Dorothy Garlock (22 page)

She pulled away from him, holding a handful of his shirt to steady herself while her eyes searched his face to see if he was teasing. His brows were drawn in a worried frown.

“No, you don't. You think — ”Her voice stumbled to a stop. She choked back the lump that rose in her throat and turned her eyes away from him, only to have them swing back of their own accord. She was acutely aware of the warmth radiating from his broad chest and his body made firm and muscular by hard work.

“Right now I'm thinking …about kissing you. I've wanted to since the night I got here.”

“All the time? ”

“Off and on. Right now the thought is eating a hole in my brain and making my heart do handsprings.”

“You're teasing me.” She didn't want to smile at his foolish words, but she did. Her face shone, sweet and pale in the moonlight. “Is that one of the glib lines you use on girls that Joe and Blue talked about? ”

“No, ma'am. That's one I've not used before, nor will I ever again with anyone but you.”

“Promise? ”She kept her voice light, teasing.

“I'll swear on a stack of Bibles as high as my head. I'm going to kiss you. What are you going to do about it? ”

“Nothing, ”she said breathlessly. “You're bigger than I am.”

“Remember that, ”he teased.

He moved his hands up the sides of her neck to frame her face. With his thumbs locked beneath her jaw, he tilted her head and put his mouth to the sweet, soft one that was driving him crazy. He kissed her soft mouth without passion, almost as if comforting a child.

Jill pulled away, confused by the shafts of pleasure his lips sent along her spine. He pulled her back to him and claimed her lips again. His lips pressed recklessly hard, giving hers no choice but to part.

Lord of heaven, help me! She's so sweet. I've been waiting for this all my life.

The pressure of his mouth hardened — seeking, demanding, willing her to recognize her own need, forcing her head back as his lips moved hungrily over hers. Her head was spinning helplessly from the torrent of churning desires racking her body. The intensity of these feelings were strange to her, and she was powerless to control them. His warm, wet tongue caressed her lips, heightening the sensation. When he lifted his head, their eyes locked: green onto blue, both unwavering. Her ragged breath hissed through wet, throbbing lips.

“Thad…”

“It's all right, sweetheart. It's nothing to be frightened about.” He kissed her trembling mouth again with incredible gentleness.

“Why …did you kiss me? ”

“Because I wanted to. I wanted to kiss you with your arms around my neck.”

“You didn't tell me.”

He brought his hands down to clasp hers and guide them upward. When they were moving of their own accord, he wrapped his arms all the way around her so that his hands rested on the sides of her breasts.

“I wanted to kiss you with your breasts against me, and I wanted to hold your hips in my hands.” His hands moved down and his palms rested against her buttocks.

He lowered his head and a sweet, wild enchantment rippled through her veins as his lips moved over hers with warm urgency and molded them to his in a devastating kiss. Her senses responded with a deep, churning hunger for his touch, and she rose on tiptoe, arching to meet his height, her fingers clinging to his shoulders. He held her small, soft body tightly against him, lifted his hands and dared to stroke the sides of her breasts with his fingertips.

“Good Lord! Sweetheart. Help me to stop. It's like I'm starving for you.”

“Do you kiss all girls like that? ”The question tumbled out of her heart through her lips.

“The only girl I have is you. The only girl I want is you, ”he said almost angrily. He broke the embrace and led her to the swings, lifted her and sat her down. “Hold on, ”he muttered huskily.

Jill sat in a daze while Thad moved behind her and pushed. His hands on her shoulders were strong and warm. What had inspired the intimate kisses? Her heart thumped at the thought that played over and over in her mind: He had kissed her because he wanted to kiss her, and she had kissed him for the same reason.

Thad pushed Jill gently in the swing. After kissing her, he needed to think. He loved her! He was totally, recklessly, helplessly in love with sassy little Jill — a girl he had known all her life. This love had crept up on him and had sunk deeply into his heart and mind from the night he saw her on the street corner swinging her fist at the nose of a roughneck who was teasing her.
Sweet, spunky little cuss!

What he was feeling for her was a cherishing kind of love that made him want to be with her every minute of the day and night, both mentally and physically. He wanted to hold her in his arms, plant his children in her warm, fertile body, keep her happy and safe by his side forever.

He swore.

What did he have to offer her but a few hundred dollars sewn in an old coat and the dream of having his own farm?

Unconsciously, Thad's eyes had been focused on a light spot in the bushes at the edge of the playground. Then suddenly his mind cleared as if a shadow had passed from it.

Someone was watching them.

The light spot against the green of the bush moved. It was a man's shirt. Thad continued to swing Jill, his eyes never leaving the man watching them. Anger sent his pulse racing. The low-life bastard had been watching while Thad kissed her.

“Thad.” Jill spoke his name softly when the swing brought her near him. “Is that someone standing over there by the bushes? ”

“Yes, it is, sweetheart. I'm watching him.” When the man moved along the bushes toward the road, Thad's eyes followed.

“Let's go, ”she said in a frightened whisper.

Thad's arm snaked around her waist and stopped the swing. She slid off the seat. His arm went around her and held her to him while his eyes searched the dark area for the man in the light-colored shirt.

“I don't see him. Do you? ”he whispered, his lips close to her ear.

“He went around that last bush by the road while you were stopping the swing. I didn't notice him until he moved along the bushes. Who do you think it was? ”

“My guess is that he's some young lad getting his juice up by peeking in windows and spying on couples.” Thad didn't really think that, but he wanted to reassure her.

“He could be the killer, too. Let's go back.”

“I should have stayed closer to town. The next time we go out walking, I'll bring my pistol.”

With his arm around her and hers around him, they walked quickly down the middle of the road toward town. Thad's eyes continued to scan the area around him for the man who had spied on them, and he scolded himself for putting Jill in possible danger.

Jill was pondering Thad's kiss. She didn't know what to make of it. Had he kissed her because he had special feelings for her, or did he do it just to see if he could?

As soon as Thad and Jill were out of hearing distance, Joe chuckled. “Now, don't that beat all? ”

“I guess it would, if I knew what you were talking about.” Radna sat down in the place Jill had just vacated.

“Old Thad has fallen hook, line and sinker for my little sister.” He laughed again. “Who'da thought it? They've known each other all their lives. He used to tease her by saying 'Jill the pill fell down the hill. 'She'd throw cobs at him.”

“Do you mind? ”

“Hell, no. I think it's great. She'll give him a merry time. She's got enough spunk for a dozen girls.”

“She was mad as a wet hen the night he got here. Lord, she ripped him up one side and down the other. She'll not admit that she likes him.” Radna's musical laugh rang out. “She's a stubborn little dickens and I like her a hell of a lot.”

“She's had a soft spot for Thad for a long time.”

“It doesn't show, ”Radna insisted.

“She might not act like it, but she's had one since he saved her from a man who was trying to rape her.”

“She hasn't mentioned …anything like that to me, ”Justine said.

“The family doesn't talk about it. A man had been raping girls in our town for several years. He caught Jill in the woods on her way home from the field. According to what he said, he'd been waiting for a chance at her. He wrapped a scarf around her head, threw her on the ground and had ripped open the top of her dress when Thad got there.

“He was riding down the path on his horse and heard her cry out. He was just a kid. He managed to get to her before … it was too late. He jumped on the man, fought him. They rolled under Thad's horse and the frightened horse stomped the man. He died a few hours later.

“For Jill's sake and for the sake of the man's wife, the rape thing was never known outside our family and Thad's. The police chief and the doctor were there when the man was dying. He told them that he had at least eighteen children from the girls he had raped over the years.”

“He should have been hanged, ”Justine said heatedly.

“He would have been, if the horse hadn't done him in. Pa would have strung him up on the spot even if he was a town merchant and on the city council.”

A pleasant half hour passed while Joe told his aunt about the neighborhood ball games they had back on the farm in Missouri and about Jack's baseball ambitions. He reminisced about the pretty woman, posing as a widow, who came to stay with the family.

“We kids were all afraid Pa would marry her.”

“Did he want to? ”Justine asked.

“I don't know. Before it got that far, her husband came to take her home, ”Joe said with a laugh. “We were mighty glad to see the last of her.”

Justine smiled at Joe, enjoying the story he was telling, then her eyes went past him and a look of horror came over her face.

“Oh, no! I shouldn't have come out here. Take me in. Please take me in! ”

Joe followed her eyes to the steps to see Lloyd Madison bound up onto the porch, a friendly smile on his face.

Chapter 15

W
ELL, WELL. WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?
Lloyd, with a wide smile on his face, stepped up on the porch and came to sit on the railing near where Justine sat with Joe and Radna beside her. “Hello, Justine, Joe.” He ignored Radna and Blue.

“I want to go in.” Justine's voice was low and strained.

“Don't let me run you off, Justine. It's a nice night and your family is gathered around you.” He breathed in deeply. “This fresh, clean air will be good for you.”

“As if you care what's good for me, ”Justine murmured and turned her head, refusing to look at him.

“I saw Jill walk off with that big, dark fellow that's been hanging around here, the one who claims he found the murdered woman. You should be careful who your sister walks out with, Joe. Especially now that there's been a murder in town.”

“Are you saying that Thad had something to do with that? ”

“He found the body. In a criminal investigation, the husband of a slain woman or the one who finds her body is always the first on the list of suspects. In this case, instead of a husband, it will be the lover, Hunter Westfall.”

“Horse hockey! ”

“Don't be crude, ”Lloyd said sharply, and he looked at Radna with undisguised disgust.

Unfazed, Radna said, “How come you know so damn much? ”Her hand rested on Justine's trembling arm. She was aware that Blue had moved up off the steps and had sat down beside her, but she kept her dark, bright eyes on Lloyd.

“My father was a lawyer and later a judge. Right, Justine? ”Lloyd spoke with cold deliberation, his eyes on Justine. “He taught me a lot about not letting people push me and giving as good as or more than I got. He taught me about criminal justice, about the sorry side of life, which unfortunately he had come to know about, because of white trash, firsthand. He insisted that I take a course in criminal investigation while I was in law school.”

“Does the sheriff know this? If you're so good, you should offer your services to him and the man sent up from the city.” Joe uttered the sarcastic words with a pleasant smile on his face.

Lloyd laughed. “You know how that goes. Big-city police officer has to be the big dog in this investigation. He's not going to let a small-town lawyer tell him anything.” Lloyd had not taken his eyes off Justine. He spoke with his head tilted so that the side of his face with the birthmark was toward her. “You must be getting better, Justine. You're looking especially lovely tonight.”

“Liar! ”Justine blurted.

“Now, why do you say that? ”

“You know why, damn you. Get away from me! ”

“Move on, Madison. You're upsetting her.” Joe's voice was strong and censorious.

“It certainly isn't my intention to upset her. I've known her for years and I'm really concerned for her — ”

“Bullshit! ”Justine almost shouted.

“Now, now, Justine. Such crude language coming from such a pretty lady! When you were young, I bet you made the swords of many lonely old men stand at attention. Huh? ”

“I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like it, ”Joe said. “Move on, Madison, or I'll move you.”

“Come, now, Joe, I'm interested in Justine's welfare the same as you are.”

“You're interested in seeing me six feet under, ”Justine blurted.

Lloyd ignored the outburst and continued to speak to Joe.

“A person in her condition is bound to have delusions now and then.” He tapped the side of his head with his forefinger. “I'm sorry to have to say that it's only going to get worse.”

“Listen to me, you despicable ass.” Radna shot up off the bench to stand protectively beside Justine. “She's not delusional. It's clear that you're out to make her life as miserable as you can. Get the hell away from her and stay away.”

Lloyd laughed. “Radna, you continue to surprise me.
Despicable
and
delusional
are ten-dollar words. Did you learn them at that government school they set up to teach colored and Indian kids the difference between daylight and dark? ”

“Yeah, they taught me that, and how to recognize a horse's ass when I met one.” There was a sting in her voice.

Lloyd's laugh was loud and long.

“She's got a lot of spunk for a little colored gal. Don't you think so, Joe? I swear. Times are changing so fast I can hardly keep up with them. Coloreds and Indians used to know their place.”