western-romance

Fucking hell,_ he whispered, closing his eyes. The pain in his face mirrored the deep ache in her bones. He lifted her hand to his mouth and traced his lips slowly across her palm. With incredible gentleness, he pulled her arm toward him and pressed a warm kiss to the pulse on her wrist, his breath washing over the delicate skin and casting a spell as bottomless and dark as shame.

Why should I mind?_ She drummed her fingertips against his knee. __ecause you got asked to play baseball, while I got a lecture on circumspection, Jezebels, and leading men into sin?_ __id you really?_ He managed to sound annoyed, fascinated, and amused all at once.__t__ not funny._ __f course it__ not._ He was quick to try and placate her. __ut we can do something about those lectures real quick. All you have to do is marry me.__oyote Bluff had too many secrets that weren__ hers to share. She couldn__ put him in that position. He was a federal marshal. And she__ seen what all the lies her father told had done to her mother. She__ died hating him.The last remnants of her earlier contentment vanished. __ like my independence._ __hen I guess you__l have to get used to the lectures, Sheriff Jezebel,_ he replied.

She was dangerous. I__ heard the rumors, that she had a history as a wild woman, that she__ been married to a gambler, maybe even been one herself, that her past was scandalous at best. But who was I to judge? My past was littered with scandal.

He had a hint of a Southern drawl, as if he__ worked hard to hide it, but couldn__ quite rid himself of the last of it. It was rough and gravelly, and had the seductive warmth of sinking into strong arms in front of a cozy fire. To my surprise, a spark of that long-dead heat stirred in my belly. This wasn__ the sort of response a woman should have to finding a strange man in her barn.

Jacques appeared on his hands and knees, peering around the corner of the cabin. His dark eyes lit with pleasure when he saw her. The baby flashed Antonia his wide grin and scooted toward her. Only in the last two days had he gone from pushing himself across the floor to a hands-and-knees crawl.Henri trailed so close behind Jacques that he had to walk wide-legged so he didn__ step on his brother.The baby reached her, placed his hands on her legs, and pressed himself up, grabbing at the front of her tunic. __aa.__ntonia hugged Jacques. He__ soiled his rabbit skin diaper and smelled, but she held him close, needing to feel the baby in her arms. He wiggled in protest. She dropped a kiss on his forehead and reached up to her shoulder to unlace the leather ties of her tunic, pulling the flap down to free her breast. He began to suckle greedily.Henri dropped to her other side and leaned against her. Antonia put her arm around him. Just holding her sons brought her comfort but also increased her despair. What do I be doin_ now? Should I be takin_ the boys and leave? Head for Sweetwater Springs?Antonia shook her head. No! I won__ be leavin_ Jean-Claude. Cain__ leave my home.But without her husband to provide for them, she didn__ know how long she__ be able to manage on her own.Somehow, I__l be findin_ a way, Antonia vowed.

Susanna, I'm not exactly sure how to begin. Where to start. I know I was in the wrong by not telling you sooner, but I was in an incredibly tight spot." She crooked her brow. "I'm still in an incredibly tight spot?" She nodded.

Antonia Valleau cast the first shovelful of dirt onto her husband__ fur-shrouded body, lying in the grave she__ dug in their garden plot, the only place where the soil wasn__ still rock hard. I won__ be breakin_ down. For the sake of my children, I must be strong. Pain squeezed her chest like a steel trap. She had to force herself to take a deep breath, inhaling the scent of loam and pine. I must be doing this.She drove the shovel into the soil heaped next to the grave, hefted the laden blade, and dumped the earth over Jean-Claude, trying to block out the thumping sound the soil made as it covered him. Even as Antonia scooped and tossed, her muscles aching from the effort, her heart stayed numb, and her mind kept playing out the last sight of her husband. The memory haunting her, she paused to catch her breath and wipe the sweat off her brow, her face hot from exertion in spite of the cool spring air.Antonia touched the tips of her dirty fingers to her lips. She could still feel the pressure of Jean-Claude__ mouth on hers as he__ kissed her before striding out the door for a day of hunting. She__ held up baby Jacques, and Jean-Claude had tapped his son__ nose. Jacques had let out a belly laugh that made his father respond in kind. Her heart had filled with so much love and pride in her family that she__ chuckled, too. Stepping outside, she__ watched Jean-Claude ruffle the dark hair of their six-year-old, Henri. Then he strode off, whistling, with his rifle carried over his shoulder. She__ thought it would be a good day__ normal day. She assumed her husband would return to their mountain home in the afternoon before dusk as he always did, unless he had a longer hunt planned.As Antonia filled the grave, she denied she was burying her husband. Jean-Claude be gone a checkin_ the trap line, she told herself, flipping the dirt onto his shroud.She moved through the nightmare with leaden limbs, a knotted stomach, burning dry eyes, and a throat that felt as though a log had lodged there. While Antonia shoveled, she kept glancing at her little house, where, inside, Henri watched over the sleeping baby. From the garden, she couldn__ see the doorway.She worried about her son__hat the glimpse of his father__ bloody body had done to the boy. Mon Dieu, she couldn__ stop to comfort him. Not yet. Henri had promised to stay inside with the baby, but she didn__ know how long she had before Jacques woke up. Once she finished burying Jean-Claude, Antonia would have to put her sons on a mule and trek to where she__ found her husband__ body clutched in the great arms of the dead grizzly. She wasn__ about to let his last kill lie there for the animals and the elements to claim. Her family needed that meat and the fur. She heard a sleepy wail that meant Jacques had awakened. Just a few more shovelfuls. Antonia forced herself to hurry, despite how her arms, shoulders, and back screamed in pain.When she finished the last shovelful of earth, exhausted, Antonia sank to her knees, facing the cabin, her back to the grave, placing herself between her sons and where their father lay. She should go to them, but she was too depleted to move.

A job isn__ __ill death do us part_

I particularly want you to meet Miss Bucholtz._ The very idea made him uneasy. __hy is that,Ma__m?_ he bluntly asked. Mrs. Morgan hesitated. __eep this under your hat, mind you._ __es, Ma__m._ She let out a tired sigh. ____e brought Miss Bucholtz to replace Mr. Gabellini._ Howie pictured a dried up old spinster with the same commanding presence as Mrs. Morgan, a real battle-axe. __ireworks are coming. Are you sure a woman is the right, uh, person for the job?_ __ertha Bucholz is one of the best cooks I know. I guarantee by this time next month, you men will all be sporting five extra pounds.

With the way Bertha can cook and her good-natured personality, she__l be married in no time. We__l see to it!_ She cast a speculative glance around. __hy I see ten available men within a hundred feet of us. ... Bertha will manage just fine_ I hope.

Howie rose and smiled down at her. __ just eat what__ put before me without being picky. I know everything you make will make my tastebuds bless the day you set foot in Morgan__ Crossing_ he drawled, waiting to see the adorable look of confusion that crossed her face when he flirted.Bertha lowered her gaze and looked up at him through her eyelashes.__nly your tastebuds?

Even through her coat, he could feel the curve of her arm, making him aware of their differences. Man and woman. Hard and soft.

Don__ be sorry, Darlin__, he said in his best cowboy drawl, __or I__ certainly not. It__ not every day a man like me gets to assist such a pretty lady. Any time you need help in or out of a wagon, you just give me a holler_ he said in a teasing tone, ____l be right there, hoping you__l fall in my arms again.

She sighed. __hat I wouldn__ give for a civilized bathroom._ Howie remained silent out of habit and also because he didn__ know what a civilized bathroom was.

Howie brought her hand to his lips. __ou stepped in front of me,_ he said in wonder. __ didn__ need you to. I can handle Prudence Morgan._ __ut you didn__._ She tapped his chest. __ou stayed quiet for the longest time before responding._ __uiet is how I handle difficult people_._ __ou don__ handle me that way._ Her voice came out sounding breathless. Howie slipped his arms around her. __f it were up to me, this is how I__ handle you._ Butterflies danced in her stomach. Not a fearful battering of wings, but a sparkling mating flight, making her heart soar into her throat. __hy isn__ it up to you?

...Ethan, but I'm certainly not the type of woman to just go home with two men whether I know them or not. It would be highly inappropriate, not to mention stupid.""And you're not stupid.""Not as far as I can tell"...

What will your family think, me showing up on their doorstep with my suitcase in hand?""I'll carry your suitcase," he said.

I think Livingston was going to steal a kiss in the moonlight." Lily wrinkled her nose. "Well, I certainly wouldn't have given him one. He made me too uncomfortable, and I just met him!" Tyler cupped her face with his hands, leaning closer. "What about me?" he said, his voice low. "Will you give one to me?" "I shouldn't." The lonely years stretched ahead of her. Her earlier vow to make memories rose and suddenly she was desperate for some kisses of Tyler's to remember. In answer to his question, she tilted her mouth to his.