Page 55 of Native Hawk
Chapter 17
Drew knew he wasn’t making any sense.
And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
He felt the way he felt. Something about innocent Catalina brought out the hero in him. He wanted to come to her rescue and keep her out of the villains’ clutches.
And yet he couldn’t imagine riding into the sunset with her. He was a free spirit, a lone wolf. He’d always been that way.
“Look, I know I’m no prize,” he admitted as he pulled off his other boot. “You prob’ly deserve better than me. But at least I’m respectful. I’d never make you do anythin’ you didn’t want to do. You can’t say the same for those men downstairs.”
She lowered her eyes and picked a thread from her skirt. He was right, and she knew it
“But tomorrow you will leave, yes?” she said.
He frowned. That was the trouble. That was the part that made no sense. “Maybe. Prob’ly.”
She didn’t need to put the pieces of the puzzle together for him. It was obvious that after tonight, if he left, he’d have no say whatsoever over who crawled into bed with her. The thought of it made him ill.
The only way he could be sure no one else put their grubby hands on Catalina was if he stuck around. But the lady was damned expensive. He couldn’t afford to keep paying her twenty dollars a day. Shit, the gambling men of Paradise couldn’t afford to lose that much either.
Frankly, it would be easier—and cheaper—to just marry the lady.
He watched as Cat went to the mirror and began taking the pins out of her hair.
Would it be so bad to be saddled with a wife? He certainly couldn’t wish for a prettier one. She was smart and handy, a hard worker. She had a wicked sense of humor and a captivating laugh. And she had a body that made his mouth water.
“Where will you go?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts. She casually ruffled her hair with her fingers to shake loose the seductive black curls.
“When I leave Paradise?”
“Si,yes.”
“I’m not sure exactly. Where the wind takes me, I guess.”
“It is a lonely life, no?”
He shrugged. He never thought of it that way. If he got desperate, towns always had a couple of saloon girls to keep a stranger company. Of course, saloon girls were like tumbleweeds too, wandering across a desert full of men until they found one they could stick to.
Catalina lifted her foot, resting it on the chair in front of the dresser to unlace her boot. Damn, she wasn’t even trying to look tempting, and still she managed to make his heart do a flip in his chest.
He’d like to undress her himself. He’d rest her heel on his thigh, slowly pull loose the laces of her boot, and slide his fingers up her silky calf to slip off the soft leather. Her flimsy stocking would come off next, followed by…
The sound of her boot heel hitting the floor as she dropped it startled him from his daydreaming. She switched legs to remove the other boot.
“I do not think I would like your life,” she said. “To have no friends…”
He frowned. “I have friends.”
That wasn’t precisely true. He had friends he never saw. The people hedidsee were not really his friends. They were card players and bartenders and saloon girls whopretendedto be his friends.
He’d never really thought about it before. And now that he did, the truth made him uncomfortable.
“What about you?” he challenged. “You left all your friends and family in Italy.”
She dropped the second boot on the floor and straightened. Then she began taking off her clothes.
“My friends I miss. But I will stay in Paradise and make new friends.”
