Carol Finch by Lady Renegade

one who captured her? Why couldn’t she be someone else’s problem? Why not one of his fellow marshals? Every blasted time he got close to her he was vividly reminded of how long it had been since he’d touched or tasted a soft, yielding female and had an opportunity to ease his basic needs.
    “I want you to let me go, Gideon,” she murmured. “I’ll even promise to meet you in Fort Smith at whatever time and place you designate. You have my word.”
    “Right.” He scoffed at her. “Now what’s a murderess’s word worth? I forget.”
    She flashed him a glare and muttered something he didn’t dare ask her to repeat. Then she said, “I need to reassure my father that I’m all right and figure out what happened that fateful evening at the stage station. I keep playing the incident over in my mind, going through it in slow motion, focusing on everything Tony said to me. Something isn’t right. I can feel it. I’m not sure what it is but it’s niggling at me and I have to go back.”
    He barked an incredulous laugh. “You have me mixed up with my tenderhearted family. I’ve sworn to uphold the law. It’s Judge Parker’s duty to decide if there is enough evidence to convict you or to open an official investigation.”
    She inhaled a deep breath that made his attention drop to the swells of her breasts. He wondered if she’d done it on purpose when she said, “What will it take to persuade you to show leniency? Money? Comfort? Pleasure? What’s your price?”
    Desire coiled into a painful knot south of his belt buckle. He gritted his teeth and said, “I can’t be bought.”
    “Can you be convinced to look the other way while I leave?” Lori questioned as she strained against her leash. “Can you be persuaded to at least consider that I might be telling the truth?”
    When he took a step toward her, Lori felt that now-familiar sensation of irrational lust sizzle through her body. It baffled her that something unexplainable inside her called out to him.
    It was the damnedest feeling she’d ever experienced.
    She’d only known this swarthy lawman a day. Yet, unruly desire assailed her when she caught his scent, felt his lean, muscled body brush familiarly against hers and tasted him. She simply couldn’t ignore his dynamic presence, no matter how hard she tried. And she had tried, to no avail.
    “What are you suggesting, hellion?” he asked in a husky voice as he reached out to trail his forefinger over her lower lip, then trace the line of her jaw.
    Pleasure hummed through her as his hand drifted down her shoulder to skim over the scooped neckline of the borrowed peasant blouse. Burning heat flared inside her as she focused helplessly on his sensuous mouth. God help her, she craved his kiss, craved the feel of his masculine body gliding suggestively against hers.
    Of all the men in this world, why did he have to be the one who made her ache to discard her inhibitions and taste forbidden desire?
    “Take what you want from me, Gideon,” she whispered as his knuckles brushed against her breast, making her arch wantonly toward him.
    “My pleasure for your freedom?” he rasped. “That’s the bargain you’re offering me?”
    “Temporary freedom,” she clarified, her voice wobbling from the erotic effect his caress had on her. “I’ll come back to you.” And if he didn’t kiss her quickly, she was going to burn into a pile of smoldering ashes.
    When he angled his head toward hers, her eyes fluttered shut. She felt herself melt against him as his arm slid around her waist. She desperately wanted her hands free so she could rake her fingers through the damp raven hair that indicated that he, too, had taken the opportunity to bathe recently. Instead, her hands were imprisoned between them and she inwardly moaned when his lower body glided suggestively against her, assuring her that he was aroused.
    He distrusted her and disliked her, but he lusted after her to the same irrational degree that she