Riley's Sleeping Beauty

by Sherryl Woods

  He sighed. “Abby,” he protested.

  She stood on tiptoe to press a kiss against his cheek. “Find the gold, Riley. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  She could feel his gaze on her as she worked her way back to the entrance of the mine. She wondered at a man who showed such bravery and such honor, but who had no faith that others would see those qualities in him. Perhaps if she trusted in him enough, he would learn to trust in himself.

  Outside in the fresh air, she walked to the stream and splashed water on her face. It wasn’t nearly cooling enough. Satisfied that Riley would be occupied for some time to come, she stripped out of her clothes and walked into the water, sighing with pleasure at its cool embrace.

  She was still there, with sunlight streaming like golden ribbons from a sky of purest blue, when Riley emerged from deep inside the mine. He held a chunk of gold aloft in hand, his expression jubilant.

  “We found it!” he shouted to her.

  Seemingly oblivious to her state of undress or the fact that she was in the middle of the creek, he strode toward her. On him the water came barely chest high, while it reached her neck. He scooped the dripping wet Abby up in his arms and twirled her around. “We did it!”

  Not I, but we, she noted with an excitement that came more from the sense of union than from the discovery of gold. Abby threw her arms around his neck, suddenly at peace, certain at last that she had found the man she could love through all time. Even more certain that he was ready to accept that love.

  “Oh, Riley, I love you,” she whispered against his shadowed cheek. “I love you.”

  * * *

  “Oh, Riley, I love you.”

  The passionately spoken words had Riley slowly turning from the window in Abby’s hospital room, sure that he had imagined them.

  “Abby?” he whispered, moving to her side and taking her hand in his.

  At the sound of his voice she sighed, and a smile crept across her lips. When he enveloped her hand in his, she squeezed his fingers.

  “I love you,” she murmured once more, and then she drifted back to sleep.

  Tears tracked down Riley’s cheeks as he held her hand. She was back at last. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind now that Abby was coming back and she was coming back to him. Emotion clogged his throat as he gazed at her.

  “I love you, too,” he whispered, daring for the first time to make the admission aloud.

  And even though Abby might very well not have heard the words, they were as much of a commitment as any vows ever spoken in a church.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Soaking wet and exhilarated by the long-awaited gold strike, Abby and Riley were making their way to shore for a more intimate celebration when a gunshot rang out just over their heads. Riley immediately shoved Abby behind him as he scanned the area for signs of the shooter. She strained to see past him, but to her untrained eye they seemed to be completely alone. The grassy riverbank appeared deserted, but there was a stand of cottonwoods not far away she supposed could conceal someone.

  Though there were no further shots, the tension in Riley’s shoulders didn’t ease. His expression, which only moments before had been carefree, had sobered instantly. His watchful gaze was alert to the slightest hint of movement. One hand instinctively went for his own gun, though Abby had her doubts it would fire in its soaking wet condition.

  “Surely you don’t think...” she began, only to be cut off by his free hand clamping firmly over her mouth. His eyes, glittering with warning, silenced her even more effectively than his hand. Clearly he didn’t believe the shots had been accidentally close by.

  They didn’t have to wait long for proof of that. Within seconds three men emerged from the nearby stand of trees. Abby recognized them at once. Higgins and his brothers. Judging from their expressions, she doubted they’d turned up just to pass the time of day.

  “Well, well, well, if this ain’t the prettiest sight I’ve laid eyes on in quite a while,” Higgins said.

  There was little doubt he was referring to Abby. His avid gaze never left her bare legs. Just before the shot had been fired, as they had emerged from the river, Riley had hastily covered the rest of her with his shirt. Now, though, the material of the shirt was soaked through and revealed almost as much as it concealed. Higgins stared as if he could see straight through it and was absolutely fascinated by what he saw.

  Riley tensed, his gaze furious, but he managed somehow to keep his tongue in check. Abby was proud of him. She was sorely tempted to slug the man herself.

  “How did you get out of jail?” Riley asked the trio, his tone deceptively lazy and only mildly curious. “I thought the sheriff had you locked up tight.”

  “It’s amazing what can be accomplished with a little gold. The keys to those cells turn up in the most unlikely places,” Higgins said. He regarded Riley arrogantly. “The way I got it figured you owe me, Walker.”

  “Now how on earth did you come to that conclusion?” Riley asked.

  “First you go and interfere with my professional operations,” Higgins said. “That business out in the desert cost me a tidy sum in cash and jewels that would have set up me and the boys here for the winter. Now I’m out several gold pieces. That damned sheriff back in town put a real high price on our freedom.”

  “A man in your line of work should count on occasional losses,” Riley suggested. “It’s all part of the cost of doing business, isn’t that right?”

  “I don’t care for losing,” Higgins responded, taking a lazy survey of Abby as he spoke. “No, sir, I don’t much like losing anything.”

  Abby wasn’t exactly wild about the direction of the conversation. Judging from the tense set of Riley’s jaw, he wasn’t crazy about it, either. With obvious reluctance, he plucked the gold nugget he’d just mined from his pocket and tossed it in Higgins’s direction. “That ought to cover what you paid the sheriff.”

  The man was so intent on grabbing for the gold, his concentration on Riley wavered. In the space of an instant, Riley had the gun he’d kept hidden behind him trained straight on Higgins. Abby’s pulse leapt. To her way of thinking it was a rather foolhardy gesture given the odds. Higgins’s brothers didn’t strike her as geniuses but there was a total of three of them, all armed and all fit to be tied because of that stay in jail.

  Riley, however, didn’t seem the least bit daunted by the balance of power. He had that gun aimed straight at Higgins’s head. “Tell your brothers to drop their weapons,” he ordered calmly, while Abby’s knees quaked.

  Higgins had the audacity to laugh. “You pull that trigger, you’re a dead man,” he warned. “Red and Tommy aren’t real pleased with you as it is. Red’s leg is aching like the very devil where you plugged him a few days back. He’s been itching to get even. He was aiming to shoot you straight out while you and the little lady frolicked in the river, but I persuaded him to take aim face-to-face, like a man.”

  “Some man,” Abby muttered under her breath.

  The hand Riley had clamped around her wrist tightened, but beyond that his demeanor remained unchanged. He looked like a man totally in control of the situation. He shrugged indifferently.

  “Let him take his best shot,” he said. “You won’t live long enough to see if it hits me or not.”

  To Abby’s way of thinking Riley was engaged in a dangerous game of one-upmanship. True, he might get off one shot that would fell Higgins, but he’d hardly be able to relish the victory if he was dead, too. She figured more drastic measures were called for before she wound up surrounded by dead bodies.

  The one plan that came to mind was an incredibly risky act that would require bold daring, the sort of daring she’d always claimed to have had. It appeared it was time to put her claim to the test.

  She didn’t exactly consider herself a femme fatale, but these men had been locked up in jail for days. She’d seen for herself the gleam in Higgins’s eyes whenever he and his brothers looked her over. They’d pretty much gotten an eyeful as
it was. There didn’t seem much point in feigning modesty now, when its opposite might get them out of this mess.

  Without stopping to consider what Riley’s reaction might be to her scheme, she unbuttoned his shirt as quickly as her trembling fingers would permit, then shrugged it off, allowing it to slither to the ground behind her.

  All three men gaped as she stepped into plain view wearing nothing more than her soaking wet drawers. At their avid stares, a blush crept up her neck and she could feel her face turning scarlet, but she pretended she was back on the stage in the Golden Nugget Saloon. She suspected she’d been ogled there just as thoroughly, even if she’d had a mite less on display. She forced herself to consider this just another day’s work.

  Counting on Riley to make the most of the distraction, she sashayed straight toward the two duller Higgins brothers and kept on going.

  “Holy catfish,” one of them muttered, his eyes growing wide. “Would you look at that?”

  She was pretty sure the emphatic curse she heard next came from Riley as she crossed into his line of vision, but she refused to look his way. She swallowed hard at the thought of his displeasure, but kept right on moving in the most provocative stroll she could manage, holding the brothers’ attention on her and drawing it away from Riley.

  After that first startled expletive, Riley apparently figured it was pointless to waste her efforts. She heard him moving swiftly behind her, repeating his order to Higgins to toss down his weapon.

  “Red, Tommy, damn your hides,” the other man shouted, but Red and the beefier Tommy were too caught up in Abby’s impromptu performance to pay any attention to their brother.

  Like loyal pups they trailed her as she went to the spot on the riverbank where she’d left her own clothes. She guessed from the string of oaths and the dull thud she heard behind her that Riley had succeeded in getting the outraged Higgins to toss down his gun. She tried to calculate exactly how long it would take him to get the other man tied up. Three minutes at the outside, she guessed. Riley tended toward coldly efficient movement when he was agitated, and he was definitely agitated right now, mostly by her. There would definitely be hell to pay when this situation cooled down. By then Riley’s temper would no doubt be boiling hot and aimed straight at her.

  However, she reminded herself sternly, this was not the time to be worrying about that. She had the performance of her life to give.

  With her back to the brothers, she reached slowly for her clothes, starting with her petticoat. She stepped into it, pulled it up amid a few deliberate wiggles of her hips and tied it at the waist. Red and Tommy seemed as enthralled by this reverse striptease as they had been by her initial almost bare-assed appearance. Abby prayed she could hold their attention for just another minute or two, long enough for Riley to turn his gun on them.

  “Sing that song,” Tommy ordered, sounding a little hoarse as he waved his gun in her direction for encouragement.

  “Which song would that be?” she inquired blandly. She hummed a few notes of a hymn as she reached for her dress.

  “Damn you, woman, that’s a church song,” Red said, looking extremely nervous. He seemed to be anticipating a bolt of lightning striking all of them dead on the spot. “That ain’t the kind of song you’re supposed to sing when you’re not wearing any clothes.”

  Abby heard a choking sound and realized that Riley was trying to hold back a laugh. She vowed she would slug him if they got out of this mess. She was prancing around, practically naked as the day she was born, just to save his sorry hide, and he found the whole performance amusing. She supposed for the moment, though, the only important thing was that she had Red and Tommy’s undivided attention.

  “Boys,” Riley said quietly, once he had that damnable laughter under control. “The show’s over.”

  Taken by surprise and clearly furious because of it, both men whirled on him, guns drawn. With her breath in her throat, Abby turned with them. Riley acted as if facing two gunmen was an everyday occurrence.

  “Put ‘em down, nice and easy,” he said.

  Red and Tommy seemed to notice for the first time that their brother’s hands were tied behind his back. A bandanna cruelly bit into his mouth to keep him silent. Their expressions turned hard and mean.

  “If you hurt him, you’ll pay,” Red said. “Tommy, take Walker’s gun.”

  “Bad idea,” Abby said softly, pressing the gun she’d retrieved from the folds of her dress into Tommy’s back. That gun was the first thing Riley insisted she have before they’d embarked on this trip. He’d spent an hour a day teaching her to use it, too. Her aim was considerably more accurate than it had been. At least when it came to inanimate objects. And at this close range she figured it was likely to be pretty darn deadly with a human, too.

  Apparently the brothers had the same impression, because at the first touch of that hard, cold metal against his back, Tommy yelped as if she’d pulled the trigger.

  For the first time since the entire episode had begun, Abby dared to meet Riley’s gaze. He gave her a curt nod of approval, but the expression in his eyes told her she was indeed going to pay later for her methods. She paled and looked away, concentrating instead on getting Tommy’s gun out of his grasp while Riley dealt with Red. The colorful vocabulary the two men shared during this process turned Abby’s cheeks red.

  “It’s a little late to be blushing,” Riley noted dryly as he joined her, clamped a hand around her elbow and led her out of earshot of their captives.

  “What happened to thank you?” she snapped, shrugging off his hold on her arm.

  “For?”

  She glared at him. “For saving your neck back there.”

  “Sweetheart, let me explain something. That little stunt you pulled could have gone either way. I was so stunned myself, Higgins could have put a bullet through my brain just as easily as the other way around.”

  “I knew you’d rise above the temptation to look,” she said airily.

  “I looked,” he retorted. “And if you ever get a notion to parade around in front of anyone else with barely a stitch on, I’ll turn you over my knee.”

  “Hopefully the need won’t ever arise again.”

  “Hopefully,” he agreed. “Though something tells me with you around trouble is bound to follow.”

  “They didn’t come after me,” she reminded him. “They came after you.”

  “Because you insisted on turning them over to that corrupt sheriff, instead of leaving them in the desert to die, like I wanted to do.”

  Abby frowned. “How was I supposed to know the sheriff could be bought off? You never said a word about that.”

  Riley regarded her as if she’d missed the first and most important lesson in justice in the West. “How do you think the Golden Nugget managed to stay in business after the temperance ladies tried to close it down?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Martin bribed the sheriff?” She couldn’t imagine staid, proper Martin resorting to such illegal transactions. Then again, maybe he just considered it a line-item in his budget.

  “So what are we going to do with these three this time?” she asked.

  “I’m all for staking them out on top of an anthill,” Riley suggested.

  The idea held a certain appeal, but Abby’s sense of justice called for more legal methods of disposal. “Isn’t there another town nearby with a different sheriff, one who actually understands the concept of law and order?”

  He sighed. “You’re really going to insist on this, aren’t you?”

  “I suppose I am,” she conceded. She was surprised when he didn’t start an immediate argument over the plan. Instead, he was regarding her speculatively.

  “What?” she said. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Aside from the fact that you’re still only half-dressed,” he said dryly, “I was just giving some thought to what it would be like to spend the rest of my life trying to keep you in line.”

  Abby was so startled by the imp
lication of his last words, she didn’t even worry about her lack of attire. “Exactly what are you saying?” she asked cautiously.

  He shrugged. “It just seemed to me as long as we’re going to have to go into town, anyway, we might want to look for a preacher while we’re at it.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “You want to marry me?”

  He grinned at her astonishment. “Believe me, the idea takes me as much by surprise as it does you. But the idea of leaving you on the loose absolutely terrifies me. And I’ve had cause lately, very lately, to realize that as a team we’re just about indomitable. I might not be crazy about the methods you use, but I have to concede they were damned effective.”

  “Ingenious?” she prodded.

  “Okay, ingenious,” he conceded.

  She stepped closer and put her hands on his cheeks, giving him a questioning look. She stared into eyes that had darkened to the shade of green found only in the deepest parts of a forest.

  “Why do you want to marry me?” she asked. “Seriously.”

  “Could be just because you saved my neck and I owe you,” he said blandly, but there was no mistaking the daring twinkle in his eyes.

  “Or?”

  He regarded her thoughtfully. “Could be because you finally learned how to shoot straight. I do love a woman who can handle a gun.”

  She laughed, not believing that one for a minute. “Or?”

  He circled her waist with his arms and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her bare breasts fitted snugly against the hard wall of his chest. The sensation was thrilling.

  “Or,” he whispered, his warm breath fanning her cheek, “it could be because I just love the way you look prancing around naked in a river.”

  Abby feigned impatience with the seductive game. “Those are all admirable reasons, I’m sure, but they’re not enough,” she said, wriggling to get free of him. He just held her tighter, his gaze locked with hers. The hunger in that look seemed to make her heart go still.

  Riley reached up and brushed a damp tendril of hair from her cheek. “Maybe it’s just because you take my breath away, Abby Dennison. I can’t imagine going through life without you.”