Perfecting Amanda, page 4
“What has your friend done that’s so wonderful?” Amanda felt protective of Travis and annoyed with the man who had made him doubt his life.
“My friend travels all over. He’s been across the country, ocean to ocean.”
“What does he do for a living?”
Travis shrugged. “Lots of things. He’s a bit of a maverick, a gambler, occasionally a salesman and sometimes a thief.”
“He sounds like a very unpleasant character. How do you know him?”
“Went to school together. But I stayed put in Reederville and he took off. After listening to his tales of life on the road, it made me wonder what I’ve missed by staying home.”
She reached up and caressed his cheek. “He’s probably somewhere thinking the opposite, wondering what his life would be like if he’d made a home and put down roots.”
A quick grimace of a smile twisted his lips. “I guess so. Something to be said for hearth and home, I suppose.”
“And family. Now we have each other and someday, children.” Amanda combed her fingers through the fine strands of his hair. “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Spencer.” Travis inclined his head to kiss her lips then whispered,
“You’re right. He’s probably wishing right now that he had a sweet woman like you for a wife and a place to come home to every night.” Amanda smiled. Whatever doubts she’d felt while waiting at the train station wondering if he was going to arrive, were gone. The rosy picture
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she’d painted in her mind of the rest of her life was firmly back in place.
She couldn’t wait to go to the farm and start her new life.
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Chapter Three
As he lay with Amanda and listened to her talk of her hopes and dreams for their future, Spence felt a strange, twisting sensation in his gut. Must be something he’d eaten earlier.
“I’ve never lived on a farm,” she confided. “But I can cook and keep house and I’m sure I can learn to do farm chores if you show me what needs to be done.”
“It’s not hard. Eggs to gather and a garden to hoe, that kind of thing.” Spence pushed a long hank of her hair off her breast, revealing its generous curve, and molded his hand around it. The woman had a gorgeous body. The idea of it being hidden in shapeless housedresses while she lived out her days on some dreary Kansas farm made him sick.
What a waste! What in the world had brought her and this Baxter fellow together? He was dying to know, but there was no way he could ask.
“I’m looking forward to it. I want to make our home perfect.” Her eyes were bright and shining as she gazed up at him. Good God, were those tears in her eyes?
“Our home doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to have you in it,” he said.
She smiled, a dimple appearing in each flushed cheek. There was a pause then she added, “The truth is I love my aunt and uncle and all my cousins, but I’ve always wanted my own home, a place that belongs just to me and a house and family of my own to care for. Does that sound selfish?”
“No. Isn’t that what all women want?” Spence thought of the many women he’d known. Feathering a nest seemed to be built into them.
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“I guess so.” She shrugged and her tit rose and fell in his hand.
He squeezed it lightly, his cock stiffening. He might be ready for round two soon. “Are you hungry? I could order room service.” Better not to sit with Amanda in the dining room when the real Travis might be searching hotels for her even now. Spence felt pretty safe since he’d signed into the registry under a fake name. The concierge wouldn’t volunteer the fact that a red-haired woman had checked into the hotel with a Mr. Smith. It was the man’s business to be discreet.
“Are you sure? Isn’t room service expensive?” Amanda’s eyebrows rose.
He wanted to lean down and bite one. There was something about the arch of a woman’s brow that aroused him. “This is our honeymoon. Don’t worry about the expense. Now, what would you like?”
“Nothing, thank you. Although I am thirsty.”
“Your wish is my command, princess.” Spence climbed from the bed and brought back a glass of water filled from the pitcher on the stand in the corner of the room. It was tepid, but Amanda drank deeply. “Better?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
He settled beside her again, tossing the rumpled sheet over the foot of the bed so they lay naked. The sweat on their skin dried in the slight breeze coming in the window. He fell into an almost hypnotic trance, listening to the quiet breathing of the woman lying next to him.
Suddenly Amanda broke the silence. “Travis, I’m glad we didn’t wait.”
“Me, too.” He smiled, his ego stroked by her shy admission, but he wished she wouldn’t call him that name.
There was hesitation in her voice as she added, “I know we scarcely know one other despite all our letters, but I feel…I believe…I love you.” Spence felt his tongue and brain go numb. “Me, too,” he whispered.
He wanted to leap off the bed and run. This was not supposed to happen.
Amanda had just effectively sucked the fun out of his afternoon’s entertainment.
She rolled onto her side to face him. “Shall we do it again?”
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“Absolutely.” He couldn’t deny such a request coming from her sweet, earnest, kissable lips. He reached for her luscious body once more. There was no need to let a little guilt ruin a perfectly good sexual encounter.
“Roll over and we’ll try something different.” Amanda’s pretty eyebrows drew together, but she complied.
Spence spooned her, wrapping an arm around her and reaching down to caress her pussy. It was wet and sticky with their combined juices. He delved inside and stroked his fingers in and out then moved them up to caress the wonderful magic button that put a woman under a man’s spell. He’d been taught young how to please a female by a woman who lived up the mountain by his home. It had proved one of the most useful lessons he’d ever learned. A man could make any woman open like a flower and shower him with petals if he treated her right.
Amanda pushed into his hand, moaning softly.
He stroked her clit while rubbing his cock between the soft globes of her ass. He kissed the crook of her neck then bit down on it lightly.
Taking a woman from behind was one of his favorite positions.
Something about the vulnerability of her neck and shoulder made him rock hard. Besides, he didn’t want to look into Amanda’s face when they fucked this time. Her big, hazel eyes magnified that twisted feeling in his gut.
After massaging her clit for a while and pressing his erection into her softness, Spence decided he would treat the woman to something her bohunk farmer would likely never give her in their entire married life.
“Lie on your back,” he told her, kissing her shoulder. “Trust me. I’m going to do something that feels really good.” Amanda rolled over and watched curiously as he moved down, positioning himself between her legs. He ran his hands up and down her inner thighs, moving higher each time to acclimate her to his presence there then he kissed her near the juncture of her leg and torso. When he looked up, her eyes were wide and shocked. She reached out toward him in a warding gesture. “Oh! I…”
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“It’s all right.” He kept his voice low and soothing. “Don’t hide yourself from me.” Parting her thighs, he revealed the plump pink folds of her sex. Brushing his fingers through her ginger curls, he touched her clit to remind her of how much pleasure he could give her. “Relax and trust me.”
Her thighs quivered, but she dropped her hands to the bed and lay still, waiting.
He lowered his mouth to her pussy and licked it. Their combined essences were earthy and strong, but he liked the flavor. He lapped up the length of her slit very slowly with a broad sweep of his tongue then placed a chaste kiss on her erect clitoris, peeping from its red hood.
Amanda cried out and her body jerked beneath his restraining hands.
Spence smiled inside. Mm, how he loved what he could do to a woman with just his mouth. He licked the little bud once then turned his attention to torturing her until she begged for him. Kissing all around her pubic mound and nipping at the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs, he touched her everywhere except her clit. Separating her folds with his fingers, he tongue-bathed her genitals, moving down to delve as deeply as he could inside her body.
She squirmed and writhed on the bed, whimpering with need. Lifting her hips, she offered herself to him. “Oh, please.” He relented and covered her clit with his mouth, sucking gently. She was so worked up she cried out from the touch. He licked her bud over and over, holding her legs to the bed, while she struggled to rise. When he was sure she was on the verge of coming, he let go of her body and she bucked into the air.
Amanda arched off the bed like a contortionist he’d seen in a traveling carnival one time. The unexpected release of his hands made her rocket upward, almost knocking him off of her. He continued to apply inexorable pressure with his tongue, while she cried out and shook.
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He watched her face. Her full lips parted as she gasped for air, her eyes closed in ecstasy. There was nothing more beautiful than a woman enjoying an orgasm.
Finally her eyes opened and she looked down at him lying between her legs. “Oh, that was…” She trailed off, unable to come up with sufficient words. “Thank you.”
Spence kissed her belly then crawled up her body, turning her to resume his position behind her. He was ready now, more than ready, to take her again. Guiding his cock to her entrance, he drove inside.
Amanda didn’t flinch or cry out this time. Her softened body accepted him easily as he slid deep into her.
He groaned at the wonderful feeling of hot, wet flesh surrounding his aching shaft like a sucking mouth. He moved in and out, his body curved around her back. His groin slapped against the round curve of her buttocks. His hand gripped her breast.
Spence closed his eyes and pumped hard, as desire rose in him like mounting stakes in a poker game. The tension was irresistible. He was less gentle this time, holding her tight and thrusting fast and deep, claiming her completely.
But when she moaned it was with arousal not pain and after she caught his rhythm, she pushed back onto his cock, meeting every thrust.
The woman was a natural. Imagine how good she could become given time and tutoring. If she was his woman, he’d teach her to be uninhibited and express every secret sexual desire she held locked inside her.
Spence came with a growl of fulfillment that reverberated deep within his chest. He embraced the woman and spent his seed inside her in strong bursts. Surrendering to his orgasm, he gasped with relief. “Jesus!” he mouthed soundlessly against her nape, breathing in the delicious scent of her warm skin.
He’d experienced powerful orgasms before many times. This was no different than dozens of other times he’d shuddered against a woman’s body, releasing tension then moving on with his life. But there was
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something about this day, this moment…this particular woman, which shook him to the core. An irrational burst of emotion burst in him. He felt like laughing and crying at the same time. What the fuck?
He kissed between her shoulder blades then nuzzled her neck and hugged her body tightly to him again. Looking across the partial profile of her face, the curving cheek and jaw, the tilted tip of her nose and swell of her lips, Spence knew it was time for him to go. This deception had been fun, but it was time to end it before the real fiancé came bursting in and stabbed him with a pitchfork. Spence was playing with fire the longer he played the role of Farmer Travis.
He would leave now. He would say he needed to relieve himself then get dressed and walk out of the room and the hotel, catching the next train bound for anywhere.
Yawning and stretching, he nestled closer to Amanda’s soft body. He would leave in a moment…after he took a short nap.
Spence woke before dawn with his arms full of warm, fragrant woman. The arm that was crushed beneath her body was numb, but other than that he felt great—really great. He breathed in the scent of Amanda’s hair, sweet soap and human oils. It tumbled soft and red over her shoulder and his arm. If he lay with her another hour, the morning sun would light her hair like a flame, but he must leave before he got caught in his little game.
He hugged her then slipped his arm from beneath her and crept from the bed. He picked up his discarded clothes and put them on, before looking over at the bed once more.
Amanda hadn’t moved. Her eyelashes rested against her pale cheeks in two soft crescents. Her bowed upper lip and full lower one made her look like a china doll, a beautiful, seductive china doll. The bedcovers were draped over her waist leaving her upper half a nude, white statue.
Both her arms were curled up toward her chest so he could only catch
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glimpses of her breasts. She was a goddess and he longed to take her one last time, but it was impossible.
What would it be like to have a woman like that to wake to every morning of his life? Would Baxter even appreciate her? For one brief moment, Spence imagined himself a different sort of man, the kind who settled for hearth and home then he snorted at the ridiculous image and turned away.
He stopped again, picturing Amanda’s dismay on waking and finding him gone, imagining her horror when her fiancé finally showed—if he showed—and Spence’s deception was revealed. He hadn’t intended to care. His only aim yesterday had been to have a little fun and move on, but now he wanted to at least let Amanda know how much he’d enjoyed the time spent with her.
Spence tore the front page from the Gideon Bible on the dresser, searched Amanda’s handbag until he found a pencil and jotted a message for her. He set the note on the pillow beside her, hesitated another moment watching her shoulder rise and fall with each breath then left the room.
Down on the first floor was the room he’d rented under his own name. There he quickly packed his valise and steamer trunk. He traveled light. His life was engineered to be fluid. That was the way he wanted it—
nothing to keep him rooted to one spot, to tie him down in chains of responsibility that would eventually choke the life out of him like they had his father. But that morning, as he walked out of the hotel into the gray day, he felt another sharp pain in his gut.
Fuck me! Is this guilt or do I just need to get some breakfast? “Get a hold of yourself,” he muttered. He crossed the street and walked to the train station. The agent took his money and pushed a ticket toward him then Spence stood beside his baggage waiting for the early train to arrive.
The platform was empty and the wind whistled down the tracks, driving dust before it. The grains stung Spence’s face as he bounced on his heels, gazing up the rails, yearning to be on the move again, to leave this uncomfortable, unfamiliar anxiety behind. He hardly registered the
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sound of boot heels on the board walkway behind him, until he heard a man’s raised voice at the ticket window.
“…Amanda McCormick. She would have arrived on the 3:45
yesterday. You don’t remember a woman waiting here?”
“Sorry, sir. I wasn’t here at that time yesterday. But there’s a pile of bags in back storage room. Likely your lady friend gave up waiting and went to a hotel.”
“Of course. I’ll go check the hotels. If she comes back, will you please tell her that Travis Baxter is looking for her? Tell her to wait here.” The man sounded exhausted and upset.
“Yes, sir.”
Spence listened to Baxter’s boot heels marking a steady rhythm on the boardwalk as he walked away. He didn’t turn to look at the man he’d spent the night pretending to be, not wanting to see who Amanda was really getting for a husband. He strained to hear the whistle of the inbound train. God, he needed it to be on time before all hell broke loose!
He was lucky, as usual. As if at his command, the scream of a whistle broke the stillness, a plume of smoke rose above a stand of trees and the locomotive rounded the bend. He’d never seen such a beautiful sight as that engine, belching steam from its tall, black stack. It pulled up before the station with a harsh squeal of brakes and he leaped onto the steps almost before it stopped and thrust his ticket at the conductor.
The man examined and punched it.
Spence walked to the back of the car, stowed his luggage and took a seat. As the minutes of the train’s stop ticked by, he stared out the window searching for any sign of Amanda or the real Travis Baxter.
Tapping his fingers nervously on his thigh, he prayed the woman had sense enough to keep their interlude a secret. If she kept quiet, her fiancé would never be any the wiser.
On the other hand, Spence might very well see an irate farmer steaming toward the depot at any moment.
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Not until the conductor called, “All aboard,” and the train jerked forward, did he feel safe. As the depot slid away and Kansas City receded from view, he relaxed back into his seat with a sigh.
Stupid game. Why do I do things like that? He shook his head at his own folly, the games of chance he enjoyed too much, the heightened sense of being alive that a near miss gave him. But, damn, that woman had felt good. It really was worth it.
He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering her smell, her soft body, her bright hair and feeling a little melancholy that he had to leave her behind. The train racketed along the tracks, swaying from side to side. He fell into a trance, fantasizing what his life as Travis Baxter would have been like if he could have taken the other man’s place permanently—sex and breakfast every morning, supper and sex every night, a lot of plowing and planting in between. Hm, it just didn’t sound like him.
