WildOutlaws (11 page)

“I don’t care what you do,” she said flippantly. “You can sleep in the hall for all I care but tonight? I’m sleeping in my warm bed where I’m familiar with my surroundings. A blizzard is blowing up out there. The last place I want to be is at a hotel where a bunch of strangers are in and out. At least here, I know who belongs and who doesn’t. Bob and the other girls will keep a watch, too. I’m safer here.”

“Hmm,” Creed muttered, kicking a board out of the way. “That’s precisely what I was thinking. Have you been downstairs yet, by chance?”

“No, why?”

“The center of the last three steps are missing. Someone must’ve shot through the floor as they were walking this way.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I see what you mean. This is by far the safest place in town. All these women here will look out for you. I don’t doubt that for a minute. Hell, if anyone tries to make a move, I can only imagine what they’ll use to barter for your life. But heck, maybe the guy trying to kill you is fickle. Maybe Jesse and his boys will take a brunette and blonde one for the road.”

“I don’t think you’re funny.”

Creed took a few steps toward her. “I’m not trying to be. You, on the other hand, are deliberately trying to be a stubborn bit—”

“Creed!” David screamed. Veins were pulsing in his neck. His face was blood red and if appearances told an accurate tale, he was completely enraged. “Leave her alone!”

“You deal with her,” Creed grumbled. “I was trying to save her life while all the rest of you were running around here trying to fuck her. You think I don’t want her, too? You think I don’t care about what happens to her? Damn right I do, but we have a job to do and our job, in case you forgot, is keeping Mary Margaret alive!”

“You care about me?” Mary Margaret asked softly, trying her best to steady trembling hands. Had she ever met a man who’d spoken so passionately about her? Had she even met a man who would ever admit he even cared about her?

Creed arched a brow. “Does that surprise you?”

She gulped. “Yes, Creed. It does.”

“It shouldn’t,” he said. “You’re a beautiful woman.”

“Thank you.”

Creed turned to Tuff and jabbed his finger at the air in front of him. “Go down there and talk to the bartender. See if we can rent a room.”

“There aren’t any rooms available in town. If you still have your room at the hotel, you’d better keep it. The families in tent camps will try to move inside during the worst part of the storm.”

“You mean there are children trying to survive this?” Tuff asked, frowning.

“Yes, Tuff. You’d be surprised at what miners will put their families through.”

“All to chase the dream of becoming wealthy?”

Mary Margaret sighed. “Don’t judge them, Tuff. They’re doing what they can to make a better way for their families.”

“I wouldn’t let a wife of mine freeze to death.”

“To hear you tell it, you don’t want a wife. You want children but you aren’t interested in marrying someone.”

“That’s not true,” Tuff said. “I’d marry you.”

Chapter Ten

“What the hell were you thinking?” David blasted him a few minutes after they returned to the hotel.

Tuff deserved it. He’d been so caught up in the moment, he’d been unable to contain his emotions and where had those strange and unfamiliar feelings come from in the first place?

“She’ll think we’re playing games with her,” Buck pointed out.

“She ought to think we’re toying with her!” David bellowed. “First we tell her we’re hiring her to teach us how to become the marrying kind, then we’re dodging bullets and trying to protect her with our lives, and then wise guy here off and tells her he’d marry her.”

Tuff dragged his fingers through his hair. “I told you, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

David snarled. “You had no right to do that. None whatsoever.”

Tuff slammed his fist against the dresser. “Whether I had the right or not, doesn’t matter. But I can tell you one thing. I’m not going to let you tell me what to do where Mary Margaret is concerned.”

“Damn boys,” Jared said, entering the room. “I can hear the two of you all the way down the hall.”

“That must be some serious pussy,” Buck said.

“It is,” Tuff and David said together.

“Fuck,” Tuff said, falling against the bed closest to the door.

“Yeah, and about that,” Jared said. “I heard Creed interrupted you earlier.”

“Bet that pissed you off,” David remarked smugly.

“He saved my ass. I didn’t mind.”

“It wasn’t your ass he was concerned about,” Jared said.

“You don’t say.” Tuff crossed his ankles. Sliding folded arms behind his neck, he sighed a few times. “I guess we won’t see him the rest of the night, huh?”

“He said he’s playing poker tonight,” Buck told him.

“Creed playing cards?” David balked at that.

“Yeah buddy. He might play with a full rack but he won’t be shuffling a full deck if you know what I mean,” Jared taunted them.

“What are we doing here?” Tuff asked.

“I reckon we’re staying out of the cold. There’s a blizzard outside,” Buck reminded him.

“Exactly,” Tuff said. “If Jesse Strain and his gang come back again, we’ll be over here. Creed and Mary Margaret will be over there.”

“Creed is capable of protecting her,” Jared said, though he didn’t sound like he believed that entirely.

“You’re the best marksman on the team. You should’ve been over there, too,” Buck said.

“I agree with that,” David remarked, shocking Tuff.

“I bet that hurt to admit. Didn’t it?” Jared asked, grinning.

“God, yeah,” David replied. “I’ll be suffering from injuries for a week or longer.”

“Jared should’ve stayed,” Buck said, reinforcing Tuff’s belief that someone other than Creed should’ve remained at the saloon.

“If they come back, Creed won’t be prepared to handle them.”

“Sure he will,” Tuff said.

“Right,” David said. “Would you like for me to remind you of which cowboy was the first to crumble in front of Mary Margaret?”

He had a point. Creed openly admitted he didn’t want anything to happen to her. “I can’t believe he said he cares about her.”

“He was hooked before hello,” David informed them. “I saw him when he first saw her at the bar. Hell, I had no idea she was Mary Margaret and admittedly, I was pretty turned on when I first saw her, too, but Creed—you know how he is—hell, he acted like he’d just met his one true mate.”

“Maybe he did,” Buck said, shrugging.

Jared, Tuff, and David stared at him.

“What?” Buck asked. “It’s possible all right.”

“This coming from the man who spends the better part of his days running from any interesting woman?” David asked.

“I wasn’t ready to settle down.”

“Wasn’t?” Jared caught the past tense, too.

“I might find a woman who could persuade me in the future,” Buck admitted.

David sat on the edge of the bed. He looked Jared in the eye and said, “How do you feel about her? I haven’t heard you say a lot either. What do you think about Mary Margaret?”

“I haven’t been with her so it’s hard to determine.”

“This isn’t about sex,” David assured him.

“I would hope not,” Jared said. “We’re supposed to be protecting her.”

“Yeah, and keeping her alive won’t be easy now that she knows someone is trying to kill her.” Tuff left the bed and walked over to the window. He stared across the street at the saloon. “Hey, did any of you notice Mary Margaret’s room is directly across from ours?”

“Don’t get excited,” David said. “With that storm? In an hour, you won’t be able to see your hand in front of your face.”

Tuff hurried across the room. “You’re right. And that’s reason enough for me to stay at Mary Margaret’s tonight.” He left and returned again within minutes. “We’re moving to the saloon. I told the hotel owner to give our room to a family with small children. We can sleep on the floor of Mary Margaret’s room if we have to but we’re not leaving her unprotected.”

“She’s not,” Buck reminded him. “Creed will keep an eye on her.”

“Sure he will,” Tuff said. “And he’ll do as good a job as I did when I was watching her suck my cock. If you think I was wondering where Jesse and his men were when that little beauty was down on her knees, you’re crazy.”

Jared slapped his back. “Shit, I know what you were thinking, Tuff.”

“Yeah, me too,” David said regrettably.

“I was thinking—”

“Don’t say it,” Jared warned. “It’ll sound like you’re boasting.”

“This thing is a curse more than a blessing,” Tuff assured them.

“Sure it is,” David muttered.

“It is. But since you asked…I was thinking how in the hell does she fit this thing all the way down her throat.”

“All the way?” Jared asked, gulping.

“Inch by inch,” Tuff said, pleased he could taunt them.

“There’s no way.” Jared grabbed his blanket roll along with a change of clothes. “Make sure you grab everything Tuff. After what you made Mary Margaret suffer through earlier today, she may not let any of us stay in her room tonight.”

“We’ll see about that,” Tuff said. “If I had to guess, Mary Margaret is standing in the window watching for us. Poor thing is probably worried to death.”

* * * *

 “You don’t have to babysit me,” Mary Margaret said, finally satisfied her room was as tidy as it could possibly be after the catastrophe.

“I don’t see a baby. Besides, I don’t do well with children.”

“I thought you wanted kids of your own someday.”

“That would be Tuff.”

“And what about Creed?”

“I just want to be happy.”

Mary Margaret sat on the bench in front of her dressing table. “What makes you happy?”

“Peace of mind.”

“Do you have that?”

A dry chuckle left his lips. “In my profession? No.”

“Then why not find a more appealing job? You could find a respectable career in a mill or a bank.”

“Why didn’t you work for a telegraph office or over at The General Store? You could’ve worked at a bank yourself, you know. There were plenty of suitable professions. You said you wanted to be a teacher. Why weren’t you in a schoolhouse instead of a whorehouse?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” she admitted. Since Annabelle had died she’d finally come to terms with the fact her own choices led her to the saloon. She couldn’t blame it on her parents for dying. She couldn’t credit Old Man Cobb with her decisions. Sure, he’d encouraged her but she could’ve said no. She could’ve gone to the church and spoken to Reverend Taylor or his wife. They would’ve taken her in until she was able to stand on her own two feet.

Unfortunately, at the time, whoring around sounded like the easy way out and she was young. She wanted the excitement and she longed to have money of her own to spend. She wanted the easy trail, the fast track. She wanted gold in her pocket.

“You wanted to be a whore,” Creed accused.

“And you wanted to be a killer.”

He shrugged. “I suppose you’re right. I’m part Indian and outlaws had been killing my family for generations. By becoming a bounty hunter, I was able to get even.”

“You weren’t getting even,” she pointed out.

“How do you figure?”

“Did you ever kill anyone who had brought your family harm?”

“Not that I know of, why?”

“Then you weren’t trying to avenge their deaths. You made excuses for your actions just like I’ve continued to make excuses for mine.”

“Maybe,” he said, stalking her.

When he stopped in front of where she was seated, she noticed the thick bulge in his breeches. “What do we do now?” she asked, playing dumb, eyeing his cock.

“Don’t do that,” he said, taking her hand in his.

She thought he would help her to her feet, instead, he pushed her hand over his cock and showed her how he wanted to be stroked.

“Hmm,” he crooned, dropping his head over his shoulders. “There you go. Just like that.”

She pressed against his size. She dragged her hand up and down his erection, feeling the stiff rise thicken in his pants as his cock became longer and much harder.  

“What do you want from me, Creed?”

“What I haven’t had in well over two years,” he said, grabbing her wrists and bringing her forward. “I want hardcore fucking, just me and you. No reservations. No regrets. I want to explore your body like no other man has and when you wake up in my arms tomorrow, I want you well satisfied, so sated you can’t wait to take me again. That’s what I want.”

“Then you should have it,” she said, slipping her dress off her shoulders. The material gathered around her waist as she exposed her breasts.

He held his tongue in the corner of his mouth. “Is that what you want?”

“Yes.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“I like your idea, Creed,” she admitted, “but I have a little problem.”

He frowned. “What’s the matter?”

“I need to fuck. Right now,” she said, biting playfully on her forefinger.

“That’s not a problem,” he said.

“It is,” she promised. “I want you to fuck me. And I want the whole world to watch you when you do.” And the idea just came to mind so they needed to act fast in order to gain the attention and response desired.

He didn’t ask why. He probably held a few suspicions.

And he would be wrong.

“I used to be ridiculed on the streets of Cripple Creek. Since I’m considering a move to Tombstone with you guys, I thought I’d give the whole damn town something to remember me by.”

“I see.”

She wasn’t sure he believed her.

“Besides, it doesn’t matter what the townspeople think of me or what they say. They’ll never see me again anyway and best of all, the women who made fun of me? The gals who used to snicker behind my back? They’ll forever remember what their men saw. Given the hour of the night, chances are good a lot of folks will see us. The images will live on long after I’m gone.”

Creed watched her curiously. Finally, his grin widened and he said, “You obviously know our hotel room is directly across from the saloon.”

Mary Margaret hurriedly finished undressing. “You don’t say. Hmm, how about
that
.”

Chapter Eleven