Chase the Wind (64 page)
Authors: Cindy Holby - Wind 01 - Chase the Wind
Chase handed Jenny up into the carriage that had been dec
orated with bows and ribbon, as had the horse. Ty was driving,
and Cat was handed up next to him. Then they took off for the ranch, with their friends riding alongside, entertaining them along the way with words of advice for the coming night. A procession
of carriages followed. A party was always welcome, and since the Lynches were one of the richest families around, everyone knew it
would be a good one.
They had smiled a hundred smiles and shaken a hundred hands of people that they did not know. Some offered enthusiastic good wishes, and others enjoyed the lavish spread while issuing phony smiles and talked with secret disgust of the half-breed who dared to soil a white girl. Chase was not oblivious to the gossip, he just chose to ignore it. He had what he wanted, and no one was going to spoil it for him, especially narrow-minded people who did
not
have a clue as to who or what he was. All that mattered was that Jenny loved him, and she reminded him of it every time she reached out to take his hand during the reception. She was radiant with happiness, her face glowing each time she turned to look for him when they became separated in the crowded room.
They had been toasted and fussed over, and Chase had had enough. He caught Jenny’s eye and slightly inclined his head towards the door to the kitchen. She arched an eyebrow in return and began to make her way there, politely greeting the people who stood in her way. When she was at his side, he took her hand and with a final look to make sure no one was watching they slid through the door
.
Escape from the kitchen was easy, they were out the door in a flash and down the steps, where Jenny stopped to gather up her array of ruffles and crinolines for the dash down the hill. Their feet flew over grass that was silver with frost, and they laughed as they slipped and slid towards the cabin.
“I can’t believe we made it,” Jenny laughed as they climbed the
stoop. Chase pulled her to him and kissed her, then quickly scooped her into his arms, her skins billowing up over their heads. Jenny gave way to a fit of giggles as she pressed her skirts down and he kicked the door open and carried her through.
Someone had been there ahead of them. The fire had been lit, along with an array of candles. Chase set Jenny on the floor in front of the fireplace, and his eyes began to glow with the reflection of the coals. Jenny reached her hand up and smoothed his dark, silky hair back behind his ear, and he turned his head to kiss her hand before she took it away. His arms slid around her waist, and she eagerly pressed herself against him as he bent to kiss her again. He finally raised his head with a soft sigh and found Jenny grinning mischievously at him.
“Well?” she asked saucily. His eyebrows went up in a leer and she turned, presenting her back to him. “I think I may need some help with these.” She looked over her shoulder at him, and he groaned as he saw the number of tiny buttons that went down her back.
“Who picked this dress out?”
“Cat.”
“Remind me to repay the favor.” He started on the buttons, his fingers amazingly nimble against her spine, and Jenny shivered in anticipation as he spread the back of the dress wide. He moved the curls aside that were dancing against her neck and planted a kiss. His hands moved the dress down as he caressed her shoulders, and soon it was bunched on the floor; her crinolines, which were tied at her waist with a ribbon, quickly followed. Jenny kicked free of the garments and turned to face Chase. She pulled his tie away as he tried to shrug off his coat, but his arms became hopelessly entangled when she pressed against him, her hands undoing the buttons of his shirt.
Jenny laughed at his frustration as he jerked at the sleeves that kept his arms behind him. He needed desperately to have his hands on Jenny, who was teasing him with her hips as she plucked at the buttons. The coat finally gave way and sailed into a chair, just as his shirt was pulled from his pants. He ripped the shirt away, not caring that one last button flew off the shirt as he flung it to the floor. He wrapped his arms around Jenny, his mouth crushing against hers as he nudged her over to the bed. Her legs gave way when they met it, and they tumbled onto the mattress.
“Jenny,” he groaned against her mouth and he felt her smile beneath his lips. She unbuckled his belt and attacked the buttons. He raised himself up to help, and she eased out from under him and sat up, her legs tucked under her. He knelt on one knee before her on the bed when he had removed the last of his clothes, and reached out to untie the ribbon of the silk camisole she still wore. It fell away in a whisper, and she leaned back against the pillows. Her pantalets fell to the floor in the space of a heartbeat, and he raised himself over her as she sighed.
The movement of her breast when she sighed caught his eye, and he saw the raised skin that rippled over her heart. Chase reached for the candle that flickered on the nightstand and brought the light towards her. He looked at her face in confusion, then back at the new scar, his hand poised above it a second before he ran his fingers over the ridges of skin. Jenny raised her chin proudly, daring him to protest what she had done.
“I love you,” he whispered as he set the candle down. Her arms went around his neck as he stretched out beside her.
“Love me now, Chase. Love me now ... I don’t want to wait any longer.”
Her legs wrapped around his hips as he rolled on top of her and eased himself in, praying the whole while that she would not panic, that her mind would not go back to what Mason had done. Her head was thrown back, her eyes squeezed shut, and he lowered his mouth to her neck. He felt her tense as he filled her and he stopped, his will fighting his body’s impulses.
Chase placed his hands on either side of her face. “Open your eyes, Jenny. Look at me.” She obeyed, her sapphire blue melting into the silver of his in the darkness. “I love you.”
“Chase,” she whispered, and he began to move against her, holding her head steady with his hands. Her hands moved down from his shoulders to his hips, moving around to his stomach, tracing a line up to his chest. He threw his head back as her hands made the trail, then brought his mouth down to her neck, then up to her mouth again, where her lips were eagerly seeking his. He wrapped a hand in her hair, tangling the pins and ribbons that held it up as she picked up his rhythm beneath him. She began to meet him with each thrust, her hands burning across his chest. He couldn’t breathe, he laid his forehead against hers, and his hair fell around them, brushing her cheeks as she gasped beneath him.
“Please, oh, Chase—” Her eyes widened as the sun exploded around her, and the impact of it carried Chase along with her, melting his spine as he went, until he could not tell where he ended and Jenny began.
When he was able, he rolled them over so that they lay side by side, facing each other. His leg hit the quilt and he flipped it up with his foot, then opened it over their bodies so that it covered their hips and legs. Jenny’s face was buried in his neck. She was still trying to catch her breath, her body trembling against his.
“Are you all right?” She had yet to say a word.
“I didn’t know ... I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?”
“That it was like this.” She raised her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And spoil all the fun?” He grinned. “Owwww! Do that again
and the fun is over.” He trailed his hand down the side of her face,
over her shoulder, down her arm and up under her breast. He cupped it with his hand, then bent his head to lay a gentle kiss over the scar. “I don’t know if I could have done that.”
“Jamie survived it, so I knew I could, too.”
They were interrupted by a barrage of rocks against the roof of the cabin. “Hey, Chase, no fair sneaking off like that.” Someone
pounded on the window. “Hey, you need some help in there?”
Chase pulled the quilt up over their heads as they buried their laughter in pile of pillows. They heard a crash, then a loud thud.
“Damn it, Jamie, we were just teasing them. You don’t have to get
so hostile about it.” The voices drifted off; then they heard a loud
“Good night” thrown in their direction, followed by peals of laugh
ter. The sound of a door slamming drifted across the valley, and
then the peaceful night sounds took over.
Chase trailed his long fingers down the side of Jenny’s face in a
tender caress. “I love you, Jenny.” His mouth came down on hers softly, gently touching her lips. Jenny shivered at his kiss, all the
way down to her toes, which began to curl against the sheets.
Her head popped up and she looked down at her feet.
A vision came into her head of a young girl, dressed in her
brother’s hand-me-down clothes, sewing on a porch with her
mother, who looked like an angel with her silvery blonde hair fall
ing around her shoulders. “Momma, how did you know that you
loved Dad?” the girl asked.
Faith looked at Ian, who was washing off the grime of a day’s work, with Jamie at his side. “I just knew. The first time I met him
I knew.”
“How did you know?”
“My toes curled when he kissed me.”
Jenny saw her father’s handsome face as he came onto the porch;
she remembered how his russet hair fell across his forehead as he bent over to kiss Faith; she remembered looking on in amazement
as her mother’s toes curled against the aged wood of the porch.
She knew she would never forget the laughter that drifted up from
her parents’ room later that night. A soft smile lit Jenny’s face as she smoothed the blue wedding ring quilt that covered their bod
ies.
“What?” Chase asked as she turned to look at him.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
She told him the story, and his laughter rang out much like Ian’s had so long ago. When he dove under the quilt and began to kiss her toes, she knew what had prompted her mother’s giggles that
night.
“What do you think our children will look like?” Jenny asked when
they were settled once again against the pillows.
“Blue eyes,” he said as he kissed an eyelid.
“Dark hair.” Jenny ran her hand through the silky strands of his
hair.
“Nice curves, if they’re girls.” His hands traveled over her breasts
and around her waist.
“A solid behind.” Jenny grabbed his firm cheeks.
“And long legs,” Chase added.
“I hope we have children.”
“We will, and we’ll keep them safe, I promise.”
“Do we have any more enemies?”
“None that I know of.” Jenny yawned as she settled her head
against his chest. “Go to sleep,” he whispered. “We have plenty of
time.”
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