The Lawman's Surrender: The Calhoun Sisters, Book 2 by Debra Mullins Page B

“It’s been a long day, Marshal.”
    “You can say that again,” he agreed. “Go on and do what you have to do, then we can both get some sleep.”
    He turned away and went to finish laying out the bedrolls. Susannah stared after him for a moment, then went to relieve herself behind the rocks.
    His pretty apology and the toe-curling impact of his kiss, hadn’t changed things a bit. She still intended to escape custody and find Abigail Hawkins. Nothing could be permitted to distract her from that goal.
    Any other path—including the one toward Jedidiah—would only lead to the hangman’s noose.
     
     
    Jedidiah took care of his own needs behind a nearby boulder, then returned to the camp and prepared to retrieve Susannah if necessary. But she surprised him. She was gone only long enough to answer nature’s call and then promptly returned.
    She settled down on the bedroll next to his. He handed her the carpetbag—from which he had already removed such dangerous articles as a jeweled broach and some hat pins—and watched out of the corner of his eye as she rummaged around and came up with the silver-backed hairbrush he’d seen in the jail cell. She gave a sigh of pleasure as she released her hair from its confines. It settled over her shoulders in a soft cloud of moonlit blonde that fell to the middle of her back. Eyes closed, she began brushing her hair, a half smile of pleasure on her lips.
    Jedidiah felt a tightening in his groin as he watched her. She looked like some sort of fairy creature, with her porcelain-smooth skin and silver-gilt hair. Her lips curved in a private, feminine smile that made him want to touch her intimately and learn all her secrets.
    He could still taste her.
    A man couldn’t live almost forty years on this earth and not have seen his share of beautiful women. He’d even bedded a few of them. But there was something about this woman, something intrinsic to who she was and how she was, that made her damned near irresistible to him.
    The fact that she had the face of an angel and the body of a sinner only added icing to the cake.
    She turned her head this way and that, brushing her hair until every snarl and tangle was gone. He wanted to take the brush from her hand, wanted to feel the silky blonde strands slip through his fingers as he ran the brush through her hair. It was all he could do not to reach across and make his fantasy a reality.
    Only duty stopped him. If he weren’t a lawman and she weren’t his prisoner, he could have indulged all his passions without a qualm. As it was, he had already overstepped his boundaries. She was his responsibility, though, and he wouldn’t take advantage of that.
    But he was surely tempted.
    She put the brush back in the carpetbag and pulled out a mirror and a handkerchief. Peering into the mirror, she delicately dabbed at the dust on her face. Jedidiah watched her in silence for a moment before he held out his hand for the handkerchief.
    Her expression puzzled, she handed it to him. He splashed a bit of water from his canteen on the lacy white scrap, then handed it back to her. She gave him a delighted smile and used the dampened cloth to wash the trail dust from her face and throat.
    When she turned away and flicked open a couple of the buttons on her shirtwaist and ran the cloth over her bosom, Jedidiah grew even more aroused. He shifted, trying to make himself more comfortable, and wondered what she would do if he offered to hold her clothes while she washed the rest of her body. He grinned at the thought of her maidenly outrage. He was sorely tempted to suggest it just to see what she’d do.
    Susannah turned toward him, suspicion on her face. “What are you chuckling about?”
    “Not a thing. I sure am beat, though. Are you done prettying yourself up, or are you going to put on more of a show for me?” He gestured at her shirtwaist.
    She glanced down at her open buttons, gasped, and quickly began to close her blouse. A becoming flush