My Desperado (9 page)

"I am." She stared at him, her body stiff, wanting for once to be accepted, shortcomings and all. "And yes, I was."

"No one would believe that," he gritted. "No one. Not with the way you speak. Like a polished lady. And the way you dress." He scowled down at her gown, and she returned his expression.

"What's wrong with the way I dress?" she questioned evenly.

He shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to find his discipline. "It's hardly the kind of thing a woman wears to seduce—"

"So you think I can't be seductive? Is that it?" She drew away stiffly, burning with an emotion she failed to identify.

He stared at her, thinking her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. But her wrath offered some safety—from himself, from his need. "Yeah." He nodded bluntly. "That's what I think."

"Well, you're wrong." She said the words evenly, her back straight as a board, her face hot. "Others do find me attractive. You think I'm not that kind, but you're wrong." She shook her head, her mouth pursed. "You don't know how wrong you are."

"Katherine." He'd pushed her too far and reached for her now. "I didn't mean—"

She slapped at his hand. "Oh, yes, you did. You think I'm an old dried-up prune. But not everyone shares your esteemed opinion." She lifted her nose, and turned, heading for the door. "Don't expect me here tonight."

His hand caught hers in a hard grip, turning her quickly toward him. "Don't say that. Do you hear me? Don't say it."

She gasped, staring in shock, then laughed, perversely pleased that she had upset him. "Why? Because you don't want to be proven wrong?" She leaned nearer, eyes narrowed as she tugged her arm from his grasp. "Well you are wrong. How do you think I pay for this food? This bed?"

She paused, breathing hard. "Sleep well," she said, and twisted toward the door. "I'll be busy tonight."

"Over my dead body," he growled, grabbing her arm. "Goddamn it! We're leaving. And we're leaving now!"

"No!" she yelled and struggled against him.

Travis would never quite figure how it happened. But suddenly there were women everywhere, half-clad women draped by pairs on his arms, legs, and back. And not gentle, refined women, but strong, uninhibited women who yanked him away from Katherine.

"Get him down."

"Over there."

"On the bed."

He tried to get free. But every time he got a grip on something, there was an outraged shriek and numerous fists beating on his person. Confusion smothered him. Fleshy bodies buried him.

The long strips of bandages appeared seemingly from nowhere and suddenly he found himself tied, bound to the bed's headboard like a rabid beast.

"What's all this?"

Noise subsided. Half-naked bodies moved aside as Lacy MacTaggart stepped through the mayhem, her brows lifting as her gaze fell on Travis's strapped body.

"Having a wee bit of fun, are we, lasses?"

Daisy stepped from the bevy, her wild hair scattered like a disrupted bee's hive. "'E was botherin' Miss Katherine."

Lacy's gaze skimmed silently over Travis, starting at his eyes and floating down over his short cropped and painfully revealing britches. "What kind of bothering?" Her voice was flat and threatening.

Travis pulled his bonds taut and snarled.

"'E's a dangerous one," Daisy whispered shakily.

"He pulled my hair," complained Garnet.

"I broke a nail," whimpered Julia.

"Quiet!" Lacy warned. A hush fell. She turned slowly, her gaze falling on Katherine's pale face near the door. "Speak, Katy, love or I'll give him to the girls for amusement."

Katherine wrung her hands. Travis Ryland lay stretched and tied on the bed, his eyes burning her face. "He tried to leave," she explained weakly.

Lacy's brows lifted dubiously. "And?"

Katherine wasn't sure how all this had come about. It had happened so quickly. "And he tried to take me with him."

Lacy shook her head and tsked. "Bad boy," she said. "I don't like men who try to take women against their wills."

There were a few snickers in the background.

Travis glared.

Katherine considered fainting.

Lacy turned. "Katy." She crooked a finger at the blushing girl. "I'll be needin' a talk with you."

Chapter 9

The room contained no frills. It was an office and nothing more. Lacy MacTaggart appeared absolutely at home there.

"This used to be a peaceable house," she said, leaning into the spindle back of the room's only chair and folding her hands atop her generous lap.

Silence enveloped the room, and Katherine shifted her weight, feeling very much like the knobby-kneed girl who had so often cringed beneath her father's disapproval. She stared down at her shoe, making a crescent pattern on the carpet with the toe. "He tried to leave."

"Uh-huh." One plucked brow was arched over Lacy's olive-green eyes as she waited.

"I thought we were getting on better." Katherine lifted her chin slightly. "He and I."

"But?"

"I just offered to help him eat." Katherine felt the now familiar blush rush to her cheeks as she recalled his bare, tempting chest.

Lacy's gaze held the girl in a firm grip, reading a great deal more than her words. "Offended was he?"

"How did you know?"

"Lass, what I don't know about men ain't worth learnin'," sighed Lacy. "In fact, most of what I know ain't worth learnin'."

They stared at each other, neither talking for a moment before Katherine bit her lip. "I think he's quite—"

Giggles emerged from upstairs, accented by a low, threatening growl. The sound of scattering feet followed, and then the bang of a door thudding closed.

The blood drained from Katherine's face. "Upset," she finished weakly.

MacTaggart sat in quiet study, listening to the pattering feet, watching Katherine's pained expression. There was more here than met the eye. It was unusual for a man to scare a bevy of half-clad women from his room, no matter what the circumstances. And what were the circumstances exactly? People rarely surprised her anymore, but these two...

"He eats like a horse." MacTaggart said the words flatly, watching for the girl's reaction.

"I'll pay as soon as I'm able." Katherine had lifted her chin a notch, and something in Lacy's chest twisted at the sight. Her little Emily would have been that kind of a lady, had she lived.

"Do you have any money?"

"Not just now. But I'll earn it," assured Katherine.

"How?" Lacy asked baldly. "And when?"

Hoping to appear calm and confident, Katherine remained unmoving, but she looked worried and pale.

"I'll feed him and you," Lacy said, rising suddenly to her impressive height. "Best cuisine in town. We'll keep you hid. My clan's got secrets of its own. They won't mess with yours. Tomorrow morning I'll start up some rumors saying folks like the two of you have been seen some distance from here—heading east."

Katherine remained very still, her hands caught together in a deathlike grip as she stared at Lacy. "In exchange for what?" she asked quietly.

"Coo, miss, 'oo'd of thought you was 'iding so much bounty under them dowdy dresses?"

“Turn," Margaret said, pushing on Katherine's nearly bare hip.

"Look at her waist," complained Dory, taking another bite from a raspberry tart and moaning when a blob of the filling dropped onto her gown. "Damn near big as my arm."

She licked the sweet from her sleeve, ate the remainder in one large bite, and plopped onto her elbow.

Garnet looked up after she pinned the hem. "She'll look like a princess."

"Men'll be drooling on their tools."

"Beggin't' pay just t' 'old a lady's 'and," added Daisy with a mischievous grin. "Lacy's a genius."

"We'll cut it down to there," declared Margaret.

"Where?" asked Katherine in shock. She had been prodded and turned and measured until her heart sat in a cold lump of dread in her throat and her face burned a permanent shade of scarlet.

'There," said Margaret, casually tugging her chemise a half inch lower. "Just above your nips."

"Just above..." Katherine gasped, her hands flitting upward to cover the twin globes that pressed into view.

"Now, miss," Daisy crooned, hurrying to take her hands. "You'll look like livin' 'eaven."

"And," proclaimed Margaret, hurrying behind, "we'll cut it down to here in back."

Katherine turned, trying to see where they pointed.

Margaret flung an arm around Katherine's shoulder to squeeze her tightly. "And the men'll love it."

"Begging for favors."

"Dyin' for more," chirped Daisy.

"And you'll just lean into their faces like this," added Dory, rising to her knees on the mattress and leaning forward to show every inch of bosom above her nipples. "So they're looking right straight into heaven."

"And if that doesn't work..." began Julia, who then lowered her voice to a whisper.

In the next room, Travis gritted his teeth, yanked savagely at his cotton bonds, and tried not to hear the giggles. He'd lain in purgatory for hours now, listening to the women's chatter from next door and wondering what they had planned. Goddamn them all. If they soiled her, he'd drown every one of them in their own toilet water. He yanked again, but the bed did little more than groan a complaint. Damn them all to hell!

Footsteps sounded in the hall. Dinnertime?

Travis narrowed his eyes and waited.

A mattress moaned, voices mingled. Minutes passed. Finally a key turned in the lock, and Katherine entered.

Travis lay flat on his back, his arms stretched above his head as he watched her draw near.

She moved hesitantly, bearing a covered tray and showing by her expression that she'd not considered until now just how he would eat in such an unlikely position.

She stared at him in mute dismay. Silence stood between them.

"You gonna feed me?" he asked finally, "or just let me starve and use me as a paperweight?"

Katherine bit her lip. He looked mad enough to eat her alive, bones and all. Her hands were shaking, she realized, and hoped he hadn't noticed the tremble of the tray she held. "If I untie you—will you promise not to try to leave?"

He was silent—staring at her, then, "Lady," he said, "hell will freeze solid and the devil himself move out before I promise you anything."

Katherine's back stiffened and her hands stopped trembling as she lifted her chin in a characteristic gesture of fledgling pride. “Then I suppose I'll have to take measures to ensure you don't injure yourself further. Daisy." She needed to raise her voice only slightly, and in a moment footsteps pattered quickly down the hall and a blond head peeked in the door. "Daisy," Katherine said again, her mouth pursed, her gaze unbent from Travis's. "Mr. Ryland is being difficult again."

"And the sun still rises in the east," quipped Daisy. "So what's new?"

"It seems he's too stubborn to make a sensible bargain, so I'll need help tying him in a seated position."

"What's this?" questioned Margaret as she crammed in beside Daisy. "Our livin' ghost still breathing fire? Hey, girls," she called, "we got us some live entertainment. Come on."

In a minute there were two women holding each of Travis's arms while Katherine tried to loosen his bonds. He laid still and silent, staring past half-bare bosoms to glare at her as she worked. But the endeavor was hopeless for he'd pulled the cotton strips into an impenetrable lump.

"It's no use." Dory gave up first. "We'll have to cut the bandages."

"Then what?" Garnet questioned, scrunching her face into a frown.

"Ropes," Julia supplied quickly. "I'll get some ropes from the stable. You wait here."

She hurried away. Silence fell. Travis glared.

"Does he always look so mean?" Margaret asked, staring boldly down at his long, tight-muscled body as it lay taut and ready upon the narrow mattress.

"Always," said Daisy. "If 'e ever smiled, 'e'd scare the nose right off 'is face."

"I think it's the beard," stated Garnet. "Could be he's smiling the whole time. We just can't tell."

"And it could be if I ate coins, I'd pee dollar bills," said Dory. "Only I don't think so."

"Well..."Garnet pouted."I think it could be he's a real looker under them whiskers. Don't you, Katherine?"

Katherine didn't answer, feeling the blush burn her senses.

"Don't call her Katherine," reminded Margaret.

"Oh, yes. Princess," Garnet giggled. "Don't you agree, Princess?"

"Oh, come now," urged Margaret. 'Tell us the truth, Princess. He's not half bad to look at. Good nose."

"Great eyes," added Garnet. "Deep. All full of mystery. Me," she sighed. "I always fall for a man of mystery."

"You always fall for anything in britches," corrected Dory.

"Or outta them," countered Margaret.

Giggles twittered around the half circle of women, but Katherine remained mute, her eyes locked on Travis's.

"But I will say he's got all the right parts," admitted Dory with a nod.

"And big ones," added Margaret. "Shoulders like a buffalo."

"It's his chest. Don't you think, Princess?" asked Garnet. "It's his chest that's most...scrumptious. All that muscle and..." She hunched her shoulders and shifted her own plump chest. "Oooo. I always fall for a man with muscle."

"He's got a scar. Look." Margaret leaned forward, placing a palm to his ribs. Travis gritted his teeth, his before-mentioned muscles bunching to undulated hardness over his flat belly. "Ummm," moaned Margaret, raising her brows and watching his lean form, "how'd your man get this scar, Princess?"

Katherine's gaze was trapped on Margaret's small hand. She wanted to pull the woman away and perhaps would have if embarrassment hadn't rooted her to the spot. She took a deep breath. "He's not my man."

Every woman stared at her, brows raised in question.

"Then whose?" asked Margaret flatly.

"I wouldn't wish 'im on no one," said Daisy, shaking her frizzy head, "not on nothin' 'uman, any'ow."

"Well, I'd take him," sighed Garnet, then let her gaze skim his hard body and corrected, "at least part of him."