Read Three Men and a Bounty for Free Online Page B

what you call me.”
    Chris raised his eyes and looked at him with such hunger, James almost groaned out loud.
    “If you’re not afraid then come here and sit on the bed.”
    Again, Chris did as ordered, except he only sat on the edge of the mattress as if to say, “There, I’m sitting!”
    “So you came to thank me.”
    “That man would have killed me had you not stepped in.”

    40
    Gigi Moore
    “I don’t think that Troy would have allowed any such thing to happen on his property.”
    “I reckon not.” Chris shook his head, and James watched as honey-blond ringlets danced around his angelic face.
    He reached to tuck a stray strand of hair behind the boy’s ear, entranced by the silky-soft feel of the wisps flowing around his hand and tempted to rake both hands through the shaggy mop right and proper.
    “I like to pay my debts,” Chris murmured.
    James arched a brow. “That’s why you came?”
    “I reckon.”
    “Tell me, Chris. What do you reckon would erase this debt ?”
    Chris frowned, looking adorable and tempting all at once.
    “What did Troy want for his kindness?”
    “He said nothing.”
    James almost laughed at the imagined exchange. He could see the kid insisting to Troy that he owed him the way he did to James now, wondered if Troy had been as amused. Or maybe he had been insulted. “You don’t believe him?”
    “Troy’s already given me room and board, a hot meal and clothes.
    And he’s teaching me the finer points of tending the bar so I can help him out and earn my keep.”
    Scratch the insulted part. It sounded more like the man was as smitten with the boy as James proved to be.
    What was he getting himself into? He barely knew Chris and what he did know spelled trouble. “Sounds like a good deal to me. Why do you think you owe him? Or me, for that matter?”
    Chris swallowed again and gave him a piercing look that about had him leaking into his long johns. James could feel the liquid heat of his hankering in his slit and shifted on the bed to get more comfortable.
    “Folks ain’t nice to you for no reason.”

    Three Men and a Bounty
    41
    James used to believe that, too, but he had come across enough people like Troy in the world to know this wasn’t gospel. If Chris’
    assumption proved true, then James wouldn’t be able to read and produce the correct warrants when he went out on a hunt, at least not as easily as he did. A rancher had taught him how to read and write when James had joined his buckaroo crew right after Emancipation and the rancher discovered he didn’t know how. He’d wanted nothing in return for his good deed other than a hard day’s work for an honest day’s pay and assurance that James wouldn’t waste the gift he’d been given. James had been glad to give both and had been devouring the written word in as many forms of literature as he could ever since.
    Some folks, black and white, didn’t like that he spoke and carried himself so proper . Some folks didn’t like the idea of an educated Negro. They thought him uppity, but he didn’t put too much stock into what people thought. He tried not to, anyway.
    He cleared his throat, unsure how to respond to Chris’ cynicism.
    He knew he had to set the kid straight somehow so he’d know folks did do things for others without expecting a damn thing in return…unless Chris wanted to give something in return.
    “You know, you’ve got it all wrong, Chris.”
    “Got what all wrong?”
    “According to an old Chinese proverb, since I saved your life, I’m responsible for you now. That makes me pretty much in debt to you. ”
    “Well, I’ll be. I never heard that one before.”
    “I’ve got a mite more years of living done than you have, and I’ve heard a few more things, I suspect.” James smiled. He’d learned a few other things from the Chinese and Greeks in his travels and through his reading, intimate bawdy things that no decent folk should know about, things that he’d love to try with Chris.