“I know,” she replied. “Noah and I always had the same worry.”
“So what did you do?”
“We went to bed and pulled the comforter over us to keep warm,” Stella told him.
Longarm didn’t know what to say about that, and he must have looked a bit uncomfortable because Stella laughed and took his hand saying, “We’ve made love before. Why are you acting so bashful?”
“Because you are engaged.”
“Noah is gone,” she told him, “and it’s freezing in here. So let’s go to bed and get warmed up. We don’t have to do anything but sleep.”
“I could never just sleep in bed with you,” Longarm confessed.
“Well,” Stella said, “I’ll just have to take my chances then, won’t I.”
The bed was cold and they were both shivering as they crawled under the covers. Longarm wrapped his arms around Stella and tried to stop shivering. Her breath was warm on his face, and the smell of her hair brought passionate memories rushing back so strongly that Longarm felt himself becoming aroused. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Stella began to kiss his face and nuzzle his neck.
“Stella, are you sure this is such a good idea?” he asked, feeling his manhood throbbing and straining to escape his pants.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, unbuttoning her blouse.
Longarm didn’t know either. But Stella was big-breasted and warm and he wanted her. Longarm unbuttoned his own shirt, and then he kissed Stella hard. Her tongue entered his mouth and the next thing he knew, she was jumping out of bed and undressing.
“Hurry up, darling!” she pleaded.
Longarm had run completely out of reasons why making love to Stella was wrong. He rolled out of bed, kicked off his boots, and then unbuckled his gun belt and placed it on the chair next to the bed. Shucking out of his pants but not bothering to remove his socks, he leaped back under the covers.
Stella was waiting. She took his big root in her hand and guided it up between her legs.
“I didn’t think we’d ever be like this again,” she breathed. “Custis, I loved Noah Huffington, but he couldn’t excite or satisfy me the way you always could.”
“Stella, don’t talk so damned much,” Longarm said, pushing deeper into her voluptuous body until their union grew slick and then hot.
Stella liked it deep and hard, and Longarm was more than happy to oblige her. Soon the woman was bucking and moaning under his weight, and Longarm lost himself in their lovemaking. Time stopped and they went on and on until they were both perspiring heavily and panting hard.
“Here I go!” she finally cried, thrusting upward and gripping him with all her might.
Longarm was ready too. He plunged up and down until he had finally extinguished the hot, sweet fire in his loins.
Stella went limp underneath him, and he felt tears on her cheeks.
“Why are you crying? Is it for Noah?”
“No,” she said, “it’s because I haven’t lost the capacity for loving. After I learned that Noah had been murdered, I was very afraid that I would.”
“It’s all going to work out,” Longarm promised. “I’ll find out who murdered Noah and bring him to justice.”
“I know,” she said, “but even after that, I need to get away from Auburn. Sell everything and start over again.”
“Where would you go?”
“I was thinking of Denver.”
Longarm was glad that there was just a candle burning. He wasn’t sure whether to be glad or worried about Stella coming to Denver. After all, she was a damned irresistible woman, and he had no doubt that he had something to do with her choice for a relocation.
Stella reached down and stroked him. “What do you think about that?” she asked. “Would you like me for a neighbor … or roommate?”
“I would,” he said, because it was the truth. “But there is a little problem.”
“And what might that be?”
“If we weren’t careful,” he said, “we might just spend all our time together in bed and get little else done.” Stella laughed and then kissed him again. “You know what I was thinking?”
“No.”
“I was thinking that I would be dangling from a rope if you hadn’t come to attend my wedding.”
“That’s a pretty grim thing to be thinking,” he said. “Can’t you come up with something more pleasant?”
Stella’s hand tightened around his manhood, coaxing it to rise like the head of a big cobra. “I can think of a lot of more pleasant things right now, Custis. In fact, I’m going to show you a few of them.”
When Stella began to slide down his body, lips playing across his flesh, Longarm groaned with pleasure because he knew exactly what she had in mind.
Chapter 12
It was almost noon when Longarm finally opened his eyes after a long night of lovemaking. He rolled over to watch Stella for a few minutes, and wondered if he could live with her in Denver. He hadn’t roomed with anyone in a long, long time, and had grown so fixed in his daily habits that he was not completely sure he could adapt to living with anyone. Stella was beautiful, loving, generous, and passionate, but she was also stubborn and very strong-willed. She’d either want to rearrange his place, or get a bigger and fancier house, probably much like the one that she had bought in Auburn. More possessions meant more worries and less independence. Longarm wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to change that much.
But Stella was an extraordinary woman, tough, resourceful, and very intelligent. She was a scrapper, which Longarm considered to be a major attribute in both men and women. He especially admired a woman with both beauty and strength, and doubted that he’d ever find that combination in greater evidence than in Stella.
Well, he decided, there was no reason to worry about what might not happen. By now all of Auburn would realize that Stella had been spirited out of their jail. Hopefully, everyone would think that the deputy had escorted her to Sacramento. That being the case, Longarm figured he would show up in town and begin his murder investigation. If someone challenged him about Stella’s real whereabouts, he would just claim ignorance.
Longarm slipped out of bed and gathered his clothes. The cabin had warmed a little, but it was still very chilly inside. He tiptoed over to the door and dressed quickly before he buckled on his gun belt and carried his boots outside. Sitting in the sunlight, he pulled on his socks and then his boots, then stood up and stretched. He felt pretty wrung out after last night’s long and passionate lovemaking, but that didn’t keep him from smiling as he watched a squirrel nibble on a pine cone while loudly scolding him.
Longarm went around behind the corral and forked some of the grass hay to the horses. He would give the buckskin an hour to eat its fill, and then he was going to ride on back down to Auburn and investigate Noah Huffington’s untimely death. He’d visit the undertaker and examine the body, then go to Noah’s house and poke around looking for evidence. If Noah had put up as good a fight as his knuckles indicated, his assassin might have some serious facial bruises, maybe a black eye or a split lip. Of course, that by itself wouldn’t be enough evidence to arrest a man, but it would at least be a starting point in his investigation.
“Good morning!” Stella said when he went back into the cabin.
“Good morning,” he replied. “I wish I could cook you some breakfast and pour us both a cup of coffee, but that could be a problem.”
“I suppose,” she replied. “Noah and I always made just a little fire in the stove, one that hardly gave off any smoke. Noah and I had to get out of bed to cook and eat once in a while. Besides, I can’t hide up here and go hungry while you poke around Auburn.”