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His breath caught in his throat.
The woman had stopped screaming. She hung by her arms, staring down at him from beneath a tumble of red-gold hair. Her eyes were as blue as the heart of a mountain columbine.
She did make a fetching sight, dangling like an acrobat from the chandelier chain, with her white blouse pulled loose and her skirt hiked over her shapely calves. Ethan was tempted to spend a few more seconds admiring the view. But then she spoke.
“What are you staring at, you fool? Stop gawking and get me down from here!”
Her voice was low, with a taut, gravelly edge that roused Ethan’s senses. “Do you trust me to catch you?” he teased.
“Are you sure you’re strong enough?” she retorted. “I’m not what you’d call a little woman.”
No, she certainly wasn’t, Ethan observed. At five foot eight or nine with a body that could grace the bow of a frigate, she’d make an armful for any man.
He wouldn’t mind being that man.
Kicking aside the debris, Ethan stood beneath her and held out his arms. “Come on,” he said.
She hesitated, her eyes taking the measure of his broad shoulders and six-foot-two-inch height. One by one, her fingers peeled away from the chain.
With a little yelp, she dropped straight down, feet first. Ethan caught her awkwardly around the knees. From there she slid down the front of him, delicious curves gliding intimately down his face, over his chest, down his belly to—
Lord have mercy, he was in trouble now. His erection had sprung up with coiled-spring efficiency, ready for playtime. She would have felt it all the way down.
Feet touching the floor, she pushed away from him. Her face was flushed, her full lips parted. Ethan fought the temptation to fling caution to the wind, seize her in his arms and kiss her till she burned. The lady would probably slap him hard enough to dislocate his jaw. And she was a lady. Ethan made a practice of reading people, and he was certain of that. Her clothes were simple but expensively made. The Irish-linen blouse, smudged with dust and edged with the barest touch of lace, looked European, as did the daintily pointed kidskin oxfords. And he would bet money that the pearl studs in her earlobes were as genuine as her upper-class Midwestern accent.
So what was such a woman doing in this run-down boardinghouse, a rumored delivery point for the bootlegging trade? He didn’t want to believe she was involved. But he’d known stranger things to happen.
A flick of her tongue moistened her lower lip. Her complexion was like a porcelain doll’s, but close up, Ethan could see the careworn shadows beneath her eyes. He estimated her age at about thirty, and something told him she’d had her share of troubles. He’d noticed right off she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. But she was far too stunning not to have married. A widow, Ethan surmised. A luscious redheaded widow who’d been around the block and knew every step of the way.
Intriguing. And damn tempting…
Ethan brought himself up with a mental slap. He’d come here to do a risky job. As long as he was working undercover, he’d be crazy to get personally involved—even with a female as enticing as this one.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun.
The silence between them had begun to crackle like the air before a summer storm. Ethan cleared his throat.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
She hesitated, as if examining herself for inner wounds. “Yes, but I think I…oh!”
Her body stiffened, eyes jerking wide. With urgent gasps, she began yanking at the front of her blouse, popping the tiny shell buttons in her haste. Ethan made a gentlemanly show of averting his eyes, but continued to steal furtive glances desire warring with dismay. Either the woman was in genuine danger or her nerves had snapped.
As the last button gave way, she ripped the blouse off her body, shook it furiously at arm’s length and flung it to the floor. Ethan felt a touch on his arm. Turning, he met her frozen gaze. “If you please.” Her voice was a husky breath. “I need you to look…”
Her lacy camisole and gently cinched corset covered her modestly. Still, the woman looked good enough to lick like a strawberry ice-cream cone. Ethan feasted his eyes as she slowly turned.
Damnation!
There, clinging to the back of her pink satin corset was a Texas-size brown spider. It didn’t strike him as a venomous sort, but he couldn’t blame the lady for being spooked. He wasn’t crazy about spiders himself.
“Hold still,” he muttered, raising his hand.
A quick brush sent the spider flying toward the floor. Ethan would have crushed it with his boot, but it skittered down a crack in the planking and disappeared.
The woman’s knees sagged. Ethan readied his arms to catch her in a faint, but she righted herself as if by force of will. Snatching up the discarded blouse, she thrust her arms into the sleeves, pushed the remaining buttons through their holes and tucked the hem into the waist of her skirt. Only when she was as presentable as she could make herself did she turn back to face him. Her face was pale, but her ripe lips managed a smile.
“We haven’t been properly introduced,” she said, offering her hand. “I’m Ruby Rumford. I just bought this place, and I’m very much in your debt.”
“Ethan Beaudry. Happy I could be of help, ma’am.” Ethan accepted her handshake. Her fingers were strong and smooth, her manner so genuine that it made him want to cringe in self-disgust. Only a low-down snake would lie to such a woman. But that was exactly what he was about to do.
Starting now.
Ethan Beaudry.
Ruby turned the name over in her mind like a child examining a pebble. She liked the sound of it, and the way it suited everything about him—dark, rugged features, a rangy body and a drawl you could cut with a butter knife.
She remembered how he’d caught her in his arms and lowered her to the floor, paying no heed to the sparks their bodies had ignited on the way down. Ruby understood men well enough to know that some things couldn’t be helped. But she’d been surprised at her own response to that brief contact. It had been so many years since she’d experienced anything good with a man, she’d forgotten what it felt like.
Sliding down the front of Ethan Beaudry had sent a shock of pleasure all the way to her toes.
But what was she thinking? With Hollis gone barely a year, the last thing she needed was another man in her life. She had a future to forge and two daughters to raise. And she had her own shattered sense of self to rebuild. After what she’d been through, she was no longer fit to be any man’s sweetheart, lover or wife. Maybe she never would be.
She was damaged goods—damaged to the roots of her soul.
“I’m sorry I can’t offer you something to drink.” She glanced toward the front door. Ethan realized it was his cue to leave. But he wasn’t ready to walk out on what might be his best chance to learn more about her.
“You say you just bought this property?” He righted the chair, inviting her to sit.
“Yes. I signed the papers two days ago.” She sat on the edge of the seat, clasping her fingers in her lap. “I’ll be open for boarders as soon as I get the place cleaned up—if the spiders will let me.” Her edgy little laugh deepened the dimples in her cheeks. Ethan swore silently. Why did she have to be so damn appealing?
“Don’t you have anyone to help you?” he asked.
“Nobody that I can afford to pay. My brother offered to come, but I didn’t want to impose on him.” She glanced down at her hands, then met his eyes again. Her long lashes were the color of molasses taffy. “How was it you were able to hear me and rush right in, Mr. Beaudry? You must have been close by.”
“Please call me Ethan. And yes, I was out for some morning air, just passing this place when I heard you. It was pure luck.”
Lie number one. Ethan had been keeping an eye on the vacant boarding house since his arrival a week ago. The recent passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, outlawing the manufacture, transportation and selling of alcohol for consumption, had spawned an epidemic of illegal whiskey stills and a network of criminal activity. The U.S. Marshals Service had been assigned the job of law enforcement in this matter.
The back cellar of the hitherto-empty boardinghouse was a suspected drop-off spot for illegal moonshine whiskey, to be loaded onto trucks and hauled away for clandestine sale in places like Denver, Omaha and Kansas City. Ethan had seen tire tracks and boot prints leading around the building though he had yet to catch anyone in the act. But identifying the deliverymen wasn’t why he’d come to Dutchman’s Creek. He was after the boss who was running the operation, not his errand boys.
Which led to the question of the scrumptious widow Rumford. If she’d been placed here to provide a safe link between buyers and sellers, then she was as dangerous as a spitting cobra. But if she’d bought the old boardinghouse in complete innocence, heaven help her, she could be in more peril than she knew.
“So, what is it you do?” she asked.
Ethan’s cover story, devised by some pencil pusher in the head office, was well rehearsed. “I’m a history professor, taking a year’s leave to write a book about Colorado. This town struck me as a peaceful place to settle down for a few months and concentrate on my work.”
Lie number two. Blatant, but necessary.
She studied him, one delicate eyebrow arching upward. “So you’re new in town? I must say, you don’t look like a professor.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Ethan leaned against a dusty sideboard, his mind working. Having stumbled into this situation, he’d be a fool not to put it to use.
“I have a business proposition for you,” he said. “Right now I’m staying at the hotel. But it’s expensive and noisier than I’d like. I know you need help and that you can’t afford to pay for it. Would you be open to my moving in here and lending you a hand—say, in exchange for my first week’s room and board?”
Emotions played across her face as she weighed his offer. Ethan could pretty well guess what was going on in that lovely head. He was a stranger, and they’d be spending time alone together. Would she be safe with him? Would her reputation suffer from his presence?
Then again, he could be wrong. Ruby Rumford could have dark motives of her own. If she suspected he was lying and wanted to trap him, he might already be in trouble. But that was a chance he’d have to take.
“I’d be happy to work for the pleasure of helping a lady,” he added. “But something tells me, if you wouldn’t accept free help from your brother you wouldn’t accept it from me. This arrangement would be fair, and it could work well for both of us. So, do we have a deal?”
Hesitation flickered in her eyes. Her amply curved bosom strained the fabric of her blouse as she took a deep breath. “You could have your choice of the rooms. But your meals would be a problem at first. I won’t be able to cook until the kitchen’s set up.”
“I can make do until then. The food at the hotel is all right, but I’ll confess I’ve been hankering for some good old-fashioned home cooking.”
“Then I suppose we have a deal, as you say.” Her smile wavered as she stood. “Come on, I’ll show you the rooms.”
She led the way up the wooden stairs, giving him the pleasure of following behind. With each step, the fabric of her narrow khaki skirt molded to her buttocks, setting his fantasies ablaze. He imagined his hands cupping those rounded moons as he thrust deep between her legs into her tight, wet warmth, pushing toward that instant of blessed release.
Would she be willing to play by his rules—no messy emotions, no promises, no tears when he walked away for good? A man could never be sure of such things. But a woman like Ruby, delectable, mature and unattached, would certainly know the game. At the very least, he could have a hell of a good time teaching her.
Damn!
Ethan brought himself up with a mental slap. He was here to break up a bootlegging ring, not seduce his luscious landlady. If Ruby proved to be involved with the smugglers, he could end up hauling her pretty ass to jail. He’d be smart to remember that when his mind strayed below his belt.
But meanwhile, there was nothing wrong with enjoying the view.
The four upstairs rooms were of equal size, with a common bathroom off the central hallway. The plumbing had been added after the house was built and was crude at best. But at least the place had a flush toilet and a tub with running water for the tenants. Downstairs, there was only a toilet and basin for Ruby and the girls. They would have to make do with a washtub or wait their turn to bathe on the second floor.
It was a far cry from the grand mansion she’d shared with Hollis in Missouri. But at least their lives here would be safe and peaceful. Ruby could only hope her daughters would adjust to their reduced circumstances.
Ethan Beaudry was prowling from room to room, pausing to check the view from each of the windows. He moved like a panther, lithe, alert and powerful, his presence filling every space he entered.
Watching from the hallway, Ruby tried to imagine him lecturing to a gallery of students. The picture refused to come together. But then, what did she know? She’d married at nineteen and never attended college. Her only idea of a professor was the aging, bespectacled stereotype she’d read about in books. There was no reason a professor couldn’t be tall and darkly handsome, was there?
A flash of memory brought back that brief instant in Ethan’s arms. Her senses reveled in the clean, leathery smell of him and the manly contours of his body. Her legs heated and softened beneath her skirt. Oh, this wasn’t good. Not good at all.
With a deep breath, she willed the memory away. She was a businesswoman and the man was her tenant, nothing more. She would remember that even if she had to remind herself every ten minutes.
Ethan seemed more interested in the back rooms than the two in front. Again, he checked the windows, pressing close enough to see the muddy backyard below. Not that there was anything down there to see—just rutted tracks where people had left their cars and wagons when they came into town; maybe teenagers as well, who might have used the secluded spot as a late-night lovers’ lane.
According to the real estate agent, the place had been vacant for nearly a year. The bank had taken it over when its previous owner, an elderly woman, had passed away, leaving an unpaid mortgage. Ruby was just beginning to discover the old boardinghouse’s secrets. But then, she had secrets of her own. Maybe in time she’d begin to feel a sort of kinship with the old place. Maybe in time it would even become home.
Ethan was bending over the single bed in the south room, scowling as he tested the worn cotton mattress with his fist. The springs squeaked as he pushed up and down. Heaven save her, was he planning on having lady friends up? Maybe she should have asked more questions before agreeing to have him as a tenant.
“The beds are old, but you can have your choice of them,” she said, stepping into the room. “I don’t mind your moving things around.”
“This one will do fine.” He straightened. The sunlight pouring into the room heightened the gold flecks in his dark brown eyes.
“The room hasn’t been cleaned yet.” Ruby focused on brushing a speck of lint off her skirt. She was alone with a compellingly attractive man in what had just become his bedroom. Maybe this arrangement was a mistake.
“It’ll be no trouble for me to clean it,” he said. “But I’ll need a desk or a table for my work. Do you have anything I can use?”
“Not that I can spare.” Ruby had already taken an inventory of the sparse furnishings. “But the agent told me there was some older furniture stored in the cellar. Maybe there’s something useful down there.”
“You haven’t looked?”
“Not yet.”
“Spiders?” A knowing twinkle lit his eyes.
She feigned a shrug. “Actually, I haven’t had time.”
“Then what do you say we go down there now, together? If you see anything you want, I’ll haul it up the stairs for you.”
His suggestion struck Ruby as a sensible idea. Loath as she was to admit it, the thought of entering that dark, spider-infested cellar alone made her skin crawl. She’d plumbed a well of excuses to put off going down there. But with Ethan leading the way, the prospect didn’t seem so daunting.
She followed him downstairs to the kitchen, her eyes lingering on the muscular outline of his shoulders. His black hair grew low on the back of his sun-bronzed neck. Ruby suppressed the urge to reach out and brush the curls clear of his collar. How would he react if she touched him? Would he take it as an invitation?
As a stranger, Ethan would have no idea what she’d done to her husband. Here in Dutchman’s Creek, only a few people did—Jace and Clara, of course, as well as Clara’s family and Sam Farley, the elderly town marshal. None of those good people would reveal her secret on purpose. But scandal had a way of oozing into the open. Sooner or later word was bound to get out. What would the people in town—like her new tenant—think of her when the truth was revealed? For her own sake, Ruby no longer cared. But for the sake of her innocent young daughters…
Maybe she should have settled someplace else—a place where no one knew about her past.
But she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Right now she had more urgent concerns—and one of them was walking right in front of her.
Ethan had said he was looking forward to some good home cooking, a reasonable expectation for any boarder. With no money to hire a cook, Ruby would have to run the kitchen herself.
Unfortunately, she’d grown up in a home where meals were prepared by a housekeeper. Upon her marriage to Hollis Rumford, she had moved into a mansion with a full staff of servants, including a chef.
Heaven help her, she didn’t know the first thing about cooking. She barely knew how to boil water.
What had she gotten herself into? Right now the thought of finding tenants, cooking meals, maintaining the house, laundering a mountain of sheets, collecting rent and managing expenses was more than she could wrap her mind around.
She’d dreamed of having a steady income and a place to live with her girls. The reality was more like a nightmare. But she’d sunk her money into this old house and moved from Springfield with all her possessions. She was here to stay, and she had no choice except to make it work.
Chapter Two
The entrance to the cellar lay at the back of the house, next to the kitchen stoop. Its slanted door was the kind that children might have used for a slide in happier times when the house was new. Now the wood was warped and weathered to a splintery gray.
There was no padlock, Ethan noted as he twisted out the stick that fastened the rusted hasp. Anyone, including bootleggers, could have gotten into the cellar. Until now he’d kept his distance from the door, not wanting to raise suspicion by getting too close. But Ruby had given him a perfect excuse to investigate.
Maybe too perfect.
“I don’t suppose you carry an electric torch with you.” She leaned past his shoulder, teasing his nostrils with a sensual whiff of perfume. Ethan recognized the scent as a pricey one. Clearly, the lady had money, or, more likely, knew some man who did. So what was she doing in a place like this? He’d be a fool not to watch his every step.
“With the door open, we should be able to see well enough.” He glanced back at her. “Ready?”
She nodded, all wide-eyed innocence. “Lead the way.”
