Caught by Surprise by Deborah Smith Read Free Book Online

my duty.”
    “Violate it some more,” he urged, and leaned toward her.
    She put both hands on his chest and held him back. “Don’t kiss me again.”
    “But that won’t keep you from kissing me first, will it?”
    “I can control myself.”
    “We’ll see about
that
, Melisande.”
    Challenge radiated between them in the silence that followed. They stared into each other’s eyes, reading the recklessness there, and Brig knew that she was on the verge of kissing him again.
    Slowly, one of her arms rose, and her hand balled into a fist. She didn’t look angry, she looked desperate.
    “You gonna whack me?” he asked in a husky voice.
    She blinked rapidly, dropped her fist into her lap, and shook her head. Smiling tautly, he got up and went back to his side of the table. Brig gestured toward her unfinished plate of lasagna. “Better eat, or you’ll have to heat it up.”
    Millie glanced down at the food and thought numbly that nothing around her and Brig
needed
heating up.
    “Aaaall I need is a little chance with you,” Brig sang under his breath. He paused to fork another load of fouled straw into the wheelbarrow outside the horse stall. “A little time to show that I’m true … truuue. Nah. Blue. Nah. A little time to show that I kneeew. Augggh!
Strewth!
” The woman had fuddled his mind until he couldn’t rhyme.
    He’d hardly seen his Melisande in the past four days, since the city had hired him out as a stable hand at Paradise Farms, a multi-million dollar Thoroughbred operation. She made certain that Suds or Charlie transported him to and from the farm, and she made certain that she wasn’t around when he returned to the jail each evening. Brig made a one-word comment on the situation, then looked at what he was removing from the stall and smiled sardonically. “Perfect,” he muttered.
    Every day he tried to work out his frustration through hard physical labor, but still he lay awake at night, thinking about her, his body tight and his mind full of plans. He had his tactics outlined now. Over the next few weeks Melisande Surprise was going to get more temptation than she’d ever imagined possible. By the time he became a free man again and she had no more reason to hide behind her deputy’s badge, she’d be ready to follow him anywhere.
    “Aaall I need is a chance with you,” he tried again, jabbing his pitchfork into a pile as he sang. “You tookmy heart and made it new. Run with me into the night, capure the stars and … 
I’ll give you the light.
” Brig cursed darkly and shook his head. “Sounds like I’m offerin’ to fire up her cigarette!”
    It was hopeless. Melisande would simply have to fall in love with him, or he’d never again come up with a proper rhyme.
    As Millie brought her old Buick to a stop in the stable yard at Paradise Farms, John Washington, the stable manager, was already on his way to her door. “Howdy, neighbor,” he said cheerfully. “Saw you comin’ up the driveway like a juiced bobcat.” He took a long look at her sweaty face and disheveled hair. “Anything wrong?”
    “A tree fell through my roof.” The Buick was one of the last of the dinosaur convertibles. She had the top down, so instead of getting out, she simply climbed over the side. Millie leaned against the door, crossed her arms over her chest, and sighed wearily. “At least it happened on my day off.”
    John flashed ivory-white teeth in a face the color of dark chocolate. “Aren’t you lucky?”
    “I was just wondering if you could spare someone to help me move the tree and fix the roof. I’ll pay.”
    He ran a hand over his stubbly, graying hair and looked sympathetic. “No can do, Millie. I’m short-handed—that’s why I hired your fancy prisoner.”
    “How’s my Aussie singer doing?”
    “Shovels like a pro, doesn’t expect special treatment, tells good dirty jokes. Hey, why don’t you take him over to your place to work on the roof? If Raybo doesn’t mind, that