Free Jillian Hart by Maclain's Wife

shivered over her shoulders and hid half of her face as she reached down to give the cinch a good pull. The fabric of her shirt tightened across her breasts.
    His gaze stroked those soft curves. Heat gathered in his groin. He took a ragged breath and looked away, but he noticed the stretch of her hip and thigh as she straightened up.
    Desire slammed through him. He didn't want another woman. He hadn't been truly prepared for this, he realized now. From the moment he saw Polly Brown and her satchel this morning, fearing she would try to run, he'd known it. She made him hunger. She made him ache.
    What he wanted was a marriage in name only. But with the way his blood heated, he was kidding himself.
    For the first time since he'd buried Neesa, he realized she was truly gone from his life. He'd held pieces of her close, but until this morning no other woman had cooked at that stove. And, until now, he had never desired another woman.
    He wasn't ready for this. He didn't want this.
    Worse, he didn't want these feelings for a gunslinger, a woman on the wrong side of the law.
    "I wanna ride with Polly, Pa." Emily flashed him a charming smile. "Can I?"
    "You'll stay with me. This time." He scooped her up onto the palomino's withers, in front of the saddle.
    Emily's hand caught his shoulder, keeping him from turning away. "You don't much like Polly, do ya?"
    Her whisper was quiet, but not quiet enough. He could see Polly stiffen. She looked pale as she studied him over the top of the saddle.
    His chest tightened. There was no way Emily was going to lose Polly, the mother she'd been praying for since Christmas, nearly nine months ago.
    "She's pretty, don't you think?"
    Emily nodded vigorously. "I don't think she can cook."
    "I think you're right."
    He watched Polly mount up, all graceful womanly strength. She looked at home up on the pinto. The animal was a little skittish with strangers, and so kept sidestepping. Polly laid her hand on the mare's neck and crooned softly to her.
    He didn't know why, but the more he looked at her, the more he didn't like her. He'd been the one to force this arrangement. And he knew it was the best he would be able to do for his daughter.
    After so many tries, he didn't think a single woman could survive the long trip through Montana Territory with so many bachelors on the loose.
    Polly would just have to do.
    "Lead the way." She wasn't easily cowed, that was for sure. She gazed at him now with big eyes the color of dreams and he saw for the first time what those dreams might be.
    The wind snapped her hair across her face. When the trail shifted south, the wind rippled those rich mahogany curls behind her. She rode the trail with an ease he'd seen in no other woman. He noticed how her denim-encased thighs gripped the saddle.
    "Pa, why are you so mad at Polly?" Emily wound her fingers through Fugitive's creamy mane.
    "She nearly set the house on fire."
    "You were mad at her before that."
    "Well, it's nothing you ought to worry about."
    "But if you don't like her, Pa, then she has to go back to St. Louis." Emily swiped at a stray tendril.
    He brushed her gossamer curls out of her eyes. "Do you like her?"
    "She's got a gold pan." Emily paused. "When you wrote those letters for me, I told her all the things we could do when she got here. We could fish and hunt for gold. And she said she didn't like the woods or being in the dirt. But see, she changed her mind and all for me."
    "All for you, huh?"
    She nodded vigorously, betraying her tender heart. "She must really wanna be my ma."
    Ben pressed a kiss to her brow and hoped her words could make it true.
    Don't let my daughter down, Polly. I can forgive anything but that . But when he felt that telltale tightening around his spine, he knew they were headed for trouble. He didn't know what, but he could feel