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sex before.
    He wrapped his arms around Sarah and pulled her close. Sarah, in turn, flung her arms around him and clung tight. When she drew her face away from his chest and reached for his lips with hers, he didn’t pull away. She kissed him, her lips hungry and searching as if trying to drag a reaction out of him that she thought would come to light if she just wished hard enough.
    James let her kiss him, closed his eyes and even tried to let himself get into the feeling, but it didn’t work. He just didn’t feel anything beyond mild affection and certainly not the fire he sought.
    Something remained missing—always missing.
    She jerked away from him with a strangled cry, roughly wiping the tears away with the back of her hands. “That was a mistake.”
    “I’m sorry, Sa—”
    She put up a hand. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s not your fault you feel the way you feel. I was just hoping that maybe, if I could get a rise out of you, you’d see that it’s not so bad, you know,”

    36
    Gigi Moore
    she shrugged, all of a sudden seeming shy before continuing with a murmur, “being with a woman.”
    She wasn’t the first who thought she could change his mind. He sorely wished she could get a rise out of him, but he felt the way he felt and wanted what he wanted. A woman wouldn’t do, not if he remained honest with himself, and he was sorely tired of living a lie.
    “You’ll find someone, Sarah. You’re young and you’re pretty…”
    “You don’t have to go. You’ve still got the room for the rest of the day. Might as well stay and relax for a spell.”
    He caught her by the hand as she rose to leave, a sudden horrible thought dawning on him. “You won’t…say anything to anyone, will you?”
    “Who would I tell? Who would believe me? The big bad Marshal Hayden, a legend in his own time, prefers to bugger men instead of women.” She grinned sadly. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
    He just looked at her, thoughts of the reporter camped out in the hotel across town even now writing up an account of James’ latest exploits for his newspaper filling his mind.
    Someone knocked on the door, and James and Sarah stared at each other before he asked, “Who is it?”
    “It’s Nellie, and you have a…visitor. He wouldn’t leave a message. He said he needs to speak to you in person. I couldn’t get him to leave.”
    Could it be the reporter? He had been fairly insistent about getting quotes from the horse’s mouth for his paper, and James had been just as insistent that he didn’t want to be quoted. He didn’t have time for such foolishness. Bringing in criminals was just his job, and he didn’t want or need accolades or recognition for doing what was in his blood and the right thing to do, like last evening with the kid in the saloon.
    He’d been born to help out those in need. His way just happened to be with his gun and trailing and finding the bad guys.
    “Marshal?”

    Three Men and a Bounty
    37
    “Come in.” At least he wasn’t in that much of a compromising position.
    Nellie turned the knob, pushed open the door and stepped aside so that James’ visitor could step into the room.
    His waif from the evening before stepped over the threshold and paused, glancing around the room as if to steady himself before he looked at James and Sarah sitting on the bed.
    My waif. Mine.
    “I didn’t know you were in the middle of…things.”
    “I told you he was entertaining.” Nellie huffed and put a hand on her hip.
    “I thought you were just saying that because you didn’t want me to see him.”
    Nellie chuckled. “Chil’, I ain’t got no reason to lie to you or anyone else. If I tells you something, then that’s the way it is. Folks
    ’round here know Nellie’s word is her bond.”
    The waif had the courtesy to duck his head and avert his eyes, but James didn’t miss the fierce blush that colored his high cheeks.
    Lord, his fingers itched to trace those contours, feel the peach fuzz