The Sheriff

But he wasn’t downstairs.

Sheriff Travis McCloud was enjoying a hot bath in a plush upstairs suite at the soft hands of Miss Valentina Knight, the Golden Nugget’s beautiful songbird owner and Travis’s favorite female companion.

With his clothes neatly draped across a blue brocade-covered chaise longue, and his black hat hooked on the newel of a high-backed rocker, the six-foot-three-inch Travis sat in a suds-filled tub with his knees and torso sticking up out of the steaming water.

Feeling relaxed and enjoying himself, he smoked a fine Cuban cigar and drank Kentucky bourbon from a lead crystal glass, while the prettiest woman in Fortune gently scrubbed his broad shoulders with a soft-bristled, long-handled brush.

“Feel good, Marshal?” Valentina asked as she drew the brush back and forth over his gleaming back.

“Mmm,” he replied lazily, his eyes half-closed, his even white teeth clamped firmly on his lit cigar.

Valentina smiled, pleased. She loved giving this big handsome sheriff a soapy, sensuous bath. She loved even more the moment when he stepped out of the tub, allowed her to dry him off, and then spent the next hour in her soft bed while she cuddled in his strong arms.

Those fleeting golden moments were as much of Travis McCloud as she would ever have.

So she made the most of his visits.

Valentina Knight was a clever woman. She knew that she couldn’t hem Travis in, so she never tried. She realized that the reason she, and she alone, was allowed to entertain the handsome marshal was because she was convenient and made no demands on him.

Valentina Knight was a beautiful, porcelain-skinned Creole who had come out West from her New Orleans home to seek her fortune. She had wisely surmised that the goldfields of California offered an opportunity to make lots of money without ever going near a mine. There were, she had read, literally thousands of men pouring into the many mining camps springing up across the Sierra Nevadas. They were willing to part with their precious gold dust for a drink and a smile from a pretty woman.

Valentina had guessed correctly.

In this male-dominated world with very few women and little semblance of customary society, she had become very wealthy during the four years she had owned the Nugget.

She was a respected citizen of Fortune who turned heads wherever she went, but it was more than her raven hair and magnolia skin that made her so desirable. Her generosity, charm and wit secured her position as the object of affection to Fortune’s many menfolk.

When she came downstairs to sing for the miners, they immediately fell silent. They gazed worshipfully at the sweet-voiced vision in the stunning gowns that accentuated her voluptuous figure, in the diamonds that sparkled at her throat and ears.

It was a whispered, well-known secret that in her plush upstairs suite, she drank—from fragile stemmed glasses—vintage French champagne delivered by Wells Fargo. And fresh cut flowers, that rarest of all luxuries, were delivered daily.

The lovely Creole had a French maid, a must for the most prosperous of the frontier madams. Gigi responded to the summons of the richly brocaded bell-pulls, then prudently disappeared when her mistress was entertaining the town sheriff.

When Valentina went out, she rode behind matched blacks in a Brewster carriage imported across the Isthmus of Panama at great expense. Sable muff, scarf and lap robe kept her warm on exhilarating winter rides. Gloves, straw hat and silk parasol protected her porcelain skin on summer jaunts.

Valentina Knight had everything.

Except the man she loved.

Travis McCloud.

The lawman’s heart would never belong to her even though hers belonged to him. Valentina never so much as batted a flirtatious eyelash at any other man, nor would she allow another to make to love to her.

Now, as she rinsed the soap off of the most magnificent male chest she’d ever laid eyes on, Valentina shivered with sweet anticipation of the lovemaking ahead.

“We have two whole hours before I must go downstairs to sing,” she said as Travis gently moved her hand away and rose to his feet, water sluicing down his body.

Valentina picked up a large white towel and began blotting moisture from his clean, wet flesh. “Promise you’ll spend those two hours right here with me?”

“You talked me into it, darlin’,” said Travis with a smile.

He motioned for her to back away, and stepped out of the tub. Valentina rose to her feet before him. He took the towel from her and finished drying off. She stayed where she was as Travis dropped the damp towel, turned and padded across the patterned Persian carpet to the bed. He stretched out on his back atop the satin sheet and laid his dark head on an abundance of soft feather pillows resting against the ornately carved headboard.

Valentina shivered deliciously.

If ever there was a sight that was pleasing to her, it was that of the lean lawman lying naked on her bed. The darkness of his skin against the whiteness of the sheets never failed to delight her senses. His fierce masculine power, unclothed and unprotected, was for the moment hers and hers alone.

Valentina began to sway seductively toward the bed. A subtle but purposeful movement of her shoulders made the shimmering satin lapels of her long, ice blue robe part, revealing to her naked lover tempting glimpses of her full breasts. She raised a hand, took the diamond pins from her hair and allowed her dark, lustrous locks to spill down around her shoulders.

She laid the pins on the marble-topped night table, then leaned over and gave the sheriff’s tight belly a wet, warm kiss.

Travis sucked in his breath. His hand came down to clasp a handful of her hair and gently pull her head up. “Get in bed, baby,” he gently commanded, and she obeyed.

Valentina didn’t take off her tightly sashed robe, but left it on as she stretched out beside Travis and snuggled close against his bare torso. He kissed her, then urged her over onto her back. He moved atop her, supporting his weight on stiffened arms.

The satin of Valentina’s robe lay between them. For a time they left it there, a sensuous slippery barrier to the pleasure of penetration.

Travis found it incredibly erotic to feel the summoning heat of Valentina’s feminine softness just out of reach beneath the fabric. For Valentina it was tremendously exciting to feel the insistent power of his masculine hardness thwarted by the sleek obstruction of satin.

It was a thrilling game.

But short-lived.

Soon he levered himself up, reached between them and swept the robe out of his way. Valentina eagerly parted her legs and sighed in approval as he slid into her. She raised her knees, gripped his ribs and clung to him as they made leisurely, lusty love.

But just at the instant of climax, a gunshot rang out.

Valentina’s eyes flew open and she blinked in stunned surprise. “You got me, Sheriff!” she proclaimed, and pretended to fall over dead. Then she laughed throatily and teased, “Any ammunition left in that…?”

“Afraid not,” said Travis, and laughed with her.

Then, with a quick kiss, he pulled out, fell over onto his back, took a couple of deep, quick breaths, and got out of bed.

“No,” she protested, raising up on an elbow, “don’t go, Travis.”

“I have to, Val,” he said, pulling on his trousers. “Somebody’s firing a weapon downstairs. I’m the sheriff, remember? Hired to keep the peace.”

Five

Kate awoke at dawn feeling rested and ready to start her new life. She hummed happily as she donned a simple blue-and-white gingham dress and brushed her blond hair. Optimistic, tingling with excitement, she left the hotel with map in hand. She was eager to explore the town, but first she wanted to locate her newly inherited property and inspect the house her aunt had left her. She planned to return to the hotel for her belongings later and then move in. She was sure there would be no reason to stay another night in the hotel. She would spend it in her own home.

Kate passed—two doors down from the hotel—the offices of Dr. Milton Ledet, the kindly white-haired physician she had met on the steamer ride to Fortune. She dashed past his office windows in case he was inside. She had no time to visit this morning.

Kate walked to the very end of the sidewalk and soon left Fortune behind. Her breathing grew short from the altitude, and her legs quickly grew weak, but she climbed an ill-defined lane up through the towering green conifers and white-trunked aspens, swatting low, leafy limbs out of her way.

When she’d gone no more than a half mile, Kate stepped out into a broad, lush clearing and saw a large white house looming in the distance.

She had, she knew, located the real estate she now owned.