The Saloon girl…no, Bethany’s moan of pleasure echoed in the small room. “I’ve never felt like this before,” she gasped, trembling in Joshua’s embrace. Charming color dusted her skin as if she were embarrassed at her admission.

A lie or truth? Whores twisted the truth to part a man from his gold and coins, but inexplicably, Joshua believed her. It was darn well perhaps, he too was feeling a rush of sensation he’d never associated with tumbling a woman. Either way, he couldn’t speak, for every one of his senses was focused on the woman in his arms. He was not a man who kissed, or even liked to, but Joshua found himself pressing gentle then ravenous kisses on her lips, a groan escaping him when she responded.

The taste of her was indescribable—Sweet, warm, carnal. “Touch me,” he murmured with a wondering shake of his head. “I like your hands on me.”

Her face flushed a delicate, rosy hue, and became a study in carnal pleasure, and the beauty of it beguiled him. Her fingers were like a butterfly caress against his cheek. Joshua felt shaken on a level he’d never experienced before. Unaccountably she made him want to be gentle, tender, notions that were damn strange to him for he was a hard, brutal man and did not shy away from the knowledge of his character. Lowering his hand between them, he fisted his length and notched it at her portal, and with a slight flex of his hips, he used his cock to part her silken softness. He surged deep inside her, the resistance of a tight, too tight sex freezing him.

She gave a little sob against his mouth, arched in shock, her hands fisted against his back, her nails biting deep into his skin.

“What?” he muttered, confusion clouding his lust. “You’re an innocent.”

“Please, just get on with it.” Her eyes were wide and imploring. Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around his waist.

He’d been too long without a woman, and she tested every control he’d ever had on his passion. It gutted something inside of him that she must be hurting. Though he had never been with an untried woman before, the strain around her beautiful mouth and the wash of tears in her eyes spoke volumes. “We could stop, and—”

“No!” She tried to kiss him, a bit clumsily, and he chuckled at her eagerness. With a groan of defeat, he took her mouth with his. Her lips were soft and yielding to his kisses. Soon, her womanly flesh yielded to his possession, bathing his cock with heated wetness. He would make it good for her, even if it killed him.

Slower than he had ever moved before, he pulled from her tight channel and glided back into her, his balls tightening at the incredible pleasure. Sweat trickled into his eyes, and his muscles strained from the effort to not ride her hard and deep. After a few shallower thrusts, the sweetest sound of acceptance purred from her lips, and she arched her hips for more.

Thank God.

Lust rolled through Joshua in a dark, hungry tide and he drove his length into her over and over, shaking the small bed against the wall. His tempo increased, the depth of his thrust became more piercing, and she sobbed, a raw, needy sound, that seemed to shock her, but delighted him. She was like a living flame in his arms, burning him alive with bliss. He stroked in and out, deeply, and soon she was shaking, gasping his name, reaching for him, and Joshua allowed her to hold him close and sent them both hurtling into ecstasy.

Almost an hour after he had walked upstairs to Bethany, Joshua rode away from the town of Liberty, not looking back once. Though he had demanded two hours, he could not find it in himself to stay that long, just because his reaction to her had scared the hell out of him. After taking her twice, he had pulled from her and without speaking, dressed. She hadn't stayed still and had hurriedly cleaned the blood and his release from her body, blushing the entire time, unable to meet his gaze. He hadn’t known what to say, and he had reached into his duffle bag and withdrawn a hefty chunk of gold.

It had made him uncomfortable paying her but knowing she had been pure and working in a watering hole had made him feel she’d only needed a way out, and he had plenty gold to spare. She had stared at the chunk of gold on the small bedside table for a long time, and when she’d lifted her face to his, her eyes had been bright with shame and tears. But she had taken the gold after giving him a firm nod, and he had exited the room, down the stairs, and to the hitching post, mounted his horse and rode away.

The heaviness in his gut was an unbearable weight. Go back to her. He reined in his horse, and spun around, gazing at the Honey Pot Saloon in the distance. He was a wanderer, a drifting man, a roaming spirit as his mother called it. Joshua had never figured himself the kind for settling down, despite being part owner of Triple K, one of the largest ranch in the Colorado territory. He’d been a tracker in the army and had been considered the best. After the war, he kept tracking, except what he was searching for eluded him. There was an emptiness inside of him that had never been sated, except for the few minutes with her up in that saloon bedroom.

He wasn’t the settling down kind. And adding to that, when a man had a reputation as a gunfighter, somebody always believed his gun was for hire or that they could challenge him and claim to be the best. He had been hunted for years by men who only wanted to prove they were better. Joshua had wandered, hating that he lived by the gun, but it was a necessary evil to protect his life and those he loved when men who only wanted a reputation came calling. He'd joined the Union army, fighting alongside his brothers Elijah, and Noah, to gain the liberation of an enslaved people. A cause which he believed in, but his reputation had only grown.

Some days he hankered for a woman of his own, a family even, but then there were other days the hills and mountains yonder called him, and he simply rode, always searching for something to fill the bleak emptiness that rose in him sometimes.

Go back to her.

He sat a moment, gazing into the distance, the pull of the land urging him forward. Without dwelling overlong on his actions, he spun and urged his horse toward Liberty and a woman that wasn’t his. A sense of urgency gripped him, and he had always been the kind of man to listen to the instincts that resided within. Joshua urged his stallion into a flat out run until he reached the town.

He swung out of the saddle and draped the reins over the hitching post. The saloon was empty, but a sense of disquiet pierced him. Joshua moved swift and silent toward the front door, mildly surprised to find it unlocked. A low light burned at the front, and a soft cry came from upstairs. His gut tightened, and his knife was in his palm before he registered his intent, and then he was taking the stairs two at a time. The room he’d spent the hour in with Bethany was empty, and then a crash sounded three doors up. There was a cry of rage from a woman and a howl of pain from a man. He ran toward that door as it crashed opened and Bethany and Hardin spilled out into the hall.

“You Goddamn whore, I’m going to kill you,” Hardin said low and viciously, struggling to his feet.

She scrambled awkwardly towards the knife on the floor, grabbed it, and wobbled to her feet. She swayed, turned and staggered to the door, blood smearing the wall by the door from her palm. “Not before I gut you,” she gasped, blood trickling from her lips, but Joshua heard the fear and desperation in her voice. She drew in a hard, deep breath, apparently bracing for another attack.

“Hardin!”

The man spun at his name, a sneer curling his lips when he identified Joshua. “You ain’t got no cause to come between my wife and me. You hear me?”

His wife? Joshua glanced at her and saw the knowledge in her gaze. She had been a virgin, he was sure of it, hell but what did he know. Perhaps she simply had limited experience. But how could the man have offered his wife as a part of the pot?

“Why?” he demanded harshly, unable to understand how the man could hurt a creature so sweet and precious. “You asked her to do this for you, and then hurt her?”

“She enjoyed it, and she wasn’t supposed to,” the man snarled, the jealous rage in his voice causing her to flinch. “I listened by the door. I wanted to make sure she did it. I heard her, begging you for more. I’m going to kill her.”

Joshua didn’t hesitate, he rolled forward and gripped Hardin from behind, his hand across the man’s throat and dragged him down the hallway. The man fought, and Joshua released him at the top of the stairs, so he alone tumbled down the steps. Before he could recover, Joshua bounded down the stairs, grabbed Hardin by the belt buckle, dragged and knocked him outside on his ass into the light misting rain that had started to fall.

A sound alerted him, and he shifted to see Bethany behind him, the knife clutched in her hand. One eye was already swollen shut, and a large purple bruise covered her cheek and chin, and blood trailed from a split in her lips. The bodice of her dress was ripped, and the hand not clutching the knife was pressed below her rib cage.

Taking a steady breath, Joshua glanced up. The impact of her wide, wounded eyes hit him like a bullet in the chest. Rain dampened the hair on her forehead and ran in rivulets down her cheek. He knew then, he would protect her at all cost, and Hardin would never put his hands on her again. Joshua stepped toward her, wanting to reassure her somehow. But he was never a man who shined much to talking. He captured the raindrop trailing over her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Go inside the saloon, wait for me,” he said softly.

She whitened, and the grip on that butcher knife tightened. “Wait for you?”

“Yes.”

She considered him, the pulse at her throat visibly fluttering. “Why did you come back?”

“You know why.”

She laughed, the sound rough and pain filled. “Forgive me, Mr. Kincaid, I do not.”

“I came back for you, I…I couldn’t leave.”

A thoroughly horrified expression filled her eyes. “I am not interested in a man, Mr. Kincaid,” she choked. “I…I gave myself to you to escape him. If I’d refused, he would have beaten me over and over.”

He felt as though someone had plunged a knife into his stomach. Shame and guilt rose to strangle Joshua in a brutal grip. How had he been so blinded by lust he hadn’t seen it? He scrubbed a hand over his face. “If you had told me—”

“What could you have done? Either outcome would have been terrible for me.”

“I would have done something,” he said quietly. “I would have given you another option.”

“What does that matter now? It’s done and gone.”

But he could see the fright in her eyes, the shame, and the defeat.

A low groan sounded, and Joshua lowered his gaze to the piece of vermin that was coming to. The man had been her husband. He had sold his wife to clear his debt, and Joshua had spent the best one hour of his life, riding her…and all along she had been petrified. The drizzle wetted her hair and plastered the gown to her body. He moved closer, and it was as if she turned into marble. The pulse fluttered wildly at her throat, and a large, wounded but very determined eye watched him with piercing intensity.

He brushed his knuckles along the hollow of her cheek. He wanted nothing more than to wipe those dark shadows from her eyes. “Go on inside and wait for me. I’ll take care of this.”

She let out a shaky breath and dropped her gaze to Hardin who had struggled to his feet and drawn his bowie knife. Without answering she turned and fled through the open door and Joshua faced Hardin.

“You want her, don’t you, you rutting bastard,” Hardin taunted, crouching, his knife angled towards Joshua's stomach. "Well, you ain’t getting her. And when I’m done with you, I’m gonna cut her nose from her face, see how she fares then.”

“You do not deserve a treasure like her, hell you don’t deserve any woman. You’re a fucking animal,” Joshua said coldly.

“Well this animal is her husband, and when I am through with you, I’ll teach that slut why she should have hated you ruttin’ her.”

“You will never touch her again.”

Joshua sank into the dark place in his heart, that place where he would go whenever he faced a challenge, then he went for Hardin.