All the windows in the tower and along the ocean side of the building were tall and the brown drapes were pulled aside on all of them letting in a massive amount of light.
The floor was polished pine with brown area carpets under two dark-colored couches and three large chairs grouped in front of the fireplace. A light-wood table with five chairs with cushion pads on the seats sat in the round area of the room. That would be a stunning place to work and eat breakfast and plan.
To the right was a large bedroom with a huge bed and open closet next to a dresser. Beyond that Kelli could see a bathroom.
“Wow,” Jesse said, as he put the bags down and closed the door, looking around.
Suddenly she remembered why this was familiar. “This is patterned after the Idanha Hotel suites in Boise,” Kelli said. “One day, while Bonnie and I were in the downtown Boise area, she wanted to show me the suites there for times when we came back and needed a place to stay. But those suite sure didn’t have this view.”
She moved over and stood staring out at the ocean. The swells were gentle and the sun was still fairly high in the sky. Only a few wispy white clouds littered the sky.
From where she stood, she could see the muddy street in front of the hotel and the boardwalk, from where it ended in the road down to the docks to where it went to the stables on the other side of town.
But at the moment, it wasn’t the view of the small town that had her attention, but the vivid blue ocean and lighter blue sky as far as she could see.
Jesse came over and put his arms around her. “Pretty special place.”
“Let’s make it special,” she said, turning and kissing him.
They had kissed before, but it has always been guarded kisses. This one, for both of them was a full-on passionate kiss.
And after a moment they both came up for air.
His face was flushed and she knew hers was as well. She could feel the heat and the passion.
She then kissed him again, almost as hard and for almost as long.
Then she pushed away and said, “I have to get out of these clothes and cleaned up.”
With that, she turned and started taking off clothes as she headed into the bedroom.
She managed to get out of her riding coat and her blouse, leaving only her modern sports bra on before she asked for help with her boots.
He had managed to get out of his duster, his shirt, and had his pants unbuttoned and his belt loose.
He came over to her as she dropped onto the colorful quilts covering the soft featherbed. She lay on her back and put her feet up in the air.
He eased off one of her boots, then the other one.
“Now help with these pants, would you?”
She unbuttoned her pants and had him pull them off her, leaving only her blue modern underwear on.
Then she pointed at his pants. “Get those off.”
She slipped out of her sports bra and underwear and sat there on the featherbed watching him get his boots off and then his pants and then his underwear.
She just stared at him, stunned at how wonderfully he was built and how his muscles in his back seemed to ripple as he moved.
Then he turned and stared at her.
He was clearly aroused and the most handsome man she had ever seen with or without clothes.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, moving to her and pushing her back on the bed and kissing her.
His skin felt wonderful against her and she pushed against him.
It was as if electricity was holding them together.
He pushed back.
And frantically they worked at doing what they had both wanted to do for some time.
And if there was screaming in ecstasy or moaning in satisfaction that alarmed the neighbors, or even the fish down in the ocean, she flat didn’t care.
It was just so damn good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
JESSE LAY BESIDE Kelli, his head propped on his hand watching her naked chest heave up and down as if she had just run a fast mile. He felt the same way completely.
That had been fast and intense.
He stroked her chest and then let his hand move down her stomach to rest there.
“Sorry that was so fast,” he said, laughing. “After a year of lusting after your wonderful body and flirting and fleeting kisses and falling for that wonderful brain of yours, it’s amazing I didn’t explode when you took your blouse off.”
She laughed. “I think I had my first orgasm looking at you standing there naked.”
He kissed her again, and she turned and pressed into him.
And once again he pressed back.
And this time he took much longer, and it was even better than the first time, if that was possible.
They just fit together in so many, many ways.
After they finished yet again, she looked up, her dark eyes intense. “This is better than I had imagined,” she said. “And I imagined some pretty intense stuff over the last year.”
“That’s what that noise was coming down the hall at night at Bonnie and Duster’s,” he said.
She laughed and kissed him, then said, “It might have been.”
“So how about we get cleaned up like a proper couple and see if the food in that restaurant is as good as it was in 2016?”
“I would love that,” she said.
She rolled out of the bed and headed for the bathroom. He watched her go, hoping beyond hope that this would be something he would watch for many years to come.
She stopped in the bathroom door and looked back. “You coming?”
“Admiring the wonderful view.”
“Well,” she said, turning and facing him completely naked. “Get in here and admire it while we get cleaned up. After that many orgasms, you have to feed a lady.”
With that, he joined her.
Thirty minutes later, they again looked like a 1906 couple of means as they left their suite.
As they were headed down the stairs, he realized what he had forgotten to tell her.
“In all the excitement,” he said, keeping his voice low so it wouldn’t carry, “I forgot to mention to you that Bushnell signed in right ahead of us.”
She nodded, then said, keeping her voice low as well. “So our timing was off by a day or so. But he’s supposed to have stayed here for five days.”
“So we have time to get eyes on him,” Jesse said. “That’s what I figured.”
“I just wish we knew what he was doing here for those days,” Kelli said.
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Jesse said. “If we can stay out of bed long enough to follow him.”
“So what we did was exciting?” she asked, smiling up at him as they reached the still-empty lobby and headed for the front doors.
“I would call it more mind-blowing amazing,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.
“You really know how to sweet-talk a girl, don’t you?”
“You’re the writer,” he said, laughing. “Come up with a better description.”
“Nope,” she said, squeezing his hand back as they went out into the warm summer evening on the Oregon Coast. “I think mind-blowing amazing described it just perfectly.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
IT WAS STUNNING how little the restaurant had changed in 2016 from its original look now. Stools were gone, but tall chairs were tucked up against a wooden-covered bar. The booths weren’t there, instead were tables with checkered tablecloths and wooden chairs.
But the shape remained the same, the kitchen was in the same place, only closed off more, and the floors were pine instead of a new tile.
And the smell in the restaurant was to die for. Sizzling steak smell added into frying fish and baked bread. Kelli had no idea just how hungry she was until Jesse opened that restaurant door for her.
A small woman with red hair
moved toward them with a wide smile on her face that made her freckles stand out.
“Welcome,” she said, bowing slightly.
“Table for two,” Jesse said and the woman indicated a table against the front window looking out over the ocean. Kelli would never get used to that stunning view. She could just stare at it for hours at a time.
As Jesse held the chair for her and then went around the table to take off his coat and hang it up with his hat, Kelli glanced up at a man eating alone two tables away.
Just as she had recognized Jesse in a picture, she knew instantly that was Bushnell.
He was balding, with light gray at the temples of his short brown hair. He wore the standard suit coat and vest and tie of the time, all shades of dark gray. He had a short dark overcoat hanging on a hook beside his chair with brown leather saddlebags hanging on another hook.
Since he had checked into the hotel, it was more than likely what was in those saddlebags was something he didn’t want stolen from his hotel room, and that he didn’t trust to a small town hotel safe.
The saddlebags seemed to have a bulk to them. She had no doubt that thirty Season Medals, if individually wrapped, would have bulk to them. Each Season Medal was about the size around of a thin small doughnut, made mostly of silver. Thirty of them wrapped up would have weight, she had no doubt.
She was very happy to see that. It meant he had not lost them at this point in his travels.
As Jesse pulled his chair forward to the table and took his napkin from the table and spread it on his lap, Kelli leaned forward and whispered, “Bushnell is two tables behind you. He has a very heavy-looking saddlebag with him.”
Jesse nodded and smiled. Then he stood to pretend to get something from his coat pocket. As he did, he glanced toward Bushnell.
Then he sat back down and nodded. “Looks like we are finally getting started.”
She gave him smile. “On more than one thing.”
She loved that he blushed slightly as he smiled. How she had been so lucky as to find a man this handsome, this smart, was beyond her. She really, really owed Bonnie and Duster a huge thank-you for sending him to investigate her.
And if she had her way, he would investigate even more of her later.
The thought made her laugh and Jesse frowned.
She waved her hand. “Just imagining what we are going to do later.”
He smiled. “Oh, trust me, it will be fun and feel great, but it won’t be a laughing matter.”
“Now I like the sounds of that promise,” she said.
And she did. More than she wanted to admit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
BUSHNELL FINISHED UP his dinner and then paid while Jesse and Kelli were still finishing their first course. So as Bushnell put on his coat, Jesse excused himself from Kelli.
As he stood, leaving his coat and hat on the hook, he apologized loud enough for Bushnell to hear.
“I’ll be right back, dear,” he said. “I just needed to get something from our room.”
Kelli nodded and smiled, “Don’t be too long, dear. I would hate for your meal to chill.”
Jesse smiled at her and went out the door, walking down the wide boardwalk at a normal pace toward the hotel. The evening air was still clean and crisp and comfortable, with almost no breeze off the ocean. The sun was still a couple hours above the horizon.
About halfway to the hotel, Jesse heard the door to the restaurant close behind him.
He glanced back to see Bushnell following him with the heavy saddlebag over his shoulder. Kelli had been right. That bag had a heft to it, there was no doubt. To someone in this time period who knew what they were looking for, that bag was like a sign for Bushnell to be robbed. He carried it like he had pounds of gold in there.
Jesse went into the hotel and moved off to one side of the lobby, picking up a local paper and pretending to read intently as Bushnell came in.
Jesse let Bushnell get up to the first floor before he went across the lobby and up the stairs himself. Bushnell hadn’t even looked around, but instead walked with his eyes on the floor in front of him.
Bushnell stopped on the second floor and Jesse could hear him from his heavy steps on the wood floor turn down the hallway to the right.
Jesse reached the second floor just as Bushnell opened the third door down the hallway from the stairwell and went inside and closed it. The sound of the bolt latching from the inside echoed in the hallway.
Jesse turned around and headed back down the stairs, again going to the newspaper near one seating area and pretending to read.
After five minutes, when Bushnell hadn’t come down, Jesse put the paper down and returned to the restaurant just as the waitress was serving his steak, still sizzling.
And beside the steak was a cob of corn and a large dinner roll. Perfect, and it smelled heavenly.
“Any luck?” Kelli asked.
Jesse smiled as he picked up his fork and knife. “A beautiful woman and a wonderful meal. Can’t get much luckier than that.”
She shook her head. “Trust me, mister. You’re going to get a lot luckier later.”
“Does that mean I should eat fast?” he asked, looking intently into her dark eyes.
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she dug at her corn with a knife as a woman should do in this time period. “I would rather have you eat and build up your strength.”
“Same goes for you,” he said, laughing.
And then he leaned forward and whispered, “Our target is tucked in bed on the second floor, third room down on the right.”
“So we have until dawn,” she said, nodding.
“I would love to make the best of that time in more ways than just one.”
She laughed as she took a spoonful of corn. “I can think of about a dozen ways.”
He really, really liked the sound of that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
AT DAWN, BOTH Kelli and Jesse were dressed and ready to move if they had to. It had been a wonderful night in the large featherbed, making love and then holding each other and sleeping together.
But as the sun came up, they got cleaned up and got focused back on the reason they were in this wonderful hotel overlooking the ocean in the first place.
Kelli set up her notes and stuff at the table in the round corner of the room. From there, even though the sun was still hours from clearing the coastal range and hitting the street of the town below, she could see everything.
Jesse went in search of a back way out of the hotel to make sure Bushnell didn’t sneak out on them for any reason. There was a back door, but it simply led around and back to the boardwalk. Directly behind the hotel was a rock cliff that didn’t look easy to climb, and a forest above the cliff.
His first impression about the town in 2016 was right. It really was just perched on a ledge between the mountains and the ocean.
Since the hotel had no room service or restaurant, Jesse then went to the restaurant, waving slightly at Kelli from the restaurant door. He couldn’t see her through the window, but he knew she was there.
He ordered them both massive fresh rolls, a large pot of fresh-brewed coffee, and some of the most amazing-looking cookies he had ever seen. It would hold them until lunch and he promised to bring the coffeepot back for a refill at lunch.
Then he headed back to the hotel.
“I couldn’t see you from the restaurant,” he said. “And the only way out the back forces anyone back onto the boardwalk.”
Kelli nodded. “Great.”
She was dressed in her riding clothes since it seemed a number of women in this town dressed that way normally. A city dress made no sense here. She was alternating between her notes and watching out the window and seemed distracted.
“I just can’t figure out why Bushnell is here,” she said as he spread out the large rolls that smelled wond
erful, like a cross between a bun and a modern cinnamon roll.
“A meeting,” Jesse said as he poured her a cup of coffee. “An isolated place like this would be perfect for a meeting.”
She nodded. “But usually Bushnell went to the people he wanted to meet.”
Jesse sat down and pointed in the direction of the small harbor just out of sight at the north end of the town. “Maybe that’s exactly what he is doing here.”
Kelli frowned, then looked up at him. “I have been thinking about this wrong. Damn it all.”
Jesse stared at her, sort of surprised. They had gone over this a few times before leaving Boise and he sure didn’t see where her thinking of this was wrong.
“Want to explain that?” Jesse asked and then took a bite of one of the soft rolls and let the sweetness melt in his mouth. Butter, a little cinnamon, and a faint vanilla flavor. This was better than even a modern cinnamon roll. Wow.
“I have been thinking that Bushnell was finished with looking for new medals,” Kelli said, shaking her head. “I thought he was done a few years ago. He isn’t. He has never stopped, which would explain his trip here and his trip to Roosevelt. He’s still tracking more of the medals.”
“Lewis and Clark did make it all the way to the mouth of the Columbia River just north of here,” Jesse said, understanding where she was going. “And they went through Idaho just north of the Roosevelt area.”
Before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door.
They both looked at each other. More than likely just hotel staff, but the knock bothered Jesse.
He indicated that Kelli move around behind the door, then moved to the door and just barely opened it, making sure he was to one side ready to move if something came at him.
As he opened the door he got a real shock.
Standing there with his saddlebag over his shoulder was John Simon Bushnell.
Bushnell broke into a smile and said, “Thank god you two are here.”
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