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“I think we’ll be all right if we keep the fire small like this. I could go back to tearing down the barn, tossing the planks down, and you can feed them to the fire.”

Releasing her, he met her gaze. “Holler if things get out of hand.”

She nodded mutely, knowing that by working with him, she would hasten his departure. Knowing that every time she gazed into the deepest depths of a fire, she would see the blue of his eyes.

By nightfall Loree was exhausted, but she felt a measure of peace. Over half the barn was smoldering ashes.

She lay in her bed, curled beneath the covers, listening as Austin moved around in the front room.

After supper, he’d dragged in the bathtub and helped her fill it with hot water.

While he had tended to his horse and drenched the ashes once more, she had enjoyed the luxurious warmth of the water and pampered herself by using some French soap she’d hoarded away in her hope chest.

When she had dried off and thrown on a clean nightgown, she had opened the door to discover him sitting on the steps.

“Would you mind if I took a bath?” he’d asked quietly, and she could no more ignore that plea in his eyes imploring her to trust him than she could ignore the sun rising over the horizon.

So now he was bathing, and all she could think about was the water gliding over a chest that she had touched. She imagined him shaving, combing his hair, and slipping on his britches.

She wondered where he would bed down tonight, and continually asked herself where she wanted him to sleep. She heard several bumps followed by a scrape and knew that he was emptying the tub and taking it outside. She held her breath, waiting, listening, wondering.

The house grew silent. Rolling over, she pressed her face to the pillow in an effort to hide her disappointment. He had left her alone.

Austin walked around the house numerous times, searching for the ever elusive sleep. He knew from experience that it would be long after midnight before he’d find it.

Besides he needed to air out. Loree had used some fancy smelling bath salts, and although they smelled sweet on her, they reeked to high heaven on him. Lord, if his brothers caught a whiff of him now, he’d never hear the end of it.

That thought had him turning northwest, staring at a part of Texas that rested beyond his vision.

He wondered what his brothers were doing.

No doubt, whatever it was, they were doing it with their wives.

He didn’t begrudge them the love they had in their lives, but he did envy that they had the joy of sleeping with a woman every night—simply sleeping with her.

He’d never slept with a woman through the night until last night. He’d found it incredibly comforting to listen to Loree’s soft even breathing once her tears had subsided.

He wished he’d never caused the tears. He looked at the silhouette of the remaining barn. At least he could repay her by taking away some of her painful memories—memories he wished she had never possessed.

With a deep sigh, he headed for the porch where he’d stored his gear earlier before he’d begun tearing down the barn.

He thought about laying his pallet out beneath the stars, but prison had taught him to appreciate fine moments when they came along.

And it had been a long time since he’d known anything finer than Loree Grant.

Loree heard the door open and held her breath. She’d long ago given up on Austin joining her and had extinguished the flame in the lamp. Now only pale moonlight spilled into the room. She listened to the soft tread of his bare feet growing nearer. She felt the bed dip beneath his weight.

He lay on top of the covers as he had last night. His arm came around her, firm and heavy. She felt his bare chest warming her back through her nightgown. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head. She heard what she thought was a quiet sigh of contentment followed by a soft snore.

For a man who claimed sleep didn’t come easily, he’d fallen asleep incredibly quickly. Contented, she closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.

Austin awoke near dawn. Sometime during the night, Loree had rolled over.

Her cheek was pressed against his chest, her hand curled over his side.

Her warm breath fanned over his skin. This morning her face wasn’t splotchy from crying and her nose wasn’t red.

The temptation to awaken her with a kiss and make love to her was almost more than he could resist.

But he had hurt her once. He wouldn’t risk doing it again. She deserved a man whose heart wasn’t tethered to the past.

She’d never find a man like that if she continued to live here alone.

What had the bastard who murdered her family done to her?

Austin knew he hadn’t raped her but he had made her do something that haunted her.

Dee had been right when she told him that not all prisons came with walls.

Austin deeply wished he possessed the key that would set Loree free from the past.

She sighed and snuggled closer against him. He was tempted to stay here all day, just holding her, listening to the little noises she made, enjoying the scent of flowers that was part of her, but he knew himself well enough to know his resistance was weakening.

And if he made love to her again, he’d have to stay. The first time, a shared need for comfort had propelled them. The guilt still gnawed at him, but in some strange way, he could justify walking away. But if his needs alone drove him to bury himself deeply inside her …

He pressed his lips to her temple. He needed to be gone by nightfall.

Loree watched Austin work as though the hounds of hell nipped at his heels. The planks of wood fell to the ground with a steady rhythm. And with each thud, she knew he was that much closer to leaving.

Near dusk, they stood and watched the glowing embers slowly die. Loree wrapped her arms around her middle. “I should have done this a long time ago.” She turned and met his gaze. “Thank you.”

He touched her cheek. Smiling wryly, he dropped his hand to his side. “You had a bit of soot on your cheek. Thought I could clean it off, but I just made it worse. Seems to be a habit of mine where you’re concerned.”

“Guess a bath is in order then.”

He tapped his hat against his thigh. “Not for me. Not tonight.”

He strode past her to the porch. Her heart tightened as he lifted his saddle and with long sure strides, approached the stallion.

“Surely, you’ll want to eat before you leave,” she said even though she knew the longer he stayed, the harder it would be to watch him go.

“I’ll get something in town.”

She wrung her hands together. “It’ll be midnight before you get there.”

“I’ll find something.” He cinched the saddle and dropped the stirrup. He slung the saddlebags over the horse’s rump.

“Promise me you’ll have a doctor look at your back.”

He stilled. “I’m not worth your worry, Loree.”

“Promise me,” she repeated obstinately.

He glanced over his shoulder and smiled, the first genuine smile she’d seen cross his face, and it very nearly stole her breath away. She wished he’d given it to her at noon instead of in the fading twilight where it would be nothing but a shadowed memory.

“I promise,” he said.

“You keep your promises, don’t you?”

“Every one I’ve ever made.”

“Then promise me that you’ll take care of yourself as well.”

“Only if you promise to do the same.”

She nodded, her throat constricting with all that remained unsaid. How could she have been intimate with a man and not know how to tell him everything that she wanted him to know?

“Think about moving to town,” he said quietly.

“I can’t.”

“A woman like you deserves more than memories in her life—”

“You need to get going before it gets much darker,” she whispered, the tears stinging the backs of her eyes.

“When I’m finished with my business in Austin, I could stop back by here—”

“No.” She shook her head emphatically. “It’d be best if you didn’t.”

“I’m going to worry about you, Sugar,” he said in a low voice as though he wasn’t comfortable admitting his concern.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.

He gave a brusque nod and, with one lithe movement, swung up into his saddle. “If you need to get in touch with me—for any reason—I’ll be staying at the Driskill Hotel.”

“That’s a fancy hotel.”

“So I hear.”

He touched the tip of his finger to the brim of his hat. “Miss Grant, you are without a doubt, the sweetest woman I’ve ever known.”

He sent his black stallion into a gallop.

Loree watched until he disappeared in the fading twilight. Then she dropped to her knees and wept. He was wrong. A woman like her didn’t deserve more than memories in her life.

She deserved to hang.

Austin walked the streets of the state capital wondering just what in the hell he thought he was doing.

His tracking experience was limited to finding cow dung over the plains of West Texas.

Dallas had taught him to use a rifle, gun, and knife but even those skills were useless here.

He’d left his gun in his saddlebag in his room at the hotel.

He’d arrived near midnight, anxious to register for a room and bed down for the night. He’d been bone weary and had expected to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

But the pillow didn’t smell like the one that graced Loree’s bed. As comfortable as the bed was, it didn’t have the one thing he wanted: a tiny lady who had somehow managed to slip beneath the gates that surrounded his heart.