Charles Ingrid - marked man 02 The Last Recall Read Online Free PDF Page A

Maybe not. You're a good man, but we both know you're not qualified to be the DWP."
    "Thank you."
    "You're welcome. Do this hook, will you?" She bent her head to one side and lifted her curtain of damp hair away from the nape of her neck.
    Now that she was fully clothed and he half, the exposure he faced seemed suddenly erotic. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, trailing his open mouth along her fragrant skin up the curve of her neck.
    "Again, Thomas?" she murmured, "I take that back. You're not a good man—you're a great one." She slipped about in his arms, pulled up the skirts of her dress and kicked aside her panties. She tugged the toweling off his hips.
    "If drafted, I will not run," Thomas protested. "If elected, I will not serve."
    "Oh, shut up," Lady answered. "You're not being drafted. You're being seduced."
    Chapter 2
    Lady had brought his saddlebags to the bathhouse, so he dressed in clean shirt and trousers, dispersing his various weaponry about his body as he was used to doing. She tactfully did not watch him, as indisposed as he was to begin their argument over again. She wore weapons as well.
    The smell of the open pit barbecue drifted through the evening air as paper lanterns bobbed and swung about on bamboo poles to the side and rear of the judge's house. Thomas' stomach told him it had been a long time since early morning rations on the trail. Yet, hungry as he was, he would have preferred to be back in the open, alone with Lady beside a campfire. The sound of many voices, laughing and arguing, flowed over them.
    His stride hesitated on the stone-circle pathway and Lady tugged at his elbow.
    "Don't go gun-shy on me, Thomas," she said softly.
    It was difficult for him to pinpoint his emotions. Reluctance filled him, that he knew. But why? He liked a celebration as well as the next man—he liked a recess from the rigors of everyday life. He could pay for it with banter and innuendo as well as the next man. But not tonight. His soul felt selfish tonight.
    "On nights like this, it's hard to believe Charlie's gone," Lady said. Her hand tightened on his arm. "Or that these meetings aren't being held on the peninsula, with Veronica orchestrating them. It's like the whole center of the counties has shifted ... is wandering, looking for a new home."
    Her words tightened the ball in his chest. She felt something, too. With Lady close at his side, they stepped into the wash of light and sound and smell.
    A short, stumpy man with his back to them was gesticulating to emphasize his words. Hairy warts pushed aside and interrupted the strands of his hair so he was not difficult to recognize from the back, nor was his strident voice. "Rice, I ask you," he boomed. "In water-starved country such as ours, we're raising rice. Think of the water consumption—the waste!"
    "Now, Art," a woman next to him said. She was dusky skinned, older, elegantly coiffed, Governor Irlene. "The basin we irrigate from is for flood control. We have no one living in that area—the water would be wasted if we didn't use it for irrigation."
    "But rice," Bartholomew said testily.
    "It's an important grain," the governor stood her ground. "And you're right, the water usage may be to excess and we may grow other crops there in the future. But it's worth a try."
    A bent, leather lean man added, "Better than letting the nesters bleed it off.''
    Thomas recognized one of the ranchers from the trial. He did not wait to hear Bartholomew's response to that but flanked the group and headed for Teal. "He owes me a beer," he told Lady.
    She unwrapped her hand from his arm. "I'll catch up with you later. I see one of my patients." She drifted from his side, a graceful cloud of blue among the purples of the night. She bowed her head to pass under an arbor of wisteria and away from his immediate vision.
    "Sir Thomas! There you are," Teal called. He sat in a wooden patio chair, his long thin legs crossed, a brown long-necked bottle in his left hand as he