Lauri Robinson by The Sheriff's Last Gamble Read Free Book Online

necklace he’d realized it hadn’t been the woman’s death that changed him, but the fact she and her husband had had what he wanted. Had always wanted. Love.
    All of a sudden he grew tongue-tied. Shifting, he dug into his pocket, pulled out her locket. “Here.”
    She blinked several times, staring at the chain looped over his finger. “Where’d you get that?”
    “I won it off Ratcliff.”
    Chewing on her bottom lip as she took the necklace, she stared at it for several minutes before whispering, “But you don’t gamble.”
    Jake searched for something to say, but nothing formed. The way her shaking hand wrapped around the pendant told him nothing.
    None of her usual confidence shone in her eyes as she lifted her chin. “Did you tell me all that because you could never…” She took a breath that made her shoulders rise and fall. “Love a gambler?”
    That had once been his thought, but it no longer rang true. Jake wasn’t sure what washed over him. Guilt about his past, shame for blundering this moment, or a form of relief because she’d misinterpreted it all.
    He took her by the upper arms. “No. I already love a gambler.”
    Hesitancy hovered in her blue eyes, yet hope flashed there, too. “You do?”
    “Yes, I do.” Cupping her cheeks, he bumped his nose against hers. “I love you, Stacy Blackwell, the gambler that you are.”
    Her velvety gasp had his heart kicking his ribcage.
    “I told you about St. Louis because I want you to know I’m not an outlaw or wanted somewhere and why I spent the last three years relieving newcomers of their guns before letting them enter Ma Belle’s and scolding schoolkids for stealing apples. It’s been an easy life. A good life. But…” He paused, not only to inwardly accept his confession as accurate but to make sure he had her full attention. “When I won that necklace off Ratcliff I realized gambling had just been a cover for what I’d been searching for my entire life.”
    Frowning slightly, she asked, “What’s that?”
    The air was snapping again, as were his insides. The desires that were never far away when she was near were back. Full force. “You. The person I’d give my life for.”
    Her response was a soft whimper as her hands folded around his neck and her lips met his. Seconds later the kiss was hotter, stronger than the previous one had been.
    “Jake,” she said between smaller kisses. “I love you, too. And I never, ever want to be parted from you again.”
    The entire world seemed to stop spinning for a moment and then a thrill shot through him, had his blood rushing and his hands seeking to touch every conceivable inch of her. Kissing her cheeks, her neck, her chin, anywhere his lips could catch a taste of her sweet skin, he admitted, “I didn’t know where to start looking for you.”
    He found her mouth again, caught her tongue and tasted her until he was ready to burst before breaking away.
    With flushed cheeks and smoldering eyes, she kissed his chin. Her fingers worked at the buttons of his shirt. “I was coming back. I just needed help.”
    His focus was slipping. “Needed help?”
    “Mmm, yes,” she mumbled, now kissing his chest.
    He should stop her, step back before the riot her hands and lips created inside him overtook his final coherent senses, but desperation had a hold on him. A need so powerful he took her lips again in a flood of kisses that ran from short and frantic to long and greedy.
    During a brief pause, she gasped against his lips. “Upstairs.”
    The plea in her voice, the taunting fingertips slipping inside his waistband, had him sweeping her off her feet and into his arms while his mouth devoured hers. It wasn’t until he was climbing the wide stairway that his sense kicked in and Jake came to a stumbling halt so fast she almost flew from his arms.
    Her squeal was more of a giggle, and at the top of the stairs, when he paused to lower her to the floor, her hold on his neck tightened.
    “Stacy,” he