One Bright Morning (33 page)

It took all of the strength in Jubal’s body
to keep himself from plunging into Maggie’s sweet, ready
femininity. But he was sure that he’d explode immediately if he
did. He wanted to know that Maggie’s pleasure was complete first.
The best and quickest way he knew of to assure that complete
pleasure was one that was chancy, because Maggie was a proper lady.
But Jubal was about to bust, so he decided it was worth the
risk.

Whispering sweet endearments the entire
time, he kissed his way from her breasts to her belly to her
thighs, and then to her precious womanhood. Very carefully, he
risked a brief kiss. When he glanced up from between her thighs,
Maggie’s eyes had opened in astonishment.

“
It’s all right, Maggie,” he
whispered, praying that she wouldn’t rebel.

His gratitude was impossible to measure when
she sighed a soft, “Oh, yes,” closed her eyes, and he felt her hips
arch under his lips. He dipped his tongue into her honeyed depths
once more, heard her gasp a low moan of pleasure, and was
momentarily afraid that he would burst even before he was inside
her.

Maggie hadn’t realized it was possible to
feel the sensations that shot through her body as Jubal’s lips and
tongue pleasured her. Her skin was on fire and she had never felt
so alive. Liquid heat coursed through her body. And the pressure
was building and building until she thought for sure she was going
to shatter into a million pieces.

And then she did. Suddenly, in one gasping,
shimmering, wave of pleasure, she exploded in a burst of light. She
was sure the scattered fragments of herself would never float to
earth again.

For some time Maggie had been dimly aware
that the tiny, gasping, mewing noises she was hearing were coming
from her own throat. With the incredible surge of energy that Jubal
sent coursing through her body, she nearly screamed. A ragged cry
of pleasure tore from her throat and ended in a gasping sob.

She was still feeling the rippling spasms of
her orgasm when Jubal, with a harsh moan of anticipation, lifted
his body over hers, and thrust his aching sex into her dripping
treasure.

Maggie received him with something close to
reverence. She had never experienced such ecstasy in her life,
hadn’t known it even existed on earth.

“
Oh, God, Maggie, you feel
so damned good,” Jubal groaned in her ear. Her sheath was still
contracting with residual spasms of fulfillment, and Jubal felt as
though his very life’s essence were being sucked out of
him.

It had been so long, and he was so hot, and
Maggie felt so good, that four or five deep, exquisite thrusts sent
him hurtling after Maggie into the most amazing bliss he’d ever
experienced. His seed shot from him in frantic bursts of
pleasure.

When he eventually came back down to mortal
soil, he wasn’t sure he’d ever recover. He didn’t want to. Maggie’s
body felt like sleek satin underneath his. His face pressed into
the hollow of her throat and he wanted to drink of her forever. His
shuddering spasms of pleasure subsided only slowly.

When he became aware of his surroundings, he
was surprised to find himself murmuring sweet words into Maggie’s
satiny skin.

“
Oh, God, Maggie, I didn’t
know it could be so good.”

Maggie herself was sobbing. Jubal became
aware of that fact only gradually and, when he did, he was
aghast.

He lifted his head and stared at her with
terrible concern. “Maggie, are you all right?” He stroked her hair
back from her damp face, and peered at her. “Did I hurt you?”

Maggie took a deep breath and sobbed, “Oh,
my Lord, Jubal Green, I didn’t know anything on earth could feel
that good.”

She didn’t even try to stop crying. Rather,
she flung her arms around Jubal’s sweat-soaked shoulders and hugged
him to her so hard that Jubal was afraid he’d crush her.

Still, he was a happy man. He had been
afraid his own needs were so overwhelming that he hadn’t given
Maggie the full measure of the pleasure she deserved. Apparently,
he needn’t have worried.

When Maggie finally quit sobbing, she rained
ecstatic kisses over Jubal’s face. She traced his high, chiseled
cheekbones and his beautiful, sensual mouth with her fingers.

“
My Lord, Mr. Green, I know
this is a sin, but I don’t even care right now. And I know a real
lady would never say such a thing, but thank you. I didn’t know
anything could feel that good.”

“
It’s not a sin, Maggie. And
you are a real lady. You’re the finest lady I ever met. And I
wanted you to feel it. God knows, I wanted you to feel
it.”

Jubal kissed her again, so hard and so
thoroughly that his manhood began to stir once more. He figured
he’d better stop that right now, or Maggie would probably get
scared. He didn’t know very many women who wanted it more than once
a month or so, much less twice in one night. He hoped Maggie would
be different in that regard as she was in so many others.

It wasn’t only concern for Maggie, however,
that stopped him. His healing wounds were beginning to seriously
object to this strenuous exercise. His shoulder in particular was
throbbing from holding up his weight, and he rolled off of Maggie
with a groan of regret.

Maggie sighed when he left her. But then
Jubal wrapped his strong arms around her and hugged her close to
his body, and she smiled and cuddled up next to him. Jubal decided
this was an all-right sort of way to end a perfect evening.

He did, however, wake up once during the
night. Delighted to find himself entangled with sweet Maggie Bright
and since his muscles no longer throbbed from their earlier
exercise, he decided it would be worth experimenting with a few
kisses. Maggie responded immediately, and they made slow, sleepy,
languorous love together. He made absolutely certain his own needs
didn’t overpower his goal, which was to take Maggie to deeper
depths and higher heights of pleasure than he had the first
time.

Maggie cried even harder the second
time.

Jubal wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to that
reaction to her pleasure at his touch, but he planned to try very,
very hard and practice as often as he could in the endeavor.

Chapter Fourteen

Prometheus Mulrooney was livid with rage
when he arrived in Santa Fe only to discover that it was no mean
trick to get from there to Lincoln County. His heart was set on
personally watching Maggie Bright’s farm burn down.

“
What do you mean there are
no rail tracks to Lincoln?” he screeched at Ferrett, who cowered
before him, flinching miserably as each word flayed his tender
sensibilities.

“
I’m sorry, sir,” Ferrett
stuttered. “They haven’t laid any tracks yet, sir. In order to get
there, you have to take a ‘jerky’ through Apache
Territory.”

“
Apaches
?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
There can’t be a place that
uncivilized still left in the United States,” roared Mulrooney, who
had lived in New York all his life.

“
Well, sir,” stammered
Ferrett, “Technically this is a United States Territory, sir. I—I
guess different rules apply.”

Mulrooney skewered Ferrett with a malignant
scowl and then stood stock still and quivered in impotent fury for
a full two minutes. It looked as though he were having a terrible
time comprehending the fact that he, Prometheus Mulrooney, a man
wealthy beyond measure, could actually be thwarted in his evil
scheme by the realities peculiar to New Mexico Territory. By
something as trivial as transportation, for heaven’s sake! His face
turned a deep purple.

“
What’s a ‘jerky’?” he asked
at last.

Ferrett, whose eyes had been shut in
anticipation of a huge explosion, quaked them open and peeked
uncertainly at his employer.

“
It’s a mercantile wagon,
sir.”

Mulrooney’s frown deepened, but his color
lightened. “You can’t possibly expect me to ride two hundred miles
on a mercantile wagon, you imbecile.”

“
No, sir.”

“
Well, then?” roared
Mulrooney, setting Ferrett’s knees to trembling
furiously.

“
Well, sir, Mr. Pelch has
looked into the purchase of a wagon for your use, sir. It will be
incommodious and uncomfortable, sir, at best, and you’ll need many
guards to protect you from the wild Indians that roam the Territory
between here and there, sir, but it will be more to your liking,
I’m sure, than the ‘jerky.’ I—I don’t know what you prefer to do,
sir,” he admitted miserably.

Mulrooney pinned poor Ferrett with a
malicious, piggy glare. “Toad,” he spat. Then he sat himself down
and proceeded to think.

While Mulrooney thought, Ferrett attempted
not to squirm. It was an effort destined for failure, since Ferrett
had a naturally squirmy disposition, but he tried very hard to
confine himself merely to wringing his hands in anguish.

Finally a satanic smile spread itself slowly
over Mulrooney’s face. Ferrett saw that smile and was not
comforted.

“
Buy the wagons and hire the
guards, Ferrett. I’m going to see that harlot’s farm burn. I won’t
deny myself that pleasure, even if it means a delay in getting to
El Paso.”

“
Yes, sir,” whispered
Ferrett, relieved that this torture would soon be over and that
he’d be allowed to leave his boss’s presence.

“
Well?” thundered Mulrooney.
“See to it, you blithering fool!”

“
Yes, sir.”

Ferrett propelled himself out of Mulrooney’s
railway carriage as though he’d been shot. His retreat from his
employer’s presence was so precipitate that he crashed flat into
Pelch, who had been hovering at the door of the next carriage,
waiting to comfort poor Ferrett upon his eventual release from
Mulrooney’s custody.

“
What did the devil say, Mr.
Ferrett?” Pelch asked breathlessly.

“
He said to buy the wagon
and hire the army, Mr. Pelch. We’re going to Lincoln. He says he’s
set his heart on seeing for himself that the poor woman’s home is
destroyed.”

Pelch shook his head in dismay. “He’s a
devil, Mr. Ferrett,” he said glumly. “He doesn’t have a heart.”

“
A scab over his liver is
more like,” agreed Ferrett with an unhappy nod.

“
Well, I suppose I’d better
get on it before he starts to yell again,” Pelch said with a deep
sigh of regret.

“
I suppose,” muttered
Ferrett.

The two men walked slowly through the
carriage that was used by them as an office. They made their
unhappy way to the front of the train, where they began to debark.
Suddenly Ferrett grabbed at Pelch. His skinny fingers trembled as
they gripped his friend’s arm.

“
Mr. Pelch,” he said in
quivering accents.

“
Yes Mr.
Ferrett?”

“
Do you see that little
saw?”

Ferrett’s gaze was fastened on a metal saw
that hung on the wall of the engineer’s cabin.

“
Yes Mr. Ferrett, I
do.”

Ferrett’s little eyes were fervent when they
sought Pelch’s face.

“
Do you recall that our
employer enjoys standing outside his carriage on the observation
deck?”

“
I do, Mr. Ferrett,
yes.”

“
When the carriage is in
motion?”

“
I do recall that, Mr.
Ferrett.”

“
Do you recall that he often
leans against the wrought-iron railing as he smokes his foul
cigars?”

Pelch didn’t answer Ferrett’s question
immediately. His eyes opened wide and he, too, sought the saw on
the wall.

“
I recall that as well, Mr.
Ferrett,” he whispered at last.

“
Mr. Mulrooney is a large
man, Mr. Pelch.”

“
He is indeed, Mr. Ferrett.
A very large man.”

“
That little rail has to
support a good deal of weight when he leans against it, Mr.
Pelch.”

“
That’s very true, Mr.
Ferrett.”

The two men stared at each other for several
nerve-wracking seconds.

Ferrett cleared his throat. “Perhaps it
would be best to purchase our own saw, Mr. Pelch.”

“
I believe that would be a
wise precaution, Mr. Ferrett.”

The two men bounced against each other in
their hurry to get off the train and into town to find a hardware
store.

# # #

When Maggie woke up the next morning, she
felt just wonderful. She’d never quite got used to sleeping with
Kenny, but she fit exactly into the cradle Jubal’s body made for
her, and her head tucked perfectly beneath his chin.

It wasn’t until her eyes
fluttered open that she realized that she
was
in Jubal Green’s arms, and in his
bed, and she remembered exactly what her wicked, weak character had
led her to do the night before. She nearly groaned in
dismay.

That was before she realized how very, very
good she felt. Then she sighed with a puzzling mixture of
contentment and shame and wished she didn’t have to get up and face
the day and the awful embarrassment it would bring.

I just hope embarrassment
is all I have to face
, she thought with a
sigh.
Lord, I am a fool
.

She didn’t for a second believe that Jubal
had anything in mind but a carnal interlude. She couldn’t imagine
being loved by more than one good man in a lifetime, and she’d
already had Kenny.

They had not closed the door that separated
Maggie’s room from Jubal’s, and Maggie knew she’d have to get up
and see to Annie soon. Annie wouldn’t wait for her foolish, fallen
mama’s heart to quit soaring and come back down to earth.