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anything else.”
    She sighed and cupped his face, piercing him with a somber look that spoke to him better than any words ever could.
    What he wouldn’t give to return her affection, to want to. It would have made his life so much easier if he could be with Sarah the way she wanted.
    James caught her hand and held it against his chest.
    She deserved better than to be strung along, and he’d tried his darnedest not to. He tried to be a gentleman without betraying his nature, a difficult juggling act during the best of times. However, as one of several black U.S. deputy marshals appointed by Judge Parker, he had reputations to uphold—that of black people and that of the United States federal government. His loyalty to Sarah and his nature placed a distant third and fourth to these duties.
    Times like this he wished he had stayed with the Choctaw. They had a far different view of sexuality among their people. Their males, the hoobuk, who chose to live their lives as females, were celebrated and held in high esteem rather than seen as deviant.

    34
    Gigi Moore
    James swallowed as he brought Sarah’s hand up to his lips and gently kissed the palm, his way set. “I’m powerful sorry, Sarah.”
    “James…” She grabbed his free hand with hers, her eyes glowing with desperation. “I want to be with you. I don’t care about what you are.”
    His heart thudded at her words. He wasn’t as nervous when he tracked down bootleggers, horse rustlers, and murderers in the Cherokee Hills as he was right then peering into Sarah’s eyes because he suspected she wasn’t talking about his job.
    “You know.”
    She had the decorum to lower her eyes, a fierce blush coloring her maple-brown cheeks when she finally raised her gaze back to his. “I reckon I always have. You bluff a good game, but a woman knows.”
    “Then why would you want to be with me?”
    “You’re a good, honest man, James Hayden. That’s a rarity in these parts. Not to mention I just plain like you.”
    “I can’t give you what you want.”
    “These days a woman just wants companionship.”
    Sarah may have been willing to settle, but James wasn’t. He’d rather be alone, which was probably the best thing for him, especially considering his profession. He suspected not many women besides Sarah would put up with the demands of a job that kept him away from the homestead six months at a time.
    Would a man put up with it?
    James shook his head, determined not to go down that lonely, hopeless road. He was dreaming, being as impractical as Sarah.
    For certain he’d heard tell of stag dances where cowboys entertained themselves with polkas, waltzes and quicksteps. And acts of mutual solace between young, unmarried cowboys out here where women remained scarce were common. James, however, knew he couldn’t get away with the same things a white man could, despite the prestige of his job or the remoteness of the cow towns he frequently passed through.

    Three Men and a Bounty
    35
    James easily released Sarah and stepped back. “I’m powerful flattered that you’d choose me to settle down with, sugar. You’re a pretty little thing who shouldn’t have to settle for someone who can’t meet your needs, not when you can have any man you want, surely.”
    She turned her back on him then and sat down on the four-poster bed, the big mattress seeming to swallow her slim figure up as sure as the whale that swallowed Jonah.
    James went to her, sitting on the edge of the bed, putting a hand on her shoulder and that’s when he felt her body shaking with silent sobs. Lord, he didn’t know what to do about a woman’s tears. He didn’t deal with too many crying females in his line of work, unless he counted the mother of two of his latest captures. That hadn’t been as much crying as it had been shrieking and cussing at James for hoodwinking her to get to her boys, though. Lord, James didn’t think he had ever heard such profanity come out of the mouth of the fairer