Banking on Temperance (19 page)

“Are you going to place a bet, Shelton, or sit there all night moon-faced, thinking about your new lady?”

Jake glanced across the table at Mike Jewel, one of the men he was considering for the job of unit leader. Mike didn’t kowtow to him just because he was the man’s potential boss. Jake smiled. The man definitely pulled no punches. He might be a good addition to the wagon train.

“I’m trying to decide what to buy my lady with all my winnings,” Jake replied.

“We’ll see about that. I’ll call ya.”

Jake paused and took a drink. He smacked his lips in appreciation before he spread out his cards. “Read them and weep, Jewel.” He laughed as he scooped the dollar bills and coins off the middle of the table and rose from his chair. “Thank you, gentlemen. Good night to all.”

The rest of the players moaned and begged for a chance to win their money back, but Jake walked out of the tavern. Maybe little Temperance would swoon over a new bonnet. Perhaps she’d even reward him with another kiss, a better one than she’d given him at the dance. While it was a pleasant enough kiss, he wanted more than just a taste of her. She was a comely woman, with a small, lithe figure. Not overblown, as were so many of the girls in the dance halls, but perfectly appropriate to her petite stature. He’d wait a few more weeks for her to make a move before he tried anything.

• • •

Temperance waited impatiently at the back door of the bank for Basil to unlock it and let her inside. She’d been curt with everyone, and angrier than she cared to admit, since the night of the Christmas dance. Jake had insisted on driving her home in an open buggy. She was freezing as the cold wind whipped past them. When she said as much, he put his arm around her and drew her close to him. What should have been a tender moment merely annoyed her. His body heat did little to melt her resistance, and she wanted nothing more than to say goodnight.

She laid in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours. She was doing what she had to do, dammit. But why was it so hard? Jake was a most handsome man. In fact, other than Basil, he was probably the best-looking man in all of St. Louis. So why was there no sizzle between them? As she fended off one move after another on the ride home, she began to wonder if she could put up with his advances night after night once they were married. Perhaps her desire for him would develop slowly, as it had with Jeremiah. She should give it time. Not every man was going to attract her instantly, and make her come close to losing control. Thank God.

Basil came to the door, finally. He opened it slightly, but as she grabbed the handle, he turned his back to her and went inside, not even waiting to see that she got in safely. His behavior was maddening, and she was so close to anger as it was. It would not take much more of his behavior to push her over the edge.

She stomped into the room behind him and removed her coat and boots as he took a seat behind his desk. There was no need for them both to be rude, so she spoke.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fitzpatrick.”

Basil glanced at her quickly, and then went back to his papers. “Miss Jones. I’ll be out of your way in just a minute. I’m about finished here.”

She got her cleaning supplies from the closet. Angry tears threatened to spill from her eyes, and she blinked them away. Picking up her dust rag, she turned from him. Then she turned around and dropped the cleaning bucket with a loud clatter.

Basil glanced up from his desk, startled.

“I can’t stand it anymore,” Temperance declared.

“Stand what, Miss Jones?”

“That!” She punched the air between them with her hands, pointing to him and then back to herself. “This! Miss Jones. Mr. Fitzpatrick. What happened to Temperance and Basil?”

“I called you Temperance when we were friends. But we are now merely employer and employee. So it’s Miss Jones and Mr. Fitzpatrick.”

“What’s become of our friendship then?”

“It got left behind in the dust of your ambition, Miss Jones. I’ll take my papers upstairs so as not to annoy you further.”

He gathered up the scraps of paper from his desk and walked from the room.

She sputtered and fumed, breathing fire as the door to Basil’s apartment staircase closed behind him. That no-good, self-centered ass! How dare he say their friendship had been destroyed by her ambition! If they’d truly been friends, he would have stood by her and championed her clever attempts to get her family moved westward. But once he introduced her to Jake, it was as if he’d turned his back on her. She could take him turning his back on her as a woman, but not as a friend. She yanked open the door and ran up the stairs.

“How dare you!” She didn’t bother to knock at the top of the steps, she was so angry.

He turned to face her, but didn’t reply.

“Well? How dare you say that I’m the one who turned away from your friendship? You’ve become my best friend here in town, Basil, and I miss our good times. You never come to the restaurant anymore, and you barely talk to me at all here. Do you want me to quit? To leave?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“If you know what’s best for you, leave, right this minute.”

“Why? Because you’ll tell me something I don’t want to hear?”

Basil crossed the room to her in two strides. He placed his hands on either side of her face and growled, “Not because of what I’ll tell you, but because of what I’ll do.” He lowered his mouth to hers, crushing her tender lips beneath his own.

Temperance stood still, in shock at what was happening. The breath whooshed out of her lungs. Her arms hung by her sides, but her mouth and tongue were doing battle with Basil’s. She wanted this, she had wanted this since the night in October when she stayed here. She’d begged Basil then, silently, to take her to bed, but he had remained stalwart. Now, she could tell his emotions for her rivaled her feelings for him. She breathed a contented sigh.

She moved her arms finally, and wound them around his broad shoulders, welcoming him. Her back was up against the wall as Basil continued to kiss her with all the pent-up passion that had been building between them for months. His hand drifted from her cheek down her front, and cupped her breast, just as he had unconsciously done the night they lay side by side. She gasped as tendrils of delight coursed through her body, starting at the tip of her breast and racing to the core of her being. She pulled him closer, reveling in his scent of spice and man. She tasted the tobacco on his breath, along with mint, and thought there had never been so delightful a combination.

This is where I belong. Not Oregon.

His leg worked its way between hers and he pressed up against her sensitive center. She shivered in delight as his leg began to rhythmically pulse against her. A small moan drifted from her mouth as she sunk her fingers into his hair. He ran a row of scorching kisses from the left corner of her mouth up to her temple, then down to the pulsing vein in her neck. As he tugged gently, her whimpers became stronger. She was desperately kissing his hair, his forehead, anything she could touch. His moans matched hers as the torrid, sensual dance continued.

His hand drifted to the buttons running down the front of her dress. He slowly unbuttoned each one, taking the time to kiss each inch of new skin he uncovered. Temperance thought she would surely combust from the sensation of his mouth on flesh that had never before been touched by a man. When he had fully exposed her front, he moved the dress fabric out of the way, leaving only her chemise. He placed his hand over her small mound of bosom and began to massage it. Her body shuddered and she cried out, unconsciously raising herself into his hand. He lowered his mouth to her nipple and suckled it through her chemise. She squirmed in ecstasy and wrapped her fingers into his hair.

When she didn’t pull away, he lowered the strap on the chemise and exposed her breast to the evening air. She shivered, but she couldn’t tell if it was from the cold air or from the heat he was causing within her. His mouth covered her nipple directly this time and she inhaled sharply. “Oh, sweet Lord,” she cried out.

With a ragged breath, Basil pried his lips from her breast, and backed off a step. He ran his hand through his hair. Temperance couldn’t talk. She couldn’t breathe. Her senses were still writhing out of control. He backed away one more step, staring at her with lust-filled eyes.

“That is why you should never set foot in this apartment. If you come near me again, I’ll not stop at your breast. I will have all of you, and ruin all your plans for marriage to Jake. And that is why we can no longer be friends. You’ve made your choice, Temptress. Now leave me alone.”

• • •

Basil sunk to the floor with his head between his hands. Temperance’s muffled tears as she ran down the stairs and out into the alley would haunt him forever. He didn’t try to stop her. If he did, he’d be lost forever. And he didn’t want the noose of responsibility for seven, soon to be eight, people, around his neck. Already, worry about her and her family had consumed six months of his life, and he needed to be done with them. And with her. He wanted his old life back. The one he enjoyed before the Jones family invaded his bank. And his heart.

He pressed his back up against the wall. The same wall he had pinned Temperance to as he ravished her mouth, played with her breast, pressed himself against her very core. What had he been thinking? He pounded his forehead in frustration. She needed Jake Shelton, not some banker in St. Louis. He could never get her family to Oregon, and that’s where she needed to be.

Oh, but her mouth was so tempting. He wanted to melt into her and never leave.

He sat upright and raked his hands over his face. Enough! Enough of pining away for her and begrudging Jake for what he could give her that Basil couldn’t. That wasn’t his style. Women usually fought for his attention, not the other way around. He’d just been out of the game too long. He hadn’t been this long without a woman since he was made aware of what sex was all about. No wonder he reacted as if he were an animal in heat when Temperance invaded his quarters. All he needed to do to put this behind him was take himself to the dance hall tonight and find Desireé. She’d let him have his way with her without putting up too much resistance. Then he’d be back to normal again. He was certain of it.

Almost.

With a weary sigh he hoisted himself to his feet and stared out the window into the dusk. That’s what he’d do. Put on his shoes and coat and head to the dance hall.

He continued to stand by the window.

Put on your shoes and coat and head to the dance hall, dammit!

His feet did not move.

The town clock struck midnight as he roused himself from his haze of lethargy. He glanced out the window one more time, and then took himself to bed. He tossed and turned as his mind replayed the evening. He relived every nuance of their kisses. She tasted so sweet he could drown in it and die happy, and she smelled of spring flowers. He recalled the softness of her skin where no man had ventured previously. He put away his thoughts about other parts of her body where no man had been before either, and groaned as he turned over once more. Finally, he fell into a tortured sleep, where he dreamed of a rosy mouth and a lovely pink nipple that responded ever so willingly to his touch.

• • •

Temperance was grateful the horse could tell its way home, since she was crying too hard to pay attention. The steady beat of the horse’s hooves did little to soothe her. There she was, thinking that Basil loved her and wanted to marry her, when in actuality, all he could offer her was to be his mistress. He wanted her as much as she desired him, but he would never make an honest woman of her. He’d buy her nice things, and probably install her in a pretty flat somewhere, but she could never lift her head in town again. He realized this and, to preserve her dignity, ever so politely, backed off from her and told her if she wanted to marry, Jake was her man and to leave him alone. She was humiliated, but more than that, her heart broke into shards around her, from which she would never heal.

Why would he do that? They enjoyed each other. At least she thought so. Her mind hurried back to the night she’d accompanied him to the tavern, posing as a man, and was exposed within fifteen minutes. He had hauled her out of the bar over his shoulder, and she punched him in the eye when he set her down. Now, that had been fun! And then she recalled the night she spent in his apartment. He could have taken her then. She wouldn’t have resisted, but he was a perfect gentleman. It was her scandalous decision to lie beside him and cover them both with the blankets.

Obviously, he merely considered her a friend or potential mistress, someone to laugh with, and possibly to bed, But not someone to take seriously, not a woman to take home to meet his mother. After all, he was a professional businessman from a wealthy family and her family didn’t have two coins to rub together. Basil was right. She was better suited to Jake. If only Basil hadn’t kissed her as if he was starving and her lips were a feast. If only he hadn’t placed his mouth where no man had ever touched her. If only she hadn’t become embarrassingly damp in strange places the minute his tortured gaze caught hers.

He had so disarmed her; she was unable to fend him off, even if she wanted to. And she most decidedly didn’t. She wanted to drown in the sensations he was pulling from her body, and become tangled up in his embrace. She wanted to taste the salty spice of his skin and watch his eyes cloud over in a fog of ardor for her.

As one mile rolled into the next, Temperance gained some control over herself, and calmed down. She inhaled the crisp winter air, which helped clear her mind. She needed to formulate a course of action between now and when the wagon trains pulled out of town in late March or early April. Crying was going to get her nowhere.

She dried her tears, took several deep breaths as she straightened her clothing where Basil’s fevered hands had exposed her, and began to think. Obviously, she could never return to the bank. Or see Basil ever again. She was afraid he’d be able to read what she was thinking in her eyes, and she never wanted to put herself in that position with him again. What she needed to do was to make Jake fall so deeply in love with her that he could never leave her behind. But without the spark that sizzled in the air when she and Basil were in the same room, it was going to be difficult to create some excitement between her and Jake. Maybe Ginger would be able to give her some advice. Or her mother.