Free The Men of Pride County: The Rebel by Rosalyn West

thanked her for the dinner as he readied to leave.
    Instead of a polite press of her fingers, Noble lifted them, bending to meet them half way. His breath blew warm over the back of her hand, exciting a shiver from wrist to shoulder. He did more than touch a proper kiss to her knuckles. Beneath the leisurely caress of his lips, he drew lightly on her skin, then devastated her with the slow stroke of his tongue behind the ridge of her knuckles. It was all discreetly done under her father’s nose.
    By the time Noble straightened, Juliet could scarcely control her trembling. She stared into his eyes, mesmerized by his unblinking intensity. Her fingers curled about his in an almost desperate panic until he smiled with a formal remoteness and said, “Good night, Miz Crowley. Again, my thanks for the hospitality.”
    It was an effort to force her fingers open so that he could slip his hand free. If they’d been alone, she’d have never let him go until his actions had been explained. What explanation could there be? He was mocking her for her attitude of uninterest, making her weaken before her own desires.
    And she did desire him. For all the wrong reasons. And perhaps for some of the right ones.
    If her father chose to be blind to her dazed behavior, Miles wasn’t as obliging. She intercepted his tight scrutinizing glare and tried to defuse it with a wan smile. He wasn’t fooled.
    “Excuse me, gentlemen,” she managed in asomewhat normal voice. “I’ll clear the table and leave you to your cigars.”
    Her china plates almost didn’t survive the distance between the main room and the kitchen. The shaking of her hands had them clattering together by the time she slid them into a basin of soapy water. She leaned there against the dry sink for a long moment, as chills rattled along her bones and her skin felt feverishly hot.
    So this was what it was like to lust after a man. She took a deep breath and tried to observe the sensations dispassionately. Her heart pounded and her chest felt tight. The rhythm of her breathing came out of sync. All because she’d imagined the taste of his lips and was teased by his indecent kiss upon her hand. There the skin still tingled and the reason why made her all the more breathless.
    She’d read about it, of course, in books her father never would have ordered for her had he known of their content. She knew one could expect basic man-woman responses on a level both powerful and primitive, but she’d been unprepared to experience those feelings herself—at least not with a man like Noble Banning, a man she’d sworn to dislike on general principles alone.
    But the truth was, she didn’t dislike him. She didn’t trust him, but she couldn’t despise him. Whether that was because of her weakness for his handsome face or her respect for his sharp mind didn’t matter. What matteredwas that the feelings were totally inappropriate and her father would most likely lock her away if he knew of them. When he spoke of losing her to another man, he certainly hadn’t meant a man like his Southern second in command.
    With her thoughts under control and when her hands were steady, Juliet returned for the glassware and table services only to be caught up in the topic of discussion.
    “You plan to keep them under guard, of course.”
    Her father gave Miles a bland look. “They’ve done nothing to deserve such treatment.”
    “They’re Southerners, sir, traitors. That sly devil sat here all during dinner measuring you for the best place to put a bullet.”
    “Miles,” rumbled a word of warning. But he refused to heed it.
    “We’ve given them guns, horses, the very means to slay us and escape into the night. What’s to stop them from killing us all in order to return to their homes?”
    “Banning gave me his word.”
    “His word? John, are you insane?”
    “Careful, Major Dougherty. My daughter asked the same thing, but it’s not within my power to court martial her .”
    “What makes