can't stay in here." He looked down at her regretfully, pulling her hands away until he could caress her breasts again. Her nipples puckered eagerly beneath his fingers. He had never met a woman as ready for him as she was. He liked knowing he affected her that way. "If you won't go to a hotel, you'll have to stay with me in the pressroom. I can't leave you alone in here."
"Fine." She drew her hand down his chest to the point where his trousers ought to be fastened, only they weren't. He groaned as her fingers explored a little lower, and she smiled up at him angelically. "If you're going to be Pecos Martin, then I'll be the kind of woman he likes."
That was quite enough of that notion, and Daniel started to remonstrate when her hand began to do things he wasn't prepared to resist. Staring in astonishment at his lady wife, he grinned, caught her wrists, and pinned her to the bed.
"I think we'll deal with each other real fine, ma'am, just as soon as you learn to take orders."
Daniel buried his bristly chin against her throat as he bit her ear, and when she squealed and bucked against him, he lifted her from the bed, slid his feet to the floor, and carried her out of the bedroom to the pallet he had prepared in the pressroom.
Georgina didn't think she would ever remember that night again without blushing. Daniel did things to her that she was quite certain no man had ever done to a woman before, or at least no gentleman to a lady. And she not only allowed it, but encouraged him, loving every minute of it.
They were so engrossed in their play that even when Max began to bark a warning, Daniel merely bent a kiss to her forehead and whispered, "I'll be right back, sweetheart, keep a place warm for me," and Georgina watched in languid ease and let him go.
It took a minute before she realized he was pulling on a gun belt with his trousers. Even then, she didn't feel any great alarm. He was moving unhurriedly, as if he had everything under control. She wrapped a sheet around her and sat up to watch him leave. Idly, she realized she was still wearing her stockings and garters and nothing else. Was that the way hired women did it?
As she heard Daniel order Max to silence then cross the office, Georgina rose to stand in the doorway and watch. She couldn't find anything dangerous in the warm summer night. There was nothing here that could rouse a man to anger. Even the soft glow of the dying embers in the stove gave a gentleness to the scene.
She watched as Daniel eased open the door and looked out. It wasn't until she heard the light tread of shoes in the hall below that she woke from her love-struck lethargy. Daniel's bare chest and shoulders looked strong and wide and rippled with muscle, but they were also very, very naked and vulnerable. She didn't want to imagine what would happen to them if the intruders below carried guns.
But it was too late now. There was nothing she do but stand there helplessly, listening to the sounds below and waiting for whatever would follow. Daniel had both his guns and his rifle. She had only Max and a crowbar she picked up from the toolbox. It scarcely seemed enough.
As the footfalls came up the stairs, Daniel counted backward, and reached for a rope tied next to the door on the count of five. Georgina watched in fascination as he released the knot. The rope disappeared into the hall, followed by the clatter and bang of tin pails. In the next moment there were screams of rage and anguish and thuds as the intruders fell back down the way they had come.
Daniel glanced up, and his smile was almost apologetic as he shrugged his shoulders. "I had considered boiling oil, but I didn't want to stay up keeping it hot." He continued watching the doorway, his hand on his guns.
They heard curses and wails, someone giving orders, others refusing. Within minutes all was quiet again.
Daniel closed the door and pulled the bar across it. When he turned back, Georgina was still waiting for him, a sheet wrapped around her, but slipping to reveal most of the curve of one breast.
"So what did you use?" she asked patiently.
Daniel unbuckled his belt and began heading toward