GoldLust (2 page)

James moved restlessly, then turned to face her.

“There, that’s better. I could get used to this.” He wrapped
his arms around her and grinned.

“You’re not going to be getting anything but body heat from
me. In fact, you seem to be doing just fine. I think I’ll get dressed and start
a fire.” She moved so that her skin no longer touched him, but it didn’t get
rid of the tension flooding her body.

“Never hurts to try. You
are
a woman?” He paused and
moved back so his eyes could drift down her body. “Hard to tell sometimes with
the clothes you wear.”

His words were rude, but the expression on his face was one
of teasing and curiosity. And lust.

“Men’s clothes just happen to be a lot more comfortable than
women’s. I’d like to see you try to climb mountains in a dress.” She forced
herself to focus on the words, not his eyes.

It wasn’t the first time she’d been ridiculed for wearing
pants. Emma rolled out of the blanket and turned her back to James.

“Maybe you should stop climbing mountains and start wearing
dresses. Women are meant to stay home and raise children, not work in mines.”
His voice held no venom, no anger, but the words still had a little sting to
them. It was what everyone expected, and she didn’t like it.

James paused for a second and it made her uneasy. But Emma
kept from the temptation of looking back, kept from checking out his
expression, kept from trying to read the man’s mind.

“You’d look pretty damn good in a dress.” His voice was low
and rough, and it didn’t matter if the words should have been offensive to her.
They had a much different impact.

Emma pulled the shirt over her shoulders and then turned to
look at James. His eyes moved over the still exposed lower half of her body,
sending heat to every inch of her skin.

She actually enjoyed the fact that he thought she would look
good in a dress. There was something definitely wrong with her. Even more
aggravating was the heat that pooled between her legs when he looked at her
like that. Stupid.

She shouldn’t care about his thoughts. Emma pulled her shirt
closed and started buttoning, but her hands shook as she worked. Not from cold,
but from nervousness and a desire that she couldn’t shake.

“You should be thankful I do climb mountains. If I hadn’t
decided to come today, you would’ve been washed right down the stream.”

“Yeah…thanks for that.” He looked her in the eye as he said
the words and that was even worse than when he looked at her body. It felt as
if he was looking straight into her soul.

“You’re welcome.” She never expected James Armstrong to
thank her for anything. It was strange. This whole situation was strange.

Emma fumbled with the buttons but she finally finished
closing the shirt and looked up to face James. A smirk plastered across his
face and he watched her, unashamed.

Not bothering to mess with undergarments, Emma moved to the
door of the mine. She would finish this ordeal, make a fire and dry out her
pants and his clothes so she could get to her claim and start working instead
of wasting her time rolling naked in the blankets with James. She only had a
week to work, and then the ships would start coming in. She would have to go
back to town to try to rent out the upstairs rooms of her house. There wasn’t
any time to waste.

Emma went just outside the mine entrance and grabbed an
armload of wood from the pile James had cut and stacked. Within a few minutes,
the sparks were crackling and the little mine shaft was almost too hot. She
tossed all the wet clothes onto the dirt, near enough to the fire that they
would dry quickly.

But as she worked she could feel his eyes on her, watching
her every move. When Emma turned in his direction and caught him, he didn’t
turn away but continued to stare. His eyes studied her bare legs, showing he
was appreciative and something even worse. Unabashedly lustful.

Emma turned and moved the clothes, flipped them over to dry
on the other side. She did anything she could think of to keep busy, to keep
her mind off the effect James had on her body.

He sat up and the blanket draped over his lap, almost
showing too much. Muscles of his shoulders and arms and stomach flexed as he
moved, and now it was her turn to stare.

“Sit down beside me.” He patted the blanket. “The clothes
aren’t going to dry any faster because you’re fussing over them.”

He was right. There was nothing left to do but wait. She
might as well sit, save her energy for her own work later.

Emma let out a frustrated breath. “Okay.”

She plopped her butt down on the edge of the blanket, curled
her knees to her chest under the big shirt and stared straight ahead. Afraid if
she looked at him he would be able to read her mind. She didn’t want to
encourage any advances from him. Part of her didn’t, anyway. There was also
that part that wanted nothing less than his hard cock pounding into her over
and over until she lost all control.

She must be crazy.

“I do really want to thank you for saving me.” His voice was
low, seductive and the hair on the back of Emma’s neck stood up in
anticipation. If just his voice could cause this reaction, what would it be
like if he touched her?

She could have his touch. It wasn’t as if Emma was a virgin
looking for a man to take care of her, and she had no interest in ever getting
married again. But her independence was very important, so having anything to
do with James would not be smart.

“I was just doing what I had to do.” Emma stared at the
dancing fire that was nothing in comparison to the flames burning inside her.
There shouldn’t be anything burning for James, but her body was oblivious to
that fact. Her body wanted one thing, needed one thing.

“You didn’t have to do anything. You could have just watched
me wash away. Not many women would jump into action like that. I guess all that
piss and vinegar can be a good thing.” He chuckled at his words.

He wasn’t very good at this, but she was going to take his
speech as a compliment anyway. “Thanks. You would have done the same for me.”

He already had.

The smell of burning wood hung in the air and the flames
were close enough to heat up her skin, not that she needed any more heat.
Sitting next to James created plenty of that.

“Why do you keep coming back here after…you know?” he asked.

“You mean my husband dying?” She turned to look in his eyes
and caught a glimpse of compassion before he turned away. He did have a heart.
It was buried under layers and layers of gruff manliness, but it was there.

“Yeah, that.” It was James’ turn to stare at the fire
uncomfortably.

“Probably the same reason you do. You don’t need to have a
man or to be a man to feel the draw to search for treasure.”

Men were so thickheaded. They thought they were the only
ones in the world who enjoyed the thrill, the adventure of searching for gold.
They thought women were weakling creatures who should sit inside and sew all
the time and not crave anything more in life.

“And I feel obligated. I can’t let Ben’s dream die.” It was
more honesty than she had planned on giving him.

“Were you with your husband when he wrote the story—about
the gold here?” James fisted the blanket. Was it out of nervousness or anger
for the position Ben had put him in? It didn’t seem like anger.

“I wasn’t.” She wished she would have been. She would have
gotten a better read of the honesty of the people. Ben, God rest his soul, had
been gullible to a fault, a charming but dangerous quality for a man to have.

It was looking real likely the gold story was possibly all
someone’s brilliant concoction. Not a single person who bought a claim from the
lucky couple Ben interviewed had found anything, and the couple left town as
soon as the claims were sold.

“Do you think they really found gold here?” James asked.

“I don’t know.” She felt partly guilty for his predicament.
He spent good money to buy his claim and was getting the same payout as her.
Nothing.

Emma didn’t write the article, and she didn’t come along
with Ben on that first trip. Her instincts were good. She would have seen
through the fraudulence. She could have saved them both a lot of time and
money.

“I haven’t found a damn thing,” she admitted for the first
time to anyone.

“Me either.” He ran his finger in the dirt, drawing a line
at the edge of the blanket. “How much longer are you going to try?”

“I’ll probably stop after this summer if I don’t find
anything.” She shrugged. Partially in defeat and partially in frustration. “I
hate quitting but there’s no use to keep pounding my head against the wall. I
don’t want to leave Alaska though. Maybe I’ll find someplace to work up here.”

“It’s a tough life. Wouldn’t you be happier back in a city
somewhere?” He turned to look at her again as he spoke. There was sincerity in
his expression, a true curiosity in his words.

“No. I love it here. The mountains, fresh air, being
surrounded by the wild. There’s no way I could go back to living in a city.”
She hated the thought of ever having to leave Alaska. It felt good here, felt
right.

“It is a pretty great place to live.” His eyes moved past
the rock walls that surrounded them and out into the spruce trees beyond the
cave walls. Blue skies, interrupted only by puffy white clouds, were just
outside the door. And to make the scene even more spectacular, a huge eagle
flew across the horizon.

“I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” She loved Alaska, loved
the nature, loved the freedom.

“You are a strange woman. Strange and frustrating and
beautiful.”

The breath sucked out of her chest at his words, at the
desire they caused to surge through her.

James brought his hand up, touched her cheek and turned her
face toward him. His eyes narrowed as he moved his lips closer to hers, and she
froze, torn between common sense and need.

She shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t let him kiss her, but Emma
didn’t back away when his lips came closer. She couldn’t move away once his
lips touched hers and the lightning hit. Her core tingled, and she wanted more,
needed more.

James pulled her to him and her hands automatically moved to
the bare skin of his back. Strong muscles flexed and relaxed beneath her
fingertips, bringing out the human instinct in her to hold on tight and go for
a ride.

“Mmmmm.” The low growl coming from her was unintended and
completely inappropriate, but showed exactly how she felt.

Emma moved her fingers down the warmth of his skin, needing
to touch him, to feel the strength of James under her fingertips. She paused at
the scar, the four-inch claw mark left by the bear. The bear he saved her from.

James was a man she would want in her corner when the going
got tough. But what surprised her was how much she thought of him as the man
she would want for other things as well. Her body’s reaction to James wasn’t
something she could control, and right now she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Emma opened her mouth, letting his tongue in, letting him
taste her. His hands roamed up the bare skin of her legs.

Feelings that she thought she’d closed off, thought had
possibly died with her husband, came rocketing straight to the surface, hard
and fast.

Yes, Emma definitely wanted this. It had been too long since
she’d felt the touch of a man, and the skin between her thighs tingled with
pent-up need.

James reclined on the blanket and pulled her down on top of
him in one smooth motion. His hands roamed up her naked butt and pulled her
firmly against his hard cock.

Heat and wetness rushed to her opening. It was all so
natural, so earthy. She needed his cock to quench the fire inside her.

“Mmmm.” The moan escaped her lips again.

“You have a beautiful body.” His words came out as a growl
and caused a shiver to shoot through her.

James’ hands moved up her back, under her manly oversized
shirt, brushing the sides of her breasts and sending intense heat straight to
her crotch.

“Thank you,” Emma said, struggling to come up with any
words.

He was the one with an amazing body. All hard muscle,
powerful, manly. She’d tried to avoid noticing him, tried to stay away, but he
wasn’t the kind of man a woman could ignore.

Emma rubbed herself against his cock. She couldn’t help it.
She throbbed for him, needed him to satiate the need.

James groaned and then grabbed her by the hair, pulling her
mouth down to his, hard, tongue tangling with hers. He was barely containing
control, showing her just how badly he wanted her.

Her desires echoed his exactly. She hadn’t had relations
with a man in two years and her body was ready for the drought to be over. More
than ready.

But this was James—take whatever he wanted, just the way he
wanted it, James. He wasn’t the kind of man she could have a relationship with.
Wasn’t someone she wanted to spend her time with. Just a body to use for her
own pleasure. Could she be that woman?

“I guess we’re going to be good neighbors after all.” He
grinned, but his words were just what she needed to snap her out of her own
stupidity.

James was her neighbor. The neighbor she didn’t get along
with. Just because he was good-looking and her body craved him so damn badly
didn’t mean she should do this with him. She didn’t need to be tempted into
coming over to visit him while she should be working her claim. Didn’t want
James to try to gain any control over her.

Emma sure as hell didn’t need the distraction of a man in
her life, and she was too old to have children. She turned thirty-five this
year, and while children were still a possibility, it wasn’t what she wanted.
Not anymore. Those dreams had disappeared with the death of her husband. She
wanted to enjoy the outdoors in peace, and having a relationship would only
complicate things.