the need to alleviate it. Drawn by his lust and his hunter’s instincts. Drawn by the desire to make this moment in her life better than the memory that consumed her. It took only three steps to get to the bottom of the stairs. He held out his hand, looked up and asked, “May I have this dance?”
There was a slight start to reveal her surprise, but Sally Mae didn’t move away from the wall, and she didn’t open her eyes, but her smile changed. Softened. She really was in a mood tonight.
“That would be scandalous.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “So was taking a notorious outlaw into your house, but I didn’t see you balk at that.”
Her right eye cracked open. “In that, I didn’t have a choice.”
His instincts perked. His blood thickened with the slow course of desire. “And now you do.”
He didn’t expect her to take his hand, and she didn’t, but her other lid opened and the gaze with which she weighed him was as keen as anyone’s, even Caine’s. And Caine had a wicked ability to take a person’s measure. It’s what made him the natural leader of the Hell’s Eight.
“I find I am at a fork in the road of my life, Ranger McCade.”
His heart beat faster and his senses sharpened. “Forks can be good.”
She closed her eyes again and took a slow breath. The way a person did when they were thinking. “True, but only if one can discern the difference between an opening and temptation.”
She had him there. “An opening?”
“An opportunity provided by God to grow.”
“And without this opening you can’t dance with me?”
With her eyes closed and the moonlight catching on her hair, she looked like an angel he’d seen in a book he’d stolen as a child.
Her eyes opened and he changed his mind. No angel looked that earthy.
“It means I must decide the source of thy temptation for me.”
“As in good or bad?”
“Yes.”
Placing his foot on the bottom step, he grazed his finger over her knee. The practical wool of her skirt did nothing to dim the impact on his senses. “Then I vote for bad.”
Her lids flickered and her lip slipped between her teeth. “Why?”
He smiled, holding her gaze, his pulse kicking up. She wasn’t fighting him. “Because I can make being bad…very, very good.”
Her breath caught. Exhaling, she confessed, “Such is what I suspect, which simply makes my decision that much harder.”
The flush on her cheeks destroyed the last of his good intentions. Sliding his fingers to the back of her knee, he curved his palm over the point. “Want me to make it easy for you?”
Sally’s expression shifted. An element he didn’t recognize enriched the speculation as she ran her gaze over him. The glance, rich in feminine knowledge, burned along his desire, as it traveled from the top of his hat to the toes of his boots, neither of which were courting clean. “Would thee be willing?”
The lack of disapproval in her summation only goaded his anger with the message it sent. He’d been here often enough to recognize the signs. She wasn’t looking for proper from him, just a few illicit moments in bed that she could hug as her sexy little secret on cold winter nights. He dropped his hand and stepped back. “Is your bed getting so cold that you’re lowering yourself to invite a savage into it?”
She blinked and slid off the rail. It was easy to read the emotions chasing across her expression this time. Horror. Affront. Anger. And then pity. “Thee do not think much of thyself.”
That wasn’t true. He thought a lot of himself, he just didn’t think much of how other people saw him. “Thinking on changing me?”
With a cock of her head, she acknowledged his displeasure, then she shrugged. “I’ve been thinking on many things.”
“Like what?” He didn’t trust that too-calm way in which she observed him.
“Like the fact that thee are a good man, as well as being a very big temptation.”
He might be a temptation, but he wasn’t good. And she damn well knew it. “Have you been drinking?”
“I don’t believe in drink.”
She didn’t drink, she didn’t dance and she didn’t believe in violence. “What do you believe in?”
She didn’t answer right away, just studied him with her big gray eyes to the point that he was beginning to feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. And then in that regal way she always moved, which spoke of confidence and commanded respect, she descended the steps. When she reached the bottom one, it was natural to hold out his hand, natural that she place hers in it, natural that he continue to hold it as she took that last step that brought her directly before him. Her fingers curled around his. Her hand was cool and dry. She wasn’t nervous about dancing with him. “I believe in choice.”
And this close it was easy to determine why. There was a touch of alcohol on her breath. Someone had spiked the punch. Sally Mae probably wasn’t in command of all her faculties. A decent man would have escorted her back inside to the dance. But he wasn’t a decent man. He was Tucker McCade, known more for his brawling skills than his scruples. In short, he was no better than he had to be.
“Then I’m glad you’re choosing me.”
Her head cocked to the side as he pulled her in. “Thee are lying.”
Yes, he was. What with Sam just having left with Bella, Tucker was more conscious than ever of what would never be his. A woman to love him for what he was. The way Bella loved Sam. The way Desi loved Caine. But tonight, he was in the mood to pretend that it could be, and with Sally Mae. He drew their linked hands up and to the right, guiding her into his arms. The top of her head tucked under his chin as if it belonged there. “Do you care?” he asked against the silk of her hair.
“Not tonight.”
“Good.”
“Thee are holding me too closely.”
She might be protesting, but he noticed she wasn’t stepping away.
Would thee be willing?
He was more than willing to give her anything she wanted for whatever reason. A man like him wasn’t one for passing up golden opportunities.
“Your husband let you lead when you danced?”
She shook her head. “No, he was like thee. He liked to be in charge.”
At least she had one thing right. He was a man who led. “Then you won’t have trouble following me.”
Her head tipped back. Her eyes were very dark in the shadow of his hold, mysterious with an emotion he
