She shot him a saucy look. “How would you ever be able to look at yourself in the mirror if you let a woman persuade you in such a way?”
“Oh, I suspect I’d manage,” he said dryly.
“Well, I wouldn’t dream of tempting you to go against your own best instincts. When you make this decision, Riley Walker, it will be because it’s the right one to make.”
He regarded her wearily. “Why do I get this gut-sick feeling the decision’s already been taken out of my hands?”
She patted his cheek. “Because you are one very smart cowboy.”
He sighed heavily. “That’s probably what they said to Wyatt Earp right before he walked into the OK Corral.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Telling this Martin Henry person that she planned to walk out on her job was the hardest thing Abby could recall ever having to do. She figured that whether Riley agreed to take her along on his search for gold or not, she had to get out of this saloon and this town. She wasn’t wild about the reputation she seemed to have attained here.
Martin did not take the news well. It seemed he had some sort of personal fondness for her that went beyond the bounds of employer-employee relations. Abby wished like crazy that she could recall where he’d ever gotten such an idea. She could tell with one glance that he was all wrong for her.
For one thing he never once cracked a smile. True, she was not giving him news he wanted to hear, but she got the distinct impression that he never laughed. Not the way Riley did, full-out and from the gut. She couldn’t imagine spending much time with a man with no sense of humor.
For another thing, he seemed obsessed with the bottom line. He dragged out some big old ledger and pointed out how his profits had increased since she’d been performing. Being viewed as a cash cow didn’t exactly make her day, especially since she sensed that very little of that money made its way into her pockets. It was probably significant that for all the talk of profits, he never once offered her a raise as an enticement for staying.
“What’s mine is yours,” he said instead, waving his hand in an expansive gesture Abby supposed was meant to take in the account book and the saloon.
She looked him straight in the eye and said, “If that’s true, I’ll take my share in cash.”
He practically choked to death at that. “It was an expression, Miss Abigail. Surely you know I didn’t mean it literally.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “I knew. That’s why I can’t stay here. You want to own me like some pretty little trinket,” she said with sudden certainty.
It was as if in that instant so many things became clearer to her. Martin might offer security and protection, but never passion and love, never the sort of partnership she craved. She sensed somehow that that was something she should absorb and remember for another time, another place.
He regarded her with disbelief. “You can’t just walk out like this, not after all I’ve done for you.”
“You’ve gotten the services you’ve paid for, I’m sure. That’s all I owe anyone. I have a much greater debt to myself.”
She turned and walked toward the swinging doors of the saloon. She paused and took one last look around at the gaudy interior, the dazzling chandelier, the fancy bar with its beveled mirror, and wondered what had ever persuaded her to work there.
As she watched the other women in their daring gowns, draping themselves over the shoulders of the customers, she shivered. She couldn’t imagine being happy surrounded by men whose only goal was to drink themselves into oblivion or to win at poker.
Martin’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“Abigail, you promised me two weeks,” he called out.
She turned slowly and faced him. “I don’t think I have two more weeks of my life to spare. I think it’s time I started reaching out and grabbing what I need to make me happy.”
Fifteen minutes later she had tracked Riley to Dolly Webber’s boarding house. Despite the shocked expressions of those sitting in the parlor, she climbed the stairs directly to his room and pounded on the door.
“What the hell?” he demanded, flinging it open, gun drawn. At the sight of her, he lowered the gun, but his expression was no less daunting. His gaze narrowed. “Why are you here?”
“To tell you I’ll be ready to leave at first light.”
“Damn, Abby, I haven’t even agreed to let you come along.”
She slid into the room. “But you will,” she said confidently and winked provocatively.
Riley looked as if he’d been kicked in the stomach by a mule. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Life.”
“What the devil is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I am tired of sitting on the sidelines. It means that I am fed up with letting whatever will be, be. I am about to start making choices, claiming what I want.” She reached for the top button on his shirt to demonstrate.
He stilled her hand where it was and regarded her worriedly. “What exactly is it you think you want?”
She knew with certainty that she had wasted far too much of her life by not being direct. This time she didn’t mince words. She summed up her deepest desires with one single syllable. “You.”
Her candor seemed to render him speechless. That gave her the perfect opportunity to stand on tiptoe, slide her fingers through his thick hair and meld her mouth with his. He seemed to freeze for an instant. Then she could practically feel the heat rising through him, feel the tension in his muscles as he restrained himself from giving in to temptation. Her own pulse was racing like those runaway horses earlier in the day.
He clasped a hand around her neck and held her still. He leaned back to stare into her eyes with a steady, unflinching gaze. “If I decide to let you come along, it won’t be because of this,” he warned.
She took a deep breath and said with an air of pure bravado, “Right now the only thing I’m concerned about is this room and you and how fast you can get out of those clothes.”
After an instant of startled silence, he laughed at that and the last of Abby’s fears vanished. It was going to be all right. He wanted her with a man’s hunger for a woman, just as she had always known in her heart that he did.
“Sweetheart, you amaze me,” he said, gathering her close.
“I amaze myself,” she admitted. “Do you suppose, though, that we could stop talking and get on with this?”
“Losing your nerve?”
She shook her head in denial. “It’s just that I’ve been waiting an eternity for this moment.”
“Then let’s not rush it,” he said quietly. “Let’s make it last another eternity.”
He slowly, carefully, sprinkled kisses across her forehead, her cheeks, her nose and her chin before claiming her mouth. Abby was trembling by the time his lips slanted over hers, sealing them with a velvet heat. She thought she had never felt anything as wonderful as that kiss, never smelled anything as heady as the warm, masculine scent of him, never tasted anything quite as sweet as his tongue on hers. Her senses reeled with the wonder of it.
When the kisses dropped to her neck and then to her bared shoulder, her heart thundered in her chest. She touched her fingers to the pulse at the base of Riley’s neck and felt a beat as strong and fast as her own.
Suddenly she felt one of his arms behind her knees, the other across her back, and she was scooped high in the air, then nestled against his chest while he strode across the room toward the old four-poster bed with its plump, down mattress. His glittering green eyes locked with hers; he lowered her slowly, reverently. Her skirt billowed then pooled in a scarlet circle around her. For the first time since she’d found herself wearing it, she admired the effect that dress must create.
Alone in the middle of the huge bed, Abby felt bereft, until Riley finally stretched out beside her, his hand curving around her waist to tug her closer until they were hip to hip, thigh to thigh. She could feel the hard strength of his arousal pressing against her softness and again h
er fragile confidence soared along with her senses.
Though on some subconscious level she felt as if she had lived any number of lifetimes before this moment, she was absolutely certain that what she was experiencing right now, at this instant, was totally new. The feelings were as fresh and delicate as a tree’s first spring leaves and held all the promise of summer’s full glory.
When Riley touched her breast for the first time, his fingers skimming lightly over the nipple, her pulse bucked wildly. She could feel a strange and thrilling moistness gathering between her thighs, along with an aching, demanding need.
With each of his tender caresses, her body grew more anxious.
“Please, Riley,” she whispered with a soft moan. “Please.”
“Soon enough,” he vowed, as he explored her inch by inch, stroking, caressing, loving. The red dress, already tattered, was ripped and shoved aside so he could touch tongue to breast in a gesture that took her breath away.
Abby twisted beneath him, her hips shifting in search of the fulfillment he deliberately withheld. He teased and taunted and plagued her until her skin shone with a fine layer of perspiration and her senses screamed with a passionate need so powerful it terrified her, even as it drew her.
She had known, she had known it would be like this with Riley. And yet this desperate yearning, this heady pleasure went far beyond anything she could ever have imagined.
By the time his fingers skimmed along her bare thigh, by the time he touched the sensitive folds of skin above, she was gasping for breath. Then with one deliberate, delicate stroke of his finger across the core of her femininity, he sent her off into a whirlwind of throbbing ecstasy.
Abby shuddered with pleasure as the unfamiliar sensations broke over her.
And yet...
She slowly opened her eyes and met Riley’s intense, satisfied gaze. She returned that look hesitantly. “You didn’t...”
He smiled. “I will,” he promised. “The night is just beginning.”
Abby drew on the reassurance in his smile. “You sure take a long time stripping out of those clothes, cowboy.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve been bored with the wait,” he replied with a touch of feigned indignation.
“Hardly bored,” she admitted. “Just lonely.”
“Lonely?” he repeated.
His expression immediately softened. Clearly he was responding to something in her voice she hadn’t even been aware was there. His embrace tightened around her.
“Oh, Abby, I swear you will never be lonely again.”
He set about stirring her senses again. The task was even easier the second time with anticipation sharper and more experienced. Heat blazed in the space of a heartbeat. Desire rampaged with no more than a touch.
This time, though, Abby insisted on returning each caress, demanded access to Riley’s feverish skin. She tangled her fingers in the dark mat of hairs on his chest, found the flat, masculine nipples and teased them until he was breathless. The satisfaction that came with knowing she could arouse him thrilled her.
She reached beneath the waistband of his denims, her fingers gliding as low as possible until she could touch the first coarse hairs below.
Then Riley’s anxious hands were tangling with hers as he struggled to rid himself of the confining pants. He shucked them off with amazing haste for a man who had been content to go so slowly only moments before.
Abby’s gaze fell at once on his powerful erection and for an instant her confidence faltered. Then, drawn by his pleading expression and her own curiosity, she touched the silken length of it, marveling at its heat and texture. He trembled beneath her caress.
Then he was easing her onto her back, positioning himself between her thighs, touching the tip of his arousal against her. She thought she would die from anticipation. Her hips shifted restlessly as a smile crept across his face.
“I’ll try not to hurt you,” he promised, his gaze intent. “I never want to hurt you, Abby.”
“I know that,” she said confidently. “I trust you, Riley. I will always trust you.”
He entered her then, slowly, carefully until Abby thought she would scream in frustration.
“Please,” she begged. “Please, Riley.”
There was a sudden, sharp, tearing sensation and then they were joined. She felt...magnificent. Whole. And looking into Riley’s eyes as he began to move inside her, she could tell that he shared her sense of triumph. Their bodies were made for this union, striving in perfect harmony for a joyous release.
This was what was meant to be, the two of them, together, always. That was the last rational thought she had before waves of pleasure broke over her, carrying her to a place she’d only imagined, with the man she’d always dreamed of.
* * *
They made love again and again through the night. Even so, at first light, Abby was up and dressed. With her own dress ruined, she’d found one of Riley’s shirts, tied it in a knot at the waist, turned up the sleeves, then added a pair of his denims with the cuffs rolled up. She sat in a chair across from the bed and waited uncertainly for his decision.
She didn’t want him to take her with him out of any sense of obligation because of what had happened in that bed during the long, incredible night. She knew that despite his vow not to do just that, in the cold light of morning he could be consumed by guilt and swamped by a sense of responsibility. She wanted him to realize, instead, that they belonged together, just as she knew it in her heart.
He moaned finally and rolled over. He opened one eye and caught sight of her. Both eyes came open then, and he took a leisurely, provocative survey that made her breath catch in her throat.
“Nice fit,” he said of the clothes that she’d taken from his dresser. After another slow, considering look, he added, “I liked the dress better.”
She held up the remains of tattered red silk. “Then you should have left it in one piece.”
“Ah,” he said. “You were pretty cute in nothing at all, too.”
“I can’t go out of here in the altogether,” she reminded him tartly. “Not without causing an even worse scandal than the one I probably set off by coming in.”
“Was there some place in particular you were in a hurry to get to?”
“Breakfast for starters. I seem to have worked up quite an appetite.”
“And after that?”
“I guess that’s up to you.”
“You’ll stay here, if I say so?” he asked skeptically.
“No,” she said, defeated. “I’ll go back home if you won’t take me along.”
It was what she’d decided during the night. She had played her trump card. She had shown him how spectacularly well suited they were—not just in bed, but in the desert the day before. If she couldn’t win with that, then there was no point in beating this particular subject to death.
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. “You’re an awfully headstrong woman, Abby.”
“I know.”
“Do you think you could manage to listen to what I tell you? Do you think you could take orders without questioning every last thing?”
Her breath caught as she realized he was actually considering giving in and taking her with him. “I would respect your experience,” she promised.
“Would you really? I wonder.” He sighed.
“Riley, I will be the best, most loyal partner you’ve ever had. I swear you won’t regret taking me along.”
“Those are pretty promises, Abby. Are you aware that your life could depend on your keeping them?”
There was a serious note in his voice she hadn’t heard before. She realized then that he was genuinely terrified of anything happening to her. More, she realized the depth of his feelings for her, feelings he hadn’t dared to admit and, if she knew him, probably wouldn’t, not in so many words, anyway.
“I will keep them,” she vowed, then added solemnly, “Cross my heart.”
He grinned at that. “Then how
can I possibly say no,” he said.
Abby wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly. “You’re saying I can come?”
“You can come,” he acknowledged.
She jumped onto the bed, landing on top of him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said, peppering kisses over his face.
His arm settled around her waist. One hand closed around the back of her neck and kept her mouth slanted across his own. From that moment on there was little time to think about her triumph. She was lost in yet another quest for those insatiable flames of passion.
* * *
Abby had never been so exhausted in her entire life. Her muscles ached. Her hair was filthy. Her clothes were tattered. She would have given up, but Riley refused to allow it. They had reached his claim two weeks before, and the work since had been hot, hard, sweaty and endless.
“We’re so close,” he said as they dug deeper into the mine. “I’m convinced of it.”
“Maybe the gold is always going to be just out of our reach. Did you ever consider that?” she responded wearily, wondering why she’d been so determined to get into this business with him. Only in the middle of the night, when he held her in his arms, did she remember what had drawn her to this man and this task. She’d finally realized that as much as the adventure of searching for gold, she had yearned for Riley and his love.
“Is that any way for a true adventurer to talk?” he chided. “Come on, Abby, don’t give up now. Just a little farther.”
“You go on. I need a break.”
“I could find the gold and never tell you,” he taunted.
She smiled. “You wouldn’t do that. You made a promise to me.”
“Why are you so convinced I’m so trustworthy? We’ve only known each other a few weeks, Abby. I could be planning to steal every ounce of gold we find.”
She regarded him serenely. “You won’t.”
He regarded her in obvious frustration. “Damn, Abby, don’t you know you shouldn’t be so trusting?”
“It’s not just anyone I’m trusting, Riley. It’s you.”
“I’m the worst of the lot.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re not.”
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