Tales of Western Romance (7 page)

“
I told you. Bonnie, from the dude
ranch.”

“
Yeah, that’s what you said. What year
do you think it is?”

“
Two thousand and eleven.”

He grunted softly. “Were you in danger in
your own time?”

“
I don’t think so.” She stared at him.
“You believe me?”

He shrugged. “The legends say that
Relámpago
can travel through time. I never believed it until
now. I don’t understand why he would have brought you here. He’s
only supposed to show up when people are in danger.” He grinned
wryly. “I’m pretty sure you’re in more danger here, with me, than
you were back wherever you came from.”

She thought so, too, but at the moment, she
didn’t care. She liked it right where she was. His gaze lingered on
hers, making her stomach go all fluttery. He had beautiful dark
eyes. He was, in fact, just plain beautiful, and she was having
thoughts she shouldn’t have about a man she didn’t know.

Clearing her throat, she said, “I must be
getting heavy.”

“
A little bit of a thing like you?” he
said, obviously amused. “I could carry you all day long and never
break a sweat.”

It surprised her how much she liked that
idea.

* * * * *

Bonnie glanced at Gray. They were riding side
by side across a flat land dotted with scrub oak and occasional
stands of timber. There were mountains in the distance.

Earlier, she had asked Gray where they were
going and he had said they were going to the nearest town for
supplies, a bath, and a hot meal.

She didn’t know which was more tempting, hot
water or hot food. She had quickly grown tired of jerky and water
from his canteen, which was all he had to eat and drink.

Late in the afternoon, they came to a river
flanked by tall trees. Gray reined his horse to a halt.
Dismounting, he lifted her from the stallion’s back.

Bonnie groaned. She wasn’t used to horseback
riding, especially bareback. Riding without a saddle wasn’t as easy
as it looked in the movies. She had to concentrate on keeping her
balance.

“
We’ll rest here awhile,” Gray
said.

With a nod, she dropped gratefully onto a
patch of grass while he unsaddled the bay mare and then let the
horses drink.

Bonnie watched Gray, noting that he moved
with a kind of masculine grace. He had big hands. Long arms and
legs, muscles that bunched and flowed with every movement. Sitting
there, she was overcome with an urge to touch him, to run her hands
over his smooth, coppery skin, to twine her fingers in his hair, to
inhale his scent. Her wayward thoughts gave her pause. She had
never, ever wanted to ravish a man before, but there was something
about Gray that attracted her like no other man she had ever known.
Every time he looked at her, every nerve and cell in her body
leaped to attention, hoping, waiting, for his touch.

She frowned as she recalled what he had said
earlier, about
Relámpago
carrying people away from danger.
Only she hadn’t been in any danger back home. She was in danger
here, though, she thought wryly. In danger of doing something
remarkably foolish with a remarkably handsome man. Who just
happened to be wanted for murder.

With a start, she realized he was watching
her.

He hunkered down on his heels beside her.
“Something wrong?”

“
Gee, what could possibly be wrong?
Let’s see. I’m a hundred and thirty-two years in the past. With a
complete stranger. And I have no idea how to get back home. Other
than that, everything’s just peachy!”

A slow grin spread over his face. “Did you
know your nose sort of twitches when you get mad?”

“
Too bad I’m not Jeanie. I could just
twitch my nose and zap myself back home.”

“
You know someone who can do
that?”

Bonnie stated at him, then burst out
laughing. “Not really. It’s an old TV sitcom…”

She huffed a sigh. “Never mind.”

He looked at her, one brow arched. “I guess
things are probably different where you come from.”

“
You have no idea.”

He stretched out beside her, his arms folded
behind his head. “The future,” he murmured. “I wonder if
Relámpago
would take me there.”

“
You want to go to the
future?”

“
Nobody’s looking for me
there.”

“
Ah.” She stretched out on her side,
her cheek cradled on her arm, facing him. “I’m not sure you’d like
it in my time.”

“
Why not?”

“
Well, for one thing, there are
billions more people and I’m not sure any of them are happy. There
are wars everywhere. High school kids can buy drugs in the parking
lot. It isn’t safe to be out at night. People are losing their jobs
and their homes. The cost of living keeps going up even though the
economy is in the toilet…” She shook her head. From the look on his
face, he didn’t know what a toilet was, either.

“
You’re right. I don’t think I want to
go there.”

“
Do you know how I can make
Relámpago
take me back?”

“
As far as I know, there’s no way to
make him do anything he doesn’t want to.”

He turned onto his side and now they were
lying face to face. “I think I like it here.” He traced the curve
of her cheek with his hand. “What could be better than spending a
pretty day with a pretty girl?”

“
You think I’m pretty?”

He nodded.

She couldn’t imagine why. Her hair was a
tangled mess. Whatever make-up she’d had on was long gone. She was
wearing dirty jeans and a shirt that was about three sizes too big.
“I must look like something the cat dragged in,” she muttered.

“
Well, you do look like you could use a
bath and a comb,” he said, grinning.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“
Hey, I reckon I could use some
cleaning up myself. I’ve been on the run since July. We can get
cleaned up when we get to Deadwood.”

“
And then what?”

“
I don’t know. I haven’t thought that
far ahead.”

“
I have to go back to where
Relámpago
found me,” Bonnie said.

“
Why’s that?”

“
Well, I don’t know, but it seems to me
that there must be some kind of portal or something there. I mean,
how else would I have got here?”

“
Beats the hell out of me. I never
heard of the stud needing a portal of any kind.”

“
Hmm.”
Maybe the horse was the
portal
, she mused. If so, how did she make
Relámpago
take her home? Maybe if she clicked her heels together, she
thought, stifling a grin.

Gray stood, stretching his back and
shoulders. “We’d best be movin’. I’ll throw my saddle over the
stud. Make it easier for you to ride.”

“
Thank you.”

Gray saddled the stallion, then fashioned a
hackamore from a length of rope coiled around the horn.

“
Come here,” he said, “I’ll give you a
leg up.”

Once she was seated, he adjusted the
stirrups, then handed her the reins. “We’ll be in Deadwood by
nightfall.”

Deadwood, she thought with some apprehension.
She might be a city girl, but she’d heard of Deadwood; Calamity
Jane and Wild Bill Hickock. One of her favorite movies was the old
musical,
‘
Calamity Jane’
. For all she knew, Calamity
and Wild Bill could be living there now.

Now, wouldn’t that be something?

Chapter 6

It was near dark when they arrived in
Deadwood. Bonnie’s first impression was one of too many people
crowded into too small a space. The buildings, predominately wood
though there were a few made of red brick, lined both sides of the
narrow, dusty street. She noted that most of them were saloons –
among them the Senate Saloon and the Bella Union. There were a few
exceptions, like C.H. Flucken’s Denver Grocery. She saw a sign for
J. Shoudy City Meat Market, which appeared to be located inside the
post office. There were buildings scattered on the hillsides, as
well.

Gray drew rein in front of the Grand Central
Hotel, a rather flamboyant name, Bonnie thought, since it didn’t
look so grand. Still, it promised a place to wash up and,
hopefully, eat a decent meal.

“
What do you want first?” Gray asked.
“Food or a bath?”

“
Food!”

With a nod, Gray led the way into the dining
room.

“
I hope it’s good,” Bonnie remarked as
they found a table.

“
The Grand ain’t much to look at, but
she’s got the best cook this side of the Missouri.”

“
Really?”

“
Yep. Her name’s Lucretia, but
hereabouts she’s known as Aunt Lou. She was a slave sometime back.
She makes the best biscuits and plum pudding you’ve ever tasted.
And her chicken and dumplings aren’t bad, either.”

Bonnie doubted Aunt Lou was as good a cook as
Gray claimed. Why would anyone with any talent waste it in a place
like Deadwood. After one bite of Aunt Lou’s biscuits, Bonnie
mentally apologized to the other woman. And, as promised, her
chicken and dumplings were the best Bonnie had ever eaten.

“
You ready for dessert?” Gray
asked.

She shook her head. “I’m stuffed.”

Gray tossed a dollar on the table and they
left the hotel.

“
Aren’t we going to get a
room?”

“
The hotel doesn’t have rooms. You can
get a bunk or bed down on the floor for a dollar a
night.”

“
Then where are we going to get a
bath?”

“
Bath-house down the street. But first,
I need to get the horses settled in for the night.”

After leaving the horses at the livery barn,
Bonnie followed Gray to Childs Bath and Barber Shop.

A short time later, Bonnie was reclining in
the kind of bathtub she had only seen in old cowboy movies but she
didn’t care. The water was hot and clean and that was all that
mattered. She stayed in it until the water started to cool. Wishing
she had a change of clothes, she pulled on her bra and panties, her
jeans, socks and boots. At least she could wear her own shirt, she
thought, as she folded Gray’s red one.

Gray had admonished her not to go outside
without him, so she stood in the doorway, watching the traffic on
the street. There were men everywhere – walking, on horseback,
driving oxcarts, staggering from one saloon to another.

She looked to her left, surprised to hear
someone calling Calamity Jane’s name, but the woman answering the
call looked nothing like Bonnie expected. In the movies, Jane was
always pretty, like Doris Day, but this woman, wearing a hat,
pants, boots, and a fringed jacket – and carrying a rifle – looked
more like a man than a woman.

“
Bonnie?”

She turned at the sound of Gray’s voice, felt
her insides turn over at the sight of him.

“
You ready to go?”

“
Where are we going?”

“
There’s a boardinghouse down the
street. We can get a room there for the night.”

“
A room? As in one?”

Gray nodded. “Trust me, you don’t want to a
room of your own.”

She considered that and decided he was right.
Unless there were bars on the doors and the windows, she was
probably safer with Gray.

She continued to think that until the
proprietor ushered them into a small room furnished with a rocking
chair and a double bed.

“
You’ve got that look again,” Gray
said.

“
What look?”

“
The ‘I’m in the past with a stranger
and no way to get back home’ look.”

“
There’s only one bed.”

He grunted softly. “I guess that leaves me
the rocker or the floor.”

“
I guess so.” She pulled one of the
blankets off the bed and handed it to him, along with one of the
pillows. “Good night.”

“
You’re a heartless woman,” he muttered
with a rueful grin. He spread the blanket on the floor, shoved the
pillow under his head, then pulled half of the blanket over
him.

Bonnie felt a twinge of guilt as she climbed
into bed. He was paying for the room and yet he was the one
sleeping on the floor when there was plenty of room for the two of
them in the bed.

She closed her eyes, determined not to feel
guilty. But it was no use. The floor was hard and probably cold.
With an aggrieved sigh, she said, “Oh, for crying out loud, get off
the floor.”

If she expected an argument, she didn’t get
one. He was sliding under the covers almost before the words had
left her mouth.

Berating herself for being too soft-hearted,
she turned her back to him and closed her eyes.

* * * * *

Bonnie let out a little moan of pleasure as a
large hand massaged her back, smiled as someone kissed her eyelids.
Warmth spread through her as he rained kisses on her cheek and
along her neck. She snuggled closer, aligning her body with his, as
she sought his lips. Warm, firm lips that sent shivers of delight
coursing through her. Feeling suddenly bold, she slid her hands
under his shirt…and realized, to her dismay, that she wasn’t
dreaming when a familiar voice whispered her name.

Horrified, she opened her eyes to see Gray
looking at her.

“
No need to stop on my account,” he
said, his voice husky.

She glared at him. “I didn’t think you’d take
advantage of me while I was asleep!”