Bushedwhacked Groom by Eugenia Riley Page B

shit.”
    Molly caught just a hint of the outrage gripping Lucky’s features, then she was hauled up hard against his lean frame. His mouth slammed down on hers and his tongue plunged fully inside her mouth. To her further horror and fascination, his strong hands gripped her buttocks, pushing her against something very stiff and tantalizing.
    Molly burned from head to toe, but not from embar rassment. What Lucky’s scorching looks had done to her could not compare to the storm of excitement she felt with his masterful mouth ravishing hers, his tongue probing, retreating, then plunging again, his fingers digging into her bottom, forcing her into his heat, mak ing her throb inside. She ached for him all over!
    Then, as quickly as the kiss had started, he shoved her away, triumph and a darker emotion gleaming in his eyes. He spoke hoarsely, raggedly. “There, lady, you got it, now? I like to do it with girls. But you’re the last girl this side of Hades I’d ever want to do it with.”
    For a moment they just glared at each other. Molly felt appalled yet equally fascinated, almost hoping he would grab her and kiss her again. Then both tensed at the sounds of gasps. Molly turned to see Ma, Pa, Grandma, Aunt Dumpling and Uncle Billy, all standing on the back stoop, regarding them in openmouthed disbelief.
    Molly almost shrieked with joy at her good fortune. Deliberately bursting into tears again, she ran back to the stoop and thrust herself into her father’s arms. Con vulsively she cried, “Pa, Lucky grabbed me and kissed me and shoved his nasty tongue down my throat!”
    “He shoved his what?” cried Dumpling.
    “Yeah, and he pinched my butt, too.”
    Clutching Molly close, Cole had gone white with anger and was shaking a fist at Lucky. “Young man, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do—”
    “But, sir, she provoked me.”
    “She’s a lady, and that’s no excuse.”
    “ Yeah,” added Billy with a fearsome scowl. “Brother, should I go fetch your shotgun?”
    “ 0h, yes,” chortled Dumpling, clapping her hands in glee. “We’ll be having us a wedding afore sundown.”
    At the mention of a wedding, Molly turned tri umphantly, just in time to see Lucky’s jaw drop almost to the ground.

 
    Chapter Nine
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    “Pa, you just gotta make Lucky marry me! You just gotta!”
    Inside the kitchen, Cole Reklaw frowned and watched his daughter pace about, her features mur derously set. For long moments now he’d been trying to reason with Molly, while out in the back yard, his brother Billy stood guarding the “scoundrel” Lucky at gunpoint.
    Damn, but things were in such a lather. Cole badly needed time to gather his thoughts regarding the wisdom of his daughter’s demanded shotgun wedding to this drifter, and unfortunately Molly wasn’t cutting him much slack. Of course Lucky Lamont had insulted his daughter terribly and deserved to be horsewhipped for his sins; but for her doting father, that didn’t necessar ily mean she should rush headlong into marriage with a stranger—whether Fortune was at play here or not.
    She sure had that wild Reklaw blood in her, he thought with a mingling of pride and exasperation. When Molly set her sights on something, there was no stopping her. But she had to be made to understand that this marriage business was a serious matter, and nothing to be embarked upon on a whim.
    When Cole had established the contest, he’d been well aware that they lived in a small, close-knit community, where he knew all of the young men who might be suitable candidates to wed his daughter; it had never occurred to him that she’d take a shine to a vagabond, even if it did appear that Lucky was from another time and there might well be something to this destiny business. Jessie seemed convinced it was so; but to be hon est, he’d never seen a more contentious pair.
    Then he smiled, remembering how he and Jessie had started out on equally rocky footing—and what a glorious