The Time-Traveling Outlaw by Macy Babineaux Read Free Book Online

sat down, putting the skillet on the table. “So,” she said, taking a small bite. “Got any plans for the day?”
    “I’m going into town,” he said. 
    “Oh?” she said, taking another bite.
    “Yes. I need to have a talk with Sturgess.” He’d woken up determined to confront this era’s Sturgess, to see if he looked or sounded like the one he knew. But now he found himself distracted. Sally took another bite of eggs, the small fork passing between her lips. They were definitely redder. She was wearing some kind of lipstick. And was he smelling some kind of perfume?
    “Why do you need to talk to him?” she asked.
    His reasons were mostly personal, but he still couldn’t tell her that. She’d think he was insane. 
    “Men like that, they don’t stop until they get what they want,” he said. “Or someone stops them.”
    “And you’re going to stop him?” There was a playfulness to her voice, the hint of skepticism, that he found both slightly insulting and arousing.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m going to talk to him first, and see how it goes.”
    The playful tone left her voice. “Well, let me tell you a couple of things before you go trotting off to get yourself killed. Those men on the road were only the tip of the iceberg. Sturgess has a small army, and even if you managed to fight your way through them, he’s got enough money to hire twice as many. And if you think you’re going to get anywhere near close enough to kill him yourself, you’re flat wrong.”
    “Thanks for the advice,” he said. “But I just want to talk.”
    “After you killed one of his men, I doubt he’ll be much in the talking mood.”
    “Well,” he said, “I’m going anyway.”
    “Of course you are,” she said. “My mother used to say the only thing more stubborn than a mule is a man who thinks he’s right. But you’re not going into Lockdale on your own.”
    “No,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”
    “So I’m just supposed to sit here on my behind and let you saunter into town on my behalf?”
    He wanted to tell her that’s exactly what she was supposed to do. Her behind was far too cute to be put into harm’s way and maybe get shot off. But he could tell that wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He shoveled the last of the eggs into his mouth and got up.
    “Okay, then,” he said. “You about ready to go?”
    She looked at him, surprised. He could tell she had expected more of an argument. 
    “We taking the wagon?” she asked.
    “Better if we take the two new horses we acquired yesterday,” he said. “We may need to leave in a hurry.”
    She smiled at him, and again that impulse hit him. He wanted to clear off the table with the sweep of his arm, grab her by the waist, and pulled her down on its surface. He wanted to kiss her neck, get a better whiff of whatever it was she’d put on. He knew she’d put it on for him. He wanted to pull the dress up over her head and kiss her body all over.
    “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
    He shook his head, trying to clear away the image of Sally naked, laid out upon her kitchen table. “No reason,” he said. “Let’s go.”
    They headed out into the yard, but before they got to the barn, Logan turned to her. “Your mother was wrong,” he said.
    “Oh? About what?”
    “Pretty sure a woman with her mind made up is the most stubborn of all.”

5: Sally

    After showing him to the loft, Sally walked back across the yard and returned to her own bed. After she’d shut off the lantern, she lay there in the darkness, the sound of a lone cricket chirping outside. Part of her, a very large part, wanted to climb back out of bed, to go back into the barn and slide into the straw bed next to him.
    She longed for the touch of a man, the feeling of strong arms holding her tight. Even more than that, she yearned for the sensation of a man’s rough hands sliding across her naked body, caressing her legs and cupping her breasts. She