King's Fancy Page 20

  “Well, we’re mighty glad he couldn’t reach you because we’d surely starve to death if you went away.”

  King felt her tense in his arms and he wondered if it was because that’s all anyone ever valued her for, what she could do for them. Never for who she was, or what she could mean to someone else. He felt a knot form in his throat, as he realized how guilty he’d been, how guilty they’d all been.

  “Did you kill the cougar?” Jericho asked, bringing his mount alongside King’s.

  “No.” King shook his head. “I couldn’t shoot him while he was in the cave, not without a risk of hitting Fancy. So, I shot in the air. When he came hurdling out of the cave right on top of me, I jumped out of the way and dropped my rifle before I could get another shot off.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t kill him,” Fancy confessed. “I was frightened to death of him, but he was only doing what comes naturally.”

  “Maybe, I should try and trap him, move him out of the area, farther west.”

  King nodded. “Yea, let’s do that. It’s just a matter of time before he takes down a cow or calf, then we’d have to kill him, for sure.”

  “I like that idea, I don’t want to see anything suffer.” Fancy placed her hand over the clawed place on her arm, wondering at the turn of events. The pain she was feeling was welcome, it convinced her this wasn’t all a dream.

  When they rode up to the barn, they found Ace waiting for them, his hands stuffed in the front pockets of his pants. “Fancy, are you hurt?”

  She assured him she wasn’t. “Just a minor scratch, it’s not even sore.” This was a little white lie, but she didn’t want the young boy to worry.

  “I fed Little John for you and Beauty is settled for the night.” Ace informed them of his good deeds while taking the reins of King and Jericho’s mounts. “I’ll take care of the horses for you too.”

  “Good boy.” After lifting Fancy to the ground, King tousled Ace’s hair. “Don’t know what we’d do without you.” His affection for the boy had crept upon him slowly. Now, he couldn’t feature King’s Ransom without him. If Gentry located Ace’s sister, he wasn’t sure what would happen. They’d cross that bridge when they came to it, he guessed.

  Before they could make it across the yard, Boone came out to welcome them. “Fancy! Glad to see you’re okay. Come on in, I’ve got supper on. A big pot of chili.”

  King placed a protective hand on Fancy’s back as she climbed the steps to the porch. “Even better than flapjacks. Thanks, Boone.”

  “Happy to do it. Miss Fancy deserves a break.”

  King guided her through the door, and on into the kitchen. “Sit right here and let me get some water on to warm.”

  “I already put a kettle on, I thought she might like some tea,” Boone said, moving to the cabinet for a cup. “How about it, Fancy?”

  Frankly, Fancy didn’t know what to make of all this. “Please, yes, thank you.”

  “I need to doctor Fancy’s arm while she has tea, then we’ll eat.”

  Fancy felt like she’d awoken in the midst of someone else’s life. From the first, the men had always been polite, but never this attentive. And King…well, she wondered what had come over him.

  While Boone fixed her tea, King gathered a wash basin, a rag, and a tin of healing herbs, then came to kneel by her. “Let’s get your sleeve rolled up.”

  Any other time, Fancy would’ve been mourning the damage to her dress, but King’s proximity and his warm hand on her arm drove any other thought from her mind. As he removed the make-shift dressing, she felt mesmerized watching his face as he examined her. The scruff on his cheek, the strong line of his jaw, the sculpted high cheekbones – even the small beauty mark at the corner of his eye fascinated Fancy. She held her breath as he touched her tenderly, his focus so complete, that she could gaze at him to her heart’s content.

  As King wiped away the blood from the wound, he listened to her breathe. When she bit back a gasp, he stopped what he was doing. “Is it painful?”

  “Not very,” she assured him, as she smiled at Boone who brought her a cup of tea. “Thank you.”

  “I’m afraid this will leave a scar,” King told her as he spread a thin poultice of herbs over the gash.

  Fancy laughed wryly. “With all those freckles, who’ll be able to tell?”

  King glanced up to see that Boone was busy at the wood stove, stirring his pot of beef and peppers. “I plan on kissing each one later tonight…that is if you’ll let me.”

  Fancy’s breathing grew shallow. “Oh, I have too many, they’re all over my body.”

  “Even better.” King moaned softly at the thought.

  “What are you two whispering about?” Boone asked as he sat out bowls and spoons for their use later.

  Fancy shook, she knew King could feel her trembling. Was he serious? Or was this some new way to tease her?

  “Just planning what needs to be done next around here.” He winked at Fancy. “We don’t want to forget anything.”

  “Right.” Boone nodded his agreement. “We probably should get a few more hams in the smokehouse.”

  “Exactly.” King finished up, tying a white strip of linen around Fancy’s forearm. “Now, you finish your tea while I put this stuff away.”

  Fancy’s eyes followed him as he moved around the room, her heart pounding in her chest. They were long past the need for a chaperone, they’d lived in the same house for weeks. She in her room, he in his…but this night felt different. Even with Boone in the same room with them, she could sense an excitement in the air. The words he’d whispered to her were as intimate as his kisses had been. So, what did this mean? Were they courting? There was no question she adored him, she’d come here to be his bride. She might be innocent, but Fancy knew whatever he wanted that was in her power to give him – she would. Gladly.

  Jericho and Ace joined them, and the conversation drifted from topic to topic - from the cougar, to Reno’s brother’s dire situation, to the charges that would be brought against their neighbor. They didn’t bring up Gentry’s quest to find Amelia, Fancy knew they didn’t want to get the boy’s hopes up if the Englishman wasn’t successful in bringing her home.

  As for her, she could barely eat, wondering what the night would hold. Would they talk? Would they kiss? She covered her eyes and groaned.

  “What’s wrong with you, Fancy?” Ace asked.

  “Are you hurting? Do you want some whiskey?” Jericho jumped up to get the bottle and a glass.

  “Do you want a blanket? Are you cold?” Boone asked.

  “No. I’m good, I’m just…overwhelmed.” She wrung her hands together. “You are all being so good to me.” Seeing that they were looking at one another like they were confused, she clarified, “this has been a full day and I’m a little edgy.” Fancy held King’s gaze, knowing he realized she was talking about more than the bull’s disappearance and her round with the cougar.

  “Well, you probably need to get to bed,” Boone told her. “We’ll probably wait up here for Domino and Reno to get back from the Sheriff’s office.”

  King jumped up. “No, not here. I’m tired too. You all can wait outside. Or in your own cabins.” He picked up his bowl and Jericho’s to take to the dishpan.

  “Hey, I wasn’t finished,” Jericho protested.

  “Yes, you are.” He clapped Ace on the shoulder. “You’re all finished.”

  Boone stared between King and Fancy, seeing them trying to avoid looking at one another. Fancy was blushing, and King looked like he could bite through barb wire. “Oh…I get it now.”

  “Get what?” Jericho asked, still glancing back at his bowl. “I wanted seconds.”

  “Well, fill your bowl and take it with you,” King suggested rather forcefully.

  “I want some cookies,” Ace announced.

  “I’ll get them for you.” Fancy rose to get Ace something to appease his sweet tooth.

  “I’ve got it,” Boone gestured for her to sit back down. “I
’ll get these two what they need, and we’ll be out of your hair in a jiffy.”

  “Why are we in such a rush?” Ace complained as King steered him toward the door.

  Jericho looked as confused as Ace until Boone winked at him, then nodded his head toward the couple who only had eyes for one another.

  “Oh, right.” Jericho grabbed his refilled bowl and took Ace by the scruff of the neck. “Let’s get out of here, Ace of Spades. Why don’t we go check on Little John and make sure he’s settled for the night?”

  In no time, Fancy and King were the only ones left. They’d been alone many times, existing separately within the same space – but this was different. Awareness fairly crackled between them.

  Fancy didn’t know what to expect. She felt like a ground squirrel who’d attracted the attention of a hawk. “Did you want to talk?”

  “I’m sure we need to, but I don’t think I can. Not tonight.” He came close to her. “I just need to know one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Do you want me?”

  Want him? “I’m not sure what you…”

  King shut his eyes, he had to remember how innocent she must be. “In your bed. In my bed. Do you want to be with me?”

  She understood him. He meant as a man with a woman. There was only one answer to his question. “Yes, I want to be with you.” Every day. In every way. Forever.

  “Good, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you said no.” He came to her slowly. “It’s been so long for me. You don’t know how I’ve ached. The day we played chess and you won a kiss, I ached for you that night.”

  She wasn’t sure what he meant, exactly, but she understood aching for someone. “I’ve ached for you too.”

  “You have?” He moved a step closer to her. “So, you’ll sleep in my bed? You’ll let me love on you?”

  “Yes.” Fancy nodded her head, her body shuddering with anticipation. “I’d like that very much.”

  “Hot damn!” King pounced on her, much like she’d feared the cougar doing, but this was one pounce she welcomed with her whole heart.

  Fancy couldn’t help but giggle as he picked her up and stalked off toward the bedrooms. “Your leg, it’s feeling good?”

  King laughed, obviously happy. “Hell, if I know. I’m not paying it much attention. It’s my third leg that’s bothering me.”

  “Your third leg?” Fancy asked as she clung to his neck, almost dizzy with the thrill of being held in his arms. Before he could answer, it hit her. “Oh…” His third leg was his manhood. She wasn’t completely ignorant of the sex act, she’d seen barnyard animals, and some people she’d served hadn’t been very discrete. One home where she worked, Fancy and her charges slept in a room with only a curtain separating them from the marriage bed of the couple who owned her. She learned a lot lying there in the dark, listening.

  When they bypassed her room and he carried her into his, the reality of her situation began to sink in. “Are you sure you want to do this?” She couldn’t help but think how he’d acted when she first came. If she’d made any move toward him then, he’d have run for the hills and never stopped running.

  “More than sure.” He placed her on the bed and began undressing. Fancy’s eyes grew wide. She hadn’t seen him without a shirt often, but she’d never forget that first day, when she’d still thought he was to be her husband. Her hands itched to rub him, to caress him. When he’d been hurt, she’d tended him, but there’d been no freedom to touch him as she wished. But now…now he stood before her with impossibly wide shoulders, his muscles were hills and valleys she couldn’t wait to explore. And when he took off his pants and she saw his strong legs and the bulge between them – she melted.

  “Can I leave my clothes on?” she whispered shyly.

  Years later, if she were to name her favorite things in the world, the look on his face when she asked that question would be one of them. She saw abject disappointment, an intense longing, and a hunger she couldn’t even begin to process.

  “Yes, but I think it might break my heart.”

  Fancy knew at that moment, no matter what it cost her, no matter how embarrassed she might be – she wouldn’t deprive this man of anything he wanted. Once he saw her, he might understand her hesitation, but she would risk it – she’d risk anything for him. “We don’t want that.” She raised up, so he could help her remove the damaged green dress. “Just don’t expect much, okay? I’m not beautiful like you.”

  King knelt by the bed. “Oh, I know exactly what to expect. Raise your arms.” When she did, he pulled her dress over her head, then kissed the soft spot where her pulse throbbed in the hollow of her throat. “Ah, just as I remember. Perfection. Absolute perfection.” She still wore her shift, but he could see how it molded to the soft mounds of her breasts.

  “Remember?”

  “Yea, I’ve seen you unclothed before.” The familiar heat he’d felt when he beheld her naked for the first time, rose deep inside him, pooling in his groin. His need for her was so intense, he had trouble drawing breath into his lungs. Reaching out, he caressed her cheek with one fingertip.

  “When? I didn’t know.”

  He gave her a sly smile, pushing a red-gold curl from her forehead. “I saw you rising from your bath, like Venus from the sea. You were the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen. I went to my bed and fisted myself until I came – just from seeing your glistening, perfect body.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh?” He removed her shift, then her undergarments, pulling them down over her hips until she was naked and soft and waiting just for him. Her breasts were firm, creamy globes, topped with berry red nipples, they looked to be just the right size to fit his hands. His gaze drifted down to sweep the length of her shapely legs. “Is that all you can say, gorgeous?”

  “No, I can say…hold me.”

  She held out her arms and he went into them, burying his hands in the mass of her red-gold curls. With gentle fingers, he explored her face as a blind man would, almost as if he’d never beheld it, and might never have an opportunity to do so again. Lord help him. “You are so beautiful, Fancy.”

  A shadow crossed her face. “I’m not, you know I’m not.” She smoothed his hair off his forehead.

  A tidal wave of desire crashed over him, “Don’t say that, I was so blind when we first met. I…” She stopped his speech with a quick, clinging kiss that scattered his thoughts like wind-blown leaves.

  “Shhhh, it doesn’t matter.” From the first day they met, she’d wanted to touch, kiss, and hold, dreaming of him burning for her. Fancy drew his head down and his lips covered hers in a fierce claiming that swept away her trepidation and drove her untried need to a fevered pitch, feeding the hunger with every tease of his tongue until she was vibrating with a need so intense she thought she would faint.

  “You matter,” he murmured as he pulled her against him, pressing the mounds of her bared breasts to his powerful chest. Her heart beat in time with his, a frenzied rhythm. King clasped the back of her head and crashed his mouth to hers, pushing aside all differences, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings in one long, devouring kiss. He reveled in her taste – intriguing innocence, wild honey, and a feminine longing so irresistible, he thought he might lose his mind with want. “You could drive a man crazy with need,” he whispered in her ear once he paused for breath. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He touched the bandage on her arm. “You want this?”

  “Please don’t stop,” she told him, her face uplifted for another kiss.

  “I won’t, baby, I won’t.” King pressed soft, butterfly kisses down her elegant throat before returning to her succulent lips. He’d never get enough of her, he desired Fancy far more than he’d ever wanted Caroline. Theirs had been a relationship of family expectations and polite affection, not this consuming passion he felt for this red-headed temptress.

  Unable to resist any longer, he slipped his hand down to find the gentle curves of her body – savoring, caressing. Her s
atin skin was even more velvety soft than he’d dreamed. Cupping her breasts, he moaned at how good they felt in his hand. He molded and kneaded the sweet flesh, his fingers rubbing the responsive swollen tips.

  “You like that?” he asked as a soft whimper escaped her throat.

  “Oh, yes,” she said on a ragged breath, leaning into him, wordlessly demanding more caresses from his questing fingers. Sliding her hands up the hard muscles of his chest, she wrapped her arms around his neck and ran her fingers into his hair.

  King’s good sense abandoned him, all coherent thought fled. Only Fancy remained. Even though his control was slipping, he forced himself to take his time, to ensure that she received pleasure. Moving over her, brought his mouth to her chest, determined to kiss every freckle, every inch of her, starting with those beautiful breasts and suckable nipples. “You’ll never know how long I’ve wanted this,” he said, just before his lips closed over the sensitive nubbin of her nipple.

  Fancy moaned with pleasure. She’d never felt anything so wonderful as his mouth tugging at her breast. He fed on her as if he was starving and all she wanted to do was give and give until they were both satiated. Clasping his head, she wove her fingers into his hair, pressing his head to her breast, urging him to keep working this intense, insane magic. Being this close to him, feeling his hardness pressing against her, inhaling his masculine scent – her heart thundered in her chest like a stampeding herd of wild horses.

  As he suckled at her breasts, his hands moved down her body, and tingles followed wherever they went. Delicious sensations washed over her in heated waves, each one more powerful than the one that had gone before. She didn’t think there was anything in the world that could feel so good.

  She was wrong.

  When his hand slipped between her thighs to stroke her tender folds – Fancy almost fainted. Amazing spirals of ecstasy sent her soaring heavenward. Never had she known such wonder existed. Fancy felt as if she was on the brink of some miraculous discovery, something amazing and wanton. Her heart filled with love for him, a love so strong and powerful, it could no longer be denied.