Texas Hold Him Read Online Free PDF

heating at the mere thought of what Sally suggested. “But I could never do that.”
    “I’m not saying you’ve got to meet any of them later, but right now you look like their kid sister. You probably make most
     of the men feel like they should be going to church instead of throwing around their money on cards and whiskey.”
    “I—I don’t know—”
    “Honey,” Sally turned her painted face to Lottie and raised her brow. “Do you want to earn money or not?”
    Lottie thought of her father dying in a prison cell. His crippled body chilled and frail as the humiliation of his condition
     tortured him in his last days. “I have to.”
    “Then you need to let old Sally Summerfield help you out a tad.”
    Lottie took a deep breath to force the butterflies out of her stomach before she stepped into the gaming room. She’d rubbed
     a little of the rouge off her cheeks when Sally wasn’t looking, but she couldn’t determine how to remove some of the kohl
     from around her eyes without making them look like a raccoon’s. So she’d left the dark eye makeup in place with the hopes
     that it would draw attention to her eyes and away from her dress. If that’s what it could be called, though how anything that
     short could be considered a dress was beyond her.
    Sally was pleased with the results, claiming Lottie would be the prettiest girl on the boat and make plenty of money to pay
     Dyer as a result. Were it not for that reminder of her reasons for doing this, she could never have left the room.
    She brushed her hand down the front of her skirt, still not believing she was about to go into public with the lower part
     of her legs covered in nothing but black silk stockings.
    Momma’s locket felt warm inside her bodice. She laid her hand against the fabric and muttered, “I’ll take care of him, Momma,”
     before she straightened her shoulders and stepped into the room.
    Lottie had fully expected the room to fall suddenly silent as all turned to look at her with their jaws dropped,but the noise and gaming continued as though no one had even seen her. She breathed a sigh of relief.
    All the other girls were dressed the same way, and she guessed it was silly of her to expect she’d stand out in the crowd.
     She relaxed a little and took a place by the bar to watch Sally make her way around the room, laughing and talking with the
     men who seemed more than pleased with her interest.
    The movement of a hand brought Lottie’s attention to a table in the back of the room. She swallowed. The man had his back
     to her, but there was no mistaking to whom the back belonged. She’d had it turned on her enough in the last two days to recognize
     it instantly.
    Sigh. She might as well get this over with.
    She walked to his table and said, “What would you like, sir?”
    The butterflies in her stomach did a tap dance when Dyer glanced up at her and winked. He was actually quite handsome when
     he wasn’t snarling.
    “Well, darlin’,” he drawled. “I’d like a whiskey—” Suddenly his smile dropped, followed soon thereafter by his jaw. “
Son of a bitch!
”
    “Really, Mr. Straights, you need to work on your vocabulary—”
    Before she could finish her sentence, he stood so quickly he knocked over his chair in the process.
    “Outside, Miss Mace,” he said, starting toward the door before he noticed the cards he still held in his hand.
    “Damn it,” he growled and threw them on the table. “I fold,” he yelled over his shoulder as he led her across the room to
     the nearest door, not caring that all eyes in the place actually
were
on them now.
    He pulled her out to the darkness of the deck, thenpeeled off his jacket and draped it across the front of her gown, covering her low neckline and the extra bit of cleavage
     it exposed. Then he looked down at her legs.
    “Damn it,” he ground out again. “I don’t know which end to cover.”
    He clutched her chin to examine her face, then grabbed her hand.