Comanche Magic by Catherine Anderson

Author:Catherine Anderson [Anderson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-28T07:55:50+00:00

The next afternoon, Franny cracked her door to answer a light knock and found walking, talking trouble standing in the dim hallway. With one eye, she regarded him through the narrow opening, her heart skipping beats like a schoolgirl's.

"I've seen your face," he said softly. "I know your real name. Is it really necessary to look out at me through a crack?"

Ever aware that someone downstairs might glimpse her face if she wasn't careful, Franny stepped back from the doorway to allow him entry. When he had

stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, she relaxed slightly. But only slightly. "What do you want, Chase?"

In answer, he stepped to her bureau and plunked down a stack of gold pieces. She didn't need to count them to know they stood five deep. As he turned to regard her, he arched one dark eyebrow. "The same thing I wanted from the first, you."

Folding her arms, Franny spun away. "I asked you to stay away from me. If you want to play games, find someone who knows the rules. I have enough trouble following my own."

"Your rules stink," he shot back. "From here on out, you're going to start observing a different set, namely mine."

"Go away," she said weakly.

"Only if you come with me."

"I can't do that, and you know it. I have a family who depends on me. I—"

"Let me worry about your family."

"You?"

"That's a husband's job."

Franny could only stare at him, quite sure she hadn't heard him correctly.

"You're going to marry me," he inserted gently. "We can take care of it today, or you can put me off until later. I don't care which. But from this moment on, you will no longer sell your wares in this hellhole to support your family. No ifs, ands, or buts."

Stiffening her spine, Franny forced herself to meet his gaze. "What do you take me for, a fool? Since learning about my family, you haven't darkened my doorstep."

"You don't have a doorstep. That's one of the things I intend to rectify."

She opted to pretend he hadn't said that. "Now, here you are, suddenly demanding I marry you?"

"That's right."

"I'm sorry. But I know how that fairy tale always ends." Gazing at his burnished features, she decided that his Comanche heritage had never been more apparent than now, in the way he stood, in the leashed strength of his body, in the bold way he met her accusing stare. There was a wildness in him she couldn't ignore, bred into him by blood. She couldn't help but fear that the wildness made him impetuous, that what he decided to do on the spur of the moment today might become ashes on the wind tomorrow. "You may tell yourself right now that what I am doesn't matter to you," she said gently, "but a few months down the road, you'd wake up to reality."

"Reality being?"

"That I'm a whore!" she cried shakily. "Once a whore, always a whore, Chase. There is no changing that. I appreciate

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