Page 61 of The Saloon Girl's Only Shot

“Shut—” He swung his head around again, still speaking through his teeth. “—up. I got her that job with Fritz so she could look after herself, didn’t I? I didn’t even know if she was really carrying. There’s no proof it’s mine, you know.”

“Only her word.” Owen wanted so badly to feed him this gun. He only hesitated because he couldn’t decide which end to use. “You believed he was yours when you bought the stage ticket.”

“To get my past out of town,” Elmer spelled out in a harsh whisper. “Now she’s marrying Fritz? Staying here? What if Katherine finds out?”

“Then I guess she’ll know what kind of polecat she married.” God, he pitied that woman.

“Our deal is off.” Elmer cut his hand across the air between them.

“The registration is in the vault at Quail’s Creek. That land and building is mine.” Owen tightened his grip on the gun because, despite his assertion, he could feel his plans slipping through his fingers. It was only a hiccup, he told himself, but it was a lifetime of trying to make something of himself and still coming dangerously close to amounting to nothing.

Elmer’s mouth was a thin line before he aired his lungs with a lengthy blue streak that questioned Owen’s parentage, his morals, his personal hygiene, and his level of intimacy with various animals.

When he got to questioning Temperance’s virtue, Owen stopped him with a hard finger in the middle of Elmer’s chest.

“Keep her name out of your mouth or you’ll be chewing your own teeth.”

“Get back to camp where you belong, you gold-grubbing, double-dealing, parlor-stealing piece of shit.” Elmer spat on his shoes and brushed past him.

Chapter 17

Temperance couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Judging by the tension in Owen’s body, he couldn’t, either.

When he had come home from having words with Elmer, he’d said, “He’s not happy about Mavis staying in town. I’ll make a quick run to camp tomorrow. I need to pay out the debt on this place before he tries to do it and makes me prove this place is mine.”

It was. She’d seen the certificate with her own eyes, but Elmer could just as easily make up another certificate, couldn’t he?

The possibility of a legal fight had been weighing on both of them all evening.

They turned in early, but they were sighing and shifting restlessly, trying not to touch each other, but this wretched bed made that impossible.

Even Clarence had begun to find the sag into the middle uncomfortable. He had figured out that the nook beside the hearth was a warm place to curl up in, especially in the evenings when the bricks still held the heat of the fire. Thus, there was nothing between Temperance and Owen, except the wrinkles in her gown—the one Owen had bought her for chores that she’d taken to wearing to bed—and the shirt and drawers he slept in.

“You don’t have to worry,” he said, voice low and heavy. “I’m not going to let him take the saloon, not when I’m so close to opening it. You can trust me. Now go to sleep.”

That wasn’t what was keeping her awake, although she definitely felt even less secure than she had yesterday.

No, she was warm and dry and mostly comfortable, but frustrated. Yearnings were teasing through her limbs, making her want to slither closer to the firmness of his body. She was lying as motionless as possible while her mind raced with imaginings of roaming her hands across his chest, down his stomach, and over his sex.

She didn’t want to be thinking these things, but it was as if his body called out to hers. Her own body felt ripe. She knew how much pleasure could be had in the soft friction of skin against skin. She knew how sweet it felt to be petted, and she wanted to feel those sensations.

“Do you think I’ll be safe here by myself?” she asked, trying to cool her own ardor.

“Yes.” He rolled toward her. “I’ll leave the dog.”

“What’s he going to do? Drive them out with the lash of his wagging tail?”

“He’s more of a welcoming committee, isn’t he?” He huffed a faint laugh. “Are you really worried about being here alone?”

“I—” There were some things better left unsaid, so fate wasn’t tempted. “I think I’m afraid you won’t come back,” she admitted in a whisper.

“I’ll come back. I’m not going to let Elmer steal from me.”

That wasn’t what she meant. What if he decided she wasn’t worth coming back for? Not to give her a job or to keep her safe, but to be her friend.

Was that what he was, even though she was fighting an urge to rub herself against him?

“I’ll leave early. No one will even know I’m gone before I’ll be back again,” he added. “It’s a long, hard day, but I can make it there in one, as long as the weather holds. I’ll only stay the one night and be back before dark the following day. You’ll have this bed to yourself for a change.”