A Worthy Conquest by Amelia Shaw

Author:Amelia Shaw [Shaw, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tamsin Baker
Published: 2021-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8.

Emma.

My hands dug into the table in front of me and my jaw tightened with the pain of clenching my teeth together. Hard.

I wanted to punch the sheriff in the face, right across his smug mouth. He wasn’t ashamed of his actions at all. And the men around him didn’t care what he was doing to me.

I glanced around again, watching the men as they stared at their cards, ignoring my looks. Didn’t they realise how unfair he was being?

My gaze found Noah, who was staring at me.

I smiled back at him. “Thanks for inviting me tonight. I’m actually having a nicer time than I expected.”

I was certainly more relaxed than I had been in a while, despite the anger flowing in my veins.

“It sounds like the sheriff isn’t listening to you, Emma,” he said, his gaze narrowed.

“Don’t need to.” The sheriff huffed. “I’m well within the law. Now, let’s get back to playing cards.”

Noah opened his mouth to say something again, I assume in my defence, but I slid my hand across the table and gripped his arm. “I can fight my own battles. Don’t worry.”

Although I wasn’t entirely sure I could after tonight. I’d done anything but shame the bully into behaving. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to do what needed to be done to win this war.

Noah smiled at me, then lifted his arm and filled my glass up again. The pitcher was almost empty.

I gaped at it, even as I reached for my glass. “Have I drunk all that already?”

Noah laughed while putting out his cigar on a tray. He’d barely gotten through half of it.

“Well, you look like you could use it.” he asked.

I couldn’t help but giggle at that. “Ah, yeah. It’s been a week and a half. Actually... change that. Stressful decade is more like it.”

Between medical school, both parents dying, then taking over a full practice with little to no experience, I’d had a stressful few years.

I sipped at my drink, enjoying the tingle and warmth that spread down my arms and legs.

“How about you, Noah? Enjoying the sunshine and fresh air? You came from Los Angeles, originally, didn’t you?”

He nodded, then swallowed some more golden liquor.

I picked up the cards I’d been handed. Shit. I passed in three of them and waited for my new ones.

“Well?”

Noah’s eyebrows flicked up. “Well? What?”

“Are you enjoying living out here?”

He nodded again. “Yes, I am actually. It’s beautiful and clean, and the people are... interesting.”

When he looked at me, his eyes flickered with a heat that made my body respond in the strangest way.

I giggled again and picked up the new cards I’d been dealt, but at this point I didn’t really care about anything other than the brilliant blue of Noah’s eyes.

We kept playing and I kept bidding. I Laughed, and talked, and spent money I didn’t have.

In the end, the other three men bowed out; Noah had won the lot.

There was a chorus of goodnights, and grumbles of defeat as Bill and the sheriff stumbled out of the room.

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