Seduction of Saber (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend #3) (8 page)

Saber’s brain was working out the logistics of being
able to stay in the Tressle Boarding House, free of charge. Not exactly what
he’d wanted when first arriving in Preacher’s Bend, but staying without loss of
funds was certainly a bonus when it came down to it. And to stay at Julia’s
requesting? Well, that was the icing on every man’s cake.

She was indeed scrumptious to look at.
All that
gorgeous red hair!
He’d never been with a woman with so red of hair.
Julia’s fiery tresses were tempting his moral principles to the hilt.

“When do I have to lie down on the floor and play
dead?” he asked, drawing back from diving headfirst into sexual hot water.

Playing opossum would be a lot of fun. The most fun he’d
had in long time.

Life had been much too serious for him. Perhaps it was
time he let things go, unplanned.

Julia smiled, the corners of her delicate mouth
turning up. “About ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes, huh?” He allowed a crocked smile slide
across his mouth.

“Liddy lives on the other side of town, down Roundabout
Road. It will take her about ten minutes to get here, unless Debra beats her to
it.” Her quick grimace made at the thought. “Because I am quite certain that
once my father gets in touch with Officer Wesley, you’ll be seeing a pair of
red and blue lights flashing in the driveway sooner than expected. As mad as he
was at what happened, I wouldn’t put it past him. Nor put anything past Officer
Wesley to correct what she feels as a wrong. She tends to enjoy making people
suffer for their sins. I do believe she gets a real high from having the
authority.”

Saber turned very serious by these words. Regrettably,
he was playing with fire, but couldn’t seem to help himself. “What did happen
out there, Julia?”

When she pulled her sight away and she ignored the
question altogether, he tried another approach: light teasing, to ease the
seriousness of their situation.

“Gee, Ms. Hillard. Whatever can we do in ten minutes—just
to kill time?” He was allowing Julia the opportunity to adjust to what did
happen out there. Moreover, adjust to what they could no longer ignore: deep
attraction, strange, strong, and horribly out of control.

His dimples formed, then held, Saber waiting for what
may or may not come his way.

Julia turned her face to grin back, shoving him toward
her unmade bed. “I haven’t the foggiest idea, Mr. Patterson. Some might say ten
minutes as not nearly long enough for what I have in mind.”

**

Was she dealing with the problem directly? Of course
she was. Slightly different than she was ten years ago, older, wiser, more
seasoned, she still had game left inside of her.

She held onto that little bit of what she once was with
both hands. She’d been called a tease before and survived.

What the hell are you doing, Julia? This isn’t you…

Saber Patterson was a very stunning individual. Not to
mention, not all that bad to look at. After all, he was the one who started
playing the music in her head, the one who suggested this very thing into her
ear, the one who came to her doorstep at the worst possible moment in her life.
And somehow all that escalated into this.

“What’s this about Ms. Hillard? Are you planning to
take advantage of me?” He fell backward and had somehow pulled her along with
him.

She hadn’t figured on falling on top of him or land up
on his chest as she had. Now that she was there, looking into deep silver storm
cloud eyes, she could barely get the rest of her body cooperate. She knew she
had to get off the man, but her limbs wouldn’t cooperate with the desire to
propriety.

“If I can.” A strange, husky tone set in her voice.
“But honestly? I planned on baking an apple pie this morning.”

The man’s blond brow rose in unexpected interest. “That’s
a new one. Don’t think I’ve ever before heard it being called ‘
baking an
apple pie’
.”

His fingers slipped into her thick hair, Saber trying
to pull her face toward his. His every intention to kiss her was mirrored in
his gaze.

To stop this, Julia poked her finger at his chest.
“Oh, don’t you be so smug
, Mr. Eight Second Wonder
. We are not doing
whatever it is you think we might be doing. I’m telling you the truth. I
planned to bake an apple pie before you showed up on my doorstep unannounced. It
wasn’t my fault you got punched in the face by my angry father.”

She shoved against his chest and got nowhere for the
effort, because Saber had held on tight. His fingers wrapped around her lower
back.

“Dear Lord, if it wasn’t your fault, then who’s was
it?

“Please Mr. Patterson, let me up?”

“No, Little Darlin’, I like you exactly where you are…until
you answer the question.”

“Liddy is coming over here only to help me getting you
to wake up, and now that you have, I should call her and tell her not to bother,
don’t you think?”

She was trying to organize her feelings, as the heat
of his touch coursed throughout her body and went haywire.

“Sure it isn’t because she wants to see for herself
such an incredible package?”

Julia groaned. “Heard that one too, did you?”

“Please don’t spoil anyone’s joy, Ms. Hillard. Let this
friend have her fun. Maybe you’ll get a worthy second opinion toward my
charming charisma, and why you find me so
utterly fascinating
.”

Julia tried to push off the large man yet again, his
grin drawing her in. “Liddy’s had more than enough fun at my expense over the
years. She doesn’t need the courtesy.”

“Still, this does feel comfortable…you on top of me,
smiling.”

Julia did everything in her power not to smile, but
with a man like him, it was an unfortunate malady. “Charming charisma?
Fascinating? Now who’s the one taking advantage of the situation…and enormous
strength?” She cocked her brow in jest.

“Of course it’s charming charisma, since it more than
explains why the ladies faun all over me,” he said.

“I’m beginning to think that they faun all over you
only because you pull them onto you.”

“Touché’”

“Really, I need to get up. Let me go.” Julia pushed
again, her efforts wasted.

“Let you go? Now way, Little Darlin’. You lied to me,
so there should be some form of punishment to that.”

Doing a double take, she looked him square in the
eyes. “How so?”

When had she lied to him?
She ran most of her thoughts through her head and came
up empty. She never lies; not intentionally, and not unless necessary and for
the benefit of another.

“This is a double bed. You said you had only a single
for me to use.”

Ah!
So that’s
what he meant? If she would just get her mind out of the gutter, perhaps she’d
be able to understand his thoughts much faster. “No. I said
yours’
would
be a single bed, Mr. Patterson. And this is certainly not about to be your bed
for the foreseeable future.”

“It’s not?” he teased recklessly. He ran his hand up
and down the length of her spine, sending shockingly ignitable tidal waves of
desire throughout her entire system, a veritable volcano erupting in the inner
core of her body, and producing one heck of a
‘get ready for anything’
mode
.

“Not on your life,” she said, quicker than even she expected.

This time her shove finally got her somewhere. Julia
moved to her feet at the side of her bed, adjusting her clothing. Saber sat
upright and playfully frowned.

“But I might get this fascinating body gored by a very
mean bull next Friday night. Might even get my head cracked open …permanent
brain damage, if not careful.” He tapped the side of his blond scalp to make
his point. “You’re tellin’ me you’re not willin’ to share this comfy little mattress
with a man who could get himself permanently injured, and you could’ve enjoyed
to the utmost while he was still intact?”

“You wouldn’t dare!” she harped out, viewing him hard.

“What? Get injured? Lord above, Little Darlin’, happens
all the time.” Saber then shrugged, making his point. “The Rodeo is a dangerous
occupation, sweetheart. Two of the men are in the hospital as we speak, one
with a few cracked ribs, another with a broken leg and slight concussion. I’m
quite certain by week’s end another three or four will end up there. I might
even be one of those three or four. It happens all the time. Bull riding isn’t
exactly picking daisies in a meadow.”

“Not on my watch will you get yourself gored by an
angry bull, or injured in any other way. And certainly not after my father is
never to speak to me again. Or, best case scenario, at least another two weeks.
Besides, you’ve already gotten your head cracked open, and I don’t see any
permanent damage.” She looked at the crown of his head and smiled.

Saber’s reflexes were quick. He grabbed her by the waist,
as he rose from the bed to stalk her, a devil’s grin on his face. “It’s the
damage that you can’t see, Little Darlin’, which needs the utmost sympathy
right now.”

She swayed forward to mere inches from his person.
Jesus! This cowboy could easily tease a tick off a bear by the simple lowering
of his voice. She’d almost fell for it.

“I don’t do sympathy,” she promised, backing up. Yet the
words left a strange taste in her mouth, her husky sigh to increase their
bitterness. “Not to a guy like you.”

“And what kind of guy do you think I am, Ms. Hillard?”
He looked a bit shell-shocked by this news. Albeit, short-lived, he recovered
fully.

The two seconds it took to take another breath, barely
enough time for a man to blink, she gave him the answer. “You’re the kind of
man who could break a heart in two just because he can.”

They both heard the front door open and Liddy Giotti
announcing Julia’s name, loudly. “Julia Margaret Hillard? Where the devil are
you?”

Julia’s eyes tore from his, wrenching her thoughts
forward.

**

“That wasn’t ten minutes!” Saber blurted. Regrettably,
this said at Julia’s back while he watched the red-haired woman hightail it
from her bedroom with her heels on fire.

She’d physically jumped at the sound of her name and
he hadn’t been fast enough to keep a better grip on her waist. Caught in the
act of something both of them had been trying to avoid up to this point, for a
moment, her rash and dangerous actions had been quite amusing. Saber frustrated
and no longer amused by any of her teasing, he felt as though she’d been caught
with her hand in the cookie jar—and hated the kind of cookie stuffed inside. She’d
been relaxed enough when it was just the two of them inside the boarding house.
But the minute a third party entered the equation a very complicated woman turned
afraid of her own shadow.

He couldn’t quite get rid of the grin on his face to
save his soul. Imagine what grief she’d give him if she’d caught the huge
hard-on he had, still quite demanding under his jeans, induced from when she’d
fallen on top of him.

“You owe me, Julia Hillard. You owe me a good four
minutes,” he promised.

“Four minutes plus interest,” was yelled even louder.
“And I’ll be collecting those highly entertaining minutes later on tonight,
when you’re more in the mood. I wouldn’t want to disappoint the lady of the
house.”

“Would you just shut the hell up back there?” she sent
his way.

“Make me, Little Darlin. I’ll be waitin’ right here
for you to do this while camped out on your comfortable bed…”

**

Liddy Giotti looked ready to burst at the seams, and
once that damn broke, Julia wouldn’t be surprised if her dear friend didn’t go
charging back there, taking pictures.

“No wonder your father punched out his lights. Sounds
to me the darling man might have egged Gill into doing it.”

“You think?” Julia asked, turning her head toward the now
grinning, deeply-dimpled, shamelessly-sexy, eight second wonder of the world—who’d
come out of hiding just to spite her tongue.

Liddy whistled at the sight of the dangerous, arrogant
bull-rider, as Saber took it all in stride. As would be expected from someone
so god-awful gorgeous, nothing seemed to faze him. Then again, gorgeous men
expected no less than what they knew the world saw of them, or owed them.

He glanced down at his watch and teased her even more.

“Time’s a wastin’, Little Darlin’. I ain’t got all day
for you to come on back inside the bedroom and finish what you started.”

“Christ, Julia! Where in Hell’s Bells did you find this
one?”

Liddy sauntered toward the grinning cowboy, completely
ignoring Julia’s heated glare at her back.

“He was sitting on Petty’s rocker this morning. I
found him after my run.” She groaned, then muttered, “It was when he stood up from
the chair and spoke, that everything turned into such a complicated mess.”

“Well, knock my knickers to my knees and force my
sorry ass to pray for the next ten years in one of Bet’s misguided religions,
this man might be the best damn thing to waltz into Preacher’s Bend in well
over a decade. Other than Jake, that is.”