CHAPTER TEN
She ran out of the bedroom
as if she the devil himself was chasing her. She was still dressed in her
nightgown with the blanket around her shoulders. Her hair mussed from sleeping.
“Whoa, Laura, where are you
going?”
She stopped dead in her
tracks. She had not seen Jess standing by the fireplace. He was drinking a cup
of coffee. She looked as if she had never seen him before as she stared at him
with her mouth open wide with astonishment.
In a way she hadn’t seen him
until now, for Jess had shaved and had even taken a bath in the pond near the
house. He wore the only shirt he had packed, and his hair was neatly combed.
Jess did look like a different man than the one she had met yesterday. The only
thing that looked familiar to her was the gun belt that he wore around his
slender hips. She was even more stunned
to realize that Jess was handsome. She tilted her head with curiosity, and
stared at him.
“Now what’s got you running
around here like a bat out of hell?” he questioned.
She enclosed herself with
the blanket as she scolded, “Jess!”
He grinned. “Not proper
language for a lady. Well I am a gunslinger, remember?” he teased.
Again she was taken back. He
was joking! Almost flirting with her. She realized how she looked. She tried to
smooth her hair with her hand.
“Where were you going in
such a hurry?” he demanded to know.
“When I woke up and you
weren’t there...” She blushed. She turned completely red as she remembered they
had shared a bed.
Seeing her blush, his eyes
crinkled with amusement. “You thought I rode out?”
She nodded.
“You got to learn to trust
me. I told you I’d stay, or maybe you just missed me in bed huh? And was
wanting me to come back?”
Another wave of redness
covered her already blushed body. “Jess Harper! You remember that I’m a lady.”
“Don’t think you’ll let me
forget that.”
Her voice turned to a
whisper as if embarrassed to say the words, “And you promised that last
night...”
“Our secret,” he replied
with a wink. Suddenly the playfulness between them changed to solemnity as his
face lost his smile, and within a second, he turned back into the man she was
wary of. “Now I done ate. You best
hurry ‘cause we’ll be leaving in a few minutes.”
Her temper lit. “Are you
ordering me around?”
“Let’s get another thing
straight between us. You do what I say. I won’t tolerate you not following my
orders.”
She grew even redder but
this time from anger. “You won’t tolerate! Now you listen here, Jess Harper.
This is my place. I run this relay station and if anyone is giving orders...”
His voice hardened, “Get
dressed and eat. After all I’m not a...”
“Patient man, I know!” she
snapped. “But...”
“But if you’re not dressed
in five minutes, I’m coming in to help you, ‘cause I’m aiming to be heading
towards town in ten minutes, and I won’t be delayed because of you!”
“Ten minutes! That doesn’t
give me time to...”
His raised eyebrow gave her
a warning. “You’re wasting time right now, Laura. Unless you want to ride to
town in that nightgown, I suggest you...”
“Oh! Just when I think I can
tolerate you then you...Oh!” She headed for the bedroom, but she couldn’t help
glancing back over her shoulder at him. He looked so different, and after last
night...she shook her head hard. No, she couldn’t be attracted to a gunslinger.
After all she was a lady. Jess Harper was not a man she should dwell on. She
slammed the bedroom door so hard that the sound made Jess cringed, and he
wondered who he’d wind up having the biggest fight with: Laura or Jack
Phillips.
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