Tarnished Angel (13 page)

    His heart pounding, his eyes never leaving Lai Hua's, Jake stripped off his shirt and removed the rest of his clothes. Seconds later he was kneeling over Lai Hua, straddling her body. His breathing ragged, he touched her cheek in a gentle caress before sliding his hand into her hair to free it as he had so many times before. He spread the raven strands against the satin glow of her skin. Silk against satin.

    But his passion would allow no further delay. He lowered himself upon her, a low groan escaping his throat as white flesh blended with gold. He paused only briefly to probe the warm nest against which his manhood pressed so eagerly. Within seconds he was inside her, her sharp gasp causing him only a moment's distraction as he savored the glory assailing his mind.

    Lai Hua… Lai Hua… His mind sang a litany of her name, a litany that accompanied his thrusts, gave them impetus, brought him all too rapidly to the pinnacle of his soaring emotions. His passion-heavy eyelids lifted momentarily, allow him a view of Lai Hua's face. Her dark eyes were closed, sharp   slashes against the matchless tawny hue of her skin. Her soft lips were parted. He felt her breath against his mouth.

    Abruptly the joy of culmination
erapted
within him. Gloriously, rapturously, he thrust himself deep inside her and brought himself to shuddering rest.

    Sated and spent he lay upon Lai Hua's slenderness until a small movement awakened him to her discomfort. He rolled to the blanket beside her, his hand moving to cup her cheek as he turned to face her once more. Lai Hua averted her eyes from his, and momentary anxiety assailed him.

    "Lai Hua, is
somethin
' wrong? Did I hurt you?"

    There was a slight pause before her whispered response. "No, Mr. Jake, you did not hurt me."

    But Lai Hua's lips were trembling and she refused to meet his gaze. Jake's anxiety increased as a small tear slipped out of the corner of her eye. Damn, he had hurt her.

    Remorse sweeping through him, Jake gathered Lai Hua against him. His lips brushed her cheek, the curve of her ear, traced the line of her jaw. His voice was penitent. "I'm sorry if I was too rough, Lai Hua. It's been too long. I wanted you so much. But it won't happen again, I promise you." His lips touched her throat with his earnest whisper. "Let me console you,
darlin
'."

    But Lai Hua was drawing back, searching his face with anxious eyes. "You… you do not wish to leave me?"

    Jake shook his head, confused. "Not yet,
darlin
'. I haven't really had a chance to love you."

    The dawning of Lai Hua's smile halted Jake's words, and he shook his head, his confusion growing. "Why? What were you
thinkin
', Lai Hua?"

    Embarrassment clouding her expression, Lai Hua lowered her gaze once more. "I… I thought you had called me to come to you solely for the purpose of relieving your body, without thought of the woman who received you with love."

    Jake swallowed against the emotion Lai Hua's words evoked. He would never become accustomed to her lack of pretense, her candor. "You were wrong, Lai Hua. You were very wrong. It was the thought of you and all you are drew me to you tonight. You're not just any woman. You're very special to me."

    Unable to say the words he knew Lai Hua wanted to hear, Jake again folded her tightly against him. He trailed his lips over    the curve of her shoulder and down to the slope of her breasts. he murmured against her warm flesh, "Let me show you how I feel, Lai Hua. Let me prove how very special you are to me."

    Jake's mouth closed over the roseate tip that brushed his lips, and he heard Lai Hua's low sigh. Yes, he would prove the words he could not say. He would prove them well.

    The heat of passion had faded to a warm afterglow, but Jake still held Lai Hua in his embrace. He knew it would be more difficult this time than the last to let her go. His fascination with her increased at each searing touch, but the hidden reluctance of his passion remained.

    Lai Hua was silent in his embrace. Hating himself for his thoughts, for the deep prejudice that would not allow him to say the words he so desired to say, Jake drew her closer still. The warm silk of her hair cascaded over her sweat-slick skin, and he brushed the clinging strands from her shoulder. She was so small, her bones so fragile that there were times that he feared he would injure her with the violence of his lovemaking. Somehow that fear made him want her even more desperate.

    Without conscious intention, Jake took the dark silken strands thoughtfully in his hands and held them so they might catch the glow of the lantern, so he might follow the dance of onyx fire there. Unconsciously he compared the
untempered
blackness with the light golden hairs on the back of his hand. A startling contrast.

    Lai Hua began to stir in his arms, and he drew back far enough to see her face. A tender smile flicked across his lips at the love displayed so openly there. Her slender fingers moved against his cheek for a few silent moments before she began to draw herself from his embrace.

    "No, not yet, Lai Hua…"

    But Lai
Hau
would not allow him to draw her close. She shook her head and reached for the clothes he had discarded so carelessly. "My father will miss me if I do not return soon. I cannot allow that to happen."

    Annoyance nudged at his mind, and Jake stiffened. Lai Hua noticed his reaction.

    "Mr. Jake, my father must not discover that I am gone."

    The irony of the situation struck Jake anew. He berated himself for his own prejudice, when prejudice was just as strong   within the Chinese community against people of his own race. He was fully aware Lai Hua would be severely chastised should her liaison with him become known, and he did not want her hurt in any way. But neither could he let her go.

    Staying her as Lai Hua sought to rise from the blanket, Jake stared into the dawning of her inquisitive frown. Hesitating a moment longer, he traced her cheek with his finger, trailing it over the pure line of her jaw. He slid it down the fragile column of her throat. Slowly, he dropped it to the rise of her breast and followed the course to circle the soft mounds below.

    His eyes on the slowly accelerating rise and fall of her breasts, Jake whispered into the silence, "You say you love me, Lai Hua. Do you really love me?"

    Lai Hua's pink tongue moved out to lick her lips. Obviously unable to speak her response, she nodded briefly.

    "How much do you love me, Lai Hua?"

    Lai Hua's soft voice was hoarse with the weight of emotion. "Very much, Mr. Jake."

    "Enough to help me?"

    Leaning over her trembling body once more, Jake covered first one rosy crest and then the other with his lips. He drew back at her silent nod to whisper against the soft skin of her cheek.

    "I need your help, Lai Hua. I need it very much. It's this lady you're
workin
' for, Devina Dale."

    Lai Hua stiffened, obviously startled that he was aware of her new position in the Dale household.

    "I need to know more about her."

    "I could do nothing to hurt Miss Dale."

    "I don't want to hurt her,
darlin
'."

    "You follow your friend into danger to wreak vengeance on Mr. Dale. Mr. Dale is not a good man, and many of my people enjoy his discomfort. But his daughter is innocent of his crimes."

    Lai Hua's words echoed his own statement to Ross of a few days previous, but Jake frowned at hearing them on her lips. Lai Hua's mind was too quick. Not long after they had come together for the first time, she had guessed his involvement in the Till-Dale payroll robberies. In her candid manner, she had stated her suspicions, and he had realized then that he had two choices: He could either explain the situation so Lai Hua might understand the reason he had agreed to help Ross, or he could make  the decision never to see her again. Wanting her as he did, he had soon realized he had no choice at all.

    But Lai Hua had kept his secret, putting herself at risk each time she answered his signal and met him for a few short hours together. He had had no reason to suspect she might refuse his request this time. Her unexpected response made him angry.

    ''You said you'd never refuse me anything, Lai Hua."

    Lai Hua lowered her eyes. "I will do all I can to help you, Mr. Jake, but I will not harm Miss Devina in doing so."

    Jake assessed the firm set of Lai Hua's chin. He had seen that expression before. She would not change her mind, no matter how much pressure he brought to bear; and in truth, he knew he could never bring himself to force her. Abruptly, he was struck with another thought: Lai Hua's new position in the Dale household could be useful in another way… but he knew instinctively that now was not the time to press her.

    Jake managed a smile. "All right,
darlin
'. I don't want to make you unhappy. I guess Ross and I can handle things without you."

    Appearing startled at his sudden reversal, Lai Hua raised her eyes to study his expression. Her gaze, touched with suspicion, trailed his features slowly: the pale, almost transparent blue of his eyes, the line of his lightly freckled cheek, the firm set of his sometimes stubborn jaw, the warm fullness of his lips. Her gaze lingered there to examine the full, appealing curves of his mouth. She licked her lips unconsciously, remembering the taste of that mouth, the warmth it stirred within her.

    Realizing that her perusal was having an erotic effect on the strong body pressed against her, Lai Hua shook her head. "I am pleased that my refusal has not angered you, Mr. Jake, but I must go now. It is late."

    Jake's warm breath stirred her hair as he moved quickly and agilely to cover her body with his once more. His voice was low, threaded with a familiar passion as he whispered against her ear. "Just a little longer,
darlin
'. Just a little while…"

    The joy of the meeting of their flesh stilled Lai Hua's protest. With a soft sigh she slid her arms around the man she loved. There was no need for words.

    The eastern sky had begun to glow with the first light of dawn when the door of the dilapidated miner's shack again opened.

    Two shadowed forms paused in the doorway, blending briefly into one before Lai Hua drew back from Jake's embrace. Turning, she snatched up the lantern and the blanket from the floor, and within moments she had disappeared onto the trail back to town.

    A flicker of movement in the darkness outside the cabin went unnoted as Jake emerged a few seconds later and moved quickly to the rear of the cabin where his horse was tethered.

    The flicker of movement in the darkness of the yard became a shadow as a slight figure rose from concealment. It paused only long enough to allow Jake's horse to begin moving in the opposite direction before turning onto the trail behind Lai Hua.

    Concealed, the shadow followed Lai Hua. Silent and unmoving, it watched as she reached her home at last and slipped through the back door. The shadowed figure hesitated. Without a sound, it then turned and slipped off into the darkness, fading into the obscurity from which it had come.

    "Really, Father, this time I think you've gone a step too far."

    Devina paused in the doorway of the Till-Dale offices. The brilliant sunshine of morning at her back held her features in dark relief, but the exasperation in her voice adequately conveyed her frame of mind. In silent emphasis, she shot a quick glance over her shoulder. It barely grazed the head of Lai Hua before coming to rest meaningfully on the cowboy standing silently behind her, regarding her with a watchful, narrowed gaze.

    His gray brows knitting into a frown, Harvey Dale turned fully in her direction. "Come in, Devina. Sharpe, Lai Hua, you can both wait outside. Miss Dale won't be long."

    Taking her arm, Harvey drew Devina inside and shut the outer door behind her. Totally ignoring the two clerks who looked expectantly in his daughter's direction, Harvey addressed the short, meticulously dressed gentleman behind him. "George, you remember my daughter Devina."

    "Of course I do, Harvey. I'm pleased to see you again, Devina. I hope you'll enjoy your residence in Tombstone. Mrs.
Tillson
has found living here quite pleasant, now that she's become accustomed to the town's rather rustic charm."

    Devina's smile was stiff as she acknowledged her father's partner's greeting. "It's nice to see you again, too, Mr.
Tillson
. As for enjoying my residence in Tombstone, I'm beginning to have my doubts. Did Mrs.
Tillson's
acclimation to Tombstone's   'rustic charm' include having a bodyguard follow her when she left the house?"