The Promise of Jenny Jones (33 page)

She expected a few thrusts, and then it would end, but it didn't happen that way. Her eyes flew open in surprise and her fingers tightened on his damp shoulders when he kissed her again and again as their bodies meshed and thrilled to an exciting rhythm that built rather than diminished. And it was unlike anything Jenny had ever known. There was no pain, no thought for anything but Ty and the sensations he aroused with his mouth and body. There was only the rapture of awakening to her own body and to his, the fainting tension of feeling inner forces build and build and build until she could no longer contain the earthquake that gathered between her thighs. When the blissful eruption ended, she collapsed beneath him, only dimly aware that he withdrew before his shoulders convulsed, and he gathered her to his chest with a low groan. "Jenny … Jenny."

For a long while they did not move, but held each other close, waiting for pounding hearts to quiet. This, too, was new to her. In her experience, the man took his pleasure, withdrew, and buttoned up as he left. And that was that. But not tonight, not with this remarkable, hard, and splendid man.

After a time, they roused and Ty lit cigars for them both. They smoked in contentment, her head on his shoulder, and she didn't even wonder that they lay together naked and unembarrassed. She didn't let herself think past themoment, and the moment was one of the best in her life.

"Would you like anything?" heinquired, his voice heavy with satisfaction. "Coffee? Tequila? Wine?"

"No," she said after deciding there was nothing on earth that she needed this minute except to be here, with him. "Good cigar." She wasn't sure if it was or not, and she didn't care.

"You're like I imagined you would be," he murmured against the top of her head. "Milky white where the sun hasn't been, and brushed with flame down there. Am I what you expected?"

"Oh yes, you're beautiful," she said matter-of-factly, puzzled when he laughed. "But…"

"But what?"

"Well, I guess I'm a little disappointed that we didn't do the licking all over. I was kind of looking forward to that," she admitted, squirming against him. Every time she thought about the licking all over, she couldn't remain still. "It's such a peculiar and strange thing that I'm sort of glad we didn't do it, but at the same time, I never licked anybody or had anybody lick me and I guess I just—"

"You thought we were finished?" His low chuckle cut off her words,then he took the cigar from her fingers and stubbed it out. "Jenny, honey … we're just getting started," he promised gruffly, kissing her temple. "There's going to be licking all over. And kissing in places you haven't even thought about."

"There is?" Her eyes widened and her heart leaped into her throat before diving toward her stomach. " All over?"

" All over," he said hoarsely, turning her to face him.

He started with her lips, teasing with his tongue, not letting her kiss him when she frantically tried. Then he tasted her throat before his head dropped to suck and tease at her breasts. "I love your breasts," he murmured before his head dropped lower. And lower. And then lower. She thought she was going to die from the shock and pleasure of being licked and kissed all over. And when it was her turn, she thought sure that he was going to die when she kissed and licked him all over.

When dawn crept over the city, they returned to their own room, dazed and stumbling, gazing at each other with awe and wonder and the puzzlement of blissful new emotions both denied feeling.

At the door of their room, Ty cupped her face between his hands and kissed her gently, tenderly. "Thank you for an evening I will never forget."

"I look like hell, don't I?" she whispered, trying to smooth her hastily assembled clothing.

Grinning, he leaned to insert the key in the lock. "You look like a woman who has been well loved."

It was the first time the word "love" had appeared in any conversation, and they both ignored it. Once inside the room Ty shook Senora Jaramillo awake and saw her to the door. Then, wonderfully unselfconscious, he stripped, donned his long johns, and gave Jenny a light kiss before he dropped onto the bed. In a moment, he was snoring.

Smiling, she moved in the pearly predawn light, hanging up her gown, folding her undergarments, searching for her nightshift. Before she climbed into bed beside Graciela, she moved to the window and glanced up at the sky, seeking Marguarita's star before it ceded to the dawn.

I did you wrong, and I apologize. I thought you were an idiot to give yourself to Robert and risk catching a baby. I figured you got what you deserved for being so stupid. I thought I was better than you because I had more sense than to ever do such a damned fool thing.

Well, I was dead wrong. I didn't know how it could be between men and women, Marguarita. If Robert made you feel like Ty made me feel tonight, I can see why you'd risk everything to be with him. I'm sorry I judged so harshly. Ididn't know.

She started toward the bed,then returned to the window and Marguarita's star.

Marguarita? I hope Robert licked you all over. It's justthe damnest thing! I'd hate to think you became an angel without first getting licked all over. It's probably not proper to talk about this, but I think you would have liked the licking a lot.

She yawned and stretched. Good night, my friend. Tomorrow night I'll talk to you fromEl Paso. From there we start the final leg of the journey.

As she climbed into bed, she wished she hadn't mentioned that last part. Curling protectively around Graciela's small body, she inhaled the clean sweet scent of the child's hair, and smiled at the sound of a light baritone snore emanating from the other bed.

She wished it could be like this forever. The three of them together. Suddenly her stomach cramped and her throat closed, and she felt a sting of sadness behind her eyes.

CHAPTER 16

E ven if the train ran late, which was likely, they would arrive at the rail terminal in El Paso Del Norte before supper. "We'll cross theRio Grandeand find a hotel inEl Pasoon the American side," Ty explained to Graciela. "Tomorrow morning, we'll board the Southern Pacific bound forSan Francisco. And we'll be home in about a week."

While he answered the next hundred questions from his niece, he gazed at Jenny, who sat across from him and Graciela. Her head rested against the window, and she dozed despite the heat and noise inside the car. Pride and amusement softened the look he swept over her molded traveling jacket. He liked seeing evidence that he'd plumb worn her out last night. Except she'd worn him out too. He wouldn't say no when it was his turn to catch an hour or two of shut-eye.

God almighty, but she was a magnificent woman. He enjoyed just watching her sleep. And last night she had been everything he had hoped she would be and more. Passionate, enthusiastic, uninhibited, and eager to give back what she learned. He'd never had a woman with a body as superb as hers, lush, curvacious, taut, well muscled, and built for endurance. And responsive? Remembering her wild abandon made his groin tighten painfully. He had to figure out how they could be together again tonight.

"Uncle Ty?" Frowning, Graciela tugged at the pocket of his waistcoat. "You aren't listening."

"You're telling me about your friend, Cordelia."

"Consuelo!"

He couldn't hire just anyone to stay with his niece while he trysted with Jenny. The problem was finding someone on short notice,then establishing reliability. That he should be pondering such a dilemma impressed him as frustrating, exasperating, amusing, and there was another feeling he couldn't quite identify. Something warm and protective, something that touched him inside whenever he observed the trust in Graciela's gaze.

Oddly, he suddenly recalled a saying of his mother's. "A boy becomes a man the day he holds his first child in his arms." It took a child to make a man, he thought, frowning down at Graciela. And a woman, a very special woman.

Strange new ideas were still prodding his emotions two hours later when all hell broke loose.

He felt the explosion beneath his feet a second before the blast of dynamite roared through his ears. The train wheels locked, the cars clashed together, and Jenny was flung from her seat to his, coming awake with panic in her eyes. Screams sounded around them. People, animals, boxes, and baskets flew through the inside of the car.

Trying to hold Jenny and Graciela as the car shuddered and rocked up on one set ofwheels, Ty ground his teeth and swore viciously. Clouds of gray-and-white steam billowed up past the window, but not before he spotted horses and riders. When Jenny's fingers dug into his thighs, he knew she, too, had spotted Luis Barrancas through the glass and steam.

Up ahead, the engine ran off the ruined track and plunged down the track bed, plowing into sand and cacti before crashing on its side. The following car twisted and toppled, forcing the next car to the opposite side of the track bed. When the hellish din diminished and the cars lurched to a stop, Ty thanked happenstance that they had boarded toward the rear. The car they were in tilted high on one side, but it hadn't fallen.

Pushing Jenny aside, he found his saddlebags and ripped open the pocket. "Here." He thrust a pistol into her hands and a pouch full of cartridges. She shoved her hat out of her eyes and loaded the gun with steady hands, her mouth grim.

"We need horses," she snapped.

He nodded. It didn't surprise him that she tracked his thoughts as if he'd spoken aloud. "Stay here," he said to Graciela, who pushed up her hat brim, then stared around them with frightened eyes and a white face.

"Wait until we come for you," Jenny finished. She struggled to stand, kicked a terrified chicken out of her way. "Let's go."

As if they'd discussed it, she turned toward the back door of the car, leaving him to run through the debris-laden aisle toward the front. As he burst onto the crazily canted platform between twisted cars, he heard her first shots and saw a rider go down. Rolling steam made his eyes water, but offered some cover. Unfortunately it obscured the Barrancas cousins as well.

Jumping to the ground, he ran through hissing white billows, firing at forms looming out of the steam. Three men on this side. He winged one, sent one to hell, and the other wheeled, then spurred toward the back of the train.

Spinning, Ty climbed back onto the platform, crossed to the other side, and vaulted down. In the midst of spiraling dust and gusts of steam, he spotted Jenny, fighting to hold the reins of a dun and a black horse while firing at a rider bearing down on her. Hot steam scalded his eyes as he ran up beside her, fanning his pistol. The rider veered and dropped, his boot catching in the stirrup. The horse raced toward the desert, dragging the man.

"We told you to stay inside!"

By the time he turned, Jenny was tossing Graciela up on the dun, struggling with her skirts to mount behind the child. When she threw the reins of the black to Ty, he caught them, jumped in the saddle, and shouted, "Ride!"

They were a mile from the wreck before he noticed two significant events. Graciela had disobeyed and left the train, but she had brought his saddlebags; he recognized them hanging across the dun mare.

And he'd been shot in the side.

* * *

The first thing was to create some shade. When she spotted two tall cacti, Jenny shouted his name and pointed before she rode toward them.

"How badly is he hurt?" Graciela asked for the hundredth time, shifting to lift anxious eyes to her face.

"I don't fricking know, all right? Please, Graciela, I'm as worried as you are, but I don't know. We'll find out in a few minutes."

But it was bad, she knew that. The knowledge boiled in her brain, searing and frightening her.

Though it appeared they weren't yet being pursued, they had ridden hard for the last two hours, heading north across arid ground that hadn't tasted rain in months. Now it was clear they could go no farther.

Blood caked Ty's right side. Thirty minutes ago, he had slumped in the saddle. Jenny kept watching him, fearing that he would fall off the black at any moment. The sound of the train wheels continued to vibrate in her head, but instead of clickity click, the sound she heard was, Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Please, please, don't let him be dying. Please, no. I'll do anything you want, just let him live. She repeated the litany again and again, unaware that she did so.

Swinging out of the saddle near the cacti, she lifted Graciela down and tossed her the reins. "Give me a minute,then tether her." Shaking fingers fumbled at the girth strap and buckle,then she had the saddle on the ground and dragged it toward the twin cacti. Once she'd draped the horse blanket over the cacti to create a block of shade, she pulled the saddle beneath the canopy. There was a canteen, thank God, but precious little else on the horse that would be of use to them.

The black, with Ty sagging on his back, would have walked past her if she hadn't run to grab the bridle and one of the reins that dragged the ground. She shouted at Graciela to tether Ty's horse, too,then caught him as he clumsily tried to dismount, falling heavily against her.

"This way." Dropping his arm over her shoulder, she led him to the pitiful lean-to she'd constructed. It wasn't until she had him beneath the horse blanket and resting against the saddle that she realized her heart was slamming against her ribs and she could hardly breathe. He was badly wounded. Very badly.

"What can I do?" Graciela asked in a thin, high voice.

"See if there's another canteen on the black. Bring everything you can reach."

Ty opened his eyes, placed a hand against his side. "This one's bad, Jenny."

"I know, cowboy. Let's have a look at you." Pressing her lips together, she helped him out of his waistcoat, drew a deep breath, then opened his shirt and steeled herself. "It's not a flesh wound," she said after a minute. "Lean forward, let'ssee if the bullet passed through."

It hadn't. And that was bad. Lowering her head, she swore steadily for a full minute, not stopping until Graciela returned and pressed a second canteen into her shaking fingers.