After the Ashes(15)

Lorelei released a sigh of relief as she watched him ride away. Up until then, Braddock and she had both kept their gazes trained on Langston. Now she glanced at Braddock’s hard profile. He stared at the place Langston had been as if even the dust from the man’s horse posed a threat.

Though she had been glad to see Braddock, even grateful for his intervention with the deputy marshal, her relief evaporated. Now that the other threat had disappeared, she wondered what this one had in store for her. Heat flushed her cheeks and belly as she remembered his departing words at their last meeting. What he might demand besides a meal filled her with more anticipation than dread.

“Do you think he believed you?” she asked when he continued to stare at the horizon.

“No.”

Lorelei gripped one of the porch’s rough posts for support. Not only did she have to worry about Corey hanging, she was in trouble with the law herself. Her only ally was this man—a stranger, a bounty hunter, who stirred unwanted longings without so much as a glance in her direction. Still, she had no one else to trust.

“What are we going to do?” she asked. She openly studied him. His long legs boasted heavily muscled thighs that tested the seams of his wool trousers. A black cotton shirt stretched across broad shoulders that made his hips look lean in comparison.

He turned abruptly and looked at her, forcing a quick prayer from Lorelei that he hadn’t caught her inspecting that particular part of his anatomy. The way his gaze started at her bare feet and moved up her body gave her the distinct impression that he’d felt more than seen her ogling him, and his reason for returning to the ranch had nothing to do with Corey.

He stepped onto the porch. She resisted the urge to back away, telling herself she had nothing to fear except her sudden desire to be near him. When he rested his hands on her bare shoulders, her breath hitched at the skin to skin contact.

“We’re going to play house to fool Langston. How real you want it to look depends on how fast you can get dressed.”

Lorelei rushed for the shelter of the adobe. With the door secured behind her, she picked through the mess on the floor, trying to find a petticoat. She tugged on the first garments she found, a gray bodice and a brown calico skirt, not caring that they didn’t match. Her immediate need to be dressed had as much to do with her rush of unladylike lust at his words as with his words themselves.

Despite her best efforts, he pushed open the door before she could finish buttoning her bodice. He didn’t falter at her shocked expression but strode toward the bed and picked up his gun belt. He buckled the tooled leather around his hips and swaggered back out the door. Lorelei followed him as she pushed the last cloth-covered button through its hole.

Braddock had already unsaddled his horse.

“What are you doing?”

He turned briefly. “Can you make me something to eat?”

She tucked her hands under her folded arms, hugging herself protectively. A woman in her prime shouldn’t be so vulnerable. She should have been safely married off years ago. Part of Lorelei desperately wanted him to leave so she could regain a sense of control over herself, but she’d promised him a home-cooked meal. Of course, what else he might expect was a concern.

“I’ll be glad to make you breakfast or dinner, but—”

“Whatever you make is fine as long as it’s quick. I need to mend the shed so it’s sturdy enough to protect Lucky before this storm breaks.” He studied a darkening sky. “Bound to be hail.”

Lorelei followed his gaze. Tall, well defined clouds crowded the horizon. They drifted closer with the force and authority of a slow-moving locomotive. Even the clouds out here in the West were threatening.

She glanced back at Braddock. “So you’ll be staying until the storm passes?”

Braddock towel dried his horse with powerful strokes. It stretched its long mahogany neck, apparently loving the attention. “I said I’m staying till your brother shows up or Langston believes you’re not a suspect.”

“I don’t think for a moment he’ll believe we’re married.”

“But I think he’ll believe that we’re…friendly.” He stared in a way that warned her he was thinking of her trip to his hotel room. She checked the buttons of her bodice to assure herself she was properly covered. That their relationship in truth swayed toward indecent rather than matrimonial didn’t stop Lorelei from being insulted.

She folded her arms over her chest, hating the fact that being “friendly” with him wasn’t as unappealing as it should be. “Couldn’t you have thought of something else to tell him?”