A Touch in Time Read Free

denim-clad legs that followed. The sight of which was pure torture for a man who had gone without for so long. His cock thumped beneath the thick denim of his fly.
    “Fuck.”
    He forced his gaze to something far less tempting – her fawn colored boots – and his eyes went wide. The heels on them were damn near as long as fence posts. How the hell had she made it to the corral without breaking her pretty little neck?
    His horse whickered behind him, reminding Jake of where they were. He needed to get this woman, whoever she was, out from under the blazing heat of the afternoon sun. Gathering her up in his arms, he stood and carried her back to his cabin.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Something cool and moist slid across her brow, drawing Brianna from the dark abyss she’d been sucked into. She forced her eyes open, expecting the blinding glare of the sun, only to find herself surrounded by near darkness.
    “I was beginning to wonder if you were ever gonna wake up,” that deep, sexy voice from her dreams drawled.
    She turned toward the husky sound, focusing on the fantasy man beside her. His broad shoulders and dark head were outlined in the pale glow of light coming from somewhere behind him. As her eyes adjusted to the shadowy room, his features became clearer.
    “I’m dreaming,” she declared with a soft sigh.
    He let out a husky chuckle. “Lady, if you’re gonna dream about a man, I promise I’d be the last one you’d wanna consider for the job.”
    He pulled his hand away and placed the damp cloth he’d been wiping her brow with into a small ceramic basin of water on the nightstand beside him.
    She looked around the tiny room, taking in her surroundings. It was clearly a bedroom, but the sparseness of the décor surprised her. No television. No stereo. Not even an alarm clock. Just a double bed with a simple iron frame and a couple of small, very rustic looking tables.
    The man towering over her, shifted slightly, revealing the source of light behind him was not from an electric bulb, but by a flame wavering inside a clear globe, one a second globe filled with oil gave life to.
    She bit back a gasp. If this wasn’t a dream, and she wasn’t at the rodeo, it could only mean she really had somehow tumbled from the twentieth century into the old west.
    She tried to sit up, for the first time realizing that her wrists were bound to the iron headboard behind her.
    “Untie me,” she demanded, feeling a sense of panic sweep through her.
    “Can’t.”
    She struggled to get free, but the ropes that secured her to the bed held fast. More panic set in. She’d wished for a cowboy with a code of honor, but she’d ended up here. Tied to a bed by a man wearing a gun. An outlaw no doubt. Could things get any worse?
    He reached out to still her thrashing. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
    The feel of his large hand splayed across the bare skin of her stomach made her pulse race. She dared a glance up at the determined face of her captor. Jake Dawson was no ‘pretty boy’, GQ model type. He was, however, devastatingly handsome in a purely dark, sensual, rugged way.
    His callused hand smoothed over her stomach and she fought the urge to arch into his touch. Her body wanted more. It had been so long since a man touched her. Even longer since she wanted one to.
    “That’s better,” he said, his voice low and soothing, calming her with slow steady strokes. Strokes she wished were lower. Anything to ease the ache this man stirred in her.
    Thick, wavy black hair hung down over his brow above intense, dark brown eyes as he leaned over her. Her thoughts shifted to the five o’clock shadow that darkened his strong jaw. What would it feel like to have that course stubble rubbing against her flesh, the flesh between her thighs?
    He moved to check the ropes that bound her wrists to the headboard. He was so close she could smell him, musk and leather and all man. Her gaze was drawn to the faded scar