Free The Outlaw Bride by Sandra Chastain Page A

longed to be, inside her.
    He slipped his hand lower and reached for the hem of her gown, lifting the wet garment. Then he pressed his hand against her womanhood, slipping his fingers into the V of her thighs. She shuddered at his touch.
    “Callahan,” she gasped, and tried to pull away. Callahan pressed his lips against hers once more, not gently this time, but with all the urgency he felt. After struggling for a moment, she met his motions thrust for thrust, tightening her muscles and arching her lower body. There was a deep moan and then a shudder. Her release came with a rippling intensity that surprised him and left Miss Josie Miller wide-eyed and stunned.
    “What …” she whispered, “what did you do to me?”
    “I just loved you, darlin’.”
    “But …”
    Josie seemed frozen for a moment. As the last throb of her body dissipated, she shook her head and turned around, pulling his good arm over her shoulder and reaching behind her to clasp his back. “Lean on me,” she said. “If you can’t walk, I’ll drag you.”
    They made their way along the wall. Once inside, she eased him onto the bed, then stumbled toward the open window.
    Neither of them spoke for a long moment.
    Finally, she said, “I don’t want to talk about what just happened, Callahan.”
    “Good. Talking never does justice to loving.”
    “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call it that. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you never mentioned it again.”
    “I won’t mention it, Josie. But it happened, and it won’t ever go away. Every time we look at each other it will be between us.”
    “Then I won’t look at you,” she snapped, and turned around.
    “Well, fine,” Callahan said wearily. “But understand that tomorrow I have to get out of here. And you’re going to help me. If you don’t, this will happen again. Except the next time, it won’t be my
hand
that loves you. Do you understand?”
    She gasped and in a second was gone.
    Callahan was more than willing to put what he’d done behind them, too—but his body would take more convincing.
    Love was something out of a storybook for Josie. After all, she’d spent her childhood in a house of prostitution, seeing too much to believe that she’d ever want a man.She’d never believed in the wild, overwhelming kind of lovemaking she’d just experienced until now.
    And there was the issue of babies. Lovemaking made babies, and Josie never intended to have them. She felt awkward when she was around little ones. It had taken her a long time to hold her little sister.
    Josie flung herself down on her parents’ bed, but quickly rebounded when images of Dr. Annie and Dan making love flooded her mind. Of course they made love. They’d conceived a child, Laura.
    Dr. Annie and Dan were so close that one could start a sentence and the other would finish it. What they shared was discreet, but Josie had seen the way they looked at each other, and she’d seen Dan give Annie an intimate pat on her bottom or a kiss when he thought they were alone. That had to be love.
    Love was many things—from her aunt and uncle’s lusty, I-don’t-care-who-knows openness to Dan and Annie’s quiet sharing. But it was not what she had seen from the men who visited her mother, seeking temporary satisfaction for only themselves.
    Tonight, Callahan had given her pleasure without asking anything in return. And he’d called it loving her.
    He’d been right about what had happened between them. Their need for each other was too strong to be ignored. It moved of its own volition and touched the other, spreading like a prairie fire burning out of control.
    As the sun came up over the Laramie Mountains, Josie made a decision. She had to take drastic action. She would have to let Callahan go.
    Josie found Bear Claw in the kitchen the next morning when she went in search of breakfast.
    “Good morning,” she said, having learned long ago that the Indian moved at his own speed. She’d find out why he was