Wildstar

I'm counting on it. Aloud, Devlin said, "Let me see those reports so I can get started."

He rose when his father did, and accompanied him to the front door. C.E. accepted his bowler and walking stick, but then hesitated.

"Garrett . . . perhaps you won't believe this, but ten years ago . . . my intentions were good. I wanted to spare you the kind of marriage I had to endure with your mother."

Devlin found himself clenching his teeth. He had wanted his father to admit that he'd been wrong all those years ago. Not wrong in denying his blessing for a mar­riage that would have been a disaster, but wrong in the methods he'd employed to gain his son's compliance. But this was the closest thing to an apology he would ever get from his father, Devlin knew. He could either accept it or reject it.

"As much as I'm loath to admit it," he replied with ef­fort, "you were right. She would have made me an abom­inable wife."

C.E. gave him another long searching look, as if seeking reassurance, before he finally turned and quit the house. Devlin shut the door softly behind him, more determined than ever to live up to his father's expectations.

The reports from the Pinkerton detectives had suggested Silver Plume, Colorado, as a starting point for his search. It would be foolish, though, to advertise his millionaire status if he meant to quietly hunt the outlaws, so he'd de­cided to pose as a gambler.

The trail to Silver Plume had led him here to this moun­tain, to this mine, to a tawny-haired hellion who went for a gun every time she felt threatened by a man.

Recalling the incident in the mine shack just now when he'd kissed Jessica, Devlin shook his head in self-disgust. He couldn't deny that he wanted her, but the attraction was purely physical. She was too strong-willed and self-sufficient for a woman. Too tough. Too capable. Too in­tense. A man wanted a woman to be soft and feminine, to look up to him, to need him.

Devlin's mouth curved sardonically. Jessica Sommers needed a man all right. She was crying out for some hot-blooded male to take her in hand and soften her tough edges, to teach her about passion, to show her how to en­joy being a woman. He was tempted to take on the task himself. Oh, how he was tempted. Her rejection of his kisses had piqued his male vanity like nothing else had in a long while.

Devlin shifted his body uncomfortably. Just the thought of being the man to awaken her to pleasure was arousing enough to make him grow hard again.

Resigned to a long night, he resettled his shoulders against the boulder and turned his thoughts to the delight­ful prospect of avenging his wounded pride, indulging in forbidden fantasies that resulted in Jessica Sommers's con­version to full womanhood.

In the darkness, a slow grin of anticipation claimed his mouth.

He would protect Jessica from anyone who threatened her and her mine with harm. The question was, who would protect her from him!

Chapter 5

"You did what?" Riley Sommers bellowed at his daughter. He tried to raise himself on his elbows and then promptly groaned as the raw flesh in his back stretched and pulled.

"Riley, please!" Jess said urgently. "You'll aggravate your wound. There's no reason to get so upset."

Riley had regained his senses around mid-morning, hun­gry and crotchety and anxious about his mine. Because of his bullet wound, Jess wouldn't feed him anything heavier than chicken broth and soda crackers, but she was able to reassure her father about the Wildstar. Clem had managed to convince the crew to carry on without their boss, and they'd gone to work that morning as usual.

It was only after she'd spoon-fed Riley half the bowl of broth that Jess told him about hiring Devlin to guard the Wildstar and about staying up there with him the previous night.

"No reason?" Riley repeated incredulously. "My daugh­ter spends the night with a hired gun, alone, up on a mountaintop, and I have no reason to get upset?"

"Please, Riley, calm down."

"I don't want to calm down! I want to know who in thunderation this Devlin fellow is and what in blazes he was doing up there at the mine with you!"

Jess bit her lip. She hadn't expected her father to be happy about her actions, but neither had she expected him to be so furious. His stewing had caused a fresh crimson stain to blossom over the dressing on his wounded back. "Lie still. You're bleeding through your bandage."

Quickly she grabbed a towel and began swabbing gently around the edges of the gauze, trying to stem the flow of blood. "I thought you would be pleased that I tried to pro­tect the Wildstar," she said lamely.

The fight seemed to go out of her father. "Of course I am, Jess, but you had no business going up there with a strange man, even if it was for a good cause. What in tar­nation were you thinking of? You don't know this man from Adam, and you spend the night with him alone? You were risking your life, not to mention your reputation."

She collected herself enough to protest. "I'm not that bad a judge of character. You'll see when you meet him that Devlin isn't the kind of man who would hurt a woman."

"Well . . . maybe," Riley grumbled. Awkwardly he reached for her hand and squeezed it in his large, cal­loused one. "I'd rather lose the mine altogether than have something happen to you."

His avowal warmed Jess's heart. "Well, nothing hap­pened to me."

At least almost nothing. Devlin had kissed her half senseless last night, but he hadn't taken it any further after she'd pulled his gun on him. The speculative gleam in his smokey eyes when he'd woken her early this morning didn't count.

It had startled Jess to open her eyes and find Devlin sit­ting beside her on the small bed, his hip pressed intimately against hers through the blanket, his hands on her shoul­ders. He'd looked disreputable and dangerous with that shadow of stubble darkening his cheeks and jaw, though not a whit less handsome. But he'd behaved like a gentle­man this morning . . . almost. His teasing threat to crawl into bed with her if she didn't get up had been delivered with so much charm and with such a dazzling male smile that she'd blinked in stupefaction. She'd only been the ti­niest bit nervous until she was able to ride away, leaving Devlin there to question the mine crew when they arrived for work.