Joe tossed out the last bucket of dirty wash water and swiped her arm across her brow. “I reckon it’s clean.” She said with a sigh.
“I sure hope so.’ Clayton grumbled as he slid down the wall and flopped onto his butt on the dirt.
“Me too, kid.” Jonah agreed, flopping down beside him. “We’ve been cleaning for damn near two days solid.”
Joe just shook her head at the two lazy men in her life. Of course she was pretty worn out herself. It had taken nearly a week to get to the old cabin and they’d been working hard to clean and do repairs for the last couple of days just to make the place fit to live in.
“I’m thirsty, pa.” Clayton muttered and Joe was going to tell the boy to go get his own drink but before she could Jonah was pushing himself to his feet.
“A sip of water sounds good to me too, boy.”
“Jonah, ya gotta stop doin’ everthin’ for that boy! Yer gonna spoil him rotten!” Joe scolded and Jonah just shrugged as he pumped some fresh water into a bucket and then ladled out a spoonful. He grinned before pouring it down his own throat and then motioned for Clayton to come to him.
Joe just shook her head as Clayton ran to Jonah and he helped the boy down several big swallows. It was then that Reb walked over from the smokehouse.
“I fixed that whole and got the coals a burnin’. Clayton ya wanna come huntin’ with me? A smokehouse ain’t no good without a bit of meat in it.”
“Can I mama?” Clayton asked and Joe nodded.
“Sure ya can.” She replied. “Go get the extra rifle from under my bed.”
“I’ll keep him out until at least dusk.” Reb said with a grin. “Y’all have fun.” The man winked, at least Joe assumed he was winking, it was hard to tell when a person only had one eye.
Joe felt a tremble wash over her when Jonah’s gray eyes passed over her hungrily. They hadn’t made love since he’d come back into her life. The moment had simply never seemed right. First she had been sick and then they’d been traveling with Clayton sleeping between them most nights and last night, their first night here, they’d had Reb and Clayton sleeping right outside the bedroom door and then Clayton had had a nightmare about the men who had hurt her and he’d ended up between them yet again.
But now Joe and Jonah were going to be completely alone and judging by the passion in Jonah’s eyes as he stared into Joe’s, it was clear the man was done waiting… And so was she.
“I can already see them explosives flashin in yer eyes.” Reb teased. Joe glared over at the one eyed bastard that needed to mind his own business.
“Why don’t ya leave us alone and go spend time with yer wife?” she demanded. Reb’s eye nearly bulged from its socket.
“Wife?! That’s a curse word to a man like me! What the devil are ya talkin’ ‘bout?”
“You didn’t already forget about her did you?” Jonah asked with a grin. “She was a big boned gal from out in California.”
Joe laughed when Reb seemed to shiver from head to toe. “Yeah, I remember her.” He muttered and then he glared at Jonah. “Ya weren’t never ‘spose to mention that to nobody!” he accused, pointing a finger up at the taller man’s face. “Don’t yer word mean nothin’ to ya?”
Jonah chuckled. “Sure it does. What was her name again?”
“Maria.” Reb replied quickly and then scowled. “Or somethin’ like that.”
Joe looked at Jonah and they shared a smile. “Is there trouble in paradise, Reb?” Joe asked. Reb glared at her, his blue eye narrowing.
“There never was no paradise!” he insisted. “She stuffed me full of some rot gut whiskey and got my brain all foggy. Then she told everybody and their brother I was her husband and by God I was too damn drunk to care.”
“And when did this ‘marriage’ end?” Joe asked.
“The next damn morning when I woke up and saw that behemoth lyin’ next to me in bed. Now I like me a big gal, always have, but this woman pushed the limits. She was a good foot taller than me and a hundred pounds heavier. To beat it all more than half those pounds were muscle! Why she coulda pulled a wagon better’n a whole damn team of oxen.”
“You shouldn’t talk about your wife that way, Reb.” Jonah scolded with a grin.
“Yeah, from the sound of it she’d probably whoop your ass good and proper.” Joe agreed.
“Both of ya can take the evenin’ train straight to hell.” Reb grumbled as Clayton came back out of the house with a hunting rifle that was nearly as tall as he was. “Come on, boy, let’s get the hell outta here and go shoot somethin’.”
“Cowpoke.” Joe called out as Clayton began to walk away. He turned and looked back at her expectantly. “Ya be careful now.”
“Yes, mama.” Clayton replied with a smile and then he bounced off into the woods with Reb.
“Alone at last.” Jonah all but growled as he stalked toward her. Joe held up her hand to stop his progress.
“First we need to talk.”
“You talk.” Jonah replied with a shrug as he moved her hand aside, came in close to her and then lowered his mouth to her neck and lapped at the tender skin beneath her ear with his tongue. “I’ve got much better things to do with my mouth.”
Joe’s knees nearly buckled and she cursed the way that Jonah had always managed to turn her into a big old pile of womanly mush.
“Jonah I’m serious.” She scolded as she tried to step away but Jonah moved with her.
“Did I sound like I was joking?” he asked, his voice rumbling against her ear as he nibbled it tenderly.
“Jonah, I really want to talk.”
“I don’t… Unless it’s dirty talk. We used to be good at that.” Joe felt her nipples harden and that aching dampness slicked her aroused clit. How did this man do this? Only him. No other man had ever even tempted Joe. But all Jonah had to do was give her a look, or nibble on her ear, whisper in that deep rumbling timbre he used when aroused, and Joe was ready to tear his clothes off and give him anything he wanted, anywhere he wanted it.
“Jonah…” Joe tried again, desperately wanting to hang on to her train of thought. They needed to talk about the way Jonah was spoiling Clayton….. Jonah’s arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her body against his. She felt his arousal and heard him groan against her neck and decided that the talk about Clayton could wait.
Right now Joe needed her man. She needed to be his Josephine. She had been far too long without his touch.
Jonah seemed to sense the change in her the moment she gave in and he swept her up into his arms, carrying her into the cabin and kicking the door closed behind them.
His hungry lips closed over hers, devouring them with a heat and intensity that had Joe clawing at the top buttons of Jonah’s chambray shirt, desperate to remove every boundary between their skin. Jonah carried her into the bedroom that had always been her own but was now theirs… Joe’s and her husbands…. The thought was still so new and unexpected that it seemed a foreign concept.. Like some kind of news you hear but don’t truly believe.
Jonah sat her on her feet once inside the room and his gray eyes widened when Joe reached out and ripped his shirt, sending buttons scattering across the room. Joe saw something flash in his eyes and then, before she could react, he was on her.
His mouth, tongue, hands, fingertips, every part of his body was touching her, tasting her, teasing her.
Joe took in the sight of Jonah’s naked torso, finding that it still aroused her just as much as it always had. He had a warriors body. Muscles, lines, scars. Joe was happy that he hadn’t lost that while drinking himself into a stupor over the last few years.
Jonah hands closed around the bottom hem of her buckskin shirt and Joe raised her arms as he slid it off and tossed it to the floor.
She gasped as his hungry mouth assaulted her shoulders and collarbones, giving Joe no choice but to cling to him as her knees weakened.
“Either take it off or I’ll cut it off.” Jonah warned when his lips came to the wrap she kept around her breasts. Joe untucked one end of the wrap and began to unwind the long piece of white cloth from her body.
She shivered with anticipation when she saw Jonah’s hungry eyes, following her every movement and the look in his eyes reminded her of Clayton on Christmas morning while he unwrapped his present.
Joe removed the last of the wrap and dropped it to the ground, feeling her breath catch as Jonah simply stared at her breasts.
Joe felt a tingle of unease in her stomach… What was that? Doubt? Vanity? She was suddenly worried that her body would repulse him given the way her nipples had darkened, and stretch marked scars from her pregnancy now married her hips and breasts.
Joe didn’t like that feeling of vanity and so she quickly closed the short distance between their bodies, threw her arms around Jonah’s neck and pressed her naked torso against his.
“There ain’t a sight in this whole west any prettier than you, my Josephine.” Jonah whispered as he led her toward the bed. Joe didn’t want to admit it, and probably woudn’t, but those words sent a little thrill through her.
Then she let out a cry of shocked pleasure when Jonah tossed her down on the bed and lowered his mouth to her breasts. Joe buried her hands in his thick hair as he licked, nipped and teased at her tender flesh. Working her nipples into tight hardened peaks as she moved her hips beneath him, desperate for him to ease the throbbing ache between her legs.
Never stopping his assault on her breasts, Jonah reached down and slid off her boots, tossing them across the room, and then slid her pants down her long legs. Only then did his lips move from her nipples and trail down her trembling stomach.
Joe looked down at his tanned and calloused hands lying sprawled out against the soft, pale skin of her thighs.
“What are ya doin’, Jonah?” she gasped when she felt him press a kiss to the tender moist flesh between her thighs aching for his touch.
A smile was on his face as he raised his head and looked at her. She took in the sight of those crinkled cheeks and sparkling gray eyes and knew she’d never see anything else as breathtakingly handsome as that sight.
“I’m taking care of my wife.” He replied huskily. He lowered his face again but stopped at the last moment, just before his lips brushed against her. “Would you like me to stop?”
Instead of replying, Joe thrust her hips up, and his rumbling chuckle faded as he began to lick, taste and tease her hungrily.
Joe gripped the sheets, tossing her head from side to side and moaning his name, calling it out while her hips worked against Jonah’s face.
More. More. More. She wanted more of him. All of him. Joe’s pleasure built and she felt that delicious tension building deep inside of her. It snapped all at once and she cried out Jonah’s name, her fingers tightening in his hair.
She was faintly aware of Jonah growling and just as she was coming down off of the high her climax had placed her in, Jonah came over her, bracing his arms on either side of her body. He put his lips against her neck and then Joe cried out again, digging her fingernails into his back when he thrust himself inside of her.
Joe whined a bit when Jonah stilled instantly and simply stayed like that. His cock buried deep inside of her and his face in her neck and hair.
“Jonah, are you okay?” Joe asked quietly.
“Yeah.” Came his muffled response, followed by a small sniff. Was he……crying?
Joe turned her head and forced the man to look at her and she saw that indeed his eyes were red and there was a dampness on his cheek.
“Jonah, what the devil is the matter with ya?” Joe demanded, kissing his tear away.
“Nothing…. You hurt me with those claws of yours.” He replied quickly and Joe shook her head.
“No I didn’t. Ya always liked it when I did that. Tell me the truth, Jonah.”
“I love you, Joe. I just love you and I never thought I’d be with you like this again. I never thought I’d feel myself inside of you. I never thought I’d hear you moaning my name… I don’t deserve you, Josephine.”
Joe swallowed hard. “See, I told ya that yer nothin’ but a big softie.” She teased, hoping to hide just how much his words had touched her. Jonah gazed into her eyes and smiled.
“I love you, Josephine.”
“I love you too.” She replied and then she gave him a wicked grin. She saw Jonah’s eyes widen with shock when she suddenly tossed him to the side, moving with him so that she was now on top and straddling him.
She felt his big hands close around her hips and begin to move her up and down as his eyes once again turned hungry.
Joe simply let her body take the ride and they both cried out together as they tumbled over the edge and collapsed in each other’s arms on the sweat slicked sheets.
They lay there a long time, Joe listening to the steady beat of Jonah’s heart as his hands trailed up and down her bare back and arm.
Joe glanced up at Jonah’s jaw and saw that it was tight and he seemed to be thinking hard about something as he stared at the wooden planks of the ceiling.
“What’s got them damned ol’ gears a spinnin’?” she asked and he laughed lightly.
“You have such a lady like way of asking questions.”
“It drives all the menfolk crazy.” She replied teasingly and she saw his jaw tighten even more. She smacked his arm. “Don’t ya dare! I’m sure you weren’t no monk the last five years!”
Joe had only been playing but suddenly Jonah was out of the bed and pacing the floor. She could tell he was upset but her eyes couldn’t help but admire his naked body.
“You’re right, I wasn’t. I was searching desperately for any woman who could help me forget, any woman who’s touch would make me forget yours, and I found out something that pissed me off.”
“What was that?” Joe asked as she propped herself up on her elbow and studied him.
“There wasn’t a damn woman who could do it.”
“If yer tryin’ to make me jealous…” Joe began and Jonah shook his head.
“Hell no I ain’t. You’re the one that brought this up! I don’t care if you’ve had other men, Joe… Okay so that’s a lie, it makes me damn territorial to think of you and another man, but I can’t very well say a word or get upset about it.”
“Then what were you getting so upset at while ya stared up at the ceiling a minute ago?”
Jonah swallowed hard and clenched his fists. “Bart and you and……”
Joe shook her head. “Come back to the bed, Jonah.” Jonah nodded and slid back into bed beside her. “Bart and I was friends, that was all.”
“It’s none of my business, Joe. You had every right to move on.”
“Ya can’t move on from yer soul mate, Jonah. It just don’t work. I’d done had the best, what need did I have fer the rest of them men out there?”
“So you and Bart never….”
Joe glared at him. “Here ya got me, Joe Redding-Winchester, spoutin’ pretty love words and yer still focused on Bart?!”
Jonah sighed. “Sorry, Joe. It’s not you that I’d be upset with. It’s just the thought of you and him together… Of him lying to keep us apart and then taking over my job as Clayton’s father and your…. Your lover… it makes me want to kill that man….” Joe kissed his lips to shut him up.
“I love you, Jonah. Only ever you. There has never been any other man that’s had me the way you have, Jonah. Bart and I was friends. Only friends. And he either slept in the barn or on the sofa anytime he stayed with me and Clayton.”
Joe shook her head when Jonah all but sagged with relief next to her. “And I’ll try not to feel too jealous ‘bout all them other women ya’ve had.”
“It was only ever you in my heart, Joe.”
“I know.” Joe replied honestly as she kissed his jaw. “But I don’t share so from now on be warned…. If’n ya ever touch another woman with what’s mine, I’ll remove whichever part of yer body touched her.”
Jonah chuckled as he held her close and kissed her hair. “Yes ma’am.”