“My . . . skirt . . . ?” she said, swallowing hard.
“Yes. Let me do it for you,” he said, sliding the skirt of her dress up past her thighs.
“Lie down,” he said, his eyes twinkling into hers.
“But I thought you—”
“Just a flick of the tongue, as you did to me,” he said, smiling warmly at her.
“No, not there,” she said, gasping and blushing.
“Yes, but as I said, only a mere touch. Later, when you realize the pleasure to be had from such a caress, we will go further,” he said.
Recalling the intense pleasure that only one touch of her tongue had seemed to cause him, she could not say no to such a temptation.
She nodded, then closed her eyes and waited. She sucked in a breath of pure pleasure when he stroked her womanhood with his tongue, not once, but several times. Her head was swimming with the bliss it created in her.
It was so wondrous, she felt herself quickly go over the edge into a joy that surprised her.
He raised his head and smiled at her.
“I never . . .” she said, again blushing as he drew her skirt down to cover her.
“Yes, you did,” he said, laughing throatily.
They finished dressing, then walked hand in hand toward the village. Jessie was reeling from all she had shared with him tonight. This was something she would have thought so wicked, yet it had been joyful, blissful.
She giggled as she cast him a half glance.
He smiled, for he knew what had caused the giggle.
“We shall do it again,” he assured her.
Again she blushed and looked quickly away from him. She knew now that, when a man truly loved a woman, there were many more adventures than she would have ever dreamed of.
Chapter Twenty-two
Jade stood wringing her hands as she watched Reginald ride away in his buggy. She had heard him talking to himself only moments ago as he paced back and forth in his study. She had happened along in the corridor just in time to hear him say that he was afraid for night to fall, afraid to go to bed. He said that he would go talk with the Sioux again, to see if they would listen to reason.
Jade had another fresh bruise on her face, for Reginald had slapped her again, much harder than the other times. She couldn’t help thinking of her Lee-Lee being abused by Reginald in the same way, to say nothing of the many men who frequented the crib where her daughter was imprisoned.
“Tcha! I have had enough!” she cried, having lost sight of Reginald as he made a turn in the road.
Ai, she had to be brave enough to leave today. Jessie had left and hadn’t been found. So surely Jade could be as fortunate. She just couldn’t wait any longer, hoping that Jessie might find a way to help her and Lee-Lee escape the madman’s clutches.
Nay. She would have to help herself, as well as her daughter.
“But will Jessie be discovered today when Reginald arrives at the Sioux village?” she said to herself as she hurried to the kitchen and started packing food in a lunch basket, as she always did when she went to visit Lee-Lee.
Today this basket of food would be an excuse to get Jade inside the crib again. But this time Lee-Lee would be leaving with her, not staying behind at the mercy of Tombstone’s unruly, filthy-minded men.
Jade already knew where she would take her daughter. She smiled as she thought of the safest place of all, a place where Reginald would never dare search for them. Jade and her daughter would be safe there until Jade thought of somewhere they could go to seek a new life away from this town that had meant nothing but heartache for Jade and Lee-Lee.
Breathing hard, her heart pounding with fear, she placed bread, cheese, a jar of jam, and other tasty morsels in the wicker basket, as well as matches and bottles of water, which would be necessary in their new temporary home.
By the time the food was all eaten, surely she would have devised a plan that would keep her and Lee-Lee safe. She must find a way to leave these parts and find a home where people treated Chinese women with a measure of respect.
She knew that she and Lee-Lee would have to work as servants in the homes of wealthy people. That was the only thing either of them could do in America.