Lawman by Lisa Plumley Read Free Book Online Page A

himself. He couldn't afford to be swayed by distractions,
even ones packaged as prettily as Megan Kearney.
    "You're wrong. I care a lot about what's
right and wrong," he said. "Most agents do."
    "Hmmph. How do I know that thing's even
real?" she asked, jerking her chin toward his badge.
    He tightened his hold on her wrists. "It's
real."
    Her chin didn't lower, and her behind didn't
budge, but her gaze lowered to the sight of his big, tanned hands
wrapped around her slender wrists. He saw her eyelashes flutter,
like she was surprised at the sight, and then her gaze met his
again.
    "Let go of me," she said.
    He murmured a refusal, mentally bracing
himself for the screaming and struggling—and inevitable
victory—that would come next. A hundred-odd pounds worth of woman
wasn't keeping him from searching that chest, and it was high time
he made that much clear.
    Her cool, measuring glance told him she
understood. Just to be sure, Gabriel stroked his thumbs over the
delicate insides of her forearms and warned, "If I have to move you
forcibly off there myself, I will."
    Megan gave him an odd half-smile, then
opened her mouth to suck in a gulp of air. Resigned to the need to
haul her off the chest and get to work searching, Gabriel braced
himself to release her wrists in time to muffle her scream.
    Instead, something seemed to occur to her.
Megan stopped in mid-breath and cocked her head at him, eyebrows
arched. "You really don't care if I scream, do you?"
    "Nope."
    Her forehead wrinkled in apparent
puzzlement. She looked at him a moment longer.
    Her breath came out in a whoosh. "Isn't that
against the rules?"
    "There's only one rule to tracking
outlaws."
    Her eyebrows lifted in question.
    "Find them before they find you, and get out
alive."
    "Oh." Her gaze softened.
    His shifted to her lips...and they'd
softened, too. They looked full, slightly downturned at the
corners. Kissable. I'll be damned...
    "That's the saddest thing I've heard all
year," she murmured.
    Something feathery touched his palm. Her
fingers, caressing the pad of his thumb. Gabriel arched his hand
without thinking, allowing her greater access to stroke him. Maybe
he'd judged her unfairly. The sins of the father weren't
necessarily those of the daughter...
    She spoke, crooning something about softness
and release. He was too engrossed in watching her lips form the
words to notice exactly what they were, probably something about
dresses or babies or cooking, all those things women cared about to
the exclusion of everything else. In his experience, there was
nothing a woman wouldn't sacrifice for the sake of home, hearth,
and family.
    Family, family.... The notion sparked
something in him, some sense of warning, but it came too late to be
heeded. Her hands worked magic on his palms, his fingers, the scars
lacing the backs of his hands. God, how long had it been since a
woman had touched him like that?
    He couldn't remember. But he wanted
more.
    "However," she said, suddenly and quite
clearly, "I still won't let you search my father's things. So you
might as well leave." With a triumphant look, she tightened both
hands on the trunk lid, making it plain that lifting her would mean
lifting the trunk, too, because she wasn't letting go.
    Wasn't letting go with her free hands.
    How the hell? Somehow, she'd gotten loose.
She'd also gotten a firmer grip on the trunk beneath her, one
designed, by the looks of it, to be damned well immovable.
    Gabriel shook his head. Her face came into
focus, faintly freckled, slightly square-jawed, and pretty as a
picture—even with the smirk she had on it.
    "Next time," she advised, "try not to get
yourself all worked up over a lady's..." She paused delicately,
lingering over the next word to choose, then gave him a smug little
smile. ". . . feminine charms, if you're planning on detaining her.
I do believe you're your own worst enemy in that regard, Mr.
Winter."
    He'd be damned. He'd half-expected all his
glib talk about her hair and her