Part 11 (2/2)
”Kate,” she groaned, barely able to see. ”I-I need-” Her voice trailed off into a strangled sob as she buried her face against Kate's shoulder, shuddering.
”I know,” Kate crooned, lightly caressing Jessie's fevered face. ”I know.” She slipped her hand between them, squeezing her palm to the soft material between Jessie's legs, cupping her. She smiled as Jessie moaned. Quickly, she pulled each b.u.t.ton free, working her fingers under the material to find the warmth waiting for her. As Kate squeezed the firm length of her, Jessie swayed, weak with the pleasure of it. Kate met each thrust of Jessie's hips with an answering pressure until Jessie stiffened and cried out. When Jessie trembled in Kate's arms, Kate laughed faintly, glorying in her.
Jessie carried their picnic basket to the buckboard, Kate walking close beside her. Kate's fingers rested lightly on her arm. Jessie's body still tingled with the excitement they had just shared. She grinned as she helped Kate up onto the seat.
”What?” Kate asked fondly, noting her expression.
”Just happy,” Jessie answered, swinging up beside her. ”Trying to figure out what I ever did to deserve you.”
Kate moved her hand to Jessie's thigh, leaning against her as Jessie started the horses out of the yard. ”You're just you,” Kate said quietly, ”and you don't ever have to do anything except love me.”
Jessie glanced at her, suddenly serious. ”I will, Kate. Always.”
Kate snuggled closer, still languorous from their loving, and smiled contentedly. Jessie drove slowly through the lowlands and hills of her property, stopping frequently to point things out to the ever-curious Kate. Jessie took her to see the summer grazing lands, sprinkled with wandering herds of horses, and the out cabins where she and the men stayed during branding times and roundups. From a hilltop overlooking impossibly green meadows, Jessie indicated the steeply rising mountains that bordered her land to the west.
”Those peaks are a natural protection for the highland meadows where the horses winter, Kate. When it starts to frost in the fall, we round up all the young and any pregnant mares and bring them down to that small canyon I showed you earlier. If the winter is really bad, they can't forage, and we feed them.”
”Oh, Jessie!” Kate exclaimed, awed by the scope of it all. ”It's so beautiful. You must love it very much!”
Jessie took Kate's hand and brought it to her lips. ”I never thought I could love anything more. Until you.”
Kate slipped her arm around Jessie's waist and rested her head on Jessie's shoulder, stroking Jessie's arm through the soft cotton of her s.h.i.+rt. She thought how much she loved her simple strength and gentle heart. ”Jessie,” she murmured softly.
Jessie kissed her temple. ”What?”
”I don't want things to ever change.”
Jessie was quiet so long that Kate leaned away to look at her face. ”What's wrong?” Kate asked.
”I can't stand being apart from you so much, Kate,” Jessie admitted at last, her voice low and tight. ”I want us to lie down together at night and sleep side by side. I want to wake up with you.” She looked at Kate, her eyes troubled. ”I want- well - If I was a man, I'd want to marry you.”
Kate's heart turned over. ”Oh, Jessie,” she breathed. ”I love you.”
Jessie searched Kate's face, finding all the courage she needed in Kate's tender gaze. ”I want you to come live with me, Kate. Will you?”
It was Kate's turn to be silent. When she spoke, her tone was anguished. ”I want to. I want to be with you, married or not, for all my life.” She stroked Jessie's cheek, her throat so tight she could barely speak. ”But I don't know how.”
”If you want to, Kate, that's all that matters to me. We'll figure it out,” Jessie said, turning her head and kissing Kate's palm. ”We've got time.”
She climbed down and reached up for Kate. ”Now, how about we give you that shooting lesson.”
Kate tried not to think of anything else as Jessie stood behind her, occasionally wrapping her arms around her to steady the Winchester, whispering encouragement in her ear. She even managed to hit the targets Jessie picked out now and then, but she couldn't quite rid herself of thoughts of confronting her parents. How would she explain her desire to be with Jessie? How could she make them see that it was all she lived for? And what would she do if they refused?
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
SUMMER GREW SHORT and the fall days were upon them before they knew it. Jessie's joy at returning home after hours on the range to unexpectedly find Kate quietly reading on the porch or preparing a meal in the kitchen was undiminished by the pa.s.sage of time. Their love was simple and pure, and they grew closer as surely and naturally as two branches on the same tree, drawing nourishment from the same spring. The moments they spent together, talking and loving, were precious, bringing Jessie more happiness than she had dared dream of only a few months before. Still, she found herself wanting more.
There were days, sometimes even a week or more, between Kate's visits, and during those times, Jessie suffered from more than loneliness. She couldn't help but think of Ken Turner, who she knew still paid court to Kate. It tormented her to think that he might touch Kate, when she could not even arrive unannounced at Kate's door asking only for the pleasure of sitting by Kate's side. Each time she walked Kate to the buckboard and watched her drive away or rode with her to the edge of town, it was harder to let her go. The nights when she lay down alone were colder and longer than any she could ever recall. She was lonely in a way she never had been before, because now there were places in her heart that only Kate could fill.
”Kate?” Jessie asked one late afternoon, lying naked with Kate in her arms under a heavy quilt while a fire burned in the hearth in Jessie's bedroom. Kate's back was to her front, and she buried her face in Kate's thick hair, smoothing her hands slowly over Kate's stomach until she cupped Kate's b.r.e.a.s.t.s in her hands.
Kate stilled Jessie's movement, pressing her palms over Jessie's hands. ”I can't think when you do that,” Kate admonished lightly, but there was no disapproval in her tone. She loved Jessie's hands on her. ”What is it?”
Jessie sighed, closing her eyes, trying to shut out every sensation but Kate. She couldn't, as much as she wished to. ”Winter comes early out here, Kate. It will snow soon.”
”Yes,” Kate said quietly, her grip on Jessie's hands tightening. She waited.
”It's not safe for you to come here any longer,” Jessie continued, each word feeling like it was taking a piece of her heart with it. ”You could be caught in a blizzard and freeze to death quicker than a minute.”
”I can't stay away,” Kate whispered. ”I can't be without you.” She couldn't imagine a week, let alone the long months of winter, separated from her.
Jessie tightened her arms around her, pulling Kate even closer. ”I can't have anything happening to you, Kate,” she murmured. ”I'm not made strong enough for that. Promise me you won't drive out here alone again.”
Kate nodded. She knew Jessie was right, and she would never worry her even though it would kill her to go all winter without seeing her. She turned within the circle of Jessie's arms, searching Jessie's face, seeing the misery in her eyes. ”We must find another way.” She sought Jessie's mouth, kissing her lightly at first, then with a sudden hunger. She drew away with a small cry. ”I won't be without you.”
”I'll come into town when I can,” Jessie ventured. ”Maybe you could come to the hotel?” Even as she said it, she knew that it was impossible. The weather was unpredictable at best in the foothills of the Rockies, and even if she could leave the ranch, how would she even get a message to Kate to let her know that she had come? And meeting at the hotel? Impossible. There was no way that they could ever keep that fact from Kate's parents for long. Plus, part of her resisted the idea of meeting Kate for an afternoon's pa.s.sion, as if that was all there was between them. She never tired of feeling Kate close to her, or of loving her for hours on end, but she took just as much joy in raising her eyes from some piece of work to find Kate sitting nearby with a book in her hands.
”I must speak to my parents,” Kate said quietly, knowing the time had come. She could not go on indefinitely avoiding Ken Turner's persistent demands, nor could she pretend to her parents that her reluctance was only because she was not certain that she wished to be his wife. Having lain with Jessie, she could never be any man's wife. Jessie was her heart. ”I'll make them understand.”
”I'll come with you,” Jessie said firmly, moving to get up. ”They'll never need worry for your safety nor your care, not as long as I live, nor after either. I owe them the comfort of knowing that.”
”Wait,” Kate cried, holding her fast. ”We have time before I need to be back.” She stretched out in Jessie's arms, her legs entwining naturally with those of her taller lover. ”I'll not let go of you yet.”
Jessie smiled, turning them so Kate lay beneath her, and lowered herself gently upon her. Her chest filled with an almost unbearable sensation of tenderness and wonder, and she set about showing Kate just how much she cherished her. With her lips, with her mouth, with her work roughened hands turned to velvet on Kate's sweet skin, she told her. Her kisses carried the promises and her touch the certainty that she so often had no words to express. I will love you, Jessie's caresses vowed, with all my being, for all my life. You are my reason and my answer and my purpose, her fingers pledged, each knowing stroke carrying Kate closer to fulfillment.
”I love you, Kate, I love you,” she finally whispered, her face pressed to Kate's neck, as Kate arched under her, an inarticulate moan escaping her throat.
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