Devil in Texas (Lady Law & The Gunslinger Series, Book 1) by Adrienne deWolfe Page A

long moment, he continued to stand there, flexing his hands over his missing Colts as if he wanted to draw—or maybe to shake her. Eyes the color of a wind-swept Texas sky raked over her wig, facial hair, and voluminous coat, possibly checking for weapons. God knew, she was about as alluring as a potato sack in all this baggy linen.
    But Cass... Well, he would have made her mouth water with an apple barrel suspended from his shoulders. As usual, he wore black. All black. Since his gun belt was in Cotton's capable hands, only the winking of his fancy, Mexican-style rowels detracted from the sleek, feral lines of his six-foot length.
    She decided to break the stalemate.
    "Where'd you get that pendant?" she demanded, hiking an eyebrow at the battered brass. It was Daddy's button, all right. Cass had let it flop onto his bandanna to make sure she saw it. She'd been hunting for that pendant all damned day!
    Cass flashed his Coyote grin and tucked the makeshift, leather cord beneath his collar. "What, this old thing?"
    "Play you for it," she challenged.
    "Don't know if you can afford the stakes."
    Smartass. He knew precisely how much that button meant to her.
    Sadie shrugged and riffled the deck of cards. "Sounds like you're scared you'll lose."
    "Them's fighting words, Four Eyes."
    "I'm shaking in my boots, cowboy."
    It was the old banter, with a delicious new twist: the unknown element of Cass's loyalty.
    He picked up a chair and straddled it. As he settled close beside her, Sadie struggled to ignore the captivating shower of sparks that danced along her nerves. The crackle of current between her and Cass had always been like some hungry, growling thing. Never had it been more dangerous than tonight, when she had to keep her head cool and her heart hard to discern the truth from his lies.
    He doffed his Stetson and set it on the table. "The name's Cassidy," he said in ironic tones. "William. Most folks call me Cass."
    "Uh-huh."
    "You got a name?"
    "Depends on what I'm wearing."
    The twitch in his lips betrayed his mirth. He'd maneuvered his chair close enough for her to catch the faint whiff of sandalwood soap. So few men bothered to sponge off the stink of sweat and steer before they came to solicit a rut. But Cass knew how to please a woman. More accurately, he knew how to make a woman melt into a sparking puddle at his boots—and that was before he flashed all those dazzling teeth.
    "Seems like we've met before," he drawled.
    "Must've been a past life."
    "As I recollect, you weren't so fond of wearing a beard back then."
    "A wretched nuisance," she confided. "It itches like hell."
    "I like it."
    "You would."
    Never missing a beat, she dealt the first hand for Stud Poker. The Queen of Hearts showed on her side of the table, the Knave of Hearts on his.
    "How fitting." His baritone was velvety, nearly a croon. Picking up chips, he tossed them to the center of the table. He'd staked 100 dollars.
    Showboater.
    But she'd expected no less. From day to day, Cass was either as rich as a bank or as poor as a migrant orchard picker. When she'd reunited with him four years ago in Dodge, he'd bragged that he'd just won every stitch of clothing in a game of chance. Money meant nothing to Cass. If his guns earned him thousands by noon, he gambled away his winnings by sundown. He'd always been of the opinion that he could live off the land, and life's other necessities—like ammo, whiskey, and riding tack—could be won in some contest he dreamed up on the spot. Knife-throwing and target-shooting were the areas in which he excelled, although he pitched a mean game of horseshoes, and she'd seen him crush rival marble-shooters, mainly because he threw off their aim with his banter.
    Peeking at her cards, Sadie was hard-pressed not to sigh. They were crap, of course. Having lived above a saloon most of her life, she'd been playing high-stakes card games since the age of 13. She knew the value of a Poker Face, so she was careful to keep hers