Lily (Wildflowers Of Montana Book 5) (3 page)

My mouth fell open and my drawers got very damp.

CHAPTER THREE

JACK

I watched varied emotions flick across her face. Shock, arousal, awe, fear, surprise. I could read her easily—she would not be a very good poker player. Fortunately, this helped my cause. But it did surprise me when she stood abruptly, her chair scraping across the wood floor. I, too, stood, of course, and it took the time for her to flee the restaurant to know that I needed to follow. Perhaps I’d pushed her too far. Hell, no. She was going to be mine and the sooner she knew, the better. I had two days. Two fucking days to get that ring on her finger and my cock deep inside her. I had to know that while I was pretending to be one of the worst criminals in the territory, that I had something good in my life, something innocent and pure waiting for me. I wouldn’t be gone overlong, a week, perhaps ten days at the most, but she’d read the worst lies imaginable about me—my outlaw persona, Eli Pike, was to rob the train of a strongbox, even kill one of the engineers—and think the worst.

While we hadn’t even ordered yet, I pulled some coins from my pocket and tossed them on the table, then followed Miss Lenox from the restaurant. I glanced left and right, squinting in the bright sun that cut between the buildings. I saw her half a block down—I couldn’t miss the beacon of her gorgeous hair—and stalked after her. The closer and closer I got, I wanted to grab her about the waist—as I had when I rescued her from the stage—and carry her back to my hotel room. Instead, I took her arm, firmly but with a gentleness that belied my strong feelings, and steered her down the nearest alley.

She looked up at me in a way that I knew would have felled a lesser man. “Keep looking at me like that, Miss Lenox, and you’re going to get yourself kissed.”

Her mouth fell open and I could see her straight, white teeth. “Unhand me!”

I slowly shook my head as I pressed her against the clapboard wall of one of the businesses. We were in shadow so the air was cooler. The noise from the street was lessened, settled back and away from the street as we were. We were alone, yet in the very middle of the bustling town.

I released my hold, but when she made efforts to escape, I planted my hands on the wall on either side of her, pinning her in place. Her breathing was erratic and I could see the faint tick of her pulse at her neck.

“If my words upset you, I am sorry. That was not my intention.”

She quirked a brow and crossed her arms over her chest. “What
was
your intention?”

“To make you aware of my intentions.”

“Your intentions?”

She frowned, a small crease forming in her brow. I pressed my thumb to that spot and smoothed it out, but she swatted my hand away.

“It wasn’t your
intention
to make me upset about your
intentions
?”
She rolled her eyes, then laughed, but she hadn’t found it humorous. “Why me? I’m just the woman who was almost killed by a stage. I’m plain, contrary—”

“Argumentative,” I added.

She pursed her lips at that, then added, “A bluestocking.”

“A vegetarian. I believe that is the name for someone who doesn’t eat meat. God only knows why,” I grumbled. Who didn’t eat meat?

She didn’t add more to her list of more… unique traits. I’d left off beautiful, which, by the way she sighed dejectedly, I realized I should have said first.

“What do you want from me?” she whispered, so I leaned in closer.

“I thought I’d made that clear. I am going to marry you. Then I am going to fuck that prim, prickly attitude right out of you.”

She blushed, but her eyes narrowed in fury. “I’m prickly now, too?”

I grinned. “That’s what I like about you the most, getting you all riled up.”

Her cheeks turned a darker shade of red and I enjoyed watching it creep down her neck. “No one’s ever talked to you like that before?” I bent my arms so I was even a little closer, crowding her a bit more.

She shook her head and I saw the circle of green in her eyes get smaller.

“What if I said I enjoyed watching your breasts move as you try to catch your breath?”

Her hand came up and struck my cheek, the sound of the slap loud in the alley. I felt the sting of it, but instead of making me angry, it made me hard.

“You like it rough, do you?” I asked.

“Mr. Matthews,” she began.

“What is it, precious? Scared?”

She laughed, but it was fake. Her bravado slipped then and I saw so much more than she wanted to share.

“That’s what this is, this attitude. You’re scared.” As if I’d just figured out a complex puzzle, it all became clear. She wasn’t as standoffish as she led people to believe. She just wasn’t letting anyone get close to her. Her reasons I didn’t know—yet—but I could see the real Miss Lenox now. Stroking my finger gently over her cheek, which was silky soft and warm, I soothed her. “You think I wanted to fall for someone today? You think my plans included a spitfire redhead?”

“Just let me go and this…
spitfire
can leave you alone,” she replied tartly. “You can go right back to your damned plans.”

“We’ll talk about your language later.” I slowly shook my head as I continued to stroke her skin. “I can’t go back, precious. You feel it. I know you do. Not every woman almost gets run over by a stage because she’s fallen for me.”

“I haven’t fallen for you,” she countered quickly. Too quickly. Her eyes lifted to mine briefly, then lowered to my mouth. I stifled a groan.

“You’re scared,” I repeated, my words softer. A loud bang came from the street, perhaps a barrel fell onto the boardwalk, and Miss Lenox looked down the alley. Taking her chin with my fingers, I turned her head back to me. She met my gaze for a moment, then flicked away.

She nodded once.

“Ah, such a good girl,” I crooned. “I’m scared, too.”

“You?” Surprise laced the one word. “What on earth can a big man like you be scared of? I’m sure you frighten bears away.”

I grinned. “I’m scared of you,” I admitted. This slip of a woman had a hold on me like no one before, and I was sure, no one after.

She frowned, doubting me, but perhaps believing the gentle tone of my words. “Me?”

I nodded. “I have two days in Butte, before I have to… to travel for work. Two days to court you proper and get my ring on your finger, but I think we both know that it’s inevitable.”

“What is?” I watched as she swallowed, licked her lips.

“Us.”

Tilting her head slightly, she asked, “You have two days?”

Two days where she thought I was a good man, not the thief and killer she would soon read about in the newspaper, most assuredly gossiped about all over town. She’d know, though, that what I felt about her was real before she heard all the lies. I had to make her mine before then, for she wouldn’t want anything to do with me after.

I could return to Washington and no one would know about my exploits, even after the colonel and the copper kings made the false story be as real as possible. If they wanted Benson, then they’d use me to get it. I had been fine with that, for Pinkertons did their job. But now everything had changed because of a woman who I hadn’t even known existed an hour before. I’d heard about love at first sight.

I couldn’t say if it was love that I felt for her, I just knew I couldn’t live without her. It was crazy. I was crazy. Maybe I was crazy because I was going to be an outlaw in just two days. Maybe I wasn’t even going to come out of this alive.

All I knew was that these two days were a gift, just like she was. I’d take it and hold onto it as best I could, only hoping that once Benson was behind bars and at the mercy of the copper kings that I’d still have her. I just had to trust that she was smart enough to see the difference between the real me and what was going to be spread about me in the newspapers. I wanted to tell her the truth about this plan, but I’d been sworn to secrecy. The rich bastards didn’t trust anyone.

The colonel had received enough pressure from the copper kings whose money had been stolen by Benson. They wanted vengeance, retribution. They wanted to make an example out of the outlaw, to let the world know they were more powerful than even the most dangerous of criminals. It was my job to join Benson in a bank robbery—his specialty—and have him caught red-handed. These wealthy men would pay me to bring in Benson alive. They didn’t want him dead, they wanted him alive, to stand trial, to be lambasted in the newspaper. No good example could be set of a dead man. For this, they would pay me not through the Pinkertons but in stocks and shares, if I took on all the danger myself. I’d go undercover, risk my neck for their credibility and profits. It was my secrecy in trade for the large financial payoff at the end.

With this redheaded vixen standing before me, was the chance of her hating me worth the payoff? Once Benson was behind bars where the copper kings wanted him, I could quit my job, care for her, protect her, love her the way a man should. I wouldn’t have to roam the countryside following outlaws. I wouldn’t have to work any longer. Ten days in trade for the rest of my life with her. No more outlaws, no more danger. Only
her.
Was it worth it? To have
her
all to myself, no telegrams, no powerful rich bastards deciding my fate? Hell, yes.

“Two days. But you’re already mine. I’ll come back for you. No matter where I go, what I do, you’re mine. Aren’t you?”

I leaned in even further, the tips of our noses bumping. Our breaths mingled, the floral scent of her heady and potent. I wanted to sink my fingers in her silky hair, sink my cock into her virgin pussy. I wanted to make sure she never forgot who she belonged to. I wanted her to make me whole again, to make me remember that I, too, belonged to someone. When I left to join Benson, I’d leave behind a part of me with her, a good part. A part that Benson couldn’t touch.

“Lily,” she whispered.

My brows went up at the name.

“My name is Lily.” Her eyes lowered to my mouth, remained there. “I figure you should know the name of the woman you’re about to kiss.”

The thrill of triumph coursed through me and even as I grinned, I lowered my lips to hers, brushing sweetly and softly across them. Soft and warm, those were my first thoughts. Tentative, yet bold as she pressed against me, but I wouldn’t rush. Wouldn’t hurry this.

“Why are you going so slowly?” she breathed, her hand curling about my neck.

“This is my last first kiss, precious. I want to savor it.”

The sound that escaped her was part moan, part purr. While I wanted to press her into the wall, let her feel how much that sound made me hard, I held back. An alley wasn’t where I was going to make her mine. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t slip my tongue into her mouth and learn every hot, wet part of her.

She was delicious, perfect, incredible, hot, innocent, sultry. Everything, which made it so hard to lift my head, to step back.

“You get one day, Lily. One day of courting. Tomorrow, we see the preacher and I make you mine.”

She didn’t slap me this time. She didn’t even frown or shoot daggers at me. Instead, she leaned against the wall as if she needed the support and bit her swollen lower lip. “All right, but can I have another kiss first?”

It was my turn to groan. I wanted another kiss more than I wanted my next breath. “No. I’m doing this right. The next time I kiss you it will be after the vows.” When she lifted her hand to my chest, I took it in mine, held it away from me. My willpower was only so strong. “I mean it, precious.”

She pouted.

“And I thought you were a good girl,” I teased.

Her body tensed at that, but I pulled her against me, her hand trapped against my chest. “There’s nothing wrong with a good girl having a naughty side. Especially
my
good girl. Tomorrow. Tomorrow you can show me just how naughty you are.”

CHAPTER FOUR

LILY

Jack’s mouth was on mine, kissing me in a completely different way than the chaste peck at the end of our wedding ceremony just a few minutes earlier. My mouth opened on a gasp at the way his gentle, yet demanding mouth felt as he plundered me with his tongue. His tongue! I had no idea it would be so… carnal to have a man’s tongue touch mine, to lick every inch of my mouth. Jack was overwhelming me, surrounding me and I was sinking fast, my knees weakening by the second.

After the first kiss in the alley, he had kept his word and hadn’t kissed me again until I was Mrs. Matthews. I knew he wanted to, for his eyes had been on my mouth often enough since. I’d wanted him to kiss me, too. Perhaps because he refused to do so. But this kiss, oh, this kiss more than made up for it!

He’d opened the door to his—our—hotel room, pushed me inside, kicked it shut, then spun me around so my back pressed against it. I barely had time to catch my breath before he lowered his head to mine. His forearms rested on either side of my head and I swear I felt every long, lean inch of him against me.

“Are you sure that ceremony was legal? It was really short,” I murmured between long kisses. I barely had enough breath to utter the words. His clean, spicy scent filled my senses. Peppermint flavored his tongue.

Jack kissed the corner of my mouth, then along the line of my jaw. When his tongue licked at the skin there, I moaned. Heat pooled between my thighs and I felt my nipples tighten.

“I paid the minister extra for the short version.”

I’d never heard Jack’s voice this deep before, this rough. We’d spent the remainder of yesterday together, returning me to my house at the end of the day, then picking me up just after the sun rose. It had been a long night alone in the house, tossing and turning—Dr. Bower not yet returned from Boulder.

His breath fanned my heated skin. Opening my eyes, I stared up at the white plaster ceiling as I angled my head, giving him more room to kiss down the side of my neck. “Why?”

“So I could do this.” He nipped at my earlobe and I moaned. I had no idea my ear was so sensitive. Reaching out, I grabbed Jack’s waist and wrapped my fingers around the soft fabric of his shirt and held on for dear life. Beneath my palms, his body was hard and the muscles tensed. Heat radiated from him and into me until I thought I might combust.