Salvation's Secrets (The Loflin Legacy Prequel) Read online

  She nodded. The breath leaving her body held anticipation and hesitancy. “I want you to show me Seth Loflin for I have chosen you.”

  The way she said the words caused him to falter. He blinked, not completely sure he understood. She’d chosen him. In the way of the Comanche, she wanted him. He hesitated. “What was he doing?” Seth dropped his head. The soft scent of her femaleness drove new desire through him like the opening of a floodgate. “I promise, I’ll be gentle. I want you to enjoy the moment, not remember your first time with pain.”

  She blinked and reached out to his face. “Love me, please. I want you.”

  Torn by her words and the knowledge of what occurred to a virgin, he swallowed hard and rose to kiss her lips. “I will. Relax and let me show you the special secrets lovers share.” A pang of guilt traveled through his gut. Worried she’d realize too late she’d made a mistake, he tried again. “Are you sure you want to do this? You know I can’t stop all the discomfort of your first coupling, right?”

  Nodding, she threaded her fingers through his hair. “I know. I’ve thought of nothing else except you since you saw me on the creek bank.” Laying a hand over her belly, she gazed back into his face. “There’s a burning need here whenever you’re near. This hasn’t happened before with others. The medicine woman says I desire you as a mate.”

  He gulped air in a long slow intake. She’d sought the advice of the most important woman among the tribe’s many important allies. Did her father know her feelings? Most likely, the woman had shared the information with him in secret. Lone Eagle smiled at him, offered to smoke the peace pipe with him and invited him to hunt with them, not to mention, share their food in the family tent. Perhaps, he worried needlessly. Perhaps, her father accepted him. Still, the queasiness reared up again as he thought of taking the chief’s daughter in the most base of ways.

  She sighed and her head fell back in his hold. The smooth, silky skin of her throat invited his mouth to taste her pleasures and savor in her hunger for love. “I want to be with you more than is proper or safe. Are you aware of the dangers?”

  “Yes, oh, yes. Take me, Seth Loflin, take me, now.”

  Something told him to stop, to get up and run and don’t look back. He shut his eyes and shoved the warning to the dark depths of his reason as he buried his face in the nap of her neck. “God, you smell good. I’ve died and gone to heaven, if there is one.” He glanced at her face, the smile giving way to a tender laugh as she turned to him to stare.

  “Why do you wait. I’m yours to have and you wait. Do you not find me pretty?”

  “No, no, nothing like that, Little One.” He favored her Comanche name on his tongue. It rolled off easy and sweet. “You mistake my concern for the wrong thing. Hold me and remind me I’m the one you want too. I’ll forget soon enough if you hold me.”

  She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down to kiss her lips before opening her mouth and massaging his tongue with hers. “You are the one I want, Seth. You are the one.”

  He caressed her breast, his work roughened hand sliding over firm flesh, reminding him of the need burning inside him. “You’re beautiful, like a lily floating on the water’s surface.” Pressing his erection against her thigh, she moaned and he made up his mind. This all-consuming hunger didn’t need an explanation. With as much skill as he possessed, Seth lowered himself between her legs, slipping his cock into the heat. Warm and wet, her woman’s flesh enveloped him. Her hips moved in response. Within seconds, the thin barrier of her virginity gave to his lusty thrust. Her eyes closed as the pain came and went. When she looked at him again the veal of passion’s arousal claimed her features. Her legs wrapped him from behind as he plunged deeper, quickening the pace with her encouragement. No dream he’d ever encountered prepared him for the sheer bliss of being inside her. Here he wanted to stay. Here he wanted to remain forever. Too soon, her urgent pleas for release had him driving to a climax. Spilling his seed in her, she cried out as she fell like the water tumbling over the edge of the cliff.

  ***

  The sun broke free of the cloud cover at dawn. Seth slipped past the kitchen and eased into his room without a sound. Thank God, his father wasn’t home. His Choctaw wife probably kept him busy in her little house down by the creek. Seth liked Running Deer, she was Tyron’s mother after all. She refused to set foot in Laura’s house, saying Laura’s spirit still lived there. Running Deer hadn’t crossed the threshold since Earl brought her to Shooter Creek after she gave birth to Tyron.

  Dreaming of a long soak in the hip tub, Seth eased into his room and rang the bell for the boys to bring water. He’d no more than kicked out of his pants when Charles strode in like he owned the place.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Standing inside the door, he jammed his fists in his front pockets and waited. When Seth didn’t answer, Charles strode over, yanking him around to face his scowl. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

  “No, what have I done, old man?” Seth’s snide use of the name Charles saved for him didn’t set well with the elder man. “I didn’t know you could be so stupid. You certainly aren’t thinking with the right head.”

  Seth cut a cool sneer at his antagonist. “Like you do.”

  “I’ve got better sense than to sleep with the enemy’s daughter.”

  “She’s not the enemy’s daughter. Lone Eagle isn’t the enemy. He comes to hunt – in peace, remember?”

  “Yeah, when did you start believing everything an Injun said?”

  Yanking up the collar of the taller cowboy, Seth got up in his face. “Be careful, old man. You’re poking at things that don’t need your attention.” Releasing him, Seth gave him a shove and turned his back on Charles.

  “I’m not talking about Ty or his maw. I’m talking about you sniffing around a chief’s daughter and starting an Injun war, that’s what I’m talking about.”

  “There won’t be a war. Not if I can help it. Let it go, damn it.” He waved his long arm at Charles in dismissal before striding to the tub. The water boys had slipped in and out as if nothing of consequence was transpiring in Seth’s room. He turned, giving Charles a cold stare. “I don’t go reminding you of what a fool you are, do I?”

  “Fuck you, Seth. You don’t give a rat’s ass about anybody but yourself. Never have and never will. This could cause big problems. You just don’t care, do you?”

  “Take it back!” He strode back, giving the dark haired man another shove. Take it back or else.”

  “Or else, what?” The grit in Charles tone bode ill. “You gonna do something about my opinion, huh? Is that what you’re saying, old man?”

  Lights flashed in front of Seth’s eyes. His vision filled with a red haze as he swung out. The blow caught Charles under the jaw, sending him backward and into the wall. The thud was loud. Feet racing away from the door sounded down the hall in echoes.

  Rebounding, Charles blocked Seth’s next blow and delivered one of his own to Seth’s midsection.

  Bent double, Seth wheezed. With enough air to be dangerous, he didn’t straighten, but rather charged forward, tackling Charles around the waist and sending both of them sprawling on the floor. With the advantage now, he drew back intent on drawing blood.

  The door to his room opened with a flurry of jolts and bangs against the wall.

  “What the hell’s going on here?” Earl Loflin stood in the doorway, feet braced, ready to quell the fire brewing between the two. “I said stop it!” With large beefy hands on both boys, he pulled, sending Seth stumbling backward against the tub. Glowering at Charles sprawled in the floor with blood running from a cut lip, Earl snarled. “You two don’t have anything better to do than fight? Huh? Well, I got an answer for that.” He pinned Seth with a chilly stare. “You got muck duty tomorrow until all the barn stalls are clean. Then you can start on mending the hog pen. When you’re through with that, there’s brush to burn.” Turning to Charles, his mouth set in a thin line. “I don’t want to hear another peep out o
f either one of you, is that clear?” Wagging a finger in Seth’s face, he firmed his jaw. “You can’t seem to understand, can you? You’re a grown fucking man acting like a whining brat still sucking tit. I’m not putting up with anymore of this. Do I make myself clear? One more problem and I’m shipping you off to school.” With the flat of his hand, he shoved Seth aside as he turned to leave. “Get this mess cleaned up.” With that, Earl disappeared, slamming the door in his wake.

  Each of them starred at the other. Breath came in hard pulls as Seth forced his temper under control. “You got no right telling me I’m wrong. Not when you hire out to any bastard with a dollar and kill men simply because.”

  “Fuck you, Seth. You don’t understand the reason I do what I do any more than Father Samuel does. If you think you’re not starting a shit-storm, then I pity you, brother. I really do.” Wiping his lip, he looked at the blood on his hand. “I gotta get outta here.” Wheeling, he left Seth standing there trying to figure out what he meant.

  Chapter 3

  Charles saddled his horse and left the ranch house in record time. He needed space. The pressure of living in the Loflin household always reminded him of his own old man, the man he’d killed when he was only fifteen. Maggie quietly assured him that he had no choice – the bastard needed killing. Still, he’d never forget the blank stare in his paw’s eyes when he’d come to and discovered he’d buried a hay hook between his paw’s shoulder blades. Forcing the pain from the beatings to the back corners of his mind, Charles managed to harbor guilt for what he’d done to survive. Earl said he should face up to the truth. He’d done what he had to do – what needed doing. Charles still wished there’d been a better way. His debt to Earl Loflin was long. If it hadn’t been for Earl, he’d have already died at the end of a gun. As it was, he tempted fate on a regular basis without Earl knowing.

  A horse snorted.

  He glanced up to see Jake long riding in his direction.

  “Planning on disappearing again?” Jake, the Shooter Creek foreman, pulled up and dropped the reins over the saddle horn.

  “No, I just needed some space, that’s all.” Charles worked on remaining civil to the man he looked up to more than most. “I just got a lot on my mind is all.”

  “Would have anything to do with Seth spending the night with the Comanche half-breed now would it?” His eyes, squint in the sunlight peered at Charles from under his Stetson. “I can tell you didn’t know I knew ‘bout that.” His chin jutted as he stared out over the horse’s ears at the view from one of the bluffs dotting Shooter Creek land.

  “He’s gonna get hurt. I can’t get him to understand, she ain’t like us. She’s part Comanche, which makes her dangerous. You should’ve seen the way her cousin, Red Bear eyed us when I followed him out there to visit.” Charles shook his head. “Hell, Seth’s sees his trips out there as a Sunday social. He can’t see any of the danger. All he sees is her.”

  “Yeah, that’s the way his paw was with Running Deer, Tyron’s maw. He courted her like a white woman, sending presents and inviting her to take buggy rides and the like.” Jake huffed out a laugh. “It didn’t matter she was Injun.”

  “She’s not Comanche either, Jake. The trouble with the Comanche could just as easily be right here in east Texas as it is further west of here. Seth don’t see that.”

  “Charles, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, you can’t change a Loflin’s mind once it’s made up. You just gotta be ready for the fall out.” He winked at him before tugging on the reins. “Come on, there’s mucking needs doing or I’m in trouble too.”

  Turning to follow, Charles considered the elder cowboy’s words. Jake had signed on when Earl made his first land claim back in ’32. He’d fought with Earl and figured he’d work with him after they mustered out of the Army together. Hard living and straight shooting, he spoke the truth and never cheated a man or at cards. Charles couldn’t lay claim to either of those traits yet he admired Jake simply for being somebody you could depend on to steer you straight no matter what.

  They rode companionably without the need for words, each comfortable with the other’s company.

  “You planning on taking out those rustlers over at the Triple M?” Jake eyed him coolly beneath the shade of his Stetson.

  “I’m thinking on it, why?”

  Jake shrugged his shoulders. “Just wondering is all. It’s a hard job for one man.”

  “It’s the way I work – alone.”

  “Yeah, well…suit yourself. I don’t suppose you’ve considered what Earl’s gonna have to say ‘bout you still gun slinging, have ya?”

  “Don’t start on me, Jake. Seth’s been riding me hard already.” Turning away to stare hard at the side of the road, Charles sighed. “Not much I can do about the trouble I’m in except keep paying the debt.”

  “If you’d ask Earl, he’d help you. You know that, right?”

  “Can’t, Jake. I can’t. I’m already beholden’ to him enough. I’ll never be able to repay all he’s done for me as it is.”

  “Sometimes, it ain’t about repayment, it’s about gratitude.”

  Charles cut a bemused eye at Jake rather than ask what the hell the elder cowboy meant. The statement would be all he’d get out of the ranch foreman. They continued back to the barn in silence.

  ***

  “You going somewhere?” Maggie beat the bread dough into submission as she listened to the footsteps headed down the hall.

  “Yeah, I gotta hot poker game to get in on. Why?” Hating the defensiveness in his words, Seth made a point of settling a kiss on the housekeeper’s cheek before he snagged a pear from the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table. The woman who’d run Shooter Creek Ranch house singlehandedly for more than eight years since the death of his maw was a no no-nonsense woman and he loved her. She’d been the glue holding the family together and shored up the edges when his world had fallen apart the evening of July 20th,1838. The baby had been still born and Laura Loflin bled to death following the birth. He didn’t want to think on what happened in the days following his maw’s death. Earl locked himself in the room with her body and it took Jake, Maggie, Charlie and Father Samuel to convince him to bury his wife. Though he’d only been ten at the time, Seth overheard them. They’d talked of how Earl didn’t want to see the baby girl’s body. He told them to, “Get rid of the thing.” He’d stood on the hill in the graveyard next to the newly dug grave of his mother and the smaller grave for his sister. It seemed cruel not to grieve for her as well as his maw. The tiny little thing hadn’t deserved the hatred Earl harbored for her. Over the years, Seth visited the graves from time to time. Wondering what it might have been like to have a sister, he figured she’d been blessed to have left the world rather than bear witness to Earl’s demented nature.

  “You’re my girl, Maggie. Gotta run.”

  “All right, Seth but take care.”

  “You know me, Maggie, always.”

  He breezed past her and out the back door, only glancing at the garden and chicken coup. A pang of guilt slapped him back a step when the reminder of where he headed nudged his conscious. “Don’t go brooding over things. Nothing’s gonna happen tonight.” Whistling for Sarge, Seth leapt into the saddle when the bay trotted to the barn door. Already saddled and waiting, he paused only a minute as his younger brother, Tyron appeared in the same door. “Did you saddle him all by yourself?”

  Ty nodded with an easy grin on his handsome face. The young boy’s features resembled his Choctaw mother’s heritage so much; it proved hard to find any of Earl in Ty’s face. Seth loved him though and found solace in a younger brother to look up to him.

  “I’ll bring you back a surprise, all right? Now, remember, I’m playing cards.” Winking, Seth smiled openly. Finding it necessary to include Ty in his lies bothered Seth for a few minutes before he shoved the scheme to the back of his mind and focused instead on who waited for him behind the waterfall on the bluff.

  ***

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sp; An owl hooted above them in the trees. He led the way. “Here, let me take your hand.” Ducking under the water, he rushed through with her in tow. Laughter filled the small space. “Celia, you’re cold. I need to warm you up. Seth’s hands traveled over her back and arms. Celia shivered, leaning into him accepting of his warmth. “Does your father know you’re here?”

  She raised her eyes to his. “No, Broken Horse is the only one who knows I’m here.”

  “Ah, Broken Horse.” Seth gathered her close, allowing his arms to wrap around her. “I owe him for this.” Nuzzling her neck, he eased down on the rock slab, serving as their lovers’ hideaway. “Better?”

  “Yes. I’m happy to see you.” Tilting her head, she smiled for him. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling against his length.

  Her innocent movements warmed his blood and did queer things to his senses. “Sit down. There’s something I want to give you.” He pulled a rose from his vest pocket and handed the flower to her.

  Her eyes lit with pleasure. Her mouth opened on an exclamation. “It’s lovely. Where did you get such a beautiful flower?” Burying her nose in the flower’s center, she smiled again as her eyes drifted shut with the scent.

  “I stole it from Maggie’s garden.”

  Her eyes grew enormous. “Oh, no, you shouldn’t have.” Her hand rested on his forearm.

  He laughed from deep in his throat. “No, silly. That’s a euphemism for took. Don’t worry, she has plenty. Besides, she doesn’t mind if I take one for my best girl.”