Stacey Kayne Read online

  Jed came to a full halt in the doorway.

  Hunched over the table, sleeping prettily on her folded arms beneath the cloud of smoke, was Rachell. Relief vibrated through him with such force, he clutched the door frame to steady himself.

  She was safe. Filthy, he noted, but safe. As his pulse began to calm, Jed’s gaze swept across the impossibly tidied cabin. No wonder she’d passed out, he thought, taking in the scrubbed flooring. The woman must have shoveled a few inches of dirt from the place. The entire cabin was free of cobwebs. She’d even washed the window coverings which, to his surprise, were white. He imagined the hissing coals fused to the cast-iron pot were to be their supper.

  He crouched beside Rachell and rubbed a hand across her narrow shoulders. What little he could see of her buckskin dress was a mess. Her slender arms and elbows were smudged with dirt. It seemed half the grime from the cabin had clung to her.

  “Honey, what are you doin’?” he asked, gently rousing her.

  “Sleeping,” she mumbled.

  Jed’s eyes roamed over her filthy face. “Sweetheart, you look like you’ve been rolling with hogs.”

  “I’m too tired to care,” she moaned, her closed eyes never flinching. “I just want to go to bed.”

  Jed glanced toward the bed covered in the crisp clean sheets she’d surely spent a good deal of time scrubbing. “You’re not getting near the bed in these clothes. I’ve seen coal miners in cleaner attire.”

  Rachell winced as he lifted her into his arms, undoubtedly plagued by sore, strained muscles. Soaking in the hot spring for a while would ease her discomfort. Soaking in the hot spring together could certainly ease his.

  As if she’d heard his thoughts in her sleep, Rachell’s lips turned up into a smile as she sighed and snuggled against his chest. “I’d rather have you hold me while I sleep.”

  He’d noticed. He lifted a sheet from the bed, reached into his saddlebags on the table for the pink bar of soap he’d picked up at Gran’s place then grabbed the lantern as he carried Rachell out the door.

  “Wake up, sugar,” Jed said as he lowered to one knee, setting her bottom on his raised thigh. “We’re at the hot spring. You’ll feel better after a warm bath.”

  He jostled her in his arms, but Rachell only moaned in her sleep, burying her face against his chest.

  “Honey, I’m not against bathing you in your sleep, but I think you’d enjoy it more if you were awake.” He sure as hell would.

  Rachell’s lips curled into a snarl when Jed tried to ease her away from him. She pressed harder against his chest. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

  He fanned the sheet out on the short grass then with her leaning against his chest, he fisted the bottom of her dress in his hands and worked it up past her hips. Rachell moaned sleepily as he eased her arms from the sleeves and whipped the buckskin up and over her head. Having her skin exposed to the cold night air caused her to huddle even closer to Jed. “Hold, on, sweetheart,” Jed soothed, easing her onto the sheet so that he could strip himself of his own clothing. As he laid her back, the full sight of her ivory skin glowing like fine porcelain in the moonlight stole his ability to breathe and removed any desire to keep away from her.

  The air hissed from his lungs as his body hardened in a rush. “So beautiful,” he whispered, pressing his lips to her perfect shoulder.

  Later, he silently commanded, forcing himself to pull away from her sweet skin. She’d waited long enough for a warm bath. He would enjoy giving her one, whether she was awake or not.

  A cold chill pricked at Rachell’s skin, intruding on her peaceful slumber. Something smelled musty. Begrudgingly, she opened her eyes and gazed sleepily at a dark, star-flecked sky.

  Why was she outside?

  “Jed?”

  “I’m right here,” his deep voice answered from somewhere nearby.

  I thought we were sleeping inside? The chill in the air demanded her attention. She reached a hand across the ground beside her, blindly searching for her blanket. Finding it, she gripped the fabric and pulled it over her cold body as her heavy eyelids drifted back down. Hearing the hiss of a lantern being lit, she forced her eyes open again.

  Jed stood a mere foot away, placing a lantern onto a high boulder. As he turned toward her, the bright golden light spilled across his amazingly nude and very male body.

  Rachell sat up in a rush. The cold air against her skin caused her to drop her gaze to her own body.

  Oh my God! Where were her clothes?

  “Jed!” she cried, just as he knelt before her.

  “The water will warm you up real quick,” he said, scooping her into his arms, and away from the sheet.

  Rachell trembled violently as the incredible warmth of skin surrounded her.

  “Damn,” Jed said in a harsh breath. “I’m sorry, honey. I forget how susceptible your tiny body is to the cold. I should have stripped myself first.”

  The cold air wasn’t making Rachell shiver, it was her nudity pressed against his!

  “Jed!” she gasped, on the verge of panic.

  “Don’t worry, sugar,” he said as he stepped down. “I won’t let go of you.”

  Before she could tell him that that was precisely the problem, a nearly intolerable heat rushed across her cold skin. “Heavens,” she breathed raggedly, her eyes clenching shut as Jed lowered them further into the pool of liquid fire.

  The hot spring, her mind echoed with sudden clarity. They were at the hot spring.

  “Too hot?” Jed asked, his arms tensing around her, obviously ready to lift her from the water.

  Caught up in the rush of sensation, Rachell was incapable of giving an answer. It did burn, but the initial sting had already begun to ease, her body adjusting to the drastic change in temperature.

  “Rachell?”

  She could barely force a squeak past her throat, her groggy mind occupied with the heat penetrating her body, and the man holding her.

  “Talk to me, honey,” Jed urged, rubbing his hand over her shoulder and down the length of her arm. “Is the water too hot for your delicate skin?”

  “I…no,” she panted. She pulled in another breath which unraveled around the words, “Oh, my,” as Jed’s hand came to rest on her bare hip. He eased further down, the warm water rising toward her shoulders as he settled her on his lap.

  The soothing warmth of the hot pool kept distracting her from the distress of being nude. A continuous trickling sound of droplets hitting the water echoed around them. Her sore muscles couldn’t help but relax as the water eased the strain of too many days in the saddle and her battle with the devil’s cabin.

  Ultimately relaxed and flushed with heat, Rachell opened her eyes. White mist skated across the black pool. Surrounding the ten-foot circumference of water were giant boulders that glowed white in the moonlight. The giant rocks were as bright as the moon shining overhead. The source of the dripping water, she saw, was coming from across the pool. Dark streaks ran down the large rocks “Feel better?” Jed asked, reminding Rachell that she wasn’t alone, and that the large palm closed over her hip was holding her securely on his lap.

  Rachell stiffened as her thoughts drifted back to her nudity.

  “I’ve got you. Don’t be frightened,” Jed soothed, obviously feeling the tension in her body.

  Of course he felt it!

  His free hand rose from the water, holding a white cloth. He clenched a fist and water streamed from between his fingers. He opened his hand then lifted the damp cloth toward Rachell’s face.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, her dazed mind still trying to focus on what was happening.

  “Bathing you,” he said in a low voice as he swabbed the cloth across her face and down her neck.

  Reflexively, she clamped her arms around her breasts. The fact that the steaming water reached her collarbone didn’t seem to matter. Nor did the internal reminder that she didn’t have anything worth hiding. Dear God, how long had she been exposed to him before she’d
awakened? She closed her eyes, embarrassed and too frightened to look up.

  “A little late to be modest,” Jed bemused as he slid the cloth across her shoulders.

  “I suppose it gives you great pleasure to humiliate me,” Rachell said in a shaken voice. She tried to turn her back to him, but his powerful hands clamped onto her shoulders. Startled, she glanced up. His face was fixed with shock.

  “Humiliate you? How is bathing you humiliating?”

  “As Miss Delilah so delicately pointed out, I have the build of a ten-year-old boy.”

  His low rumbling laugh increased her anger and embarrassment.

  “No, you don’t, sugar. Delilah was just trying to rile you.” The softness of his tone sent shivers down her spine. “I’ve never gotten hot and bothered over a boy of any age. You are pure woman.”

  Jed rubbed his hands over her tense shoulders. He wasn’t sure how to react to her rigid response. He was certain he could have made love to her this morning and she’d have been crooning the whole way. At the moment, however, her signals clearly stated hands off.

  “Honey, I’m confused. This morning you gave me the clear impression you wanted my attention.”

  “I did. I do. I just didn’t think I would be so…undressed.”

  She wasn’t making a damn bit of sense. Had she expected him to bed her with her clothes on? “You didn’t know we’d be naked when we made love?”

  Her stunned expression shocked him.

  “I wasn’t last time.”

  “Last time? Honey, I’d sure as hell remember making love to you, and you damn sure would have been fully naked when I did.”

  “In Running Bear’s camp, when you…touched me, I was wearing a dress.”

  Jed grinned. “If we hadn’t been interrupted, that dress would have come off at some point, guaranteed. The vision of your perfect body has been haunting me since the moment I first laid eyes on you.”

  Rachell’s eyes widened a fraction but she didn’t appear the least bit convinced. She continued to stare up at him, her gaze uncertain, her brow puckered in contemplation.

  James Carlson had deserved the bullet that took his life, Jed thought. Not only had he deprived his young bride of sexual fulfillment, their brief encounters had clearly left Rachell with a poor opinion of her body.

  Not seeing a change in her tense expression, Jed dropped his hands away from her shoulders as he eased back against the rock, holding her gaze. He’d known all along she wasn’t for him. This was a hell of a time for her to finally realize it.

  “Rachell, I won’t push you to do anything you don’t want to do. If you’ve changed your mind, I’ll understand.”

  “I haven’t changed my mind,” she said in a low voice.

  “I don’t believe you,” Jed said with flat honesty.

  “I want you.” She shifted slightly on his lap. She trembled as she smoothed her hands across his chest under the water. “I’ve just never done anything like this. I’m feeling a little…”

  “Shy?” he suggested, taking her hands in his and lifting them away from his body. As much as he enjoyed it, he was far too aroused to have her hands roving all over him. He lifted one of her hands from the water and pressed it to his lips.

  She nodded her head, her lips tipping into a slight smile.

  Hell. Shyness was something he hadn’t come across in his dealings with women. “How about we start with the bath you’ve been waiting for? I’d like to wash your hair. Would you like that?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her husky tone warming Jed’s blood far beyond the temperature of the hot spring.

  Praying he had enough self-control to bathe her without pouncing on her, he cupped his hands and dunked them into the water between them. She gasped as he lifted his hands and wet her hair. He repeated the process several times then picked up a pink bar of soap from the rocky edge of the pool and worked it into a foamy lather between his hands.

  Rachell drew a deep breath and held it in her lungs as the sweet scent of lilacs bathed her senses.

  “Jed?”

  He made a deep rumbling sound in question.

  “Where did you get that soap?”

  “Do you like it?” He set the pink bar aside before pushing his hands through her long hair.

  His tender smile expanded her heart with warmth to the point of pain. “You know I do,” she said, wondering how many times this man would surprise her with his sweet consideration. She closed her eyes, breathing in the floral scent. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d bathed in the scent of lilacs. She found the fragrance to be incredibly soothing, as were Jed’s large hands working gently through her hair.

  “Lie back,” he said, his hands pressing lightly on her shoulders, urging her back against his arm. “I need to rinse your hair.”

  Jed felt the tension in Rachell’s body as she allowed him to lower her head to the water. He smiled, gazing down at her eyes clenched tight. He worked the soap from her long hair as he cradled her narrow shoulders in one arm. He could feel her body beginning to relax as he rhythmically massaged her scalp. By the time her hair was free of suds her expression was soft, her body pliant in his arms. He brushed a light kiss across her smiling lips as he eased her up.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, wiping water from her face.

  “My pleasure. Now for the rest of you. Too bad this pool doesn’t have a shallow end. I’d like to see my hands moving over your ivory skin. I could stand you up right here on this ledge with a foot on either side of me.”

  Rachell’s lips parted as her eyes grew wide.

  “But I can see you’re still feeling shy,” he added quickly. “Will you let me wash you under the water?”

  Coward! Rachell silently scolded. You’ve been dying to have his hands all over you for weeks! And now that he was willing to do just that, she was behaving like a ninny.

  “Rachell, would you rather wash yourself?”

  She shook her head, the rush of passion caused by his original suggestion still clogging her throat. She reached for him beneath the water, running her hands over the smooth ripples of his abdomen, to the very different texture of his hair-covered chest. She leaned towards him, sniffing his familiar clean scent. “You’ve already had a bath.”

  White teeth flashed in the moonlight. The intensity in his silver eyes caused her to shudder with another rush of desire.

  “Turn around,” he said, turning her on his lap so that she looked away from him.

  “Why?” she asked, feeling much more secure sitting across his lap, rather than having her back to him as she stared out at the top of the black misty pool and white glowing rocks.

  “Because if I start kissing you, I won’t be able to stop.”

  Rachell closed her eyes as he began washing her shoulders and back, wondering why her body was tingling in places he hadn’t yet touched. If his mere words made her heart pound so erratically and the feeling of his hands moving over her back could make her ache with such pleasure, she didn’t know if she could stand for him to wash the rest of her. She trembled at the thought.

  “Lift your arms,” he instructed.

  She did as he said, lifting her arms above the water. “It’s beautiful here,” she said as Jed ran the cloth over her arm, covering it with a foamy lather. “Who knew that rocks could generate light,” she said, amazed by the glowing landscape.

  “They reflect moonlight the way you reflect sunlight,” Jed said as he rinsed her arm under the water.

  Rachell smiled, flattered by his compliment.

  “See there? Pure sunshine.”

  “You can’t even see my smile,” she teased.

  “You don’t have to see sunshine to feel it.”

  Rachell glanced over her shoulder. “Your eyes reflect moonlight,” she said. “They shine like silver moons.”

  Jed smiled and nudged her cheek with his nose. “Turn around, honey, or I’ll never get you washed.”

  “Why did you light the lantern?” she asked,
glancing up at the lamplight barely visible from their low perch in the pool.

  Jed’s low rumble of laughter stirred the fluttering sensations growing in the pit of her stomach. “Just planning ahead. The ground on the other side of this pool isn’t so bright.”

  Dear Lord. She had to ask. As Jed began washing her other arm, Rachell tried not to think about what he was planning to do when they got out of the water.

  “Now your legs,” Jed said when he finished rinsing her arm.

  “My legs?” she asked in a choked voice.

  He chuckled and kissed her shoulder. “Lean back against me and lift a leg. I plan to scrub between each of your tiny toes.”

  She released a slow quivering breath as she leaned back. She bent one leg, placing her foot on Jed’s thigh, and lifted the other from the gently misting pool. She drew a deep calming breath, forcing herself to relax. In her reclined position, she could feel the hard body beneath her with startling clarity.

  Jed’s long arms rose from the white vapors and reached for her leg. “Bend your knee, so I can reach those toes.”

  She’d never imagined a woman could be seduced so sweetly, or that such a seduction would involve toe scrubbing.

  “How you doin’, sweetheart?” Jed asked, obviously feeling the shivers she couldn’t combat. “So far so good?”

  Rachell wanted to shout out with the wonderful sensations his gradual seduction was sending coursing through her body, but managed only to giggle with nervous laughter.

  “I’m glad I’m not the only one enjoying this.”

  Her husky laughter turned to a moan of pleasure as his strong fingers messaged the sole of her foot.

  “I hear trickling water,” she said as both his hands worked together on her foot, one massaging, the other smoothing the soapy cloth across her skin.

  “A small waterfall runs into one of the pools above us.”

  “I wish I could see it.”

  “It’s just a bit of water drizzling over rock. Now in California, there are some waterfalls that will take your breath away with their beauty.”