Free As the Cowboy Commands [Ecstasy in the Old West 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) by Robin Gideon Page B

what?” he asked in a voice suggesting an innocence of heart and mind that Jared hadn’t possessed since his early teen years. His cock had responded to Helen’s charms by once again hardening in appreciation.
    Helen’s lips pressed together in a thin, annoyed line. She put her hands on the generous curves of her hips, and gave her bare foot a little stop to signify mock disapproval. Finally, her lips curled into a half smile and she asked, “Would you like something to drink. I’ve got some hard liquor, if you’re interested.”
    Jared raised his eyebrows. “You? Hard liquor?”
    Helen looked away. That embarrassed edge came back to her tone as she said, “Like I told you, I’ve got a…a friend. It’s his. I keep it here for him. He’s buys it. I’ve tasted it, but I don’t like it.” Rhetorically, she asked, “Who in Whitetail Creek would sell whiskey to a woman?”
    Jared really didn’t like the idea of letting another man—especially when he suspected that other man was Helen’s lover—buy him a drink when he himself would never be able to return the favor. But it had been an awfully long night…
    “What’ll he say when he comes back and finds that the level in the bottle isn’t the same as when he left?” Jared asked.
    Helen’s green eyes turned flinty, but only for a moment. Then, in a voice that was calmer and more commanding than Jared had ever before heard it, she said, “He’s my problem, not yours. Right now, the most important thing to me is that I make you as happy as you can possibly be.” She glanced away, and when she did, her gaze softened as she concluded, “Don’t…don’t take this away from me. I want—no, I need —to do this for you. After all you’ve done for me, I have to do this. Please?”
    “Well, it’s quite obvious to me that you have everything under control.” Jared smiled, and a boyish dimple appeared in his cheek. “And I am most pleased to be the recipient of your generous hospitality.”
    Once again, Helen hurried away from the bathtub, the smile on her lips and in her eyes glowing with an effervescence Jared suspected she usually kept hidden. She hurried to the supply cabinet and extracted a bottle of Evan Williams whiskey and, from another cabinet, a coffee cup.
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any whiskey glasses,” Helen said, returning to the tub. The expression in her eye said she hoped Jared wouldn’t be disappointed.
    “Glass is glass. A cup’s a cup,” Jared replied, genuinely pleased that the whiskey he’d be drinking was top-quality, Evan Williams, sour mash sipping whiskey. But he was quietly furious that whoever had brought the whiskey to Helen’s house obviously had enough money to buy some of the finest spirits available in Whitetail Creek for himself, but he left Helen in a robe too well worn even for rags…
    Jared reached a soapy hand up for the cup, wondering just how much he could hate a man he’d never met.
    Helen got down on her knees beside the tub, holding the bottle in one hand and the cup in the other. She removed the cork rather indelicately from the bottle with her teeth and then even more indelicately spit the cork away. She then filled the clean, white coffee cup with whiskey to the brim.
    Again, Jared reached a soapy hand for the cup, but Helen moved the cup away.
    “I’ve got an idea,” she said, her eyes shining like wet emeralds. “Why don’t you just rinse the soap off your hands so you can hold the cup and enjoy your whiskey? Why don’t you let me pamper you a little?”

Chapter Five
     
    Jared, with hands now free of soap suds, gratefully accepted the cup of whiskey. He took a swig of the amber liquid. Helen got to her feet and went to the stove where the boiler was holding yet more water for the tub. Using a towel to protect her fingers from the hot metal, Helen closed the vents to the stove, shutting off the air supply to the fire inside. It would be extinguished within minutes.
    “I think