"Kate." Jessie blinked. Her vision had already gone blurry the way it did when loving Kate got her insides all jittery and jumpy. She half sat up, holding Kate to her with one strong arm wrapped around her shoulders as she delved beneath her nightgown and lifted Kate's breast into her palm. She rubbed her mouth over the swiftly tightening nipple. "I can't make sense of anything right now."

"Oh," Kate sighed, cleaving to her, body to body, and went back to kissing Jessie where she had left off. When Jessie groaned and rolled her over, pinning her to the bed, Kate had already forgotten everything except Jessie's touch. She wanted to close her eyes and drift on the warm cloud of pleasure that built as Jessie kissed and stroked her way from Kate's throat to her breasts and lower, but she watched Jessie love her as long as she could. When Jessie murmured her name and took her with her mouth, Kate let passion steal the last of her reason.

When Jessie murmured her name again a few minutes later, her cheek pillowed on Kate's stomach, Kate stroked her damp hair and face. Contentedly, she whispered, "You drive every thought from my head."

"You were wanting to know something earlier," Jessie said drowsily. Pleasing Kate always set her off, like putting a match to dry tinder. The very sound of Kate's pleasure fired her own. Her head was still reeling and her legs felt heavy as iron. She didn't think she could move just then if the house went up in flames.

"What?" Kate asked dreamily, sifting strands of golden hair between her fingers. "Oh. I was wondering what you and Vance had to say that required a trip to the barn after supper."

Laughing softly, Jessie gathered all her willpower and managed to move a foot up the bed. She lay on her side and faced Kate. The firelight made her black hair shine and her skin rosy. "You look beautiful right after we've been loving."

Kate smiled lazily. "I feel beautiful."

Jessie rested her cheek in the bend of her arm and reveled in Kate's happiness, trying to imagine what it would be like if somebody put bruises on Kate's face the way they had done to Mae. Her stomach tightened until it ached, and her mind shied away from the image, but she forced herself to consider Mae's pain and Vance's helpless rage. "I love you."

The fervor in her voice bordered on sorrow, and, alarmed, Kate stroked her face. "What is it, darling?"

"I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you."

"Nothing's going to happen to me." Kate pulled Jessie's head to her breast and held her fiercely. "What's wrong?"

"You saw Mae's face."

Kate closed her eyes. "Yes."

"Did she tell you about it?"

"Yes."

"It's ripping Vance up inside." With a sigh, Jessie sat up with her back against the smooth plank headboard and pulled Kate into her arms, tucking Kate's head beneath her chin. With her free hand she reached down and drew the covers over them both. The fire was waning, and a chill crept in from the edges of the room. "She asked me a few weeks back, right after it happened, if I knew who owned the Nugget."

Kate's hand tightened on Jessie's shoulder. "She wants to punish whoever hurt Mae."

"Of course."

"Jessie," Kate said urgently. "If you get mixed up in this, it could be dangerous."

Jessie tilted her head back and looked down into Kate's face. "It's wrong, Kate."

"Oh, I know. I know." Kate struggled with the anxiety that rushed up into her throat, making her breath come fast and shallow. She would never get over watching Jessie almost die. She remembered the blood that covered the wagon bed, the deathly pallor of Jessie's face, the stillness in her body as life had drained away. "I can't have you getting hurt. I can't."

"We're a pair," Jessie murmured, kissing Kate's forehead.

"You can't take on men like that with force, Jessie."

"We aren't planning something like that, Kate. We aren't planning anything at all." Jessie rubbed her hand in steady circles over Kate's back. "Vance just wants someone to talk to about it."

"Don't tell me that's all she wants."

Jessie shrugged. "She wants to know who's accountable."

"And what's your part?"

"I just asked a few questions to see if anyone knew whose place it was, but when you put it right to folks, no one does."

"And you think that will satisfy Vance?"

"Probably not." Jessie chuckled. "I think she's of a mind to watch the place at night, to see if she can find him."

"Oh, she'll be in trouble if Mae finds out," Kate said vehemently.

"You're not going to tell her, are you?"

"No, because you're going to talk some sense into Vance." Kate thumped Jessie's chest for emphasis. "It won't do Mae any good if Vance gets hurt."

"I know." Jessie shifted restlessly. "But damn, it doesn't seem fair."

"It isn't. For either of them. And I do think we should try to find out who's responsible."

"We?"

"You don't think I'm going to just stand by and watch, do you?"

She sat up and held Jessie's gaze for emphasis.

"Here I thought I was doing the right thing telling you what was going on, when I should've kept quiet." Jessie pushed a hand through her hair in frustration.

Kate laughed quietly and caught Jessie's hand. She rubbed Jessie's knuckles against her cheek. "You did exactly the right thing. Trying to protect me by keeping things from me will only drive us apart."

"I'm trying to work my way around to believing that."

"I know you are." Kate settled back down into Jessie's arms. "And I know it isn't easy for you."

"I wouldn't want something like my stubbornness to come between us."

"No," Kate said gently. "It's not stubbornness. I love the way you love me, and I don't ever want you to change. Just sometimes, you have to let me help you, too."

"Don't you know that you're what gets me through every day?"

Jessie asked incredulously. "Before you came along, I was starting to wonder what my life was really all about. Working, living, always doing, but at the end of the day, there was still something missing."

She eased down into the bed with a sigh of contentment. "Now there isn't."

Kate turned on her side and drew Jessie against her back, settling the arm that Jessie clasped around her middle between her breasts.

She understood now the difference between existing and living. This connection they shared, unique beyond all others, was the essence of her life. As she lay waiting for sleep to come, satisfied in body and heart, she thought of Mae and Vance and what she might do to help them find the safety of one another's arms.


************

Vance brought the buggy to a halt behind the Golden Nugget but made no move to get down. Instead, she turned on the seat and put her arm around Mae's waist, drawing her close. It was well after dark, and in the shadows, no one would take them for anything other than a man and a woman stealing a few moments of passion. She kissed Mae, a slow lingering exploration that deepened and grew more desperate until Mae circled her shoulders and pulled Vance down nearly on top of her.

"Mae," Vance warned, reluctantly pulling away when awareness finally penetrated the desire clouding her senses. "I've precious little control where you're concerned as it is. You must help me maintain command of myself."

Mae laughed, stroking Vance's face with shaking fingers. "And all this time I've been trying to do just the opposite."

"Ever since the night we lay together," Vance said, straightening up but keeping her hold on Mae, "I can't think of much else."

"I thought I was long past hoping for anything but a few minutes of kindness in bed," Mae murmured, sliding her hand inside Vance's coat to rest on her stomach. "But lying next to you has made me want a lot more than that."

Vince groaned softly and kissed Mae's neck. Mae's skin was cool beneath her fevered lips, and her belly tightened under Mae's softly caressing fingers. "I never knew what to hope for. Now I do, and...sometimes when I'm out riding, and I'm so tired I fear I won't make it to the next place on my list, I think of you. Then I forget about everything except how much I want you, and it carries me through."

"Oh," Mae gasped. "Come upstairs with me now."

"I can't. I expect there'll be messages for me at the office. This stomach ailment that's going around has half the town in bed," Vance said in frustration. "I still have calls left over from today. I don't think I'll be done before morning."

"I want you to come to me no matter the time," Mae insisted.

"I suspect the sun will be up by then." Vance laughed. "And I will be no more presentable than a barnyard rooster at that point. I think I had better wait for the laundry to open so that I can collect my clean clothes."

Mae fondled the buttons on Vance's shirt. "You need new clothes, not clean ones. It's time to get you out of these borrowed clothes and into your own."

"I decided after a few months in the army that my days of standing on a seamstress's platform were over," Vance said carefully. "Dresses never did suit me, even before I needed to spend my day in the saddle or a buggy."

"Oh, you can't think that's what I was suggesting?" Mae brushed her fingers through Vance's short, thick, unruly hair. "Oh no. I'm taking you to the tailor tomorrow to be fitted for proper trousers and shirts."

"I...do you think he will?" Vance asked uncertainly.

"Of course he will. As long as you intend to pay him."

"I thought I would just get something from the general store when I had time."