Crimson Palace (28 page)

She had a fairly good idea what he wanted from her, but she was determined that he would not get it. At least not yet. "That" would happen when she was ready, and when it suited her purposes. But for now, why not enjoy these delicious sensations?

She parted her lips, inviting his warm, moist tongue to tantalize her senses even more. As he deepened the kiss, her heart pounded wildly, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her whole body shuddered at the thrill of his touch as his hands moved to cover her breasts. Though she loved the way his hands made her body come alive, she reluctantly forced herself to pull away.

"I don’t think we should be doing this," she said, unable to control her trembling voice.

"Oh, I think we should be doing this, and more." He breathed the words seductively near her ear. He then began covering her throat with light kisses as his hands continued their exploration. Her body pulsated as each new thrilling sensation flowed through her. Suddenly, forgetting her resolve to make him wait for her favors, she longed for more.

Her breasts came alive under his fingers, the nipples tensing until they ached deliciously. She had a wild desire to open her blouse to his touch, to have his hot, moist tongue tease her flesh. A wicked craving nearly caused her to beg him to touch her where she had never been touched by a man before.

She arched her body toward him, longing to feel the full length of his masculinity pressing against her.

How she longed to feel his hands slide the full length of the inside of her thighs, to touch the hot, pulsating core of her femininity.

A grown of desire escaped her lips when his hand left her breast. Don’t stop, she silently begged. But then she realized that he was reaching under her skirt, pushing her petticoat out of his way. The full realization of his intentions suddenly forced its way into her foggy brain.

"No, Clay!"

She jumped to her feet, managing to put several yards of space between them.

"No, Clay?" He asked the question with a smirk on his face. "Perhaps I’m mistaken, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself every bit as much as I was."

Her hands nervously smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt.

"Well, yes, but...oh, I just want to go home. Please, just take me home."

Her face was scarlet with shame and unfulfilled passion. How could she have let the situation get so far out of hand? She was the one who would be in control of this relationship. Not him! How could she have allowed him to go so far? Although she was angry with him, she was absolutely furious with herself.

With a shrug of defeat, he got to his feet.

"Never let it be said that I didn’t give a lady what she wanted."

The silent ride back to town was only a few miles, yet to Jenna, it seemed to take hours. Neither spoke as the miles inched by. Her self loathing consumed her, robbing her of the ability to make light of the situation. How stupid could she be? She could only hope her lapse of control would not destroy the plans she had so carefully made.

Clay was the type of man who would lose interest in a woman once he had tasted her passion, she was certain of that. But she wasn’t finished with him! She would get what she wanted from him. She would get what she wanted from everyone. She would wave Clay Turner under her hypocritical mother’s nose yet. And giving into him so easily was not the way to it.

Her fury trebled as she recalled their latest row over Jenna’s choice of companions. How dare Shinonn criticize Clay! Who the hell did she think she was anyway? Maybe Shinonn had forgotten her own beginnings, but Jenna knew what kind of woman her mother really was. Just where did she think she got the right to tell her own daughter how to live when she herself had gotten her start working in a whorehouse?

Jenna would never forgive her mother for the humiliations she had suffered as a child because of Shinonn’s lurid past. Nor would she forget the constant fear she had endured all those years she had lived in Boston, worrying that someone would discover her secret and expose her to the ridicule of her friends.

Jenna was so consumed by her own thoughts that she was barely aware of the man who sat beside her.

Had she been less absorbed in her own deliberations, she might have seen the look of smug satisfaction on his face, the reflective glint of triumph in his eye. His cynical smile should have warned her that she was playing with a very dangerous fire. Unfortunately, the warning went unheeded. Only destiny would decide who would be burned in the flames she so blithely generated.

***

"How dare you interfere with my life like this!" Jenna shook with fury. "I can’t believe you would do such a thing, mother."

"You don’t understand, darling. I just thought you’d enjoy seeing Ned’s ranch with him and, since you’re not working at the library this afternoon, I merely suggested to him that today would be a good day for it. He’s been wanting to show it to you for the longest time. And he’s such a nice boy, Jenna. I know you’ll just love him once you get to know him better."

"Better? I hardly see how that would be possible, mother. Every time I turn around, there he is. Have all of those ‘accidental’ meetings been arranged by you also?" She ignored her mother’s hurt expression as she continued. "If you don’t mind, I prefer to choose my own friends."

"Ah, baby, please don’t take it that way. Ned is so anxious for you to get to know him better. And he is such a sweet boy. Please, give him this one chance."

Jenna paced the room in firm, hard strides.

"Ned has character, which is a great deal more than I can say for his brother. And yet the only man you have shown any interest in is Clay. Is it too much to ask for you to spend just a little time with Ned? Who knows, perhaps, if you gave yourself the opportunity, you might come to see him in a whole new light."

"Because he’s such a ‘nice boy’? I’m sure I could find plenty of ‘nice’ boys, if I cared to look. But personally, I prefer Clay. He’s handsome, he’s fun, and he’s exciting. If you want to know the truth, Clay did not choose me, I chose him."

"Darling, Ned is on his way here right now. I suppose I shouldn’t have agreed to your spending the afternoon with him without checking with you first, but I was so pleased when he asked that I simply couldn’t refuse him.

He had so looked forward to your coming out to his ranch that I hate to see you disappoint him. He was always such a good friend to you before you went away to school. I simply assumed you would be pleased to spend the afternoon with him."

"We were children then, mother. We’re adults now. That is, Clay and I are adults. Ned still seems like a boy to me."

"He’s four years older than you, dear. I’d say that makes him a man. He has his own ranch and he’s doing very well for himself. He is a wonderful, wonderful person; someone I would be proud to have for a son-in-law."

Jenna’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling.

"This is too ridiculous! Will you ever give up? Oh, all right! Since it’s too late to head him off, I’ll go with him. But just this once. And while I’m with him I intend to let him know, very politely, but very firmly, that I am not in the least bit interested in him. Do you understand?"

Shinonn looked at her daughter, realizing she had made a serious mistake in trying to interfere in Jenna’s life. But she was desperate to divert her daughter’s attention away from Clay Turner. Over the years she had had ample opportunity to assess the man, and he had always come up wanting.

When Clay had been unable to keep a steady job, Maud had turned in desperation to her long time employers. As a favor to Maud, but against his better judgment, Alex hired Clay to work at the casino.

His first job had been as a bouncer, but his vicious temper had surfaced much too often, so he had been trained instead as a card dealer.

Clay had worked at the casino for over a year now, and what Shinonn saw of him had not been very impressive. She was more than certain that he was no fit company for her daughter. As he had begun to monopolize more and more of Jenna’s time, Shinonn had become desperate to intervene. Perhaps she had been wrong to interfere, but at least Ned would have this one opportunity to divert some of the girl’s attention away from his brother.

Ned was punctual, just as Jenna had expected he would be. Looking up at him as he sat high on the buggy’s seat, she had to admit that he was actually quite handsome. Although younger than his brother by two years, Ned was a much larger man. Years of toiling on the ranch had given him a strong, heavily muscled body and tanned his skin to a healthy brown. When he removed his hat the sun brought out glints of red in his chestnut colored hair. In spite of the fact that she was in not interested in him as a man, Jenna couldn’t help but notice once again that a gentleness seemed to emanate from him.

The ranch was in Sierra Valley, several miles out of Reno, so it took well over an hour to reach it, although it seemed to Jenna that they traveled for hours through the arid land. The landscape, dotted here and there with scrub brush and an occasional lonely tree, was so drab it seemed little more than a desert to Jenna. Ridging the western horizon, the mountains rose majestically. But the track they traveled covered land that was flat, the grass a golden brown. The breeze, blowing across the flat valley, felt like a blast from a furnace.

But when Ned turned the buggy into Sierra Valley Jenna couldn’t help being impressed by what she saw. Shaped like an oval bowl, the small valley was surrounded by the mighty Sierra Nevadas. Protected by the mountains from the harsher climate, the valley easily provided fresh food for the still flourishing mining camps nearby and the burgeoning city of Reno. Jenna noted several prosperous farms that lay scattered across the floor of the valley.

"Over there", he pointed toward the very southern end of the valley, "is my ranch. There, you can just see the house. It’s the one with all the trees." Pride radiated from Ned as he drove the buggy along the road to his ranch. The closer they came to it, the more his chest seemed to swell.

"If it hadn’t been for your ma and Alex, I wouldn’t have been able to buy this place. They lent me the money to buy it last year. I plan to have the loan paid back within five years. After that I’ll buy that parcel just to the north of it."

"It’s very nice, Ned. But how in the world did you ever end up way out here?"

"I came out here to work one summer while I was still in school. I really fell in love with ranching. When I decided that ranching was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life I couldn’t see much reason to go back to school. It wasn’t easy, but I finally talked Ma into letting me quit school and work here full time.

When old man Carlson decided to sell the place I begged him to let me buy it. That’s when your mother and Alex came along with the offer to help. Someday I’ll make them proud that they backed me."

Ned had every right to be proud. Try as she might, Jenna could find nothing to criticize wherever she looked. The ranch house, facing north and nestling beside a sparkling brook, was picture-book pretty. It was a small house, but was neatly built and well maintained. Dressed up in a fresh coat of white paint, it had a porch that ran across the front and along the western side. Two rose bushes bloomed gaily on either side of the front entrance.

"I’ll add onto the house later when the need arises, but for now this is plenty big enough for me."

He blushed when he thought of the reason why he might someday need to add more rooms. His obvious embarrassment made Jenna painfully aware that Ned fancied himself to be in love with her and that he envisioned her living there with him and their children.

This was going to be more difficult than she had expected, she realized in a sudden moment of compassion. But the sooner she set him straight, the better off they would both be.

They stood together on the front porch, gazing at the panorama before them. Fields of dark green alfalfa stretched away from them toward the gently sloping foothills. In the distance Jenna could see a herd of fat cattle grazing peacefully on the lush green grass.

The sky was a vast expanse of the softest blue Jenna had ever seen. A few billowy clouds crested the top of the mountain range to the west.

"I got up early this morning and went fishing so we could have trout for lunch today. You may not believe me, but last summer I caught a twenty-two inch German brown in that little stream we just passed. You do like to fish, don’t you?" he asked.

Jenna tried to keep her nose from turning up at the very thought of actually touching any slimy fish. Oh, well, fresh trout could be tasty if it was prepared correctly. However, she didn’t hold out much hope for any gastitorial delicacy out here, so far from civilization, certainly not like the food she had come to expect from the fine restaurants she had dined at in Boston.

Her mouth watered when she remembered the wonderful chowders she had feasted upon there. The crabs, the lobsters. She remembered the wonderful dinner parties she had attended with her friends. Oh, how she missed them and the good times they had shared before she had been forced to return to this hateful place! Why couldn’t her mother understand that she could no longer live such a rustic life?

"You must get lonely out here," Jenna said as she gazed at the open fields. She peered off into the distance at the grazing cattle. "It’s all very pretty, but so isolated."

"Lonely? Can’t say as I can remember ever being lonely." The very thought seemed odd to him.

"There’s always more than enough to do. And when I finish my chores, it feels great to just sit outside and relax awhile. I like to sit here and look up at the sky, watch the cattle and the deer that come down to the valley to feed at sunset. Or I might fish a little. No, I don’t recall ever being lonely."

"Well, I would be," she stated in a very definite tone. "I wouldn’t last a week out here. I know I wouldn’t."

Ned’s face fell. He felt as if someone had just thrown a bucket of ice water on him. He began to suspect that no matter how much he loved Jenna, she might never want to live in his world. It was hard for him to comprehend that anyone could live here and not love it as much as he did, but as much as he loved his ranch, as much as he treasured each day he spent there, he suddenly realized that she might hate the very thought of it.