Desperate by Sylvia McDaniel

release? Couldn’t he see she was a woman fully grown?
    “My papa is dead. We’re alone, and I want to know what it feels like to be a woman. I want you to be the man who makes me into a woman.” Ruby stepped toward him, needing him to take her into his arms once again.
    “Oh, no, not going to happen with this man. I would be disrespecting your papa. I’m not having sex with a child.”
    “Stop calling me a child,” she declared, her overwrought feelings rushing at her.
    “That’s what you are.”
    Like a splash of cold water had been thrown on her, shivers racked her body. She no longer had this intense urge for him to make her into a woman.
    Tingles of rage crawled up her spine, and she went hot all over. First, she’d been almost raped, and now, the one man she desired was refusing her. She wanted to smash something, she wanted to hit him, she wanted to do something to make him hurt like she was hurting.
    “Damn it, Deke Culver. I’m asking you to take me, and you’re being all respectful. That’s not what I want,” she fairly screamed at him.
    “It’s not happening.” He walked over to his horse where he finished tightening the cinch on his saddle. “Don’t make me mad that I kissed you.”
    Tears pricked her eyelids as pain gripped her insides and twisted them into a knot. Her humiliation for the day was complete. Nothing worse could happen.
    “Get off our land. Get out of here,” she yelled, her rage full blown now that he was angry he’d kissed her. She reached beneath her skirt, giving him a flash of pantaloons and pulled her gun from its hidden holster.
    With a toss of her blonde hair, she aimed the pistol at his groin. “Get the hell out of here.”
    He laughed at her. “Now you’re proving to me you’re still a child. You’re not ready to be a woman.”
    She raised the gun and fired it over his head. “Get. Out. Of. Here. Now.”
    He climbed on his horse and then blew her a kiss. “See you round, Ruby. Save me a kiss when you’re a grown woman.”
    “Aargh.” She started to raise the gun again, but then remembered the words of her papa. Don’t aim a gun at a man unless you intend to kill him . With a trembling hand, she lowered the weapon for the second time that day.
    “You’ll never get another one of my kisses,” she yelled after him, but he only waved goodbye at her. The sun burned the tears tracking down her cheeks.
    Men were ignorant beasts, and she wanted nothing more to do with them. She was done. She’d use them and trample on their hearts and leave them behind in the dust where they belonged.
     

Chapter Five
     
    T he restaurant had closed for the day, and Annabelle put the last of the clean dishes up in the cabinet. Then she took her apron off. “Anything else, Rusty?”
    “Uh, I need to talk to you?” The tone of his voice was unsure, almost nervous.
    Annabelle looked at him, and a nervous trickle ran down her spine. He had a sheepish expression on his face, not his regular leer, and he almost seemed embarrassed.
    “I have to let you go.”
    “Why? I thought I was doing a good job?” Annabelle demanded, thinking of how hard she had worked to make sure she was doing everything right.
    “You did.” He looked at the floor and not at Annabelle. “It’s just the wife caught me patting you on the ass the other day, and she said you have to go.”
    Anger stirred inside of Annabelle like a firestorm after a lightning strike. No, this wasn’t her dream job, but it helped pay the bills. “Did you tell your wife I would serve you up to the buzzards if you touched me again?”
    Her mother was probably rolling in her grave right now at Annabelle’s language, but desperate times called for vulgarity. She was tired of being a proper lady and being taken advantage of.
    “I did, but she didn’t care.” His eyes refused to meet hers, and she realized he wasn’t as strong as he let on. His wife ruled the house and the business.
    He rubbed his hand through his hair