Chapter Fifteen
Everything seemed to happen in an instant. Boyd took aim at Jared. Tessa saw what he was about to do, and she kicked out at him just in time. Her blow jarred him enough that his shot went wide, missing Jared. Boyd leaped to his feet in a roar of frustration.
Boyd’s move gave Jared just the target he needed for he’d feared shooting wildly with Tessa in the room. He turned and fired, his aim true and deadly. The bullet took Boyd square in the chest, and the force of the shot sent him crashing back against the wall. He collapsed and lay unmoving, dead before he hit the floor.
Jared glanced toward the bed. From where he was standing, he could see only Tessa’s legs, but it seemed she wasn’t moving.
“Tessa?” Jared said her name cautiously, fearing she’d been injured in some way.
“Oh, Jared!” Tessa’s voice was barely a whisper as she ran straight to him.
Jared opened his arms to her and enfolded her in his protective embrace.
“Thank God I got here in time,” he said hoarsely as he held her close.
“I was praying you’d come.”
“You’re all right? You’re not hurt?” he asked, holding her away from him a bit so he could look down at her and make sure she really hadn’t been harmed in any way.
“I knew you’d save me,” Tessa told him in a soft voice as she gazed up at him. Jared looked so fiercely protective that she almost smiled at him. She knew she was safe now.
At her words, wild, chaotic emotions charged through Jared.
I knew you’d save me.
He struggled to control himself, swallowing tightly against the powerful feelings that filled him. He lifted one hand to gently touch her cheek. “I told you I would always keep you safe. Sometimes angels need protecting, too.”
The look in her eyes was so open and inviting that Jared couldn’t help himself. He bent to her and kissed her. It was a cherishing kiss, an adoring kiss, a fragile expression of the wild emotions they were both feeling. Jared wanted to lose himself in her embrace, but he was still too aware of what had just happened to her. Without ending the kiss, he bent to lift her into his arms and carried her away from the scene of the attack.
At his gesture, Tessa looped her arms about his neck. She held on to him, relishing his power and control. When at last his lips left hers, she rested her head trustingly on his shoulder.
Jared found a small clearing near the front of the cabin, and he sat down there. He kept Tessa on his lap, cradling her against him, and offered up a silent prayer of thanks that he had reached her in time—that she was safe. They remained that way for a time, sitting in silence, wrapped in each other’s arms, slowly coming to grips with the reality of her rescue and the joy of her safety.
“You really are all right?” Jared asked some time later as he drew a ragged breath.
She nodded. “You got here just in time,” she said quietly. “How did you know where to find me?”
“When I heard that you’d gone with the little boy at the dance, I suspected all wasn’t what it seemed—especially since I’d seen Boyd just a short time before.”
“You did?” She was surprised by this revelation.
“That was why I left you after our dance. I caught a glimpse of him in the crowd and wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t get near you. He got away from me, though. When I realized I’d lost him, I came back to keep watch over you, and that was when I heard Julie telling your mother where you’d gone. I found the boy and he told me what had happened, so I was able to get on your trail right away.”
Tessa lifted her head to look up at him. “Thank you,” she whispered, drawing him down to her for another kiss.
Jared bit back a groan at the touch of her lips on his. Tessa was proving to be his agony and his ecstasy.
This was Tessa Sinclair. He told himself it was crazy to feel this way about her. This was the woman who was constantly causing him so much trouble. But all the logic in the world was lost in the ecstasy of her kiss.
This was Tessa, all right. This was the woman who wanted only to help other people. This was the woman who cared more about strangers than she did about herself. This was “the angel,” as they called her affectionately in town.
And she was an angel to him.
Her kiss was heavenly, and just having her here in his arms and knowing that she was safe filled him with a sense of joy he couldn’t explain. Jared wouldn’t have thought it possible to feel this way about her a few weeks before, but now, everything about holding Tessa close and kissing her seemed right.
Jared tried to keep the kiss innocent, but when Tessa shifted on his lap, moving closer to him, he lost the battle. He tightened his arms around her and deepened the kiss, parting her lips and seeking out her sweetness.
Tessa was momentarily surprised by Jared’s unexpected show of ardor. But after Boyd’s disgusting pawing and slobbering, Jared’s kiss was perfect. He had saved her from a fate worse than death. He had rescued her from certain abasement and rape. She gloried in his honor and in his strength.
Jared finally ended the embrace to save his own sanity. With Tessa pressed so intimately against him, he could not deny that he wanted her, but as much as he would have loved to continue kissing her, he knew what was best. Tessa had just been through hell. She was vulnerable and in no condition to make love to him. He held her near, waiting for his own breathing to calm, but it didn’t happen. Just having her this close to him aroused him. Jared knew that he had to get up and move away from her for a few moments.
“I’d better take a look around and check on things. Do you want to spend the night in the cabin or—” He didn’t get any farther.
“No!” she answered quickly, shuddering visibly at the thought. She never wanted to go inside that line shack again as long as she lived.
“All right, then I’m going build a fire and see what we can use to camp out for the night.”
She nodded, but was reluctant to let him go. Right now she felt safe only when he was holding her; still, she knew Jared was right. He did need to build a campfire. Reluctantly she moved off his lap.
Jared wanted to pull her back, to hold her to him and never let her go, but he had a duty to perform. Unable to resist, he pressed one last, quick kiss to her lips, then got up and started the fire.
“There’s a posse coming after us, but I don’t know how far behind me they are,” he told her as he returned to her side carrying his bedroll. He’d tended to his horse and had checked around the area to make sure everything seemed safe. As he stood over her, he began to unbutton his shirt.
“What are you doing?” she asked a bit nervously as he stripped the shirt off and stood naked to the waist. She stared up at him, realizing suddenly that he was a beautiful specimen of manhood. He was long and lean. His shoulders were broad, his chest wide and powerful. He was bronzed from the sun, and she knew a sudden desire to run her hands over that hard-muscled strength.
“You need something to cover yourself with. The posse could ride in at any time.”
Tessa had been so caught up in all that had happened that she hadn’t even thought about her torn bodice. She glanced down, seeing how much of her bosom was revealed by the torn dress.
“Thank you,” she said softly, blushing slightly as she took the proffered garment and quickly put it on.
The shirt was still warm from his body and held a hint of Jared’s scent. Tessa breathed deeply of it, feeling safe and protected.
Jared spread out the bedroll for her to sit on, then glanced toward the shack.
“I need to go see about Boyd. Will you be all right out here alone for a few minutes?” he asked, still worrying about her.
“I’ll be fine. You’re here with me, so I know nothing bad is going to happen.”
Her words touched him deeply. He left her without saying anything more and went into the line shack. It was a gruesome job, but he had to tend to it. He wrapped Boyd’s body in one of the blankets from the bed and then put out the single lamp that was still burning. He closed the damaged door as best he could as he left the cabin. He didn’t want Tessa to accidentally get a glimpse of the body where it lay on the floor. She’d been through enough for one night. She didn’t need to see that.
Jared brought the extra blanket from the bed with him when he returned to her side. He sat down beside Tessa as she huddled before the fire. He could see that she was trembling now, and he realized that reaction was finally setting in. He did not attempt to touch her, not wanting to frighten her in any way.
“Here, you’ll need this tonight,” he said as he handed her the blanket.
“What about you? I even have your shirt.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said.
“Thanks.”
She took the cover and wrapped it around herself. They sat quietly together awhile longer.
“You were right, you know,” Tessa finally admitted in a low voice.
“About what?” he asked.
“I should have been more careful. I shouldn’t have taken such a risk with Sarah, but she was frantic and needed help so badly,” she explained. “I knew Boyd was a miserable excuse for a man, but I understand even more clearly now why she was so desperate to get away from him.”
“You’re too kind for your own good.”
She shrugged slightly. “I care. I like making things better for people, but now I know that sometimes trying to make things better can end up getting you hurt.”
“You’re right. I’ve seen what putting yourself in danger that way can do.”
Tessa heard the bitterness in his voice and wondered at it. “What happened to you to make you feel this way?”
“Nothing happened to me,” he replied brusquely.
She looked over at him, seeing his taut expression and realizing that there was something bothering him deep inside.
“Who, then?” she asked perceptively.
Jared hadn’t spoken of his father’s death in years. Despite all the time that had passed, it was still painful for him to remember that night.
“You can’t talk about it?”
A muscle worked in his jaw as he glanced at her. He held himself rigidly, and, for the first time in a long time, he spoke of his father and all that had happened that fateful, terrible night.
“My father was a minister,” he began, and continued telling her of his father’s efforts with the poor and hungry and homeless. “And then there was that night. . . . I was with him, helping him take food to an old widow woman.” Jared paused and drew a harsh breath. “It was late when we finally started home, and my father saw a man being attacked. He went to help him, but by the time my father reached him, the attacker had already fled. The beaten man was so drunk he pulled his gun and shot my father.”
Tessa gasped at this revelation.
“And you saw it all,” she said slowly, solemnly.
“I saw it all,” he confirmed, his emotions under tight control. “That was when I vowed I was going to grow up to be the best damned lawman around.”
With his revelation came understanding for Tessa. Tessa thought of their first encounter after the stage robbery and how harsh he had been with her. She remembered, too, how he’d spoken to her after hearing about Boyd’s threats. She stared at Jared, seeing him in a whole new light. In his compellingly handsome features, she no longer saw arrogance and anger. Now she could see the hidden torment he carried with him every minute of every day. Reaching out with a gentle hand, she touched his arm.
“You are the best damned lawman around,” she told him softly. “You saved me.”
He looked at her then, and her words touched his heart. In the moonlight she was beautiful, and she was looking at him with such yearning that he knew he had to kiss her again, to seek solace in her embrace. He leaned toward her, seeking and finding her lips in a sweet, soft kiss that spoke of pain and need and emptiness.
Tessa turned into Jared’s arms and held him close. She wanted to somehow erase the pain that had scarred him so, but she knew it couldn’t be. He had learned to live with his father’s tragic death as best he could, and he had turned his terrible loss into a way of living that had helped others as much in his own way as his father had in his. Jared Trent was a very special man.
When Jared finally broke off the kiss, he smiled gently down at her. “I think you’d better try to get some rest now. I’ll be right here in case you need me.”
She nodded mutely, then asked, “What happened to the man who shot your father?”
“The sheriff caught him. I identified him and he went to prison.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“So was I, but it didn’t bring my father back.”
They sat quietly, reflectively, for a long moment.
“Will you hold me tonight?” Tessa asked in all innocence, just wanting to be close to him again.
Jared bit back a groan at her request. He knew it would be a true test of his honor. “All right.”
She gave him a tentative smile and lay down. Jared stretched out next to her. Even with the slight padding of the bedroll, the ground was hard and unforgiving.
When Tessa shifted nearer to Jared, pressing herself slightly against him, seeking the comfort of his strength, all thoughts of the hardness of the makeshift bed were forgotten. He lay still, cherishing her closeness. He wanted her, there was no doubt about that, but he knew he wouldn’t act upon his desire for her—not after the terrible ordeal she’d been through at Boyd’s hands. He would prove to her that not all men were animals.
And so Jared lay sleepless on the hard ground, with Tessa curled up trustingly against him.