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Amanda swayed against Jason. She grabbed his shoulders to keep from falling and parted her lips ever so slightly.
He slipped inside her at once, tasting her, exploring her. Luring her, tempting her until she did the same.
A groan rattled in his mouth as Amanda pressed deep, matching his movements. He pulled her tighter against him.
Amanda was lost in the feel of him, the taste of him. Hopelessly lost in the decadent moment of their mouths blending together.
Until he suddenly yanked his mouth from her and looked up.
A voice intruded into the fog clouding Amanda’s mind. She turned. Ethan stood in the open doorway.
Chapter Five
Ethan froze in midstride. “Uh…sorry.” He backed outside and closed the door.
Jason clung to Amanda, holding her against him. She was soft and warm. She smelled better than anything on his entire mountain. He didn’t want to let her go.
Her lips were wet and her cheeks pink. He’d done that to her. Done it and enjoyed it.
Her eyes were wide with embarrassment. He’d done that, too.
Jason eased his grip on her. She looked so vulnerable, so confounded, that he wanted to keep her in his arms and hold her, comfort her, and make everything all right for her.
But she pushed away from him, drew herself upright, and spun away. She rushed to the door, then stopped, as if unsure which was more embarrassing—going outside and confronting Ethan, or staying inside with him.
“Miss Pierce, wait—”
His words spurred her into action. Amanda yanked open the door and fled, leaving Jason staring after her.
“Dammit….”
Jason raked his hands through his hair and stared at the still open door. He wanted to go after her. He wanted her back. He wanted to hold her, and smell her, and kiss her, and…
And what? Jason grumbled another curse into the quiet office. He knew what he wanted to do. His body had already made it perfectly clear.
The office door opened wider and Ethan stepped inside. “Did you and Miss Pierce kiss and make up? Or just kiss?”
Jason cursed again and waved toward the door Amanda had just disappeared through. “That’s another reason I don’t want women up here.”
Ethan pushed the door closed and dropped into the chair in front of the desk. “Have you something against kissing all of a sudden?”
Jason glared at him. “No.”
“Then what the hell are you talking about?”
“Women gussied up in city clothes, all proper and dignified, getting flustered by a simple kiss,” Jason said. “What kind of wife would that be?”
Ethan grinned. “In the case of Amanda Pierce, a pretty good one.”
Jason cursed again.
“She’s got spirit,” Ethan said. “Determination, drive. If you ask me—”
“Nobody asked you.” Jason grabbed his hat off his desk and stalked to the door. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Jason, hold up a minute.” Ethan rose from the chair. “You work harder than any man on this mountain. You ought to take some time off, go down to Beaumont for a few days.”
“I’ve got a business to run.”
Ethan touched his shoulder. “Working yourself into the ground isn’t going to make up for Pa.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Jason said. He stalked outside, slamming the door behind him.
Bad enough that he’d gone and kissed Amanda Pierce, that she’d set his body on fire and sent his mind churning. Ethan didn’t have to bring up their father as well.
Jason stood on the porch of the office looking at his logging camp, his mountain. He’d bought it with his own money. He’d designed the layout of the camp and put the crew together. He’d built it himself and he was proud of it.
Ethan had come along later with the idea for the sawmill and put up the money for the new equipment. Since then they’d worked together, planned together.
For most of their lives, wherever Jason went, Ethan was seldom far behind. Ethan was only a year younger. They were closer than most brothers. That suited Jason just fine because the rest of the family was scattered. They drifted in and out of his life with an occasional letter. Thanks to their Ma and Pa.
Jason didn’t like being reminded of their father. And he sure as hell didn’t need to be reminded of how long it had been since he’d left his mountain. Miss Amanda Pierce and her kiss had done that—with predictable results.
Jason walked off the porch. He needed to get his mind on work, and off Miss Amanda Pierce. She was leaving today, anyway. And good riddance to her. Her and her brides…her sweet smell…her kiss.
Jason hiked to the skid road that led up the mountain. To his surprise he found his crew congregated there loaded down with their axes, saws, canteens and cans of pitch. The bull whackers had two teams of sixteen oxen harnessed, ready to head up the mountain. But they were all standing around talking when they should have been working already.
“What’s going on?” Jason demanded. His first thought was that there’d been an accident, someone had gotten hurt. But the men were too noisy for anything serious to have happened.
Buck Johansen, a big round-chested man, made his way from the center of the gathering. Buck was in charge of the lumberjacks. He was the boss logger, the bull of the woods, who ran the daily operation on the mountain. It was his responsibility to decide which trees to fell, how they should fall, and where cuts for logs should be made once the trees were down. There could be only one bull of the woods, and Buck was it.
“There’s talk going around,” Buck said, stopping in front of Jason. “Talk about you getting married.”
Jason’s gaze landed squarely on Duncan in the center of the crew and knew where that piece of gossip had come from.
“I’m not getting married,” Jason barked.
“But what about that pretty little lady in your office last night?” Duncan called out. “We all saw her this morning at breakfast.”
“Get to work, all of you,” Jason said, “before I dock you a day’s pay.”
A grumble went through the men, but they turned and headed up the mountain.
Buck Johansen stayed behind. “Some of the men were wondering—”
Jason cursed. “If you can’t keep these men’s minds on work I’ll find somebody who can.”
Buck just looked at him, and Jason regretted his words. Buck was one of the best, and Jason counted himself lucky to have him on his mountain. He shouldn’t have lashed out at Buck when it was really himself he was mad at.
“Look,” Jason said, softening his stance, “I’ve got no time for this kind of problem.”
Buck nodded his understanding, then gestured toward the crew hiking up the mountain. “I know. But I’ve got these men who are wondering what’s going on around here.”
“Nothing’s going on.”
“Some say maybe you ought to get married,” Buck said. “Take the edge off.”
Jason bit back a retort, then looked away because he couldn’t disagree with Buck.
“I’ve got a lot on my mind,” Jason said. “This deal I’m waiting to hear on, for one.”
“There’s been deals before.”
Jason pulled on his neck. “Keep the men working. Keep their minds on their jobs. I don’t want anybody getting hurt today.”
Buck hesitated a moment, then nodded and headed up the road behind the men.
Most days Jason would have gone up with them. Today, though, he stood where he was, looking at the towering trees, feeling the early morning sun on his face, and decided not to go up yet. He had some business to attend to in camp.
Jason hiked over to the sawmill. Work was underway on the logs that had come down from the two sections of the mountain his men were working. About half floated down river to the millpond, and the rest were dragged down the skid road by teams of oxen.
Just outside the sawmill, a conveyor belt brought logs out of the millpond with the help of the river pigs, the sure-footed loggers who leapt from log to log guiding them and breaking up jams.
Inside the sawmill a steam engine powered the band saw that cut through the massive logs. Two men rode the carriage back and forth, holding the log in place with a series of levers. Another crew of men stacked the cut lumber and prepared it for shipment down the mountain.
Ethan was busy overseeing the work. Jason waved to him. They walked outside, away from the relentless whine of the saw.
“Talk to Shady before he heads down to Beaumont today,” Jason said. “Be sure he checks the mail while he’s there.”
“Shady knows we’re looking for that packet from San Bernardino,” Ethan said. “He won’t head home until he’s checked on it.”
“Remind him, just the same.”
“Don’t know if I can.”
Jason’s brows drew together. “He’s left already?”
“Does that bother you?” Ethan grinned. “Maybe you’re sorry to see Miss Pierce leave after all.”
“You see? This is what I’m talking about.” Jason threw out both hands. “A woman—one single woman—shows up in camp and the whole place is thrown into an uproar.”
“Seems like you’re the one in an uproar,” Ethan said. “Everybody else is doing fine.”
Jason grumbled under his breath and stalked away.
There was nothing like a brisk walk to take the edge off of one’s emotions, Amanda decided as she made her way toward town. Particularly a walk over a road as rough as this one, where a lady might easily fall on her bustle and embarrass herself in front of anyone and everyone passing by.
Amanda stopped and caught her breath. Which was worse? Being embarrassed by total strangers, or being embarrassed by the two Kruger brothers?
One of whom she’d kissed. Hard. On the mouth. With her lips opened.
Amanda’s cheeks flamed again, churning up her emotions once more. At this rate she’d have to hike all the way to Beaumont to burn off the sting of that memory. Such wanton behavior. What had possessed her to do such a thing?
Jason Kruger. Amanda was tempted to curse aloud. The words burned her tongue. Jason had caused her to act in such an unladylike fashion.
He was no gentleman, she decided. A gentleman didn’t have big hulking muscles. A rock-hard chest. A hot mouth. A gentleman didn’t lock a lady in his arms and pull their bodies together so that they touched. He didn’t allow a lady to feel his thighs, his belly, his—
Amanda gasped aloud, and plastered her fingers to her lips. She glanced around quickly. A man she didn’t recognize sauntered toward the animal pens on the other side of camp.
Had he seen her? Did he suspect what she’d been thinking? Not to mention what she’d been doing.
Amanda hiked up her skirt and hurried toward town.
She was short-winded by the time she reached Meg’s house and went inside. One of the ways Meg made money to feed herself and Todd was by doing mending for the loggers. She was hard at work sewing on missing buttons, closing ripped seams and patching holes when Amanda sat down on the settee.
“Has Shady come by?” Amanda asked.
Meg lowered the worn shirt. “Does this mean Jason turned you down again?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Even after you explained about your brides?”
Even after she’d kissed him.
Amanda shifted on the settee, anxious to change the subject. “If you won’t let me pay you for a night’s lodging, the least I can do is help with your mending.”
“Don’t be silly,” Meg insisted. “I was glad to have you here. You can’t imagine how lonely this mountain gets without another woman to talk to.”
They spent the next several hours working their way to the bottom of the mending basket. Meg talked nonstop, and Amanda realized that she was indeed lonely for female conversation. Her heart sank a little. Another reason she was sorry to leave with her mission unfulfilled.
“Gracious, it’s late.” Amanda looked out the window and saw that the sun was high overhead now. “I can’t imagine where Shady is.”
“Shady operates on a timetable of his own,” Meg said.
“Maybe I should look for him.” She didn’t want to wait until it was too late to go down the mountain and risk not finding a hotel room in Beaumont.
“The crews will be down from the mountain soon to eat,” Meg said. “The smell of the food will draw Shady out, if nothing else.”
“I think I’ll go look for him,” Amanda said. She pinned her hat in place, and headed out the door.
Though she tried to resist, her gaze turned to Jason’s office just down the road. A strange quivering sensation passed through Amanda. Her lips twitched suddenly at the memory of the kiss they’d shared. Why couldn’t she forget?
Amanda turned quickly and walked the other way.
By the time she reached the barber shop in town, Amanda had decided it was simply this place that made her act so wanton in Jason’s office. The isolation. The wild, rugged mountain. The lack of anything resembling the civility of the city.
After all, what else could it be?
