The Sheriff (Historical Romance)

by Nan Ryan

  “Why aren’t you two dancing?” Doc Ledet asked as he stepped up beside them.

  “I’ve asked her,” said Winn with shrug of his shoulders, “and she turned me down.”

  “I’m having too much fun watching the others,” Kate said, clapping her hands in time to the music. “Looks like the entire town has turned out. The miners’ wives, what few there are, and all the women from the saloons. And obviously every miner in Fortune and some from the other camps.”

  “Yes, we’ve got a fine crowd indeed,” said the doctor.

  “You know who I haven’t seen yet,” Kate commented. “That beautiful dark-haired woman I ran into at your office that day.” She held her breath, waiting to see what he’d say.

  “Valentina? Valentina Knight?” asked the doctor.

  “Yes. Will Miss Knight be at the dance?”

  “Not this year. I understand she has business in San Francisco and won’t be back until sometime next week.” The physician chuckled then and added, “I’ve an idea Valentina missed the celebration on purpose.”

  “And why would she do that?”

  “Well, at last year’s shindig she was forced to dance with every miner present. They fought over her, Valentina being so beautiful and all.” The doctor smiled wryly, remembering. “No doubt about it, a woman has to be a real good sport to attend a dance in a mining town.”

  “I tried to warn her, Doctor,” Winn stated. He looked at Kate. “You’re the prettiest woman here and once the liquor starts flowing I won’t be able to protect you from these big lonely brutes. You’ll have to dance with them. You’ll have no choice.”

  “I don’t mind so much,” Kate said, not really believing that she’d be expected to dance with many of the men.

  She knew of only one man with whom she had no intention of dancing.

  Sheriff Travis McCloud.

  Not that he would ask her. He wouldn’t. But if he did, he would get a resounding no. She didn’t like the sheriff. Didn’t like the way he made her feel. Nervous. On edge. Unsure of herself. She was half frightened of him.

  And of herself.

  But she wouldn’t worry about McCloud tonight. The town sheriff would surely have no time for dancing with anyone.

  “There’s Alice,” Kate said to Winn, raising a hand to wave.

  Alice nodded and hurried their way. Right behind her was the skinny deputy sheriff, Jiggs Gillespie, smiling shyly. Introductions were made. Pleasantries were exchanged. The two women hugged and whispered, and soon everyone, Doc Ledet included, had taken to the dance floor.

  An hour passed.

  Kate was exhausted. Winn had been right. Not only did the miners all insist on dancing with her, but they argued over who got to be her partner next. They pulled her this way, then that. Unable to successfully get out of one man’s arms before being grabbed and clasped by another, Kate was dizzy and hot from spinning about on the floor. And now she was slightly puzzled, as well.

  When she’d first been ushered up onto the floor by a big, burly fellow in denim overalls, Winn had been standing just below the dance platform. Right where she’d left him, with his arms crossed and a smile on his face. He seemed content to wait for her.

  But when the tune ended, a jolly bearded man grabbed her and wouldn’t let her return to her escort. By the fourth dance Kate had lost sight of Winn. He was no longer where she had left him. And he wasn’t on the dance floor.

  Winn had dutifully watched while Kate spun about the dance floor to one, two, three lively tunes. When the fourth began, he felt confident she’d be kept busy for the next half hour and never notice his absence. He began to slowly back away from the crowd.

  Finally he turned and hurried to the wooden sidewalk, where he slipped into a darkened alley.

  He found her waiting there, leaning back against the side of a building, eyes sparkling, perfume wafting over him.

  “You little fool,” he scolded when she threw her arms around his neck. “We’re taking one hell of a chance.”

  She kissed him hotly, hungrily. Then she laughed and said, “A little danger is always great fun. You’ve said so yourself.”

  “Very well, but we’ll have to hurry.” She laughed throatily. “I’m ready, darling.” Winn lowered a hand. And he laughed with her. The skirts of her yellow satin dress were shoved up over her belly and tucked into a wide sash at her waist. She was naked beneath the raised dress. In seconds she had deftly unbuttoned his trousers and freed him. She raised a knee, wrapped her leg around his hip.

  When he touched her, he found she was dripping wet and ready. He gripped his hard flesh and roughly impaled her on it.

  “Ahh.” She moaned with pleasure and wrapped her other leg around him while he lifted her, shoving her up against the wooden building and pinning her there with his body.

  While the music, laughter and loud talk drifted on the night air, Winn and Melly made lusty love there in the alley not seventy-five feet from the dance floor. His hands gripping her soft buttocks, his lips sucking at the curve of her neck and shoulder, Winn thrilled to the wild, impromptu coupling. He hadn’t planned on it, and had even cautioned Melly that she was to come nowhere near him during the celebration dance. It was far too dangerous. They didn’t dare risk everything they had worked so hard for to indulge in a few stolen moments of passion.

  But then Kate had innocently directed his attention to Melly. One glimpse of his lover in that low-cut yellow gown had weakened his resolve. She must have sensed it because she had made it a point to drift away from the crowd. When he had gotten the opportunity to look around, he had seen her alone on the sidewalk, leaning against a porch pillar, the oil lamp hanging above her head casting a glow over her. Feeling his eyes on her, she had extended the tip of her tongue, licked her lips, raised her dress to her knee and indicated the alley behind her.

  And he had been unable to resist.

  Now, as he drove furiously into her moist heat, Winn raised his head and murmured, “Have you any idea what I’m risking for you?”

  “Tell me,” she said, tipping her head back, pumping her pelvis, sliding up and down to meet each plunging thrust of his rigid flesh.

  “If my innocent little sweetheart knew that I was inside you right this minute, we’d never get close to that fortune.”

  Melly laughed, then threatened, “And if I knew you were inside her at any time or place, you wouldn’t have to worry about the fortune. You’d be dead.”

  “Melly, darling, if she’s to be my wife I’ll have to—”

  “Shut up and give it to me good. Nail me to the wall. Show me I’m your only love.”

  Winn showed her.

  Twenty-Four

  Once both were satiated, Winn immediately set his gasping lover back on her feet, and began hurriedly adjusting his clothing.

  Already he was sorry he had taken such a foolish chance. Anxious to return to the dance before Kate had time to miss him, he felt his anger flare when Melisande deviled him by saying she would walk with him.

  Winn grabbed her by the hair, forced her head back and said through clenched teeth, “Damn you, woman, you’ll do no such thing! And you’ll wait at least a half hour to return to the dance. Alone. Once you’re there, you’re to stay away from me. Don’t try to dance with me, don’t even look at me.” He gave her hair a hard yank. “You hear me?”

  “I hear you!” Her eyes flashing, breasts heaving, she snarled, “But don’t expect me to stay in this primitive gold camp forever while you dilly-dally with that uppity little Boston blonde.”

  “You’ll have to be patient for a while. The girl’s not the easy mark I had hoped. Often as not, she turns down my invitations.”

  “Surely you can charm—”

  Interrupting, he said, “Even when she does agree to go out to dinner or the opera house, I feel like there are several pairs of eyes on us, watching my every move.”

  “You’re imagining things, Winn.”

  “No, no I’m not. There’s the protective l
ittle Chinaman that works with her. And the nosey Dr. Ledet. And especially the town sheriff. Marshal McCloud has the annoying habit of turning up everywhere we go. I strongly suspect his interest in Kate is more than a simple concern for her safety.”

  “You think the sheriff wants her for himself?”

  “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”

  Melisande worriedly shook her head. “You can’t let that happen. If McCloud gets his hands on her, we’re sunk.”

  “So you’re saying that big, sullen lawman could sweep her off her feet and I can’t?”

  “If you can, do it,” she said. “Stop wasting time. Charm her, seduce her, make her marry you. And the sooner the better.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Winn said, and kissed her.

  Kate had been anxiously looking for him all evening.

  She had not seen him.

  He was not here and the dance had been under way for more than an hour. Kate felt a great sense of relief. Obviously the sheriff was not planning to attend the street dance. Now she could relax and enjoy herself.

  “No, please, I really must catch my breath,” she begged as a grinning, gap-toothed miner stepped up to claim the next dance.

  “You’re not next, I am,” said a big man with curly salt-and-pepper hair, taking her arm.

  “The devil you are,” said the gap-toothed fellow as he attempted to pull the struggling Kate into his arms.

  An argument ensued.

  Kate backed away as Deputy Jiggs Gillespie—on the floor dancing with Alice Hester—moved in quickly to settle the dispute.

  “The young lady is dancing with neither of you.” The deputy fearlessly stepped between the two big men. “And you’ll both spend the night in jail if you cause me any trouble.”

  Dancers stopped and stared.

  Alice Hester beamed with pride.

  Kate seized the opportunity to exit the dance floor. She hurried off the platform and left. Feeling warm, and tired from spinning dizzily about and having her toes stepped on, she fanned herself as she walked away from the crowd, heading for the refreshment table that had been set up on the sidewalk in front of the Eldorado Hotel. There she eagerly accepted a cup of fruit punch from a painted, smiling woman behind the table. Then she turned and wandered on down the deserted sidewalk.

  She stopped to drink her punch, not noticing that she was just outside the Golden Nugget saloon. With her back to the saloon’s slatted bat-wing doors, she stood and watched the crowd, searching for the one man she hoped she wouldn’t see.

  She didn’t.

  But when a chill suddenly skipped up her spine despite the warmth of the August night, Kate sensed the cause. She could feel his presence, and she knew without a doubt that he was close to her. Very close.

  She tensed, waiting.

  Travis had been standing at the bar when he’d looked out and seen her. He had tossed down his whiskey and walked out of the empty saloon.

  Now he was directly behind her. He didn’t speak. Didn’t say a word. Just stood there waiting for her to turn and see him.

  “I know you’re there,” she finally said.

  “I know you know,” he replied in his low, rich baritone.

  Kate squared her slender shoulders. She would not be intimidated by Sheriff McCloud, and whirled about to face him. She felt her heart stop beating, then race madly.

  He was strikingly handsome and awesomely male. He wore a well-cut frock coat as black as his neatly brushed hair, and a shirt as white as freshly fallen snow. His dark eyes and white teeth flashed in his smooth tanned face. Everything about him spelled excitement and danger. Kate felt herself swaying toward him and quickly caught herself.

  Travis grinned cynically, and in his eyes was an impertinent gleam that shrewdly masked the fact that she absolutely took his breath away. She was unbelievably beautiful and fabulously female. Her golden hair framed her lovely face and fell in soft waves atop her bare shoulders. She wore a gown of pale blue with wisps of lace lining the low-cut bodice. Beneath that lace the tempting swell of her breasts rose and fell with her breaths, making him long to lean down and press heated kisses to the soft pale flesh until he felt her heart beating rapidly beneath his lips.

  Kate finally broke the strained silence. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d better get back to the dance.”

  “What’s your hurry?”

  “My escort will miss me and be worried.”

  “Oh? Where is your gallant protector?”

  “At the dance, of course.” She was instantly defensive.

  Travis looked over her head and squinted toward the crowded dance floor. “I don’t see him.” He lowered his gaze to meet hers. “You sure about that?

  “I’m not a prisoner to be questioned by you, Marshal,” she told him haughtily. She shoved her empty punch glass at him. “Good evening to you, McCloud.”

  “I’ll walk you back to the dance,” he said, slipping the handle of the cup around his little finger.

  “Not necessary, Sheriff.”

  He took her arm and told her, “You know, it might be wise to make your beau a little jealous.”

  “Winn DeLaney jealous of you?” she said with a derisive smile. “That’s comical, Marshal.”

  “You’re not laughing, Miss VanNam.”

  Kate’s temper flared. She pulled her arm free and warned, “Leave me alone, McCloud. And I mean it!” She lifted her skirts and hurried away from him.

  Tapping the cup against his trousered thigh, Travis stood and watched as she reached the crowd and began anxiously looking for her escort. With one shoulder resting against a porch pillar, Travis turned his head and saw Winn DeLaney emerge from an alley and hurry back to the dance.

  “Kate,” Winn said, stepping up beside her, “there you are.”

  “Yes, here I am, but where were you?”

  “I’m sorry, my dear,” he exclaimed. “You were so busy dancing I didn’t think you’d miss me.”

  “But where were you?”

  Winn took her arm and ushered her onto the dance floor as the orchestra began a rousing rendition of “Oh, Susanna.”

  “I was thirsty so I stepped across the street to have a quick beer,” he explained. “Say you forgive me.”

  “I forgive you.”

  “Thank you, Kate. Shall I get you a cup of punch? There’s a table set up—”

  “I’m not thirsty.”

  “No?” Winn flashed his most winning smile, leaned close and kissed the tip of Kate’s turned up nose. “Then dance with me,” he said, and took her in his arms.

  They spun about the floor to the quick tempo of the tune, Kate having to hang on tightly, Winn keeping an arm wrapped securely around her waist. The floor was crowded with dancers.

  Kate never noticed him.

  But Winn did.

  The town sheriff.

  Standing just below the dance floor with his arms crossed, watching. Watching the dancers. Watching them. Watching Kate.

  With his cheek pressed to Kate’s, Winn wondered if she was looking at McCloud over his shoulder. He sensed an attraction between McCloud and Kate, despite her open animosity toward the sheriff and Mc-Cloud’s seeming disinterest in her. On more than one occasion he’d been aware that Kate and the sheriff were overly conscious of each other.

  Laughing merrily now, Kate clung to Winn’s neck as he turned her rapidly about. Then she, too, caught sight of Travis McCloud. Her laughter stopped. She made a misstep.

  “What is it?” Winn said against her ear.

  “Nothing.” Kate tried to sound casual. “Just clumsy. Don’t let me fall.”

  “No need to worry, I’ve got you,” he said. “I won’t let you go.”

  The song ended.

  Everyone applauded and called for more.

  The fiddler in the five-piece orchestra began to play the first stirring strains of the hauntingly sweet ballad “Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.”

  “That’s more like it,” Winn said, and reached ou
t to draw Kate back into his arms.

  Before he could manage, a laughing, rotund woman who was more than a little tipsy grabbed his arm and insisted he dance with her. Winn gave Kate a helpless look. She smiled and turned to leave the floor, but bumped squarely into Sheriff McCloud. Travis didn’t ask permission. He took her in his arms before she could object. Kate struggled only briefly, then acquiesced so he wouldn’t cause a scene. She would, she decided, keep a stiff upper lip and endure.

  That was her intent. Once she was in Travis’s arms, however, that plan quickly changed. He was an incredibly graceful dancer and so easy to follow that she could sense his movements before they were made. He respectfully held her at arm’s length, yet she could feel the incredible heat and muscled power of his tall, lean body as if she were pressed flush against him.

  He looked directly into her eyes as they swayed together to the beautiful love song. Much as she wanted this dance to be an unpleasant experience, it was not. Although she disliked him, she found it undeniably thrilling to be in his arms.

  She was fascinated with Travis McCloud. Afraid of him, yet drawn to him. As they turned and sensuously glided across the floor, the crowd miraculously disappeared. There was only the two of them, dancing, moving together as one lithe body. They gazed into each other’s eyes, wordlessly communicating a message as old as time itself.

  With her hand lightly clasped in Travis’s and folded against his chest, Kate looked into his dark eyes and felt them burning right through her clothes. Clothes that had suddenly become uncomfortably tight.

  Kate was confused.

  She was intensely uneasy, yet she was totally relaxed. She desperately wanted Travis to release her, yet at the same time she wanted him to hold her closer. So close she could feel his hard, ungiving body pressed against hers. She was sure he felt the same even if he would never have admitted it.

  Kate could tell he wanted to kiss her the way he had that night at the mansion. She also knew that Travis wished he didn’t want to kiss her. There was a mixture of physical yearning and puzzling melancholy in his beautiful eyes.