Gerard by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online Page B

watched as he ran his finger along the biggest burn. His fingers were warm, but the pain was still there. “You should shift and heal, or I could do it for you. Taste all of you.”
    Her body was responding to him touching her, and to his words. She knew that he could smell her; hell, she could smell him too. When he ran his fingers down her cheek to her lips, Susie moaned, then begged him to leave her alone.
    “I can’t, and you know that. And I think you know that it’s too late for the two of us now.” Nodding once, she moaned as his mouth moved over the same area where his fingers had been on her face. “I want to kiss you. Taste to see if you’re as delicious as I think you’re going to be.”
    “I’m an ex-con.” That had him pausing enough that she could force herself to move back. “They said I killed some people, and I went to prison for it.”
    “But you didn’t.” She didn’t say anything, but he seemed to know what happened as he leaned away from her but held onto her hand. “You were recently released. The man that had killed those people is in jail now, and you’ve been set free. You’re no more an ex-con than I am. You were exonerated, and now you’re working for my brother because you saved his wife yesterday. I’ve been talking to my brother.”
    “I’m not like you.” He asked her what she thought was different about them other than them being man and woman. “You have money to burn. You have a life, a job, and a family. I have a bastard of a father, a dead mother, and five years of my life gone because someone didn’t check the facts like they should have.”
    “No, not all true, but some. I don’t have any money other than what I get paid each week to work on the ranch and the extra I’m getting for running the mill. Both my parents were killed when I was five, so I didn’t know them that well, but I do miss them. But if you understand that I’m your mate then you have to also understand what that means for us. I’m not going to leave you. And I’m not going to let you leave me.” Susie looked out at the cruisers that had arrived not long after she’d fallen away from the smoking wood. “You knew what I was to you when we were in the woods earlier.”
    “So? It wasn’t like you were thrilled about meeting me either. You just wanted a fuck. And you weren’t even caring if it was any good for me.” When he didn’t answer her, she knew that she was right. Then he frowned.
    “Do you really think that…? Well, obviously you do. I never leave a woman unsatisfied. Ever. And when this is done, I’ll show you just how thorough I can be.” She snorted, and could see that he wasn’t any happier with her than she was with him. “We really need to talk.”
    Susie looked away from him. She didn’t have any idea what was going to happen to her now. They were going to take her in, this much she knew. First of all, she’d been staying in a house that wasn’t hers. Trespassing on the land was a big deal. There was no proof that there was a man that started the fire, and as far as they knew, she was nothing more than a woman without any means of supporting herself. Which, she supposed, was true. And now she had this man in her life. She looked at him when he said nothing.
    “I don’t care for people.” He only nodded at her. “You have this big family that is going to expect you to find someone more suited to what you are, rich and fabulous. What do you think you’re going to do with this thing that might or might not happen between us when I’m taken back to jail?”
    “I doubt very much my family would care if you really were an ex-con, or that you had twenty-five children somewhere in your background.” He knew as well as she did that there would have been no children of any union she’d had before he had come into her life. Her body had been waiting for him. “What do you mean, taking you back to jail? Is that what you think? That you’re going to jail for