Free Sweetwater Seduction by Joan Johnston

crying hysterically in their midst.
    “Stop it, Claire,” Regina said.
    “I can't do it,” Claire sobbed.
    “You
must
!” Regina captured Claire's free hand in hers. “We must all stand firm together, or this will never work. Now, repeat after me: I will take no man into my bed.”
    “I will take no man into my bed,” Claire wailed.
    “She'll probably take him on the floor,” Persia muttered under her breath.
    Everyone laughed again, and Miss Devlin had to quiet them before she could say, “I think under the circumstances there should be a little more to this oath. Repeat after me:
And if he overcomes me by sheer force—
”
    “And if he overcomes me by sheer force—“I'll lie as cold as ice and not respond.”
    “I'll lie as cold as ice and not respond.”
    “Now you've taken the oath. You have to pledge it by drinking the cider.”
    The women all tipped their cups and took a swallow of the pungent brew.
    The Sweetwater Ladies Social Club broke up not long afterward, with each woman wondering—and in some cases deliciously anticipating—how her husband would react to the oath she had taken, with more than one thinking that abstinence just might make the heart grow fonder.
    Miss Devlin watched with mixed feelings as the rancher and nester women left the meetinghouse united by their cause. She was convinced that if all the women held firmly to their oaths, her plan could bring peace to Sweetwater. She wondered how many of them would actually be able to do what they had promised, and just how long the men could last without the comfort and sexual succor of their wives.
    She glanced out the window and discovered the gunslinger leaning indolently against a wooden column on the second-floor balcony of the Townhouse Hotel. He was wearing a black shirt, but it was unbuttoned and pulled out of his Levi's, exposing a chest covered with curly black hair.
    Miss Devlin was confused by the feelings that assaulted her as she stared up at him. She couldn't understand why she found him so compelling, or why she found it so pleasing simply to look at him. She quickly put a firm rein on the nebulous
something
she was feeling. She simply was not going to let herself think about that
awful, horrid, rude
man. Miss Eden Devlin was above that sort of silliness. She had hope that her courtship with Felton Reeves would prove fruitful. If so, she soon would have a husband, and someday children, without the necessity of ever losing absolute control over her emotions. That way lay disaster, as she had learned from her mother's tragic experience.
    Eden turned around and forced herself to look up at the gunslinger. He had been joined on the balcony by one of the ladies from the Dog's Hind Leg. She watched in awe as the half-clad woman brushed up against him, her nearly bared breasts teasing his hairy chest.
    Miss Devlin stepped back from the window, frightened by feelings she didn't dare identify. She placed a hand against her belly where a tight, achy sensation had arisen. Suddenly, she was glad she had no husband to resist. Because it appeared the feelings she had so long denied, and had kept so rigidly under control, were more powerful than she had ever suspected.
    She straightened her shoulders and stuck her chin up in the air, more determined than ever that she would
not
feel those feelings again. Surely as a rational, educated woman she could avoid the pitfall of allowing her emotions to control her life. At least, that was what she told herself as she left the meetinghouse for home.
    Miss Devlin kept her gaze straight ahead as she marched past the Townhouse Hotel, gritting her teeth against the shiver caused by the sensual male chuckle that drifted down from the balconpassed by.

 
    Chapter 4
     
    A man don't get thirsty till he c
ain't get water.
     
    “T HE S WEETWATER S TOCK G ROWERS A SSOCIATION won't be needing your services after all, Mr.