Branded by Vivian Vaughan

Author:Vivian Vaughan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626818484
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2014-05-24T16:00:00+00:00

“Gives a whole new meaning to Miss Fancy Pants,” Trevor joked, attempting to lighten the mood of impending despair that had begun to fall over him with his slip of tongue.

They left the mission after sundown, having dressed in the darkened room, and made their way to the center of El Paso on foot. Even in the dark, dressing in the small room had unsettled him.

Too close, Jacy had said of the room. Too close not to hear the rustle of her clothes when she removed dress and whatever she wore underneath. He counted a petticoat or two, he thought, which did nothing to dispel that damned dream.

Dressed as a couple of peons in serapes and sombreros, they came down the caliche hills keeping to the lengthening shadows. It was twilight now, that transitional period when the sky was still too light for all but the occasional star to shine.

She laughed at his quip, tugging at the sides of her blousey trousers with dainty fingers. “Don’t you wish you had a pair?”

Jacy was self-conscious, too. He could tell by her stiffness, by the strident tone of her voice.

“No,” he answered, thinking conversation might take his mind off his slip of tongue. If he didn’t let it happen again. Safe topics. They would stick to safe topics, if there was such a thing. “They resemble prison clothes entirely too much for me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, and he could hear in her voice that she was. Jacy, penitent, was much more dangerous than the caustic and haughty woman he knew.

He turned away, avoiding eye contact. Avoiding any contact. Hell, the compelling need he felt to touch her sizzled through him. He had hoped getting out of that closed room would help, but it hadn’t.

Why the hell had Mari made that impossible claim? Three little words that left him edgy and self-conscious around a woman he had always been able to tease, flirt with, enjoy. Untrue though the words were, they stuck in his craw like a boulder, obscuring everything else, even the fact that the problem stemmed from inside himself, from the truth hidden deep within him.

A truth that was too awful to contemplate. He had seen the consequences of love. It wore a woman out, aged her before her time, killed her. He wouldn’t wish love on his worst enemy. Certainly not on spunky Jacy Kimble.

Hell, he shouldn’t have brought her along. He’d play hell getting the job done, dodging cactus and rattlers, dodging the law, dodging her. He was supposed to be saving Hunter, and here he was consumed by Hunter’s sister.

“That’s Old Mexico over there.” She spoke into the night air, startling him. He sidestepped the arm she flung in front of him, pointing out the Río Grande in the distance.

“I know my directions,” he snapped.

“You don’t have to snarl,” she shot back.

“Sorry.” And he was. For a lot of things. Mostly for bringing her along. More, though, for feeling the hopeless, helpless, miserable things he felt for her.

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