Quicksilver Passion by Georgina Gentry - Colorado 01 - Quicksilver Passion Read Free Book Online

trip.I’m going back up Mosquito Gulch in the morning as soon as I get my burro shod. You won’t be bothered by the likes of me anymore.”
    Good!” Silver glared at him. She brushed her hand across her mouth slowly. He couldn’t be sure if she was regretting her decision or making sure he hadn’t kissed her. What had crossed her mind just then?
    There was so much more he wanted to say. But when he started to speak, she made a contemptuous gesture of dismissal.Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it. All you men only want one thing from a woman!”
    She grabbed her cash box and stalked from the cubicle, leaving him to gather up the money off the table with a sigh. Cherokee suddenly wanted to possess more than her body; he wanted her heart and soul. Whatever it was in her past that haunted her made her unable—or unwilling—to ever let a man caress her, or make love to her.
    He left the Nugget and trudged back to his hotel. To break down that frigid reserve, he’d need time and an opportunity to get her away from her ugly bartender watchdog. He couldn’t see how he could do either one . . . not unless he kidnapped Silver and held her prisoner up at his lonely, isolated mountain cabin.

Chapter Three
    Silver lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. It must be sometime in the wee hours of the morning, but she couldn’t sleep, even though the town had finally quieted down.
    She was afraid of the dark. Had been ever since . . . no, she would not think of that tonight. She would think good thoughts. After all, she was still pretty and her face was her fortune. Wasn’t that what Ma had said? But she wouldn’t always be pretty.
    Silver got out of bed and went over to study herself in one of the many mirrors in her room. Even in the dim moonlight, she could see well enough to reassure herself that her face still reflected her flawless beauty. Without that, Ma had said she was worthless. In fact, the plain, dumpy Norwegian had seemed to resent her only child’s looks.
    You’re just like your father, Sylvia, Ma would whine resentfully, good-looking and worthless. Lars Hanssen drank hisself to death, he did, and left me with his brat and nothing else but a few poor acres and a couple of cows.
    They both labored from sunup to sunset to sell enough milk and eggs in the nearby town to survive. But as the years passed, Ma begin to think of Sylvia’s blond beauty as an asset when men started to comment favorably on her child.
    You may be worth something yet, Ma opined. Use that beauty to marry some rich man who’ll take care of your old Ma in style.
    Sylvia didn’t say anything. Secretly she wanted to be a teacher and help those who were even worse off than she was. Then Ma had married one of their customers, Elmer Neeley. She would not think of her stepfather tonight.
    Silver returned to her bed, pulled the covers up to her neck, and shivered a little in the chill air. She had only been sixteen when Ma married Neeley and they moved into his big house in town.
    The young girl was uncomfortable with the way the man looked at her all the time he was courting her widowed mother. And when he kissed Sylvia after the wedding, he forced his tongue between her lips.
    Afterward, he never missed an opportunity to kiss or hug Sylvia, or brush against her in a hallway. The girl didn’t know what to do or whom to tell. She was too innocent to know whether all stepfathers acted this way or not.
    Ma seemed to be blind to it all. She prattled on and on about how Sylvia would now have a chance to meet rich, eligible young men because of Neeley’s social connections. Elmer Neeley himself said Sylvia was too young to be courted yet and wouldn’t allow boys to call on her. After all, he said, she was a mere schoolgirl.
    He began to spy on her when she changed clothes or took a bath. In spite of everything she could do, she never knew when she would look up suddenly and find her stepfather staring at her half-dressed or even naked state.
    Finally