Lawless Read Online Free PDF

groan. “I’m crippled.
    Luckily, my legs are numb anyway.”
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    Lawless
    “It’ll take a day or two and you’ll be fine. That first long ride is the hardest.”
    Immediately he shook his blond head, his mouth moving in a wry quirk. “I don’t think I put that the right way. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
    If he hadn’t said something, she probably would have thought nothing of it, but Laurel felt her face flush at the reference to the innuendo as she registered why he apologized. She gave a weak laugh. “I’m too tired and sore to even be afraid of you, Mr.
    Riker. Here we are, sharing a blanket for the second night in a row, stuck with each other so to speak, because I have a feeling you aren’t any happier to have me for company than I am to be here.”
    “I’m pretty used to being alone.” The admission was said quietly as he sat down to pull off his boots. He also took off his gun belt, but like the night before, he set everything within easy reach as he lay beside her and adjusted the blanket over them both.
    Blessed warmth. It came from him, radiating from his much larger body. How he wasn’t chilled to the bone she didn’t know, but without thought she moved closer and he didn’t object but instead slid his arms around her and adjusted their position so she rested against his broad chest. Laurel sighed, her cheek against the flannel of his shirt, one muscular shoulder serving as a pillow.
    “You’re a brave young lady, Miss Daniels.”
    It seemed like her head fit just perfectly under his chin and she was unexpectedly comfortable. She mumbled, “Uhm…how so?”
    “Seems to me you’re sleeping with Cal Riker.”
    The hint of bitterness in his tone surprised her a little but she was too exhausted to analyze it further. “If you wanted to hurt me, you’d have done it by now.”
    “I suppose that’s a logical way of looking at it.”
    “If you were in my position, you might say it was the only way of looking at it.”
    “Maybe, maybe not. Most women would have gone into hysterics at some point during all of this.”

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    Emma Wildes
    “Are you an expert on women, Mr. Riker?” Laurel shifted just enough so she could see his face. The moonlight softened his normally hard expression and lent shadows to the clean lines of brow and jaw.
    “I’ve known my share.” The response was said with a hint of cynical amusement.
    With his potent good looks, he probably had. Even with his reputation it was easy enough to suppose he could find female company if he wanted it. Curiously, she asked,
    “Do you have a sweetheart somewhere?”
    “No.”
    “It’s a pity.” She could hear the strong, steady thud of his heart and his scent, a woodsy mixture of male and the outdoors, was inexplicably intriguing.
    “Why is that a pity?”
    She hesitated, not sure what made her venture into such a personal discussion with a man known for his lethal ability with a gun, not to mention he was apparently also a thief.
    “You aren’t all bad,” she said finally. “Maybe if you—”
    “I hope you aren’t about to tell me the right woman could redeem me, Miss Daniels.”
    He shifted a little as he interrupted, his powerful body moving against hers. “That’s an illusion you need to get out of your pretty head right away. I may not believe in violence against women, but that doesn’t show anything except a legacy of marginal decency from a childhood I think of now as a distant dream.”
    “You are very much more decent than any of those men who took me off the train.”
    It was true, without an audience, he had been both respectful and solicitous.
    “Yeah, well, I’m sorry, ma’am, that’s not much of a compliment.”
    She couldn’t argue that point. Just the thought of Ferris Norton with his pawing hands and lascivious sneer made her feel ill. “No,” she admitted, “I suppose it isn’t.”
    An owl called, the sound drifting in the night.