The Bounty Hunter's Heart Read online

  "That's how I feel too, Jack, afraid for your pa, but we can't know if we'll distract him or not. We can't put him in more danger. He's in harm's way. His life is everything, just like yours." Saydee knew her voice was shaking. "Waiting isn't easy."

  Pete barked again, sharp and insistent, his full attention still on the open front door. His ruff stood up and terror drove deep into her heart. What if Winn was dead? She choked on grief too large to handle, and a man's wide-shouldered, brawny form shadowed the doorway, his gait uneven.

  Could this be real? Or was she seeing things? She cried out at the familiar cast of his profile against the darker world behind him as he hesitated and curled one large hand around the outer edge of the door and stepped inside. Winn! The chilly wind current died, and so did his shadowed silhouette as he disappeared in the total darkness as he pushed the door shut with a click.

  Where did he go? She needed to see him. She was on her feet and racing across the room without realizing. She flew into his big, strong arms and held him tight, with all her might, crying and laughing and deeply thankful that he was real, all flesh and blood man and not a dream. His mouth covered hers in a desperate, tender kiss that chased away her every last bit of fear and grief, leaving only bright hope.

  "I missed you, beauty," he whispered against her kiss and held her tighter, breathing life into her with the solid might of his body and his lion heart. "I missed you so much."

  "I did, too. I just can't believe this, that you're really here, that you came back to me." Her heart felt new, whole, bright. "Let me look at you one more time. I have to see that you're real and I'm not imagining you. You are that much of a dream to me."

  His lips claimed over hers in a hot promise of a kiss that made her yearn for his every touch, his every caress, for every thrust he had to give her in their bed together. "I know just how you feel. I'm not the kind of man who believes in dreams or that an angel like you could ever happen to me, but here I am, and in my heart I'll always be on bended knee. I've come home to you."

  "Good, then stay." She sparkled up at him with the promise of joy in her eyes, and he kissed her with passion and devotion.

  And the power of his feelings left an ache in his chest and put hope in his heart. He wanted to hold her forever. He wanted to grow old with her. Her kiss left him beating hot with desire. The brush of her hand to his jawline left him aching and wishing they were alone without the business of the local sheriff to go fetch, bounties to claim and the house repairs to make. He would rather make the world and its problems fade away more with each desperate kiss to her lips, and later, tonight, when all was quiet and the child was upstairs fast asleep, crawl into her bed and made love in the cozy comfort of their home.

  All he wanted was to love her deep as he could go, and in the harmony of their beating hearts know what real love was like, a future just like this moment in time, full of the joy they shared.

  He felt a bump against his trouser leg, a warm pleasant presence and tore his mouth from hers to gaze down at the dog leaning against his knee and looking up at him, full of love. The spill of lamplight illuminated the friendly shepherd, so valiant and protective and the boy ambling through the parlor, the light behind him, who tumbled alive and well straight into his arms.

  "Pa, oh Pa, it's really you, you came back." Jack buried his face in Winn's shirt. "I hope you don't have to ever leave me again."

  "That's my plan." He pressed a kiss against his son's forehead. "I know you did a good job taking care of Saydee and Pete. I'm proud of you, my big boy."

  Jack grinned. "And now we've got more family to care for. Uncle Stan needs all kinds of help and so does Aunt Peg and cousin Nola. It's going to make me awful happy to have so much family of my very own. And a dog."

  "Yes, and a dog." Winn unwrapped his arms from his boy and ran the palm of his hand over the top of the shepherd's head. Pete panted, tail wagging, as if he agreed. This life was going to work out just fine.

  "I think Pete loves you, too." Saydee held out her hand.

  Winn let his Saydee lead him across the room and into the light and warmth of the kitchen. A rare and great love burned in his heart and he knew as he stepped foot into the kitchen that he would always call this place home and the love he held for her would blaze more brightly every day of his life. He was now a man who believed in dreams because now Saydee was his dream who had come true, and this was just the start.

  He had business to take care of, the dead prisoners to pack up and haul into town for the sheriff to identify so that he could collect the five thousand dollars in bounty money each, and then he would retire right here, in this house that he would call home forever, and where his son would be loved and happy and safe with real family, something he'd never had before. That was worth staying here in rugged Montana Territory, that made it feel as if only blue skies stretched out ahead of him. Maybe he believed in happy-ever-afters, after all.

  Those truths and those hopes got him through the clean up, the transport and the long meeting in town with the local law, where he received a receipt for the bounty due him and appreciated that the sheriff, glad to meet him, wanted to offer him the bounty on Brant's other man. Hard not to like the sheriff greatly for that, but he turned him down.

  Keep it, he'd said, you take good care of your family with it, he added and, with thanks, headed home. Saydee had kept a big plate warm for him and he sat down and ate while Jack sat at the table chowing down two pieces of apple pie and Saydee sipped her tea, watching him with loving eyes over the rim of her cup. He'd never had happiness like this, the contented joy of fun and easy conversations. This was gold, flawless and perfect simply because they had one another.

  After helping Saydee in the kitchen just so he could keep talking with her, and checking on the horses one more time before hunkering down in the parlor to start reading aloud the novel Saydee had picked out from her bookcase. The evening ticked by pleasantly until Jack yawned. He tucked both boy and dog into bed upstairs, turned out the light and shut the door tight to keep the heat in from the chimney bricks. Jack would have a cozy life here, and so would Pete and any other child to come, who would be so very welcome.

  He felt endlessly happy as he descended the stairs, glad that his world was made new because of love. His stocking feet touched the braid rug at the bottom of the steps, and Saydee looked up from turning down the lights for bedtime. Without a word, she took him by the hand and led him to her bed where she tugged off his clothes and he peeled off hers.

  After he made love to her in a hot, hard rush, Winn rolled off of her, stretched out beside her and wrapped her against his chest and never wanted to let go. Breathless from their lovemaking, she snuggled into him, savoring every bit of him, of this man she'd been lucky enough to hold again. She breathed in the salty warmth scent of his clean skin, admired the way his dimples carved into his cheek to bracket his smile, not to mention a million more things about him that made her grateful that he was really here in her bed to stay. Emotion stung like unfallen tears in her eyes, and she buried her face against his neck so he could not see how vulnerable her heart was to him.

  "Hey, why are you saying anything?" His kiss brushed her forehead with tenderness. "Don't think I didn't know how happy I made you. You came twice to my once, so I know I'm the best lover you're ever going to have. Are you sad I haven't proposed yet?"

  "Sad? No, I'm so happy I think it's more accurate to describe this as ecstatic. Full of singular rapture over you, and I'm overwhelmed."

  "I know that feeling exactly." His lips brushed hers, tentative and branding. Love filled her heart so that it was brimming over. "I'm going to make you my wife, you know that, right, my angel? You just have to say yes."

  "I thought I already did, but then again, I was too busy having an orgasm to make it clear. I am going to marry you, and we're going to be blissful."

  "Yes, we are and beyond all doubt." He rolled her beneath him, ready to make love to her again. She sighed, wrapped her arms
around his neck and her thighs around his hips, and the tears stubborn and meaningful in her eyes spilled over in silent joy. She held on tight as he pressed her knees apart with his, and his hard shaft nudged against her inner thigh and thrust upward to bump into her wet, slick folds aching to welcome him home.

  "I love you, Saydee, with all the depth of my soul, with everything I am. You are the love of my life, and I want to spend my life with you."

  His lips grazed hers. Overcome, she kissed him and sighed as he pushed into her body, joining them as one in a long, slow thrust, and she held on tight to this man, to her one true love.

  Epilogue

  November winds rattled the naked, bared branches of the night-dark trees along the road as the low slant of the silvery moonlight cut across the field of grass and into the trees to cast shadow in her eyes as she sat beside her husband on the front seat of their surrey. Romeo and the gelding named Rollin high-stepped off the country road and into the evergreen lined lane of their private drive.

  "I must say attending Stan's birthday party was one of the best times I've had away from home," Winn leaned closer to say and pressed the hard length of his arm against hers, solid and mighty and everything fine.

  She blushed, growing warm remembering how wonderful it was to spend each and every night in his arms. "My uncle and aunt sure think highly of you. It makes me thrilled they love you as true as they do."

  "They are good people and I'm grateful and glad they've accepted me as family. The best family I've ever had, love, is you."

  "You are mine, too." Her heart ached with longing to be in his arms, now that they were alone, because Jack had been invited to stay the night with Peg and Stan, because their grandson was a year older than Jack and his family had come to visit. What a fun time that boys would have, Saydee thought with a smile, glad for him and also glad they had this alone time together. She smiled down at the wedding ring on her left hand, so grateful for it and the binding love it represented.

  She cut a sideways grin at her husband, who reined the team of horses to a stop at the backyard gate and hopped out to help her down most courteously. His hand cupping hers felt like foreplay and her entire being tingled with hot sensual spirals that gathered in her abdomen and in more private places. Her nipples pebbled beneath her layers of cool and flannel and she shivered, knowing what was to come, and couldn't get her hands on him fast enough.

  "I'll hurry," he said, opening the back door for her and quickly fed the kitchen stove to drive the chill from the rooms.

  Holding back a world of tenderness and the need to be joined with him, she headed to the bedroom to ready herself while he rushed the horses to the barn and fed them grain in their stalls. She unpinned her hair, letting it fall over her shoulders and down her back and ran a brush through it a few times to add luster and beauty. She shivered out of her best wool dress and underthings and unmade the bed. She plumped the pillows so she was waiting for him, barely covered and likely somewhat revealed under the top sheet.

  She heard the door open and close and the pad of his gait whisper closer. He stalked into sight, unbuttoning his shirt and tugging it off, exposing his hard male body. Wow. She felt her lower belly pull tight in anticipation, wanting him, needing him inside her. His eyes, dark and smoldering, roved over the sight of her naked and waiting for him and turned pure black with desire when she pushed the sheet off her naked body.

  "I've been waiting to see you like that all day long, and I've been dying," he confessed, shucking off his trousers. "You've been killing me, beautiful wife of mine, looking so delectable and beautiful in your pretty prim little light pink dress, like a perfect spring rose, and all I could think about was getting my hands on you and making you moan."

  "That's all I wanted you to do all day long. I saw the look you were giving me. You had me on fire since breakfast."

  "It's been a good day, but it's about to get better for you and me both." He tossed his clothes on the chair by the door and eased onto the soft, warm bed beside her. The lamp's light washed over her, illuminating her every beauty, every beloved bit, and caressed her curves of bare breasts belly, hips, thatch of hair and smooth inner thighs the way he pounded with the need to. Rock-hard, he trembled with the need to love her.

  His need built ever higher as he eased her onto her back and claimed her with kisses, first to her lips tender and sweet, and then trailing down her throat, which made her restless beneath him, needing his weight on top of her. But he took a moment to draw her nipple into his mouth to kiss and let her hold him there, powerless to fight the twists of ardent pleasure spiraling through her need-filled body. He laved and nibbled, and she moaned in bliss, desperate for more of the pleasure she knew he would give her, so she parted her knees and gave thanks when he eased between her thighs. Hot streaks of sensation coiled tight inside her, and when his hands swept down the slope of her stomach he left her breathless, his fingers curving up inside her.

  She adored this man, lived for him every second of every single day, and he was loving her with perfect, intense caresses and kisses that left her begging for more. Yes, she needed more of him and so, desperately thrilled when he released her nipple, gently trailed his lips along her sensitized skin, and stretched out over her.

  His rock-hard shaft nudged her where she was wet and aching, yearning for him and he pushed inside her, stretching her and filling her most perfectly, and, enthralled, spellbound, she lifted her hips to take him in more quickly and held him tight. How she loved him. With body and heart open to him, endlessly vulnerable, she squeezed her eyes shut but the happy, meaningful tears spilled out anyway, just two, but still, how much he meant to her.

  He rocked her over and over again, thrusting just right, his muscled body unyielding on top of hers, his hard length stroking the deepest part of her, his kisses so urgent and flawless that she lost track of time. Eternity could not possibly be as enchanting and, finally, the pleasure coiling tighter inside her broke, shattering bliss though every inch of her in hard-sweet waves. Desperate to make it last, she folded her body ever more tightly around his while his fierce-tender thrusts drained the last pulses of release and, together, they were one. Finally, breathless and boneless, they broke apart and he stretched out beside her to hold her, both as weak as could be, sated. Then he kissed her again.

  "I love you, Saydee." His words brushed her lips and rumbled deep in his chest. "I always will, my life, my wife."

  Overcome, she kissed him back, open-mouthed and deep. Outside the house, the November winds blew cold and fresh rain began to tumble from charcoal-black skies, but here in Winn's arms and in their bed she was warm and loved. She was loved.

  Also by Jillian Hart

  Dog Wood Bride

  Apple Blossom Bride

  Blue Sky Hearts