Adam: Braddocks, Book Two by Starla Kaye Read Free Book Online Page B

it. Yet. Maybe later she’d give in.
    Angelica had wanted to stay with her, but someone needed to handle the mercantile’s business. So Faith had sent her away. Daniel had wanted to go let Jennie know and have her come sit with Faith, but she hadn’t wanted to be a bother to her friend. And she’d absolutely refused to allow any of them to go tell her parents. Her father would have carted her all the way home, even if he’d had to carry her himself. No, that would not do at all.
    So instead she lay there in misery…alone. She couldn’t believe the rotten turn her day had taken. Not that it had started off well, what with Annabelle leaving first thing on the morning stage. Then she’d had a very strained talk with her parents and been stunned when her father insisted she take everything from her bedroom, plus a number of extra pieces of furniture that she really had no place for. But he’d insisted and she hadn’t wanted to fight him. Then this stupid accident.
    She squeezed her eyes shut. Her head throbbed, but not any worse than her ribs. Tears slipped from her eyes but she didn’t care. She figured she deserved a good cry. After that, she would put this whole bothersome incident aside and get on with her new life.
    Footsteps on the outside staircase drew her attention, but she kept her eyes closed. She knew without opening them who it would be. Adam. He, Daniel, and Ben had managed to bring up the furniture and trunks even before Doc left. Then Daniel had gone about his sheriff business and Ben had headed back to his ranch. But Adam had been checking on her every half hour or so, much to Angelica’s amusement and Faith’s consternation.
    “Can’t you leave me in peace?” she grouched, refusing to look at him, even though she sensed him walking right up to her bedside. “Don’t you know it isn’t proper for you to be up here? Alone with me in my room?”
    He snorted. “You, Miss Paddington, don’t know the first thing about proper.”
    She heard him drag a chair next to her bed and sit down. Out of pure stubbornness, she kept her eyes firmly closed. “Why are you doing this? Hounding me? Can’t you just leave me alone?”
    “Now you know how I’ve felt all this time.”
    He settled into the chair and she inhaled his scent: the minty shave cream he favored, a special mix of his own, and cigars. She remembered nagging at him about giving up smoking cigars. None of his brothers smoked them, not even cigarettes. She knew that he’d cut back over the last couple of months, but he still snuck a smoke out behind his shop every now and then.
    “I really don’t feel like arguing with you.” She relented and opened her eyes.
    The usual hard expression he wore around her was missing. Worry creased his forehead. And she recalled how he’d badgered Ben every step of the way up the staircase, warning him to be careful with her. Such mixed signals she got from him. He didn’t want her attentions and yet he seemed to be always underfoot lately.
    “I don’t want to argue, either.” He scrubbed a hand back through his dark hair, a curl falling sexily over his forehead. “Truthfully, I’d like to turn you over my knee and blister your butt. You are the most obstinate, the most aggravating…”
    “And you’re such an agreeable man,” she taunted. It annoyed her that he wanted to spank her, but this certainly wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned wanting to do it. Oddly, her woman’s place quivered and felt warm. Not at the idea of him warming her bottom, but at the idea of him touching her.
    He cocked an eyebrow, but one corner of his lips twitched.  Then he grew serious. “If my life had been different… If I hadn’t lost…” He shook off the obviously upsetting thought. “You deserve a man far better than me. A man who can love you with his whole heart. Faith, that man will never be me.”
    She studied him and saw the sadness in his eyes, the regret. Her heart broke for them both. She wanted