The Rancher Takes A Bride (The Burnett Brides Book 1)

you'll have the bedroll, so quit complaining."
    She looked up at the stars, as if seeking help from above, and shook her head. "Oh, God! If I'd known how much trouble was coming my way when I met Mrs. Burnett, I'd have refused her money."
    "But you should have known. I thought palm readers knew everything," he said, his voice almost laughing.
    She glanced up at him, but couldn't see his face clearly in the near dark. This cowboy didn't let anything slip past him. "It's bad luck to read your own palm."
    "I just bet it is."
    Rose held up her palm and glanced at it in the fading light. "Years ago a friend of mine read my palm and predicted I'd find fame and fortune," she said, unsure of why she was telling him this story.
    "Yeah, fame on a wanted poster with a fortune going to the person who finds you."
    "You do have a vicious tongue, Mr. Burnett. Not a wanted poster, but a billboard as an actress. Some day I'm going to be a famous actress." Her dreams were just as important as everyone else's. Why did she always receive the same reaction when she mentioned wanting to be an actress?
    "And you've already started practicing your art," he said with a laugh. "Playing a medium."
    Frustration overwhelmed her. The man just didn't understand. "Of course not! Being a medium is a vocation I was born with. Acting is what I dream of doing. Don't you have dreams, Mr. Burnett?"
    "Yes, of a quiet night under the stars without a yapping woman."
    "Dogs yap. I speak."
    He glanced down at her and grinned. "Lady, you never shut up. Maybe there is some truth in your speaking to the dead. Maybe people have died from over-exposure to your tongue."
    "Hardly!" She glared at him in the semi-darkness and said with frustration, "Are we going to eat anytime soon?"
    "Mother packed some hardtack biscuits. When we stop, we'll have them."
    "How convenient."
    She squirmed, trying to relieve certain portions of her body that had no feeling left in them, and in the process elbowed Mr. Burnett.
    "Stop moving around or you're going to knock both of us off the back end of this horse."
    "Well it's a good thing I don't know how to ride a horse, because otherwise your backside would be in the dirt, and I'd be riding back to Waco."
    "You might escape me, Miss Severin. But I'd find you. You wouldn't get away from me for long. And when I found you, I'd make your life hell!"
    She faked a yawn. "Another nasty threat, Mr. Burnett? Truly this one makes me quiver in anticipation. Do tell me how you plan on torturing me when I escape. You've already made my life hell. That threat holds little meaning anymore."
    ***
    Travis finally stopped for the night when his mount began to tire. Though Miss Severin weighed little more than a feed sack, he didn't know if the Appaloosa was tiring from physical labor, or if the poor horse's ears were exhausted from the woman's constant chatter.
    Somehow he didn't know quite how to take this woman. He'd threatened her, and all she'd done was ask him with disinterest how he planned on punishing her. Was she crazy or what?
    A fire crackled within the circled rocks, the popping wood shooting a shower of sparks heavenward. Travis leaned back on his elbows and stretched his legs out in front of him. He was bone-weary, and he knew they still had at least six hours of riding tomorrow before they'd be in Fort Worth. Six hours of the woman's ceaseless prattle and soft curved body rubbing against his.
    What in the hell had possessed him to bring her back with him?
    At first he'd thought just the threat would be enough for her to give back the ring, but nothing seemed to penetrate this woman's defenses. And when she hadn't given him the band, he'd been forced to carry through with his threat. After all, Travis Burnett was a man of his word.
    Him and his big mouth shooting off. Now look where it had gotten him. He was stuck in the dark with a woman who could talk the ears off a mule and tempt a saint, with a body he had fantasized all day about exploring. A body that had rubbed against him all the way from Waco. Every step of the way, he'd been penetrated by her smell, her touch, and her voice. God help him, what had he gotten himself into?
    And he was taking her home.
    She yawned and stretched, pulling her dress tight across her breasts. He tried not to look; he tried not to notice the way the material clung to her curves.
    "So, cowboy, what do we do until bedtime?"
    Her words sent heat rushing into his body. He had an idea what they could do until