Bonds of Matrimony (23 page)

He took a step toward her.
 
“I should throttle you,” he
hissed.
 
“For your information, the
thought
hadn’t
occurred to me.
 
And as for the bit about craving,
that’s a bit of an overstatement.
 
You may be beautiful, but you are the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever
met.”

“I imagine that
any
woman with an ounce of intelligence
would be a pain in the ass in your mind,” she countered.

“No, ma’am.
 
Just you,” he drawled.
 
“Please see yourself off of my
property.
 
I have a swim to tend
to…unless you’d prefer to stay and watch.”

She snorted angrily, mounted
her horse, and raced away from Colton Webb as quickly as she possibly
could.
 
And if she had her way, she
would never see him again.

***

She was completely
intoxicating.
 
And it wasn’t only
about wanting her body.
 
Certainly,
that was an issue now because of their frustrations, but he enjoyed her
company.
 
He enjoyed their
banter.
 
He enjoyed looking at
her.
 
She was more alive and full
of ten times the spirit of any woman he had ever met.
 
He even developed a respect for her when she came barreling
down that driveway on that horse.

But if there was one thing he
prided himself on, it was that he was an honest man.
 
He wasn’t interested in putting her brother out of
business.
 
He was interested in
her, and only her.
 
If he was
perfectly honest with himself, he could admit that he had never had these
exhilarating feelings about another woman.
 
Intoxicating, indeed.

He could still taste her and
smell her.
 
A part of him wanted
her to turn that horse around and race back to him.
 
He wanted to feel her skin on his.
 
She was like warm silk. But a larger part of him was so
insulted and angry by her accusations, that he truly hoped he’d never see her
again.
 
The fact that he’d
developed a respect and a bit of feelings for a woman who thought so little of him
was enough to make him want to be sick.
 
Of course, he would probably get more satisfaction out of throttling
her.
 
He imagined wrapping his
hands around her neck, and then the thought of touching her anywhere brought his
arousal back to life.
 
He pushed his
pants to the ground angrily and told himself to be satisfied with a cool
swim.
 
A vigorous cool swim.

CHAPTER 11

Chastity paced across the
bedroom she shared with Reese.
 
She
had energy that would not leave her.
 
She still felt the warmth in the pit of her stomach, courtesy of Colton
Webb.
 
She could not put him out of
her mind, in spite of her efforts all evening.
 
She had sat through a delicious dinner, chatting about the
ranch with her family.
 
She had
bragged about the superiority of her new horse, Artemis.
 
She had raved about the beauty of her
new homeland, trying to focus on the freedom America had to offer her.

And she had never felt more
trapped in her life.
 
Every inch of
her body, and a good portion of her mind, had argued for her to turn her horse
around and dive into that pond with Colton Webb.
 
She wanted nothing more than to feel his body against her
own.
 
But a small part of her knew
that it would be a sin.
 
It could
ruin her…and her entire family.

And the worst part of it all
was that even this knowledge wasn’t enough to make her stop wanting him.
 
She needed to get him out of her mind.

“I thought for sure you
would be asleep by now,” Reese greeted when she entered the room and saw her
sister pacing angrily.
 
“Marcus
said you worked harder than most of his men today.”

She stopped pacing and
clenched her hands at her sides.
 
“I should be exhausted.
 
But
I feel like I’m so full of energy, I’m going to explode,” she explained.
 
Her sister was too naïve to believe
that her excitement had more to do with the memory of Webb’s caresses and
kisses and less to do with feeding livestock and shoveling manure.

Reese grinned at her.
 
“Marcus was convinced that after one
day on the ranch, you’d be begging him to let you stay in the house and help
Elisa with the garden or canning or cooking and cleaning.
 
Woman’s work,” she laughed.
 
“Boy did his plan ever backfire.
 
You probably can’t wait to get back out
there in the morning.”

She couldn’t sit there
chatting idly and pretending that she hadn’t shared what she had with Webb that
afternoon.
 
“You must be exhausted,
yourself,” Chase acknowledged.
 
“It’s late.
 
I’m going to go
sit outside on the porch for a bit.
 
I’ll be quiet when I come in so as to avoid waking you.”

She smiled after her sister.
 
“You’ll probably fall asleep out
there.”

Chase was nowhere near
falling asleep.
 
She needed to do
something.
 
She stepped out onto
the porch, still wearing her trousers.
 
Before she had a chance to second guess herself, she stepped back inside
and grabbed one of Marcus’s hats, hanging on a rack by the door.

She stroked Artemis’s face
gently while she led her out of her stall, hoping to keep her quiet until they
were a safe distance from the house.
 
As the sun sank lower in the sky, she headed in the direction they’d
come from just yesterday, toward town.

Artemis walked slowly while Chase
struggled to shove her hair up inside her brother’s hat.
 
It had been days since she had enjoyed
a cool glass of beer and a good game of cards.
 
It seemed to be just the thing to get her mind off of Colton
Webb.

All thoughts of forgetting
the irresistible Texan vanished when she walked into the saloon in town and
immediately recognized the sound of his drawl over the others.
 
Chantal’s was not an overly large
saloon, but it was big enough to house a good-sized bar, tended by a large balding
man, and a number of smaller tables, fully occupied by a number of men.
 
Scantily clad women strolled between
the tables, carrying trays of beer and stopping periodically to flirt with the
customers.
 
To the right of the
door, a steep, narrow set of stairs led to a second story, where according to
Webb, Chantal’s girls entertained the paying customers behind closed doors.

           
When
Chase first entered the saloon, the loud music and cloud of smoke welcomed her
warmly.
 
She felt better
already.
 
Even when a few men
turned to look at her, a stranger in town, she wasn’t bothered.
 
She nodded slightly and made her way to
the nearest table.
 
Webb’s voice
bellowed across the crowded saloon, stopping her in her tracks.
 

           
“Hell,
Cochrane!” he hollered.
 
“Imagine
runnin’ into you here!”
 

           
Rather
than carrying on an obnoxiously loud conversation with a man who could easily
humiliate her and blow her cover, she moved slowly toward his table, greeting
the man who hours earlier, had been sampling her body with his hands and his
mouth.
 
“Good evening, Webb.
 
I didn’t expect to see you here this
evening.”

           
He
grinned and lowered his voice to a normal volume as she drew closer. “It was a
long day.
 
But after a cold swim, I
felt that a game of cards and a few drinks would clear my head.
 
You?’

           
She
only nodded in response, hoping that the saloon was too cloudy for the other
men to see her flushed cheeks.
 
Even if it wasn’t, her sunburn had taken full effect, and even the most
severe flush would be masked by the blistering skin.

           
Webb
kicked a chair out from under the table for her and ordered a round of drinks
for everyone at the table.
 
As she
fell into the seat he’d offered, he flipped a cigar across the table to her.
 
She met his sparking eyes gratefully,
wanting him even more than she had at the pond.

           
“Gents,
this man here is Chase Cochrane.
 
Fresh from England.
 
He’s
staying with Fairfax and working the ranch with him for a bit.”

           
The
other men at the table introduced themselves after listening to Webb’s version
of her background.
 
With the exception
of the “man” and the “Cochrane,” the rest of it was mostly true.

           
“Cochrane
here has developed a taste for playing cards, not to mention cold beer and
cigars.
 
You all had best be
prepared to lose some money tonight.
 
He’ll clean you out if you aren’t careful,” Webb continued.

           
They
played four or five hands before the door of the saloon swung open, admitting a
furious looking Marcus Fairfax.
 
He
paused in the doorway to scan the crowd, and she sunk lower in her seat,
turning her back to the door.

           
“Isn’t
that your brother storming over this way?” Webb asked innocently.

           
Marcus
stomped angrily to stand behind her and ripped his own hat off of her
head.
 
Her hair fell down to her
shoulders.
 
“What in the hell are
you doing here?” he growled.
 
“This
is no place for a lady, Chase.
 
Much less my sister.
 
If
you’re smart, you will get your horse and high-tail it home.
 
After all, if I can’t catch you, I
can’t beat you.”

           
“You
wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me!” she challenged.
 

           
“Try
me,” he hissed.

“This little lady your
sister?” the bartender asked Marcus.
 
They had the attention of every man and woman in the saloon.
 
Nobody seemed terribly surprised to see
that she was a woman.
 
Perhaps
these Texans weren’t as easily fooled as the English.
 
Or perhaps they had drunk too much ale this evening to be
surprised by a dancing elephant waltzing through the door.
 
Or upon further reflection, she figured
it was more likely that word had spread through the small town that Marcus
Fairfax’s sisters had come to town on the train the day before.

           
“She
is.
 
And she will not be back here
again.”

           
“Damn
shame.
 
She’s a site to see.
 
Warm’s a man’s insides to see something
so perty here in Slaughter…no offense, Chantal,” another patron muttered.

           
A
woman with short brown hair and too much eye makeup stood beside the bar and
waved her hand at the man, dismissing his comment.
 
Marcus grabbed his sister’s arm and hauled her out of her
seat.

           
“Get
your hands off of me, or so help me God, I will bloody you up right here,” she
threatened through her teeth.

           
“I’d
like to see you try,” her brother sneered.
 
Nonetheless, he released her arm but stood close to her so
that she had to tip her head back to meet his glare.

           
“I’ll
leave,” she assured him.
 
“But not
because you’re ordering me to.
 
We
didn’t travel all this way, Marcus, because we needed some presumptuous ass to
order us around.
 
We left plenty of
volunteers for that job behind in England.”

           
Chase
pushed past him and headed for the door.

           
A
vaguely husky voice stopped her as she reached the door.
 
“Oh, Chase, honey?”

           
She
turned to the bar and met the laughing eyes of Chantal.
 
She took a long drag off of a cigar and
blew out a puff of smoke.
 
“A lady
with that kind of smarts and moxy is welcome in my place any time.”

           
Chase
allowed the corner of her mouth to turn up in a smile, but stopped when she saw
Webb walking from his table.
 
He
was following one of the young women whose bosom struggled against the snug
fabric of her tiny dress.
 
Her long
blond hair trailed down her back, ending at a very short skirt that barely
covered her long, stockinged legs.
 
He passed Chase and her brother on his way to the narrow staircase,
giving her a lazy nod.