Read Online Midnight Lover by Barbara Bretton - Free Book Online

a woman in her place where she belongs?" Raucous laughter floated over from the Golden Dragon. "You know our place, gents," one of the whores called out from a second floor window. "Our door is always open!"
    The stagecoach driver spat tobacco juice on the ground and swore loudly. "I got me a passel of miles to go before nightfall," he said. "Ain't anybody gonna help me unload these trunks?"
    "Don't bother," Jesse snapped. "These folks won't be stayin' in Silver Spur."
    The reverend's wife raised her eyes heavenward. "Praise the Lord! Listen to this gentleman, William, and forget this foolish idea."
    "Little woman's right, William," Jesse drawled over the reverend's objections. "What you got to offer we don't particularly need."
    Gunshot rang out again from one of the saloons up the street and the latest batch of spinsters huddled near the door of the coach; their somber faces betrayed their fear and Jesse almost felt sorry for them. Gals plain as mud hens didn't stand much of a chance in the marriage market anywhere but a place like Silver Spur and now that the League was going strong, even Silver Spur didn't offer them much hope.
    "Go home, little ladies," he offered as he stormed past them. "Get back on that coach with the reverend and his missus before one of you ends up on Cemetery Hill."
    "What about Miss Caroline?" one of the redheaded gals piped up. "If she can stay here, surely we can—"
    "She ain't stayin'," Jesse barked as he vaulted the steps to the Crazy Arrow and pushed open the door to the darkened saloon.
    "You may put the trunks down over there." Caroline's cool Eastern voice drifted through the hot and dusty bar room. "Abigail will serve you whiskey as soon as she returns from the—"
    "The stage is waitin'," Jesse interrupted, turning blindly in the direction of her voice. His eyes had yet to adjust to the dim light inside the saloon but he'd be damned if he let her know she was holding the high card for the moment. "I reckon you should hightail it outside and climb aboard."
    "Thank you for the recommendation, Mr. Reardon." She moved closer and he caught the sweet scent of violets in the heated air. "However, I am here to stay."
    "I don't think that's a good idea." He grinned as she stepped into a shaft of sunlight from the front window and was rewarded by her sharp intake of breath when his fingers encircled her wrist. "Silver Spur's too dangerous for the likes of you."
    Her blue eyes flickered to her wrist then back to him. "Are you threatening me, Mr. Reardon?"
    "Let's say I'm warnin' you."
    She lifted her chin defiantly. "Let's say I am ignoring the warning."
    His grip on her wrist tightened. Her eyes narrowed but her beautiful face betrayed none of the fear he knew she must be feeling. "I want you out of the Crazy Arrow now."
    "How odd, Mr. Reardon, for I was about to say the same thing to you."
    He dropped her hand and stared at her. The woman was more stubborn than a mule with a burr on its tail. "What the hell gives you the notion you got a claim on the Arrow?"
    "The law," she shot back. "Something you obviously know little about."
    "I don't much care what the law says. The Arrow belongs to me."
    Her dark blonde brows arched. "Perhaps you should call the marshal over to arbitrate this discussion."
    What the hell did she mean, "arbitrate"? The woman spoke funnier than the actor they'd had in last summer who spouted on about to be and not to be and all manner of odd talk.
    "We don't have a marshal," he said, wondering why Easterners found it hard to speak plain so a body could understand.
    She heaved a sigh that made her bosoms rise in a way he found damned distracting. "The wrong terminology: perhaps you should call in the sheriff then."
    Now he was on higher ground. "Don't have a sheriff either."
    "I find that difficult to believe, Mr. Reardon. Most towns have one or the other."
    "This ain't most towns."
    "Then we shall have the mayor determine ownership." She paused. "I don't suppose you have a