Love's Sweet Revenge (13 page)

Mid-July

“Which one is the son and which one is the father?” Pepper joked. It was his turn to drive the three-seater carriage in which Randy, Evie, and Katie rode when the family went to Denver, well ahead of the cattle drive behind them. Jake did not want any of the noise and dust of the drive to affect the women, who at the moment watched Jake and Lloyd racing two young mustangs not far away.

“Pepper, if it weren't for Lloyd's long hair, it would be difficult to tell,” Randy answered him. “As far as behavior, I don't think Jake ever got past twenty himself. He behaves like a younger man and then pays for it at night.”

“Well, ma'am, he's a man who's known a lot of pain. I reckon he's just learned to live with it.”

The words stabbed at Randy's heart. “Oh, yes, he has a very high tolerance for pain of
all
kinds, not just physical.”

“Looks like Lloyd won,” Pepper said with a chuckle. “They're heading this way now.”

Pepper pulled up on the horse, halting the carriage while they waited for Jake and Lloyd to catch up. Several of the regular help stayed at the ranch, taking care of daily chores and helping watch the grandsons while Teresa and Rodriguez took care of the little granddaughters. The only ranch hands along who worked steady for Jake were Pepper and Cole. The others were drifting cowboys hired out of Longmont and Boulder, as well as two younger men belonging to neighboring farmers who wanted to earn some money. Randy couldn't help smiling at one of the boy's comment that he would get to go on a “real cattle drive with Jake and Lloyd Harkner,” which they considered an exciting honor.

She didn't mind traveling this way. She and the other women could have taken a train to Denver, but all three preferred what some might now call the “old-fashioned” way of reaching their destination. The carriage they used was high quality, with good springs that made for a comfortable ride.

Jake and Lloyd reached them on lathered horses.

“Wait for me here while I go get a fresh horse,” Jake told Randy with a wink. “I want you to ride with me somewhere. I found a spot with a view you need to see.”

Lloyd dismounted. “Pepper, get on down and take this horse back to the herd. I'll drive the carriage for a while.”

Pepper climbed down. “Whatever you say. You're the boss.”

Lloyd got up into the seat beside Katie, leaning close to give her a kiss.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“Pa is taking my mother for a ride, and I miss you,” Lloyd answered, “so I'm going to ride beside you for a bit.” He kissed her again. “And I can't wait till we get a room in Denver.”

“Lloyd! Your mother and sister are sitting right behind us!”

“Hell, they understand.” He turned and smiled at the other two women. “Has she told you yet?”

“Told us what?” Evie asked.

Lloyd looked at Katie.

“Not yet,” she told him. “We have to be real sure.”

“I'm sure enough.” He turned back to his mother and sister. “The race is on, Sis. Katie's carrying.”

Evie reached forward and shoved at him. “It's not supposed to be a contest, big brother.”

“Well, Sadie and Tricia aren't far apart in age, and they have each other to play with. What if it's boys this time? They'll each need someone to play with, too.”

“Well, it could be girls again,” Evie told him, “but if I have another boy, I hope he's not as wild as Little Jake. I won't be able to handle it.
You
can have him. In fact, if you have a girl and I have a boy, I'll
trade
with you.”

Lloyd laughed. “Speaking of Little Jake, here comes
big
Jake.”

Jake rode up close on a big roan gelding, reaching out for Randy. “Let's go.”

Randy watched him slyly. “I don't trust you, Jake Harkner.”

“After thirty years?”

“That's
why
I don't trust you. I've known you too long.”

“Come on. Get on this horse.” He glanced at Lloyd. “Help her up here, Lloyd.”

Lloyd climbed down and helped his mother out of the carriage. Randy let out a little scream when he picked her up and raised her up to Jake, who grasped her around the waist and hoisted her up to sit in front of him on the horse. “You just keep going,” he told his son. “We'll catch up in time for supper. Of course, none of us is crazy about Cole's cooking, but we have to make do without Rodriguez.”

“I wonder how he and the boys back at the bunkhouse are doing, trying to watch Little Jake?” Lloyd joked, winking at Evie.

“They'll be more worn out than if they were out digging trenches,” Jake answered.

“Daddy, Katie and I can help with the cooking this evening.”

“No. This is a hard enough trip. I don't want the women doing anything extra.” Jake glanced at Katie. “You young women need to take it easy. Lloyd tells me you're going to give me and Randy grandchild number six, not long after Evie has number five.”

Katie blushed. “I'm pretty sure.”

“Well, you're both making a really old man out of me.”

“You'll never be old, Daddy,” Evie told him. “Mom either. Look how pretty she still is.”

“Oh, I am well aware of that, baby girl.” He grinned and rode off with Randy.

“Jake, what are you up to?” Randy asked warily, hanging on to her hat.

“Just some time alone with my wife. I want to show you how pretty it is in that pine forest to the west.”

“That had better be all you want. We are out here with the whole family and a lot of men.”

Jake pressed her closer, taking her a good quarter of a mile west of the parade of buggies, wagons, and cattle and into a stand of pines where the ground was carpeted with needles and the trees offered cool shade. He dismounted, then helped her down and tied his horse. He took a blanket from behind the saddle and spread it out on a thick carpet of needles, then removed his guns and sat down. He reached up, and Randy saw the sly look in his eyes as she took his hand. “Jake—”

He pulled her down to sit beside him. “I just thought we'd have some quiet time together.”

Randy breathed deeply of the pungent smell of pine. They sat in the shade, watching the distant procession of family and animals make their way over what was currently government land. They had special permits to move on through private property as they made their way to Denver.

“Beautiful, isn't it? You can see our wagons and see the cattle off in the distance. It's quite a scene.”

“It is.” Randy watched quietly for a few seconds as Jake moved an arm around her shoulders. She turned to meet his eyes, seeing something familiar there—something she didn't want to see. “I know you better than I know myself, Jake. You're worried about going to Denver this time, aren't you?”

“I'm not worried about a damn thing.”

“Yes, you are. You're thinking about Mike Holt, and about that prosecutor who'd like to bring you down.”

He sighed, removing his Stetson and lying back. “Yeah, well, you're right. I want this thing with Holt over with. I can't help wondering what he's up to, and I'm worried about Lloyd. Evie, too. If that man gets anywhere near her, I don't know how Lloyd will react…or how
I
will react. I want this to be a nice trip, Randy. We'll go to the Cattlemen's Ball and maybe the theater, and you can shop for some new clothes and whatever supplies we need.” He pulled her down beside him and rolled to his side, moving a leg over her and pulling her close. “I just want to do something extra nice, because in a few days we'll celebrate our thirtieth anniversary.”

Randy smiled. “You remembered!”

“Of
course
I remembered.” He moved on top of her, leaning down and kissing her softly. “Thirty years of too much hell for you.”

Randy touched his hair, thinking how thick it still was, with tiny streaks of gray that only seemed to make him more handsome. “Nobody loves like you do, Jake. That's all I've ever needed, and few women can say they've been adored and cared for in all the ways I have. Yes, it's been hell sometimes, but not because of you, and never because of how you've treated me. And as far as Mike Holt, there are laws now that will take care of him if he makes trouble. You remember that and
let
the law deal its justice. He'd be sent right back to prison.”

He kissed her again, this time deeply, in that way he had of disarming her. Randy knew his worry about trouble had brought this on. Jake Harkner was a man who was not good at handling any kind of threat to those he loved. Whenever he sensed such things, he always turned to her in a need to prove to himself that she was right here in his arms and everything was all right. And whenever he kissed her this way…touched her this way…needed her this way…

“My boots are still on,” she groaned as he moved a hand under her dress and pulled at her underpants.

“So are mine.”

She closed her eyes as he sat up slightly to yank the underwear off and over the boots.

Randy ran her hands over the hard muscles of his upper arms. “Have I told you how handsome you look in this blue flannel shirt?”

“Yes.” He moved a hand back up under her dress. “And you wore your yellow checkered dress today. You know what yellow does to me.”

Randy gasped when his fingers moved inside of her. “Why is that, Jake?”

He worked his magic. “I don't know. Yellow just looks so beautiful on you, and you know how I like it. You wore this dress deliberately, just to drive me crazy.”

“I never gave it a thought,” she said softly.

“The hell you didn't.” He leaned closer to nuzzle the soft cleavage that showed at the square neckline of the dress. “I still love these breasts. They are perfect. Have I ever told you that?”

“Practically every day.”

Amid deep kisses, he fondled the right places.

“You're a devil,” she whispered.

“Who do you belong to?”

“A man who insists on embarrassing me by”—another kiss; Randy felt the intense ecstasy of an orgasm building—“taking me off in the woods when the whole family”—another kiss—“probably suspects what we're doing.” She cried out in an intense climax, one that came on more quickly than normal because of the hint that trouble could be around the corner. The silent fear of being torn apart again always made their lovemaking more fiery and commanding than it normally would be for two people together for so long.

“Jake—” She moaned his name.

“God, I can feel your climax,” he told her, pressing his fingers hard against her to help increase the intensity of the moment.

“Keep touching me there,” she whispered.

He kissed her deeply as he kept his fingers pressed tightly to satisfy a climax that hung on longer than normal. He let go to unbutton his pants and long johns, then moved his hand under her bottom, pushing himself inside her while the pulsations of her climax continued pulling at him. “You still make it feel so good,” he groaned as he licked and kissed her neck.

He found her mouth again and moved deeper. Randy buried her face against that part of his chest revealed by a few open buttons on his shirt. She enjoyed the feel of his weight on her, the hardness of his body, the ecstasy of his fullness pushing deep inside her, a man still able to make love in every way a woman needed. His concern over her only made her love him more…want him more. No matter how intimate they were, there was always that feeling of respect and adoration that only made him more desirable and irresistible.

He kept up the rhythm in the joining that helped both of them take strength from each other. Randy leaned up to draw his mouth back to hers, clinging tighter when she remembered how it felt to think Marshal Kraemer had come to arrest him. No one was going to take him away from her again. No one!

His life pulsed into her, and they lay there quietly for a moment, sharing soft kisses, Jake still hovering over her.

“Are we crazy, coming out here like this?” Randy asked softly.

“Probably, but after all we've been through, we have a right to do this anytime we want and any
place
we want.”

“I suppose so.” Randy felt him stiffen as he looked past her.

“Don't talk anymore,” he whispered. “And don't move a muscle…not one finger or one toe.”

“Jake?”

“Shh.” He put his face down beside her ear. “There's a grizzly bear watching us,” he whispered. “Don't move.”

Randy tightened up in terror.

“My gun is right beside us,” Jake assured her.

“Can you kill a bear with a six-gun?” Randy whispered in reply.

“Not with one shot—but maybe with all six. Be still. She might go away if we don't move. She has cubs with her.”

“Oh, God, there is nothing more dangerous!” Randy whispered.

His left arm tightened beneath her while he very slowly took his right arm from under her so he could grab his gun if necessary. They lay there as still as possible, saying nothing, breathing against each other's ears.

Jake finally managed to turn his head enough to see the bear cubs cavorting nearby. His horse whinnied and reared in terror when it smelled the bear. It jerked its reins loose and ran off. The startled bear cubs took off in another direction, heading deeper into the foothills, and finally the mother bear followed.

Jake wilted against Randy. “She's gone.” He raised up on his elbows. He waited a few seconds, watching the trees into which the bear and her cubs had disappeared. Finally, he looked down at Randy. “Do you realize how ridiculous we must look? I'm still inside you.”

Randy met his gaze, and they both started laughing. “Oh, for heaven's sake, get off me!” she told Jake. “The horse! It will go running back to camp, and God knows how many men will come riding up here, wondering what happened!”