Lilac Temptress (13 page)

“
Somebody help me please!”
Sierra cried out loudly, while bolting. She knew that her attackers
were not relenting when she heard them trailing her.

“
Don’t bother running, you
little whore!” Pete shouted.

Sierra desperately yelled for help, as
tears flooded her eyes. Why didn’t anyone hear her
cries?

She knew she wasn’t going to make it
home in time to be saved by Toby, and no one could help her now.
Her arm was jerked backwards. She staggered in agony. “Take your
hands off me! Get away from me!” she screamed, the words ripped
from her throat in between gasps for air.

“
You’re one feisty little
minx, aren’t you? Always a tease, never putting out! We’ll punish
you good for what you did to us back there.” Pete held onto her
with an iron grip.

“
Pete, you and Quinn don’t
want to do this, believe me!” Sierra’s body lost strength against
Pete’s stronghold to her horror. Her head became dizzy with fright
as she realized her innocence would be lost to these
scoundrels.

“
Unhand her!” A voice
boomed at them.

Through her desperate tears, Sierra
could barely make out Drake’s appearance. Abruptly, her body was
torn away by his hands with such force that she was flung into his
arms. Relieved and senseless, she cried.

“
Hey, we’re just having a
little fun with her that’s all. Why don’t you join us? We don’t
mind sharing,” Pete offered with a sleazy grin.

Drake pushed Sierra behind
him.

“
I get a chance at her
first,” snorted the other man, saturated with the smell of liquor.
“Now if you’d just step aside, the good time can begin or you can
mind your own goddamned business.”

Sierra clutched Drake’s arm tightly.
Eyes full of horror and face stained with tears, she silently
pleaded with Drake to protect her. He could not cruelly desert her
and leave her subject to the will of these villains, she
desperately thought.

“
This woman is my
business!” Drake thundered and then heard the cocking of a pistol
that Pete held inches away from his head.

“
Pete! What are you doing,
are you mad? We’re just supposed to have a little fun with her. I
ain’t sign up to put a bullet in nobody!”

“
Shut your mouth, Quinn!
I’m doing what I damn well please.”

Sierra froze. She couldn’t believe
this was happening. Drake was unarmed, but he didn’t stir. He
simply held his ground, sizing up the men standing between her and
Pete. For God’s sake he was about to have his head blown off, she
thought.

“
I ain’t having any part of
this!” Quinn backed away slowly, before turning and running off as
quickly as he could.

“
Get back here you coward!”
Pete shouted after Quinn, turning his head, distracted.

In one quick motion Drake maneuvered
the gun away. He now held the revolver and aimed it at Sierra’s
assailant. Pete stood stunned for a second before hurriedly running
off in the opposite direction.

Drake lowered the pistol, turned on
the safety, and held it at his side.

Releasing her breath in a huge sigh of
relief, Sierra flung herself against Drake and wrapped herself
around him, holding him tightly. “You saved me from them. They
meant to—” She peered directly into his eyes, which were fixed on
her. “Good God, they could have murdered you right in front of me.
Where’s your firearm? You seem to always have it with you. Or did
you leave it behind with... with...” Sierra couldn’t bring herself
to mention the names of Liandra and Jasmine.

“
Come, Sierra. Let’s get
you home,” Drake simply stated; his voice made light of the entire
event.

“
I never would have thought
you’d come to my rescue after the way I treated you earlier today,”
Sierra murmured with loss of face.

“
I would have done the same
for any damsel in distress. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve
looked down the barrel of a gun.”

“
You make it sound like a
trivial thing,” Sierra said, still shaking.

“
What makes you think I
would die so easily?” Drake quipped with a half-smile as he wrapped
his arm around her shoulders, bringing her body close to his to
steady her jittery stroll.

“
How many times has this
has happened before? She asked as they continued to walk, her
frayed nerves slowly subsiding. You certainly seem like the type
who might have a knack for trouble, but...” Sierra’s voice trailed
off. “I’ve never seen a man so fearless.”

“
Naturally I have fear,
it’s what keeps me alive.” Drake chuckled at her lightly as he
continued to escort her.

“
Then you have incredible
grace under pressure,” Sierra remarked, feeling Drake’s strong arms
hug her a little more intimately.

They soon pushed through the swinging
brothel doors and made their way up the stairs in silence, moving
swiftly down the corridor. Their movements seemed to go unnoticed.
Not even Toby budged a muscle to quit his game of bridge with a few
deviant men.

Drake entered Sierra’s bedroom behind
her and shut the door.

“
How long will you stay?”
Sierra asked, eyes wide.

“
How long would you like me
to stay?”

“
I don’t want to be left
alone.”

“
Surely, you don’t think
those men would come for you here? I plan to find them tomorrow and
settle it with the town Sheriff,” Drake assured her.

“
No, I think they are long
gone by now. Better for them to skip town than have Wil and his men
come after them. I’m certain they won’t be found.” Sierra quieted
for a moment before she spoke again. “My apologies for the way I
treated you earlier today.”

“
It is I who owes you an
apology,” Drake countered with what he hoped she believed was
genuine remorse.

“
Actually, you don’t. You
were right. I behaved poorly toward you. I was nothing more than a
tease. I deserved your treatment. I deserve to be here in this
place.” Sierra glanced around her room humiliated. She pitied
herself and her life circumstances.

“
Don’t say that. You
don’t deserve any of this. In fact you deserve a better life than
the one you live now.” Drake tried to comfort her. He didn’t like
seeing her this way—so
defeated
.

Sierra contemplated his words trying
to discern his true opinion. One moment he seemed wholly judgmental
of her lifestyle and the next he professed to know her true worth
as if he’d studiously examined her circumstances and found them
lacking.

“
You think you know me so
well don’t you, Drake? How I live, what I’d like, what I should
want. Well, let me enlighten you, because you know nothing. I can’t
stand my life—the men or the dancing. I don’t enjoy any of it!”
Sierra refrained from continuing her outburst and held her head
low.

“
Please wait for me,” she
said softly as she walked through an adjoining door into a small
water closet, where a freshly drawn bath awaited her. Sierra spared
a quick glance at Drake before shutting the door to his stupefied
face.

Drake leaned backwards against the
door, waiting as instructed, but he couldn’t help but speak against
it, hopeful that Sierra was listening. “I know that you long to
escape. I know that you are doing the best that you can to endure
this place. I know that you love your brother and might do almost
anything for him. I know that you have been heartbroken, but you’ve
not let anyone, or anything break your spirit.”

Drake paused, realizing the
weight of his words, wondering if whether or not he had overstepped
his bounds, but he wasn’t finished. He wanted her to know that
he
had
been paying
attention. “Every word you’ve told me is ingrained in my mind—every
movement you’ve made is etched in my memory. I love that little
thing you do with your hair when you are anxious—twirling your
locks with your fingers.”

Drake said nothing else as he listened
intently to the sounds emanating from the room and imagined the
scene unfolding just beyond the closed door. His impatience grew as
the moments ticked by. When he could take it no longer, he taped
lightly on the water closet door.

“
Sierra... Sierra!”
Drake called several times to her, but she didn’t answer. He tried
to open the door, but it was locked.
What
the hell is going on?

Fighting his inclination to enter the
room without her permission, he made a final plea. “Sierra, open
this door or I will break it down!” The lock clicked, and his sense
of alarm abated—he waited a moment, and then entered the room
cautiously.

Sinking slowly back down, emerged in
water up to her neck, Sierra diverted her eyes from where he stood,
clutching her arms around her breasts and bringing up her knees to
her chest. With little left to see, and even without making
complete eye contact, Drake could tell that her eyes were red and
swollen—likely from the tears that she had shed.

He knelt at the side of the tub,
refusing to gawk at her beautiful undressed form and spoke with
deliberate care, “Don’t you think you should come out and get some
rest? You’ve had a long night already.”

“
What you’ve just said
while standing outside the door… ” Sierra responded bleakly, unable
to face him. She stared at her kneecaps peaking through the water,
unable to admit to him that she had just been seduced by his
words.

“
I don’t enjoy being
difficult. It was not my intention to upset you,” he said gently.
“I apologize.”

“
You didn’t upset me, you…
you surprised me, I wasn’t expecting you to say those things and I
just needed some time to think.”

“
You didn’t answer my call.
Why let me worry, when you could have told me that you only needed
time?”

Sierra finally raised her head to her
rescuer, registering the genuine concern on his face. “Because I
don’t know if it is time that I need, or if what I really need is
to be with you.” She stroked his cheek with her palm. “I wanted to
hate you after I saw you leave with Liandra and Jasmine tonight,
even though I know that you turned to them after I had rejected
you. I’ll pretend that I didn’t see you go off with them, if you
will still have me.” She smiled weakly as she offered herself to
him.

Drake frowned. There wasn’t anything
he’d rather do than make love to her, but he couldn’t bring himself
to take advantage of her in her distressed state. She was confused
and unaware of what really she wanted. He was sure that she had no
idea of what she was proposing. “No Sierra—not this
way.”

Her face revealed painful
dismay.

“
Here.” Drake reached for a
towel hanging against the wall beside the nearby basin.

Sierra stood up and stepped out of the
tub. If she weren’t so shaken from the earlier event, she might
have never let Drake see her naked. No man had ever seen her
without her clothes on. But now she didn’t feel so modest. She
wanted a dream. She wanted another life. She wanted to be someone
else tonight. She wanted to feel strong like Adrienne’s girls, who
knew how to handle men, and not so helpless.

Drake stepped back just a bit, his
eyes perusing her. Her breasts were high and perfectly rounded, and
the wet tangled hair that shadowed their outline barely covered her
taut nipples. Her flat, smooth stomach met her tiny waist and
well-proportioned hips that seemed to beckon him. He inspected the
suppleness of her thighs. The aroma of lilac in the air shrouded
him.

She had the most perfect womanly
figure he’d ever seen, but she became a child whenever he touched
her; she was an intoxicating blend of beauty and innocence. She
might never believe that he found her to be faultless, and that he
accepted her as she was. He tried to avert his eyes as he swathed
the towel around her—her extremely soft skin was warm to the
touch.

“
Sierra, I want you more
than any woman I’ve ever wanted in my life, but I can’t make love
to you.” Drake denied her.

“
I have to repay you
somehow. I know that giving myself to you in this way will be
enough.”

Drake took her shaky hands in his
while staring intensely into her bewildered eyes. He backed her out
of the water closet, until they were standing against her
bed.

“
I want you to know that
you don’t owe me anything,” he voiced reassuringly. “I want you to
invite me into your bed because you yearn for me. Not because
you’re looking for some way to repay me. Damn it! Sierra, I should
just take you like this!”

She trembled even more violently. He
let go of her abruptly.

“
Go to sleep,” he said
harshly.

Sierra glanced up at him with fear in
her eyes, wondering if she had done or said something
wrong.

“
Don’t distress. I won’t
leave you alone tonight.” Drake turned away from her and entered
her water closet again. He didn’t bother to shut the door before he
splashed cold water from the basin on his face. He eyed Sierra who
stood just where he had left her, watching him. “I thought I told
you to go to sleep!” With those last words he shut the door for a
moment of privacy. Leaning against it, he exhaled his pent up
sexual tension.