Read Online Annabelle Weston by Scandalous Woman - Free Book Online Page A

Much as Jed preferred her in a friendly mood, he couldn’t give in.
    “ What are we supposed to do, Sheriff? How are we gonna make a living?” She tapped her foot.
    Jed groaned in frustration. He should have known it would be hard to convince Carly a curfew would protect them until the gang was caught, and there was no other way. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
    “ I can take care of myself.”
    “ You won’t have a life to claim if these men come back in here and shoot up your saloon.”
    She lifted her chin higher. “Maybe you ought to go back where you came from.
    Things seemed to be a lot better when you weren’t around.”
    Jed had annoyed her. Maybe after she was finished telling him off, after her temper cooled down to a slow simmer, they could have a repeat of her sex play? He’d a craving to show her just what he could do.
    “ You wound me, sweetheart. I caught those bank robbers my first day on the job. You should be grateful.”
    She sucked in a lungful of breath, ready to give him a good scolding, he reckoned.
    He lowered his voice to a growl. “And if I’m not mistaken, you enjoyed that little dance of yours just as much as I did.”
    She scoffed. “That was only to prove a point. I didn’t enjoy it at all. And look what your first day of catching criminals got us? A gang of outlaws coming to shoot up the town and breaking our windows. Now you’re telling me I need to close of my business.”
    “ I didn’t say you had to close down your business completely. You can stay open until six.”
    “ Really?”
    “ And you damn well did enjoy it.” He’d raised his voice. The cowhand sleeping at the next table stirred.
    “ My business is mostly at night, Sheriff.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “You really are plumb loco if you think a measly old curfew will stop me from entertaining my customers.”
    She turned and stalked off but he wasn’t going to let her go that easy. The look of disgust and disappointment was not what he’d hoped to see. He wanted to see her smiling again, wanted to see desire clouding her eyes. Wanted her to admit she’d enjoyed pleasuring him as much as he’d enjoyed her doing it.
    He stood and kicked the chair out of his way. She whirled around and he grabbed her wrists, pulling her up against him. He wanted nothing more than to sear her with a kiss. But desire didn’t flash in her gaze, instead it was a smoldering anger he saw.
    She twisted out of his grip and shoved him away. “Don’t think you can put your hands on me anytime you like.”
    “ What’s wrong with you?” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “You run hot and cold and I’m damned if I know which you’ll be at any moment.”
    She lowered her lashes. “You shouldn’t put too much meaning into what happened yesterday between us. It meant nothing to me.”
    He let her go, her words as stinging as a slap.
    Her eyelashes fluttered. Her eyes, which had been inflamed with passion when she’d straddled him in the jailhouse, were cold.
    He held his hands up in the air. “I can’t figure you out at all.”
    “ Maybe you shouldn’t try.” She glanced away.
    A man in his frustrated condition had no other choice. “I’ve said what I came to say.”
    She lifted one shoulder as if to say she didn’t care. He didn’t believe her.
    “ The curfew begins tonight.”
    Was that regret he sensed? “I’ll close the saloon for one night, and you go catch your criminals.”
    “ Could take more than one night.”
    Carly shook her head. “One night I can get by on, but any more and I can’t pay my debts.”
    “ I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
    She licked her lips. It was probably done without thinking but the effect on him was shattering. “What’ll you do if I disobey?”
    “ You’ll go to jail for starters.”
    “ You’d arrest me, Jed?”
    She was playing with him now, enjoying how she could take him to the brink.
    “ How about I give you what you really want?” He