A Promise of Thunder

the tops of her breasts.
    “I love your breasts,” Grady said as he bared the ripe fruits and drew an engorged nipple into his mouth. “Oh, lady, I want to be inside you.” A little moan escaped Storm’s lips.
    His hand slid under her dress, into the slit in the crotch of her pantaloons, finding that tender, moist place that gave him so much pleasure. He massaged gently while Storm writhed and squirmed in his lap. When he slipped two fingers inside her she jerked wildly. “Grady,” she gasped, “I thought you said there wasn’t time for this!”
    “There is just enough time for what I have in mind,” Grady said hoarsely. “Relax, sweetheart, I want to make you happy. When I return tonight you can return the favor.” Then he was kissing her again, licking at the corners of her provocative mouth before thrusting his tongue between her lush lips. His fingers plunged deeper, stroking in and out as his thumb worked the sensitive nub of flesh where pleasure began.
    “Oh, lady, you feel like silk inside,” Grady panted as his talented fingers drove Storm higher and higher.
    She arched against his hand, the sweet agony of his deep caress building inside her until she was rocking against him, clutching him desperately and calling his name. When he sucked her nipple into his mouth and nipped it gently with his teeth, then laved it with the wet roughness of his tongue, she exploded in exquisite climax.
    “Keep that thought, sweetheart,” Grady said as he lifted Storm and set her gently aside. “When I return tonight we’ll continue where we left off.” He rose, unbuckled his gunbelt, and set it on the table.
    “Grady, be careful!” Storm called to his departing back. Dragging herself from her lethargy, she stood in the open door and watched him ride away.
    Grady hadn’t been gone five minutes before a numbing fear seized her. A shattering premonition that Grady was walking into certain death made the baby lurch inside her womb. A man like Darnell wouldn’t think twice about shooting an unarmed man. Had she sent him off to be killed? That terrifying notion galvanized her into motion. Resolutely she picked up the shotgun sitting in the corner by the door and left the house. It took several precious minutes to hitch the horses to the wagon, but when she finally headed the team toward town she was a scant fifteen minutes behind Grady, who was riding Lightning and able to make better time than she.
    Storm arrived in Guthrie at sundown. She halted the wagon in front of the saloon, set the brake, and climbed clumsily to the ground. She looked around fearfully, panting with anxiety. The absence of a crowd and the lack of commotion gave her a brief glimmer of hope. Perhaps she was worrying unnecessarily and everything was going as Grady hoped. Taking up the shotgun, she slipped into the alley between thesaloon and the bank, the quickest route to the area behind the saloon where Grady and Darnell were to meet.
    The sound of voices made her pause cautiously and listen before rushing out into the open. Barging recklessly into a potentially dangerous situation would do Grady little good. Despite her fear for Grady’s safety, she still had her child to protect.
    “I’ll say one thing fer ya, Renegade, ya got more guts than I gave ya credit fer,” Storm heard Darnell say. “Showin’ up without yer guns took guts, but it ain’t gonna work. I owe ya and ya ain’t gonna leave here alive.”
    “You’ll have to shoot me in cold blood,” Grady said with amazing calm.
    “I’ve done that before. Besides, ya ain’t stupid. Ya wouldn’t come here unarmed. Ya got a gun on ya somewhere.”
    “I told you before, Darnell, I’m through with violence. I won’t draw against you. I have nothing to prove, no reputation to uphold. Besides, it’s against the law.”
    “I’ve broken the law before,” Darnell sneered. He gripped the handle of his gun, slowly withdrawing it from his holster. “Say yer prayers, Renegade.”
    “Listen to me, Darnell,” Grady said earnestly. His voice was calm, but inside he was cursing himself for being dumb enough to think Darnell would go on his merry way when he refused to draw against him. “Shooting an unarmed man will gain you nothing but a pack of trouble.I could have just stayed home and refused to show up, but I wanted to show you and your friends that defending my title as a fast gun and engaging in violence no longer interests me. I’m through with all that. What I hoped