Hallie's Hero. Nicole Foster

      Chapter Four

      In all Hallie’s memory, the ride back to the ranch house had never seemed so long. With each step Jack’s horse took, a different part of her body reacted.

      “Not much farther.” Jack’s low voice rumbled against her ear. “How are you doing?”

      Hallie shifted, not sure which demanded more of her attention, the unforgiving saddle leather or the rub of his thigh against her backside. “I never knew sitting in a saddle could feel like torture.”

      “Ah, well, try riding for two weeks straight with only a few hours sleep every day.”

      “Mmm, that sounds like a story,” Hallie said, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Take some poor fool’s last dollar only to find out he had brothers, did you?”

      Jack laughed. “Something like that. Let’s just say it’s hard to live on your luck for so many years without a few close calls.”

      Letting herself relax a little, Hallie found it easier on her bottom to lean against Jack’s chest. He made it hard not to like him when he was doing his best to be accommodating. And the new feeling he gave her—of being protected, even coddled a little—Hallie discovered she didn’t mind so much.

      She could even get used to it. “Tell me your story, would you?”

      “It’s not much of a tale. It happened when I was too green and too full of myself to know when to bury my aces instead of laying ’em down. That was the first time I took Redeye Bill Barlow’s winnings, and if he’d caught up with me it would’ve been my last.”

      “You knew Redeye before?”

      Jack didn’t realize his arms had tightened around her until Hallie wriggled a bit. He forced himself to relax his hold on her. “Longer than I want to remember.”

      She thought about that for a minute, and Jack wondered if she’d push him to say something more. Instead, she surprised him by murmuring, “I hope Serenity doesn’t need help with supper. Standing at that stove doesn’t sound too appealing right now.”

      “Don’t worry, Miss Hal, I’ll help her, if it comes to that.”

      “You?” Hallie started laughing. “Are you asking me to believe you found time to learn to cook between women and games?”

      “Don’t insult my cooking until you taste it.” Jack paused a moment, then added in a voice he deliberately kept light, “My pa wasn’t one to cook for or keep up with a boy he thought was old enough to fend for himself. I’ve got many talents that might surprise you.”

      “Rolling dice doesn’t count.”

      “I’ll have you know, darlin’, I’ve had my share of respectable jobs in my time.”

      “This I would like to hear,” Hallie said, deliberately teasing him because she wanted to know more about him. She’d pegged him as sweet-talking and shallow. But from the few things he’d said about his past, she was beginning to get a different picture of him.

      He’d managed to smooth over and bury a good part of himself beneath layers of fine manners and fancy clothes. Except once in a while, the boy in him showed through, and Hallie guessed it was a boy with a rough and unstable start in life, perhaps much like his own son.

      She closed her eyes a moment to concentrate on the rise and fall of his chest against her back, a pang of sympathy pricking her heart. There was more to Jack Dakota than met the eye, that was for certain.

      “Let’s see,” he was saying, “I worked in a mercantile for a few months, I washed dishes in a restaurant and I played piano in several hotels. You should hear my rendition of ‘Old Coon Zip.’”

      “To do that, you and I would have to pay a visit to the Silver Snake.”

      Jack leaned over to look at her. “Do I want to know why?”

      Hallie sighed and fingered a frayed edge of leather on the reins. “You know Lila Lee,” she said, referring to the woman who owned the saloon. “I sold her my ma’s piano after Pa died. She’s sweet on Tenfoot, so I got a good price.”

      Jack didn’t have to ask why. He knew Hallie had scraped together every dollar she had to try and buy Eden’s Canyon back from the bank. It was obvious from the empty places in the sprawling ranch house that she’d sold most everything but the clothes on her back to pay off her father’s debts.

      He knew from the gossip in town that Jim Ryan had lost his money and his ranch at the card tables. It was no wonder Hallie resented Jack, a professional gambler, buying Eden’s Canyon out from under her.

      Ace lurched sideways over a patch of rough ground and Hallie grabbed for the pommel to keep her balance.

      At once, Jack’s arm swept around her waist, pulling her up out of the saddle and hard against him. His forearm brushed the underside of her breasts as Ace found his footing again.

      Hallie angled herself away from Jack the moment she felt she wouldn’t fall out of the saddle. The last thing she needed right now was more of his touch.

      “Are you all right?” he asked. “Sorry, I didn’t see that coming.”

      “It’s not your fault. And the damage can’t get any worse at this point.”

      “It will if you don’t stay off your feet for a while.”

      Hallie’s shoulders shifted. “Serenity can’t do everything. Besides, I’ve had my share of scrapes and bruises. They never stopped me from doing what needed to get done.”

      “You’re a damned stubborn female, Hallie Ryan,” Jack said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

      “Stubborn I’ve been called many a time,” Hallie agreed. “Female’s the part they usually leave out.”

      She expected Jack to come back with some teasing retort. Instead his arm around her waist tightened a fraction.

      “I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but their eyesight’s not too good. Look…” He gestured toward the barn and corral visible in the distance. “Your torture is nearly at an end.”

      Jack slid out of the saddle as soon as they neared the ranch house, knowing Hallie would throw her leg over the horse’s neck and jump down on her own if he didn’t hit ground first. She’d sooner suffer the pain than lose one more particle of her already wounded pride.

      With one swift motion he was at her side, arms outstretched, leaving her no way off of Ace but into his arms. He looked up at her and saw a slight frown pucker her forehead beneath the brim of her ugly hat.

      “And you call me stubborn?” she grumbled, glancing from side to side. Finding no witnesses, she hastily slid down against him.

      For an instant, they stood practically nose to nose, his hands measuring the surprisingly small span of her waist. Hidden beneath her billowing shirt and loose pants, her shape was a curiosity of increasing interest to him, probably because she was so determined to keep any hint of her femininity hidden. A lopsided smile quirked his mouth. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

      “Compared to what—dancing a reel with a tumbleweed?” Hallie asked, trying not to give away the effect being this close to him had on her.

      She didn’t like what he could do to her with a single touch. She liked it well enough, though, to stay still within his hold.

      Despite her light quip, Jack felt her quickening breath, saw her eyes widen slightly. She might not look or act like any woman he’d known, but she couldn’t help responding like one.

      “Come on,” he said, sliding his gaze down her. “Let’s get you inside and out of those britches.”

      “You don’t give up, do you, Dakota?”