Claudia Dain Read Online Free PDF

trip onto the prairie. He'd be leaving in an hour at worst. He was eager to go; there was no point in dawdling around in an unfriendly town when all the excitement was happening elsewhere.
    He had a murderer to catch.
    He crashed into the little Samaritan on the stairs first.
    It was on the sixth stair, the one that creaked. His arms wrapped around her torso, steadying them both. Her hair, as dark as prairie earth, got in his mouth. She smelled like flowers.
    It all rolled over him in the space of a breath and then he let her go, holding on to her elbows just long enough to be sure that she was firmly on her feet. He let go and backed up, up to the seventh stair, the one that didn't creak. He had to back up from her because all he wanted to do was keep pressing her down until her back was to the floor and her skirts were over her head. He'd never wanted a girl like that, so hard and so fast, not in his whole life. He didn't want to feel that way now. He didn't want to feel that way ever.
    "Excuse me, ma'am," he growled, tipping his hat, using the brim to cover his eyes.
    "No, I... excuse me," she said, her voice as soft as rainwater.
    Her bosom rose as she spoke and he couldn't help watching the rise and fall. Then he felt like hell because he couldn't leave her alone, even with his eyes. She blocked him on the stair; if she didn't move aside, he'd have to brush against her to get down and out of the hotel. And he had to get out. He had to get away from her before he kissed her to the soles of her feet without even knowing her name.
    "Ma'am?" he mumbled, urging her to get out of his way.
    "Hmmm?"
    She was staring at him, he could feel it, though she remained unmoving except for her breast, rising and falling. The urge to touch her was mounting in him and he felt a twinge of panic that he hadn't felt in twenty years. He couldn't have her. She was proper. Off his range.
    He looked up and saw what he knew he'd see. She was looking at him, her light blue eyes unblinking, her mouth soft and open, the pulse in her throat beating visibly.
    She stared at him, her gaze moving all over his face, taking in his untamed hair, his two-day growth of beard, his hungry eyes. She took it all in and stood there, looking softer by the second.
    It was the chilly cough of the proprietor of the Cattlemen's Hotel that broke the moment. Jack was thankful for the intrusion. She turned toward the sound and he bolted down the stairs and out the door. He left her behind on the sixth stair.

 
     
     
    Chapter 4

     
    She was so pretty. Small and slight, her hair the black of river mud, smooth and slick. He was watching her and he knew she could feel his eyes on her. Knew that she was flattered by it. Knew that she wouldn't fight it when he made his first move. He knew how to make it so a woman wouldn't fight, not until the last breath. Not until it was too late for fighting.
    But that time wasn't now. He was just getting started with her.
    He'd been watching her for weeks, building her trust in him. That was important to a woman. She needed to trust. That was the hard part. What made it easy was that she wanted to trust a man. Any man. As long as she believed the man could be her man.
    Which made it just perfect, because he wanted to be the man she chose, the man she gave herself to. The man she trusted. The man she'd marry.
    That was what he needed.
    And he knew just how to get it.
    With a smile, he tipped his hat, and rode out of town.
    He'd be back. And she'd be waiting for him, just to win another smile from him. Not much longer now. Not much longer before he kissed her.
    * * *
    He'd been out of Abilene for a day and felt measurably better, away from the blatant hostility of the town, away from her . Jack squinted into the late afternoon sun and pulled his hat lower. He was still a bit thrown by his reaction to her. It didn't happen much, feeling a woman's pull that way; made him feel like a calf being roped and tied up. He didn't like the