Read Only 05 - Autumn Lover for Free Online Page A

ear. “You’re free now.”
    But Elyssa wasn’t. She was held motionless by Hunter’s lean fingers curling across her ribs, brushing against the lower curve of one breast. Her heart was hammering so fiercely she was afraid Hunter would hear it.
    Then she realized he wouldn’t have to hear her wild heartbeat. He could probably feel it against the naked skin of his right hand.
    Elyssa tilted her head and looked back over her shoulder at Hunter, trying to see his eyes. It was difficult. His eyelids were half-lowered, shielding his eyes.
    Yet she sensed he was looking at her breasts and feeling their weight against his arm.
    An odd, shimmering sensation went through Elyssa, as though she had stepped naked into a pool of warm water. Suddenly her nipples tightened and pushed against the silk in twin, hard peaks.
    Hunter’s breath came in with a swift ripping sound.
    Elyssa turned more toward him, struggling softly against his strength, determined to see his eyes. When she succeeded, the glittering intensity of his glance sent a strange wave of weakness through her. She sagged against him.
    Then her own breath came in raggedly. The quintessentially male flesh pressed against her hip was rigid, unmistakable even to a virgin.
    “Hunter?” Elyssa whispered, her voice uneven.
    “Stand up or I’ll drop you.”
    The contempt in Hunter’s voice was like being dumped into ice water.
    “I didn’t mean—” she began, only to have her voice break. “You didn’t have to—”
    “ Stand up .”
    Hastily Elyssa straightened her legs, only to find that her knees were still wobbly. She took a half-step, stumbled, and grabbed the nearest thing for support.
    It was Hunter, of course. The word he said under his breath made her wince.
    “What the hell is going on here?” demanded a harsh male voice from the darkness beyond the stall.
    Hunter looked up. A big, heavily muscled young man was striding down the aisle between the stalls, coming toward Hunter and Elyssa. He was wearing a six-gun on his hip and carrying a coil of rope in his hands.
    The rope worried Hunter almost as much as the six-gun. He knew exactly how much damage a rope used as a club could do in close quarters.
    Without making a fuss about it, Hunter took a step away from Elyssa, giving himself room to fight.
    And the angry flush on the young man’s face told Hunter that it might easily come to blows.
    “Who—oh, it’s you, Mickey,” Elyssa said, glancing away from the young man.
    Cautiously Elyssa shook out her skirts. Nothing snagged. She took a step. Her knees didn’t buckle.
    She let out a soundless sigh of relief.
    “Did you want something?” Elyssa asked.
    When no answer came immediately, she looked up. Mickey was staring blatantly at her breasts.
    The knowledge both embarrassed Elyssa and made her angry.
    A flush bloomed on her cheeks as she snatched her shawl off Hunter’s arm. With quick, jerky motions she wrapped the silk around her shoulders, concealing her breasts from Mickey’s pale blue eyes.
    Then Elyssa realized that she hadn’t minded one bit when Hunter had looked at her with male hunger.
    Her hands fumbled, nearly dropping the shawl.
    “You can bet your little tits I want something,”Mickey said roughly. “I want to know what the hell you’re doing rolling around in the hay with some damned stranger!”
    “You overstep yourself,” Elyssa said icily.
    “The hell you say!”
    Ignoring Mickey, Elyssa knotted the slippery silk in place around her shoulders.
    The young man’s arm shot forward. His broad fingers closed around Elyssa’s upper arm with such cruel force that she cried out. He leaned forward until his face was only inches from hers.
    “I’m tired of your uppity ways,” Mickey snarled. “You’ve been sashaying around, promising me all kinds of things with your eyes and hips, and now you’re giving them away to a no-account drifter.”
    The reek of alcohol on Mickey’s breath was enough to make Elyssa’s stomach