh, Rose, you would’ve done the same thing.”
“But why punish only the man?” Rose asked quietly. “There was another person involved.”
“Yes.” Jen glanced from one friend to the other, feeling the effects of the wine flowing through her mind, blocking her unease when talking about that day. “I haven’t seen my sister in six years.”
“Your sister?”
“The other woman was your sister?” Rose asked.
Humiliation flushed over Jen’s face, warming her skin from the inside out. She saw pity in their eyes. Why did she tell them that? She’d never told anyone about the day she’d caught her sister naked and sweaty underneath her ex-fiancé.
“Oh, dear Lord,” Rose declared, leaning toward Jen to touch her arm lightly. “You must have been devastated.”
“I survived.”
“How awful for you.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me it was your sister you found sleeping with Sam?” Barb asked. “I thought we were friends.”
“How many sisters have you caught in bed with your fiancé?”
“Well, none,” she whispered. “But that’s not really the point.”
“I didn’t have any brothers or sisters. It was just me and my mom,” Rose said. “But I can’t imagine how any sister could do such a thing.”
“It wasn’t the first time Kimberley stole a man I loved,” Jen remembered out loud. “Every boy I ever showed any interest in, my sister had to have as her own.”
“You were too good for them,” Barb said with fierce anger. “No man is worth fighting for if the first female showing an interest in him causes him to up and leave you.”
Would Adam fall for her beautiful sister too? Because she knew her sister would be showing up in Winter Creek soon. Somehow Kimberley would sense her blossoming feelings for Adam and show up just in time to steal him away from her.
“I wish I’d never met him,” Jen mumbled.
“Met who?” Barb asked. “Adam?”
“Yes,” Jen answered. “Every time I get too close to a man, Kimberley shows up to ruin my happiness.”
“And you feel yourself falling for Adam?” Rose asked.
“I’m trying hard not to.” Her mind filled with sudden knowledge. “But, yes, I am falling for the man.”
* * * *
Jen awoke a few hours after finally going to sleep, head pounding as if trying to split apart. She groaned and lifted slowly from her bed, careful not to disturb her two RV mates. Sliding the paneled door shut on the bedroom area, Jen quickly found the bottle of ibuprofen and swallowed two pills with a cold glass of water before sitting in the booth-like table.
An uneasy feeling moved through her system as she vaguely remembered her vision, an uneasiness she couldn’t shake. Suddenly needing to check the stable for her own peace of mind, she grabbed her calf high boots from the first step and pulled them over her socked foot. Before leaving the RV she threw on her coat and reached for the wide beamed flashlight hanging near the door.
The door squealed shut behind her, and she stopped to listen for any movement in the unit. When no sounds came to her ears, she turned on the flashlight and moved toward the front entrance gate. A shape walked up to her as soon as she entered the town proper, startling her.
“Ma’am,” the dark suited man said. “I’ll need to see some identification.”
She sighed. “I forgot WCHA hired a security company. I didn’t bring any ID with me.”
“Your name?” the guard asked.
“Jennifer Ferguson,” she said. “Professor Jennifer Ferguson.”
His light swept over her, and he focused on her face for a long moment before looking down at the list of names. “You’re the history professor, right?”
“Yes,” she said, then added, “I own the saloon. Or rather, the college I teach at owns the saloon.”
“Yes, I see that.” He put the clipboard down to his ample thigh. “I’ll let you pass this time, ma’am, but you need to remember to bring an ID card next time you come into Winter Creek during its off hours.”
“Thank you,” Jen said graciously. “I’ll remember that.”
He smiled. “Would you like me to es
cort you to the saloon?”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
The man nodded before turning to walk back into the small shed-like building next to the entrance gate.
Jen walked through the town past the saloon and stopped near the entrance to the livery stable. Silence greeted her as she swung the wide beam of her flashlight along the old building. Everything seemed fine, and she felt a bit stupid for coming to check the building. She sighed and turned back to the saloon.
Stepping up onto the wooden sidewalk, she opened the door and entered the dark building before stopping to rub her temple. A dull ache lingered deep in her skull, making her wish she hadn’t drunk that last glass of wine. It’d been fun letting her hair down with her friends, but she’d said way too much to them. She’d never told anyone about her sister stealing her ex-fiancé. She’d never told anyone about the way Kimberley had been when they were growing up.
She’d never let on that her sister was just as psychic as she was in at least one way—Kimberley always knew when she was falling in love. Always. For six years, since seeing her sister naked with her ex, Jen had been careful not to pick a man she might feel more than lust for.
She’d been doing so well until now.
“Oh, Adam, why did I have to meet you?”
No one answered her.
Jen shook her thoughts aside and closed and latched the door. She laughed lightly at her action. “I’m going to need to start locking this door when I’m not around.”
She shook her head and walked behind the bar to her private room. Candles lined the walls, unlit and fragrant, when she entered the small sleeping area. A colorful bouquet of flowers sat in the center of the old-fashioned desk. Sweet, perfume fragrance pooled throughout the small room. “What’s going on here now?”
“It’s my way of saying I’m sorry.”
At the sound of Adam’s voice, she twisted around toward the Chinese paneled wall. “What are you doing here, Adam? How did you get past the guard?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” He stepped away from the unstable wall, stopping only a foot from her stiff form, and lifted a small cardboard box. “I brought some information I found in my parents’ attic that might tell us about my Grandpa Adam. I was going to leave it here for you.”
She glanced at the box.
“Do you want to look at it?”
“Now?” she whispered, a quick feel of coldness racing over her skin. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you and I to be alone here.”
“Look, I’m not going to go anywhere you don’t want to go, Jen. I know why you want to stay away from me for a while. I saw the way everyone at the college was looking at you. I don’t plan on making your life any more difficult.”
“We may not have a choice.” Unnatural coldness surrounded her, enveloping her easily in its other worldly grip. She tried to fight it off, tried to push the heat of reality back into her body, but it was too late. As a voice, not her own, whispered, “Adam,” Jen fell into the strange darkness.
“Jen?” A rough groan sounded near her warming body.
“What happened?”
Hot pulsating desire roamed over her naked body, tightening the sensitive tips of her breasts underneath the warmth of his caressing fingers. She moaned out his name and wrapped her arms around his chest. Her bare breasts brushed against his trembling skin. Aching wetness dripped down her thighs, leaving a trail of desire just above her weak knees.
“Oh, what did we do?”
“Not enough, honey.” He lifted her up from the floor and sat down with her knees on either side of his aroused lower body. His penis jerked straight and firm against her, causing her to groan his name and move side to side over him. “Oh, lady, not nearly enough.”
Desire burst within her when his mouth latched onto her breast, licking the sensitive edge with experience. Yes, his tongue had touched her like this before. Just like his callused hand traveling hot and heavy over her skin. She recognized his sensual touch. Without the two knowing it, they’d become quite familiar with each other’s naked bodies.
“No.”
“Don’t,” he whispered around her aroused nipple. “I’m dying here.”
“So am I, Adam,” she whispered while pulling away from his sweet mouth. “But we need to stop this while we still can. I don’t want you like this.”
He placed his hands tight on her hips when she tried to stand up, and stared into her face. Nodding, he stood with her still trapped against his front.
“I think we need to look at the things in the box I found in the attic,” Adam said harshly. “I think you may be right about it being an ancestor of mine.”
“Now you believe me?” She stepped back from him and looked around for her pajama top. She yanked it from the foot of the bed and slipped it on. Grabbing the bottoms from the small dresser, she pulled them over her wobbly legs. When she turned back to the still naked man, her eyes fell onto the mirror leaning against the Chinese wall. “Oh, my dear Lord, my aunt and your grandfather seemed to have done more than make us hornier than hell. Come here and look at this. They left us a new message.”
When Adam glanced at the mirror, he pounded his hand into the side of it. “I wrote those words?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe this.”
“Look at the writing, Adam. Is it your writing?” She lifted one finger to trace the outline of his firm written words, and read, I’m Adam.
“I’m Adam,” he read out loud. “Does it mean he’s my grandpa?”
“We can’t know for sure, but it might be.”
“And Grandpa took over my body and got the lady of my dreams naked and horny.” He grinned at his comment. Looking around the room, he added, “Grandpa, you are one son of a bitch.”
Jen warmed at the implied compliment.
And at his hint of jealousy, she mused.
“So this is what happens to you when Grace takes you over?”
Warmth filled her with his question, as if he truly believed her now. “Yes, but it usually only happens when I’m in period clothing. Grace has never been able to get a hold of me any other way.”
“They’re getting stronger,” he said rather than asked. “They’re getting more active.”
“It seems that way.” Glancing back at the mirror, she read out loud the other new messages. “Grandpa also wrote ‘help’ and ‘danger’. I wonder what he’s referring to.” Not waiting for an answer, she traced her fingers to a grouping of words in her own hand, and froze. “I wrote…I mean, my aunt wrote ‘someone who should love you will hurt you’ and ‘help’ again.”
“What do you think is going on here, Jen?” He stood behind her and reached past her trembling shoulder to place his hand over his name. “Do you think it’s a warning to us?”
“I don’t know.” The foggy vision came to mind. “But I do think we need to look into this before spreading it around Winter Creek. We’re ahead of schedule, but we still have a long way to go before we open in April.”
“And I still need to get my cows moved to the winter pasture before the first snowfall.” Damp breath breezed over the top of her head, sending a rush of aching need through her system. “And I need to get you back in my lap to finish what Grandpa started.”
“No, Adam.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?”
“I promised my grandfather, remember?”
“Stupid promise,” he muttered under his breath.
She jerked around toward him and pushed him hard to the bed. “If you made a promise to your grandfather, I wouldn’t call it stupid.”
Adam laughed while turning on the bed and placing his hand under the side of his head. “You want me, and I want you. Why not take advantage of the situation? I’ll never tell.”
Gloriously naked, firm and hard, he lay tempting her on the bed. She so wanted to give in to that temptation, but she didn’t move.
He sat up and reached for her, pulling her so close to him she
could feel the dampness of his mouth wetting the middle of her pajama top just above her navel. His lips traveled up her top, nibbling her skin though the thick material. When his teeth gently latched onto her breast and he licked the hard tip, she whispered, “Oh, I do want you.”
He pulled her up then and tossed her onto the mattress, capturing her against his hot body. “What happens in Winter Creek, stays in Winter Creek.”
“That’s Vegas.”
“It’ll work here too.”
His hand moved to the edge of her top and pulled it slowly up toward her aching breasts. An experienced touch, an arousing one. Jen knew she wouldn’t be disappointed in his lovemaking techniques. But still—
“Please, let me up.”
“Honey, no one will know we’ve had sex.”
Had sex, she thought. He wasn’t planning on making love to her but having sex.
“I’ll know we had sex.”
“You’re serious,” Adam said in disbelief. “You’re letting the perfect opportunity for some very wild sex pass you by without taking advantage of it.”
“We’ll have other opportunities, Adam.”
“If you promise me that—” He lifted off of her. “I’ll let you go. Because I know,” he said bitterly, “how important your promises are to you.”
She grinned. “Tell you what, I’ll set a date with you in December.”
“If Grandpa Adam doesn’t stop messing with my body, I’ll be dead before December rolls around.”
“And with mine,” Jen added. “But if we don’t give them another chance, this shouldn’t happen again.”
He looked at her silently.
She buttoned up her top under his watchful, hot eyes. “I wish you would put your clothes on.”
“If you insist,” he said with a frown, grabbing his jeans and pulling them over his still aroused penis. “You’re still sexy to me even with those flannel pajamas on.”
“You make me feel so beautiful.”
“You are beautiful.” He glanced at the mirror. “Maybe I shouldn’t come into this back room when you’re here. If we’re not in the same room, Grandpa won’t be able to take over me again.”
Forgotten Memories Page 10