Love of a Bounty (Sequal to Unexpected Romance but can stand alone)

Chapter Five

"Damn, it's hot." Tessa said wiping the sweat from her brow. Richard agreed but chuckled.

"If you wanted cold you came to the wrong state." he replied. Tessa snorted.

"I've lived in Texas my whole life. I just usually make camp somewhere shady through the hot part of the day and travel mostly in the evening and at night." Richard looked out over the horizon and could see a little patch of trees in the distance. He could tell by how green it looked that there was a river there as well.

"We'll head that way." he said pointing. Tessa followed his gaze and nodded. They rode in silence to their destination and Richard walked over to the river to wash his face. Tessa opened the small saddlebag on her own mare to get a biscuit and was surprised to see her fathers watch inside. She pulled it out and felt tears fill her eyes as she looked over at Richard's back where he was crouched by the water.

He had kept her so busy all day that she had forgotten all about the watch and him buying it. Now, finding it in her saddlebag, she knew that he must have bought it just to give it back to her. But why would he do that after what she had done to him? He certainly didn't owe her anything.

He turned from the river and saw her standing there with the watch in her hands and tears in her eyes. He saw that she quickly blinked the tears away and so he pretended he hadn't seem them.

"Thank you." she said. He nodded as he pulled some biscuits from his own saddlebag and sat down under the shade of a tree to eat.

"Why did you do this though? I talked to that old man last night and he told me that you paid twenty dollars for it. This watch isn't worth that." she said.

"The way I got it figured. That watch is one of the last things you got of your pa's and that means it's worth any price ya gotta pay to keep it."

"Yeah but I didn't pay the price. You did." she reminded him. He waved his hand.

"Early birthday present." he said.

"My birthday was last month." she said.

 "Late birthday present." he replied. She couldn't help but laugh and she stuck the watch in her pocket.

"Once we get the bounty I'll pay you back." she promised. He just shrugged and continued eating his biscuits.

They weren't stopped for long when Richard signaled it was time to go and they were back on the trail headed south. They rode until it was near dark and Richard stopped them again.

"We'll make camp here. If we ride hard tomorrow they'll be a town we can stay in tomorrow night." he said. Tessa nodded and then started gathering sticks and brush for their fire.

They were both settled around their fire eating jerky and biscuits when Tessa stood up and started walking out of camp.

"Where are you going?" Richard asked. She turned to face him.

"I.. I uh.. I have some things I need to take care of." she said. He raised his brow.

"Things?" he asked. She stuck her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. Richard wished she'd take that damn big duster off so he could see her hips under those pants. She had had that damn thing on every single second except this morning when she'd woken up. He had been sure he was gonna lose complete control over his own damn body when she had climbed out of bed in just her shirt and pants.

Those pants had hugged her legs and her hips and her rear and he had never in his life seen a woman look so damn tempting. Add to that the long red hair that had been hanging in shining waves down her back. It was the kind of hair that seemed to scream for a man to bury his hands in it and he had been forced to make an excuse to leave the room until she had that hair tucked safely under her hat.