Crimson Palace (24 page)

"Your customers must get their money’s worth to go to so much trouble," he commented dryly as he lengthened his stride in order to keep pace with her.

With deliberate steps she walked the short distance to her house. Mei Jung looked up in surprise when her mistress and a strange man stepped through the door.

"Will you please excuse us, Mei Jung?"

The girl quickly gathered her needle work together and scurried out of the room, peeking over her shoulder with curiosity at the handsome stranger.

"Your ‘work’ must pay well. Not many women of your sort have private maids."

"Please lower your voice in my house." Her voice was frigid with anger.

"I’ve paid good money for you. I’ll be damned if you’ll tell me how to behave."

She reached into her handbag and pulled out a fistful of money.

"Here. Take you money. I’m not your whore or anyone else’s." She threw the money at him, turning to flee the house and his overwhelming presence, realizing she had made a mistake bringing him to her home.

But she was not to escape him so easily, she realized, as he grabbed her arm. He spun her around, bringing her face to within inches of his own.

"There was a time when you were only too happy to please me." The words were spoken with the same whisper-like voice she remembered so clearly from the past. Yet now his voice sounded cruel, whereas before it had been so seductive, so tantalizing.

"What happened, Shinonn? Was life with me too tame for you?" His voice grew louder, full of pent-up anger.

"I told you to lower your voice."

"Why? Is there someone in the next room you wouldn’t want me to see? Do you have a man living off you while you work in that whorehouse?"

"Think what you will, just be quiet about it," she demanded.

"No. I want to meet this man who lives off your hard earned wages. He sounds like my kind of man."

Before she could stop him, he strode purposefully across the room toward the two closed doors.

Ignoring the door Mei Jung had used, he flung upon the other.

He was totally unprepared for the sight before him. Instead of the love nest he expected to see, he found himself standing on the threshold of a baby’s room. Apparently the noise of his raised voice, combined with the opening door, had wakened the sleeping child. She sat up sleepily, peering through the slats of the crib, her black hair a mass of curly confusion.

"Mama?" She blinked her eyes at the sudden light.

Shinonn pushed past Lincoln and went to Jenna, lifting her into her arms.

"It’s all right, baby. Mama’s here."

She turned and faced Lincoln, staring at him over the head of the sleepy child. His eyes sought an explanation in hers.

"Lincoln, I would like you to meet my daughter, Jenna."

His expression hardened. She could see the muscles in his jaw tighten, his gray eyes darken in fury.

"And her father? May I ask who he might be? Or do you even know?"

"Oh, I know who the father is. And so do you."

His eyes narrowed, hardening with suspicion.

"How do I know you’re not lying?"

"Think what you will. It really doesn’t matter to me anymore." She turned her back to him as she gently lowered the sleepy child to the bed.

With hesitant steps he entered the room, crossing to the small bed. Jenna looked at him with wide, sapphire eyes as he lifted her chin and gazed at her face. In spite of his doubts he found himself completely absorbed in each of her features.

"She would be about the right age," he finally acknowledged. "She’s so beautiful." He was unable to keep the awe from his voice.

Reaching for her tiny hands, he carefully spread her fingers. He examined her hands carefully, gently outlining the tiny, slightly crooked smallest fingers. Spreading his own hand, he compared their fingers.

There was absolutely no doubt, her tiny crooked finger was a miniature replica of his own. It was a family trait he could not deny.

Gently lifting the child into his arms, he lowered his head so that her black ringlets rested against his cheek. He held her close, not speaking, gently rocking from side to side. After a few moments, he lowered the child to her bed, carefully covering her. He stood watching as she slowly closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep. It seemed his eyes could not gather in enough of the wonder of the child.

Turning slowly, he faced Shinonn at last.

"I’m sorry." It was the slightly raspy voice she had never been able to forget, speaking the same words she had heard so many years before, after her father had died.

For just an instant she felt herself respond to the stricken look in his eyes, the pleading note in his voice.

But then memories of his desertion flooded back. She turned her back on him and left the room.

Chapter 18

"Why wasn’t I told?" he blurted out angrily. "I had a right to know I was going to be a father."

His anger failed to touch her.

"And just how was I supposed to tell you? How was I to know you’d even care?"

"I can’t believe you let our daughter be born a bastard!"

"As I recall it, I had no choice in the matter."

"This is all you’re fault, you know. If you hadn’t run out on me, none of this would have happened."

"Me run out on you! Let me refresh your memory, Lincoln Bradley. It was me who was left sitting alone in that mountain cabin of yours. I wasn’t the one who sneaked out in the middle of the night!"

"I didn’t ‘sneak out’. I just wanted to get an early start and didn’t want to wake you from a sound sleep.

It seemed like the considerate thing to do at the moment."

"Oh, very considerate. I call that real consideration, making love to me for weeks then suddenly leaving me there alone without so much as saying good-by!"

"But I left you a note! I told you exactly where I was going and when I would be back."

"Fat lot of good a note does when you can’t read!"

"You can’t read?" It was clear his shock was genuine. "It never occurred to me. Oh, my God, no wonder you were so angry. I just assumed..."

"Don’t look at me like I’m some sort of freak. I’m not as ignorant as I was then. I’ve learned to read and I’ve learned to take care of myself and my baby."

"Our baby. Don’t forget I have a stake in her life too."

"Don’t be so sure of yourself, Lincoln Bradley. What makes you think I want you to have anything to do with my child.?"

"Not just with the child, Shinonn. I intend to have a great deal to do with both of you."

Before she had a chance to stop him, he pulled her roughly to him, capturing her mouth in a hard, angry kiss.

"You can’t force yourself back into my life. Nobody forces me to do anything."

His hold on her remained firm, but she could feel his anger subsiding. One hand gently caressed just beneath her ribs, working slowly toward her breast. At the same time, he lowered his head to nuzzle seductively at her neck. His warm breath teased just beneath her ear, sending rivulets of delicious sensations shooting through her body.

She desperately fought with all her will to resist the temptation to melt in his arms, to mold her body to his. A soft gasp escaped her lips as his fingers reached their goal and began their irresistible explorations of the contours of her breast. She couldn’t control her ragged breathing as the tip of his tongue teased the throbbing place at her throat.

"You know you want me as much as I want you," he whispered hoarsely just before he captured her mouth once again.

Her only answer was a low moan as she gave into the overwhelming impulse to open her lips to his probing tongue. Her body begged for surrender, rendering further denial impossible. She felt his arousal as he pressed his body hard against hers. His fingers began to work at unfastening the back of her dress.

The full realization of just what he intended to do brought her abruptly to her senses.

"Are you insane? You can’t make love to me here. What if Jenna should waken? This is all wrong."

"Why is it wrong for me to be here when you bring your customers here all night long?"

"My customers! Do you think for one minute...? You do! You really do think I’m a prostitute!"

"Of course I do. What do you think I am, blind? For God’s sake, look where you work! What should I think?"

"I’m a dealer! I play poker in the casino. And that’s all I do. That’s all I’ve ever done there." Her face was scarlet with anger.

The flashes of doubt she saw in his eyes only served to increase her anger.

"Oh, just get out of here. I wish you had never come to Virginia City. I was doing just fine without you.

Now get the hell out of here."

"I’m not going anywhere without my daughter."

"Your daughter! Less than an hour ago you didn’t even know you had a daughter, and now you won’t leave without her?"

"That’s right, my love." His voice was filled with resolve. "I want my daughter and I want you. I’ve missed out on nearly three years of happiness. I’m not about to let another day slip away from us."

Her anger drained away in the face of his devotion, leaving her weak and confused.

"I don’t know, Linc. So much has happened. It’s been so long."

"You know you still love me. And all I have to do is kiss you again to prove to both of us that you still want me."

He pulled her into his arms, intent on proving his point, kissing her deeply, arousing a longing she could not deny.

"I can’t believe how much I love you, Shinonn," he said as he held her close. "I didn’t know how I could go on without you when I came back to that empty cabin. I don’t ever want to feel like that again.

His raspy voice was filled with the agony he had suffered. Suddenly she remembered her own devastation when she had believed he had deserted her. He must have felt just as badly himself when he returned and she was gone.

Taking his face in her two hands, she looked deeply into his troubled eyes. She slowly pulled his head down toward her own, kissing him gently. A sad smile touched her lips.

"I don’t ever want to feel like that again either. Don’t go away."

"I’m not going to accept anything less than marriage, you know," he stated firmly.

Suddenly the tension was broken by the sound of Shinonn’s happy laughter.

"You seem to be confused. I believe it is the woman who is supposed to say those words."

"I don’t care who says them, all I know is that now that I’ve found you again, I never intend to let you get away from me.

"And there’s our daughter to think of. It’s about time she had a proper father."

His last statement was more than Shinonn could handle. The laughter bubbled up, spilling out merrily.

"‘Proper’ father? If you live to be a thousand years old, you will never spend a day being ‘proper’."

His grin wrinkled the corners of his eyes.

"I’ll just have to do the best I can," he drawled. "Who knows, I may surprise both of us."

***

And surprise her he did. Shinonn stood at the door of the casino watching the crowd. There was a comfortable ebb and flow of customers which she had come to feel at home with. The sound of men’s voices rose and fell rhythmically. Lincoln stood in the midst of the action supervising the play like he had done it all his life.

Since their marriage six years ago, life had been all she and Lincoln had dreamed of during those days in the mountain cabin. All and more. True, the dream of working together in the casino had been realized, but they had never dreamed of the joy they would know as they raised their two children.

Jenna had grown into a beautiful child. Eight years old, her once curly black hair now hung in a long, straight glistening fall nearly to her waist. Like her mother, her eyes were blue and were outlined in a double row of black lashes, but they were distinctively almond shaped, giving her a slightly exotic appearance.

Six months ago, Garrett Bradley had been born. With the birth of their son, Lincoln and Shinonn felt that their family was complete.

Lincoln looked her way, always seeming to feel the presence when she entered a room. His eyes glowed with love as she walked toward him. Her silk petticoats rustled as she stepped through the crowd to speak briefly with her husband.

He looked with pleasure at his wife, dressed in her customary crimson gown. Because the weather had been extremely hot for weeks, the dress was made of the coolest material the dressmaker could find, a feather light silk. Rather than sleeves, deep ruffles fell over the shoulders from the wide V neckline. The bodice, nipped in at her waist, which was incredibly small considering Garrett’s recent birth, smoothly outlined her full, womanly bosom. Yards and yards of the expensive material flowed softly to the floor.

"Watch yourself tonight, sweetheart. This heat is likely to bring on some trouble. Even with the windows open and the fans going full force, it’s like an oven in here. Men get too uncomfortable, they get grouchy.

They start drinking more than usual and the next thing you know, you’ve got a fight on your hands.

"You’re not telling me anything new. Sofie’s already got a couple of extra bouncers working tonight.

We’ll all have to keep our eyes open for trouble.

"Now, if you’ll excuse me, sir, I have a job to do," she grinned at him as she headed toward the Faro table. "It’s time to ‘buck the tiger’ gentlemen," she called out as she deftly shuffled the deck of cards.

Shinonn was walking from the bar with a cool drink in her hand when she noticed how flushed her friend Sofie appeared.

"Heat getting to you, Sofie? You look like you need a rest. Why don’t you go up to your room and lie down for a while?"

"I was about to do just that. I’ve got one of the worst headaches of my life. I think I’ll take a dose of laudanum and see if I can’t get rid of it. I’m no good to anyone like this."

"Good idea. Annie can take over for you tonight."

"I already asked her. She’s a good girl, got a good head on her shoulders. I told her to come wake me if there’s any trouble."

Shinonn gave her friend a quick hug then returned to the casino and took her place at the poker table.