“Thank you, Maddie. You both have one, too.”
The “Will do” came from Caden.
Outside, she stopped and took that long-awaited, much-anticipated first bite. The pastry melted in her mouth. She closed her eyes and just appreciated the moment, letting the pleasure roll through her.
“You know, if you wore that exact same expression on your face at the next dance, you might spend more time on the floor dancing than on the side talking.”
Petunia didn’t have to open her eyes to know who was goading her. Ace Parker. The thorn in her side, her personal Achilles’ heel, Caden and Maddie’s best friend. She’d never understand how two productive people could appreciate a man of such low character. Opening her eyes, she found herself looking straight into the shadowed intensity of his. A frisson of awareness shot through her, hooking deep and drawing invisible wires tight. Damn the man. He even had beautiful eyes. She wanted to knock the black cowboy hat off his head so she could see the sky-blue irises flecked with those mesmerizing shards of icy gray. Eyes that saw too much. Eyes that made her want to... To push. Shove. Fight. His mouth quirked at the corner. She couldn’t look away.
They made her want to surrender. Damn him.
It was easy to see how Ace won so many poker games. There was an uncanny calm about the man. A subdued power that drew a person to trust where they probably shouldn’t. But she wasn’t a wrangler halfway through a bottle of cheap whiskey. She was a strong woman of intellect. Taking a slow breath, she gave him a small smile of her own, keeping it casual as if her breasts weren’t tingling and her lungs weren’t struggling to remember how to get her next breath.
“Of course a man of your predilections wouldn’t understand that it might be my preference to not carry on on the dance floor.”
“I understand, as a woman, you might be well on the shelf, but you’re not dead. You’ve got time to turn things around.”
He wasn’t the first to imply she needed to find a man, marry and devote herself to raising children. Petunia swallowed the bit of cinnamon roll and forced that smile to stay in place. It was hard. Very hard when she wanted nothing more than to touch his cheek, feel that slight stubble against her fingertips. He probably hadn’t even been to bed yet. “I’ll keep that in mind between my other endeavors.”
Ace leaned against the doorjamb, that quirk becoming a grin, but whereas hers felt tight, his looked easy. The aggravating man seemed to find humor in everything, especially in the matters close to her heart.
“Would that be the endeavor that involves taking children from the whorehouse, putting them in your house and trying to make them respectable?”
She tucked her roll into the napkin and straightened. There’d be no enjoying it while he was picking at her. “That would be the one.”
“And you think the citizens of this town are going to go along with that? Having those children of lust in their school with their properly raised and primly conceived children?”
It was probably a flaw in her defense that she did enjoy his way with words. “I don’t plan on giving them much choice.”
He sighed. “You just can’t shove reform down people’s throats.”
“When the alternative is leaving innocents neglected, uneducated and unloved, to grow up to be a bane on our society far into the future, I can force whatever I want.”
His left eyebrow crooked up. “You think you’ve got that much muscle?”
“I think with Christmas coming up, and the spirit of charity that goes with it, I have a good chance of making a start.”
“And you’re just going to take that inch?”
She nodded. “And stretch it into a mile.”
His right eyebrow joined the left. “And you don’t expect resentment?”
“Oh, I expect resentment.” She was already experiencing some. Her roll was getting cold.
“But you plan on getting past it?”
She nodded again. “I plan on getting past it.”
Ace shook his head and straightened, opening the door for Caden, who was bringing chairs out to the porch. “You know, no matter how many good deeds you do, they are never going to elect you mayor.”
She gritted her teeth. “The town already has a mayor.”
“Which you don’t think much of.”
He had to be observant to know that.
The mayor was a lazy man, and lazy men tended to stay the heck out of her way. So she was content with him in that office. “I’m hoping he’ll be supportive.”
If only by his disinterest.
Maddie spoke up from where she was wiping down the counter. “It is a good cause.”
Ace looked over at her. “It may be, but going about it this way is just going to make enemies.”
“Why?” Petunia stepped back as Caden set the chair in front of the door to hold it open. “Why should helping children make any enemies?”
Caden looked up from where he was bracing the chair. “Because those children have fathers who prefer that they stay hidden.”
“If those children have fathers,” she snapped, “then those fathers should be taking care of them.”
Ace shrugged. “They are, in their way.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Caden offered, folding his arms across his chest.
“Not by much.”
Petunia could see the first of the congregation leaving the church. If she didn’t get moving, she’d be forced to be civil to people who’d be taking veiled stabs at her. Her plan really wasn’t popular. “No living thing should suffer needlessly because others are too lazy or too worried about how it looks to help them. Society is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Ace swore. She flinched, even as every nerve ending snapped to attention. His eyes narrowed, and as if on cue her breath caught. Darn it! Why this with this man? It was so...inconvenient.
Caden looked between the two of them and just sighed. “You know if you two spent a little less time fighting and a little bit more talking, you’d probably find out you’re on the same side of most of your discussions.”
She lifted her chin. “I highly doubt I have anything in common with Mr. Parker.”
From the tug Ace gave his hat, he wasn’t any too pleased with the observation, either. “Yeah. You’d have to shove a broomstick up my ass to get me to be that uptight.”
“Ace!” Maddie reprimanded from within the store.
Petunia just raised her brow. Did he think his crudeness would shock her? “We could probably arrange that.”
“You and what posse?”
“I imagine we could assemble a few of your disgruntled companions to make it happen.”
Ace made a sound. She couldn’t tell if he was choking on outrage or laughter. Before she could ask, Caden interrupted.
“Never seen two cats fight as much as you two do. At least not without a hell of a good reason.”
Ace was entirely too quick to say, “I’ve got a reason.”
And she was entirely too curious to know what it was. Before she could open her mouth to retort, Maddie came around the counter. “Please. We like you both.”
Caden didn’t move, but the air suddenly seemed thicker. “What my wife is trying to say, Ace, is that no one cares about your reason. As my wife’s friend, Petunia is always a welcome guest in my home.” His voice lowered just a fraction. “And always under my protection.”
Ace pulled up straight. Shoulders squared as subtle tension entered his stance. His “The hell you say” was low and threatening.
Maddie stopped dead. The catch in Petunia’s breathing became permanent. Caden wasn’t even ruffled. “You heard me.”
If Caden had spoken to her in that tone, Petunia would be running. Ace didn’t even bat an eye. Caden waved his hand. Maddie went back behind the co
unter.
“This is none of your business, Caden.”
“So take me to court.”
“That’s not fair, Caden,” Maddie called. “You know Judge Bracen is holding a grudge against Ace.”
“Another one of your satisfied customers?” Petunia asked with a lift of her brows.
Ace shrugged. “He’s not pleased I didn’t declare that fool’s gold of his genuine.”
“Cost him a pretty penny on that land deal.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Petunia interrupted, wanting this to end before it got more combative. She might not want to like Ace, but she did like Caden and Maddie, and Maddie was sympathetic to her cause. Caden she wasn’t so sure of. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the set of Ace’s shoulders. Along her nerve endings she felt the weight of his stare, and that breathless trembling started anew. It was definitely time to go.
“Thank you for the cinnamon roll, Maddie.” She forced herself to take a nibble. The soft pastry sat like lead in her mouth. Tension skimmed along her nerves. “It’s delicious as always.” She nodded to Caden. Ace she ignored.
He naturally couldn’t let that pass. “Not even going to say goodbye?” he asked as she turned.
Nope. Not a goodbye. Not a glance. Not anything that would feed her weakness. Lifting her skirts with her free hand, she stepped off the walk, ignoring the inner prompting that wanted to know if he watched her, if he was smiling, if there was approval in his eyes. She forced herself to continue toward home and not give him the satisfaction of looking back. It was the hardest thing she’d done in a long, long time.
* * *
ACE WATCHED PETUNIA stroll down the street in that purposeful way of hers and shook his head. Seems he’d been watching Petunia since the day she’d stepped off the stage all pale blond elegance and temptation. She wasn’t the sort of woman a man like him would approach. Buttoned-up women were notoriously boring in and out of bed, but there was a reckless side to Petunia that no amount of blue serge could conceal. One that, once fed by the fire of conviction, could take her where angels feared to tread. Like right up into Simon Laramie’s face when he’d protested her effort to feed his hungry kids. Laramie outweighed her by a hundred pounds, but she’d stood there like size didn’t matter and taken him to town. A man had to admire that much gumption. Protect it. Preserve it... Nurture it. Shit. He wanted to punch a wall. He wanted to follow her, pick her up, toss her over his shoulder, swat her on that delicately rounded ass and carry her off to his bed with her gasp still ringing in his ear. He wanted her in his arms. His bed. His home. With a silent curse, Ace cut that line of thinking short. Again.
That was the dangerous side of Petunia Wayfield. She made him want things he’d long ago given up hoping for. A wife. Family. Men like him didn’t have those things. But it didn’t mean they couldn’t protect the one who fed that faintest of hopes. About a month ago, he’d accepted Petunia was that one for him. There was something within her that drew him. Fascinated him. Enthralled him to the point that lately, all he could think about was her lying bound in his bed, that sweet pale flesh wearing his mark, her femininity sweetly displayed. His blood heated even as he ground his teeth. The woman was like a bad case of poison ivy, a constant irritation.
“Why do you tease her so?” Maddie asked when Petunia was out of earshot.
For no reason fit for Sunday discussion. “The woman has too much starch in her bloomers.”
“So you irritate her just to get a reaction,” Maddie stated, coming up beside him and shaking out her cleaning cloth.
He smiled, watching Petunia step up onto the opposite walk, for a moment catching the hint of ankle beneath her layers of skirt and petticoats. His cock, semihard, threatened to become an embarrassment. He pulled his gaze away. “She does have a short fuse.”
“It seems to me the only reason you want to take the starch out of her bloomers,” Caden remarked, taking a seat in the chair he’d just settled against the door, “is because you want to be getting in them.”
Ace snorted. “The woman’s an old maid.”
Maddie huffed and put her hands on her hips. The cloth fluttered against her side. “She’s intelligent, passionate and she cares about the same things you do. You could do worse.”
Petunia couldn’t.
“The only reason that woman’s ever been in a saloon is to try and shut it down. She probably thinks it’s hell on a good day.”
Maddie snorted. “You’re always rooting for the underdog, just like her.”
“Not that anyone notices.”
Caden stretched his legs out. “That’s because you don’t want them to notice.” Ignoring Ace’s glare, Caden caught Maddie’s hand and pulled her into his side. The ease with which she relaxed into Caden’s embrace sent another pang through Ace.
“And why is that?” Maddie asked, shoving the cloth in her apron pocket.
Ace leaned over and tugged her hair, goading Caden with the casual familiarity. “Maybe because I’m not an upstanding pillar of the community.”
Caden growled under his breath and knocked his hand away.
Maddie sighed and caught Caden’s hand in hers, all the while shaking her head at Ace. “I know you, remember?”
It was Ace’s turn to shake his head. The last thing he needed was Maddie speculating on his comings and goings and ways to put an end to them. He liked his life in town. He liked the adventure. He liked the challenge. He liked the occasional fight, and he loved the card games. It alleviated the boredom of working at the assayer’s office. The job was a useful tool for sorting out bad news coming to town, but not much else. Once in a while he did stick his nose into business that wasn’t strictly his, but unlike Petunia, he didn’t make his life’s work out of it.
“This town’s got enough do-gooders,” he told Maddie. “One more isn’t needed.”
Maddie looked at him calmly. Almost expectantly. “Petunia’s going to need help.”
“You might as well get that look out of your eye, Maddie. Whatever Petunia’s got going, it’s not my problem.”
“It will be.”
He didn’t like the knowing glance or the implication behind it. The woman saw too much. “No, it won’t.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Caden interrupted. “This latest project of hers isn’t going to go over well. There are some prominent citizens in this town who’d be mighty upset to see a couple of those children brought forward into polite society.”
“Then they shouldn’t have created them,” Ace retorted.
“I don’t think that was the plan.”
“It’s still the result. Not like you can mistake who their fathers are.”
Damn, now he was sounding just like Petunia.
“It would have been better for those children if their mother had just left town with them.”
“And leave their meal ticket?” Ace shook his head. “No way in hell. As long as those kids exist, Hester has leverage.”
“But they don’t exist. They’re not allowed out of that awful house,” Maddie added. “And that little girl, she’s almost eight now...”
Maddie’s voice broke. Caden rubbed her arm. The one thing Maddie knew all about was how a little girl growing up in a whorehouse lived on the edge of trouble. It made him burn to think about the life Maddie had been forced to live before coming to Hell’s Eight. Petunia was right about one thing. No child deserved that.
Pressing her hand briefly over Caden’s, Maddie took a step back, straightened her hair and then her skirt. Ace said nothing, letting her gather her composure, regretting it as soon as she did, because she turned those soulful green eyes on him again and declared, “You need to help Hester.”
“I do?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’
re wrong about her.”
Ace sighed. It didn’t really matter whether he was right or wrong about Hester. When it came to the kids, Petunia and Maddie were right. The situation was getting bad. Hester needed to take those kids and leave town. Or Dougall, their father, was going to have to claim them, but they couldn’t be left to be as they were living in the whorehouse. He thought of the little girl, pretty face, pretty hair, but still a little girl and tempting to some. Unprotected except by her mother and a couple of the nicer whores, but their ability to guard her was limited. And if it was decided she needed to earn her keep, then earn her keep she would.
“It’s a mess, and Petunia’s meddling is going to make it blow up before anything can be done.”
“She means well,” Caden interjected.
“She always means well.” Ace growled as the aggravation swelled within him. “She meant well when she decided every child at school should have a decent lunch.”
“She was right,” Maddie chimed in. “They should.”
“Except that those families that couldn’t afford it now live with the mockery of others, and Simon Laramie is gunning for her ass because the whole world now knows that he can’t feed his own kids.”
“It’s not her fault he chose to make a public spectacle of it.”
Simon was new to the area, and he wasn’t established, and the drought hadn’t helped. He wasn’t the only one feeling the pinch or the weather. But he was the most vocal about being made a public charity case.
Ace's Wild (Hqn) Page 2
