Kate waited, her heart beating faster as he straddled her and reached under her dress, taking hold of her bloomers and pulling them off slowly, as though waiting for her to object.
She didn’t.
They were close enough to the fire to feel its warmth now. Luke got to his knees and removed his shirt, revealing man and muscle, a flat stomach and hairs on his chest that led downward and into a straight line toward that part of him she already wanted to feel inside of her.
Luke Bowden had a commanding way about him that made Kate simply lie there and allow him whatever he wanted. Just like out on the plains earlier, all that happened next took place as though it was not just normal and right, but absolutely necessary. Luke leaned down and met her mouth in another delicious kiss, and Kate trembled at the knowledge he was unbuttoning the front of her dress. Without his asking, she sat up and let him pull the dress off her shoulders and down her arms.
Just as the room warmed, so did the heat build between them, overcoming the still-cold outer room. Their gazes held through every move they made. Luke unlaced her camisole and pulled it open, then moved the straps down and off her shoulders. He tossed it aside. Kate braced her arms behind her and raised up, letting him pull her dress all the way off. She sat there naked before him, and his eyes moved over her almost reverently. Brazenly, she lay back, her body fully exposed to his gaze.
Luke got up and walked over to pull down the locking bar across the cabin door. He came back and removed his pants and long johns. Kate couldn’t help noticing all that was man about him, huge and hard and eager for a woman. She thought him a beautiful specimen of man as he stood there naked before her.
Luke dropped to his knees, then leaned down to kiss her thighs, then the hairs between her legs. What made this all the more enticing was knowing without a doubt that she could tell him “no” right now and he would stop. She loved him all the more for feeling so completely safe with him, as well as respected, in spite of what she was allowing. Even in making love to her, he was a gentleman. She could think of no other way to put it.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply when she felt the warmth of his tongue stroking her. She moaned, grasping his thick hair and pressing his lips against secret places, offering herself to him like a wanton woman.
Perhaps she’d become a wanton woman. Luke Bowden had done this to her. He’d flaunted his manliness like a rooster strutting for hens.
He moved his lips over her belly and to her breasts, relishing each one as though a delicious dessert—tasting them, fondling them, arousing her nipples until they ached to be taken fully into his mouth. He moved inside of her with a soft groan.
“I love your breasts,” he said close to her ear amid rhythmic thrusts.
Kate cried out as he filled her hard and deep, his own groans of satisfaction telling her how pleasing she was to him. Kate kissed his chest, his chin, his lips. She ran her hands over the hard muscle of his arms, his shoulders, into his thick hair, opening herself to him in utter abandon. She told herself this might be all she had, and she was damn well going to take it. It felt so good to be a whole woman again.
She cried out his name. This was Luke, a good man who’d been wronged, a good man who’d respected her in every way when he could have taken advantage, a good man who’d made no promises so she would know this might be all they would ever have together.
“You have no idea how much…I’ve wanted this,” he told her. His words came in bits and pieces as he rocked into her over and over until he could no longer hold back his ecstasy at being inside of her. Again, she felt the power of his life pouring into her.
In moments he relaxed beside her, pulling blankets over both of them. “You’re one hell of a woman, Kate Winters,” he said close to her ear.
“And you are one hell of a man,” she answered.
Luke pulled her close. “Thanks for helping herd those pack horses like you did. I swear you have cowboy blood in you.”
“I grew up on a farm. I’m used to hard work and used to animals.” Kate could feel his smile without looking at him.
“I want to do this again.”
“Do what you want,” Kate said softly. “It’s been too long since I felt like a real woman, and you know how to make me feel that way.”
He fondled a breast as he moved on top of her again and met her gaze. “And you make me feel like a man who is appreciated and respected. Bonnie took that away from me. Coming home to find her married to my own brother was like taking a sword to my pride.”
Kate ran a hand through his hair. “I would never do that to any man.”
Luke kissed her eyes. “I know you wouldn’t, and I respect all that’s good about you. No one in Lander will know about this. That’s a promise.”
His eyes spoke only admiration and respect, and Kate felt the sincerity of his words. Luke Bowden was an honest man who was not the type to boast his conquests to others. “I hope you believe me when I tell you that you’re the first man who’s touched me in years, Luke, ever since my husband marched off to war and never came back.”
He moved a hand to the side of her face and kissed her again…so gently…then grinned teasingly. “Oh, I can tell by your eagerness,” he joked.
God, how she loved his smile. “I’m sure we will be doing this all night,” she said, “so I hope the promise you made that first time still holds.”
“What promise was that?”
“That you will still respect me in the morning.”
He kissed her and moved between her legs, already able to move inside her again. “I’ll always respect you…morning, noon, night…together or apart,” he told her between rhythmic thrusts.
Their lovemaking started all over again, deep and wild and throwing all caution to the wind that howled outside. Kate chose to not think about his last words—together or apart. It hurt too much to face what that might mean.
Twenty-five
They made love again, they ate, Luke checked on the horses, and they made love again. They slept…a sleep interrupted by making love yet again sometime deep in the night. The sun was already shining brightly when Kate rose and wrapped herself in a blanket. She put another log on the fire, although she could tell it was a little warmer outside by the fact that the cabin was bearably warm in spite of how much the fire had died down. There was still coffee in the pot, so she left it beside the fire to keep warm.
She glanced at a peacefully sleeping Luke, wondering how long they had slept. They probably should have left earlier for Lander, and she wondered if she should wake him. She would rather stay right here, make a home for Luke and never leave—but that was wishful thinking. He’d not made one promise, and she’d not asked for any. He’d called her beautiful, strong, and brave. But he’d not said that he loved her, even though he knew that she loved him. Physically, she felt satisfied, fulfilled, ravished. They were two adults who’d needed this kind of togetherness, ached to fulfill natural desires too long neglected. Luke seemed to understand that, and she felt no worry over whether or not he still respected her, even though she’d never in her life behaved this way, not even on her wedding night. She’d never wanted and taken Rodney with as much passion as she’d felt for Luke Bowden. Maybe it was because she was a mature woman and not the inexperienced younger woman who’d married Rodney Winters. Or maybe it was because Luke was, in a sense, forbidden. They hadn’t taken any wedding vows, and they hadn’t known each other long enough to even consider it. What they’d shared simply was, with no obligations, no regrets, no promises. Luke wasn’t the type of man to brag about it or laugh at her because of it. His discretion and respect for her reputation was one of the things she loved about him.
She turned back to the fire when she thought she heard something, a shuffling sound on the sagging front porch of the little cabin. She hurried over to a window and thought she saw a shadow. Something, or someone, was moving arou
nd outside.
“Oh my God!” she whispered. She grabbed Luke’s rifle from where he’d left it against the wall by the door and hurried over to where he still slept.
“Luke!” she said softly, nudging his arm with her foot. “Luke, wake up!”
He stirred and looked up at her.
“Someone is outside!” she told him, setting his rifle against the fireplace.
Luke threw off his blankets and jumped up, grabbing his long johns and quickly pulling them on. He moved his arms into the sleeves and buttoned the bottom half of the underwear. He blinked and shook his head, running a hand through his thick, disheveled hair. He yanked his six-gun from its holster, which hung over a nearby chair. “Take this and get over in the corner behind that stack of wood,” he said, indicating a pile of wood near an old, broken down cook stove. He reached for his rifle. “I’ll—”
Before he finished talking, a shot rang out, breaking a window. Kate screamed, and Luke spun around, blood spewing from a gash on his left side. He hit the floor.
“Luke!” Kate screamed again. Her first reaction was to go to him, but she noticed him quickly scoot his body over to cover his rifle. “Get their attention,” she thought she heard him say, the words groaned in pain.
Another bullet shattered a second window. Kate kept hold of Luke’s revolver and hurried around a dusty, wooden table, that and two chairs being the only furniture in the cabin. She headed for the wood pile. Just as she did so, someone managed to kick open the door in spite of the wooden bar that held it fast. Another shot came through the first window as Kate managed to duck behind the pile of wood.
“Come on, boys! The door is open!” someone shouted.
Five men barged inside. Luke remained still.
“You killed him!” Kate shouted, deliberately stepping out from her hiding place to keep them from checking Luke’s body and finding the rifle. God, don’t let them find out Luke is still alive, she prayed. She purposely dropped the blanket she’d wrapped around herself, revealing her nakedness, then quickly picked it up to cover herself, pretending it was all an accident. Immediately, she had the rapt attention of all five men. They were a mixture of sizes and ages, but all smelled of unwashed bodies.
They were unshaven, their clothes dirty, and a couple of them had no teeth. She could only hope Luke really was still alive and that this would give him a chance to get hold of his rifle.
“Well, well, well,” the big man who’d broken down the door said in a gruff voice. He grinned, looking her over hungrily. “Leave the blanket off, lady.”
Kate had kept hold of the blanket enough to cover her bottom half and the revolver in her hand. “I’ll do no such thing!” she answered, hoping that refusing the man’s order would keep their attention. She didn’t even look at Luke, afraid that if she did so, the others would look, too, and see he was still alive. Or was he? Nothing but horror awaited her if he wasn’t, and she wondered if she should shoot herself with the six-gun in her hand.
“Jesus, Mark,” one of the others commented, “she’s prettier than any of them damn whores in Lander.”
“Fresher, too,” a third man added. “She’s only been had by one man, I’ll bet.” The one who spoke looked young, maybe still in his teens. “I’ll bet her husband is the only one who’s had at her. I’m thinkin’ it’s time she found out the pleasure of more than one man, especially a hard, young buck like me.” He licked his lips and moved closer.
“She’s mine first,” the big, slovenly man called Mark told him. “The rest of you can hold her down and watch. I’m figurin’ you’ll jack off over that before you even get your chance at fuckin’ her.”
Kate felt ill. Luke had told her to get their attention, and she’d certainly managed to do that. Not one of them was watching him. In fact, two of them had stepped right over his body as they walked closer to her.
Should she start shooting now and take the chance of being killed before these men even touched her? Maybe so. Right now, death sounded more pleasurable.
“Get…get out of here!” she demanded.
They all laughed.
Mark spoke up. “Jimmy, it’s a good thing you seen them horses in the shed out there.” Kate guessed him to weigh at least two hundred fifty pounds or more. “If we hadn’t come this way and decided to steal them horses and that nice young bull out there, we would have missed the biggest prize of all. She just might bring good money at Della’s whorehouse down at Hole in the Wall.”
He put his revolver in its holster and unbuckled his gun belt. “Let’s find out how much she’s worth.” He stepped closer to Kate. “You’ve been fresh-fucked, ain’t ya? You still achin’ for a man?”
“You disgusting, filthy, fat bastard!” Kate shot back, determined to keep all eyes on her.
Mark stepped even closer, and the other four did the same, a couple more of them actually holstering their revolvers.
“You’ll take back your words when we take turns shovin’ somethin’ in that smart mouth!” Mark sneered.
Kate noticed Luke roll off his rifle. The minute he moved, she raised her six-gun and fired through the blanket, putting a bullet in Mark’s huge belly.
Instantly, the room was full of gunfire. Luke’s rifle exploded—one shot, two shots, three shots. One of them went into Mark’s back, and he fell forward, landing right at Kate’s feet with her bullet in his belly and Luke’s bullet in his back. Two more men went down at almost the same time that Mark fell. A fourth man cried out from a bullet Luke put through his rear end as he ran out the door, while the fifth man dived through a window, screaming when a piece of glass dug a deep gash in his thigh and then his foot.
Kate just stood there a moment before looking down at the blanket she still held. The end of her smoking six-gun stuck out through a burn hole in the blanket that was also still smoking. The heavyset Mark lay on the floor in front of her, a bloody hole in his back. As he fell, he’d hit his head on a chair, and the chair was now flipped upside-down. Kate wasn’t sure if he was dead or just unconscious. Two other men lay sprawled on the floor, the teenaged boy still holding the gun he’d pulled but never fired. Luke’s shots had been too fast for him to react quickly enough.
Luke grunted as he got to his knees. Kate’s stomach tightened at the sight of blood on the left side of his long johns. He stumbled to the bodies, kicking each one. He noticed Mark stir, and he pointed his rifle at the man’s head and fired.
Kate jumped and gasped at the sight. Luke had blown half the man’s head off without an ounce of hesitation.
“Fucking bastard!” he growled. He looked at Kate. “You okay? Bullets were flying everywhere. Please tell me you aren’t hit.”
A trembling Kate shook her head. “I’m all right, but you’re bleeding, Luke.”
“I’m too fucking mad to care!” He wavered a little. Kate quickly managed to wrap the blanket more fully around herself and stepped over Mark’s body and the teenager’s legs to get to Luke, gun still in hand. “Let me bandage that wound, Luke.”
“Not yet. You stay right here.” He stumbled to the door.
“Don’t go out there!”
“I have to make sure they leave. Watch the ones inside. Make sure they’re all dead before you lay down that pistol.” He managed to get to the broken door and outside to see the other two men riding away, leading three other horses with them—horses that belonged to the three dead men. He could see his own horses were still in the lean-to. He half wilted against the doorjamb and looked at Kate. “At least they didn’t get our horses. They took just their own.”
Kate ran up to him, and he moved an arm around her. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine, but you’re hurt! Please come over and lie down on the blankets, Luke! I’ll heat some water.”
“It’s okay. Just bloody. I know how a bullet feels inside you. I think this one went all the way
through.”
“Let me look at it!” Kate helped him step over Mark and lower himself to the blankets. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked yet again.
“I’m sure.”
Luke shook his head, putting a hand to his side. “You did good,” he told her. “I can’t believe how quickly you picked up on what I said. I wasn’t sure you even heard me.”
Kate took a moment to sit down beside him. “Dropping the blanket was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” She put a hand to the side of his face and kissed his cheek. “I was so scared you were passed out or dead. I don’t even want to think about—”
“Don’t think about it.” He kissed her lightly. “Dropping that blanket would have kept my attention too.”
Kate broke into tears. “What an ugly ending to what was a beautiful night.”
Luke brushed away her tears. “We make quite a team, don’t we?” he said.
Kate couldn’t help shedding more tears. “I’m sorry,” she told Luke. “I cry when I go through something like this. My God, Luke, they saw me naked.” She curled into the blanket. “And now I’ve killed another man!”
“You just wounded him. I’m the one who finished him off. And the son of a bitch deserved it!” He grimaced. “Give me a towel to hold against this wound. I can slow down the bleeding while you dress and go get Red. Tie a rope on him, and tie the other end to the feet of each of these dead bastards and drag their bodies outside. Get them out of here for now, and I’ll take care of them later. I hate that the other two got away. That’s not good. We’ll have to keep our eyes open when we leave.”
Kate straightened, wiping at her tears with the blanket. “I should tend to that wound first.”
“No. Leave my rifle near me.” Luke stroked her hair. “I need you to be the brave, able woman I know you are, Kate. I need you to get dressed and get these bodies out of here. Check on the horses. Keep a gun with you.”
Ride the High Lonesome Page 16