Mountain Laurel

  ’Ring managed to make his legs work long enough to get down the hill to her tent, but his hand was shaking so badly that he could hardly pull the flap to her tent back. He was only halfway inside when what looked to be a picture frame came sailing past his head. He slipped inside the tent and the flap closed behind him.

  “How dare you?” Maddie screamed. “How dare you leave before I finish singing?” She grabbed a small jar of face cream and threw it at him.

  ’Ring caught it and started walking toward her.

  “I am waiting for your explanation.” When he didn’t say a word but just kept slowly moving toward her, she grabbed a perfume bottle from the top of the trunk and tossed it. He caught it in his right hand.

  When he reached her, he stretched both his arms around her, set the objects on the trunk behind her, then stood for a moment, looking at her.

  It was when she looked into his eyes that she saw what he was feeling, and her heart leaped to her throat. She’d seen something of this look in men’s eyes before, but nothing anywhere near the intensity of this. He had never frightened her before, but this wild-eyed man did frighten her somewhat.

  “ ’Ring, I—” she began, but he didn’t answer her. Where was the civilized, controlled man she’d spent three days with on the mountain? This man was neither civilized nor controlled.

  Before she could think, he tossed her over his shoulder and carried her out of the tent. Jamie, Toby, Edith, Frank and Sam, and Laurel were all outside, not to mention about twenty miners. She closed her eyes against seeing them, for she sensed that it was no use trying to talk to this man who carried her. This man was not the man she knew.

  He carried her up the hill to the cabin, shut the door behind them, set her on her feet, and looked at her with eyes that were burning with intensity.

  “ ’Ring, you know, I think I forgot to do something. Maybe I should—”

  He caught her in his arms as she started toward the door. As he held her, his hands moved down the back of her until he encountered the curve of her fanny, and he clasped the roundness.

  Maddie held still a moment, her eyes wide, then she looked up at him. His eyes were not only darker, his breathing different.

  Slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers and lightly kissed her.

  He had kissed her before, but this was different. Now there was an intensity there that she’d not felt before. She blinked at him, then swallowed and backed out of his arms. “I think I, ah, I need to talk to Laurel.”

  He took a step toward her.

  She put her hand on the door. “I think I heard someone calling me.”

  ’Ring reached over her head and dropped the latch on the door so that no one could get in.

  Maddie backed toward the piano and he followed her. “Did you see that your horse is being taken care of? You know how the animal eats everything. I would hate for him—”

  He backed her into a corner, put his hands on either side of the wall by her head, leaned forward and kissed her, long and softly. When Maddie started to melt toward the floor, ’Ring caught her by the waist and pulled her close to his body. When he released her mouth, she looked away from him, her breath coming in short gasps. Nothing ever had made her feel quite like this. She looked up at him, her body growing hot just at the sight of the intensity on his face. “I…I don’t know what to do,” she whispered.

  “I don’t know all that much either,” he whispered. “But I’d sure like to learn.”

  She gave him a weak smile. “Maybe we should hire teachers.”

  His hands started working with the many tiny buttons at the back of her dress, and he gently kissed her neck, her cheek, her eyes. “I’ll teach you if you’ll teach me.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her fear beginning to disappear. “Oh, yes.”

  “Maddie, I…” he said, and she could feel his fingers trembling on her dress.

  She wasn’t sure what happened next. The buttons wouldn’t easily come unfastened, so he gave a pull and the fabric tore away, the dress landing in a puddle about her feet.

  He kissed her again, this time not so gently. He spared one hand to turn her head sideways and she opened her mouth under his. She didn’t know which of them groaned, but it was a B flat.

  She didn’t even feel her other clothes fall away, but within minutes everything lay at her feet and she stood in the circle of his arms, wearing only her stockings, caught with lacy garters at her knees, and her heeled shoes.

  He held her hands, stepped away, and looked at her. The little cabin was dimly lit from a single window, making the light in the room golden.

  Maddie felt her body blushing under his look, but he put his fingers under her chin and lifted her face. “You’re as beautiful as your voice,” he said.

  High praise, she thought, the very highest praise. “I want to see you,” she whispered.

  ’Ring ran a trembling hand down her shoulder to the curve of her breast, then downward to her waist, moving his fingers over the flat softness of her belly. Finally, he looked back at her eyes and gave her a crooked smile. “Men aren’t half as interesting-looking as women.”

  She put her hand to his chest, eased one button loose and slipped her hand inside, feeling the hair on his chest, the warm skin, the shape of his hard muscles. Slowly, she unfastened one button after another, put both her hands inside his shirt, and eased it off his shoulders. As she did so she looked up at him and saw that there was passion on his face, but there was something else too. Something akin to wonder. From what she knew of him, she knew that there hadn’t been a lot of women in his life and she knew that all this was almost as new to him as it was to her. This thought sent a new thrill through her. She had always imagined that she’d someday love a man who knew all the arts of lovemaking, a man who’d take her to bed and teach her everything—she’d certainly had enough men offer to do just that for her. But she sensed that ’Ring was a student as much as she was, and somehow this pleased her very much. Perhaps it was the difference between being given a gift of a new pair of shoes or a pair that had been worn by many other people.

  She put her arms around his chest, felt her breasts against his skin.

  He held her tightly to him. “I never imagined,” he said softly against her hair. “I never had any idea what they were talking about. Toby said that this was something that a man had to have.”

  He began to tremble again, then he held her away from him and looked down at her, his eyes dark. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I do feel a, well, a sense of urgency.”

  She laughed. “Hurt me?” she said, laughing, then bit his chest. “Hurt me? I’d like to see you try.” She bit him a couple of more times before he allowed his lust to overtake him.

  Years of suppressed passion exploded within him. Years of looking but not seeing; years of wanting but denying; years of loneliness came to the surface.

  At first Maddie smiled as he eagerly began to kiss her body, bending down to her, his hands at the small of her back, pressing her bare legs against the rough wool of his trousers, his belt buckle gouging into her soft belly, but when his mouth fastened onto her breast, she stopped smiling. Her eyes opened wide, then she gave a little moan and leaned back against his arms, allowing him to support her full weight.

  He pushed her against the wall, holding her in place with one hand against her shoulder while he used his mouth and free hand to explore her body.

  “How beautiful you are,” he murmured, his mouth on her hip. “How very interesting.”

  “So glad I please you,” she managed to whisper.

  He held her upright with his hand on her stomach while he ran his mouth down her legs, rolling down each garter as he went, then tossing her shoes aside. He finally came back up to her mouth. “You have fine soft hair on your legs,” he said, sounding like a scientist observing a different form of wildlife.

  She could just blink at him as she put her arms about his neck. “Oh, ’Ring, make love to me,” she whispered.

&nbs
p; “As soon as I finish playing the overture,” he said against her lips, making her smile, then he turned her around. “Let’s see the back of you.”

  He held her against the wall as he ran his hands over the back of her, kissing her down her spine, around her buttocks, then down the backs of her legs. When he reached her heels he nipped at them, making her squeal with pleasure and lift first one foot and then the other.

  She turned to face him. Her body was hot with wanting him, and she’d had enough of his power over her. She wanted a little power of her own. She slipped away from his grasp when he reached for her.

  “Maddie,” he said, his voice full of yearning, his hands out.

  When he looked at her like that she knew she would be able to deny him nothing. “Off,” she said, pointing to his trousers.

  He grinned. “Mustn’t disappoint a lady.”

  She watched as he sat on the floor and pulled his calf-high boots off, then stood again and slipped his trousers and knit underwear down to his ankles and easily stepped out of them.

  Maddie stood back against the wall and took her time looking at him. Having grown up around mountain men and Indians, she’d often seen men wearing nothing but breech cloths, but somehow ’Ring was more magnificent than they were. And in the middle of his body was rampant evidence of his desire for her.

  She looked back at his face. “Is all that for little ol’ me?” she asked, and was very pleased to see him blush all the way to his shoulders.

  “Come here,” he growled, reaching for her, but Maddie ran a few steps to escape him.

  ’Ring stood where he was, his mouth agape as he saw parts of her jiggle.

  Maddie suddenly felt very powerful, for it was she who had absolute control of this magnificent man. She opened her mouth and sang the second set of trills from “Ah, fors’ è lui.”

  ’Ring was on top of her in a second. All two hundred pounds of him hit her and knocked her to the floor—and his aim was perfect. His mouth hit hers precisely, and all his maleness entered her femaleness in one smooth move. Out of instinct her legs went around his waist as he began to move within her. At first he was slow, slow and deep, but within seconds, as she lifted her hips to him, he began to move deeply and quickly—and Maddie met his every move.

  She wasn’t aware they were scooting along the floor until her head hit the wall. Her neck bent and her shoulders began to slide upward, and ’Ring’s mouth made contact with her breast. In his urgency he sucked a little too hard, a little too painfully, and Maddie cried out. Her legs locked even tighter about his waist.

  When she was bent nearly double by the wall, ’Ring tightened his arms around her waist and lifted her, never losing their connection, then stood up with her clasped about him. He took a step toward the piano, but then he paused. She opened her eyes to look at him, saw he seemed to be considering something.

  She wiggled against him, and he closed his eyes, and the next moment she found her back against the wall. She held on for dear life as he began to move again. Excitement began to build and build in her as her nails dug into his back and her ankles locked, holding him close.

  “Yes,” she said, and took his earlobe in her teeth. “Yes.” She stuck her tongue in his ear and he slammed into her with such blinding force, that for a second she couldn’t see as she saw bright white light and her body rocked in tremors.

  It was minutes later that she was able to breathe again, and she could feel ’Ring’s heart thudding against her breast.

  He took a few steps backward with Maddie locked around him, then he knelt with her, pried her legs from his waist, smiled at Maddie’s groan when their connection was broken, then lay down on the floor, Maddie held securely to him.

  “I didn’t know,” she whispered as she lay with her head on his shoulder, her fingers twining in the hair on his chest. He didn’t say anything, so she rose on one elbow and looked at him. She ran her fingertip over the frown lines in his forehead. “What is making you frown?”

  He kissed her fingertip and held her hand against his chest, then looked at her. “I understand now what drives men. I understand what my father was talking about.”

  “Your father talked to you about women?” She snuggled her head back against his shoulder, thinking how well they fit together.

  “Tried to.” Suddenly he hugged her so tightly she almost cried out. “Maddie, my beautiful LaReina, I would like to give you as much as you’ve given me. First your voice and now this.” He ran his hand down her arm.

  She stretched luxuriously, moving her legs by his. “You’ve given me Laurel.”

  “That wasn’t enough to repay you for this.”

  She laughed. “What if I told you I wanted the moon?”

  “I’d give it to you.”

  She rose up on her elbow to look at him. “And what do you want in return?”

  “All of you. Every bit of you,” he said as he kissed her.

  “There’s a lot of me.”

  He looked down at her breast. “I think I can handle all you have.”

  “With what?” she said, looking down at his legs.

  “I’ll teach you…” he said, and grabbed for her as Maddie squealed and tried to get away from him.

  She didn’t succeed.

  Laurel sat by the campfire near Toby. The sun was going down and it was growing cool. She looked over her shoulder, up the hill at the old shack where her sister and…and that man had been for three days now. Her eyes widened. “Toby, I think that place is shaking.”

  Toby looked behind him and stared at the shack with interest, then, wisely, he nodded. “Who’s got shakin’ shack,” he said to the miners who were around them.

  For several days the miners had gradually been leaving their claims, until now not one man had done any work at the streams for three whole days. Instead, their interest had been given over to the opera singer and what was going on in her life. They had first become interested when Maddie refused to sing and had instead spent her days standing under a tree and looking down the road, rather like a sea captain’s widow watching for a man who wasn’t going to return.

  They had become even more interested when ’Ring and his brother had returned with a sleeping child. They’d gathered around Toby and asked lots of questions. If the woman wasn’t going to sing for them, the least she could do was provide them with stories.

  Toby had been regaling the men with incredible stories of ’Ring’s exploits (and about the minor help he’d received from his “little” brother) when they heard Maddie’s singing coming from the cabin. They were very quiet as they listened, then they were astonished to see Captain Montgomery leave the shack, the opera lady leave behind him, and then there was some shouting (What a voice the woman had! You could probably hear her ten miles away) then the captain threw the woman over his shoulder and took her back to the shack. Not any of the miners had said a word, just stood there watching that shack.

  It was when they heard a female squeal followed by a crash that one of the miners said, “I got twenty bucks that says they don’t come out ’fore mornin’.”

  “You’re on,” said another man.

  It had started out as a simple diversion, but when Edith took breakfast to the opera singer and her man the next morning, and the couple asked her to bring them the jar of rose-scented oil from Maddie’s trunk, that’s when the betting began in earnest.

  They bet on the amount of time that Maddie and ’Ring would stay in the cabin. Since there were so many miners, they had to take bets on the hour that they would emerge. Toby found that young Laurel had had proper training from a man named Bailey and she knew all about odds on betting. Jamie had protested against someone of Laurel’s youth and innocence being involved in such a thing as betting on the sexual habits of her sister. He said this even as he put ten dollars down that said his brother couldn’t last more than forty-eight hours.

  Laurel, for all her youth, knew something about men. She knew that Jamie wanted to get her away from the
others so he could drill her with thousands of questions about the kidnappers. She told Jamie that unless he let her handle the bets, she wouldn’t answer one question for him. When Toby laughed and said that Laurel had beaten a Montgomery, Laurel began negotiations for how much of the betting proceeds she was to receive from Toby for handling the transactions. Toby said that he’d give her a nickel for each bet that she recorded. Laurel had laughed in his face and started the negotiations at fifty percent. After much haggling, they settled that Laurel was to get thirty percent of whatever Toby made. She answered Jamie’s questions while she took bets.

  “Shaking cabin,” Laurel said, looking at her notebook. “Tim Sullivan.” She opened the box (she also took care of the bags of gold dust) and paid the man. “I told you not to take that bet,” Laurel whispered to Toby. “You were bound to lose.”

  “What do you know?” he growled. “You were the one that wanted that five hundred candle bet. And the honey bet. And the bathtub bet.”

  “Ah, but we made it back when they asked for the milk to put in the tub. Nobody had milk bath.”

  Jamie lounged against his saddle, his long legs sprawled out in front of him, looked at old Toby and the pretty little Laurel, and shook his head. Two days earlier he’d stopped saying that it wasn’t seemly for Laurel to participate in this kind of betting, that she was just a child. He was beginning to think that this “child” was older than he was.

  “No more bets, Jamie?” Laurel asked him as she counted the bags of gold dust in her box. She had somewhere obtained a weighing scale to accurately measure the gold that she and Toby took in.

  He pushed his hat down over his eyes. “The pride I have in my brother is more than enough reward for me.”

  “Shhh,” Laurel said, and all the men around her became very still, their eyes on the cabin on the hill.

  “What is it?” Toby whispered.

  Laurel smiled. “That’s Carmen.”

  There was immediate confusion as the men began scrambling to reclaim and pay off their bets. They didn’t know one opera from another, but Laurel did, and she’d made a list of what Maddie sang. The men had drawn the songs from a hat, then wagered on the corresponding times when they believed she would sing from the opera they had drawn.