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falling onto her bed  the one they d made love in this morning. Or rather, the one they d had sex on. There hadn t been any mention of love b
better than to assume it, whether he was a good guy or the bad guy she d believed he was. Neither of them was obligated in any way towards
She was alone in her misery.
~ ~ ~
Later, she heard an insistent knock on the door, but ignored it. It was accompanied by some loud yelling, and she recognized the voice, but s
turned over, away from the door. Finally, he went away. Not long after, she heard Penny knock at the door. She seemed really worried about
 Go away, Penny. I m fine. I just need some time.
 Please, Miss Mary, let me in. I don t want to be out here all by myself with these people. And they re asking me questions that I can t rightly a
Mary Rose sat up and sighed heavily. She was right. She hated it, but Penny was right. So she straightened her back and got up, walking to
her death. As she expected, he was right next to Penny, standing to the side of the door but letting her do the talking. Mary Rose completely i
question of Penny.  What kind of things are they asking you?
 All sorta things, Penny exaggerated as they all started walking towards the stairs.  A lot of  em has left. But them that have stayed are helpin
fill in the bullet holes. The tub was fair riddled with  em, so they re building you another one.
 How generous of them, Mary Rose said sarcastically.  I suppose they ll all be hungry, too.
Rafe broke in, saying,  They ll all stay here, and pay you for their rooms, meals, and drinks while they work. It shouldn t take them very long to
them build another couple of tubs  you ll be able to quadruple the money you make on baths during roundup.
Her eyebrows rose before she corralled them.  Who s paying for the materials? She kind of expected to hear that the state of Texas was, bu
 I am. Out of my own pocket.
If she d ve been of a mind to, she would have had to admit that she was impressed. That was something she didn t expect.
She was so distant and cold. Rafe didn t think it would hurt this much to see her this way. It was almost as if she preferred him as a murderer
He d always had it pretty easy with the ladies because of a combination of his family s money and his natural good looks. But this situation wa
didn t know if he could ever get what he wanted  which was more of Mary Rose  all of Mary Rose, actually. He wanted to marry her. He d n
commitment with any woman before, but something in him craved her, even after such a short acquaintance.
His father had always said that when things were right, they were right, regardless. A man just knew, as he had known when he met his wife,
each other. Rumor had it that his mother had been the reluctant one of the pair, and it looked like history was repeating himself. But at least A
with having lied to Marguerite Conrad from the beginning, as he had had to lie to Mary Rose from the very beginning.
 I want to talk to you, he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along behind him, back up the stairs she d just come down.
Mary Rose was pulling back just as fiercely, paying no attention to her precarious position on the stairs, twisting and struggling with all her mig
anywhere. She was dragged up the stairs as inevitably as the tides came in. But when he wrangled her back into her room, she walked to the
her back.
Rafe sat down on the side of the bed, his hat literally in his hands.  I m sorry about what I had to do. If I knew then that I d fall in love with the l
that afternoon  
Mary Rose whirled on him.  You snuck in?
Rafe was beginning to think that maybe talking wasn t such a good thing. It was just digging him deeper, dammit.  I had to scout the place ou
before I came in and ordered a drink. I needed to know how many people were here and whether or not we could take them.
 So when I told you that we had guests, you knew that I was ly  bluffing.
He chuckled softly.  Yes, and I understood why. You re a strong women, Mary Rose. It s one of the things I like best about you.
 Don t say that!
 Don t say what? That I like you? I do. In fact, he stood and walked towards her, his hands in his jeans, looking uncharacteristically tentative.
Mary Rose snorted.  Oh, I m sure to believe that, after I ve found out that you ve been lying to me since you met me.
 Not because I wanted to  I was under cover! The less you knew the better! I couldn t even let on that I d met my brother  the guy in black t
downstairs is my brother, Augustus. The other two  as you know from your own experience with Hernandez  were capable of anything. I co
take the chance that you might slip up and say something accidentally that tipped them off. Then all of us would have ended up dead.
Mary Rose was not in the mood to forgive and forget. She was in the mood to commit a murder of her own. Nothing he had said had made h
him. She was quite happy stewing in her own juices on her own, feeling like twelve kinds of a fool for having fallen as hard as she did. Hard e
way she never expected to let any man. She was just starting to come to grips with having given herself to a killer, and here he was telling her
or thought about him  good, bad or indifferent, was based on a lie.
Rafe stood there, looking down at her, and hating his own weakness in this, his own indecision. So he decided to lay it on the line for her. Eve
out of his pocket and opened it, showing her a beautiful big diamond solitaire that had been his grandmother s on his mother s side.  I want to
Caldwell. I want more of what we had last night. Lots more. I want you to lie in my arms all night long like you have for the past few days.
Mary Rose thought he had surprised her as much as he possibly could in one day, but then he went and topped himself. Marry him? A virtua
She thought not.
Go to Chapter Eight
Depths of Desire
Chapter Eight
By Carolyn Faulker
© copyright 2007 By Carolyn Faulkner and ABCD Webmasters
If she thought that her outright refusal to marry him was going to send him scurrying away, she had the wrong man. In fact, he was around so
that he was driving her crazy. He was everywhere  helping the men fixing the inn and the saloon, supervising the building and placement of
in the kitchen when she was trying to cook.
She had to hand it to him  with all these starving, dried out men having descended on her establishments, she was raking the money in left a
busier than a one armed paper hanger. Then the finally began leaving, and by the end of the week, it was just him and Penny. Stu had come
to get the dirt on what had happened so that he could bring it back to town. They had had a steady stream of town folk out here for the same
as they ate or drank something, Mary Rose didn t really mind.
But things had died down a lot, and she had to admit that she was just as happy. Although she wanted to do well, she didn t want to be so bu
think. She wanted a steady stream of customers, not most of the population of the town descending on her all at once.
It was seven at night before she had a chance to sit down, after cleaning out all the vacated rooms and cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
a wing backed chair in the inn s small lobby, sitting in a manner that was totally unbecoming a lady, but then she was less of a lady than she h
him.
And, speaking of the devil himself, he sauntered in and plopped down beside her.  So. Will you marry me?
He d asked her at least once a day since he d originally proposed, and, so far Mary Rose had found him totally resistible. He always pretende
refusal, but he always came back for more. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]