An Inescapable Attraction Read online

  Rolling toward her, he captured her body under his before lowering his mouth for a tender kiss that deepened as his tongue slipped between her welcoming lips. Her tongue touched his, and he captured it, sucking on it, then backed off so he could nip gently at her lower lip. How he loved her bowed lower lip!

  Ellie moaned softly and curled her arm up above her head, grabbing at the brass headboard, wrapping her hand around one of the rails. He glanced at it and froze, even as her lower body arched into his.

  Jo's headboard! In a flash, Thaddeus knew he'd seen Jo's hand, with her many silver rings, draped around that same headboard while he'd pounded into her. Hell, no!

  He jerked away from Ellie and jumped off the bed as though he was on fire.

  She sat up, frowning at his sudden exodus, especially as she was taking in the fully erect site of him.

  He was practically hopping around the room, looking for his pants. Then he remembered he had a nearly dirt-free pair in his bag and hunched down to retrieve them.

  "What's wrong?" she demanded, clutching the robe closed around her.

  He didn't risk a glance at her again, not with her near nakedness and the image of her perfect breasts fresh in his brain.

  "Not here," he ground out. "Not in that bed."

  She got up, not as quickly as he had, but not slowly either. She looked back at the bed as if she would see something to explain his bizarre actions. Then she cinched the belt snugly at her waist as he continued dressing. He didn't know if she understood that he'd slept there before and done much more than sleep.

  At that moment, the door sprung open, and he felt even gladder that he wasn't in the middle of intimate relations with Ellie.

  "Teddy," Jo said by way of greeting, then she stopped in mid-sentence, eyeing the pretty blond woman in her room. In her robe.

  "Who's this?" both women said at once.

  Before Thaddeus could speak, Ellie demanded, "Why do you have my bag?"

  It was clutched in Jo's gloved hand.

  "Your bag? Well, dang!" Jo dropped it on the ground as if it might bite her. "Take it. I was given it, but it's empty anyway." Hand on her hips, she faced Ellie and demanded, "Why are you wearing my robe?"

  Thaddeus spoke to Jo first. "She had to have something to wear. This is an old friend of mine, Eliza Prentice, the lady you helped me rescue last night."

  Before he could say more, he saw Jo's eyes widen as her expression became a smirk. "Eliza Prentice? Eliza Prentice Stoddard, you mean." She started to laugh.

  Ellie's voice was frosty as she asked, "What is so funny?"

  "Why, honey, I just spent the night with your husband."

  Ellie opened her mouth, but nothing came out; Thaddeus's eyebrows disappeared practically into his hairline, and a wave of concern washed right over him.

  "Jo, are you all right? You didn't do anything you didn't want to, did you?"

  "Don't be ridiculous." She walked across the room and gave her bed a cursory glance, noting its rumpled state with pursed lips and an eyebrow raised at Thaddeus.

  Sitting down, she removed her shoes. "I have to admit I was running out of ways to distract the entire boatload of people. Then Jack Stoddard took a liking to me. I sang for him. I even danced for him, and after that, we decided to get cozy in his cabin." Jo glanced at Ellie.

  "He said he wanted to make me his riverboat queen, except he already had a wife. If only she'd stop escaping. And here she is."

  Ellie remained speechless.

  "Ellie, this is Josephine," Thaddeus said, acknowledging a certain awkwardness now that both women were in the same room. "She provided distraction last night so I could sneak onto the boat."

  He looked at Jo. "You did great, by the way."

  She smiled. "Teddy, you know I can take care of myself. And Jack Stoddard, despite all the rumors of his ruthlessness, was quite the gentleman. And very generous."

  Ellie snorted at that.

  "What?" Jo asked, bristling.

  "The man is a four-flushing cheat and a brute."

  "Maybe you simply don't know how to handle a man," Jo said, peeling off her gloves and tossing them down beside her.

  Ellie blushed, and a storm cloud of emotions crossed her face. "Obviously, I'm not as experienced as you."

  This was going to get ugly, Thaddeus thought. "Ladies, please. Let's not argue. Everything worked out fine. I got Ellie out, and I didn't have to go back and rescue Jo. So, it was good all the way around."

  Jo shrugged. "Nice to hear you care, Teddy."

  "Stop calling me that," he said, but he was grateful when Jo leaned over and grabbed a cigarette out of her dish for herself and handed him one, too. She lit hers and his, and they both took a long drag before Jo offered one to Ellie. She shook her head sharply, looking away.

  Jo shrugged again. "So, you enjoyed yourselves in my room last night?"

  Thaddeus, discomfited by her remark, felt his skin warming with a blush, and he heard Ellie make a coughing sound of protest.

  "We needed a place to sleep, Jo," he clarified, "and we're grateful. I'd like to compensate you, and then we'll be on our way."

  "I told you, I went along for the amusement. I don't need your money. Besides, after last night," she reached up under her dress and pulled out a small purse she had tucked away, "I need it even less."

  Ellie curled her lip in obvious distaste, and Thaddeus thought they'd better get out before a fight ensued. It would be just like Ellie to get all high and mighty over Jo getting paid for sex.

  Personally, he didn't see it as a problem. The woman was good at what she did and ought to be paid for her talents. But if a man didn't need her services, so be it. It seemed silly to be judgmental, but it wasn't the right time to argue the point or confess to Ellie that she, herself, was so desirable, he'd pay her a king's ransom if she asked him.

  "Ellie needs something to wear, Jo," Thaddeus said, stating the obvious. "She had one dress, which Stoddard took from her, and I borrowed one off a dancing girl, but it's covered in mud."

  "Indeed." She gave Eliza an appraising eye. "Let me see if I can find something that I don't need anymore."

  She disappeared for a few moments behind the screen and came out looking satisfied. "I left you a gown on the chair. With my blessing." Jo offered an extra large smile.

  "I appreciate it," Ellie said woodenly, visibly unhappy at being beholden to the woman who'd already aided in her rescue, and Thaddeus noted she didn't exactly thank her.

  "Say nothing of it," Jo responded, giving all her attention to Thaddeus as Eliza went to change.

  "Where are you off to?" Jo asked, getting closer and dropping her hand on his arm. "More importantly, how long before your next visit?"

  Thaddeus didn't like where this was going. He certainly didn't want Ellie to know how often he'd visited Jo in the past.

  "We're going to Boston," he said, dodging Jo's second question.

  She hadn't missed the fact that he wasn't traveling alone. But she wiped the frown off her face. "You mean, I won't see you next month?"

  That implied she saw him every month, which was a gross exaggeration. Wasn't it? He pondered a moment, hoping Ellie wasn't listening, but then he heard her exclaim aloud.

  "Honestly!"

  "What's the matter, honey?" Jo asked, settling even closer into Thaddeus's arms. With her leaning against him that way, he had no choice but to encircle her or get knocked back a step.

  "You know what the matter is," Ellie called out from behind the screen. "I can't wear this."

  "It's the only thing that will fit. We're not exactly built the same, you and I," Jo responded, her dark eyes looking into Thaddeus's, while she squeezed her ample bosom against him so her breasts nearly burst from the top of her red dress.

  "You did this on purpose," he heard Ellie say, right before his attention was captured by Jo, who abruptly kissed him full on the lips.

  Stunned, he wondered at her sudden ardor. Even when they were being intimate, they never kissed,
at least, not on the lips. In his peripheral vision, he saw Ellie emerge from behind the screen, as it dawned on him that Jo was using him to hurt her.

  Trying to pull away, knowing that made him look even guiltier, Thaddeus put his hands on Jo's waist to push her off him. In turn, Jo laid a hand to his cheek, as if sharing a loving caress.

  "What the hell, Jo?" he exclaimed.

  She arched an eyebrow, no doubt enjoying herself.

  "I was merely saying goodbye to an old friend," she said innocently. "After all, you never know when'll be the next time we'll kiss."

  Thaddeus rolled his eyes and only then fixed his gaze on Ellie. His jaw dropped. If Jo's red dress was designed to entice and distract, what Ellie wore now was intended to incite pure, unadulterated lust.

  A skirt of gaudy violet, trimmed in cheap black lace, angled up from the back to expose most of her legs at the front. Cinching Ellie's waist was a bodice so sheer he could see the shadows under her breasts and cut so low, he could glimpse the very tops of her nipples.

  "God Almighty!" he swore, realizing Jo's intention to humiliate Ellie with this overly suggestive getup. Jealousy, no doubt. Perhaps he'd miscalculated after all, by asking his occasional bed partner to help him rescue another woman.

  Jo finally stepped away from Thaddeus and faced Ellie straight on, looking her up and down with an amused grin.

  "But it's truly all I can spare. We working girls don't have clothes given to us by husbands. I have to earn every dress."

  "On your back," Ellie spat out.

  "And what of it? You've probably been on your back for free!" Jo said, giving it right back to her.

  Ellie glanced at Thaddeus, and her cheeks reddened.

  "That's what I thought," Jo said. "Now, everybody out. I need some sleep after my adventuresome night. Unless you want to join me, Teddy, for old time's sake." She shot him a smoldering glance.

  Sassy to the end. That was Jo. But what was he going to do with Ellie dressed like that?

  "Here," he said to her, "take my coat and—"

  "Nonsense," Ellie said, drawing herself up and shooting Jo a look of haughty righteousness before addressing him again. "The dress fits me perfectly, and I can see how your friend here might have trouble getting into it, what with her rather ample figure."

  She grabbed up her bag and started for the door.

  "Are you calling me fat?" Jo demanded, but Ellie kept on walking.

  Wordlessly, Thaddeus was urging her to do just that—keep going before a catfight broke out.

  Jo turned to him. "Is she calling me fat?"

  "No, darlin', don't be crazy." He stuck what was left of his cigarette between his lips, grabbed up his gun belt and his coat, and hoisted his bag onto his shoulder.

  "I'll be seeing you, Jo. Thanks again."

  He headed out after Ellie, expecting to feel something hit him in the back of the head.

  * * *

  "Of all the impolite, uncouth, rude, bad-mannered, offensive, vulgar, rude—"

  "You rude twice," Thaddeus interrupted her tirade as they went through the saloon, catching the attention of every man there, most already fortifying themselves with drink before noon. Whistles and catcalls abounded, but Ellie didn't even break her stride.

  "And I'll say it again. Rude! Your taste in women is beyond the pale." She stopped outside, tossing down her empty bag. "Now, where's our damn horse?"

  "Ellie, please." He sighed. Arguing over Jo was not productive. "And don't swear, you sound crude." He puffed on his cigarette, and she glared at him.

  "What?" he asked, ready for the next fight.

  "You shouldn't smoke," she bit out between clenched teeth.

  He sighed, purposefully taking a long drag before letting it out through his nose.

  "And why is that?" he asked, unable to take her seriously in her present state of dress.

  With her hands on her hips, her breasts thrust against the fabric and, hell, if she wasn't almost completely exposed standing in the streets of Keokuk. Without asking her this time, he dropped his coat around her shoulders.

  "Riley said smoking isn't good for you," she replied, slipping her arms into the long sleeves and beginning to roll them into cuffs to free her hands.

  He scowled. "What did he mean by that?"

  "He dissected a human lung, and he said the smoke had blackened it and filled it with gunk."

  Gunk! Thaddeus swallowed before taking a deep breath, making sure he still could.

  "Shit," he said at last. "Everyone does it. How bad can it be? I've heard some doctors use tobacco smoke to cure everything from headaches to stomach cramps." Riley and his blasted medical opinions.

  She shrugged. "Besides, I don't like the way it smells."

  He stared at her, long and hard. Blazes! Women! Nonetheless, he tossed the cigarette to the ground, putting it out with the toe of his boot. Didn't like the smell. He didn't smoke for the goddamned smell but for the taste. Still, if Ellie didn't like it... Blast! He was becoming like a tame dog.

  "Stay here, I'll get Lucky." He began to walk away, then turned back. "Take this." He handed her his gun. "Just in case. I'll be back in a minute."

  He could still hear her muttering as he walked away, and for the second time, he imagined something might hit him from behind. Women were dangerous creatures.

  And torturous. As they started the next phase of their journey, seated close once more on their horse, Thaddeus's brain kept picturing what she was wearing under his coat. Even worse, his body was reliving how she'd responded to him, so warm and willing, in Jo's bed.

  Looking heavenward, he attempted to get his mind off her body. Here he was, in broad daylight, once again heading for a train, this time with a scantily clad woman, and they were both wanted by one of the most dangerous men in the mid-west, who happened to be her husband.

  And all he could think about was settling down somewhere and taking Ellie up on the honey-sweet invitation she'd offered when they'd awakened.

  "I can't believe we've even made it this far," Ellie said out of the blue, voicing what he was thinking.

  They should have stayed put, if not at Jo's saloon, then somewhere else through the day and then traveled that night. Perhaps they still should, but the longer they stayed in the area, the tighter Stoddard's hold would be. If Jo hadn't kept Stoddard busy all night, they probably would have been captured already.

  "I imagine that every sane man thinks we're staying put, and that's why no one's after us. But we're on the wrong side of the river now, and we're gonna stay on the wrong side until we get up to Burlington. That'll take us a day. From there, we'll catch a train to Fort Wayne. If the Indian's following, he won't know if we've gone northeast to Toledo or southeast to Lima or even Columbus."

  He shifted in the saddle, trying to get comfortable. "As far as they're concerned, we could be going anywhere. Except seeing how they found us last time, all the way in Panola, I guess Stoddard knows we're heading east."

  He hated to admit it, but he felt mighty discouraged by how far they still had to go—and on top of that, they were on the west side of the Mississippi heading north.

  "Why in God's name did my sister have to end up in Boston? It's the bloody edge of the world!"

  He stayed quiet for a few minutes, then he added, "It's striking scenery up there, though. You'll probably like it."

  "If we stay free that long," Ellie said doubtfully. "Jack may have had some fun with your friend Jo, but he's madder than ever at me. And you, too, I'm sure."

  "I don't get something," he said, trying to ease back a bit away from her body, wishing, not for the first time, that he'd paid for two horses. "If Stoddard took you as his wife to get your money, which he basically can lay claim to with or without your presence, why is he trying to get you back so desperately?"

  "He hurt me," she said, not answering his question, her voice small and angry.

  His chest constricted at the thought, but before he could speak, she continued.

 
"My father told me never to stand for being treated badly, and I never have, except once."

  She was silent for a moment, and he had the terrible realization that his taking her innocence in his barn when they were young was the one time a man had treated her badly and gotten away with it, though she didn't bring the point home. He wrapped his arms around her, damn the consequences of how antsy and frustrated it made him feel.

  She hesitated. "After Jack locked me up the first time, before I escaped and cut my leg, he didn't treat me well. He seemed to be, as Jo said, a gentleman when we were on the train and playing poker, but when I couldn't pay and we got off the train, he showed a mean streak."

  "I asked you before if he'd done anything to you."

  "He didn't assault me," she said defiantly, "but he imprisoned me and withheld food and water at one point until I signed papers that gave him my inheritance. He always threatened worse, but apparently, I'm not his type. Jo is."

  "Good God, woman, don't tell me you're feeling sorry that Stoddard prefers curvy brunettes to slim blondes. You're lucky he didn't force you."

  "No, it's not that." She paused. "Anyway, do you?"

  "Do I what?" he asked.

  "Prefer curvy—oh, never mind, I don't know what I'm asking."

  But he knew what she was asking, and it didn't help that Jo had deliberately left Ellie with the image of him and Jo kissing while locked in an embrace. Or that Ellie probably knew Thaddeus had lain with Jo in the very bed they'd slept in. What a mess!

  Ellie was his angel, cantankerous and willful, but still his angel—different from any woman he'd ever met. He hated that she believed she didn't measure up. She did, and then some.

  Should he blurt it out, how very much he wanted her? He opened his mouth.

  "Anyway, I took something of Jack's because I was so mad at him, and he's still looking for it."

  Whoa! What were they discussing again? He focused on her words. Took something of Jack's? What would make him send out his men in force?

  "Ellie, what did you take?"

  She seemed to be digging around in her cleavage. Thaddeus swallowed, peering over her shoulder to get a better look until she elbowed him. Still, he was burning with curiosity to see what she retrieved. She slipped something on her thumb and then held her hand up for him to see.