Texas Lucky (10 page)

“Yeah, because land is cheap now, and I just go out and round up some unbranded cows and get a nice herd going. I almost had enough money, too, but I was stupid enough to think I could win more at poker so I’d have some extra to build a barn and maybe a little house.”

The thought of a house provoked Tess to ask a question that had been burning in her mind for quite a while. “Do you have a wife? Is that why you wanted a house?”

They were sitting by his fire, way back in the shaft, because it was private there. That way they never had to worry about Skelly or any curiosity seekers from town peering through the gate at the front.

At her question, he reached out to tenderly brush back a curl that had fallen onto her forehead. “I’m as unbranded as those cows out there.”

Because Tess figured it did not matter how brazen she was, given that they would soon be parted forever, she was able to quip, “Well, I don’t know about that. Maybe I’d have roped you in and put a brand on you myself.”

“Think so, huh?” He leaned back, propping himself on an elbow. He liked to look at her in the firelight, for it made her hair glow like a field of dandelions in the sun. He did not like the pallor of her skin, however, for the time spent in the shaft had taken its toll, and she looked pale and drawn.

“Yes, I think so,” she continued the coy banter. “Because I believe I could’ve learned to tie a lasso and rope a steer and do anything a cowboy could do.”

“But right now you’re just a tenderfoot.”

“A what?” she blinked, bewildered.

He grabbed her foot and yanked off her shoe and started tickling, and she squealed and kicked out at him as he taunted, “See—a
tender
foot. That means you’re not used to boots and saddles and stirrups or anything else to do with being a cowboy.”

Breathless, Tess scrambled up to dig her fingers under his arms and do some tickling of her own. He growled, pretending to grow angry, and threw her down to pin her on the ground as he loomed above her. “Now what are you going to do, you little wildcat?”

She gave a mock growl and warned, “Claw your eyes out like any good wildcat would do, of course.”

“Oh, yeah?” He raised himself up, arms and legs stiff, hands still holding her wrists to render her immobile. “You sure you want to be a wildcat? Wouldn’t you rather learn bronco busting? I can teach you, you know.”

He bent his arms to lower his torso so his mouth could claim hers in a kiss that left them both breathless. Then, lifting up once more, he continued his challenge. “I don’t think you could stay on a horse. I think you’d get thrown the first time he bucked.”

“I could,” she whispered, eyes locked with his in dizzy longing. He had allowed the lower part of his body to drop a bit, and she could feel his swelling brushing against her belly. She trembled with excitement to know where all the jesting was leading. “I really think I could ride…”

“Well, let’s find out.” He rolled to one side and tugged at her skirt. “But you’ll ride better without this in the way.”

Without hesitation, Tess stripped out of her clothes, and when they were both naked, he lay down on his back and positioned her above him. Clasping her tiny waist, he settled her onto his erection and commanded tersely, “Now we’ll see if you can bust this bronco, tenderfoot.”

He began to move his hips up and down, slowly at first, sensuously, gyrating from side to side now and then to tease and delight as he rocked against the velvet walls of her womanhood.

Tess’s eyes were half-closed as she drifted into dreamy ecstasy, needles of pleasure darting way up inside, piercing, pricking, delighting.

Suddenly he lifted his hips high and rough, and she bounced up and off of him, only to drop to penetrate once more in near pain.

“Thought you could ride,” he goaded, giving her another fierce buck.

Again she slid off of him, but settled back quicker this time and squeezed her thighs against his sides, locking him against her as his thrusts became wilder, harder. She was jounced up and down and around, her hair flying about her face as she fought to hang on.

His hands clamped on her breasts, giving him leverage, and she did not care that it was rough, for the feel of his thumb against her rock-hard nipple was maddening…made even more so when he raised his head at the same time he pulled her close so he could take one breast in his mouth and feast.

Arching her neck, she began to make soft moaning sounds deep in her throat.

He knew she was going to climax, and so was he. He threw her harder, higher, his hips lifting nearly a foot off the floor: But she would not have been thrown from him, for he had raised his legs around her buttocks and imprisoned her against him.

“I rode you,” she said moments later, laughing softly against his shoulder in the tender afterglow. “You were a tough bronco, but I busted you…”

“That you did,” he was pleased to agree. “That you did.”

Exhausted, they slept, arms about each other, and it was only when the sound of banging at the gate echoed throughout the shaft that they awoke.

“Where are you two?” Skelly yelled. “Back there playin’ in the honeypot, I bet. Well, I got your vittles, but if you don’t come on, I’m gonna leave ’em for the coyotes.”

Curt got up and began jerking on his clothes. “I’ll go get it. You stay here.”

Tess was grateful to let him do so, knowing her hair was a mess, and her face felt feverish from the heat of passion still smoldering within. Skelly would see and make his dirty remarks, and what she and Curt had just shared was too beautiful to be spoiled.

When Curt appeared, Skelly nodded to the torch he was carrying and taunted, “They’re getting littler and littler, ain’t they? Runnin’ out of rags, are you? Well, that’s a shame, especially since you’re the first prisoner we ever had that bothered to make torches. All the others just hovered here at the gate, so’s they’d be warm by day, anyhow.

“But then they never had no woman with ’em,” he prattled on as he poured bacon and beans into the two pans Curt held out. “You do, so I reckon I can understand why you hole up back there. Bet she’s got some good honey in that pot, too, don’t she? Reckon she’d give me a dip for an extra plate of bacon?”

“Skelly,” Curt said in a low, deadly tone, “if you were where I could get my hands on you, I’d choke that filthy tongue of yours out of your mouth.”

Skelly stepped back from the gate, his expression a mingling of fear and rage all at once. “It’s a good thing you waited to smart off at me till you got your vittles, otherwise I’d have dumped ’em on the ground.

“But let me tell you one thing.” He shook the dipper at him. “You ain’t got much longer to be so tough, on account of I heard the judge’ll be here day after tomorrow, and Worley’s already got the gallows goin’ up. We’ll see how tough you talk when that noose goes around your neck.”

Curt turned to go, wondering whether or not to tell Tess it was almost over, but Skelly called after him, “Listen, you have the bitch here to get her own food in the mornin’, understand? Worley told me to make sure I see her every day to make sure she’s all right. He said he didn’t want her gettin’ sick and dyin’ ’fore the judge gets her, ’cause it’d make him look bad, mistreatin’ a woman—even if she is a no-good horse thief that’s gonna die anyhow.”

For an instant, Curt almost let the idea drift away like a feather in the wind. It was too simple. Too easy. Perhaps that was why it had not dawned on him before, that he could lure Skelly into the shaft with the pretense that Tess was sick, then overpower him and—

No.

Skelly was not that stupid.

Or was he?

Curt sucked in a deep breath, furrowed his brow as though deeply worried, and turned around. “The fact of the matter is she just might be sick, Skelly.”

Skelly’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“She’s acting funny. Won’t eat. Won’t talk. She just lays there and sleeps all the time. Says she doesn’t feel good.”

“You just have her up here in the morning, and I’ll decide whether to take her back to town with me and let the doc look at her.”

Careful not to let his excitement show, Curt suggested, “Maybe you’d like to take a look at her now.”

Skelly snickered. “You really do take me for a fool, don’t you? You ain’t gettin’ me back there in the dark where you can get the jump on me. I got sense enough to know that’s just what you’re thinking. You just haul her up here in the morning.”

“Sure.” Curt nodded. “But she might be bad off by then.”

“Well, I’d rather chance that than you jumpin’ me.” Skelly got on his horse and tied the empty bucket to his saddle. “And just to be on the safe side, I’ll bring Wilbur with me. You try anything, and he’ll blow you to hell.”

He rode away, swallowed by the first shadows of night. Curt stared after him, not in the least worried about Wilbur.

He was just as stupid as Skelly.

And, heart soaring, Curt dared to hope there might be a way out, after all.

Tess hummed to herself as she ran her fingers through her hair. She wished for a brush, soap, perfume…everything she had packed in her trunk. But, despite the absence of things she now considered luxuries, she was not miserable. How could she be, when for the first time in her life she felt like a woman, desired, cherished.

Her lips were still warm from Curt’s kisses, her body still tingling from the glory of longing fulfilled.

He made her feel this way, and for however long they had together, she intended to savor each and every second, determined not to think of the time when it would end.

Hearing him approach, she brought her gaze up, met his eyes, and was surprised to see a grin on his face wider and brighter than ever before. “Why are you so happy? Did Skelly bring something decent to eat for a change?”

She was sitting cross-legged on the blanket in front of the fire and, dropping beside her after setting the tin pans aside, he gave her a big hug before exulting, “More than that, sweetheart. He gave me the answer to how we’re going to get out of here.”

She pulled back from his embrace to stare at him. “How—”

“It’s simple. So simple I didn’t come up with it before, because I didn’t stop to think he would fall for the oldest trick in the world.” He recounted his conversation with Skelly and the plan for her to pretend to be sick so he could lure Skelly inside.

Tess was still skeptical. It sounded too easy. “But what about the man he’s bringing with him—Wilbur? I’ve seen him a few times when he brought the food instead of Skelly, and he’s awfully big, Curt.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Leave that to me. All you’ve got to do is pretend to be unconscious, and I’ll take care of them both.

“Then,” he continued, “we’re getting your money from the assay office and we’ll find a place to hole up for a few days. There are plenty of abandoned mines around here. Caves, too.

“Maybe…” He drew away from her to absently scratch his beard as he mulled the situation. “Maybe we could head for Fort Verde. There’s a new fort there, built just last year. Some men went there from Prescott to start a farming settlement in the Verde Valley, figuring the mining camps around the new capital would pay well for fresh food. They dug an irrigation system, and the Army built the fort to try and protect them from the Indians. There’s bound to be an old shaft, much like this one, carved into some of the mountains there.”

Suddenly Tess gasped, “The map!”

“What are you talking about?”

“The map to Saul Beckwith’s shack,” she rushed to explain. “Lulie gave it to me at the same time she gave me the mule and buckboard. She said I should hide out there after I got the money. Saul had given it to her when he was sweet on her and wanted her to visit him. I had it pinned in my clothes, but when I washed them, I took it out and stuck it behind a rock. We can stay there.”

He was skeptical. “Let’s see the map first.”

She gave it to him and, after examining it by firelight, he said, “I can find it easy. He probably had food stashed there, too. We should be safe, because when Lulie hears you escaped with me and that we robbed the office, it won’t occur to her we’d hole up. She’d figure I’d know my way and would ride hard to put distance between me and a posse. She won’t say anything.”

“She’d never remember the way without the map, anyway, so she couldn’t give directions to anybody else,” said Tess.

He gave her a quick kiss. “Let’s eat and then get some sleep. We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

He looked at the cold, curdled food and made a face. “No matter what food we find Saul had stored, it’s bound to be better than this garbage.”

They ate what they could, knowing they needed their strength, then snuggled down on the blanket, arms about each other tightly.

But then desire ignited once more, and passion was more demanding than their craving for real food. They satiated themselves with their bodies till they could consume no more.

Afterward, Curt slept, but Tess lay awake for a long time staring into the softly glowing embers of the fire as she dared, for the first time, to truly contemplate freedom.

Curt had said
they
would claim her money,
they
would hide out.