The Trailrider's Fortune (24 page)

They stood on the
train platform, ready to board the Santa Fe for Kansas City. The train was
running behind. Rafe cursed when he was informed they'd be aboard all night.
"Give me and the wife one of them lower berths in the sleepin' car, then.
Can't expect a lady to sit up all night long." He glowered at Sparkle and
carried their bags up the narrow steps.

"It'll be all
right, Rafe," she soothed, knowing his agitation stemmed from his intense
dislike for being confined. He sat ramrod straight, looking ill at ease as they
left the station and headed into the Kansas heartland. He reluctantly uncoiled
when she snuggled against his shoulder.

He stared out at
the scenery in silence most of the day and managed to endure the crowded dining
car, though she noticed he didn't eat much. When the railroad staff announced
it was time to retire, he balked. "I'm fine in this seat. You take the
berth."

"You'll get a
kink in your neck, sitting up all night. Besides, I don't want to sleep alone
in there. It's not very gallant of you to suggest it. Who knows what
ungentlemanly louts are aboard this train?"

He dropped his
voice to a whisper. "Can't make myself crawl into a dark hole, Sparkle.
Can't be put in a box. You'll have more room to stretch out without me hogging
the space, anyhow. If there's a problem, them fellas workin' for the railroad
will come runnin'."

"It's not a
casket, for Pete's sake! And I don't want some man from the railroad. I want to
be alone with you. It's been several nights since we…" She left him to
finish the thought.

His face drew into
a scowl. "Still gettin' your way by hangin' that over my head, aren't you?
Hell, go get on your nightdress. I'll be along directly. Just need to get some
fresh air first."

Sparkle changed
into the cotton batiste nightrail she'd bought and waited for him in the berth.
She'd begun to worry he'd jumped off the damned train when he finally crawled
inside. She took one look and began giggling uncontrollably.

Rafe was clad in
long underwear.

"Hush
up," came his fierce whisper. "Dammit, I knew it'd be like a tomb in
here."

She reached to pull
him into her arms. "Don't think about it. Kiss me."

"Mmm, that's
better," he sighed moments later, hands stroking her curves over the
delicate fabric of her nightgown. "Maybe I can tell myself we're still in
that brass bed." His lips nibbled at her throat. "Bet you don't hate
Dodge the way you did. Had us some fine times, didn't we?"

Fine times
, Sparkle's mind repeated
silently. More like incredible, unbelievable, indelible times.

"Yes, but when
I get home, I'll have to take off the wedding band. You'll be staying on the
couch in Jace's study or on the parlor settee. My room's upstairs."

"So we've only
got tonight?"

She nodded, moving
his hands to her bustline. "Real sweet nightgown," he whispered.
Before she could stop him, he'd untied it and exposed her breasts.

His fingertip
teased a nipple into a taut pebble. She stifled a gasp as the pebble met with
the edge of his teeth. His tongue circled the firm nub, traced over its
partner. He bunched the gown's hem up around her hips, reaching for the curls
between her thighs.

"Rafe, we have
to be quiet!" she hissed.

"I'm good at
that. We'll find out if you can do it." She was already moist. He fondled
her in the darkness, using the heel of his palm and two long fingers to make
her writhe and squirm. "You're my woman," he asserted in a harsh
whisper, cupping her pubic mound fully in his hand. "
Mine
. Before
this train pulls into Kansas City, you'll tell me you love me. I think you do,
and I'm prepared to drive you plumb crazy until I hear you admit it."

"Rafe,"
she panted. "Take me…love me now."

"Nope. Not
until you say how you feel about me."

She tried to
unbutton his underwear, to pleasure him, but he wouldn't allow it. She
attempted to cover herself back up. He threatened to shred the new nightgown.
She tried negotiating favors. He wouldn't listen.

She endured it all
until she was fighting back screams of frustration, raw with unquenched desire.
It might have been minutes; it felt like agonizing hours. Rafe questioned her,
taunted her, cajoled her, telling her over and over her need would be well
satisfied as soon as she confessed her secret feelings.

Finally she managed
to free his swollen member from the clinging underwear. He groaned as she brought
him to straining, twitching life, stroking his length with both hands.

"Dammit,
you're still gettin' your way," he growled. He drew her thigh up over his
hip and plunged deep, sending his satin heat to vanquish her. He took her
savagely, matching the rhythm of the locomotive's steam engine, pumping,
grinding.

They climaxed
together, yet he didn't stop touching or kissing her, didn't withdraw. He was
on a quest, determined to obtain his greatest reward yet—the bounty on a
woman's soul.

Sparkle was powerless
against the onslaught. Nothing he did of a sexual nature surprised her; he'd
already done so many things in so many ways, she knew he was capable of
anything. Rafe Conley was pure animal lust and aggression. The embodiment of
every bawdy town like Abilene or Dodge City, raw need driven to own and tame.

She accepted it.
From the first, she'd understood that he was a rowdy, dangerous man. But the
tenderness…Why tonight had his mood and manner changed? For all his verbal
bluster, his kisses and caresses had been whisper soft at first…until they
seared deeper than ever. Until the passion blazed between them.

"Would it be
such an awful thing to belong to each other?" He caught her face between
his hands. "Stop hidin', Sparkle. You'll lie here naked in my arms, but
you won't show your insides. You've seen my scar. You know I don't like showin'
that to a woman. You know I been hurt, been left to feel like I'm not a man
because of it. But Christ, you're
beautiful
. You got no reason to hide
yourself. Why won't you let me see what's in your heart?"

"You scare
me."

"Had my loaded
gun against your chin, you never flinched. You're literally half shakin' now.
Doesn't make sense."

"It's not that
kind of scared. It's easy for me when you tease and talk like a hired gun. But
when you're serious and gentle like this…"

He sighed.
"When I kiss you like that, it's a special gift. Like your virginity was
to me. I can't share this side with anyone else. A mercenary ain't supposed to
have tender feelin's."

Her arms curled
around his neck. "I know."

"I'd rather be
dead than be alone in feelin' this powerful love, Sparkle," he murmured
low. "Never figured I'd fall in love. Knowin' you don't feel the same way
I do cuts worse than the Bowie."

God, why'd he have
to say that? Why
that
? "You're not alone, Rafe. I never should've
let you touch me, but I did and it's too late. Now I need you so much."

"Say it,
goddamn you," he hissed. "Once. Say it."

"I…Lord
forgive me, I think I
do
love you."

They melded then.
Bodies, souls, hearts, minds. At last Rafe tucked the blanket over them both.
The sleeping car was quiet but for the steady clack of the wheels along the
steel rails. Rafe drifted into slumber. She was exhausted, fully sated, but
unable to surrender to oblivion herself. She had too much on her mind.

Rafe honestly
wanted to marry her. Could she allow their game to become truth?

Ruby Ann's words
about raising fatherless children came back to haunt Sparkle, as did Frazer's
boasts of Rafe's exploits. Ned Slocumb sightlessly staring, blood trickling
down his face. Rafe's pronouncement he'd been hired to expunge a problem. Human
lives reduced to mere nuisance…

She would take Rafe
home to meet Jace. That act might prove her salvation. No one could look upon
Jace's withered limbs or heavy wheelchair and remain unmoved. Would a man who
craved freedom and open space willingly chain himself to a house-bound invalid?
Had Rafe ever considered that's what Jace was? Sparkle doubted it. She was
almost positive Rafe would change his mind about marriage after meeting Jace.

Sparkle was painfully
aware, every minute of every night and day, they were living on borrowed time. They
couldn't have a future together.

She couldn't live
like that, couldn't go through the pain of losing someone she loved to violence
again.

Sparkle pulled the
gold band off and dropped it into her handbag. "Oh dear, there's an
obvious mark on my finger."

"Doubt your
brother will notice," Rafe replied. "He'll be too busy inspectin' me
from head to toe. Remember how I felt the first time Miranda brought Zach home.
Hearin' we met up in a Wichita saloon ain't likely to warm him up to me
any."

"You can't say
we met there. We didn't. We met on the street."

"Darlin', I
wasn't plannin' to boast you wiped my boots with your bustle. Figured I'd say
you told my fortune. You did."

Sparkle violently
shook her head. "It can't be anything to do with a saloon or fortune
telling. Jace thinks I teach school."

They'd been walking
to the LaFleur house from the depot. Rafe set down their bags and burst into
uproarious laughter. He wrapped both arms around his middle and collapsed onto
the sidewalk, cackling so hard tears began to trickle from his eyes.

I don't see what's
so funny." Sparkle glared down at him, tapping her foot.

"A
schoolmarm
?
Hell, why didn't you make yourself head of the Women's Temperance League, or
the Reverend Mother of St. Lucinda's while you were spinnin' yarns?"

Sparkle gave him a
good swift kick in the rump. "Get up, you jackass! I wasn't even sixteen
when I hired his nurse and went to work. I said I was a teacher's assistant in
Topeka. When I got to the Scarlet Lady, I claimed I'd become a full teacher and
taken a post in Wichita. The nurse knows better, but Jace doesn't. That's how
my brother put up with me working in saloons. I never told him."

Rafe's backside
smarted where she'd kicked him and he was smothering with his shirt collar buttoned.
It was too damned warm for stiff collars or a corduroy jacket, but he wanted to
make a good impression on Sparkle's only kin. "How's he figure you make so
much money teachin' school?"

"I tell him I
also tutor privately on the side. Helped cover why I couldn't visit more
often."

"All right, so
I saw you walkin' down the street and tipped my hat. Or helped you out of a mud
hole, or whatever. How long have I been sweet on you?"

"I don't
know." She looked thoughtful, maybe spinning a new yarn.

Rafe caught her
hand. "Stop right there. It's been almost a year now we've known each
other, Sparkle. Collected my bounty on Slim Jensen early last summer. Course,
bein' a travelin' salesman or whatever I am, I only get to Wichita upon
occasion." He snorted with fresh laughter. "Is that what we're
claimin' about me? Or do schoolmarms take up with former outlaws to teach
morality lessons?"

"Ha-ha,"
she mimicked with angry sarcasm. "I don't see why we have to get into any
of that. You're just a gentleman friend. Jace will be surprised enough I've
brought a guest home. We don't generally—"

"I ain't just
some
friend
," Rafe growled in response. "You call me that one
more time, I'll horsewhip you."

"How? Snatch
took your bullwhip to Colorado," she reminded haughtily.

"Dammit, I'm
not funnin' now, Sparkle. I'm askin' for your brother's blessing. You ain't got
a pa, so it's up to Jace. He'll want to know all there is about me before he
agrees to a marriage. That's how brothers are."

"I haven't
said I'd marry you," she tersely reminded, mounting the front steps of a
modest home. The front door opened before she could knock or pull out a key. A
blonde woman in a starched white apron arched a pale eyebrow at them.

"Majesta. I've
decided to surprise Jace with a visit." Sparkle's voice sounded
artificially cheery to Rafe's ears. "I'd like you to meet Mr. Conley. He's
a gentleman acquaintance from Wichita. How's Jace?" Sparkle breezed past
the woman into the house.

Rafe studied this
Majesta. Sparkle said there was a nurse, but this gal didn't look like anyone
to alleviate suffering. She appeared more the type who inflicted it. All buxom
and stiff, cornflower eyes downright wary. Those eyes said Rafe was allowed
inside, but that didn't mean he was welcome.

"Please come
in." She pivoted as she closed the door behind him. Then he promptly
ceased to exist. She turned her attention to her employer.

"Your
brother's resting. He seems more tired than usual. I thought I'd let him sleep
until the meal's ready. You'll join us for supper, won't you?" She shot a
glance at Rafe. He nodded and cleared his throat, but had no chance to speak up
before she said icily, "Sparkle didn't wire she was bringing a guest. I
would have prepared something special. I'm afraid you'll have to take pot
luck."