Here’s today’s Wednesday Words excerpt. Enjoy.
BLURB:
Jebediah Knight, Arizona territory’s Marshal, is a big man. He’s come to Arizona City to take care of business. Once the job is finished, Jeb realizes he’s not ready to move on just yet. It seems a sweet, if cantankerous, little lady has caught his eye.
Lilly Willingham is annoyed to find herself partial to the giant of a man, but partial is as far as she’s willing to go. Without a doubt she does not love him and swears she never will.
The problem here is Marshal Knight isn’t the kind of man who takes no in stride. The little lady might act the shrew, but he knows the best use for that sharp tongue.
EXCERPT:
I’ll give you all the privacy you want. Most of the time, you won’t even know I’m here.”
Lilly laughed. “Right. And how do you imagine I won’t notice a man like you?”
“Meaning what? Am I too good lookin’ to escape your notice?”
“You’re too big. If I slept with you, I haven’t a doubt you’d leave me barely an inch of space. And stop fishing for compliments. I never give a man a compliment.”
He looked down at her with some surprise. “You reckon a man don’t need them? Is that it?”
“I reckon all men are a confident lot of ego hogs, and anything I’ve got to say could only swell heads that are already far too big.” She smiled sweetly, which didn’t fit her attitude at all and only caused him a huge grin. “After all, were that the case, you’d have to buy another hat.” She shrugged. “So don’t think of it as I don’t give compliments. Instead, you might thank me for saving you a passel of money.”
He chuckled at her outrageous reasoning. “I’m thinkin’ maybe I like a prickly little lady like you.”
“How nice for you.”
He chuckled. “You know givin’ compliments could swell other things besides heads,” he reminded, while pressing his hips to hers so she might know what particular thing he had in mind.
Lilly surprised herself with a girlish giggle. She hadn’t made a sound like that in twenty years and wondered at her sudden lighthearted mood. “That’s always possible, I suppose, but those things can usually swell without a word spoken.”
“You’re a sassy little lady, Miss Lilly. Lucky for you, I’m a bit partial to sassy ladies.”
She snapped a sarcastic, “Oh I’m very lucky, I’m sure.” And to his chuckle, she said, “Most around here think I’m nasty, hard-headed and a stubborn sort.”
“Are you?”
She shrugged. “I suppose I am, some.”
“Good. Nothing is more boring than a sweet-tempered, submissive, weak little miss.”
“Well, you came to the right place, if you’re not looking for sweet.”
“Still there’s sweet and then there’s sweet. Nothing could be sweeter than what you gave me in the kitchen.”
“Oh, I think we can do better than that,” she said as she shoved him to his back and, with their bodies still joined, sat upon his hips.
She was pulling at her clothes when he asked, “You lookin’ to show a man what you’re hintin’ at?”
“Was I hinting? Actually, I thought I was being exceptionally clear.”
Jeb grinned, a flash of white against black, whiskers, his dark eyes twinkling with pleasure as he watched her throw her dress and chemise over her head to drape over the bed frame. Next, the pins that held her hair in a knot behind her head were dropped to her nightstand and a dark cloud of silk floated to her waist.
“I have to move.”
“Damn,” he grunted as he watched her come to her knees and roll her stockings down each leg.
She was reaching for a shoe behind her, half turned from him, when she came to a sudden stop and asked very softly, “Where are my drawers?” When he didn’t immediately respond, she snapped, “Oh my God! Did you leave them on the kitchen floor?”
Heat Wave was released June 14, 2010 By Resplendence Publishing.
Buy it at www.resplendencepublishing.com/
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