Just Once by Jill Marie Landis Read Free Book Online

grabbed the front of his fringed coat. She screwed up her courage and shouted, “You’ve got to save me!”

Chapter 3
    “Shit.”
    Hunter groaned aloud. He didn’t need this. He really didn’t.
    Doubting his own sanity, he stared down at the disheveled blond with bewitching china-blue eyes and twin dimples and knew that plenty of the “Kaintucks” roaming the streets of New Orleans would not have hesitated to drag her off to a crib in the Swamp district first and ask questions later. Her breath was coming fast and shallow, her face smooth and pale as moonlight except for twin spots of high color on her cheeks and the shadows in her dimples.
    “Save you from what?”
    “Put the knife away and I’ll tell you,” she ordered.
    “Lady, you’re the one who flew out of nowhere and grabbed
me
. Start talking.” To appease her, he lowered the knife, but didn’t relax his guard. His gaze flicked to his rifle. It was lying on the boardwalk where he’d dropped it. Then he glanced up and down the street. There was not a soul in sight.
    “They’re still after me, trying to track me down and capture me.” A tremor shot through her as her eyes widened in fear.
    “Who?” He looked down the street again. There was no one around.
    “I’ve sworn not to let them take me, even if I have to
kill
myself.” Her small hands tightened on his fringed coat.
    “
Who’s
trying to track you down?” Certain she was mad, he spoke slowly and distinctly.
    “Do you think you could please let go of my hair? You’re hurting me.”
    He could see he was not going to get to the bottom of this very quickly, and his rifle was getting soaked. He let go of her hair, kept one hand on her arm, and sheathed his knife. Hunter dragged her over to the weapon and picked it up before ducking back beneath the overhang. Then he pulled the wool cloak over her exposed shoulder.
    “I asked who was after you,” he repeated.
    “The emir’s men, the palace guards. They’ve chased me half way round the world … from Algiers.”
    “Algiers?”
    “It’s on the coast of northern Africa.”
    “I know where it is.” He
really
didn’t need this.
    “You do?” She looked him up and down.
    “What were you doing there?”
    “I’d just left the convent.”
    “The convent?”
    “You certainly ask a lot of questions.” She took a deep breath. “My father had been forced to send me there after he lost the family fortune. By the time I received the letter carried by special envoy, it was too late. The nuns wouldn’t let me go.” She paused long enough to smile and cast her gaze heavenward. “They believed I had a special calling, certain I was destined for sainthood. Like St. Theresa.”
    “Christ,” he mumbled.
    “No, St. Theresa.”
    “How did you get out of the convent?” Despite his well-greased buckskins, Hunter was nearly soaked through. This was a night he would not remember fondly.
    She shrugged. “Why, the way any sane person would. I tunneled under the garden wall.” Her eyes took on a faraway glow. “It took months.”
    “And the emir’s men?”
    “What I didn’t know, as I made my escape, was that the convent was under siege. It seems there was a fortune in jewels hidden in the old chapel. The emir’s Berber guard had the place surrounded. I tunneled right into their hands. When they saw my hair—you know, blond hair is quite an oddity in Algiers—they realized I had not yet taken my solemn vows. The guards became determined to deliver me to their master for his harem. They expected he would pay a huge sum for a … well, you know.” Her cheeks stained with color and she quickly looked away.
    He had no idea what the emir would pay more for, or what hair had to do with taking vows. “But somehow, you managed to escape.”
    She nodded. “Barely. And only by slipping into a huge empty oil jar. I stowed away and that’s how I ended up here in New Orleans tonight. Those men will stop at nothing to find me again.”
    She