Free Angel Creek by Linda Howard

those enigmatic green eyes, daring him to take her again.
    He couldn’t even think of Olivia with those images of Dee burning in his mind. He wanted her with an urgency that surprised him. He had desired womenbefore, some passionately, but the mere thought of a woman had never made him feel as if he were on fire. And he hadn’t even so much as touched her hand yet! But he would, and soon. He couldn’t wait months to have her, or even very many weeks.
    He gritted his teeth against a hard surge of arousal. The way he felt now, the time remaining to Dee’s chastity could be measured in days, and even that was too long. He wanted her now; he was as hard and fractious as a stallion ready to mount a mare in heat.
    Instinctively he knew that Dee was a virgin, even though she had lived alone for five years. Her innocence both hindered and helped. She would not immediately recognize the seriousness of his seduction and wouldn’t know how to control her responses to him, which certainly gave him an advantage. But her innocence also meant he would have to restrain himself, to make certain she had been pleasured even before he entered her, and his control was already under a great deal of strain. Once he had her naked in his arms he would be near madness with the need to penetrate and find his ease within her. If he lost control and gave her only pain, she would fight like a wildcat the next time he tried to touch her.
    No, no one in his right mind would ever categorize Dee as docile. She was a wildfire, while Olivia was as cool and contained as a mountain lake.
    He stopped in at the saloon even though it was earlier than he liked to drink; maybe a beer would dull the ache in his groin. At that hour the saloon was almost empty, with only one other customer, who sat slumped sipping a whiskey with his back to thebatwing doors as if the light hurt his eyes. Lucas recognized the signs of a hangover and left the man alone.
    The bartender was polishing glasses, not paying any attention to him after serving him a beer. The two saloon girls were playing cards together in a half-bored, half-lazy fashion, spending more time talking than playing.
    After a while Tillie, the red-haired one, got up and sauntered over to Lucas. Though his senses were too focused on black hair and green eyes for him to react to Tillie’s lush beauty, he admired the sensuousness of her walk. She didn’t just walk; she swayed, she glided, she undulated. It was a movement so completely female that even the man with the hangover followed her with his bloodshot eyes.
    â€œGood morning,” she drawled, sitting down at his table. Her accent was distinctly Southern, lazy and soft-sounding. She tilted her head at the other man. “He’s got a reason for drinking, but you don’t look like you’re having a hard morning.”
    He was having a hard morning, all right, in one sense of the word. “Just passing the time.”
    â€œOr maybe you came in here for another reason.” Now her voice was even softer, slower, more inviting.
    â€œI’m not in the mood for a woman,” he said abruptly.
    Tillie gave a warm laugh, sitting back in her chair. “Oh, I think you are, sugar, but I’m not the woman, and that’s exactly what your problem is. You’ve got that angry, hot-and-bothered look that a man gets when a woman doesn’t lie down for him the minute he thinks he wants her.”
    â€œA man never gets that look around you, does he?” Lucas countered.
    â€œNot often, sugar, not often. Well, if you’re not in here to drink, and you don’t want to go upstairs, why don’t you join Verna and me in a poker game? We get bored just playing each other.”
    But he wasn’t interested in a card game either, and he shook his head. Tillie sighed sympathetically. “Then there’s nothing I can do for you, Mr. Cochran, other than wish you luck.”
    â€œI don’t need