“Why not? I run the mine. I just struck a new vein of gold that’ll make your pa even richer. You could do worse than take up with me.”

  “No.”

  “Still carryin’ a torch for Thompson? Is that it?” Miles stepped closer, forcing Evangeline to back off. “Let me tell you something, missy. He’s dead. He ain’t comin’ back. Ever.”

  “I’m still in mourning for him, sir.” Evangeline began looking around, as if she wanted to bolt and run. Something in the woman caused her to stand her ground, in spite of Miles’s rubbing up against her now.

  “Let me help you forget him. It’ll be real nice for both of us. I promise.” He reached out to touch her cheek. Evangeline batted his hand away, then shoved him hard to get him at a more civil distance. She wasn’t strong enough to move him.

  “Stop!” Evangeline yelped when Miles grabbed her arms and pulled her in close for a kiss. Slocum reached for his six-gun, then remembered it was with the rest of his gear. He started to get around the boulder where he eavesdropped, then stopped.

  Evangeline had stepped closer, letting Miles think she was yielding to him. Instead, she got close enough to raise her knee into his groin with enough power to cause him to grunt.

  When he didn’t let go, she kneed him again. This time he stumbled back, giving her room to her kick out and connect with his knee. Trying to hold his crotch, with his knee gone out from under him, he fell to the dirt path.

  “You bitch,” he snarled. “You’ll be sorry. I—”

  “You overstep your bounds, Mr. Miles.” She was flushed and stood with her hands balled into fists. “I’ll have my papa fire you for this!”

  “He won’t believe you. He’ll think you made a play for me. You’ll only get yourself into trouble.”

  “You’re the only trouble I need to get rid of, sir!” she flared.

  Slocum thought she looked downright pretty. Her cheeks were flushed and her chin was set. Her shoulders were back and she looked as if she would go ten rounds with Miles in a bare-knuckles fight if need be. But Slocum would never allow it to come to that. He started around the boulder again, but Miles had already backed off. He muttered curses as he hobbled away, still clutching where Evangeline had kicked him.

  Evangeline swung about, her fists coming up as Slocum skidded down the hillside. She relaxed a little when she saw who it was.

  “Whoa,” Slocum said. “I don’t mean no harm. I thought you might need some help, but you handled yourself mighty well.”

  Evangeline lowered her hands and self-consciously smoothed nonexistent wrinkles from her gingham dress. She smiled wanly, looked in Miles’s direction, then back at Slocum.

  “Why, John, I do believe you were coming to my aid. How gallant of you.”

  “Not so gallant,” Slocum said. “I saw Miles hightail it down the path, spotted you, and then I decided I ought to eavesdrop.”

  “Indeed,” Evangeline said, but she sounded more intrigued than outraged at his behavior. “And why do you think you ought to spy on me?”

  “Not on you. Him.” Slocum jerked his thumb in the direction taken by the mine foreman. “He’s meaner than a stepped-on sidewinder.”

  “He’s Papa’s foreman,” she said.

  “That doesn’t make him any more likable.”

  “I wish you were foreman,” Evangeline said suddenly.

  “Or Thompson?”

  “Yes, or Tommy. He was a good man.” She fixed her bright blue eyes on him. “You have been nosing about, haven’t you, John?”

  “Not much else to do down in a mine other than swing a pick, breathe dust, and gossip.”

  “Somehow, I never thought of miners as a bunch of old women at a sewing bee,” she said. “Is that really what you talk about? My love life?”

  “Why not? You’re about the prettiest woman in Cripple Creek. There’s got to be some speculation about you and whoever you’re courting.”

  “Like Mr. Thompson?”

  “The name did crop up,” Slocum said.

  “Have you come to report on the matter I asked about, or were you only spying on me?”

  “Does it matter?”

  For a moment Evangeline was taken aback. Then she laughed.

  “You are quite assured of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “No reason to doubt myself,” Slocum said. “And I haven’t heard anything worth passing along about conditions in the mine, other than that there was a big strike today.”

  “You are modest, aren’t you, John? Who might it have been who blasted into a vein ten feet wide with a two-foot spread? Color in all the rock. The assayist says it might prove out better than thirty ounces to the ton.”

  “You are remarkably well informed.”

  “Perhaps I have taken an interest in you, as you seem to have in me.”

  “Your well-being,” Slocum said, “looked to be compromised by Miles. I was only doing what any man would.”

  “Spying on me?” Evangeline brushed back vagrant strands of her raven-dark hair, then moved her hands slowly across the top button on her dress. Slocum never saw how she unbuttoned it and showed just a tad more skin, but she did.

  “I can think of worse people to set and watch,” Slocum said.

  “Then please join me for some tea. I have a fresh pot brewed only this morning.”

  “Tea? I had some once. A British remittance man wouldn’t drink anything else until I rescued him by giving him some boiled trail coffee. After that he never touched tea again.”

  “I can always prepare some coffee, if you prefer something stronger.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Slocum said. “But would it be proper, you inviting me like this?”

  “Of course it is. Papa and Mama are home. What impropriety could there be?”

  Slocum laughed. When she joined him, he knew the same sort of impropriety was going through the lovely woman’s head as his. He dusted himself off a mite and then caught up with her.

  “Where’s your house?”

  “On the far side of the hill where the office is located,” she said. “See? We just take that path around the base and we’ll be there.”

  Slocum knew this was wrong. He had a thought he might tarnish the woman’s reputation if anyone saw them together, then pushed it out of his mind. She’d said her pa was home. Anyone seeing them would think they were going to see Morgan Haining and nothing more. He hoped. Slocum had taken quite a liking to Evangeline and didn’t want to do anything that would besmirch her standing in the community. All boomtowns were flush with two things: whiskey and gossip.

  The house was a modest one for a rich mine owner, but it fit with what Slocum thought about Morgan Haining— and his daughter. They were less inclined to flaunt their wealth than they were to use it for good. Slocum wondered what would be his share of the bonus for finding the gold vein—and a rich one at that, if the report from the assayist was accurate.

  “Hello!” she called. “Hello, anyone home?”

  Slocum hesitated at the doorstep. He listened hard for any sound in the house and heard nothing but the wood slowly settling.

  “Maybe I had better go,” he said. “It doesn’t look as if either of your folks is home.”

  “Nonsense,” Evangeline said firmly. “I promised you tea—or coffee—and you shall get it. Moreover, I want to hear what you have heard in the mine. Other than about me.”

  “Other?” Slocum grinned.

  Evangeline grinned back and added, “Perhaps after you have told me other news, then you can tell what the men think of me.”

  “Might not be to your liking. Miners can be a mite crude.”

  “I won’t mind . . . if you tell me.” Before he could say a word, she swung about, her skirts lifting high and showing an indecent amount of ankle and calf as she hurried from the parlor to the kitchen.

  “Oh, good,” she said. “There’s already coffee on the stove.”

  Slocum stood and shuffled his feet. He didn’t want to sit in any of the chairs because he would leave a patch of dust behind. After a long shift of blasting and digging furiously with a pickax, he was covered with fine rock dust. Even standing stock-still where he was left a small pile of soft white dust on the floor around his feet.

  He looked up when Evangeline returned. His eyes went a little wider because she had contrived to open three more buttons on her dress, giving him a delectable sight. The swell of her snowy white breasts bounced slightly as she moved. The dark-haired woman took no notice that her dress was coming undone, but Slocum couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  “Sugar?” she asked.

  “Black is fine. Black like your hair,” he said, moving forward. As she put the coffee down on a table, he reached out and slid his fingers through her silken hair. It flowed like water beneath his touch until his palm came to rest behind her head. They looked at each other for an instant, then Evangeline’s eyes half closed. Slocum kissed her. Or did she kiss him? The ardor in their kiss mounted until he was gasping for breath.

  “I shouldn’t do this,” he said.

  “No, you shouldn’t. Neither should I,” the woman said. She pushed him back a step. His heart hammered in his chest and his pants were getting uncomfortably tight, but he knew what was right. He had to leave.

  But he didn’t.

  He was frozen to the spot, watching Evangeline as she finished unbuttoning her dress until it hung open to the waist. She twisted this way and that, shrugged her shoulders, and got out of the obscuring fabric so that it hung about her hips. Then she was naked to the waist.

  Slocum licked his lips as he stared at her firm, apple-sized breasts. They were capped with bright pink nubs that grew visibly harder as he watched.

  “It’s hard to hide what you feel, isn’t it?” she said in a husky voice.

  “I see something that I want,” he said, reaching out to cup her tits. His fingers curled around those throbbing nubs and produced a small gasp. She stepped forward, crushing herself into his big hands. He tweaked those nips, twisting and turning them until he felt the beating of her heart through them.

  “Oh, John, yes. I want you so!”

  He stopped the torrent of words in the most delightful way possible. He kissed her hard. She melted against him, her bare chest mashing against his filthy clothing. But this was only a problem for a few seconds. Her nimble, knowing fingers worked to get him naked to the waist, too. Then bare flesh pressed into equally bare, warm flesh.

  They turned around and around in one another’s arms, as if dancing to silent music.

  Somehow Slocum got out of his boots and Evangeline got his pants pulled down so he could kick free of the dirty rags. Then those dancing fingers of hers curled around his hardness and gently squeezed down until he moaned in pleasure.

  “You like that?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Then you’ll like this even more.” Her hands went around his back and boldly slid down to his muscular rump. She sank slowly to her knees, kissing his chest and belly as she went. When she was on her knees, she pulled on the double handful of muscled ass and drew his crotch forward. His meaty shaft slid easily, willingly, wantonly between her lips. Slocum felt his knees turn weak with desire when she began licking and tonguing his fierce length. After a few seconds he couldn’t restrain himself. His hips began thrusting forward, driving his fleshy spike farther into her mouth.

  She took him. Every inch. And her tongue slipped under the sensitive head to give him even more stimulation. He ran his fingers through her hair once more, lacing through the strands so he could pull and push her in the rhythm that excited him most.

  But after several minutes, he withdrew. There was a wet pop! as he slid free of her mouth. She looked up questioningly.

  “More,” he said. “I want to give you more.”

  Before she could say a word, he reached down and his strong hands lifted her entirely off the floor. Swinging her around, her placed her on the table. Her legs spread under her dress, but the target he aimed for was still hidden. With a sweeping motion he pushed aside the obscuring cloth and viewed paradise. Tiny dewdrops dotted the tangled nest hidden between her strong thighs.

  Slocum stroked over the fleecy hair and inserted his finger. This brought the first real gasp of desire from Evangeline’s lips. Her body quaked as he continued to slip in and out of her heated core. His hand came away oily with her inner juices. Then he stepped up.

  Hands going under her knees, he lifted fast and moved forward in a smooth motion. He sank into the depths of her channel. Suddenly surrounded by clinging, hot female flesh, he was forced to hesitate. His iron control almost disappeared like a young buck out for action the first time. Slocum swallowed hard, looked down into Evangeline’s passion-racked face, and saw the way her breasts heaved up and down. She tensed all around him, and he could no longer stand to simply wait.

  He drew back until only the purpled arrowhead of his manhood remained within her. Then he pistoned forward, sinking balls-deep into her. She groaned in desire. Her knees drew up double as her legs parted even more for him.

  “Yes, John, oh, I need this, I need it so bad!”

  He needed it, also. It had been too long for him and seldom had he ever seen such a willing, lovely filly. Slocum began moving with long, slow movements, taking his time, building both their desires to the breaking point.

  When Evangeline gasped, arched her back, and clamped down fiercely all around him with her strong inner muscles, he had to fight to keep from spurting out his load. Reaching down, he gripped her fleshy buttocks and pulled her powerfully into his groin. He sank an added inch into her clinging inner warmth.

  And then the fiery tide rising within his loins could not be denied. He shortened his stroke and moved faster, ever faster, so fast the friction burned along his length and released within her yet another climax.

  This time when her female sheath crushed down all around him, he was unable to resist. He cried out and jammed himself as deeply into her as possible. The hot flow of lava from deep within expanded, slowly at first and then with a potent rush that took away both their breaths.

  Only after he was spent did Slocum open his eyes and look down at her. A devilish smile danced on her lips.

  “That was more than I expected,” she said softly. “Ever so much more. Thank you.”

  “Any time you want to start again, let me know.”

  Evangeline sat up and reached for his increasingly limp shaft. She stroked it, but he pried her fingers off.

  “Not now. You could wear a man out.”

  “Oh, you could wear down an inch or two and still be mighty fine, John,” she said.

  “We’d better get dressed. It wouldn’t do to have your pa or ma see us like this.”

  “I doubt either would see anything they haven’t seen before.”

  “I like my job. I don’t want to get fired—or worse. Your pa struck me as a man of great honor. If he didn’t challenge me to a duel, he would probably just shoot me outright.”

  Evangeline laughed, but she hopped off the table and pushed down her skirt before slipping back into the top of her dress and buttoning herself up.

  Slocum was torn between watching all that creamy skin vanish back behind its veil of gingham and getting dressed himself. But he managed to climb back into his pants, get his boots on, and then finish putting on his shirt about the same time Evangeline was decent again.

  “Now,” she said almost primly. “Coffee?” She poured a healthy dollop into a cup.

  Slocum could hardly believe this was the woman he had just shared such an intimate moment with. She was the perfect hostess as she held out a china cup on a saucer for him.

  “Thanks.”

  “You said black. Are you sure? I have both cream and sugar.”

  “Oh, I got plenty of sugar,” he said. This produced a little blush that extended from her face to the base of her throat and downward. He imagined what it looked like covering the tops of her breasts.

  “We should discuss some business,” Evangeline said. She sat on the edge of a chair, her cup and saucer balanced delicately.

  “Business?”

  “How are we going to stop the high-graders stealing from my papa’s mine?”

  7

  Slocum left the Haining house feeling a curious mixture of elation and caution. It was as if he had found some man’s cheating wife, but being with Evangeline was nothing like that. She wasn’t married. And she sure was willing. It still felt as if he had done something wrong. Maybe it was her recent wooing by Thompson or that she was the mine owner’s daughter. Slocum couldn’t figure what it was that made him so uneasy.

  He returned to the bunkhouse fighting the sensation that someone watched his every step. More than once Slocum stopped and carefully looked around but saw no one. Shrugging it off as nothing more than nerves, he shucked off his clothes—again—and switched to cleaner ones. Then he headed out to the main street running the length of Cripple Creek to find where Randolph and the rest of the miners from the Low Down had gone.

  It didn’t take a man as skilled as he was in tracking to find them. The raucous singing and the sudden appearance of Randolph’s son Ira being thrown out into the street showed him the way. Slocum grabbed the young man’s collar and pulled him to his feet. Ira was already more than half past drunk.

  “You want to sit this one out?” Slocum asked, making certain the miner could read his lips.

  “Naw, wanna drink more,” Ira Randolph said.

  Slocum kept his grip on the greasy collar to steady Ira as he steered him back to the saloon. If the barkeep had tossed Ira out, Slocum would have left him on the boardwalk, but another miner had done the deed. And then gone back to the bar and gotten into a fight with Billy. A single punch had decked him.

  Billy rubbed his knuckles, grinned, and waved to Slocum.

  “There he is, men. The fella what earned us a big bonus!”

  Sudden silence fell in the saloon. Slocum almost backed away when he realized everyone stared at him. Then a loud cheer ripped from the throats of everyone inside.