A forbidden attraction

When Sophie Buchanan’s loathsome uncle announces she must wed a man of his choosing in just a month’s time, Sophie will do anything to escape—and if that includes entering the most notorious gambling den in town to fund her getaway, then so be it.

But Sophie hasn’t counted on Gray, a Comanche gunman in her uncle’s employ who fascinates her like no other, and who seems determined to foil her plans. After he rescues Sophie when the situation turns nasty, the couple spends one scorching, forbidden night together. But the day of the wedding soon dawns, and with the aisle beckoning, Gray’s protection may not be enough to save Sophie from her fate.

Her Forbidden Gunslinger

Harper St. George

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my parents, thank you for encouraging me to follow my dreams.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter One

Helena, Montana Territory, 1888

Married?

Sophie closed her eyes and prayed that she had heard him wrong. Then she counted to ten in an attempt to dispel the anger she could feel rising within her. Experience had taught her that it was never worthwhile showing anger when her uncle was in one of his moods. And he was in rare form today.

She opened her eyes to see him relaxing in the leather wing-backed chair, gazing at his cigar with a self-satisfied smile curving his lips. Having just delivered the blow orchestrated to finally break her, he had every reason to smile. He crossed his legs and picked up the tumbler of cognac from the marble-topped table beside him and took a sip, seeming to forget she was there and that he had just ruined her life.

She hated him.

“Oncle Jean, perhaps I misheard—”

“Non, cherie, you heard me correctly. Your wedding will be next month. Anton and I have already discussed the matter. The specifics can be worked out later. Nothing too large. An intimate gathering will suffice. You’ll need to have a gown made, but I’m sure an arrangement can be made with Martine to have it finished in time. If only your mother hadn’t run off to marry that Scot, she would have had a proper gown to pass down to you, but…” His words ended on a sigh.

Sophie refrained from pointing out the Scot had been her father and had her mother not run off to marry him the conversation would be moot.

“Well, what can we do now?” her uncle continued. “She did what she did and I do owe her a debt, do I not? I am here now and not in France, and look at my good fortune.” He gestured to the room, with its frescoed ceilings, exotic wood floor and gilt-trimmed furnishing; it was the epitome of excessive opulence. Then his gaze lit on her and he gave the smile she hated: worse than smug, this smile was dead. “And I repay a little of my debt every day.”

“But Monsieur Beaudin is…is…” Old. Repulsive. Abhorrent. Each descriptor was more fitting than the last, she had trouble choosing just one.

“Careful, cherie, he is my dearest friend.”

Sophie looked at her uncle in his coat of maroon velvet, his garish neckerchief, his graying hair slicked back with pomade, and thought he could have been Anton sitting there for all the difference there was between them. Many of the ladies in town thought him handsome, but she saw only the evil lurking beneath the surface.

“Oncle, you mistake me. I was merely going to point out that he is too sophisticated for a ranch girl. While you have been more than kind to take me in, that is what I am, and one never really strays far from one’s roots, no?”

A vein twitched in his temple and she knew her barb had landed. She couldn’t check the cowardly impulse to glance at the silver hawk’s head of his walking cane where it was propped against his chair. Perhaps it was suicide to remind him that he came from Le Marais, a slum in Paris, but recklessness was as much a part of her nature as this forced deference was foreign to it. Being from the same slum, her mother never would’ve had a proper wedding gown, anyway.

“Rejoice that I have found a Frenchman willing and gracious enough to overlook your many shortcomings. You will be a good wife to him, Sophie, or you will answer to me for it. Do you understand?” All pretense of civility had fled, leaving his eyes cold and flat. The look he gave her now was the look that had earned him free rein in the copper mines in this region of the territory.

“Oui. Could I telegraph Alexandre? He should come to the ceremony.” She had not seen her brother since he’d signed over his inheritance and fled to Chicago five years earlier, though Jean gave her regular updates.

His good humor restored by her compliance, her uncle smiled and took a puff of his cigar. “I will see that he is notified, but you may write a letter to post if you wish. The Nelsons’ ball is at nine tonight. Be ready.”

Sophie stood to take her leave. “Merci, Oncle.” It was her customary closing with any of their conversations.

Thank you, Uncle. Thank you for taking me in after you murdered my parents. Thank you for allowing me breath one more day. Thank you for not committing most of the unspeakable crimes against me your soulless eyes promise you are capable of perpetrating.

Yet.

She hated him! If only her life didn’t stretch out before her as one endless act devoted to playing out the whims of that monster. Already, the sounds of despair and anger that she’d had trouble containing were threatening to escape, causing her shoulders to shake with the effort of subduing them. She closed the door to his study and turned to flee to her room. But when she turned, something solid and decidedly masculine blocked her path.

Without even looking, she knew who it was. Gray. She was always so preternaturally aware of him; every fiber of her being knew when he was near. Today he was Jean’s sentry. How had she not noticed him on her way into the study?

Strong hands came up to her waist to steady her. She slowly looked up at him, unable to so quickly hide the wetness in her eyes and the misery lurking behind them.

“Breathe.”

His voice poured over her, further igniting the prickling recognition she had no right to feel. It was an awareness that went much deeper than the simple fact that she had heard his voice many times before. Her fingers curled against his strong chest, begging to stroke him, to take some comfort from him, the man she had come to think of as her favorite.

Instinctively, her body did as he commanded. She sucked in a deep breath while allowing her gaze to trace his face and luxuriate in the rare chance to study him. He was stoic, forbidding like the rest of her uncle’s gunmen, and handsome. Her gaze touched his strong jaw, blade-straight nose and high cheekbones. Features that could have been called patrician but for the touch of bronze in his complexion and the midnight of his hair which bespoke a native heritage. It was a heart-stopping combination, and she wondered if that alone was the reason she was so fascinated by him, but then he spoke.

“Did he hurt you?” His gaze touched every part of her face, leaving her skin hot and tingling where it lingered.

In that look, she understood why she was drawn to him. The genuine concern there. He was the only one who looked at her as someone who might be in pain or need help. He gave her a glimpse of what it might be like to feel safe, even though the very idea of safe was wrong. If Jean ordered any of his men to remove her as a threat, none of them would hesitate.

Gray included. She shivered, reminding herself to never forget that. But still she couldn’t step away.

“No, he didn’t. I’m fine.” But then she shook her head because she wasn’t fine at all. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. The back of her throat ached and she swallowed past the lump that had formed there.

“Just breathe in.” His hands began to lightly stroke up and down the length of her back. Again her body obeyed his command and she took in a deep gulp of air. “Now let it out slowly.”

His startling gray eyes held hers as he bid her repeat the process two more times. He was so confident in his soothing commands that the tension began to seep from her body. The feeling of security inexplicably made her confide her trouble to him. “I’m going to be married. I don’t…” But her voice trailed off when his eyes narrowed.

“When?” The question was a breath between them.

“In a month.” Oh, God, only weeks away! She bit the inside of her lip to keep it from trembling.

For a moment there was nothing, no response, nothing flickering in his eyes. There was only the sound of his breathing, slow and even. She fancied she felt it caress her cheek, but it was a ridiculous thought to savor now when her world had been pulled out from under her.

“Who’s the groom?” The muscle in his jaw tightened and he clenched his hands almost possessively at her waist.

“Monsieur Beaudin,” she whispered.

“He doesn’t deserve you.” The words were so emphatic and blasphemous, spoken there in the hallway just outside her uncle’s door, that they shocked her. Did he know? Did he have any idea that she was a prisoner in every sense of the word?

She searched his face, looking for the meaning behind them, but the momentary ferocity brought about with those words had gone and his handsome visage was impassive again. Still, she couldn’t stop the flush of pleasure they evoked as she settled on his gray eyes. They were dark like the clouds of a thunderstorm. She’d never seen anything like them.

“Who would deserve me?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but his intense stare had hypnotized the question from her.

That stare never wavered when he answered. “Somebody who’ll take care of you.”

His words were so pleasing she closed her eyes briefly to revel in them. She’d almost forgotten what it meant to be taken care of, to not wake up every morning and battle the fear that constantly plagued her. Life with Anton would be a gross continuation of her life with Jean. Never knowing when she might displease him. Never knowing when a remark might provoke him to strike her, or give her a week locked away in her room with scarcely enough food to sustain her. She’d learned to gauge Jean so those things rarely happened now, but with Anton she’d have to start over.

But Gray… She took in a long, shuddering breath. Gray was a protector. The woman who was lucky enough to be his would never know fear. There would be so much more. It was those thoughts of more that made her become aware of the impropriety of their near-embrace and slowly push herself away from him. His hands dropped from her waist with a lingering caress that she imagined was intentional, while her own hands reluctantly returned to her sides.

“I’m afraid the question of my care doesn’t figure into things.” She attempted a parting smile. “Thank you.” And she started to walk past him, but his eyes held hers a little longer. There was something deep and longing there, but impossible to explore. So she walked to the stairs while trying to pretend that she couldn’t still feel his hands on her, that she wouldn’t perpetually relive that brief moment in his arms. It was the only time he had touched her and she knew she’d never forget it.

* * *

Gray took a long, final drag from his cigarillo before flicking it so it went flying in a high arc into the street. The orange glow of the tip bounced twice before settling in the dirt to slowly burn out. He wanted his hunger for Sophie to burn out just as easily, but it wouldn’t. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t forget the hopelessness on her face that morning. He wanted to think of her as he thought of Jean LaSalle: cold, remote, arrogant. But she wasn’t any of those. She tried to be remote but her eyes gave her away; he wanted to know what they hid from the world.

Watching her walk away from him had been harder than it should have been. Even now he could recall the faint trace of honeysuckle she had left behind and how he had stood there breathing it in until her scent too had gone. The warmth of her body still clung to his hands where he’d held her.

He wanted to forget, but his eyes kept drifting to her anyway. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Nelsons’ mansion, they found her effortlessly among the other dancers. With her crown of golden hair and deep blue gown she could have been one of the angels on LaSalle’s ceiling. His gaze drifted down to the way the gown clung to her small waist and then the creamy globes of flesh that threatened to spill from its bodice. No, he amended, she was too earthy to be angelic. He forced his gaze from that temptation to her face. She was smiling, but it was strained and didn’t meet her eyes. They were turbulent like the pale, clear blue of a mountain stream in spring.

The familiar impulse to just take her called to him. He’d felt it months ago when he’d first come to work for LaSalle, and now it thundered through him like the drum of his own heartbeat. Life on the plains was so much simpler. If he wanted her and was strong enough to take her, protect her, then he could have her. But life in Helena was more complicated, and taking her wouldn’t help him reach his goal, so he beat back the urge and refocused.

She was dancing with Anton Beaudin. The lustful gleam in the man’s eye was unmistakable and it immediately made Gray angry, though he was her groom and had every right to his thoughts. But the idea of Sophie giving herself to that cocky bastard made Gray want to smash his fist into the man’s face. His jaw tensed as he turned away from the window.

A vision of her in his own arms flashed through his mind, but he immediately checked the unwarranted thought. She was white and her uncle was rich. Both of those made her beyond the reach of a dirty, half-breed Comanche bastard. He’d given up any notion of courting a respectable, white woman long ago. And the fact that LaSalle was the meanest son of a bitch he’d ever come across, was further deterrent.

Besides those things, she deserved someone better than him. He’d never make her happy.

Gray shook his head and reminded himself he had a job to do. Sophie Buchanan was nothing but a distraction and she’d probably hate him when his task was finished. The sooner she got married the better.

But as soon as he had gotten his thoughts in order, her voice with its soft French intonations carried to him. It wasn’t a heavily accented voice like LaSalle’s. The inflection could only be heard in the occasional word, just often enough to make him listen for it. His gaze scanned the street, visibly as vigilant as he was supposed to be, but ravenously drinking up the sound of her voice.

“Monsieur Sinclair, please, if someone could just take me home.”

The hint of desperation in Sophie’s voice caught Gray’s attention. He turned his head slightly to see her standing just outside the closed terrace doors, pulling off her white gloves to fan herself with them. Sinclair stood before her, his back slightly blocking her, so that Gray had to move closer to hear the conversation.

“It’s almost midnight. Supper will be served soon. Don’t you think eating something will make you feel better?” Sinclair was saying.

“I just need to go home…please.”

There was a moment of silence and then. “I’ll need to okay it with your uncle.”

“Go to LaSalle. I’ll take her.” Gray heard himself offer. Sinclair was usually the one assigned to Sophie’s needs but, as the most trusted gunman, he had been ordered to attend a midnight meeting LaSalle had planned later that night with some important men in town for the ball.

Sinclair looked over at him, a glimmer of relief on his face, and gave a nod of thanks. “Don’t be long, she’ll be okay with Brand at the house. We’ll need to talk after the meeting. You know about the safe?”

Gray nodded and left to get the buggy, berating himself for volunteering. He was supposed to keep his distance. Cole could have been found at his post and dispatched to see her home.

But there was no reason it shouldn’t be Gray. No one knew how badly he wanted her. No one knew that he dreamed at night of taking her over his horse and fleeing with her across the plains like his grandfather might have done. No one knew how very little was stopping him from doing just that.

Chapter Two

Sophie felt a twinge of longing twist deep within her as she watched Gray approach. In the darkness his eyes held a feral glint that made him look more Comanche than white. Yes, Comanche. She knew that because months ago she had casually asked Sinclair about Gray and then done her best to find out everything she’d been told. She still didn’t really know much, except to wonder why he was so far north.

The absence of his usually present hat accentuated the untamed quality he exuded. His hair hung loose past his shoulders with a single thin braid beginning at his left temple. His overt wildness should have deterred her interest, but it had the opposite effect. She wanted something. To know him. To have some claim to him. It made no sense; she had no right to those feelings.

“Miss Buchanan.” His hypnotic eyes settled on her as he extended his hand to help her down the steps of the Nelsons’ house.

Sophie looked down to see his palm outstretched to her and felt her mouth go dry. That brief moment in the hall was the first time they’d touched at all. Now she was about to touch him skin to skin and felt wanton that she was anticipating it so much. Her fingertips tingled before they slipped across his rough palm and his fingers closed around them. His hand was warm and strong, completely engulfing hers. A current almost like electricity traveled the length of her arm. She looked back up to see if he felt the connection, too, but he was already looking toward the buggy, away from her, as he helped her down the steps. She felt a bizarre desire to prolong the contact, but in seconds she was seated in the waiting buggy and there was no reason to not let go. So she did. But she felt the loss deeply.

His touch was nothing like Anton’s. Anton, with his cold, possessive hand almost constantly at her waist, failed to stir any feeling at all within her except maybe disgust. While Gray, without even trying, stirred far too many feelings. It was a dangerous attraction. She knew that, had known it from the first time she saw him, but it hadn’t stopped her from thinking about him. Maybe it was the wedding looming before her making her bolder, but she knew an undeniable feminine longing to discover if the attraction was mutual.

“We meet again today, Monsieur Gray.”

When he merely took up the reins and clicked a command for the horse to start, she glanced over at him.

“Thank you for taking me home. I’m already feeling much better.”

He gave a curt nod and they rode onward in silence.

Sophie sighed and bemoaned her lack of experience in such matters. If he did find her attractive he certainly hid it well. She’d thought that moment in the hall meant that maybe he did. But what had she expected? No man looked at her as anything other than LaSalle property. She never even danced with anyone except Jean or Anton and the occasional business associate approved by her uncle. Her only chaperones were the gunmen in Jean’s inner circle. Who would dare threaten her virtue?

“Do you want to marry him?”

The question was asked so softly, Sophie wondered if she had heard him correctly. A small fluttering of nerves began deep in her belly. She wanted to be honest, to rekindle that spark of closeness from the hallway, but she had learned to not trust easily. She hedged. “I do want children. I’ve always seen myself married.”

“But to Beaudin?”

She closed her eyes, intending to conjure an image of the hated man, but instead she saw Gray holding her in an embrace that only a husband should. “I don’t know.” But she did know. Gray would fill that role perfectly.

They turned onto Last Ditch Gulch and meandered slowly along the main street. Gray’s expression was in shadow but the occasional streetlamp allowed her to ascertain that he was thoughtful. They rode in silence, the only sounds the steady clip-clop of the horse and the occasional drunken laughter in the distance. The two-story shops loomed dark on either side of them. She watched him from her peripheral vision, taking in the gun holstered at his side and the leather thong that tied it to his thigh. The mark of his profession.

“I meant what I said earlier.” he said. “You deserve a man, not that snake.”

The words were almost angry and inexplicably made her smile. Maybe the chemistry she thought she’d imagined had been real. He was attracted to her. The knowledge gave her senses permission to acknowledge his closeness in a way they never had before. She could feel him at her side even though over a dozen inches separated them. That space between them became charged with his energy. It rippled along the length of her thigh and up her side.

“You seem very much a man, Monsieur Gray.” The thought escaped before she had a chance to hold it back.

She heard his quick, indrawn breath and closed her eyes. Sometimes her recklessness ran away with her.

“Some would say only half a man.” The words quietly filled the silence, reminding her of just one of the reasons she was supposed to keep away from him. He was a half-breed.

The words shocked her and her hand rested on his arm before she could stop herself. “I don’t think that, Gray. I’m sorry if I said anything…” She saw his half-smile then and wondered if he had been testing her. “Sometimes I say outrageous things when I’m nervous.”

The muscles of his forearm flexed under her palm. “Why are you nervous?” His gaze pinned her, making the fluttering in her belly begin in earnest.

Sophie hastily removed her hand back to her lap. “I-I don’t know.” The question held a dangerous undertone and she wasn’t entirely sure she should encourage it.

His gaze touched her face before turning back to the road. When he did, she let out a breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding. Maybe it was best to leave things unspoken.

They turned left and drove the remaining three blocks in silence before pulling to a stop in front of the imposing three-story brick and stone mansion. She tried not to notice the warmth of his hand this time as he helped her down.

He walked slightly behind her as they ascended the front steps. Brand met them on the porch and seemed puzzled but only offered a greeting as he opened the front door for them.

Sophie smiled but kept silent as she walked inside and then up the elegantly curved mahogany staircase. Gray followed. The muffled sound of his boots on the stairs let her know he shadowed her. But it was the prickling of the skin along her back that told her how close he was. Something delicious and wicked flickered to life within her and settled low, just below her stomach.

She’d never felt excitement like it before and it made her hesitate a moment at her bedroom door. Even though Sinclair had entered the room many times at the end of the evening to collect her jewelry, it seemed taboo for Gray to go inside. She felt she should tell him to wait in the hallway, but as soon as she had the thought, she knew she wouldn’t. She took a deep breath and opened the door to see Anne, her maid, jump up in surprise. Whether it was alarm from Sophie’s early arrival or consternation at the tall figure that followed her inside, she didn’t know.

“Thank you, Anne, but I can manage tonight. Go to bed.” Sophie heard the words coming from her mouth but had no idea why she was dismissing the only person who might help her keep a grip on the sanity she felt slipping away. Because she wanted to be alone with Gray, and that was something that should not happen.

The girl seemed hesitant but intimidated enough by Gray’s presence that she merely nodded and left. Sophie opened her mouth to apologize for her maid and explain she was new but realized he would know that. Jean only allowed her to keep a maid for about six months before finding some reason to dismiss her or move her to other duties. Yet another way of keeping Sophie isolated.

Gray didn’t seem to notice, though, as he walked into her room and stood looking around. The intensity of his gaze made her blush. It was silly, but it seemed so intimate to have this rugged man in her private sanctum. The only place that was hers.

When his gaze settled on the blue satin counterpane across the bed, she quickly moved to her dresser. His presence was making her heart pound too fast. She needed him to go. She placed her sapphire earbobs on the polished surface and reached for the clasp of her necklace, but her fingers trembled too badly to get it open.

“Let me help.” Gray’s voice moved over her like rough velvet, causing her intimate muscles to tighten curiously.

Sophie’s wide-eyed gaze met his in the mirror as he came up behind her. A full head and neck taller than her petite frame, his deep stare held hers briefly before he looked down to the clasp. Sophie barely had time to recover from the intensity of that look before his fingertips touched the sensitive flesh of her nape. The contact sent thrills of excitement through her and made her clench her teeth to keep from visibly reacting.

The clasp opened and the long, heavy strand of sapphires and diamonds tugged across her neck and shoulder in a slow caress as it came away in his hands. It landed softly on the dresser and then his hand was on her shoulder. Her shocked gaze came up to find his in the mirror but it wasn’t there. He was watching his hand move slowly down the smooth skin of her arm. She looked, too, and became immediately fascinated by the contrast of his bronzed hand against her pale skin. She watched its leisurely progress until it covered her own hand, leaving her flesh tingling in its wake.

Sophie wasn’t sure who initiated the movement, but suddenly she found her back pressed lightly against the solid strength of his chest. His other arm crossed over in front of her and she realized she was in the loose cage of his embrace, where she wanted to be. She watched his graceful fingers as they efficiently divested her of her bracelet and placed it with the necklace on the dresser.

His body tensed as if to move, and she realized how badly she wanted him to stay. Nothing could happen, but she didn’t want the moment to end.

“My hairpins, too. They’re made of diamonds.”

Her gaze flicked to his in the mirror and she saw something there, something hot and smoldering. She welcomed its implication. Gray inhaled deeply as his hands released her wrist and moved to her hair. Sophie closed her eyes and savored his touch as one by one the pins dropped to the dresser with a click. Her hair fell around her shoulders and he might have stroked it once. The movement was so butterfly soft she couldn’t be sure, but the sensation reverberated within her a hundred times over.

If only things were different.

The sixth and last pin dropped to the dresser and Sophie reluctantly forced herself back to earth. But when she turned to thank him for his help, Gray’s hands rested heavily on the dresser on either side of her and he didn’t step back. She looked up but her gaze never made it past his perfect bow lips. She wanted to kiss them. To just once feel them on hers.

In her room, shielded from the rest of the world by the breadth of his body, it seemed like one kiss was possible. And before she could stop herself, Sophie leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. They were warm and after a moment’s hesitation, she felt them soften and part beneath hers. Then she tried something she had no idea she knew how to do; she touched that perfect bottom lip with the tip of her tongue.

Gray groaned softly. She fairly purred at the sound and her hands moved up his arms to his shoulders. His hands closed on her hips and pulled her against him causing her to gasp at the contact of her front to his. He pressed the advantage and the tip of his tongue gently pushed inside to brush hers. The foreign sensation of him, hot and moist in her mouth made her blood thicken and pool deep in that newly awakened part of her. He must have known, because his hands moved down below the bustle of her dress to cup her bottom where it met her thighs and pull her tight against him. Something hard pressed against her stomach.

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