California Caress Page 11

  Reluctantly, she ceased her struggles and melted back against the gunslinger’s chest. His hard shoulder pillowed her head and she could feel his heart drumming beneath the thick, rippled flesh of his shoulder blade. The sweet rush of his breath tickled her ear, fanned her cheek and neck. His grip had loosened enough to allow her deep, healing gulps of air.

  “Are you done fighting?” he asked, his voice oddly gentle as his breath stirred the wisps of hair clinging to her jaw.

  “No,” she panted, her own voice trembling as she shook her head. She had expected to hear mockery in his tone, perhaps a sarcastic hint of victory as well. There was none, and the lack of it confused her, “Let me go, Drake,” she pleaded, her words stronger now that the air had had a chance to work its magic. “Please? I’ll pay you. I’ll even have Papa increase your share in the mine. How does half of the profits sound? Three quarters? My God, you can have the whole damn thing, just let me go and forget our deal. Pleeease....”

  The last was a ragged, broken whisper, filled with desperation—and something else. Drake scowled. Was it terror that shaped her words? It was the same tone he’d heard when she’d first come to him with the deal, when he’d suggested he preferred a different form of payment. He was again struck with the feeling that her reluctance went beyond virginal innocence. He couldn’t help but remember how she’d acted with the other men. She laughed, she joked, she returned their stares. But not with him. With him she acted like a child who’d just woken up to find her worst nightmares come true.

  With hands that were gentler than Drake ever dreamed they could be, he eased her around. Her shoulders were squared with pride, but she kept her eyes lowered. Cupping her chin, he tilted her head up so that she had no choice but to look at him.

  “I don’t want your money,” he said softly, momentarily laying aside the irony of those words. He could feel Hope trying to pull away from him, but he refused to let her slip from the circle of his arm. Nor would he release her chin. Instead, he turned her head back when she would have looked away. “And I don’t want your claim. Not all of it, anyway.”

  “I know what you want,” Hope replied flatly. Swallowing hard, she fought the urge to run. Where would she go? She couldn’t run from this man, at least not very far. Hadn’t he already proven that?

  “What I want is an explanation,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “First, I want to know why you would come to my room, solicit my help, and agree to a deal you had no intention of honoring.” His voice lowered to a husky whisper. “Then I want to know why you can’t honor it. Mind you, I want the truth—if you think you’re capable of it.”

  Hope stiffened and her lips thinned into a tight, hard line. “I didn’t have a choice,” she said, tilting her chin away from his grasp as a spark of defiance flared in her eyes. “Believe me, if there had been another option, another man I thought could beat Larzdon, I would have taken my business somewhere else. Unfortunately, my father decided you were our best bet.”

  “So you decided to take a gamble and hope that the despicable Drake Frazier, that good-for-nothing gunslinger, would live up to his reputation, is that it?” Drake chuckled. It was a cold, mirthless sound. “I’m flattered.”

  “Don’t be,” she spat. Slapping his hand from her chin, she slipped from his grasp. She was surprised when he let her go so easily. “I didn’t like the idea any more than you did. But, like I said, I had no choice.” She took a deep breath and pushed on, determined to end this confrontation as soon as possible. “As for ‘payment,’ well my offer was for one hundred dollars. You’re the one who insisted on more.”

  “And you’re the one who agreed to it,” he reminded her coldly. Reaching out, he let the tip of his fingers stroke the smooth line of her jaw.

  Hope pulled back, more from the odd, tingling sensation the touch evoked than from the contact itself. “Not by choice!”

  “Ah, so you were forced then,” he nodded, crossing one arm over his chest. That muscular forearm pillowed the elbow of the other arm as he lazily stroked his chin with the tips of his index finger and thumb.

  He was mocking her, she realized, though she didn’t call him on it. She didn’t dare.

  “And where did they hide the gun, sunshine?” he asked, a sly grin pulling at one corner of his mouth. “In your underdrawers?”

  “That’s pretty low, Frazier. Even for you. What do you think, that they threatened my life and forced me to come to you that night?” she demanded tightly. Her eyes narrowed angrily as her hands balled into useless fists at her sides. “My own father? My brother? My friends? Think again. Your life may be ruled by the wrong end of a rifle, but not mine.” She tapped an index finger against her temple. “Unlike most of the women in Thirsty, I happen to have a brain in here. And what’s more, I know how to use it. What they suggested that night made perfect sense. Everything would have been fine if you’d taken my first offer. You’re the one who complicated things by not taking the money.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that there might be a reason you were the one chosen to deliver that message, Hope Bennett?” Drake asked, his voice low and deadly serious. “Of all the people in this little band of yours, why you? Why not one of the twins? Or that big hulking brother of yours? Isn’t the old man trustworthy enough to carry a message? Is your father too sick to be walking the streets alone at night? Why you?”

  Hope tipped her head to one side, her gaze wary as a shiver of apprehension curled up in her spine. He was trying to trick her, she thought. Trying to make her think that her family would sell her virtue for services rendered. He was wrong, of course. They wouldn’t do that to her, not her family, her friends. She knew it.

  This time it was Drake’s finger that tapped her temple. “Think about it, sunshine,” he said, that infuriatingly lopsided grin slipping back into place. “You have a brain in there. Use it.”

  “Oh, no,” Hope insisted, shaking her head as she brushed a stray chestnut curl from her brow. “If you’re trying to tell me they sent me to... to... you’re wrong. I was chosen because I’m the only cool-headed one of the lot. And they thought you’d listen to a woman.”

  “Listen? You’re sure about that?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Hope defended staunchly. She wasn’t lying, was she? Good Lord, he managed to make her doubt her own family! She was lost. “What other reason could there be?”

  “I don’t believe you. I think they picked you for another reason and if you can’t see that then you’re a goddamn fool.”

  “Get out,” she hissed, her brown eyes shimmering with anger. To Hope’s surprise, Drake made no attempt to stop her as she briskly stamped to the door. Flinging the flimsy thing wide, she jerked her thumb into the cool, dark night. “Just get the hell out.”

  “What, and solve all of your problems?” Drake asked as he slowly advanced on her. Again, she was struck with the impression of a wolf cornering its prey. “My leaving would solve all of your problems, wouldn’t it, Hope?” Drake pulled her away from the door and closed it. His fingers did not drop from her arms, however. “Sorry, sunshine. You got yourself into this mess and you’re going to have to get yourself out. I can’t help you there.”

  “Can’t? Or won’t? There’s a big difference. Can’t help means you couldn’t release me from our deal even if you wanted to. But we both know that isn’t true, don’t we?”

  “All right,” he conceded, pursing his lips and giving a brisk not of his golden head. “I won’t help you then. Better?” His palms were tracing slow, tantalizing hot paths down the outside of her arms, over her elbows, down to her wrists, then back up again. A shiver trembled through the tendons beneath his fingertips, and the feel made Drake smile. While her sharp tongue could deny the physical attraction crackling between them, her body was powerless to deny it. That faint trembling and the becoming flush that kissed her cheeks, coupled with the pulse throbbing frantically in the creamy base of her throat, told him quite a different story.

  Hope’s
tongue darted over her suddenly parched lips as she tried to ignore the shiver of delight Frazier’s more-than-casual touch inspired. “What did—” She hesitated, looked away, then continued faintly. “What did you mean before, when you said I’d been sent to your room for a reason? What did you really mean?”

  “Exactly what you thought I meant,” he replied, his features melting to stark seriousness. “That they sent you because they thought my head would be more easily turned by a lifted skirt than by a gap-toothed smile. Have to admit, their reasoning was pretty sound. It did work, didn’t it?”

  “You don’t expect me to believe the deciding factor in your fighting today was whether or not I would—um—” Hope flushed clear down to her toes, “compensate for your time.”

  “Why not?” he asked dryly. “It’s the truth.”

  “And if we’d sent my brother, or Old Joe instead?” she asked. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute and her palms were suddenly cold and damp with nervous anticipation. “What then?”

  Drake chuckled. “First, I think they would have had the good sense not to show up in my room half-drunk,” he replied, causing Hope’s flush to deepen. “Second, I don’t think their fainting in my arms would have had quite the same effect.” This was said with a sly, knowing wink. “Third, and last, I would have sent them packing the second they made the offer—an offer, I might add, that they could not have sweetened the same way you did.”

  “But you didn’t send me packing. Why not? Why them and not me?” Hope’s voice was soft, breathless, the direct result of the hand that had slipped around her waist and now gently stroked the small of her back.

  Drake pulled Hope against him, surprised at the pleasure the feel of her lithe body against his incited. “Let’s just say the opportunity to get to know you better was more than I could resist.”

  The words were whispered hoarsely against her ear, rustling through the chestnut waves, caressing her cheek like a warm summer breeze caresses a soft forest leaf. Her breath lodged in her throat and she tilted her chin up only to be caught again by that brilliant, piercing gaze.

  “Don’t,” she breathed softly. Her hands played helplessly atop the sinewy chest, as she watched the sensuously carved mouth dip with lazy confidence. Her tongue tingled with the savored memory of his taste, and Hope sucked in a ragged gasp when she felt her body spark to keen awareness. Eager anticipation shot through her blood as she unconsciously craned her neck to meet the kiss.

  His lips were soft and tender, gently coaxing the fire that kindled in her veins. The sweet, lingering warmth of his touch ignited the first fragile sparks of passion.

  With a whispered sigh of resignation, Hope lost herself to the taste of his lips, to the pleasant, spicy aroma that seemed to both surround and engulf her at once. Combined with the sweet magic of his kiss, her wall of resistance was knocked down as though it were built of porcelain.

  Drake sensed her surrender with a surge of satisfaction. In his hotel room, she had begun to return his ardor, only to overcome the weakness and pull away. Though the passion had been fleeting, it had been enough to hint at a churning jumble of desires, carefully guarded beneath her defiant pose; a revelation that served only to whet his appetite for her.

  The hands at her waist grew bolder, and though Hope would normally have called a quick halt to such an intimate contact, she was suddenly too gloriously diverted by the first insistent probing of a warm, moist tongue flickering over her lips. She found herself slipping her hands up over the broad shoulders, entwining her arms around the thick cord of Drake’s neck, burying her fingers deep in the flaxen smoothness of his hair. The strands felt deliciously like raw silk beneath her fingertips.

  Since she had already molded her body into his, there was no need to hold her still. Drake put his hands to better use. The gentle curve of her hips fit the cup of his palm to perfection. He let his hands linger there, inwardly amazed at how the feel of warm, vibrant flesh beneath the smooth muslin made his fingers itch to remove the barrier. His imagination was quick to conjure up the image of soft, creamy flesh. The thought brought a rumbled groan to the back of his throat.

  Hope blossomed beneath the demanding exploration of Drake’s tongue. The kiss deepened, intensifying to an incredible pitch. Denial was wiped away, leaving not a trace in the wake of an all-consuming passion that burst through Hope’s body.

  In unison, the hands that stroked her hips turned inward, trailing over the quivering, taut flesh of her stomach. They gained momentum as they reached the swell of her breasts. The palms lingered there, savoring the feel of the firmly upthrust buds straining against the thin fabric, before continuing up and settling on the table of her shoulders.

  He couldn’t slip his hands over her shoulders to trail down the curve of her back, as he would have liked, without breaking the circle of her arms. The exquisite feel of her hands caressing his neck, tickling the underside of his earlobe, was too pleasurable a sensation to surrender.

  Instead, Drake contented himself on another downward stroke. This time, his fingers didn’t just hesitate, they stopped completely when they reached the curve of her breasts. Like her hips, each one nestled perfectly in the center of his palm. Before there had been only a deep, insistent desire to remove the annoying barrier separating hand from flesh. Now there was a burning, aching need to do so.

  The playful antics of Drake’s teeth trying to nibble at the tip of her darting tongue distracted Hope long enough for him to free the first three buttons at the nape of her neck. Two more slipped from their holes in the time it took for realization to begin nipping at the back of Hope’s mind. By the time the seventh button slipped free, she was shockingly aware of what was going on. Her heart skipped a beat, then began pounding furiously.

  Hot fingertips seared across the rippled strip of flesh on her back a split second before a strangled cry of terror escaped her lips. Frantically, she pushed against the wall of his chest. Surprised, Drake let her go, and she slipped easily from the circle of his arms.

  She wasted no time. The gut-wrenching fear pumping through her veins had the same effect as a bucket of ice water being thrown over a sleeping drunk. Terror served to drive away any remnants of passion that might have remained.

  A quick look at the confusion on Drake’s hardening features convinced Hope not to wait for the rest of his reaction. Hoisting her skirts, she bolted for the sack of flour. The skirt slipped from her fingers only once. It wrapped itself around her ankles, trying to trip her, but she reached out and steadied herself on the side of the table before any damage could be done. Snatching up the peachy folds, she plunged on. Another mistake like that and Frazier would be on her before she could reach the gun.

  Two footsteps thudded on the planks behind her in the time it took her to reach the lumpy sack. Skidding to a stop, and coming treacherously close to slamming into the wall, she crouched low and grabbed the pistol. Her calves sent a weak protest to her mind as, still in a half-squat, she spun on her heel and leveled the barrel smack at the middle of Frazier’s chest.

  Drake had been on the other end of a gun barrel enough times to know when to stop. He came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the floor, and to Hope he looked remarkably like a charging bull brought up short by a barbed wire fence.

  “Come any closer and I’ll take your head off,” she warned, her voice a breathless mixture of exertion, fear, and dread. She punctuated the threat by pulling the hammer back with her thumb. The metallic click of the rotating chambers echoed, loud and ominous in the ensuing silence.

  Working under the assumption that the gun was loaded—and only a fool would be stupid enough to assume that it wasn’t—Drake assessed Hope’s skill and decided there was little doubt she had enough to use the gun. But would she? One glance told him the girl was petrified, and, like a frightened, cornered animal, her actions couldn’t be predicted.

  Drake was right, Hope was scared to death. However, he’d surprisingly overestimated her prowess with a firearm.
She made no effort to correct the mistaken assumption. If Frazier thought she could do something besides load, point, and fire the pistol, then all the better. She certainly wasn’t about to admit that her lessons had stopped just shy of teaching her how to aim the damn thing.

  A lazy grin twisted Drake’s lips as his gaze flickered between the gun and Hope. Only the leery glitter in his eyes gave hint to the trepidation coursing inside.

  “Well, sunshine, are you going to shoot me with that thing or am I going to have to wrestle it away from you?” he drawled with an easy shrug, as he settled his hands on his hips. The gaze took on a decidedly wicked twinkle. “Personally, I prefer the latter.”

  She tilted her chin proudly, meeting his gaze head on. “Try it,” she spat, trying to ignore the trickle of admiration that seeped into her blood at the man’s apparent immunity to fear. That he could be so calm in the face of adversity, while she held the upper hand and still sat trembling like a leaf, annoyed Hope to no end. “Go ahead and try it, Frazier. But you’d better move fast because...” she paused, angling the gun until the barrel was aimed directly at the space between his golden brows, “so help me God, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

  Her words seemed to have impact. Casually, Frazier took a seat on the crudely built bench. Leaning back, he rested his back against the table’s edge and lazily stretched his legs out before him. He crossed his arms over his chest, his booted legs at the ankles. To Hope, he looked for all the world like an old friend come to chat.

  “You know,” Drake said as he stared thoughtfully into the dwindling fire, “you’re going to have a tough time explaining my dead body to the rest of your little gang when they return.” His gaze swept the room, then settled on Hope accusingly. “What are you going to tell them? That when I came to collect payment, you, having changed your mind, shot me instead? Don’t think the miner’s court’ll go easy on you with that one.”