Read Much Ado About Marshals (Hearts of Owyhee) (2011) for Free Online Page B

and he wanted more. He held the small of her back with one hand and slid the other up her side, her breast, then touched the skin on her neck. Her breath caught, so he kissed her again. Deeper.
    Caught in a whirlwind of wanting, he forced himself to yield to the pressure of her hands pushing him away.
    “I—I have to go.” She touched her mouth as she backed away, but she didn’t wipe off his kiss. She whirled and ran out the door.
    Cole picked up the bottle of manhood restorer. Nope, he really didn’t think he needed it. Not with the ache she’d left him with. He tossed the ugly brown bottle into the dinner box.
    Damn! He had to get away from Oreana. Away from her. But first, he needed to stick around long enough so he could find out what the miners were up to.
     
    Daisy dashed out of the marshal’s office and raced for the stable. Her heart pounded, and the ache in her belly intensified with every beat. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t even see straight. But she wanted more. More kisses. More touching.
    She cursed her naïve reaction to his kiss. Why, she’d never land a husband by being such a ninny. Honey Beaulieu certainly wouldn’t have chickened out. She’d have …
    Daisy crashed square into Mrs. Courtney.
    “Watch where you’re going, young lady!” Mrs. Courtney shot her a stern look.
    Could the old bat see the kiss lingering on Daisy’s lips? She turned her face away and muttered, “Sorry, ma’am.”
    She ducked around the corner and hastened her already brisk pace, wondering just what the heck she should have done when the marshal had kissed her. Or for that matter, what was there to do? He certainly seemed to know. A whole new surge of tingles tied her abdomen in knots. Oh, he knew.
    Stumbling on a raised plank in the boardwalk, she caught herself before she fell. She concentrated on the only thing she could—escaping to the cave where she could read. Honey Beaulieu would never have gotten herself in such a dither .
    As she fought back the tears that threatened, Daisy sped past the confectionery and on toward the livery. Her corset was entirely too tight! She only hoped she could get to the livery, and to Gal’s stall, before anyone saw her.
    The next terrifying moment , she was flying through the air landed face down in a horse trough. Cold water flooded her nose and ears, and she blew the fetid water out of her mouth. Strong hands lifted her out of the trough by her shoulders, water cascading from her hair.
    Blurry-eyed, she gasped for breath and blew a drooping bonnet feather from her nose in a most unladylike fashion, but she was too soggy to care.
    “Oh, shit. Oh, dear,” she heard Deputy Kunkle curse. He stood her upright. “Here, use this,” the deputy said, holding out a filthy handkerchief.
    “No. No, thanks.” She picked her purse off the ground and extracted a clean hanky. He must think her a clumsy oaf.
    “Sorry ‘bout cussing, miss.”
    She nodded, then blew the water out of her nose.
    “What’s got you in such an all-fired hurry?”
    “Uh.” Daisy tucked her wet hair under her bonnet and studied her toes—at least they were dry, and hoped her face didn’t show any incriminating evidence. Could he tell that she’d had, well, improper relations with a man—that she’d let him kiss her in a most intimate way? That she let him touch her lady’s chest? She tried to relax her face and forced a smile. “I forgot something.” Feeble, but the only thing she could think of.
    “Well, I got to get back on my tail. Cole says I got to track every move them Rankin boys make.”
    “Cole? Who’s Cole?” she asked, mopping her face with the hopelessly dinky hanky.
    “Uh, the marshal. It’s his second name, er, remember? Sidney Cole Adler. When we was kids, we called him by his second name, Cole.”
    She did recollect him telling her something like that before—the last time they had a collision.
    But no collision they’d had could even compare to the devastation of