“Yes.” Sheriff Bradley explained, “I’d have to put men in there with you, and that’s against regulations.”
She inched back closer to the wall and planted her feet on the bare mattress. “I have no place to go except the Satin Slipper, and I doubt I’d be welcome.”
David moved to stand in the doorway of the cell. I’m not taking you back there, Tessa.”
She liked the way he said her name. His voice sent shivers up her spine and made the hair on her arms stand on end. It seemed to rumble from deep within his chest, like the purr of a big tomcat. It was a wonderful voice. It seemed to surround her with warmth and understanding. It made her want to trust him, to run into his arms and lay all her troubles at his feet, and that confused and frightened her. She couldn’t allow herself to feel that way. She couldn’t afford to trust him. Not yet.
Tessa tilted her chin up a notch higher and faced him regally, as a queen would face a subject. “Where else can I go?”
“With me,” he said. “You’ll be going with me.”
Tessa’s blue eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed dangerously. Holding her blanket tightly against her, she bounded off the bed and crossed the narrow confines of the cell to stand a few steps away from the handsome attorney. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, Mr. Alexander, but I don’t go with men.” Having said her piece, Tessa returned to the cot and sat down with her back to David Alexander and the sheriff.
Momentarily perplexed by her reaction to his statement, David quizzically looked at Sheriff Bradley.
The older man shrugged.
David was just about to wash his hands of the whole affair when understanding dawned. He allowed himself a tiny smile before he spoke. She’d misunderstood his intentions right from the beginning, and it was time to set her straight. “I’m not asking you to go with me, Miss Roarke, in the way you obviously think. I’m offering you a place to stay. I don’t require a bedmate at the moment. Especially not an unwilling one. You’re not expected to fulfill that role.”
Tessa whirled around, facing him once again. The blanket twisted, caught between the curve of her hip and the mattress, exposing her sli
m ankle and the shape of her leg to just above the knee. “Why not? Everyone else seems to think it’s part of my job.”
“Not as far as I’m concerned.” Even as he said the words, David remembered the tempting look of that leg, the softness of her flesh as she removed her garter and slid the net stockings down her legs. He remembered the scent of her perfume, and that underneath the rough wool blanket and his sheepskin coat, Tessa Roarke wore only the briefest of undergarments.
Tessa watched him. She saw the tightening of his full mouth and the spark that flared in his dark eyes. She’d seen that look before. It aroused her anger and her sharp tongue. “Maybe you think that because I work in a saloon, there’s something wrong with me.”
“On the contrary, Miss Roarke.” David’s voice rumbled deep in his chest, his awareness of her evident in every word. “I don’t see a thing wrong with you.” He gazed at her lovely face, into the deep blue of her eyes until Sheriff Bradley cleared his throat. It took a moment, but David regained control. “Except that you’re in a great deal of trouble. I simply meant I don’t impose my…uh…carnal needs…on my female houseguests.”
“I’m not one of your female houseguests.”
“You will be.”
“What will your fine lady wife say about that? Will she like having a…murderess in her house?”
Even though she practically spat the words at him, her question was so…normal, so typically female, David almost smiled. “There’s no need to fish for information, Miss Roarke,” he said to satisfy her curiosity. “I don’t have a fine lady wife or any other kind of wife. There’s only me. And the boy in there.”
“Coalie?” Tessa’s blue eyes brightened.
David looked at Tessa. The expression on her face reminded him of his mother when she spoke of her children. “Yes, Coalie. A little kid about eight or nine. Big green eyes. He’s smart. Smart and tough. Maybe too tough.”
“He’s had to be.” Tessa spoke quietly. “Just to survive.”
“That may be true,” David said. “But there’s more to life than just surviving.”
“Meaning?”
“He’s a child taking on a grown woman’s problems.” David gazed at her. “He’s the one who came to get me this morning.”
Tessa flinched. “Where is he now?”
David glanced at the sheriff. “Waiting in the front office in a chair next to Sheriff Bradley’s desk.”
“You brought him to this jail?” Tessa’s voice rose in anger. “You exposed him to this…this…” She sputtered, so angry she forgot her words.
“What have you exposed him to?” David countered.
“Love,” Tessa answered.