Passions Wild And Free

by Janelle Taylor

  “I hope so, Brody. If any mail comes for me, keep it until I get back. I’m planning to leave most of my clothes in storage at the hotel. You’ll ask the clerk to guard them carefully, won’t you?” Randee knew she was being flirtatious and deceitful, but Brody was eating up the attention and necessary lies. She wished she didn’t have to fool him like this, but he would try to stop her or follow her if she didn’t carry out this provocative ruse.

  “Don’t worry about anything, Dee. Would you like more coffee?”

  “It’s late, Brody, and I have a busy day tomorrow. I should get back to my room. I’ll come by your office for a visit when I go out to purchase my stage ticket. Since you don’t have any prisoners, we could get Mrs. Scott to prepare us a nice meal to eat at the jail, like an indoor picnic. That way, we can talk and visit privately on our last night together. I mean”— she explained in a whisper and with a blush—”Look around— everyone is watching us and trying to eavesdrop.”

  Brody knew she was correct, and he was stimulated by her cozy suggestion. “That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll handle it in the morning.”

  They walked to Randee’s door in silence. She unlocked it and turned to bid the sheriff good night. “I’ll ‘ see you tomorrow, Brody. Thanks for a lovely dinner. I appreciate your taking care of everything for me while I’m gone. I’ll return soon, I promise.”

  “You know how I feel about you, Dee. I love you and want to marry you. While you’re gone, I want you to consider my proposal.”

  Randee met his adoring gaze and said, “You know you mean a lot to me, Brody. I’ll think about it seriously while I’m away.”

  “If you think hard and fast,” the lawman encouraged hopefully, “you can give me your answer tomorrow night while we’re having our picnic at the jail. I’ll make sure we aren’t disturbed, even if I have to refuse a prisoner lodgings for the night: I’m going to miss you.”

  Brody glanced around to make certain they were alone, then pulled Randee into his arms and kissed her. To Randee, the kiss was pleasant, but nothing stirring or shocking. She felt Brody quiver and knew she was arousing him. It was nice to know she had such a powerful effect on a man, but she didn’t want to tease him unkindly.

  She genially freed herself from his embrace. “Someone might see us and gossip. We’ll discuss this matter later. Good night, Brody. Until tomorrow,” she murmured and kissed his mouth lightly. She entered her room, closed the door, locked it, and went to the bed. She lay down across it and sighed heavily.

  She heard Brody walk away before she rose to slip into her nightgown. She had bathed before dinner, so her skin felt comfortable on this cool evening. She put away her clothing, doused the lantern, and eased between the sheets. She was alone in the dark; now she could think about Marsh Logan and their plans ….

  Randee mentally went over everything that had happened that day. She hated to think about killing Luther Crebbs, but he would have done the same to her. Since she was going after the Epson Gang, she had to be prepared to shoot more men. No, not men, but devilish beasts!

  She curled to her side and recalled her first meeting with Marsh. He had been backing out of the saloon while trying to discourage an overly eager workinggirl. The sapphire-clad female had wanted Marsh badly— no doubt for free— and Randee couldn’t blame the woman, knowing how terrible some of her customers must be. Despite the woman’s fumbling and persistent hands, Marsh’s refusal had been delivered kindly and gently ….

  Randee did not scream as she watched a dark shadow enter her side window and slip toward her bed. Her right hand eased beneath the pillow and she firmly grasped the butt of her gun. She was careful to keep her breathing normal and to lie still, feigning sleep. To prevent a mistake by acting too swiftly, she waited for the man to get closer.

  A familiar fragrance teased her nostrils. Apprehension was replaced by anticipation. It was as if thinking of him had summoned him. Yet, she wondered why he was sneaking into her room at midnight. As he reached the foot of the bed and hesitated there, Randee lifted the gun and uncocked it as she said, “I could have shot you, Marsh. I thought you were miles away by now. Is anything wrong?”

  Marsh came to her side and asked quietly, “How did you know it was me? It’s nearly black in here.”

  She whispered, “I recognized your smell. That’s nice cologne.”

  “You took quite a risk; I’m not the only man who wears it.”

  “But it smells different on each man. What if I had screamed?”

  “I was planning to sneak up on you and to clasp my hand over your mouth like this,” he replied, doing so as he took the gun from her grasp and pinned her body to the bed. “You’re quick, smart, and alert, Miss Hollis, but I thought you needed more testing, since my life’s going to be in your hands on the trail. If you’ve got good skills when you think you’re safe, then you’ll have better ones when you know you’re in danger. I’m glad to learn you don’t panic and lose your head. Yep, you’ve got good instincts and skills, Miss Hollis, but you drop your guard too quickly.” He laid her gun on the bedside table.

  Randee playfully rolled him to his back and promptly placed a knife blade at his throat, one cleverly taken from beneath the other pillow while he was distracted. “Is that a fact, Mr. Logan?” she teased. “What now, my all-too-trusting partner? I could slice your throat before you could move an inch. I wonder if I should cut out your scolding tongue or pardon you. I may not be as good as you, Durango, but I’m not half bad. If you were anyone else, I could have killed you twice by now. Be grateful for my marvelous self-control, and the fact that I need you.” She smothered her laughter as. she put the knife aside and asked, “Now, what brings you here so late?”

  Marsh chuckled softly and admitted, “I’m most impressed.” He rolled to his side and propped his head on his folded elbow. He gazed into the darkness toward her, wishing he could pierce its cover. He had enjoyed the brief contact with her and found himself wanting more of it, more of her. “I can see there’s no reason to test you further, partner. I came back to make certain you weren’t injured this afternoon. I couldn’t ask in front of the sheriff, but you were holding your arm when I came in.”

  “Very perceptive,” she murmured, then explained most of what had happened inside the bank. “After what you did today, there’s no need to test you further or to doubt that I’ll be in good hands.”

  There was silence for a time as both pondered another meaning to her last sentence. Heavy emotion steadily filled the room as each became more aware of the other and their closeness.

  Randee shifted modestly. She suggested, “I think we should talk somewhere else, Marsh. This isn’t proper.”

  “Relax, Miss Hollis. I promise to keep my greedy hands off of you tonight, and I can’t see a thing in this darkness.”

  “You could see well enough to find my bed and disarm me.”

  “I could see the foot of the bed shining in the moonlight. I planned to follow it up to you. As for the gun, it could only be one place—in your right hand—and I was touching you then. You should try doing things in the dark sometimes; it heightens the senses. There won’t always be daylight or a full moon when we’re working on the Epson Gang. You should learn how to move about silently and handle tasks in pitch black. Can you saddle a horse and load a gun in the dark?”

  “Yes,” she replied confidently.

  “Sneak up on someone over any kind of terrain?”

  Randee sat up, crossed her legs, and held the sheet before her. “I’m not sure, but you can teach me what I don’t know. I have worked at night with my father when we were troubled by rustlers, and I was as good as any son could have been; my father said so many times. But I realize foiling thieves isn’t the same as creeping up on a large gang of killers. What are you laughing at?”

  “You, Miss Hollis. Evidently you don’t trust me tonight or you wouldn’t be poised to escape. Do you really need to clutch that sheet so tightly? I swear I can’t see you over there, and I don’t han
dle a woman who resists me. Relax, I’m nailed to’ this side of the bed.”

  “I thought you said you can’t see me,” she scolded.

  “I’m lying on the sheet, so I can feel you pulling on it and hear your fingers gripping it like crazy. If you can’t trust me here in town, how do you plan to trust me when we’re out there alone?”

  “I don’t want to make any disturbance here. But out there, if you misbehave, I’ll chop off your hand, loudly” she warned.

  “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll sit in the chair over there. Trouble is, we can’t whisper at that distance. Well?” he prompted.

  Randee realized she was being foolish because he was making her nervous with his awesome temptation. He wasn’t going to harm the person who was hiring him for ten thousand dollars. And he wasn’t going to accost her sexually. Maybe she was annoyed because he wasn’t coming after her romantically. It was crazy to feel that way, because she didn’t want this charming rogue to enchant and dupe her like Payton Slade was doing to her mother back in Kansas. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m being silly. I’m just unaccustomed to having a …”

  “A man in your room at night?” Marsh playfully finished for her.

  “A stranger in my room,” she mildly corrected, just to taunt him.

  He promptly changed the subject. “I like the way you protected my wages and pulled off that sneaky exchange. What would you have done if those bandits had made off with my reward money?”

  “Since I had already hired you for a specific job and made the required deposit’, Mister Logan, it was your money they were stealing. Before the robbery attempt, I left a sealed letter in the bank safe, which guarantees you’re to be paid the ten thousand dollars I placed there, if you can prove to the sheriff and the bank that you personally defeated the Epson Gang, whether or not I return alive. Naturally I appreciate your rescuing my remaining cash, but the main loss would have been yours. If you care to check, you’ll find that your payment is at the bank, waiting to be earned and collected. Whether we have a signed contract or not, it’s the only. way you can get your hands on that money. It’s in our names, Marsh, but the letter authorizes payment to you, so I’m not responsible for its safety. Agreed?”

  “So, you do trust me. Well, I’ll be damned,” he murmured, then chuckled softly. “I appreciate your confidence, Randee; I don’t get much of it from people, so I won’t let you down, ever. Don’t you fret; we’ll make a good team, and I won’t let anything happen to you.” Marsh immediately knew he shouldn’t have spoken so intensely, so he hurried on, “I rode out of town and doubled back. Your sweetheart had me followed. Does that mean he doesn’t trust you, or me?”

  Randee was elated by Marsh’s fervent words and tone, even though he hastily brushed over them like a fleeing man hiding his tracks. For certain, Marsh Logan didn’t like being vulnerable to anything or to anyone. Did she make him nervous, susceptible, wary? Her pulse quickened and a tingly sensation raced over her exceptionally warm body, making her aware that he had that intimidating effect on her. This man got to her more frequently and easily than was comfortable! To disguise her weakness for him, she reasoned, “Brody’s smart. Maybe he wanted to make certain the infamous Durango Kid got out of his territory. Or maybe neither one of us fooled him.”

  “No way, Miss Hollis. I saw you working him over good in the bank, and in the restaurant tonight. You had him bound tighter than a cow’s legs for branding, and he was lapping up your milky words like a starving kitten. I was watching you two from the roof. I thought you never would get back so we could talk. Mighty nice of him to seat you in front of the window across the street; probably trying to show you off or let the other men know about his claim on you.” Marsh didn’t tell Randee he had sneaked into the room next door so he could overhear her talk with Brody before returning to the roof to slip into her room. “Yesiree, Old Wade was eating up those sugary words you were pouring out. Are all women this good at fooling reckless men?”

  Randee was insulted, so she answered curtly, “I wouldn’t know, Mr. Logan. I don’t make a practice of duping my good friends, and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. The only reason I misled Brody was because you insisted it was vital. So it had better be!”

  “You planning to marry that respectable sheriff after you get your revenge?” the words seemed to slip uncontrollably from his lips.

  “That’s none of your business, and I don’t like your spying on me. It’s past time for you to leave. I’m tired and it’s late.”

  “Just two more questions and I’ll be gone. Where did you get ten thousand dollars? And who shot Luther Crebbs the second time?”

  “What do either of those questions have to do with our partnership?” she asked, unnerved by his inquisitiveness.

  “Just curious on the first point, and mad about the second one.”

  “Mad? Why?” she inquired, altering her position to relax the strain on her muscles.

  “I don’t want a reputation for overkill. That first shot was enough to finish him off in a few minutes. I don’t want people thinking I shot a dying man. Who fired that bullet, Miss Hollis? It came from inside the bank and that teller was too scared to move.” “Then you already know it was me without asking. How was I to know he was mortally wounded? He was calling me horrible names and trying to grab me as a hostage. He had already tried to break my arm and knocked me around and threatened to kill me. If you’re so damn good with your one-shot kills, why did he have the time and strength to come after me?”

  Marsh saw he was antagonizing her over a difficult action, so he explained, “I usually like to give a man time to say his final prayers.”

  Still miffed, she scoffed, “Do that with the Epson Gang and it’ll be us praying for a last time.”

  “Yes, ma’am, boss lady. Any other orders besides kill ‘em quick?” he inquired mischievously to calm her down.

  Randee said angrily, “I don’t understand you, Marsh Logan! You change every minute or two! How will I ever get to know you so I can trust you implicitly? Be honest and serious, will you?”

  “How can I, when I promised to keep my hands off of you? If I’m honest, I’d have to admit I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since I knocked you into the street this afternoon. If I’m serious, I’d do exactly that and more, and make you madder than you are right now. Yep, nothing would please me more than to curl up to you and sleep right here tonight. I’m afraid that would complicate a purely business arrangement and dull our wits on the trail. So, it’s best if I get moving pronto. I’ll see you somewhere along the road Thursday or Friday.” Marsh got off the bed and headed for the open window.

  Randee’s mind echoed his words this afternoon. They had only known each other for a few hours, but it seemed more like months. Her thoughts and emotions were running wild and free. The reality of his imminent departure pained and panicked her. She was being so cold and curt with him. What if she provoked him into … She hopped off the bed and followed him. “You will meet me, won’t you, Marsh?”

  The gunslinger turned to make out her face in the pale moonlight, his eyes adjusting quickly. She was looking up at him with those large green eyes which had bewitched Brody Wade earlier. She was moistening those pink lips which had deceived, then kissed, the cocky sheriff. She was interlacing fingers which Brody Wade had held so affectionately at the supper table. That silken tawny hair fell around her shoulders like a cape of shimmering gold, and he wondered if the sheriffs greedy hands had stroked it. A nightgown, which was the color of his eyes, rested lightly against her” assuredly soft flesh, guarding it from his view. Mercy, she was an overwhelming temptation, one he’d been fighting for hours!

  He had observed them at supper, being too friendly in public! He had spied on them in the hallway, being too intimate for good taste! He was irrationally peeved over several things: Brody’s declaration of love and his proposal, Brody’s past and present relationship with Randee, and the romantic picnic scheduled for Wednesday night. When she had said,
“Good night, Brody. Until tomorrow,” it had been spoken so honey sweet he had gotten sticky just listening!

  What, he wondered, was the matter with him? He had never felt or behaved this crazy way before. He was envious of the time which Brody Wade had spent— and would spend—with this enthralling creature, and that was most troubling. Jealousy? Now there was an admission which didn’t sit well with him, one which annoyed him just as much as the thought of Randee’s marrying the man who had ordered him to get out of town! Marsh chided himself, Why should I feel and act like I’ve got a tormenting, unreachable burr in my pants? She’s leaving town with me, not Wade. And she’s lied to him, but not to me. Besides, she can’t be stuck on Wade if she’s leaning in my direction! Then, he mused, there was the curious matter of her withholding crucial evidence from the lawman ….

  Randee was disturbed by his lengthy silence and intense study of her. She wondered what to do if he reached for her tonight; more so, if he backed out on her and vanished forever. Worriedly, she asked, “You haven’t changed your mind about our working together, have you?”

  “Nope,” he replied as he regained his composure, which wasn’t easy, with her staring up into his face. “I just want to make sure Wade isn’t trailing you before I show my face. As taken as he is with you, it wouldn’t surprise me none if he followed you all.the way to Dodge City. So don’t get worried if I lay back a day or two. I’ll be within sight of the stagecoach at all times, but keep that gun handy. You’re good with it and the road can be a dangerous place.”

  “Where are your boots?” she asked when he, preparing to climb out, placed a sock-clad foot on the windowsill.

  “I left them on the roof to prevent any noise. You should lock this window; it’s too easy to slip over the edge and get into your room. Be careful, Randee. I won’t be around for a while to protect you. If any strangers come to town, hide until they leave. If you’re not on the stage, I’ll know something’s wrong and I’ll come back for you.”