Apparently the brothers had the same impression, because at the first touch of that hard, cold metal against his back, Tommy yelped as if she’d pulled the trigger.
For the first time since the entire episode had begun, Abby dared to meet Riley’s gaze. He gave her a curt nod of approval, but the expression in his eyes told her she was indeed going to pay later for her methods. She paled and looked away, concentrating instead on getting Tommy’s gun out of his grasp while Riley dealt with Red. The colorful vocabulary the two men shared during this process turned Abby’s cheeks red.
“It’s a little late to be blushing,” Riley noted dryly as he joined her, clamped a hand around her elbow and led her out of earshot of their captives.
“What happened to thank you?” she snapped, shrugging off his hold on her arm.
“For?”
She glared at him. “For saving your neck back there.”
“Sweetheart, let me explain something. That little stunt you pulled could have gone either way. I was so stunned myself, Higgins could have put a bullet through my brain just as easily as the other way around.”
“I knew you’d rise above the temptation to look,” she said airily.
“I looked,” he retorted. “And if you ever get a notion to parade around in front of anyone else with barely a stitch on, I’ll turn you over my knee.”
“Hopefully the need won’t ever arise again.”
“Hopefully,” he agreed. “Though something tells me with you around trouble is bound to follow.”
“They didn’t come after me,” she reminded him. “They came after you.”
“Because you insisted on turning them over to that corrupt sheriff, instead of leaving them in the desert to die, like I wanted to do.”
Abby frowned. “How was I supposed to know the sheriff could be bought off? You never said a word about that.”
Riley regarded her as if she’d missed the first and most important lesson in justice in the West. “How do you think the Golden Nugget managed to stay in business after the temperance ladies tried to close it down?”
Her mouth dropped open. “Martin bribed the sheriff?” She couldn’t imagine staid, proper Martin resorting to such illegal transactions. Then again, maybe he just considered it a line-item in his budget.
“So what are we going to do with these three this time?” she asked.
“I’m all for staking them out on top of an anthill,” Riley suggested.
The idea held a certain appeal, but Abby’s sense of justice called for more legal methods of disposal. “Isn’t there another town nearby with a different sheriff, one who actually understands the concept of law and order?”
He sighed. “You’re really going to insist on this, aren’t you?”
“I suppose I am,” she conceded. She was surprised when he didn’t start an immediate argument over the plan. Instead, he was regarding her speculatively.
“What?” she said. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re still only half-dressed,” he said dryly, “I was just giving some thought to what it would be like to spend the rest of my life trying to keep you in line.”
Abby was so startled by the implication of his last words, she didn’t even worry about her lack of attire. “Exactly what are you saying?” she asked cautiously.
He shrugged. “It just seemed to me as long as we’re going to have to go into town, anyway, we might want to look for a preacher while we’re at it.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “You want to marry me?”
He grinned at her astonishment. “Believe me, the idea takes me as much by surprise as it does you. But the idea of leaving you on the loose absolutely terrifies me. And I’ve had cause lately, very lately, to realize that as a team we’re just about indomitable. I might not be crazy about the methods you use, but I have to concede they were damned effective.”
“Ingenious?” she prodded.
“Okay, ingenious,” he conceded.
She stepped closer and put her hands on his cheeks, giving him a questioning look. She stared into eyes that had darkened to the shade of green found only in the deepest parts of a forest.
“Why do you want to marry me?” she asked. “Seriously.”
“Could be just because you saved my neck and I owe you,” he said blandly, but there was no mistaking the daring twinkle in his eyes.
“Or?”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “Could be because you finally learned how to shoot straight. I do love a woman who can handle a gun.”
She laughed, not believing that one for a minute. “Or?”
He circled her waist with his arms and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her bare breasts fitted snugly against the hard wall of his chest. The sensation was thrilling.
“Or,” he whispered, his warm breath fanning her cheek, “it could be because I just love the way you look prancing around naked in a river.”
Abby feigned impatience with the seductive game. “Those are all admirable reasons, I’m sure, but they’re not enough,” she said, wriggling to get free of him. He just held her tighter, his gaze locked with hers. The hunger in that look seemed to make her heart go still.
Riley reached up and brushed a damp tendril of hair from her cheek. “Maybe it’s just because you take my breath away, Abby Dennison. I can’t imagine going through life without you.”
She shivered at the sudden intensity in his voice. “Better. You’re on the right track,” she taunted, though her voice had grown shaky.
Riley shot her a look of disgruntlement. “You are determined to pry the precise words out of me, aren’t you?” he complained grumpily.
She nodded, refusing to back down on the point. “Tradition says those three words ought to be part of any serious marriage proposal.”
“But you are a most untraditional woman,” he reminded her. “I think you’ve proved
