Free Lone Wolf Justice by Cynthia Sax Page B

done come to Big Rock.
    Scowling, Justice wandered down Main Street, called that ’cause it was the only street they had. No one offered him a good morning, and that suited him just fine. He pulled his Stetson lower over his eyes. No yapping allowed him to focus on the job of keeping unappreciative residents safe.
    The newcomer had a different view of yapping. Justice heard the mystery woman before he saw her. She appeared to be running the conversation by herself, talking about mail order brides and small town friendliness, her voice chirping excitedly like a horny bird’s.
    He turned the corner, and his jaw dropped. Every bachelor in town was gathered around a concoction in delicate pink, and for good reason. She was plush and round in all the areas a woman should be plush and round, her breasts more than a handful, her waist with enough padding to please the choosiest man, and her hips designed for loving. Justice’s body hardened, his heart thumping with awareness, as he leisurely perused the beauty, the huge flower and bow apparatus on her noggin shading blonde curls, flushed cheeks, and a moving rosebud mouth.
    He was wrong. Royalty had done come to Big Rock.
    The pink bonnet turned his way, tilting up, and cornflower blue eyes lit with recognition, which was impossible ’cause Justice would have recalled meeting a looker like her.
    “Mr. Burton, you remembered my arrival.” She held out a dainty, gloved hand.
    Justice didn’t know what to do with it, so he held her hand as carefully as he could, keenly aware of the silver burns on his callused fingers. “Ma’am, I ain’t Burton.”
    “You aren’t?” Long golden lashes fluttered like a fly beating against a screen door. “Are you his twin brother?”
    The men around them guffawed, and Justice’s face heated. “No, Ma’am. Folks call me Justice ’cause I’m the law.” Sheriffing was a job needing doing, and wasn’t no one else wanting it.
    Her gaze flicked to the tin star pinned on his chest. “That’s your name?”
    “It’s as good a name as any.” His real name was Percy, but it would be a cold day in hell afore he’d admit to that.
    “I see.” The silence stretched longer than a prairie sky, and Justice supposed he should fill it up with words, but before he could corral an intelligent thought, what with her smelling like wild roses and all, she continued. “Don’t fret, Mr. Justice. I may be betrothed to Mr. Marvin Burton at this moment, but I am certain providence will see us wed. You mustn’t give up hope.” She squeezed his hand.
    Justice couldn’t make heads or tails of what that purty mouth was saying. “Your Mr. Burton’s dead, Ma’am. Smashed his skull to bits.” That he did know.
    “Oh.” Her face was wiped clean of all expression. “I didn’t wish that for Mr. Burton, believe me, but providence can be cruel, can’t it?”
    It couldn’t be no crueler than her Mr. Burton. The thought of that brute marrying her made Justice’s innards twist.
    “Let’s have a moment of reflection.” She bowed her head, her ridiculous bonnet shielding her eyes. “Now then.” She smiled up at him, her shining face like the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, and his entire body ached something painful. “There is nothing to prevent us from being wed.”
    Wed? Him and her? “Ma’am --”
    “Miss Diana Chatsworth.” She stroked his rough skin with her silk-covered index finger. It occurred to him that he should release her hand, but she wasn’t complaining, and those gloves were the softest thing he’d ever touched so he held on. “You call me Di.”
    “I do?” This conversation made his talks with Two Tails, the town mystic, seem downright logical.
    “You do.” She nodded, the fabric flowers on her bonnet rustling. “Will the preacher, as I believe you call him, be available now? I prefer to be married right away. I’ve already run through a couple of bridegrooms, you understand.”
    If she was referring to Burton