The Gunslinger’s Untamed Bride (14 page)

“I am not!”

“You are, too.”

“She is not,” Juniper protested. “May’s too young to be interested in boys.”

“She’s nearly thirteen,” April said matter-of-factly.

“James Thompson tried to kiss her at the Spring Festival,” said Isaac.

May slumped down in the chair beside him, red flagging her cheeks. Juniper’s thunderous gaze shot toward Jed.

“Not to worry, son. My baby girl knew just how to handle herself, didn’t you, sweetheart?”

“Can we please talk about something else?” May said through gritted teeth.

“She blackened his eye,” April helpfully supplied. “Called him a sneaky, white-bellied jackass, too.”

“That’s quite enough, April,” her mother warned.

April dropped her gaze and forked a bite of chicken. “Well, she did.”

“And she was right,” Jed said in a low tone.

Rachell shifted her narrowed gaze to her husband.

He laughed, ignoring his wife’s disapproving glare. “We brought home a pile of blue ribbons from that festival. May and April made a patchwork quilt with Ben and Corin’s daughters. Looked like vines of colorful ivy creeping up the blanket. Fanciest needlework most folks had ever seen.”

“I did a sack race with Uncle Jake,” said Isaac. “But he wudn’t so good. Bet we coulda won it if you’d come with us, June.”

“Wish I could have. Maybe next year.”

His gaze met hers and held. Those pale eyes seemed to reach deep inside her, touching a place in her heart she’d never exposed to anyone.

Lily broke the contact, lowering her lashes.

No.
He wouldn’t win. She was in control of her life, her emotions. She had survived the loss of her parents, her home, had overcome the torment and ridicule of the Carringtons.

I can handle supper with the Doulans.

Staring at her plate, she methodically took bite after bite. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t block out the hum of easy conversation. A blend of cheerful voices and delighted giggles ricocheted around the table. Even May perked up once Regi commented on her impressive collection of his favorite authors.

“June got me started,” she said. “He was always sending books home to us.”

Of course he had, Lily thought, stabbing a green bean with extra force.
Juniper Barns, gunfighter turned savior of the whole wide world.

It was all she could do to stay in her chair as pain swirled around her. Finished with her meal, she risked a glance at the man sitting across from her. He grinned at whatever May was saying to her mother. He fit in with the rest of them, all smiles and cheer—his family’s affection for him as tangible as the food on their plates, all of it reminding her of a time when she’d sat at a supper table and felt the same affection and delight at being part of a family that loved her.

He stole my life.

Suddenly it all made sense, her attraction to Juniper, the chaos of emotions that had plagued her the moment she had entered the Sierra foothills. Every memory of home was like a chink in her armor, letting in slices of old despair, the feeling of helplessness she remembered from her youth as her world had fallen apart around her. By the time she’d awakened to Juniper’s sky-blue eyes and tender smiles, her guard had been down, her security breeched.

“Lily, may I take your plate?” April asked as she pushed back from the table.

Startled to realize Juniper was staring back at her, his brow creased with a frown, she turned to April. “Yes. Thank you.”

Everyone began collecting dishes and carrying them into the kitchen. Watching Juniper disappear through the doorway with Regi and the others, Lily didn’t waste a moment—she bolted for the front door and quietly slipped outside, needing to get away from all their cheerful chatter.

The cool evening air washed over her like a soothing balm as she walked into the growing darkness just beyond the lights from the house. The shadow of mountains against a black sky was still visible in the last bit of twilight. Lily stepped up onto the white fence rail, folding her arms over the top rung as she gazed out at the quiet serenity, miles of peaceful beauty stretching out beneath an open sky—all of it seeming to scream of her injustice.

He’d come here, to a tranquil home, a wonderful family that loved him—gaining everything he’d taken from her. It just wasn’t fair!

A small voice inside her told her she was being childish. Crying over what she couldn’t change wouldn’t help anything. Her anger over something so trivial was juvenile. But the pain was real—a sense of loss swelling inside her as though she’d lost her parents all over again. She pressed her forehead against her arms as a surge of grief took hold.

This wasn’t the time to resurrect old emotions. A few days ago, she’d been strong, independent, afraid of nothing. Until she’d met Juniper, she hadn’t cried a single tear over
anything
since she’d been dragged out of Missouri. She wondered now if that was because nothing else in her life had ever hurt so deeply.

She had to find the Lily who could face hardship, insolence and ridicule and
feel nothing.
She shut her eyes and pulled in a deep, calming breath.

“Lily?”

Juniper’s masculine voice shattered her concentration.

Not now.

His boots scuffed the ground behind her as he approached.

She stepped down from the fence. One look at his questioning blue eyes and she felt her control begin to unravel.

The concern in his gaze made her yearn to be near him. She turned back to the mountains, telling herself she was some kind of crazy to allow her father’s killer to affect her in such a way. No matter how frequently she reminded herself of who he was, what he’d taken from her, still there was a tenderness in Juniper she’d sensed from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, a sincerity that appealed to her clear down to her soul.

She didn’t like it.

“They’re serving up pie.”

“I don’t want any.”

He moved in beside her, crowding her space, her thoughts, her sanity.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure I don’t want to be here,” she said. “I don’t want to be in that house. I don’t want to see you with your family!”

Her sharp voice echoed back at her on the light breeze. When moments passed and Juniper didn’t respond, she glanced beside her. He stood with his back slumped against the fence, his thumbs through his belt loops, his somber gaze trained on her. She couldn’t tell if he looked hurt or confused or a little of both. The fact that he was making her care about him at all infuriated her.

“Do you do it on purpose?” she asked.

“Do what?”

“All of it! The dashing smiles, easy charm, the honey-and-hickory voice that makes me want to…to believe in you. To forget what you took from me.”

“I’m not trying to upset you and I’m certainly not asking you to like me.”

“Yet you make it very difficult for me to do otherwise!”

His lips quirked with a smile. “Sorry.”

Tears pricked at her eyes, which annoyed her all the more. “It’s
not funny,
you know?”

“I know,” he said, his eyes darkening with clear emotion, and suddenly her cheeks were hot with tears.

She turned away from him, but it was too late. Her breath came in short gasps. The moment he was near her, she couldn’t find herself, not the Lily she needed to be to keep the chaos at bay—Lily
Carrington.
She’d take being cold and bitter over the storm of emotions surging for release.

“Honest to God, Lily, I’m not trying to hurt you.”

He moved toward her, standing so close she could feel the warmth of his body against her back. His presence was like a hair-trigger on the lid to Pandora’s box, releasing all the little demons of suppressed sorrow and despair she’d kept locked away in the deepest regions of her heart. To her sheer horror, she couldn’t stop the flood of tears, the sobs wrenching from deep inside her.

“Lily.”

His warmth closed around her.

“I’d do anything to take back the pain I’ve caused.”

“That only makes it hurt…all the more.”

She tried to turn away, but he surrounded her, offering a comfort she’d been denied for so many years. Blinded by tears and frustration, she buried her face against him as grief rose up like a dark cloud. Wave after wave of anguish surged through her, releasing a deluge of tears, until all she felt was raw and open. Juniper’s shirt muffled her sobs. Each sharp breath drew in his distinctive, masculine scent.

Regaining some clarity, she realized Juniper’s arms were all that were keeping her standing. He held her close, one hand gently stroking her hair. Sniffing loudly, she found her balance and released her tight grip on his shirt.

Juniper eased his hold but didn’t release her entirely. Her cheeks warmed as she stared at the fisted wrinkles that moments ago had been smooth pockets on his shirtfront and the dark tearstains at the center of his chest.

Dear Lord, she’d used him as a giant hankie.

“Sorry,” she said, refusing to look higher than the damp spot on his shirt.

His hand slid beneath her chin and tilted her face up. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

His light tone was a clear contradiction to the turbulent gaze intent on hers. His thumb lightly traced her flushed cheek, sending tingles to the tips of her toes. She shut her eyes and turned her face into his touch, brushing her lips over the pad of his thumb. Ribbons of heat spiraled up from low in her belly.

Why did he make her feel so…
strange?

“Lily?”

The deep whisper of her name caressed her skin. She smiled against his palm. A
good
kind of strange.

She opened her eyes, her gaze instantly focusing on his mouth. Would his lips feel as pleasing as his touch,
a soothing burst of shimmering warmth?

He leaned in, and her breath caught. She rose on tiptoe to meet his kiss. The light, fleeting caress of his lips against hers sent a shudder of desire rippling through her. Her breath broke and he tilted his head, fitting his mouth more fully to hers. The first glide of his tongue reminded her why this was all so new to her, every velvety caress teaching her that she knew nothing of true intimacy. She returned the light, fleeting touches, meeting each rhythmic caress until she clung to him, trembling as she kissed him in a way she’d never kissed another man.

She slid her hands up his shoulders, her fingers seeking the silky waves she’d been longing to stroke. The smooth strands caressed the delicate skin between her fingers, which flexed against his scalp in the slow, sensuous rhythm of their kiss.

His breath emerged as a groan, bringing another tingling burst of pleasure. His body shifted against her, the hands gliding over her back, pulling her closer, igniting an unmistakable spark of desire. Lily held on tight, loving every fluid movement of his hands, his body, his mouth.

His lips trailed across her throat, leaving sparks beneath her skin. She tilted her head, arching against him, ravaged by the flood of new sensations.

“Juniper.”

The sound of his name registered in her hazy mind, breaking through the wild surge of heat strumming through her body.

What am I doing!
She was allowing him to slip past twelve years of hatred, to awaken a desire she’d never dreamed she’d possess—and
for him.

“No,” she said, pulling away.

She stumbled back, gasping for breath.

“Lily—”

“I’ve
hated
you,” she said, trying to reclaim her thoughts, “for so long.”

Juniper couldn’t have been snapped back to his senses faster if he’d dropped through ice on a frozen pond. Her words brought him back to where he was, what he’d done, the line he’d just crossed.

“Yeah,” he said. “Me, too.” He took another step back and released a hard breath in an attempt to slow the violent beat of his pulse.

“June?” April leaned over the front porch railing to glance back at them. “Are you two coming? We’re serving the pie. I made it,” she added, her grin stretching wide.

“Then you’d better save me a slice,” Juniper called back. “I’ll be right there.”

The moisture shining in Lily’s eyes turned the passion that had burned so deeply a moment ago to a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. What the hell had he been thinking? She’d displayed a moment of vulnerability, uncertainty at best, and he’d jumped on it. The first touch of her generous mouth to his, and he stopped thinking altogether.

“I’m going to bed,” she said. “You’ll tell me if Günter arrives?”

“I will,” he lied.

He watched her scurry toward the front porch, lifting her skirt as she raced up the steps. At first light he hoped to be delivering her money to The Grove and she’d be spitting mad. He’d gotten to know her well enough to be certain she couldn’t be reasonable about staying behind. She didn’t trust him as a lawman. He couldn’t rightly say he blamed her. He’d botched up yesterday, sending her down the mountain the way he had. He’d only been thinking of her safety, but she wouldn’t believe that, either.

He hadn’t been thinking of her safety a moment ago. He’d watched her over supper, had seen the pain in her eyes when she looked at him. She’d only been seeking comfort, and he’d given in to a craving he’d been fighting since the first time he’d held her in his arms. He strode back to the house knowing there wasn’t a pie on this earth that tasted as sweet as Lily’s kiss.

And he was a fool for finding out.

“Y
ou sure you don’t need another gun?”

June glanced over his saddle as Jed stepped into the lamplight of the barn. “You’re supposed to be my lookout.”

“She hasn’t come out of her room since she raced up those stairs, and her cousin just turned in, as well.”

Juniper dropped his rifle into the side scabbard. “Trust me, keeping an eye on Lily can be far more hazardous than going after outlaws.”

Jed’s low chuckle carried through the barn.

“No doubt she’ll try to follow me if she spies me leaving. She’s bound to be flaming mad in the morning, when she finds out I’ve left without her.”

“Not to worry, son. I do have some experience in dealing with unruly females.”

“Not like this one.”

“You sure?” Jed said mildly, reclining against a stall as Juniper finished tying down his bedroll and supplies. “She seemed rather quiet and gentle during supper.”

The reminder stung at his pride. He’d seen the struggle of emotion she’d tried to hide as she’d sat at the table, but hadn’t guessed how hard it had been for her to be around his family.

I don’t want to be in that house. I don’t want to see you with your family!

“Only reason she seemed docile is because she’s so far out of her element she doesn’t know up from down.” She never would have allowed him to kiss her had she been of a right mind. “Lily ought to be tucked into her big-city office, buying and selling companies the way us common folk barter flour and salt at the market.”

“I wouldn’t have figured you as one to be bothered by a quick-minded woman.”

“I wish it was just her quick mind that bothered me.”

“She been trying your patience, son?” Jed asked, a note of humor in his tone. “Carrying a flame for a pretty woman tends to tamper with a man’s reasoning.”

Juniper glanced up at Jed’s sharp eyes that missed nothing. Attraction didn’t change the unpleasant reality of their situation.

“I killed her father, Jed. Back when I lived in Missouri.”

Jed stared at him a moment before muttering a curse. “Does she know?”

“
Oh, yeah.
That’s why she’s here. She saw my name on her employee roster, loaded her daddy’s gun and hightailed it up the mountain to kill me.”

Jed’s mouth twitched with the start of a grin. “Can’t help but notice you’re still breathin’.”

“Yeah, well…this ain’t over yet.” After his behavior tonight and sneaking off like he was, he didn’t doubt she’d be gunning for him if she got the chance.

“I’m sorry, son.”

Juniper let out a long breath. “Me, too.”

“Sweet on her, are ya?”

“Only when she’s sleeping or unconscious,” he said, though he knew that wasn’t really true. She annoyed and allured him in equal turns. After the way she’d kissed him…
Good God
…how could he have known she’d turn to sweet fire in his arms? Her kiss burned through him faster and hotter than any flicker of passion he’d ever experienced.

“I’m not sure I want to know what that means,” Jed said with a laugh.

“She has the face of an angel and the temperament of her father.”

“You remember him?”

“I remember all of them. None so clearly as Red.”

Juniper shut his eyes as memories of that night descended on him like a cold fog. “The man had arms the size of tree trunks, the height of a giant and a gun hand accurate enough to make anyone on a Wanted poster beat a hard, fast path out of Missouri. When I heard he’d been drinkin’ and was looking to call me out, I did what any kid with an ounce of sense would do—I scrambled for a place to hide. I thought I was gonna die that night.”

“What happened?” asked Jed.

“He found me, picked me up by the back of my shirt, dragged me outside and tossed me into the street. I tried to talk him out of it—but there’s no reasoning with a man in a drunken rage.”

The images played out like a recurring nightmare in his mind. “He counted. We drew. He fell. Just like all the others.”

But that night had been different. When he’d stumbled off into the darkness, the aftermath of staring into the face of death closing in hard around him, a voice had called to him from the shadows: “June? Can I sit with you?”

His silence had been answered by a tender touch, then a comforting embrace. Rachell had been the beginning of his salvation. Her kindness had given him hope when he’d long since stopped looking for a trace of good in his hellish life.

Jed closed a hand over his shoulder. “No one can blame you for a situation that was beyond your control, June. You didn’t do nothin’ but choose to live.”

“Yeah. But sometimes…sometimes it feels like the wrong choice.”

“I know.”

Juniper glanced up at the stark clarity in Jed’s gray eyes and knew he was one of the few who truly understood his torment. Jed had traveled a path marred by violence and bloodshed. He’d also lived a long, hard life before finally burying the demons from his past and taking a wife. Rachell and Jed had welcomed him in, giving him something to care about, only to have it snatched away by a past that wouldn’t let go of him. Having to keep his distance from this family, everyone he loved, was a personal hell.

Lily Palmer was that torture personified.

“June, there’s not a day that passes when I’m not grateful for the choices you made. If it weren’t for you, I’d likely not have my wife or our family. A family you’re a part of.”

“And I’m grateful.”

“I know you are. It might help if you forgave yourself.”

A cold laugh uncurled from his chest. “How do I do that?”

“I may not be the best example, son. I let guilt rule my life for far too long.”

“I’m too busy with crazy female employers and trigger-happy lumberjacks to worry about guilt.”

“So, what do you plan to do with her?”

“Help her get her money back, keep her from getting herself killed, then ship her safely back to ’Frisco.”

“Well, as long as you got it all worked out,” Jed said, amusement shining in his eyes. “How long do you plan to be gone?”

“Providing we recover the cash box tonight and get it to The Grove office by morning, I hope to be back by late tomorrow night. The following day at the latest.”

“I wish you luck, son.” Jed reached up and put out the lamp.

“Thanks,” Juniper said, leading his horse from the barn. “I’ve got a feeling I’m going to need it.”

Lily’s breath felt like fire in her lungs as she inched her way through the side door of the barn, listening to the murmur of Juniper’s and Jed’s voices as they walked farther out into the yard. It was the words that Juniper had spoken about her father that played in her mind, chilling her skin from the inside out.

I did what any kid with an ounce of sense would do—I scrambled for a place to hide. I thought I was gonna die that night.

He’d run from her father?

He’d told her Red had been the one looking for a gunfight. She hadn’t wanted to believe him. Why would her daddy do something so reckless when his family needed him?

There had to be more he wasn’t telling. Her daddy wasn’t a drinker; she’d never seen him hindered by liquor. Of course Juniper would tell Jed it was all her father’s doing. But…why had he told Jed at all? He hadn’t been boastful or defensive. She’d heard the change in his tone, the sadness and
fear.

I thought I was gonna die that night.

Had her father assumed he’d win? That thought only tightened the knot in her chest. She couldn’t imagine the terror Juniper must have felt, facing down a man twice his size and three times his age.

She couldn’t deal with this right now.

She glanced around inside the barn where slivers of moonlight seeped through cracks and windows. Listening to the soft murmur of Jed’s and Juniper’s voices moving off into the distance, she hurried toward the tack stored in the far corner.

He meant to leave her behind.

Was that why he’d kissed her, to send her fleeing into the house so he could sneak off? Surely he hadn’t expected her to welcome such an advance, and yet…she had.

Shame flagged her cheeks as she recalled just how welcoming her response had been, the startling surge of passion he’d so easily evoked in her. Pain swirled into rage. How could he take advantage of her in such a cruel manner!

She knew full well he was trying to protect his friends, the men he’d called
Good Samaritans,
the men who’d killed Mr. Dobbs. She couldn’t allow that. Not when Mr. Dobbs had died trying to protect the money those men had stolen. She owed it to his family to make sure all the men responsible for his death were held accountable. She hoped his loved ones could find some peace in knowing justice had been served for his murder—which was more than she’d ever received.

Working quickly and quietly, she gathered Mr. Dobbs’s equipment and saddled the horse she’d been riding. As she finished, she draped the gun belt Juniper had given to Regi over the saddle horn. The sound of Juniper’s departing horse was fading into the night. She stroked the mare’s dark coat and waited until she heard the front door close behind Jed.

Slowly she crept from the barn, keeping her eyes on the house as she led her horse toward open pasture as quietly as she could. In the distance Juniper was little more than a moving shadow as he descended over a hillside in the direction of the gap between two rises of flat-topped ridges.

“I hope you’re rested,” Lily whispered to the mare as she shifted into the saddle. “We have a sheriff to catch.”

The moon shone bright overhead, giving a good view of the ridges standing against an onyx sky. Up ahead three horses came into view, shifting in the shadows beneath a cluster of oak trees. Recognizing Günter’s horse, Juniper slowed and quickly dismounted.

He staked his horse between the two bearing a D&D brand. His gaze swept over the high flat ridge and surrounding scrub, searching the shadows as he listened for sounds of movement or voices.

He heard neither. Nothing but a light rustle of leaves shifting in a cool evening breeze.

Had they gone without him? He’d said an hour after nightfall and he wasn’t late. He’d ridden at a near reckless pace, pushing his stallion as hard as the increasing moonlight would allow.

Walking toward the break in two sheer rises of earth and stone, he moved his gaze over the straight ledge, searching for signs of Jake or Günter spying on the Chandler homestead just beyond the gap. He surely wasn’t going to just sit here and wait for them to come back. More than two seconds of idle thought and his mind strayed to where it shouldn’t. Emerald eyes, the scent of lilacs, the taste of—

Knock it off,
he silently berated himself, his blood stirring at the mere memory of her kiss. The first timid touch of her tongue, and desire had pounded through him, blinding him. Consuming him.

He should have guessed she’d approach passion with the same bold tenacity she’d displayed on the mountain. Touching her had been the first mistake. One moment she’d been a tender flame in his arms, the next the fire of her touch and taste had surrounded him—burning him like a fever in his blood.

“Gotcha,”
said a low voice.

Juniper spun, his gun breaking free of his holster in the time it took most men to flinch.

The wide grin of Kyle Darby met his stare. “Hey, cousin.”

“Damnation,”
Juniper said in a wheezing breath. He shoved his gun back into the leather and was more than tempted to punch out his best friend.

“It’s a sad day when a man can sneak up on Juniper Barns,” his friend lamented, slapping a hand against his shoulder.

Juniper returned the friendly nudge, none too gently. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you!”

“I warned him.” Jake stepped beside his older brother.

“Only a fool shoots what he can’t see,” Kyle said mildly. “You’re no fool.” He chuckled. “Leastways, not usually. What has you stargazing when you should be on guard?”

“I wasn’t stargazing. I was waiting on your brother.”

“And stargazing,” said Kyle.

Juniper rolled his shoulders against a tension in his muscles nagging at him to take that punch.

“Save it for the outlaws,” Kyle advised, his dark blue eyes reading him with an ease that came from years of friendship.

“Where’s Günter?”

“Working his way around to the east side of Chandler’s place,” said Jake.

“We came in early and counted ten horses at the homestead,” Kyle informed him. “We’re not sure how many they had on the place before the others arrived. Either way, we’re outnumbered and figured it’d be best to go in from all four sides.”

“It’s just the four of us,” said Jake.

“What do you mean by
just?
” Kyle broadened his stance. “You and June can go on home and darn socks for all I care. Me and ol’ Günter can handle that little band of thieves.”

Juniper grinned. It was that cocky attitude that had gotten them both into a number of brawls, despite Juniper’s effort to keep them out of trouble. “When did you get home, anyhow? Last I heard you were hunting down outlaws up in Montana.”

Kyle’s teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “I’m still hunting.” He lifted the side of his long coat, revealing a silver star pinned to the inside.

Juniper stared at the circular insignia in near disbelief.

“You’re a U.S. marshal?”

“Figured I’d follow my cousin’s good example and go legit.”

“You’d think he’d have written home with such news,” said Jake. “Getting to meet the president and all.”

“Same job, new title,” Kyle said with a shrug.

“I can’t believe they’d let you near the president,” Juniper said in bewilderment.

Kyle laughed. “Would you believe President Arthur knows Jed?”

Juniper grinned. “Yeah. Ain’t many folks of political importance who don’t.”

“My jaw must have hit the table when ol’ Chester Arthur asked me how the Doulan family was faring. Apparently they don’t pass out stars without combing a man’s background. Your sheriff’s office could use that kind of efficiency. I take it you never got the telegram I sent to The Grove?”

“
You’re
the reason my deputy left his post.”