Love's Sweet Revenge Read online

  “I am waiting for your answer,” she told him. “What did that woman say to you?”

  He moved on top of Randy and braced his elbows on either side of her, grinning. “She said I reek of sex. How’s that one for you?”

  Randy couldn’t help responding to the masculinity that was Jake Harkner, nor to the way he was smiling at her now. The Jake she loved most was back, and that was all that mattered. “Reek?”

  “Reek.”

  “Interesting description.”

  “Her word, not mine. I just wondered what you think of that.”

  Randy smiled slyly. “You reeked of sex that first time I found you lying wounded in my bed back in Kansas. Actually, you reeked of sex when I saw you in that store the first day we laid eyes on each other. I could feel the man in you as you moved around, picking up the things you needed. That little store was filled up with Jake Harkner.”

  “I felt the same thing in you.”

  “That I filled up the room?”

  “You know what I mean. The woman in you signaled to me like a damn warning bell. I should have heeded that warning.”

  “I felt a signal, too—but it was more like the deep, long whistle of a locomotive, telling me to stay away. I should have heeded that warning.”

  He grinned even more. “You did. You shot me.”

  “Yes, well, we know how that worked out. Here we are almost thirty years later, lying naked in bed together, when I really should have slapped you when you came in for taking so long, let alone spending time with a prostitute. In fact, I should have sent you over to her place of business, but then when you came back, I’d have to shoot you again for actually going there.”

  “I wouldn’t have gone, and you know it. Why would I leave the bed of the most beautiful woman in this city? I don’t deserve her, but if she’s willing to be with me, I’m sure as hell not going to say no. What man would?” He leaned down and kissed her throat in the ticklish, butterfly way he had.

  “I am supposed to still be mad at you,” Randy reminded him.

  “What can I do to change that?” He kissed her throat again.

  “You’re already doing it.” She felt his penis pressing in that crevice where the top of her leg met more private places. “And I hate you for it.”

  He moved to her mouth, groaning as he ran his tongue deep in a long, delicious, passionate kiss. By the time he finished, she felt as though he’d already invaded every part of her body. He had a way of making love to her mouth that completely undid her. He left her lips only long enough to kiss her cheek, her ear, her neck, then back to her lips yet again, searching deep. His kisses sometimes made it feel like he was already having intercourse with her. Again he left her mouth, kissing her eyes gently. “If this is hate, I can’t wait till you decide you still love me.”

  Randy grasped his hair. “I’ll always love you, even when I hate you, if that makes any sense.”

  He moved to her throat again. “Sure it does.”

  “Maybe it’s because you do reek of sex.”

  “Whatever works.” He kissed his way to her breasts, savoring the taut nipples as though they were sweet cherries, making her groan and arch toward him. He ran an arm under her neck and moved to her side so he could run his other hand over her belly and down to the place that had always belonged only to Jake Harkner.

  And you damn well know it, Randy thought as he moved his fingers inside her suggestively, drawing out the silken juices that prepared her for what was to come. He moved his lips over her belly then. She parted her legs as he found his mark. It made her feel wanton as he kept teasing her with his fingers while his tongue worked its magic in private places that truly did belong only to this man.

  Oh, how she wanted to stay mad at him…and oh, how impossible he made it. That little part of her that made her jealous of the woman who’d told him he reeked of sex made her offer herself with total abandon. She would damn well please him like none of those women ever had. Those days were over for him, because she always made sure there wasn’t one thing the man needed that she couldn’t give him.

  “My God, Jake,” she whispered as a deep, aching climax engulfed her. He had a way of tasting her in these moments that only prolonged the climax until she literally cried out from the nearly painful ecstasy. He kept his fingers pressed tightly against her throbbing clitoris as he worked his lips back up to her throat. The man knew every move there was to please a woman.

  “Still mad at me?” he teased.

  “Yes.”

  He met her lips as he moved on top of her. She could taste herself in his kiss. “Still?” he said softly.

  “Yes.”

  He moved inside of her then, filling her full and deep. Randy gasped as she raised her hips in response.

  “Still?” he asked.

  “No.” She leaned up and caught his lips again with her own, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down while he moved his hands under her bottom to support her and rocked in and out of her with perfect rhythm.

  “Who do you belong to?” he asked.

  “Jake Harkner.”

  “Every beautiful inch of your body,” he answered between kisses.

  Between groans and gasps she replied, “And you belong to me, Jake Harkner. Every…single…inch of you.”

  The talking stopped as the deep kisses continued and their bodies remained locked in perfect movements, now so familiar that neither of them needed to wonder if what they were doing felt good to the other.

  “Don’t stop,” Randy begged.

  “I’m trying…not to,” he answered. “It would help…if you weren’t such a beautiful woman…and if I didn’t…adore everything about you.” He kept up the erotic invasion for several more minutes before his life spilled into her in several hard, groaning shoves. His whole body shuddered, and he kept her under him. “I want to do this all night.”

  Randy kissed his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. “We have to eat sometime.”

  He fed her several delicious kisses. “Once more. Then we’ll eat. Then we’ll do this again.” Another kiss. “And again.” Already she felt his growing hardness against her thigh, but he sobered on the next words. “When I make love to you, I feel stronger.” He kissed her breasts. “Calmer.”

  “Jake.”

  He met her gaze again, and she detected tears in his eyes.

  “What is it, Jake? You’re leaving something out.”

  “I don’t want to tell you.”

  “Jake, I can feel some of that anger and restlessness still there. What’s wrong?”

  He sighed, collapsing to the pillow beside her. “Gretta had a visitor. That’s why she looked me up—to warn me.”

  “Mike Holt?”

  “Mike Holt. She thinks he’s still in town somewhere waiting for me and Lloyd. Last she knew, he had a friend with him…named Brad.”

  “Oh no!” Randy turned onto her back. “Brad Buckley?”

  “It has to be.”

  “Does Lloyd know?”

  “I pulled him out in the hallway and told him before I came here to our room. I hated telling him, because he’s so happy about the good money we made today.” He ran a hand into her hair and toyed with it. “Gretta said Holt even bragged about that thing with Evie. I didn’t tell Lloyd that. It would have been too hard on him.”

  Randy felt his hand tighten on her hair. “We can’t tell Evie any of this,” she told Jake.

  “Of course not, but we’re going to have to be very watchful when we shop tomorrow, and at that ball tomorrow night. Men like Holt won’t likely get in. It’s invitation only, but it’s a big event, so you never know. At least it will be right downstairs in the hotel lobby, so we won’t have to walk through town to get there.” He sighed. “I promised you a wonderful time, and now this. I should have killed Mike Holt when I had the chance
to get away with it.”

  “It would have broken Evie’s heart,” Randy reminded him. “She still worries about you. Earlier today she told me she hated to see you so lonely. It’s amazing how sweet she still is after what happened to her.”

  Jake closed his eyes. “There’s an angel inside of her. She can’t possibly be mine.”

  “Are you saying I had an affair?”

  He enveloped her into his arms. “Did you?”

  Randy smiled. “Why would any woman who belongs to you want any other man?”

  “I can think of a lot of reasons.”

  “Well, I can’t think of even one.” Randy kissed him. “Maybe we should just go home to the kids, Jake.”

  “No. Katie and Evie are looking forward to the ball, and Brian wants to take Evie to the opera. They’re young and excited and need to feel beautiful and have some social enjoyment away from the loneliness of the ranch. Lloyd feels the same way.” He raised up and kissed her eyes. “And you need a chance to show off some new jewelry.”

  “What new jewelry?”

  Jake rolled off of her and reached for his jacket, taking out a small box and handing it to her. “This.”

  Randy’s eyes widened, and she scooted to sit up.

  Jake rested on his side as he watched her open the box and gasp. “Happy anniversary, baby.”

  “Jake! We can’t afford this!”

  “Yes, we can. For years I have wished you had a fancier wedding ring than that plain gold band I gave you back at Fort Laramie when that priest married us a lifetime ago.”

  “I love my plain gold band.”

  “And you deserve something more. I want you to wear that tomorrow night at the ball. Everyone’s heads will turn when we walk in, because I’ll have the most beautiful woman in Colorado on my arm. And she’ll be wearing a ring that damn well proves she did legally marry me all those years ago. And now she’s just as rich and important and elegant as the high-class snobs in Denver who think they’re better than everyone else.”

  Randy removed a gold band from the box. It sparkled with one large diamond in the center and four smaller diamonds on either side, with a swirl of eight more tiny baguettes crossing over the band. She slipped it on her finger. “Oh, Jake, it’s…it’s too much!”

  “Quit worrying about that.”

  “It’s so beautiful! So exquisite.”

  “Like the woman wearing it.”

  “And it fits perfectly! How did you—” She looked at him slyly. “Someone must have helped you pick this out.”

  Jake just grinned. “Her fingers were the same size as yours.” He pulled her farther down under the covers again. “I could tell just by touching her fingers they were exactly right.”

  “The woman who said you reek of sex? What else did you touch?”

  Jake kissed her. “Nothing else. She knows a lot about diamonds.”

  “I’ll just bet she does. She knows a lot about men, too.” Randy fingered the wavy strands of hair that brushed his forehead. “How is it that some men age so well?”

  “It’s the ones who have a good woman by their side.” Jake moved on top of her. “I want you to know that I picked out that ring myself. Gretta didn’t have anything to do with it, other than to try it on for fit. That ring is all me, and I love you, Mrs. Harkner. No man could be prouder of his wife than I am of you.”

  “And I love you…for better or for worse.”

  He nuzzled her neck. “It’s been mostly for worse. I know that. I’m sorry these past thirty years involved so much heartache at times.”

  “These past thirty years brought me two beautiful children, a dear adopted child, and four wonderful grandchildren with more on the way. They brought me a man far more loving than any other man I might have chosen. It’s all been worth it.” She held her hand up and studied the ring as he continued kissing her throat. “Thank you for the ring, Jake. I can’t wait to show it off tomorrow. ”

  “And I can’t wait to show you off.”

  “Maybe we should go out to eat. I want to show the ring to Evie and Katie.”

  “Too late. I’m too deep into wanting my wife right here in bed.”

  Randy reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her as their lips met in a deep, delicious kiss.

  No foreplay was needed this time. She opened herself to him, and he guided himself inside her, pulling her to him with a strength that told her how easily he could hurt her, yet a gentleness that told her he never would. Not this man who adored women, and especially adored the one most special to him. When they were together like this, she could hardly believe that dark, ruthless side of him even existed…but it did. She couldn’t get over her belief that she had to keep that side of him at bay…or lose him.

  * * *

  Katie pulled down the netting from her hat and over her forehead. “Do you like my hat?” She turned to Lloyd, studying his brawny chest. She walked up and kissed it before he could finish buttoning a white shirt.

  “It’s beautiful, but no one is going to notice that hat.” He put a hand to the side of her face. “All they will see is this delicate face and your beautiful green eyes and these luscious lips.” He leaned down and kissed her deeply, groaning as he pulled her close. He moved his kisses to behind her ear. “Let’s go back to bed.”

  “Lloyd Harkner, we made dinner plans with Brian and Evie, and we are already running late.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe my sister and her husband are having the same problem we are. We’ve all gone quite a few days without a nice soft bed we can share together.”

  Katie pushed at him. “Well, you didn’t waste any time getting me back into bed, and now I’m hungry. So finish dressing. Should we see if your parents want to go?”

  Lloyd grinned as he finished buttoning the shirt. “Katie, the reason Pa pulled me out in the hallway a while ago was to tell me he wanted to be alone with my mother tonight. So no, they won’t be going with us. They have a lot to talk about, and if I know my father, he’ll find a way right back into my mother’s soft side in no time at all. He probably already has.” He pulled on a waistcoat over the shirt and buttoned it, deciding not to tell his wife the real reason Jake had wanted to talk to him. Mike Holt was somewhere out there, looking for revenge, but Lloyd decided he wasn’t going to let that spoil things for Katie. “Let’s get dinner over with sooner than later. I’m anxious to get back here.”

  Katie smiled and had to reach up to get her arms around his neck. “You look so incredibly handsome in a dress shirt and waistcoat.” She kissed him, then fussed with his silk tie. “Of course you don’t need clothes to make you look handsome. Actually, I prefer you with no clothes at all. You have the build of a god, Lloyd Harkner.”

  “Yeah? Well then, that makes you a goddess.”

  “Thank you, but I’ll have a hard time keeping you to myself tomorrow night. Do you know how many women will try flirting with you at that ball? I see how they look at you.”

  “And I will have eyes only for the mother of my beautiful little girl and the woman who is carrying another one of my children in her belly as we speak. You’re all the woman I need, Katie Harkner, and when we get back from dinner, I’ll show you just how much I need you.”

  She smiled. “You already did that.”

  “And I’m not through with you.”

  Katie blushed. “I want a massage next time. You are wonderful at that. You have such strong hands.”

  “Oh?” He grasped her shoulders and gently moved his hands over them. “I’ll massage every inch of your body.” He leaned down and kissed her again, then stepped back to look her over. “You picked the perfect dress. The color blue is beautiful on you.”

  She turned for him, holding out her arms. “Isn’t it lovely? I got it at a store that sells dresses made in Paris!”

  Lloyd watched her lovingl
y. “Yeah, well, it won’t be long before it will be too small in the waist, thanks to that new baby.”

  She smiled. “Well, for now I’m not showing, and wait till you see the dress I’m wearing tomorrow night! It’s mint green, your favorite color on me. And your mother bought the most beautiful yellow dress. You know how Jake likes her in yellow.”

  Lloyd nodded as he pulled on a black frock coat with silk lapels. “I’m surprised my mother was in the mood to shop.”

  “She wasn’t, but Evie and I made her. We both knew Jake would find a way to make things better. He always does.”

  Lloyd put on a black silk bowler hat. “Yeah, well, Pa has a way with women.”

  Katie folded her arms. “And so do you.” She sighed. “Lloyd, you look wonderful.”

  “What about my hair? Is it okay just pulled back at my neck like it is?”

  “You look fine.”

  “Pa would say I look like an Indian dressed up like a white man.” He turned and took one of his guns from its holster and slipped it into a special pocket in his vest.

  Katie lost her smile. “Why are you taking a gun?”

  He forced a casual air. “I’m a Harkner, Katie-girl.” He put out his arm. “Let’s go eat.”

  She took his arm. “Lloyd, is something wrong?”

  “Not a damn thing.” He led her to the door.

  “Are any of the ranch hands coming with us?”

  Lloyd grinned. “Sweetheart, we raked it in at the stockyards today, and I paid the men off. I have a feeling they have other plans for tonight with all that money in their pockets. Whiskey, cards, and women, most likely.”

  She looked up at him, sobering a little. “Do you miss that life, Lloyd?”

  “Hell no.” He pulled her close. “I’ve got a beautiful wife and family and a ranch to run. I’ve never been happier.” He took her arm again and led her to the door. “Now, let’s get Evie and Brian and go eat.”

  Mike Holt be damned, he swore inwardly. Katie deserved this. So did Evie and his mother. He could handle the Mike Holts of this world. Still, he’d be glad to head home…to the J&L, to peace and quiet…away from the noise and filth and smoggy air of this city. To his own home deep in the hills that looked down on the homestead. To his son and daughter and his own bed where he’d shared so much pleasure with his wife. “I love you, Katie-girl.”