Half dressed and going for naked…
Starlight Tyler needs to lose her virginity, as in yesterday. With her mother, a Pinkerton, and a wealthy man she doesn’t love on her tail, there’s only one place to cut their cruel intentions off at the pass—get herself back into the arms of long-lost love Cordero Tate. Pronto.
She never expected to be tripped up by someone else’s past.
Sheriff Cordero Tate is a haunted man on a mission. Come hell or high water, he’ll round up every member of the gang responsible for the deaths of his wife and unborn child…and make damned sure he never puts his heart on the line again. As in never impregnating another woman. One look at Star, though, and all the old feelings come back in a rush. Worse, she’s just as determined to brand him as hers as he is to keep her chaste.
Their exploration of ways around that impasse leads to three nights of unbearable sensual pleasure. Until her past catches up to her…
Warning: This story contains a lot of hard ridin’, some ass kickin’, and a whole lot of lovin’ goin’ on. No doors left unopened.
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520
Macon GA 31201
Seducing the Sheriff
Copyright © 2009 by Marie-Nicole Ryan
ISBN: 978-1-60504-846-8
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: December 2009
www.samhainpublishing.com
Seducing the Sheriff
Marie-Nicole Ryan
Dedication
This is dedicated to all those movie cowboys of the Old West. You kept me entertained for many a weekend.
It’s also dedicated to my pal Jody Wallace, for all her on-target suggestions.
Chapter One
In the far distance of the hill country, Star made out the silhouette of a lone rider headed for the Tyler spread. He sat tall in the saddle and rode like his mama had birthed him there. Even the distance and the yellow dust swirling among the cedar and scrub oak couldn’t hide the wide set of his shoulders.
Wide shoulders or not, she was alone on the ranch. Every single ranch hand had left two days ago on the cattle drive to the nearest railhead at Abilene, including her ornery drunk of a father who managed to leave off his drinking long enough to head it up.
She ran inside to the gun rack and grabbed the twelve-gauge shotgun her pa always kept there for shooting rattlers and other varmints.
Maybe it was time for a little target practice.
Varmints—yeah, she knew all about ’em, especially the ones with two legs. Only the ones in Boston wore better clothes, and some of them even spoke politely, but varmints they were, through and through.
She broke down the shotgun and popped in two shells then jammed two more into her pants pocket. She closed the weapon and hoped she hadn’t forgotten how to hit where she was aiming.
She eased out the front door and waited in the shadows of the porch before slipping behind an ancient lone cedar. Its trunk was just the right size to conceal her body and the shotgun.
Come on. Let me get a look at you.
Perspiration gathered in sticky dampness between her breasts while she waited. Cowboy didn’t seem to be in any great hurry. She wiped the sweat from her brow and watched him work his way down the hill and stop at the gate. Damned if she wasn’t going to melt if he didn’t hurry up and state his business.
“Whoa.” Sheriff Cordero Tate reined in his horse and stopped at the front gate of the Tyler spread. He pulled off his hat and wiped his brow with his forearm. The dang Texas sun was high at midday and beat down on his head like a sonofabitch. Maybe he was just pissed off because a low-down, bank-robbing skunk, Tom Tyler, had gotten away again. While he didn’t expect to run across him at his pa’s ranch, it wouldn’t hurt to have a look-see.
“Buck Tyler!” Cord called the warning, “Sheriff Tate here!” Caution and common sense went a long way when dealing with Buck Tyler. The man was as ornery as a sidewinder with a headache on his good days. And on a bad one, he was as likely to shoot first and damn the questions. Old Buck was a law unto himself. No wonder his son took up bank robbing.
The sound of a readied shotgun ratcheted though the still, dry air. “Hold it right there. What d’you want?” A woman’s voice, throaty and tight with tension.
A woman? Cord twisted around in the saddle, searching for her location. Found her right enough. She peeked from behind the only tree in ten miles and had a shotgun aimed at his head. A frown drew her dark red brows together, but the rest of her was a damn pleasing sight.
Star. Come home at last.
And what the hell was she wearing? Was she supposed to be a woman or one of her pa’s cowhands? Blue denim breeches showed the slim curves of her hips, and a plaid shirt didn’t begin to hide the swell of her full tits. His cock hardened at the thought of what it’d be like finally to crawl between those long legs and bed her proper. Lord, the nights he’d turned and tossed dreaming about that very thing. He shook his head and pushed the thoughts away. Crawling in bed with the bank robber’s little sis was a guaranteed invite for a bullet in the back of the head.
“Well, well. If it isn’t little Starlight Tyler. Been a while. Didn’t know you’d come home from Boston. Home to stay, are you?”
“Well, I have, and I am.” Her tone was dry as sage brush, each word clipped with a hint of the Northeast.
“Appears to me you’ve grown up some.” He grinned then started to swing his leg over the saddle.
The twelve-gauge didn’t waver. “I said hold it.” There was an underlying rasp of steel in her tone. “You don’t have any business here.”
He stopped and reseated himself. “I’m mighty thirsty, Star. Man can stop for a drink of water, can’t he? Where’s your pa? I’ve a mind to talk to him about Tom.”
“Pa’s not here. Gone to Abilene with the rest of the hands. Haven’t seen Tom since I came home.” Her grip on the gun was rock steady. Buck Tyler’s son might be a bank robber, but his daughter wasn’t. Of the many memories he had of her, it was her redheaded temper that first came to mind. Easy to see she hadn’t changed all that much. Might as well test how far she was willing to go. “I’m pretty parched. I need that drink.” He stood in the stirrups, swung his leg over the back of the horse and dismounted.
She gave a curt nod toward his horse. “You’ve a canteen…” Then her expression softened. Her stance relaxed. She set down the twelve-gauge and let it rest against her thigh. Leaning her back against the tree, she crossed her arms over her breasts. “Sheriff Tate? Since when?” Her tone teased as finally she gave him that old familiar smile. “Town must be pretty desperate. When did they start letting young ’uns take on such responsibility. Are you even shaving yet?”
He rubbed his whiskered chin and grinned. “Twenty-five’s not that young. Besides, no one else wanted the job. You’d know if you hadn’t run off to Boston to live with your ma.” He raked his gaze up and down her slim body. “Can’t see they citified you much at all.”
“Spent four years there. Didn’t take to citifying.” She gazed off into the distance. “These hills and this valley, not to mention the blazing hot sun, get into your blood. The cities back East are—” She broke off and shivered. “Winters are cold. The chill, it seeps into your bones and kills your spirit. Not to mention, how unfriendly and snooty some of the folks are.”
“Lot’s happened since you left,” he said, not quite knowing how to broach the subject. Marriage, wife and a little baby girl…all dead two years. Yeah, a lot had happened.
“Let’s see. My pa’s a worse drunk than he was before I left. My brother’s a bank robber, and there’s no one to run this spread but the foreman and me. And I aim to do it.” She nodded sharply. “Say, I thought you were thirsty. Come on. Fill your canteen at the well. Still has the best water in fifty square miles. Might as well give your horse a rest, too. Looks like he’s been ridden hard.”
“I’ll say. Been on Tom’s trail nigh onto a week.” Reins in hand, Cord led his horse to the trough then followed Star to the well.
Star’s hands shook, but she kept them in front of her so Cord couldn’t tell how much seeing him after four long—damn long—years affected her. He was a man grown all right, in every sense of the word. Four years older than she, he was a good head taller. His craggy face was darkened by the sun, but the warmth of his dark eyes hadn’t changed since the time he teased her at the age of six and dropped a mess of earthworms in her lap in the town’s one-room schoolhouse. And sadly enough at one time, he and her half-brother had been the best of friends.
Now they were on the opposite sides of the law.
More important, this Cord Tate with his double six-shooters was nothing like the lecherous lawyer with sweaty hands and unyielding mouth her mother tried to marry her off to back East. Her mama’s re-entry into polite society and Star was the price. It’d taken Mama four years to find a man with the right setup—respectability, money, social position—who was willing to take an old maid daughter off her hands.
No indeed.
An unfamiliar stirring of emotions hit her from the moment Cord identified himself. While she might’ve had a schoolgirl’s crush before her mother dragged her along to Boston, what she felt now didn’t feel very girlish. Her feminine core clenched at the sight of his long legs and muscular thighs while he cared for his horse before filling his canteen. A man who took good care of his horse would treat his woman with respect, too. But was it respect she wanted?
Never mind what she wanted. She needed a husband and needed one fast before they dispatched someone else to bring her back. And Cordero Tate fit the bill on both accounts.
“I’m glad you came home. Never dreamed you would.” His tone was deep and soft. The richness of it resonated deep within her, turning her into a warm pool of…need? Was there even a word that described how she felt at seeing him again? More than anything she wanted to surrender to impulse and throw her arms around his neck.
Anything to erase her lingering revulsion of Teddy Darwin. She shook her head in an attempt to erase the memories. But none of that emotional stuff mattered. What mattered was keeping to her plan of seducing and marrying Cord as soon as possible. She’d only been home three days. His showing up uninvited and unexpected was an omen. And every minute counted.
She fluttered her lashes. “My mother—”
“How come she let you come back? I would’ve thought with her family’s connections, she’d marry you off to some rich fellow.”
“She tried.” She averted her gaze, remembering how the oh-so-upright Theodore Darwin’s clammy hands felt on her thighs when he tried to force them into her underwear. She shivered again. Barely an hour after her mother informed her she was engaged to the middle-aged lawyer, he’d tried to force himself on her. Randy old goat—had to be forty if he was a day. Still, she bet it’d be the last time he tried to force a woman without her say-so.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she met his gaze. “I ran away.” Twice. “And I’m not going back. You can’t make me.”
His dark gaze softened. “Darlin’, nobody’s gonna make you go back there. You’re home now.”
If only it were that easy.
His strong arms surrounded her. She gave in to his warmth and relaxed in his embrace. Her entire body twitched, and all she cared about was the sandpapery touch of his warm, callused hands caressing her. Quite a contrast to the way old Teddy made her feel. By damn, she’d never let another man make her feel like a cheap whore again.
Cord was her answer. Better than she could’ve ever hoped. And why shouldn’t he marry her? They were in love before she left. Nothing had changed. She could see heat in his gaze. And she’d make him a good wife.
She gazed into his warm brown eyes. “I’m yours, Cord. Why do you think I came back? We were always meant for each other. Make me your woman.”
He dropped his hands and stepped back. His eyes widened, and shock scrawled in uneasy lines across his handsome face. He ran his fingers through his hair, blue-black as a crow’s wing, a gift from his Mexican mother.
“God-amighty, woman. Have you no shame? Is this how decent women in the city talk?”
The heat of embarrassment flushed her entire body and flooded her cheeks until they were so hot they must’ve been fiery red. What was it her mama said? Desperate times called for desperate measures.
She stiffened, scowled and dared him to interrupt. “Seems like making me your woman was exactly what you had in mind the night before my mama jerked me onto that eastbound train. Guess you’ve changed your mind.” She whirled and ran for the house.
“Hold on!”
She reached the door first, but he clapped a hand on her shoulder and whipped her around to face him. “Lot of water under that bridge. You got no idea.”
Tears threatening to spill down her cheeks, she glared at him. A burst of fury and a mixture of fear drew her innards into knots. Her heart thundered loud as cattle stampeding headlong toward a sheer cliff. “No idea? You’re the one with no idea. You could’ve claimed me then. Stopped mama from taking me away. If you’d just stepped up and said the word, I’d have been yours these last four years.”
“What and let you pass up the great life you were supposed to have back East? Your ma said—”
“What’d she say?” Star clenched her fists, but at the same time a curl of hope flickered in her belly. “Did she actually stop you…?”
“Yeah, she did. Said I was selfish to keep you here in this backwater. Said I didn’t really love you ’cause I was too young and stupid to know the difference between a lady and the half-Mex son of a rancher.”
“My mama?” Star straightened her spine and hissed, “In spite of her family connections, we were treated like poor relations. So she tried to barter me off to the highest bidder like a prize heifer. It was her big plan to regain entrance into polite society. I was supposed to marry this despicable man…a lawyer…and he was old.” In spite of her best efforts to remain in control, the last came out as a wail.
She rested her head on his chest and sniffed. Against her ear, his heart pounded almost as loud as hers. “I didn’t know she talked to you. All I did know was that you didn’t so much as come to the train station to say good-bye.” She paused and gazed into his eyes. “I cried all the way to North Carolina until she threatened to slap me silly if I didn’t stop.”
Gently Cord nudged up her chin until her gaze met his. “Darlin’, I didn’t think I deserved someone as sweet as you.” He dipped his head and kissed her full on the lips. His mouth was warm and tender, nothing like the lawyer’s. Cord’s every touch felt so right. Her body grew heavy with desire. Her knees weakened until she thought she might faint. His tongue swept inside her mouth, and his hands splayed down her back until he cupped her bottom and pulled her close to his hard cock.
Her body grew rigid. She tried to pull away. So, he wanted her, too. But she needed more than a quick roll in the hay…although turning down his overtures didn’t have a lot of app
eal at the moment. After all, she’d come home to trap him into marriage. It was the only way to keep her mother and old Teddy Darwin at bay.
If she were safely married, this time whoever Darwin sent after her would have no choice but to return to Boston empty-handed.
“So…you want to be my woman?” His tone was raspy and breathless, his breath hot on her neck. “I can’t marry you.”
“You can’t? But you have to. I-I need more.” What the Hades was the matter with him? What had she done wrong? Dammit. His hard member was pressing into her belly. She hadn’t done anything wrong…yet.
He scowled down at her and adjusted his crotch. “You need more than this, darlin’?”
She scowled up at him. “Yes, dang it. I’m talking something more serious than the size of your…your Johnson.”
His darker-than-night eyes glazed over. “Serious? You mean …marriage?”
“Of course, what else did you think I meant?”
He straightened then stepped back. He shook his head as he held up his hands between them. “Marriage ain’t for me. Not again.” He turned and headed down the steps.
“Again?” Disbelief shoved its ugly face into her heart. She took a deep breath and spit out the question, “Did you say ‘again’?” Dear Heaven, the one time she tentatively broached the subject, her pa had said Cord wasn’t married. Why hadn’t she stopped to consider he might’ve married in the four years she’d been gone? Maybe because most Texas men didn’t marry ’til later if they married at all. What made him rush down that road?
He whirled to face her, his handsome features hard as stone, his lips a thin, firm line. “Told ya, a lot happened while you were back East. Got married couple years after you left. She died…and our baby with her. Won’t take any chances. Not again.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” But dammit! The past was past. She needed a husband bad and she needed him now. “So, just like that—you’re walking away from me. Again?”
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