River Lady (James River Trilogy 3)

“You seem to have regained your composure,” Wes said before Leah was taken away from him to dance with another.

For hours Leah was whirled from one man to another. Once, she saw Kim dancing with Wesley, and he was looking at the blonde woman with concern. Leah pretended she didn’t see them.

Twice during the night she heard the name Justin Stark mentioned, but she never had enough breath to ask who he was.

At midnight Wesley announced that the party was over, that they needed an early start the next morning. He took Leah’s arm and half pushed, half pulled her toward the stairs.

Leah felt wonderful. She’d had much too much of the delicious punch Bess had given her and she was humming as she entered their room. On the bed was her most beautiful nightgown, a translucent concoction of silk and ruffles. Leah picked it up, held it close to her, and began dancing about the room.

“Are you drunk?” Wesley asked calmly as he slipped his buckskin shirt over his head.

“How lovely!” Leah said under her breath as she looked at Wesley, bare from the waist up.

There was a spark of interest in Wes’s eyes—perhaps more than a spark.

Leah stopped dancing, although her head didn’t stop. “Are you going to make love to me?” she whispered.

Wesley’s face changed as he looked at her in the golden light of the single lamp in the room. He took a step toward her. “Maybe I could be persuaded.”

Leah dropped the gown from the front of her and stood waiting for him, her breath held, her heart pounding. She wanted more than anything for him to hold her, to kiss her again. When he was close to her she touched his bare chest, her fingertips wrapping in the abundant hair on his chest. “Wesley,” she whispered as his head moved down toward hers.

A loud, quick knock on the door wasn’t even heard until the door opened and Steven Shaw entered. “It looks like my little sister was right.”

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Wesley asked angrily.

“Unlike you, Stanford, I don’t have two women in two rooms. My little sister is bawling her eyes out because she believes you’re doing just what you are.” He gave Leah a hooded look. “I told her what a man of honor you were and that you could be trusted. Somehow, after seein’ this little filly after you all night, I knew I was lyin’.”

“Get out of here,” Wesley said tiredly, moving away from Leah. “Tell Kimberly I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“As soon as you finish here?” Steven chuckled but left the room before Wes could say a word.

“Leah, I’m sorry,” Wes began.

Leah glared at him. Her mood, loosened by the liquor, easily changed from love to hate. “Sorry you didn’t get to finish what you started? Sorry you didn’t get to take advantage of the weakness of one of the Simmons whores?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, reaching for his shirt. “You’re my wife and—.”

“I am your wife? Do you mean me who has begged you all evening to stop drooling over the divine Miss Shaw?”

“I’d advise you to watch your tongue,” he warned.

“My tongue!” She gasped. “Don’t you know that we Simmonses have better uses for our tongues than to talk with them? Isn’t it in our bloodstream?”

Calmly, Wesley pulled his shirt on over his head. “Look, I really don’t know what you’re so upset about. You were the one who wanted to travel as my cousin and you’ve always known how I’ve felt about Kim. I’ve always tried to be honest and fair.”

“Fair! You nearly attack me in this room and you call that fair?”

Wesley almost smiled. “You’ve done everything possible to entice me this evening, and that dress isn’t exactly made to calm a man down.”

“I didn’t wear it for you,” she said softly as she turned away to hide her humiliation.

Wesley smiled at the back of her. “Leah, really, I am flattered that you’d go to so much trouble to get me into your bed. It made me feel good to have you flirting with me even while you were dancing with other men, and I’m sure you could have seduced me if Steven hadn’t interrupted, but the truth is, I really should keep to our bargain. For Kim’s sake I’m going to try to resist your considerable charms.”

“You what?” she said breathlessly, turning to face him.

“I owe something to the woman I love and she needs me, all of me, to stand by her, and in the future I’m going to try to resist you.”

“Is that what happened before?” she whispered. “That in spite of all you could do, you gave in to my enticement of you?”