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As much as she hated to admit it, marrying Jesse hadn’t been all bad. Those kisses he’d been giving her were enough to make her toes curl up and his wicked fingers played her body like it had been created just for him.
He appeared to be sleeping when she looked over at him. His chest was rising and falling at a steady pace and his facial expression was relaxed.
Being blackmailed into marrying him still burned in ways she’d never get over but there were perks she hadn’t thought of before. Question was, how far was she willing to take things with her new husband and how would she get out of this marriage if she let it go too far?
Nineteen
Jesse sippedhis coffee while staring at the canvas covering the space underneath the wagon where Alex slept. He had half a mind to leave her there but if she woke and realized he was out watching the herd without her, she’d be more ornery than usual.
He’d had little sleep. The majority of the night was spent restless, watching Alex’s beautiful face as she slept and thinking about how far she let their little game of touch and feel go. His mind still reeled when he realized how much of her soft skin he’d been allowed to touch and taste. He didn’t expect her to be so carefree with her body in the future. Regardless of Grace’s crazy notion of Alex liking him more than she let on, he didn’t think she’d be eager to repeat what happened on their wedding night.
He shook his head and tossed the remains of his coffee across the grass. He’d imagined his wedding night a thousand times and not once in all those scenarios he’d imagined did he see it taking place on the ground, under a wagon with half a dozen men within earshot of him.
He wasn’t the sort of man who tended toward poetic gestures but for Alex, he’d been willing to be as gentlemanly and romantic as he could. Looking at that dirty canvas she slept behind he knew he’d failed miserably.
Setting his mug down he looked to Isaac. “Wake her up and get some coffee in her. I’ll go saddle our horses.”
Isaac nodded as Jesse walked away from camp. If things were different he’d be crawling back under that wagon and waking Alex himself with warm kisses and promises of more. He didn’t think she’d take his wake-up call very well and it was too early to feel her dainty fist against his skull.
Cowboys were scattered around the camp and he navigated their bedrolls pretty well considering the moon was hiding behind a blanket of clouds. The horses were hobbled away from where most of the men slept and a few of them snorted and stomped a foot as he approached.
He saddled his own horse before finding one for Alex. He had them both ready to ride by the time he saw her heading his way.
She avoided eye contact with him but did thank him for getting the horse saddled. They were making their way to the other side of the herd before she looked his way. “Are you going to follow me around all day?”
He grinned. There’s that ornery girl he loved. “Only if you want me to.”
“No. Why would I?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Being newlywed and all, I thought you might want to extend our honeymoon to more than one night.”
She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes before clicking her tongue, nudging her horse into a gallop. He laughed as she put distance between them before turning his attention to the men rotating out the shift.
They had a lot of ground to cover to make up for the time he lost trying to send Alex home. He’d have to push them all a bit harder and he hoped no one gave him grief over it. Lewis and his bunch were already trying his patience. He could only imagine what they’d do given the chance.
He spotted Alex heading toward the front of the herd. As much as he would prefer her to be back in Willow Creek, safe and causing someone besides himself trouble, he would admit those kisses from the night before were well worth the aggravation she was putting him through. He wasn’t sure how he’d make the rest of the trip with her and not want a repeat of the night before but one thing was certain. She could say this was a marriage of convenience all she wanted but he’d waited a lifetime to make her his and he wasn’t about to let her go now that she was legally his wife.
Alex glanced over her shoulder, surprised to see Jesse hadn’t followed her. She sent up a silent prayer of thanks for the small favor.
Waking up alone caused a mix of emotions. The previous night’s activities replayed in slow motion inside her head the instant she became aware of the world around her and Jesse not being there gave her time enough to feel the hot sting of embarrassment. Her face had heated to the point she felt feverish and she’d dreaded the moment she had to face him, not knowing if he’d tease her or pretend it never happened.
The look in his eyes when she saw him standing there with the horses told her nothing. It was as if it were any other day. There wasn’t any sort of mischief in his eyes, no teasing smirk on his face. It was as if the previous night had never happened.
But it had. She could still feel Jesse’s mouth and fingers against her flesh if she concentrated hard enough and a pleasant ripple of satisfaction caused gooseflesh to pimple her skin at the remembered sensations he’d created in the dark beneath that old wagon.
She wasn’t sure why she’d let thing go so far. Why she hadn’t tried to stop him when she knew she should have but at the time, she’d only been reacting to the pleasure he was creating.
Her heart started to pound thinking of what he’d done to her, her body strung tight at the thought of how much more he could do. Which brought a tinge of regret that he hadn’t been there when she woke to take advantage of their close quarters a bit more.
Someone yelled and the cows closest to her shifted and bawled at being disturbed. She focused on the task at hand and shook her head at the crazy thoughts running through her mind.
She took position at the front of the herd, as far from Jesse as she could manage. The herd stretched behind her nearly two miles, the inky blackness of a starless sky and the dust the cattle were stirring up making it impossible to tell who anyone was from the distance. If she were lucky, Jesse would give her a bit of space. Knowing him, though, he’d be dogging her every step until after the sun went down.
She had a lot to think about before the day was over. There was no doubt in her mind that come nightfall he’d crawl back under the wagon with her. Question was, what happened then? Did they repeat last night’s activities or pretend it never happened?
There was little time to contemplate it. Once the camp had roused, the cattle grew more restless, eager to get on the move. Her shift was long, sweat making the material of her shirt stick to her skin long before the scent of cooking meat filled the air. Her stomach grumbled the better part of an hour before she saw a rider headed her way.
She hoped with everything in her it was someone other than Jesse. She wasn’t ready to face him yet. When he was near enough to make out facial features, the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She sat up straighter, her gaze locking on his. It was Jeb, one of the men who hung close to Lewis.
