Trail of Kisses by Merry Farmer

Author:Merry Farmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, western, western romance, western historical romance, pioneer, oregon trail, pioneer romance, pioneer days, pioneer and frontier

Chapter Nine

Cade hadn’t been one for sleeping since the incident while working for George Tremaine, but he usually managed to catch a few hours in the dead of night. Not that night. It didn’t matter that Pete had pushed them hard for the rest of the day or that his entire body was sore from holding tension throughout the afternoon. He didn’t sleep a wink. Judging by the sound of shifting and thumping that came from the wagon all night as he lay out under a cloudy sky, Lynne hadn’t done much sleeping either.

In the morning, the clouds thickened overhead and Lynne emerged from the wagon looking just as stormy. He made her coffee, just as he had sworn to himself he would do for her every day from yesterday morning on, regardless of the miserable way she refused to look at him. She could be as confused and conflicted as she wanted to be. He wouldn’t stop protecting her or caring for her just because she was determined to pretend nothing had happened between them.

He wasn’t willing to let it go yet either.

“We should talk about this,” he said as they rode side by side, several yards apart.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she insisted.

Cade clenched his jaw, looking for a way to get past her defenses. “I can’t do my job if you won’t let me be close to you.”

She snapped to stare at him, then just as quickly looked away and tilted her chin up. “You can, and you will. You don’t need to be by my side, privy to my every thought—”

“And your every kiss,” he added with a growl.

She huffed in indignation and turned scarlet.

“You’re not going to pretend none of those kisses happened either, are you?” he said.

She stared straight forward. He could see the wheels turning in her mind. Lord help him, but even that irritating delay was attractive to him. He liked it when she used her mind. Where else would she find a man who would value her for her sharp mischief?

“Your job is to keep me safe from the men who threatened my father, correct?” she began.

His heart beat faster, eager to see what kind of trick she would try next. “Correct.”

“Well, no one has made any sort of threat on my person since before Ft. Kearny.”

“Unless you count the faulty trigger on my gun and my wrecked boots,” he growled.

“Which I’m still not convinced was anything more than shoddy merchandise.”

“I liked those boots.” Cade swallowed the rest of his answer. Fighting about things he knew for a fact was not going to get him any closer to resolving their impasse. He took a breath and glanced up at the sky. A storm was definitely on its way. The horizon was dark with thunderheads. A few flashes crossed through the clouds. They were in for a miserable day. It didn’t help him to have patience with Lynne at all.

“I think it’s perfectly reasonable for you to continue to do your job

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.