Nora Roberts - Lawless

“So you went in after them.”

“They were screaming.” Her brows drew together as she remembered. “It sounded like women screaming. It was horrible.”

“Yeah, I know.” He remembered another barn, another fire, when the horses hadn’t been so lucky.

“I remember falling when I got out the last time. I think I was choking on the smoke. I started to get up. I don’t know what I was going to do. Then something hit me, I guess. One of the horses, perhaps. Or perhaps I simply fell again.” She opened her eyes and studied him. He was sitting on her bed, his hair disheveled and his eyes dark and intense. Beautiful, she thought. Then she wondered if she was delirious. “Then you were here. Why are you here?”

“Riding by this way. Saw the fire.” He looked into the cup of whiskey. If he was going to sit here much longer, watching what the lamplight did to her skin, he was going to need more than a cupful. “I also saw two riders heading away.”

“Away?” Righteous indignation had her sitting up again, despite the headache. “You mean someone was here and didn’t try to help?”

Jake gave her a long, even look. She looked so fragile, like something you put behind glass in a parlor.

Fragile or not, she had to know what she was up against. “I figure they weren’t here to help.” He watched as the realization seeped in. There was a flicker of fear. That was what he’d expected. What he hadn’t counted on and was forced to admire was the passion in her eyes.

“They came on my land? Burned down my shed?

Why?”

She’d forgotten that she was wearing no more than a shift, forgotten that it was past midnight and that she was alone with a man. She sat up, and the blanket dropped to pool at her waist. Her small, round breasts rose and fell with her temper. Her hair was loose. He’d never seen it that way before. Until that moment he hadn’t taken the time or the trouble to really look. A man’s hands could get lost in hair like that. The thought ran through his mind and was immediately banished. It glowed warm in the lamplight, sliding over her right shoulder and streaming down her back. Anger had brought the color back to her face and the golden glow back to her eyes.

‘He finished off the whiskey, reminding himself that he’d do well to keep his mind on the business at hand. “Seems logical to figure they wanted to give you some trouble, maybe make you think twice about keeping this place.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” She leaned forward. Jake shifted uncomfortably when her thin lawn gown gapped at the throat. “Why should anyone care about an adobe house and a few sagging sheds?” Jake set the cup down again. “You forgot the mine.

Some people’ll do a lot more than set a fire for gold.”

With a sound of disgust, Sarah propped her elbows on her knees. “Gold? Do you think my father would have lived like this if there’d been any significant amount of gold?”

“If you believe that, why are you staying?”

The brooding look left her eyes as she glanced back at him. “I don’t expect you to understand. This is all I have. All I have left of my father is this place and a gold watch.” She took the watch from the tilting table beside the bed and closed her hand around it. “I intend to keep what’s mine. If someone’s played a nasty joke-” Jake interrupted her. “Might’ve been a joke. It’s more likely somebody thinks this place is worth more than you say. Trying to burn horses alive and hitting women isn’t considered much of a joke. Even out here.”

She lifted a hand to the wound on her head. He was saying someone had struck her. And he was right, she acknowledged with a quick shudder. He was undoubtedly right. “No one’s going to scare me off my land. Tomorrow I’ll report this incident to the sheriff, and I’ll find a way to protect my property.”

“Just what way is that?”

“I don’t know.” She tightened her grip on the watch. The look in her eyes said everything. “But I’ll find it.”

Maybe she would, he thought. And maybe, since he didn’t care much for people setting fires, he’d help her. “Someone might be offering to buy this place from you,” Jake murmured, thinking ahead.

“I’m not selling. And I’m not running. If and when

I return to Philadelphia, it will be because I’ve decided that’s what I want to do, not because I’ve been frightened away.”

That was an attitude he could respect. “Fair enough. Since it appears you’re going to have your hands full tomorrow, you’d best get some sleep.”

“Yes.” Sleep? How could she possibly close her eyes? What if they came back?

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll bunk down outside.” Her eyes lifted to his and held them. The quiet understanding in them made her want to rest her head on his shoulder. He’d take care of her. She had only to ask. But she couldn’t ask.

“Of course, you’re welcome to. Mr. Redman…”

She remembered belatedly to drag the blanket up to her shoulders. “I’m in your debt again. It seems you’ve come to my aid a number of times in a very short acquaintance.”

“I didn’t have to go out of my way much.” He started to rise, then thought better of it. “I got a question for you.”

Because she was feeling awkward again, she offered him a small, polite smile. “Yes?”

“Why’d you ask me not to kiss you?”

Her fingers tightened on the blanket. “I beg your pardon?”

“When you were coming to, you took a good, long look at me, and then you told me not to kiss you.” She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. Dignity, she told herself. Even under circumstances like these, a woman must keep her dignity. “Apparently I wasn’t in my right senses.”

He thought that through and then unnerved her by smiling. For his own satisfaction, he reached out to touch the ends of her hair. “A man could take that two ways.”

She sputtered. The lamplight shifted across his face.

Light, then shadow. It made him look mysterious, exciting. Forbidden. Sarah found it almost as difficult to breathe as she did when her stays were too tight. “Mr.

Redman, I assure you-”

“It made me think.” He was close now, so close that she could feel his breath flutter over her lips. They parted, seemingly of their own volition. He took the time-a heartbeat, two-to flick his gaze down to them. “Maybe you’ve been wondering about me kissing you.”

“Certainly not.” But her denial lacked the ring of truth. They both knew it.

“I’ll have to give it some thought myself.” The trouble was, he’d been giving it too much thought already. The way she looked right now, with her hair loose around her shoulders and her eyes dark, just a little scared, made him not want to think at all. He knew that if he touched her, head wound or not, he’d climb right in the bed with her and take whatever he wanted.

He was going to kiss her. Her head swam with the idea. He had only to lean closer and his mouth would be on hers. Hard. Somehow she knew it would be hard, firm, masterful. He could take her in his arms right now and there would be nothing she could do about it. Maybe there was nothing she wanted to do about it.

Then he was standing. For the first time she noticed that he had to stoop so that his head didn’t brush the roof. His body blocked the light. Her heart was thudding so hard that she was certain he must hear it. For the life of her, she couldn’t be sure if it was fear or excitement. Slowly he leaned over and blew out the lamp.

In the dark, he moved down from the loft and out into the night.

Shivering, Sarah huddled under the blanket. The man was-She didn’t have words to describe him.

The only thing she was certain of was that she wouldn’t sleep a wink.