Outlaw’s Bride by Joan Johnston Read Free Book Online Page B

body was alive with expectation. He could feel generous breasts crushed against his chest, and his loins were cradled by soft, feminine flesh. He had the craziest urge to rub himself against her.
    Then he remembered who she was. And who he was. And why what he wanted was ludicrous, not to mention impossible, stupid, and just plain idiotic.
    “What does your father have to say about yourbeing here?” Ethan demanded in a voice harsh with the passion he was struggling to control.
    “I’m sure he’d approve.”
    “And I’m sure he wouldn’t! Does Seth even know you’re here?”
    “He will when he gets my letter.”
    Ethan groaned. “He’ll kill me.”
    “Not if you’re my husband.”
    “I’m not going to marry you, Patch,” Ethan said through his teeth.
    “Why not? I love—”
    “Stop saying that!” Ethan found himself unable to look away from the blue eyes staring back at him. Her nose was tipped up in defiance and her chin jutted with stubborn determination.
    “You’re just a kid!” he said in desperation.
    “I’ll be twenty next month.”
    Ethan sneered. “And already a sophisticated woman of the world, I see.”
    Patch’s eyes slipped down to the soiled apron. She blew out a puff of air to remove the strand of hair that had caught on her lips. If only she’d had the time to repair the damage caused by that fracas between Max and the calico cat before Ethan had shown up. Then he would be treating her like the lady she had struggled so hard to become. For him. Because of him.
    “I’m a grown woman, Ethan. A lady, to be precise. And I deserve to be treated like one.”
    Ethan purposely chose to misunderstand her. “You want to be treated like a woman? Well, this is how I treat the only kind of woman I have anything to do with these days.”
    Ethan ground his hips against hers the way he had been wanting to do. The surprised, satisfied sound she made in her throat drew his flesh up tight.
    He hardened his jaw. Seduction wasn’t his intent. He transferred both her wrists to one hand and grasped her chin, angling her face up to his. Her eyes went wide with surprise and—heaven help him—anticipation.
    Ethan lowered his mouth toward hers, determined on teaching her a lesson about girls playing with men that she wouldn’t soon forget. His mouth closed over hers and his tongue thrust its way past her sealed lips.
    Only they weren’t sealed.
    Her whole body swayed toward him.
    Ethan jerked himself free. “Oh, no you don’t! I’m not going to get caught in that trap.”
    Still dazed by the effects of Ethan’s closeness, Patch stared at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
    “I know what you’re trying to do. It won’t work.”
    “What is that?”
    “You’re trying to seduce me. Then I’ll be honor-bound to marry you. Or else have your father hound my tail for the rest of my life. Where’s your sense, girl? You’d have to be crazy to want to marry a man like me.”
    “Why?”
    “I’m an ex-convict,” he said flatly.
    “I knew you were wanted by the law when I fell in love with you,” she countered.
    “You weren’t old enough to know what that meant.” Ethan yanked off his Stetson and forked his fingers through sun-streaked chestnut hair that badly needed a trim. His eyes were bleak when they sought Patch’s again. “I spent time in prison for murdering Dorne Trahern.”
    “But—”
    “Don’t interrupt. Let me finish. If it were only that, I could maybe think about asking some woman someday to be my wife. But it’s far worse than that, Patch.” Ethan took a deep breath and let it out. He tried to look at her, but found he couldn’t face her expectant—devoted—expression and say what had to be said.
    “I’ve paid for Dorne’s death with seven hard years in prison, so most people around here don’t hold that against me anymore. But the whole town of Oakville still believes I raped a girl so brutally that she lost her mind.
    “There’s no hope of me