On the run from her ex-lover, jilted by a no-show husband and now mistaken for a whore in the Diamond Back saloon, Abigail Thornton doesn’t think things can get any worse. That is until a single slap to a man’s face starts a barroom brawl that lands her in the last place she expected to be.
Town Marshal Morgan Avery wants nothing more than to wash away the trail-dust and sleep for a week, preferably with a soft, willing woman by his side. Instead, he gets Abigail Thornton – all one hundred pounds of her thrust at him seconds before a fist connects with his face. Breaking up the fight takes more effort than he wants to admit and when the last man falls he finds Abigail still standing and not looking the least bit contrite.
Throwing her into the town jail for the night would salve his wounded pride and then he will let her go. Or that was the plan. When morning comes he finds himself oddly reluctant to do so. Miss Thornton is hiding something and he aims to find out what, even if he has to bed her to do so. But will one night in her bed be enough?
genre: historical western romance
length: 36,500 words
Released: Nov. 2011
Rating: Sultry
Price: $2.99
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Abigail refused to speak to him all the way back to the house. She was angry with him again. Not that he could blame her. Telling her he’d like to try out the merchandise first hand before marrying her sent her into a tizzy. Add in the fact he left her locked up all day and hadn’t even made it back in time to grab her lunch, and the woman had been fit to be tied. Seeing the basket on the floor by the cot eased his mind though. Someone had remembered she was there. Who that person was left him more curious than it should have. Was it one of the men in town? And if so, which one?
He’d ridden back into town with every intention of discussing this marriage business with her. He still wasn’t sure if she was serious about it or not. One minute he thought she was, the next he laughed it off as her just teasing him. But every time he thought of it, he could picture himself married to her. Then reality settled in and he pushed the notion away. What did he need a wife for? Especially one as prickly as this one could be. She was too outspoken, too prone to tantrums. It was hard to tell what she’d do if pushed to it.
He called her name again, only to have her ignore him and quicken her pace.
When they arrived back at his house, Abigail climbed the stairs and went straight to her room, slamming the door behind her. Morgan realized leaving her in the jail all day wasn’t the smartest thing he could have ever done. She was mad at him again.
He locked up the house, climbed the stairs in the dark, and walked down the hall to her door. The latch apparently hadn’t caught when she slammed it because it wasn’t closed now. A small shaft of light illuminated the hallway enough for him to see without falling.
Reaching the door, he pushed it the rest of the way open and whished he wouldn’t have. Abigail was in the process of undressing and what little sunlight was streaming through the window was enough for him to see clean through her shift. She turned, saw him standing there, and unlike what most women would have done—scrambled to cover themselves—she propped her hands on her hips and glared at him. He could tell her bravado was tinged with embarrassment. Her neck went all funny with red splotches and her cheeks flushed pink.
“Do you mind?” she asked. “This is my room after all. You don’t see me barging into your room seeing you in your drawers, now do you?”
He grinned and leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb. “Well, for starters, I wouldn’t object to you doing so, although I’m known to not wear my drawers more often than I do, so I can’t promise what you’d see. As for minding seeing you like that? Not at all. Continue to undress if you wish.”
She huffed out a breath, crossed her arms under those perky little breasts and scowled at him. “What do you want?”
He opened his mouth to answer but found it hard to get a word out. Seeing her standing there with the light coming through her shift was too much of a distraction. He could see her nipples, the dark areolas pressed against the fabric and begging him to cross the room and take them into his mouth right through the cloth. Her shapely thighs drew his eye to the thatch of thick hair between her legs. Damned if just seeing her there didn’t cause his cock to throb and make him want to demand she marry him. If he married her she’d be all his. That luscious body his to command every night until the day he died. He almost said as much but then remembered how easy she was to provoke. Being married to her would be the best of heaven and the very worst of hell. Arguing every day until he was ready to just saddle his horse and ride away and loving her every night until he begged her never to leave him. It just wasn’t worth the headache.
Focusing his gaze back on her face, he straightened. “I just wanted to apologize to you. I didn’t mean to be gone all day. Tomorrow, you’re free to go.”
Her eyes widened and a puzzled look stole over her features. He thought a hint of fear clouded her face but it passed so quickly he decided he imagined it. Telling her goodnight, he pulled her door shut, walked to his room and started undressing.
The more he thought of her the more he wished he could just forget about her completely. His life was fine, if not a little dull, before she’d come to town and now, two days later, all he could do was think about her. She consumed his thoughts and every time he looked at her his body ached to take her. To claim her as his and give her his name. If he didn’t someone else would. He knew that without even thinking too hard on it. The men to women ratio in Willow Creek was severely lopsided. Abigail Thornton wouldn’t have to worry about being unmarried long and the idea of her in someone else’s bed caused a hint of unease to settle like an ache between his shoulder blades.
Tossing his shirt to the corner, he sat down on the bed, removed his boots and sat staring at the door. He needed to make up his mind where Abigail was concerned. Either ask her to marry him all proper like or just forget about her, head to the saloon and slake his desire with one of Miss Angelina’s girls. It had been that way for years, there was no reason to expect more now just because he had a pretty little thing in the next room over.
Thinking of her lying in bed on the other side of the wall, he groaned, flopped back on the bed and closed his eyes. “If I don’t get her out of my house, I’m going to go mad.” Images of her half naked came unbidden to him then and he groaned, his cock once again stirring. Reaching down to adjust himself he shook his head and vowed, come morning, Miss Abigail Thornton would be nothing but a memory. He’d see her ensconced into the hotel by noon and out of his life forever.
Abigail hesitated, her arm outstretched. What started as a well thought out plan seemed a bit over the top now. She chewed her bottom lip and debated on forgetting the whole thing. An inhaled breath calmed her nerves somewhat. She reached up, unbraided her hair, tossing the long locks over her shoulder, and reached for the doorknob.
She opened the door without knocking.
And got a tantalizing view of Morgan’s naked backside. “So, today is a no drawers kind of day, I see.”
Morgan spun on his heel, pants dangling from his hand. He looked shocked to see her if the expression on his face was any indication. Abigail let her gaze roam the length of him, from his wide shoulders, his strong chest with its dusting of fine dark hair, to his flat belly. When she directed her gaze to his cock, she smiled when it twitched. He was semi-hard and growing by the second.
Focusing her attention back to his face, she entered the room fully, shutting the door behind her. “What? No witty retort? I’m disappointed.”
It took him a few seconds to respond but he dropped the pants by his feet and smiled. “I can think of better things to do at the moment than talk, Abigail.”
“What are you waiting for, then?”
BUY THE EBOOK FROM:
» Buy at Amazon Kindle
» Buy at Amazon Kindle UK
» Buy at Amazon Kindle DE
» Buy at Amazon Kindle FR
» Buy at Amazon Kindle IT
» Buy at Amazon Kindle ES
» Buy at Barnes & Noble
» Buy at Smashwords
» Buy at Sony
» Buy at Diesel
» Buy at Kobo
