Seduction of Saber (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend #3) (6 page)

He’d spent his first eight years out of medical school
stuck in the military; the next four, within a Miami hospital’s surgical staff
ward. Riding bulls was a dangerous pastime of his—that somehow escalated into
an all-out career over the course of three short years.

Not exactly a chosen occupation for a blue blood to ever
consider, especially when he’d had a damn good job. He was choosing to spread
his legs over twenty-five hundred pounds of pure mean because it was all he had
now. He rarely, if at all, practiced medicine.

When riding with the circuit there really was no need
for it. They had their own Doc to fix up the men.

His heart was no longer in it. There was too much
bureaucratic bullshit, mega-insurance giants that kicked people out of their
hospital beds before they were ready or even able to go. Saber wanted nothing
to do with that kind of medicine. For the moment, he had his reasons; strong,
solid reasons with strong, solid convictions.

While in town Dr. Saber Patterson, MD wanted to keep
the fact of his being a doctor a secret from the good folks of Preacher’s Bend.
More importantly, that huge secret kept from this woman.

To both, he should be nothing more than Saber, a
legitimate
Eight Second Wonder
who could entertain the masses on the
back of a bull.

He pulled his thoughts to the here and now, slipping
his hand from her wrist.

Julia spoke first. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” she
said, reattaching conversation to his thoughts. “The reputation thing you’re
speaking about.”

It took him a few seconds to jump into life again. His
eyes had somehow glued to the rise and fall of her lusty chest.

Julia wasn’t into rodeo men, per se. She’d only heard
the name Saber from the gossip running around town. This man was to be the
highlight of the rodeo, come next week; a Friday night crowd-pleasing, man of
the hour, and a Saturday night womanizer—more the latter than the former.

Every elderly matron living in Preacher’s Bend already
warned her to stay away from a man the rodeo circuit called
Eight Second
Wonder
, if ever she came across his path. And what did she do the very
second she ran smack dab into such a man? She invited him inside her home, and
she let him kiss her! That’s what.

And every second that kiss lingered, she’d enjoyed it
to the utmost.

Damnit all!
How the devil had she gotten herself into this mess? More importantly, how could
she get out of it before her father found out he was here?

Her life had been relatively simple and uncomplicated,
up until the moment her great-grandmother Petty Tressle died. Now her life was
a complete disaster and getting more and more complicated by the second.

Saber sat back on his haunches and smiled. “I’ll let
you in on a little secret, sort of tit for tat, if it’s all right with you?”

Julia’s gaze settled on his clean-shaven cheeks and
those deep dimples he sported so perfectly. “You don’t need to tell me any of
your secrets, Mr. Patterson. Really. I’m not very good at keeping any for
others.”

He held up his hand, stalling her thoughts. “I kind of
need to tell you this one. Clear the air, so to speak.”

When a stranger, a man, was willing to tell her the
truth, Julia became all ears. Okay, so where’s the hidden camera? Was she being
punked by her students? No man ever confesses the truth on first acquaintance,
or when not asked to do so.

“I haven’t done all they’re sayin’. In fact, most of it’s
a downright defamation of a rather well-earned character.”

“You hadn’t stayed on the back of a bull for the full
eight seconds?” She tried to sit up. Saber helped her at it.

As Julia remained upright long enough to ease her
conscious, and she no longer felt dizzy, he stood, then lumbered across the
carpeting to the opposite side of the room. He’d turned his back to her.

His sweet ass in very tight blue jeans was now directly
in her unobstructed view. Julia groaned at the mere sight of perfection—aloud.

Oops.

Saber heard this and quickly turned toward her,
another smile gracing his lips.

“Oh, I stay on for the full eight seconds, Little
Darlin’.” His thoughts then headed elsewhere. “Never doubt that for one single
second. All you need is the strong will to live and a huge stipulation written
in your contract that says you’re not to get your skull crushed under
twenty-five-hundred pounds of pure mean. Eight seconds is a man taking a long stroll
in the park—while being chased by rabid dogs just to spice up the task.”

Julia didn’t understand where this little secret
telling of Mr. Patterson’s was leading, but she gave him her fullest attention.
It wasn’t every day a man wanted to tell her something she did not ask of him,
then included a visual of rabid dogs chasing his ass.

And,
it
wasn’t every day that secret was coming
from one she had only recently heard about through the gossip lines.

“But the rest…the women at every port, boots off more
often than on? That’s all a lie to gain ticket sales. I don’t womanize, Ms.
Hillard, if this eases your mind as to my stayin’ at your place, or not. You can
certainly point my rodeo ass into an entirely different direction, and I’ll get
out of your hair mighty quick if that’s your wish. I’m not in this to cause
trouble. I ride bulls. I never intentionally hurt people.”

The ball was now in her court. It would be up to Julia
to let him board here for a week.

She yanked her sight from the general vicinity of his
lower half, post haste. Unfortunately, her tongue blurted, “You don’t like
women?”

Again, another defect of being stuck with an
opinionated parent: speak the mind before training the thoughts a whole lot
better.

Saber chuckled. “Oh, I like women, Ms. Hillard. I like
`em a lot.” He obliged her with another shameless wink. “In fact, I probably like
women a bit too much for the eased-conscience of an older generation.”

This had Julia blushing, the heat creeping into her
cheeks.

“But I didn’t do all that they’ve made me out to be.”

After raising a lone eyebrow, she unfortunately let
her curiosity win out. “So? You like women. That’s good. But not every woman
who walks upright, I’m assuming?”

His rich timbre voice smoothed velvet over her
suddenly flushed skin, as he embellished. “Yah, something like that, Little
Darlin’.”

She moved to stand all on her own, slowly. “Then we
should have no problem at all.” He was about to come across the room and offer
some help so she held up her hand to say that she was fine.

Damnit! She was always fine.

Just once, she wanted to feel what awesome and giddy
and deliriously numb would entail… skip right over being
fine
.

“Most of the time I’m not upright,” she continued.

She’d adjusted to the fact that she had diabetes months
ago, and was doing as best she could because of it. “Most of the time, I’m far
too busy to care about what other people do, or do not do,” she added,
finishing with, “And most of the time I just don’t give a damn.”

“What
do
you care about, Ms. Hillard?”

He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his
tight jeans, pulling them even tighter.

Julia looked him square in the eyes from across the
room and answered this—again, without putting much thought into her words.
“Staying alive, keeping my limbs intact, stuff normal women don’t have to give
much thought about. I care about that. It taxes the brain to expect anything more
at this point, as you can well imagine.”

Saber kept his gaze steady on her face. “You look
healthy enough to me.” When she was about to argue, he added more, moving
toward her. “And you sure can kiss a man as a healthy woman would.”

Julia was more than aware her face matched her hair, withdrawing
her sight away from his just to gather her thoughts.

She did not see his further advancement until it was
too late.

“And damn if I do not want to kiss you again,” her muttered
inches from her mouth.

Her eyes opened and her vision slammed into his. The
entire room had filled with suffocating sexual tension, as his hands rose, set
against her face.

All well and good the gentle touch was—except Julia wasn’t
ready for the suffocating sexual tension. Perhaps she’d never be ready.

“In fact, I want to kiss you again until you can’t
breathe, Little Darlin’. Right at this very moment, and for as long as you’ll allow
me the pleasure. So be fittin’ a true gentleman, I’m giving you about two
seconds to argue against any such kiss, and that’s all.”

He leaned down and covered her mouth with his. He’d
given her less than a half of a millisecond to disagree.

Mr. Patterson had tempted the fates—because he could
get away with doing whatever he wanted to, and he was right. She couldn’t
breathe. Not properly.

Then again, s
he
didn’t
want
to breathe properly. She wanted to feel this; this simple,
carefree human touch. She wanted to savor the incredible, unexpected highs a
woman should have in her life. Perhaps enjoy for one fleeting moment something
she’d likely never get the pleasure to enjoy gain.

He tugged on her lower lip with his teeth, working her
mouth open. When her lips parted without pause, Saber drove his tongue deep
within her mouth and their tongues began the dance of desire. Seconds later, he
went searching for her inner core; battling will against will, desire against
need, hardness against pliable softness.

As she moaned into the deep recesses of a man who she
had to consider as a mere stranger come to rue her day, Saber groaned into hers.
His hands slipped down to encompass the small of her back, lower still to cup
her ass. Julia entwined her fingers around his neck and pulled his muscular
frame close.

Their overly warm flesh began to touch quite
intimately, quite shockingly, and all she could think was
God! This feels
great
. The danger and that he should not be doing this to her hadn’t once entered
her head.

That’s when a second throat cleared, followed by a
third; a distinct clearing of the vocal chords. Regrettably, a fourth then added
to the lot. Lastly, a gasp, a very loud curse, with eight-year-old Cody Hillard
blurting out that he was going to tell on her.

Quick as a wink, Cody Hilliard darted across the full
expanse of the living room and kicked Saber Patterson—
Mr
.
Eight
Second Wonder,
a man who rode dangerous, two-thousand pound bulls for a
living, and lived through those rides every time—right in the calf muscle of
his left leg, as hard as he could.

It would have been funny.

Instead, Julia was mortified.

“Damnation, Little Britches, what in the God’s name
was that for?” Saber reached down to rub his leg muscle as Julia glared at her
little brother in mute warning.

Her fists were balled at the sides of her legs simply
to hold herself back from smacking her little brat of a brother side the head,
as she wanted to. Or, say something to Cody she’d regret later on. Equally, something
that could be used against her, say around Christmas time.

“And I’ll do it to your other leg, Mister, if you try
hurting my sister again.” Cody’s warning was shot up at a man nearly twice his
size.

“I wasn’t hurtin’…Well, damn, Little Britches!” Saber’s
eyes slipped to Julia, who grinned even though she was still very angry with
her little brother for breaking them apart.

Confused at these conflicted feelings, she couldn’t
figure out whether to laugh or cry at the sudden loss of this man’s touch. She
chose to get angry with Cody instead. Anger she could deal with. What she’d
done with Saber Patterson wasn’t something she should concern herself too much about
now. Not yet. Not until everything and everyone settled down a bit.

“Cody Augustus Hillard? What in heaven’s name are you
doing here? I thought Gill told me he was meeting you at the diner? You’re
leaving in a few hours and this is definitely
not
the diner.” Her words
were crisp and physically barked at the smug-face child staring up at them.

The fact two other men, two of her boarders, were
inside the living room, didn’t even begin to enter into her thoughts—or
dissolve her humiliation.

Saber bent down and was rubbing his left leg, while a
willful Cody ignored his bigger, older half-sister and moved toward the table
laden with the tray of muffins.

About to stuff one of the muffins in his mouth, his
hand was slapped away by a very large, very angry man. “Not until you apologize
for kicking me in the shin, Little Britches,” Saber warned.

Cody glared at Saber, as he tried to take a muffin,
yet again. “Says who?”

“Says me.” He slapped the kid’s hand away for the
second time.

Julia groaned. At this rate, the poor man would be
wanted for child abuse—not potential womanizing activities. Nevertheless, Cody
deserved any and all punishment. He had no manners, and unless he apologized—to
the both of them—he had no right to eat one of her muffins.

“Until you say you are sorry for kicking me in the
shin, Little Britches, those blueberry muffins are mine!” Saber said harshly.

One male a tad bit larger and much older than the
other—like about three feet, at least a hundred pounds, and a good twenty years
to his age—each male was sharpening his sword. What Cody lacked in physical
size, he more than made up for it in temper. And mouth.

“You can’t tell me what to do, piss head!”

Julia could have warned Saber, had there been a moment
to do so, that her little brother liked calling folks names. She watched with
tepid amusement Mr. Patterson eyeballing Cody down, the Bull Man squaring his
shoulders to an intimidating stance.

“Wanna bet?” he threatened.

Cody’s hands quickly formed closed angry fists. “I’ll
tell my Pa on you, ya big piss head!” He was battling with a grown man three
times his size.

“Now you’re threatening me, besides name-calling?” Saber
glared at the youngster, even harder.

“I don’t need to threaten you. Once Pa gets hold of
you, you won’t have much between your scrawny little legs to pee with. I don’t
need to do anything. I have Pa. And he’ll pommel you into oblivion, Pisshead.”

Julia watched in horror Mr. Patterson’s facial muscles
twitch.

“Cody Hillard!” she blurted; appalled her little
brother would even say such a thing to a veritable stranger. The kid needed his
mouth washed out with a bar of soap. Soon, before a slightly angry Bull Man strangled
the lad.

“Is that so?” Saber asked. “Seems to me your Pa should
get ahold of your backside and give it a good tanning to teach you to respect
your elders.” He eyed the kid up and down with unveiled disgust.

Uncle LeRoy then cleared his throat only to get his
nephew off the boy’s case.

Julia’s other guest had vacated the room the instant
Cody started name-calling.

Unfortunately, that left Gill who’d come through the
backdoor and looking for his wayward son. Who, by simple exemption of manners,
was supposed to have been at Rachel’s Cafe awaiting him as told, and hadn’t
been, as usual.

Every pair of eyes within the living room turned
Gill’s way.

“Did I interrupt something here?” he asked crisply.
Having entered through the kitchen, he’d completely missed the heated exchange
of his son and the newcomer. Yet anyone alive could tell by the way it had
gotten deathly quiet in the living room that something was about to
self-destruct.

“No! Nothing,” Julia spoke out hurriedly. She gave
Cody the evil eye, but, as always, the vile brat ignored her, getting his way.

“They were kissing with their tongues. It was gross.”
And, of course, Cody demonstrated. “And they were doing this.” He put his hands
around his back and showed Gill what a too close hug looked like and what
gyrating hips would entail; the actions done most viciously. “I caught `em at
it red-handed. And they’d been hugging. He was rubbing up against her like that
big old tomcat does to the girl cats in our barn. So I kicked him as hard as I
could in the leg to stop him from doing it anymore. And now he won’t let me
have one of Julia’s muffins. He even hit me!”

In horror, Julia watched her father’s face turn white
as a ghost, then deep red. His eyes drifted slowly to hers.

“He what?”

“I can explain what the kid saw, Sir,” Saber started
to say; only to have a large hand come up and close off the rest of his words.

Mr. Patterson backed up a bit, because at that moment Julia’s
father did not look as though he had any want of being interrupted. Gill looked
pissed as hell; a raging bull let loose on purpose.

“I want to hear the explanation from my daughter, if
you don’t mind.”

Gill towered over every man in the room by presence
alone. Those that dare stayed. Three of them had already escaped through the
back door. LeRoy, Shamus, and a young Cody. The fourth was either a fool or had
a death wish.

If so, under the circumstances of a stranger having
hit his only son with no reasonable cause, Julia knew her father would grant Saber
this wish. No one was allowed disciplining his children, other than himself or
their mother. Moreover, no one was to raise a hand to a child when there no
need. Understanding gained peace. Gill could probably use an enormous chunk of
his own advice, but he looked too far gone with rage over what a stranger had
supposedly been doing to her.

Julia had wanted the day ‘special’, but not like this.
She ran from the room, slamming her bedroom door in her wake. She did not want
to speak to her father. Nor even look at Cody.
The little brat!
And
Saber Patterson? Good grief! She could barely look at him at all.

What she’d done, what she would’ve let happen, had
they not been interrupted…

She would’ve allowed the devilish-handsome bull man to
get away with anything, had he only asked.

**

The stranger the first to follow Julia down the hall,
Gill not far behind, each man stood outside his daughter’s slammed door, side
by side.

“I know you don’t want to hear this from me, but
unless you give her some space, she could get sicker than she already is,” the
man unwisely warned Gill.

A Hillard never willingly backed off from
confrontation, or from anything when asked by a man he did not know.

Nor would Gill back off when asked by someone who was
standing inside his late grandmother’s house—
kissing his daughter
!
Rubbing up against her, for Pete’s sake! Just who the hell did this guy think
he was?

That very question came aloud a half-second later.

“Who the hell are you? Telling me what to do about my
own daughter? And hitting my son over a muffin!” He then shoved the man hard
against the wall.

Eyeball to eyeball, he stared into the other guy’s
face. The fury inside him was tangible. He’d never been this angry in his
entire life; so uncontrollable at his being reminded that his daughter was
sick, and that she had a terrible body-altering disease through no fault of her
own.

“It’s Saber Patterson. And I’m a doctor,” the guy
answered.

Gill’s eyes widened as he let Mr. Patterson’s
shirtfront go. “A doctor? Does my daughter need a doctor? She was perfectly
fine just a few hours ago when I came to check on her.”

“Well, she ain’t so fine now!”

Mr. Patterson readjusted his shirtfront as Gill stepped
back. But only to the other side of the hallway, gaining breathing space, and a
bit more time to sort out his thoughts. This distance gave the other man an
opening to add more.

“I had to give her a shot of insulin about a half hour
ago. She was a bit out of it after her run, nearly passed out right in the
living room. Damnit, Man! If you want to make it much worse on your daughter,
then, by all means, do so. Bark at me; punch out my lights …Christ! Run me out
of town if it’ll make you feel good about yourself. But I would suggest you at
least listen to her side of things before you jump right in that kettle of hot
water and rip off my limbs without cause,
Sir
.”

Gill let these words and advice sink in before asking,
“Where are you from, Mr. Patterson? Doc doesn’t have anyone in his clinic who’s
interning. You did say you’re a doctor. I did hear that right, didn’t I?”

“Yes. You heard right.”

“Then where did you come from?” A sense of panic held
in his voice as his brows rose. “Sparta? Noepit? White River?”

They were the only other towns within near vicinity
where Julia would have access too. They all believed in Doc’s magic. But even
Doc wasn’t up to par with the more complicated aspects of a young woman’s
diabetic care.

“I’m from the rodeo, Sir.”

“The Ro—”

Gill was too stunned to finish his sentence; horrified,
in fact. Once the adjustment of the younger man’s innocently spoken words
settled in, he glared across the three feet that separated them, pulled back his
arm and punched Saber Patterson’s lights out—as asked.

And that’s when Julia had opened her bedroom door.