The Outlaw Bride Read Online Free PDF

weak. It’s going to be a while before you can leave this house. Please be still, Sims.”
    “Call me Callahan,” he said wearily. “And I’m not a thief, damn it.”
    He had admitted to being a Callahan. Fear washed over Josie. He
was
the man Will Spencer was looking for. But she still wasn’t convinced that he had committed a crime. She knew how it felt to be branded a thief, even when you weren’t.
    Callahan knew she was right. He was too weak to go searching for Ben. He stopped fidgeting, then closed his eyes for a long, silent moment. “I really wasn’t out of my head all the time. I kinda enjoyed waking up to my guardian angel lying next to me.”
    “I’m not an angel. Now he still while I shave you.” Josie lathered her hands with a cake of soap and plopped suds on Callahan’s face. She’d never shaved a man, but she’d watched her adoptive father, Dan, shave often enough. Not much to it, she decided, working suds into Callahan’s thick, black beard. His whiskers curled around her fingers and made her remember her initial reaction. Sims Callahan had hot hair.
    She reached for the straight razor.
    Callahan opened his eyes.
    “I hope you know how to use that,” he said.
    “Nope,” she admitted. “But I expect I will have learned by the time I’m done, won’t I?”
    After she got rid of the beard, she washed his face and neck and chest. Lord, he had a broad chest. He didn’t complain when she changed his shoulder bandage, though she knew it hurt. But when she reached to pull down the sheet, her fingers hesitated. Viewing his manhood had been difficult enough when he was asleep. Now, he was awake and aware of every move she made.
    “If it’s your mother who is the doctor, why are you treating me?”
    “She’s away on a holiday. Since I’ve helped her over the years, Bear Claw brought you to me.”
    “How many men have you washed?” he asked.
    “Plenty,” she snapped, tugging at the sheet. “Now let go.”
    “First, let me have your hand, Josie,” he said, ordering her, not asking.
    He took her hand in his large calloused one and laid it on his stomach. She couldn’t conceal the jolt of awareness that shot through her.
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought, Miss Josie Miller. It is Miss, isn’t it?”
    “Yes, it is. I’ve never married. And I never intend to.”
    “I take it that means you’re a virgin?”
    Josie gasped at the embarrassing assumption.
    “Then you’d better close your eyes, or you’re going to see a man’s body announce its reaction to a woman.”
    Josie didn’t have to ask what Callahan was talking about. The sheet that was resting on his lap began to rise and thrust forward as if it had a life of its own.
    “It’s called desire, darlin’, and it’s happening. Right now.”
    “No,” she whispered, and fled from the room, bumping into Lubina, who was bringing clean towels.
    “What’s wrong, Josie?”
    “He’s alive,” she said dryly.
    “Of course he es alive,” Lubina repeated. “You said he would live.”
    “Yes, but he seems to have a new problem,” Josie announced loudly. “His male organ is becoming enlarged. He’s a very sick man so it must be”—her voice got deliberately louder, enough for Callahan to hear it—“infection. Draining it is a medical procedure Dr. Annie never taught me. I’m going to have to study my medical books.”
    Lubina crossed herself. “Dear Holy Mother,” she repeated, gazing heavenward. “Whatever you do, don’t let Miss Josie figure it out.”

4
 
    Callahan took a deep breath and gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up. He’d been shot before. Hell, he’d been shot more than once, but this might be the all-time, flat-out most embarrassing hurt he’d ever been through. One bullet wound he could have managed, but two, in different parts of his body, should have erased any desire he’d felt. They hadn’t.
    He ought to be angry with his angel of mercy for running from the room. Instead, he couldn’t