Read Online The Gunslinger by Lorraine Heath - Free Book Online Page A

clenched when he saw the tears well within the depths of her blue eyes. He felt as though someone had emptied a six-gun into his chest.
    â€œWhy couldn’t you have ignored him?” she rasped.
    â€œBecause he wouldn’t have let up. He was in the saloon the day I got here, trying to gather the courage to challenge me. He was looking to gain a reputation. At least by facing him, I was able to control from which direction the bullet came.” Cradling her cheek, stroking her soft skin, he knew he was inviting danger. Walking away last night had been the hardest thing he’d ever done—and he couldn’t explain why he’d done it. She wasn’t innocent. She’d been an old man’s . . . lover. But never his whore. No matter how many men Lillian Madison took into her bed, she’d never be any man’s whore. She was too fine, too gentle for that. So he admitted to her what he’d never told another soul. “I don’t want the bullet with my name on it to come from behind.”
    The tears brimmed over and trailed down her cheeks, rolling along the curve of his thumb. “Is that why you always keep your back against the wall, even here?”
    He nodded. “I think about how nice it would be if I didn’t worry about that last bullet, but the thought gnaws at me like a squirrel with a pecan.”
    She blinked back the tears and sniffed. “Why do you stick a match into your mouth? You only seem to do it when you sense danger.”
    â€œIf I tell you, you gotta promise not to tell a soul.”
    She gave a curt nod. “I promise.”
    â€œIn the heat of a gunfight, my tongue rolls out of my mouth. I damn near bit it off once. Biting down on a match keeps it in place where it belongs.”
    She laughed, a musical melody that he’d remember as long as he drew breath, and touched her fingers to the hair curling around his ears. “You are nothing like I expected.”
    â€œI could say the same about you.” Her laughter dwindled along with her smile. He brought her hand to his lips, holding her gaze. “And that, lady, makes you so damned dangerous.”
    L I LLIAN WATCHED W ILDER walk through the fallow fields beyond the house. He’d insisted on taking his supper on the porch even though she invited him to join them inside. It wasn’t reasonable to want to know everything about him. It wasn’t wise to be glad that he was staying a little while longer. It wasn’t logical to realize she might be falling in love with him.
    Strolling through the tall grass and weeds, she saw him crouch down. When she reached him, he scooped up the dirt and sifted it through his fingers.
    â€œIt’s good soil,” he said. “What are you going to grow?”
    She knelt beside him and shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. I don’t know anything about farming.”
    â€œCorn would be good.”
    Watching his gaze roam over the fields, she was left with the distinct impression that he could actually envision the corn growing. “Were you a farmer?”
    He dumped the remaining dirt out of his palm, stood, and slapped his hand against his thigh. “Once. A long time back.”
    She rose to her feet. “What turns a farmer into a hired gun?”
    She watched his Adam’s apple slowly rise and fall as he swallowed. “A desire to die.”
    In long strides, he strode across the fields. She hurried to catch up to him. “Why would you want to die?”
    â€œBecause I didn’t want to live.”
    â€œWhy?”
    He staggered to a stop, and she nearly slammed into him.
    â€œWhy the sudden interest?” he asked.
    â€œI’ve always been interested, but I think I was afraid to know the truth. What sort of man are you, Chance Wilder? A man offers you a fortune and you turn your back on it for a piece of string and a bent coin. You’ve killed twenty-four men, twenty-six counting Wade and that