Love's Sweet Revenge Read online

  Randy straightened and ran her fingers through his hair. “It’s time to forgive and forget a lot of things. We’re all together now, and you, my darling Jake, have a beautiful family that loves you very much.”

  He studied her lovingly. “I’m just an old ex-outlaw who got lucky and found the right woman.”

  “Oh, you are much more than that, Jake Harkner. Sometimes I see the little boy in you, jumping up and down with joy at loving and being loved.”

  He grinned, moving a hand over her breasts. “I’m no little boy, Mrs. Harkner.” He leaned up and kissed her wet cheeks. “Tell me you’re done crying.”

  She hugged him around the neck. “I’m not sure.”

  He took her in his arms again and rose, carrying her toward the winding stairs that led to their loft bedroom. “Maybe I can do something to help you get over those tears.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder. “Jake, you have to be tired and aching. It’s been such a long day.”

  “Nothing hurts so much that I can’t tend to my wife.” He carried her to their bedroom and set her on her feet, then closed the door.

  “Jake, I went to all the work of fixing a tub of water for you, and you don’t even need it.”

  “Well, we’re both clean, so let’s get in it together.”

  “What!” She moved back from him as he unbuttoned and removed his shirt.

  “Why not? I’ll give you a bath and a damn good rubdown.” He sat down in a chair and removed his boots and socks, then stood up to unbuckle his belt.

  “Jake, I’m not getting into that tub with you. There isn’t enough room!”

  “That’s what will make it more fun.” He unbuttoned his pants and shed them. “Get that gown off, woman. I hope you’re properly naked underneath.”

  “I’ll do no such thing!”

  Her eyes widened when Jake removed his long johns. “Oh, Jake, this is silly.”

  “After thirty years?” He came closer. “Raise your arms, woman, and I’ll strip this gown off of you.”

  “You’re just trying to joke around with me so I’ll feel better.”

  “Sure I am. Can you think of a better way to forget our troubles?” He smiled the handsome grin that always undid her, then picked her up and carried her to the washroom just off the bedroom, where they also had a sink with a pump and a flush toilet rigged with a water tank above it, more conveniences Jake had insisted Randy should have. Randy let out a little scream when he set her in the tin tub, nightgown and all. “Move over, woman.”

  He climbed into the tub with her and made her wiggle out of the nightgown, throwing the wet garment onto the floor. “Come here.” He settled into the back of the tub, pulling her back against him so she was sitting between his legs. Grabbing a bar of soap on a stand beside the tub, he dipped it into the water and lathered his hands, then began massaging her shoulders and back with soapy water while kissing her neck. “There, you see? This isn’t so bad.” He reached around and gently washed her breasts. “Your breasts are still beautiful. You keep saying they’re too big and not so perky anymore, but I love them. How many times have I teased you about your cleavage?”

  Randy smiled, leaning back against his chest. “That feels good.”

  “I want it to feel good. I want you to relax and be happy, Randy, and realize that I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. You just close your eyes and take some deep breaths and let me rub away all your troubles.”

  She turned her head to kiss his neck. “There is something hard pressing against my back, Mr. Harkner.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll have to take care of that, won’t we?”

  He moved strong hands to her shoulders and neck, using soap to slide his hands in a deep massage of the back of her neck, down her back, then reaching over her shoulders and moving down to her breasts again.

  “At least this time when you came home already clean, it wasn’t because you’d stopped at a whorehouse to take a bath,” Randy chided.

  He laughed. “Yeah, I kind of miss those baths at Dixie’s place.”

  “I’m sure she misses it, too.” Randy kissed his neck again. “Are you sure she didn’t lather you up like you’re doing to me now?”

  He pulled her closer, and she met his lips while he moved a hand down over her belly and between her legs. He ran a tongue around her lips in a deeper kiss before answering. “You know better.”

  Randy breathed deeply from his gentle touch. “Well, according to what Eddie Holmes told Stephen”—she let out a little groan when he moved his fingers into the crevice of her body—“you run with bad women.” She kissed his neck again.

  He began working his magic in gentle, circular touches. “It’s more fun making a good woman do bad things.”

  Randy didn’t answer. She simply drank in the luxury of a strong hand plying her breasts while another strong hand made her whimper with pleasure. She felt her desire building when he moved his other hand down to push his fingers inside her while he continued feeling secret places until she groaned with an exquisite climax. He moved his hands back up over her breasts, to her shoulders, down her back. Without saying a word, she sensed what he wanted—something they rarely did. She leaned forward, and he raised up on his knees, grasping her hair from behind. She gasped when he filled her with stunning hardness, keeping one strong hand under her belly for support and still grasping her hair.

  Water splashed out of the tub as he moved in rhythmic thrusts that made her cry out with erotic pleasure as he pushed deeper. He kept up the exquisite intercourse, moaning her name and keeping a steely arm under her until he groaned with his own deep climax. She felt his life pulse into her as he leaned over her back, wrapping his arms fully around her and pushing deep inside to finish off the pulsating pleasure. He kept a tight grip on her for several seconds as he held himself inside her. Finally, he leaned down and kissed the back of her neck, still holding her hair away from her face. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, wondering how many men knew all the ways to please a woman that Jake did.

  “That was beautiful. I was afraid maybe it hurt.”

  Randy shook her head.

  “Stay there.” Jake pulled away and rose, stepping out of the tub and drying off. He grabbed one of her robes from a hook on the wall and brought it to her, holding it open. “Step out, and I’ll wrap this around you.”

  Randy rinsed herself off and climbed out of the tub. Jake wrapped her in the robe and toweled the damp ends of her hair, then carried her to the bed.

  “You sure you’re okay? You’re awfully quiet.” Jake laid her on the bed and crawled in beside her. “I worry I’ll break something one of these times. I swear, you get smaller every year, Randy.”

  She snuggled against him. “We just don’t usually… I mean… I don’t know why I wanted to do it that way. I just love pleasing you.”

  He kissed her eyes. “And if anything hurts, you tell me. I can read your every reaction, Mrs. Harkner, and you please me just by existing. Sometimes that’s all I need…just to have you beside me.”

  She nuzzled his neck. “Well, you did say you prefer doing bad things with a good woman.”

  He laughed teasingly. “I saw that beautiful bottom, and I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Well, what you did was most disrespectful, Jake Harkner. Something tells me you prefer it that way.”

  He moved on top of her. “The more disrespectful, the more delicious.”

  “You just learned more than you needed to know in your wilder years.”

  “The better to please you with,” he answered, “but you have to enjoy it, too.”

  Randy didn’t object to deep kisses that silenced their talking and led to a journey down her body to her breasts, and on down to intimate places that belonged only to Jake Harkner. He had a way of making her feel brazen and alive and beautiful. She grasped
his hair when she felt him warmly caress her with his tongue.

  “Jake, that definitely does not hurt.” She’d never dreamed there were so many ways to enjoy a man, and he always had a way of making love to her that made her feel adored.

  Moments later she was climaxing again. He kissed and licked his way back up to her mouth and entered her again, grasping her bottom and moving in a harder rhythm, proving to her that he was really here and would damn well make sure nothing would separate them again. She could taste her own sweetness on his lips. He even had a way of kissing that made her feel like they were having intercourse, even when kissing was all they were doing. She drank in his familiar scent, his breath, his hard strength, the sureness of his love. She pressed her fingers into the muscles of his arm and arched up to his gentle thrusts, every fiber of her being wanting to love him back and to claim him as just hers. This man could have a hundred women, but he wanted only one. He needed her as much as she needed him, and when he was inside her, it was as though they were one body, sharing souls in a spirit world no one else could touch.

  “Tu eres mi vida,” he groaned, “mi querida esposa.”

  She’d learned the meaning of the words: You are my life, my darling wife. She couldn’t help crying out with the ecstasy of the way he moved inside her, and she loved him even more for being concerned he might have hurt her when he made love to her in a different position. It wouldn’t have mattered. He had a way of making her want to please him in every way possible, and she knew he wanted to make sure she was equally satisfied. She felt lost under his big frame.

  “Jake, I love you so,” she said softly. “If anyone takes you from me again, I’ll die.”

  He pushed hard, his life spilling into her once more. He kissed her over and over. “I’ll not let it happen,” he groaned.

  They kissed hungrily, feeling as though they couldn’t get enough of each other. Finally, he settled beside her, pulling the blankets over them and wrapping a leg over her, keeping her close. “It’s been one long day,” he said.

  “And you’re hurting, aren’t you?” Randy asked.

  “I hate to admit it, but wrestling down calves and then wrestling down my wife have done me in.”

  “I didn’t exactly fight you like those calves do.”

  He grinned. “Not exactly.” Jake kissed her hair. “Did I tell you what a beautiful bottom you have?”

  “In so many words. Just don’t expect that too often, Jake Harkner.”

  “We’ll see. All I have to do is touch you in the right places.”

  “Is that so?” Randy turned and kissed him. “Well, you’re right.” She kissed him again. “All I really need is that handsome smile.” Another kiss. “I love you.”

  He caressed her hair. “In another month we’ll go to Denver—you and me, Katie and Lloyd, Brian and Evie. The girls can stay here with Teresa, and the boys can stay in the bunkhouse. They get a kick out of that.”

  “Oh, Jake, heaven only knows what they see and hear around those men!”

  He snickered. “Being around me isn’t a whole lot better. They’re itching to be men themselves. Spending time with Pepper and that bunch will certainly teach them a few things, and Little Jake will give those men a run for their money.”

  Randy smiled. “I can’t believe the way he walked up and threatened Hal Kraemer! That child has not one ounce of fear in him. He is so much like you it’s comical. Little Jake couldn’t be a more fitting name.”

  “He’s going to be something to deal with when he’s grown, that’s for sure.”

  “We’ve produced quite a family in spite of all the things that tried to stop us.”

  “Hey, it’s you and me against the world, woman, and that’s okay. We can handle it.”

  Randy studied his eyes. “When you told me the other day that you talked to the boys about your past, I was so glad you were able to do that. For so many years you wouldn’t talk about it at all. Big and strong and able as you are on the outside, you’ve grown so much stronger on the inside.”

  He kissed her eyes. “You keep me strong.”

  Their lips met again, their passion no different than it was nearly thirty years ago when he took her for the first time…when he was a lost soul…when she showed him everything he didn’t know about love. The only thing that could change that and bring back Jake the outlaw was if his ugly past found a way to revisit him.

  Twelve

  Early July

  Gretta winced with pain when her customer bit at her breast. “I don’t go for that, mister, so if you’re going to try to hurt me, you can just get off this bed.”

  The man grinned. In spite of a Z-shaped scar on his chin, Gretta found him nice-looking, but his cruel smiles made him ugly.

  “Hey, I’m a payin’ customer, lady.”

  “You paid for sex, not for hurting a woman, so get off!” Gretta shoved at him, but he grabbed her wrists and pushed them over her head.

  “I’ll get off when I’m done, lady!” He rammed himself hard, deliberately squeezing her wrists until it hurt. Finally, he released himself, then bent down to bite her breast again, this time hard enough to leave teeth marks. He finally let go of her, and Gretta quickly got off the bed and slapped him hard across the side of the face.

  The man stood up and shoved her against a wall, half choking her as he held her there. “You’re awful damn choosy for a whore!” he growled.

  “Even whores don’t like it rough,” she said in a near whisper, hardly able to find her voice.

  “Some do!”

  He let go of her, and Gretta bent over, gasping for breath. “None…that I know,” she answered. She reached for her robe, quickly pulling it on and walking over to her dressing table.

  “I ain’t got my money’s worth yet,” the man told her.

  “You have as far as I’m concerned.” Gretta reached under a handkerchief on her dressing table, where she always kept a pistol hidden. When her customer came at her again, she quickly grabbed the gun and held it straight out. “Leave!” she ordered.

  The man froze in place. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Wouldn’t I? I have an agreement with someone very important in this town, mister. I can shoot anyone who abuses me, and I’ll get away with it, so if I were you, I’d get out of here!”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  The bite on her breast made Gretta wince again. She didn’t doubt she’d have quite a bruise there by morning, which would hurt her business. “Believe it,” she answered, her voice still raspy. She cocked the pistol. “And I want your name. I usually don’t bother with names, because it’s easier not knowing, but I intend to warn the other prostitutes around Denver about you. Once I tell them about that odd scar on your chin, you’ll be recognized by all of them, and you won’t be sticking that thing into any of them!”

  He backed away more. Gretta wanted to smile at the way his penis began to wilt. “You’re real lucky, lady. I spent three years in prison for rape!”

  “And that’s exactly what you’ve just done to me!”

  “Whores can’t be raped!”

  “Can’t they?” Gretta had a strong urge to pull the trigger. “What’s your name?” she demanded again.

  “Mike Holt.” He raised his chin, bragging the name proudly. “Maybe you’ve heard it in the news. I’m one of the few men who’ve gone up against Jake Harkner and lived to tell about it.”

  Gretta kept the gun pointed straight at him. “Seems I read something about that in the newspaper not long ago.”

  Mike grinned. “Sure you did. I’m practically as famous as Harkner is.”

  “For all the wrong reasons. The way I heard it, the woman you raped was his daughter, a fine woman and the wife of a physician.”

  “You heard? Or you know?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Harkner
has a reputation for bein’ favorable toward women like you. Maybe he’s paid you a visit, and you got all the details straight from him.”

  “I’ve never met the man,” Gretta answered. She kept the gun on Mike through the conversation, suspecting he’d try having at her all over again if she didn’t. She grinned slyly, wanting to mock Holt. “I did see Harkner in town last summer, and from what I saw, I’d pay him for a roll in the hay. God knows he’d be better at it than you are with that little pecker of yours.”

  Mike glowered at her. “You bitch!”

  Gretta laughed, enjoying his embarrassment. “Get dressed and get out of here!”

  Mike walked over to the bed to grab his long johns.

  “‘The handsome outlaw,’ I’ve heard he’s been called,” Gretta added. “What are you called? Little Pecker?”

  Mike pulled on his underwear. “I ought to kill you.”

  “Try. Please. Then I can have the satisfaction of shooting you.”

  Mike finished dressing. “I think Harkner has been here, and you know more than you’re lettin’ on. He likes women like you.”

  “The man has a beautiful wife and a big family and runs a ranch four or five days from here, or so I’m told. I’ve seen the wife when she didn’t know I was looking, and if you had a wife like that, you wouldn’t be visiting whores either. Those two look at each other like the world would come to an end if they lost sight of each other.”

  Mike broke into more laughter. “Ole Jake pretends to be the family man, but don’t you underestimate that sonofabitch. He’s mean as they come and fuckin’ ruthless. I seen the article in the Denver Post about him killin’ seven or eight rustlers not long ago. He about got himself arrested, but the article said as how he had a right. I’m thinkin’ the law ain’t too happy about it.”

  Gretta lowered her pistol slightly, frowning. “What’s your interest in the man?”

  Mike buttoned up the front of his long johns. “Can’t you figure it out?”

  “You’re after him?”

  Mike grunted with more laughter, pulling on his boots. “I’m after his son. That kid shot my brother in a shoot-out back in Oklahoma…shot him in the back. I aim to repay him in the same way.” He looked her over. “Have you ever met the son?”