Read Online Wildfire in His Arms by Johanna Lindsey - Free Book Online Page B

animal! He’d tightened the coil wrapped around her, then tied it off and had the end of it in his fist. He collected her horse first and hobbled it by the shack, then dragged her down the hill with him to collect her coat and vest.
    Her hat was nowhere in sight, and after only five minutes he gave up looking for it. Max was livid. He should have gotten her things last night, not waited until the wind blew her hat away!
    â€œWhat do they call you, fancy man?” she gritted out on the way back up the hill. “I want to know who I’m killing when I get loose.”
    â€œDegan Grant,” he said without glancing back.
    Max almost choked. “Holy cow, the gunfighter?”
    He didn’t confirm it, didn’t reply at all, but who would use that name if he didn’t have to? Folks were claiming he was the fastest gun there was, but she reminded herself that gossip like that was rarely true. She was fast, likely faster than him. She’d like a chance to prove it.
    Back at the shack by the fire pit, he still didn’t untie her or even let go of the rope as he saddled his horse, so she still got tugged a little as he did that. All she could do was stand there and watch him. That wasn’t entirely unpleasant. With long legs, a lean, hard torso, muscles that pressed against the cloth of his jacket as he worked, Degan Grant was finely put together. Maybe a little too fine. No wonder her impulse had been to try seducing him into letting her go. She might not have minded, after all, if she’d succeeded. A worthy trade—her virginity for her life? She wasn’t ready to make that trade yet.
    She wondered if he had a sweetheart in every town he passed through. That funny thought had her grinning, because if he wasn’t who he said he was, it could well be true. But if he really was the notorious gunfighter Degan Grant, then it might only be true if he kept that information to himself. What woman would want a man destined to die young? Or one as dangerous as this one was reputed to be? Well, she could understand why a woman would be attracted to a man this handsome, but she couldn’t understand why a woman would want to fall in love with him. He was what Gran would call a heartbreaker.
    â€œYou find something amusing about your situation?” he asked.
    â€œHell, no. But I’m usually a good-natured sort. Sometimes I even laugh out loud by my lonesome if something funny pops in up here.” She meant to tap her head. She made a frustrated sound instead, having forgotten, even only briefly, that she couldn’t move her hands. “But you won’t be with me long enough to notice, thank our lucky stars.”
    â€œSo you’re still thinking you can escape?” His tone was amused even if his expression wasn’t.
    â€œI’m thinking Helena’s jail is less than an hour away,” she snapped.
    â€œSo it is. So what had you grinning?”
    She was annoyed enough to give him the truth. “Your name, and your probably having trouble getting a woman once she hears it.”
    â€œThey don’t need to hear it when I reek of death,” he said tonelessly.
    â€œReally? Just the look of you sends them running? Now I wouldn’t have figured on that.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œâ€‰â€™Cause that’s not what would send me running. You, fancy man, are a death sentence hanging over my head. That’s more’n enough reason for me to see the last of you.”
    He started to unwrap the rope that was binding her arms, coiling it back up as he did it. Then he turned her around, she assumed so he could cut her wrists loose, but he didn’t. He took his sweet time untying the rope instead. So he could use that piece of rope again? Damned man thought of everything, didn’t he?
    â€œDo you need to relieve yourself before we leave?”
    She blinked. “You’d actually let me go off in the bushes by