Jed's Sweet Revenge

  “If I’m a terrible student, what then?” The anxiety in her voice made him hug her tightly. “Will it ruin everything? Will you be honest and tell me that Nate’s assessment of my abilities was accurate?”

  He nuzzled her cheek. Tentatively, she nuzzled back. “Wildflower, you got it all wrong,” he murmured against her ear. “There’s no way you could get an F in my class, ’cause there aren’t any grades. There aren’t any rules. You do what gives you pleasure, and it’ll just naturally please me too.”

  “That sounds too simple,” she protested raggedly.

  “Try it. You kiss me. Kiss me whatever way you want to. Just use your imagination.” She looked at him uncertainly, her face flushed and her lips parted. His eyes challenged her with gentle devilry. “Do it,” he dared. “You want to do it. You know you want to.”

  “You’re a tease,” she protested, leaning toward him a little.

  His voice dropped to a throaty rumble. “I love you. I see that sweetness behind your eyes and I know you love me too. We haven’t been together a long time, but that doesn’t matter, ’cause we’re two of a kind, like you said before. Hardheaded loners with a lot of bad memories and a big, hurtin’ need to find one special person to care about. With all that goin’ for us, this sex stuff you’re worried about isn’t even important.”

  Thena uttered a happy sound and pressed her lips to one corner of his mouth. She hovered over the spot, looking at his mouth with half-shut eyes. “I should just do what I want to you, Jedidiah?”

  “Yep. But you gotta kiss the other corner too,” he noted coyly. “Otherwise I’ll be lopsided.” She kissed it. “Ain’t no limit on the number of kisses I’m willin’ to accept,” he murmured. “Help yourself.”

  He settled deeper into the couch and stroked her back languidly as Thena placed small, light kisses all over his face. Her breath quickened; the kisses quickened, and suddenly her hands slid up his chest. “Not bad,” he assured her in a voice that strained for nonchalance.

  “Where do you like to be touched?” she asked hoarsely.

  He pointed to the slight indention at the center of his chest. She ran her fingers through the curly hair and explored the skin underneath. “And here.” Jed pointed to the base of his throat. “I reckon”—he barely repressed a smile—“that a kiss on the spot would feel awful good too.”

  She bent her head and put her lips in the small valley between his collarbones. Thena felt his pulse racing against her mouth and loved the hot and musky scent of his skin. She couldn’t resist the urge to touch her tongue to it, tasting the masculine flavor. He groaned and she lifted her head quickly, frowning.

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Yep. You stopped too soon.” He grinned at her, and she noticed for the first time that his face was as flushed as hers. “Thena, my sweet darlin’, there isn’t a wrong way or a right way to do these things. Look, you don’t have any notion to bite me or somethin’ painful like that, do you?” She shook her head. “Then quit worryin’ and do what you want.” He let his head fall back on the couch dramatically. “I’ll just have to make myself enjoy it.”

  His teasing and reassurance provoked her beyond caring whether she made mistakes or not. Thena took his face between her hands and covered his mouth with an unrestrained, intimate kiss. When his lips parted, she met his rough, delicious tongue with her own. And quite naturally, as if she’d known what to do all along, she gave and accepted a sensuous exploration. Suddenly she pulled away, laughing dizzily. Thena threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

  “It’s wonderful! Just wonderful! I had no idea!”

  He chuckled in delight. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  “Wait! I have to do it again!” This time the kiss went on for nearly a minute. And suddenly it wasn’t a game any longer. The mood turned serious as Jed’s long arms snaked around her waist and he taught her kissing maneuvers she’d never read about in books. There was something possessive and demanding about him now, a dark, mysterious need that could have been frightening, but wasn’t. Thena not only understood the need, she ached with it herself.

  She wasn’t certain when she shifted position, but suddenly she realized that she was sitting on his lap. Her lips weren’t frozen with nervousness anymore, they were mobile and capricious, capturing his mouth repeatedly and being captured in return.

  “So where do you like to be kissed?” he asked playfully, as his mouth trailed down the side of her neck.

  “I don’t know, I never thought about it … but … there! And … that’s nice … very nice … oh, that spot too … Jedidiah, is it supposed to feel so fantastic everywhere?”

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he repeated.

  She held tightly to him and her head fell back as he proved that every inch of her neck and shoulders was capable of responding with the same tingling pleasure. His mouth burned the skin just above her smock’s bodice, and the heat radiated down her breasts and stomach. Thena raised her head and looked at Jed solemnly.

  “I think we should lie down on the couch,” she whispered. “That would seem to me more comfortable.”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am. Lots more.”

  Thena had never expected the simple act of changing places to be so thrilling. She stretched out on her back, every nerve singing with anticipation. It felt so right to lie there unguarded, looking up at Jed with trusting eyes. He lowered his body next to hers, sliding one hand over her stomach and the other under her head. His gaze was serious as he nestled the length of her torso against his own.

  Her thigh settled against the lower part of his body and encountered an unmistakable and dramatic ridge. Thena’s eyes went quickly to Jed’s, and her amazed, thoughtful expression made him smile. Her insides, which had already turned to a jumble of sensations as his hand stroked her stomach, now melted entirely.

  She felt infused with a heat of rising intensity and a tender desire to give him as much pleasure as he gave her. “My books didn’t explain this very well,” she whispered. “They never talked about the feeling of harmony.” She reached out cautiously and began to stroke the powerful, sheathed muscles of his bare stomach. Her fingers moved over the front of his pants and very very carefully touched the stiffness pressing against her leg. “We haven’t even made love yet,” she continued in an awed voice, “but I already feel as if you’ve become a part of me.”

  “We don’t have to join our bodies to be makin’ love,” he told her softly. “Touchin’ each other, talkin’ to each other, puttin’ good feelings behind everything we do for each other—that’s what makes this different from what you’ve read in your sex books.” And from anything I’ve ever shared with a woman before, he added silently.

  He nestled his head next to hers, and Thena turned her face so that they could kiss easily. The fresh-washed night air was fragrant, and the only sound was the low hum of crickets outside. There seemed to be no world beyond their peaceful spot, nothing except the two of them in the shadowy light, their hands moving languidly over each other’s body.

  Thena gave up her memories, her fears. Jed’s touch brought her to a heightened level of awareness where only the present mattered. She felt more alive and vibrant than ever before. When he slid her bodice down and cupped each of her breasts in his palms, she thought nothing could surpass the intense pleasure. But that was just the beginning.

  His lips on her nipples proved almost too exquisite to bear in silence. His hands, easing her dress down her thighs, were inclined to wander in a way that made her body rise to welcome them. He touched her intimately, and she responded with a natural zeal that amazed her. She didn’t know herself anymore. She only knew that her life was beginning a second time, tonight.

  He was a very quiet man under any circumstances, but even more so now. By the time he cradled her naked body in his arms, shivering with emotion, the fire within him seemed to have robbed him of all speech. He just looked at her with eyes that gleamed with hunger and devotion.


  “My bedroom,” she said simply. And he nodded.

  He carried her there in the dark and laid her down on the center of the white coverlet. Thena put her hands on the pillow behind her head and watched him move around the bed, loosening the white netting from its ties on the bedposts. The gossamer folds cascaded around her so that she seemed to be floating in a cloud.

  Thena kept her eyes locked on Jed greedily, but he moved at an unhurried, provocative pace that built the tension to a hypnotizing level. He lit a small kerosene lamp on the dresser by the window, then walked to the side of the bed and stood quietly, facing her. He slid the white pants down his lean hips and stepped out of them without ever taking his gaze from hers.

  The slight catching of her breath conveyed her appreciation of all he revealed. She moved over and placed her hand on the spot next to her. Jed parted the filmy netting, knelt on the bed, and held out his hands as if asking for an invitation. Her eyes glowing like silver jewels, she grasped them and drew him to her.

  Jed gathered her in his arms. “I won’t hurt you,” he promised in a throaty whisper.

  And he didn’t. The entry of his body into hers was a moment of ecstasy that made them both lie very still for a second, smiling at each other and whispering soft, loving words. Then he began a deep, easy rhythm that quickly captured them in an ancient and mindless cadence of pleasure.

  A slight breeze curled into the room and carried their moans away on its currents. Thena loved the way the granitelike length of him fit snugly inside her, as if she had never been complete until she joined with him. His movements were strong and yet careful. They created a whirlwind of sensation and blinding emotion in her, consuming rational thought, bonding her soul to his.

  Thena raised herself to him, held him with a wantonness that brought hoarse cries of happiness from his throat and provoked him to lose his tenuous control. For a single, beautifully paralyzing moment they reached beyond the edge of mortality together and created a pure dream that would never die.

  Thena weakly sank her fingers into his damp hair and closed her eyes in slow, helpless wonder as the aftermath of intense sensation pulsated through her. More than a minute passed before she became aware of Jed’s dazed voice, thick and husky, whispering against her mouth. Apparently he’d been speaking to her for some time.

  “Answer me, Thena. Dear God, answer me, sweetheart. Are you all right?”

  For once, she was the one without words. She looked at him and nodded blankly, then feathered her lips across his face, kissing the concern out of every feature with a care that bordered on reverence. She gave him a distracted smile, and his face tightened with new worry.

  “I’ve never seen you like this,” he persisted.

  When she finally spoke, her voice was the essence of contentment. “That’s because you’ve never seen me this happy before, Jedidiah.” Thena paused, her glowing eyes riveted to his. “I’ve never been so happy in my entire life.”

  Relief burst out of him in a long, low sigh. “Was makin’ love all you hoped it would be?” His hands stroked her tangled hair, undoing the shambles that remained of her braid.

  There was no hesitation to her answer. It was a blissful smile and a soft, “Yes. Oh, yes.”

  “You belong to me, Thena. And I belong to you. I reckon that kind of talk sounds awful possessive, but …”

  She pulled him to her for a long, deep kiss. Then she said, in a voice that made his heart swell with every breath he took, “I’ve belonged to you since the day we met. I’ve belonged to you all my life, Jedidiah.”

  And then he knew, deep down where his bad feelings for his grandfather Gregg wouldn’t let him admit it yet, that he’d been waiting for years to come to her and this island, and that he was finally home.

  * * *

  “Jedidiah’s very handsome, isn’t he, ma petites? His nose is a little crooked and he has tiny scars everywhere—well, almost everywhere—but that only adds to the appeal, doesn’t it? It makes me want to be gentle with him. He had a hard life growing up on the mainland, you see.”

  Coming lazily out of sleep, Jed heard those tender words. Smiling, he opened his eyes to the filtered light of mid-morning and inhaled deeply. This place had the freshest, best air on earth, he thought. This was the third day he’d wakened in Thena’s glorious old bed, and waking up got better every time.

  He raised his head a bit and eyed Thena sitting on a colorful old rug by the windowsill. Naked, her dark hair brushing halfway down her back, her legs folded under her and her hands resting quietly in her lap, she looked like a beautiful reincarnation of Tasoneela paying an Indian tribute to a tribe of wrens. He grinned. She talked to spirits and birds and God alone knew what else. And they probably answered in some way he hadn’t figured out yet.

  She had her head turned so that she didn’t see Jed watching her raptly, and she continued chatting to the dozen tiny birds that pecked and chirped over the seed she’d spread on the sill.

  “Did you know,” she asked them with a happy sigh, “that there are wrens just like you in Wyoming? Jedidiah said so. How do you think I’d like it out there? Maybe I’ll visit, someday.” Her voice had been low to begin with. Now it dropped, and he had to strain to hear it. “But we’ll just have to convince him to live here on Sancia, won’t we? He can’t live out West. He belongs here. This is a large island. There’d be plenty of room for a herd of quarter horses.”

  Jed’s head sank back on the pillow. Oh, no, Miss Witch, he promised silently. This place might be more likable than he had thought at first, but it would never claim him. He’d stay and enjoy it for a few weeks, then coax her out West. She owned Sancia now, and no one would harm it or its damned old Gregg mansion when she went away. It would always be here for her to visit, and he’d make sure she got to visit as often as she wanted.

  Jed shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep when he heard her bare feet tiptoeing across the creaky floor toward him. She was still a little cautious of him because of her inexperience, and he didn’t want her to be unnerved by the unusually intense morning arousal that was throbbing underneath her white coverlet.

  Last night he’d awakened to find her propped on one elbow close beside him, her fingertips feathering timidly over the hair on his chest. When she’d realized that she’d disturbed his sleep, she was embarrassed. He heartily and rather abruptly showed her just how happy he was to be disturbed, and when he finished, she was silent and quivering slightly. He’d wanted to ask if he’d scared her, but hadn’t because he dreaded that she’d confirm it.

  The covers rustled and the mattress sank beside him as she slipped back into bed. Stay calm, Jed urged himself. Don’t breath faster, dammit. No, your hands aren’t gonna just casually inch toward her. Be still. That’s it, pardner, breath slow, keep your hands still, let her go back to sleep.…

  “Hmmm,” she sighed. Her warm, pliant body nestled close to him by tantalizing degrees, breasts indenting against his forearm, loins cushioning his hip, hand sliding softly across his chest and down the center of his stomach. Jed couldn’t help the way his back arched in response. When her fingers found what he’d tried to ignore, they rushed over it in tender amazement. “Oh, my,” she whispered, sounding stunned.

  His ruse was hopelessly destroyed. “I’m tryin’ to show you that I’m not always a wild-eyed goat,” he protested, as his eyes flickered open in dismay. “I was pretty charged up last night and I don’t want you to think … I was tryin’ to let you go back to sleep without bein’ attacked right now.” Jed turned his head against the downy pillow and gazed at her with apology. “It’s okay, gal. That part of me’s got a mind of its own in the mornin’. You don’t have to feel obligated.…”

  “I got a hankerin’ for you, boy,” she whispered in a perfect imitation of his drawl. “Don’t go lily-livered on me. I reckon I know what I want, and I ain’t scared of gettin’ it.”

  With her funny accent she sounded like a Cajun Scarlett O’Hara, and when she mixed it with a cowbo
y drawl the result was hysterical. Jed laughed until he could barely breathe.

  “I can see I worried for nothin’,” he finally rasped. “You’re gettin’ too big for your britches, gal.”

  “I got no britches,” she drawled solemnly.

  “Let me check. Yep. No britches.”

  “I got no patience.” Her hands moved over him wantonly. “I got no shyness. This filly has turned wild.”

  They wrestled playfully, and she won by straddling his thighs and holding his head by both ears. Jed wound a hand in her long hair and pulled her down for a deep, satisfying kiss. “Reckon you need some tamin’,” he murmured. “Reckon I’ll stay on this pile of sand awhile and see if I can make you behave.”

  She radiated happiness as she looked down at him. “I love you, cowboy.”

  “I love you.”

  He held her so tightly that he felt her heart beating against his ribs. Or maybe they shared the same heart. It seemed possible. Anything seemed possible here, with her. Anything, that is, except her plan for him to stay.

  Ten

  Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into a month, and September’s cooler breezes made the island temperatures drop to idyllic levels. Jed never brought up the subject of the two of them leaving the island. He started to at times, but a strange, troubled intuition always stopped him. He knew that part of it was sheer contentment.

  He couldn’t deny that he loved the lazy, timeless passing of days marked only by sunrises, sunsets, and the rhythm of the tides. He’d head back to reality before long, but in the meantime he’d spend his hours making love to Thena, watching her paint, and helping her catalog the minute, whimsical details of flora and fauna and weather. She was his whole life.

  At night he read her books. At first he felt self-conscious, as if a grown man ought to be embarrassed for liking make-believe stories. But with Thena’s encouragement, the books became something he treasured. He and she would read for hours in bed, and then one or the other would reach out an inviting hand, and the reading would be over for another night.