Authors: McKenna Chase
A Touch in Time (6 page)
With a groan of frustration, Brianna slid her hand down inside her pants, touching herself the way she wished he were at that moment.
Closing her eyes, she stroked her heated flesh and imagined it was Jake’s long fingers sweeping through her cum-dampened pussy.
“Sorry to interrupt such a sweet moment, darlin’...”
Her eyes flew open with a startled gasp. Yanking her hand free of her pants, Brianna turned to find Jake standing in the doorway. “I...I was...”
“Thinking about me,” he said with a grin as he closed the door behind him. “You can finish up later. Right now we’ve got company.”
“Company?” she said, unable to hide the worry in her voice. “Deke?”
“Worse,” he said, looking oddly amused.
What could be worse than a crazed murderer bent on revenge? “Who?”
“A whole wagonload of prying old biddies.”
“The women from town?”
“Told you they’d be out to check on you and it appears they brought reinforcements.” He reached for the door.
“How many?” she called out.
“Two on top of the two who nearly shot me,” he teased. “I’ll be out chopping wood if you need me.”
“Jake...”
He turned, his dark, sensual gaze meeting hers.
“Don’t you think you should put a shirt on?”
He glanced down, a slow grin spreading across his face. “Why?” he asked, looking up at her. “Don’t wanna share your ‘husband’ with other females?”
Hell yes. “Oh, please. I just know how sensitive women from this time period are about...” Her gaze drifted down his bare, chiseled chest. “Seeing a man half naked. You wouldn’t want them fainting all over your front yard.”
“Fainting?” He chuckled. “No, can’t say I’d want that. Why don’t you go outside and greet our guests while I get cleaned up and make myself more presentable?”
“Me?” she gasped, looking down at her clothes. “Can’t we just pretend we’re not home?”
“Too late,” he said. “I’m sure they saw me step inside.”
What if she said something she shouldn’t? “But I—”
“You could always take off your clothes and crawl into my bed to wait for me. I’ll go tell them they’ll have to come back some other time. I’m fixing to fuck my wife.”
“Jake!”
“We’re newlyweds, darlin’,” he reminded her with a wiggle of his dark brows. “Reckon they’ll understand, considering the fine specimen of manhood you’re married to.”
If he were Alex, she might have believed he meant that. But Jake wasn’t conceited. Open and honest, yes, but not the least bit stuck on himself. He was, however, enjoying her discomfort far too much. Well, two could play that game.
“I’ll bet they’ll be even more understanding when I go out there and confide to them that my sexier-than-sin husband is all talk and no action.”
“Sexier than sin, hmmm?” No sooner were the words out of his mouth when his grin faded. “Now hold on a minute. What do you mean no action?”
Raising her chin, Brianna flashed him a taunting smile of her own and started for the door. “Don’t worry, Jake. I’m sure keeping a wife satisfied in bed isn’t top priority for husbands in your time period.”
He reached past her, barring her escape.
She stared at the large hand on the door in front of her, her smile widening. “Was there something else?”
He stepped forward, trapping her body between his and the door. Lowering his mouth to her ear, he whispered huskily, “If you really were my wife, Brianna, I promise you’d be more than satisfied in our marriage bed.”
She shuddered, knowing it to be the truth. But thanks to the twist of fate that had brought her there, thanks to Deke and his unrelenting quest for revenge, she would never be that wife.
She glanced back over her shoulder with a smile. “But they don’t know that. And you know us females. We like having something to gossip about.”
He spun her around to face him. “Reckon, I’d best go greet our guests with you.”
Her gaze left his face to trail down his broad, very bare chest. “What about your shirt?”
“Let them get the vapors. It’ll serve them right for showing up uninvited.”
Those women wouldn’t be the only ones having vapors. Laughing, she let him lead her outside, admiring his broad, muscular back and the lean, hard ass encased in denim.
“After you, darlin’,” he motioned her on past him. “They’re here for you.”
No, they were here for him if she were to judge by the looks on the women’s faces as they eyed her half-dressed ‘husband’.
Jake watched his ‘wife’ sashay her way out to greet the arriving gaggle of female geese. If the smile on her face when she’d walked away was any indication, she wasn’t the least bit intimidated by his threats. It appeared he really had lost his edge. What sort of Ranger couldn’t even give a woman pause for thought? Hell.
As if reading his thoughts, Brianna glanced back over her shoulder, that sexy smile of hers still intact.
“Mrs. Dawson,” one of the women called out as the group waved in greeting.
“Hello, ladies,” Brianna chirped far too sweetly. She was up to something.
In several long strides, he made sure he was standing beside her. “Ladies,” he said, tipping his hat.
Their attention shifted to his bare chest and Jake found himself wishing he had taken Brianna’s advice that he put a shirt on.
“If I had known you were coming,” Brianna said the wagon rolled to a stop beside her, “I would have baked a pie.”
“No need to go to any trouble,” the leader of the group assured her. “We just wanted to make sure you were settled in and...” Her gaze swept down Jake’s lean form. “...that you were being treated well.”
He slipped an arm around his ‘wife’s’ shoulders, waiting for her to make good on her threat of convincing the women he wasn’t doing his husbandly duty in the bedroom. And the second she did, he was going to pull her into his arms and show them exactly how attentive of a husband he was. Hell, he’d have the old hens fainting all over his yard and enjoy every second of it.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Brianna said, her response not at all what he’d expected. “Especially in the bedroom.”
Jake’s eyes widened.
“Oh,” one of the women gasped, pressing a hand to her breast.
Another sat fanning her flushed face. The other women just sat there in shocked silence.
He grinned. “I’ve discovered that her bedroom skills make up for her lack of sewing skills.”
More gasps.
Seconds later, the women were high-tailing it away from the ranch, leaving a trail of dust rising up behind them.
“That oughta give them something to talk about,” Jake said with a chuckle.
“You’re so bad,” she exclaimed with a conspiratorial giggle.
He gathered her against him. “I’m about to show you just how bad I can be.”
“Promises. Promises,” she taunted as he swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the cabin.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jake stabbed the pitchfork he was grasping in his hands into the pile of hay at his feet. Frustration and anger boiled to surface every time he thought about Brianna leaving. In less than twenty-four hours she would be on the stage bound for his brother’s place in Montana. He’d have sent her away sooner but she’d needed dresses made to go with the other female necessities he’d purchased for her on his last trip into town for supplies – shoes, underthings, and ribbon for her hair.
Jake frowned, hating the thought of sending her away, of returning to the life of simply existing that he’d led for the past year since leaving the Texas Rangers. She made him laugh. Made him welcome each new sunrise, knowing he’d awaken with her in his arms.
He’d kept his feelings for Brianna to himself. Telling her that he had fallen in love with her would only make her leaving harder – for the both of them. Lord, how she’d grown on him in the two weeks she’d been there. She was the sassiest female he’d ever known. Independent as all get out and too damn sexy for her own good.
“Jake?”
He looked up as the woman in his thoughts stepped into the barn, her smile lighting the dusty room. “Over here, darlin’,” he called out.
She walked up to him, her arms sliding around his waist with such ease it tore at his heart. She belonged there damn it. His hatred for Deke deepened. Not only had the bastard taken his profession away, he was taking the woman he loved away as well.
“What’s wrong?” she asked looking up at him with those big, beautiful amber eyes of hers.
He forced a smile as he reached up to stroke her cheek. “Nothing a kiss from you won’t fix.”
Her smile returned. “As if you’d settle for just a kiss.”
She knew him well. Capturing her face between his hands, he lowered his mouth to hers, tasting her fully. His fingers worked open the front of her new blouse, needing to touch her.
“Mmmm...” she murmured. Her hands skimmed down the back of his shirt to latch onto his ass, drawing him to her as she rubbed against his thickening cock.
“Brianna,” he murmured against her mouth. “Keep that up and I’m gonna fuck you right here on this straw-littered barn floor.”
Her hands went to his belt buckle, working it free. “Maybe I’ll fuck you on this straw-littered floor instead.”
He groaned. If she were on top, she’d ride him without mercy until his self-control shattered and he came far too quickly. Before he could reply, could tell her that he was damn well gonna take his time making love to her, the sound of an approaching rider cut through the silence.
His head snapped around. “Shit.”
Her hands froze. “What’s wrong?”
He withdrew his hand from the warmth of her breast and set her aside. “Someone’s coming.”
“The women?” she asked as he moved past her.
“Single rider.”
Her face paled. “Deke?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he drew his gun from its holster. He reached for the barn door and paused to look back at her, pinning her with his gaze. “Stay in the barn, Brianna, and don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe to.”
“But...”
“Stay.” He didn’t wait for any more argument from her. There wasn’t time. The rider was coming towards the ranch at more than a casual pace.
Jake stepped outside, his gaze shifting to the approaching rider and the cloud of dust left rising in his wake.
Brianna stared at the barn door, her heart pounding. A lone rider. What if it were Deke? What if the outlaw succeeded in his quest for revenge and she lost Jake forever?
No. She wouldn’t lose him. Couldn’t. Not when she’d finally found true love. It wasn’t having a man take you to dinner in some fancy restaurant or having the best seats at a concert. It was laughing together by the fire. It was watching the man you love eat burnt eggs and have him tell you how good they are just to see you smile. More simply, it was Jake.
Why hadn’t she told him how she felt before he left? What if something happened? She leaned back against the door with a shudder. She wanted so badly to follow him out. To make sure that Jake was safe.
Her gaze fell on the rifle Jake kept mounted on the barn wall. The same one he’d let her use that week when teaching her how to shoot. Lifting her skirts, she ran for it. Jake would not face Deke alone.
Rifle in hand, she slipped out of the barn and moved along the outer wall toward the corral. When she reached the end of the weathered building, she peeked around, her gaze searching for Jake.
Much to her relief, she spotted him standing about ten yards away from the cabin. The rigidness she’d seen in his posture when he’d left the barn had eased visibly. His gun hand dropped to his side and he started toward their unexpected visitor in long, quickened strides.
The man on the horse said something to Jake in greeting. A second later, he was off his horse, grinning as he walked toward Jake.
Relief swept through her as the two men fell into a fleeting embrace. Jake knew this man. She stepped away from the barn, drawing the stranger’s gaze her direction.
Jake turned, a dark brow lifting. A deep frown furrowed into his brows as she moved toward them. “I thought I told you to stay in the barn until I told you it was safe to come out.”
“I was bettering the odds,” she announced, motioning to the rifle in her hands. “Two against one.”
“Gawddamnit, Brianna,” he growled. “You shoot about as well as you cook. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m so fucking good in bed,” she snapped. So she couldn’t cook and she hadn’t done very well shooting at the targets he’d set up for her. He didn’t have to announce her failures to the world.
The stranger looked Jake’s way with a snort, drawing a scowl from Jake.
“You shook his hand,” she added in her own defense. “I doubt you’d have done that if he were a threat to you.”
The man beside him chuckled. “Sassy. I take it this is the wife I heard rumors about in town.”