“You want me to do what?” Jake asked, although he had heard her perfectly well.
‘Teach me to shoot,” she repeated.
“That’s what I thought you said.” Suspicion sharpened his mind, tightened his muscles. “Why?”
Laura lifted her slim shoulders in a light shrug. “Well, I’ve been thinking for some time now about getting instruction on the proper handling of a handgun, because of the prevailing conditions today, you know.”
Jake refrained from reminding her that he did not, in fact, know. Instead, frowning, he asked, “The streets back East are dangerous for a woman?”
“Not just for women, but for men, too, and even children.” She grimaced. “Come to think of it, I could probably make good use of the proper handling of a weapon out here.”
“How?” he demanded, his suspicion growing. “In what way?”
“Self-protection,” Laura said. “I get nervous every time I step outside the door.” She gave him a self-deprecating look. “Though I know it’s irrational, and I hate to admit it, I’m afraid of snakes.”
Snakes! Jake resisted an urge to laugh, and gave her request serious consideration. He didn’t’ trust her, though he strongly wished he could. Damn. Why did she have to be so innocent-looking, so pretty, so appealing?
“Will you teach me, Jake?” she said with quiet, beguiling entreaty. “Please?”
Jake fought the plea on her full, moist lips, in her soft eyes. Then he gave in, simply because he wanted to. The mere prospect of being close to Laura, touching her satiny flesh while he instructed her in the correct handling of the Peacemaker, sent a lightning bolt of excitement streaking through him.
“Okay, I’ll teach you.” His voice was rough-edged and abrupt in response to the conflict churning inside him.
“When?” Her voice was eager, her smile devastating.
Jake swallowed a sigh of surrender. “Tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” Laura’s smile challenged the summer sunlight for brilliance. “What time?”
“Right after I finish the morning chores.”
Which, Jake silently acknowledged, had been requiring less and less time as his herd had dwindled. The need to sell off two more horses had sent him to Virginia City the previous week. He only hoped he could hang on until the gold petered out in the hills around Sage Flats and the shanty town’s ruffians drifted away in search of greener pastures. If he couldn’t mine that rich vein of gold on his own property, and soon, Jake knew he would not only lose the few remaining horses, but his land as well.
* * * *
Jake didn’t dawdle with his chores the next day, or bide his time and struggle against temptation, as he had ever since Laura’s arrival.
“We can begin your lessons as soon as you’re done there,” he said, ambling across the yard to her.
Laura looked up from the laundry she was pegging to the wash line strung close to the back of the house, and her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re finished ... already?”
“Yeah,” he said, not about to offer an explanation. “You almost done there?”
“This is the last of it,” she said, bending to pull two flimsy pieces of underwear—just two of the temptations tormenting Jake—from the wicker basket at her feet. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”
“I’ll get the Colts,” he said raggedly, turning his back to her.
“Colts?” Her voice stopped him in mid-stride. “As in more than one gun?”
“Yes.” He shot her a wry look over his shoulder. “I’m not letting you play around with my special issue. I have an old Navy Peacemaker you can practice with.”
That afternoon Laura proved to be a fast learner—much to Jake’s disappointment. The first hour of her lesson had been sheer bliss ... and pure physical torture.
Standing behind her, his body molded to hers, his right arm stretched alongside hers, his hand curled around hers as she gripped the smooth gun handle, had created a riot of sensations inside Jake’s body the likes of which he had never before experienced.
It was both thrilling and disheartening. Thrilling, because he could feel Laura’s involuntary response to his nearness, the fine tremor that quivered down her spine, her derriere, her long legs. And disheartening because he still couldn’t trust her, couldn’t accept the truth of her incredible claim of coming from the twenty first century.
Even so, Jake felt sharp disappointment when he moved away from her sweetly curved body to allow her to practice aiming and firing on her own.
When he called a halt after two hours, Jake was surprised at how well Laura had done. In all truth, he was amazed at her accuracy in hitting most of the targets he had set up.
“Well done,” he praised her. “But that’s enough for one day. Your arm’s gotta be getting tired.”
“A little,” she admitted, turning the pistol to hand it to him handle first. “It was fun. Can you believe I hit almost all of those targets?”
“I suppose I must believe what I see with my own eyes,” he said teasingly, suddenly feeling light-hearted, and more relaxed than he had in years. “I’d better be careful. A little more practice and you’ll outshoot me.”
Laura laughed in delight, sending his spirits soaring. She was so darned pretty. Swallowing with difficulty, he turned back to the house.
“Jake, wait,” she said, reaching out to grasp his arm, causing the skin beneath his shirt to quiver and prickle, exactly as it had the evening she had reached across the supper table to cover his hand with hers. “There’s a cluster of plants I’d like to examine near the far end of the corral...” She paused, then rushed on, sounding both breathless and anxious. ‘‘Will you walk over there with me?”
Jake hesitated, fighting his raging desire to be with her, and his nagging fear of the impact on his already diminishing self-control.
Uncertainty and trepidation were new and unwelcome emotions for him. His impatience with his apparent weakness settled the issue.
“Okay,” he drawled. He gave her a crooked smile as he turned to walk beside her to the corner corral post. “Let’s have a look.”
By the time they returned to the house hours later, Jake was struggling with an even larger inner battle. He and Laura had laughed and talked together as if they had known each other for years... forever. He had even agreed to her last request to teach her to ride. But what bothered him most was the realization that Laura actually did know about plants, in many instances more than he himself knew, and he had spent his entire life on the ranch. The fact that she was so knowledgeable caused him to question his doubts concerning her explanation as to how and why she had fallen into his mine shaft.