Lawman by Lisa Plumley

Caught
beneath his taut muscles and unforgiving strength, Megan remembered
how easily he had overpowered her at the balcony railing, and knew
that in this instance at least, she was beaten.
    For now.
    "I won't let you do it," he said. "Christ,
but if I'd been a step or two later—"
    His voice choked to a stop, strangled by
whatever impulse tightened his long-fingered grasp on her wrists,
as well. Panting, Megan arched her neck and looked from side to
side, taking in the sight of his sun-browned hands on her arms long
enough to confirm with her eyes what her mind already knew.
    Gabriel Winter was a man as untrustworthy as
she'd suspected from the start. She'd do well to remember that in
the future.
    "If you had been a step or two later, I
wouldn't be lying here," she felt compelled to point out, "with
you! And I'd be glad for it."
    Frustration assailed her. What in heaven's
name was he about? What kind of man would assault her this way, and
then regret aloud the fact that he'd done it too slowly for his
liking?
    Megan prided herself on her ability to
understand people, including the station hands, drivers, and
businessmen she came into daily contact with. But Gabriel Winter
confounded her. If she lived to be a thousand, it wouldn't be time
enough to comprehend the workings of his mind.
    " Glad of it ?" His head bowed. "Dear
God, not again," he whispered.
    "Again? But I'd only just—"
    "Yes, and come too close, at that!" His
interruption came fierce and unguarded, his brogue strengthened by
the force of his emotions. "I said you were a wily one, Megan
Kearney, and I knew it to be true. From the moment I first laid
eyes on you in that station yard, I knew you were uncommon to me as
the rest of this damned Territory. But I wouldn't have pegged you
for this."
    "For what?"
    His passing mention of the very
unfamiliarity she'd surmised—and now knew—he held with Arizona
Territory and its people intrigued her. Reassured her, too. But
this wasn't the time to explore what might be her only advantage
against him. Plain and true, Gabriel Winter wasn't making sense,
and the feeling of being two thoughts behind him in their dealings
unsettled her more than Megan wanted to admit.
    Needing to get to the base of his reasoning,
she returned to what he'd said before without waiting for an answer
to her question.
    "There's nothing wily in looking out over
the city," she told him, trying to imagine what he'd seen when he'd
come into the room and glimpsed her at the balcony railing.
"Nothing uncommon or strange in looking toward release from
the—"
    His gaze sharpened. Megan saw his interest
and snapped her mouth closed. However flap-jawed an agent he might
be, nothing demanded that she confide her plans for the future in
him. Indeed, it would be wiser not to. If Gabriel Winter learned of
her missing nest egg money, learned of her father's role in its
disappearance, that would only incriminate Papa more.
    Striving to seem indifferent—no easy task,
given the unexpected stimulation of being sandwiched between the
cradling mattress at her back and the hot, wholly unyielding
Pinkerton man at her front—Megan gazed up at him.
    Sweet mercy, but he was a handsome man! His
face held angles and experience too hard-edged to be called
beautiful. But just for a moment, she glimpsed the goodness beneath
the grit Gabriel Winter showed to the world around him, and that
peek inside him was enough to entrance her. Breath held, Megan
stared more boldly—and then reality returned.
    Despite her earlier hopes, she hadn't
magically become immune to his charms. The realization kindled
something close to panic inside her, a sensation very like the way
she used to feel as a child, twirling round and round the station
yard until she came up dizzy.
    At least then it had been apurpose.
    "Go on," he said, his voice a rumble she
felt clear through the clothes that separated them.
    Go on with what ? her despairing mind
wondered. And then she remembered.
    "In, in looking