Page 25

DOYLE

Doyle didn’t realizehe’d gone into shock until Sadie set a cup of coffee in front of him some minutes later.

“You haven’t moved or said a damn thing since I asked,” she said, sitting and taking a sip of her own cup.

“Sadie, I can’t marry you,” Doyle said, and winced when he saw her flinch. This was a woman from the late 1800’s he’d all but had his way with earlier, and he’d flat-out just told her he didn’t want a commitment, just sex. “That’s not what I meant.” Was it?

“I’m only asking you to pretend to want to marry me, not to actually be stuck here on this ranch, saddled with me, Mr. Doyle.”

“Sadie—”

Sadie set her cup down hard enough to make the liquid slosh dangerously close to the lip. “Because of you, the sheriff was asking questions. He knows James is gone and is threatening me. I ain’t having it, Wally. I have Teddy to think about, and I will protect that boy to my dying breath.”

He didn’t need to see the hard look on her face to know she meant it. She’d likely done just that in the normal version of history. He shuddered but hid it beneath a sip of the strongest coffee he’d ever had. “Explain to me why pretending to be your fiancé would help?”

Sadie relaxed a tiny bit, and her eyes lit up golden in the light of the flame as she leaned forward. “Otto mentioned you to Amos.”

“Amos is…”

“The sheriff and the mayor,” Sadie said after another gulp. “He threatened to bring a posse over here to find out who you were unless I told him. So I said you were my fiancé.”

“Brilliant,” Doyle said as he and his heart sunk back in the chair.

Sadie either ignored or didn’t understand his sarcasm because she smiled like he’d complimented her. Did sarcasm exist in 1888?

“I thought so. But if he sees you for himself, there’s nothing he can say or do. He’ll have to trust my word from now on.”

“Until I disappear like James, and he thinks you’re a black widow.”

“A spider?” Sadie furrowed her brow.

“Sorry, it’s an expression in…Washington. There was a woman who killed her husbands and they called her that.” Doyle waved a hand to dismiss the comment. “Thing is, this is only a bandage, Sadie. You need a more permanent solution.”

Her fingers tightened on her cup, turning white as she stared down hard at the liquid inside. “I need any solution, Wally. I can only take it day by day. I’ve lasted two years so far, and I can make it seven more until Teddy is of age to take over the ranch.”

“This is insanity. I can’t pretend to be engaged to you, Sadie. They’ll ask too many questions.”

“Just nod and smile. I’ll do the rest.” Sadie got up and came around the table to sit in his lap. She felt far too natural there, and his cock responded like it agreed. “Look, you don’t have to worry about the next seven years, Wally, I’m just asking you to help me with right now. You don’t want to marry me, and that’s fine by me. You don’t know the first thing about running a ranch. But if you do this for me, you’ll have some fun while it lasts.” She hooked her arms around his shoulders and wiggled into him, stirring the ache in his pants. “And Teddy could use a man’s company for as long as you’ll provide it.”

“Sadie, I want to help you, but it just isn’t right.” How could he explain how much worse things could get if he interfered in the already messed up timeline?

“You want help taking your people around. I’d say it’s more than a fair trade.” Sadie spoke over his mouth, but her hand reached down and grabbed the lump in his pants, making him gasp.

Doyle took her by the hips and eased her off his lap so he could think. “Fine. I’ll pretend for as long as I’m here if you find a way to help me show one hundred people a good time without them getting noticed. And I don’t expect you to pay me for my lies with anything physical. I’m sorry if I lost control earlier. I was just…happy to see you again.”

Mouth dropping open, she drew her nightgown closer around herself. Doyle couldn’t have pictured an old-fashioned white, cotton, floor-length nightgown looking so damn sexy in his wildest imagination.

Fuck, this woman turns everything I know on its head, and I can’t get her out of my mind. It was like she’d pulled the curtain back and he could see the world for what it was for the first time, a world filled with ecstatic highs and frightening lows like that man, Otto, showing up. Maybe he was a newfound adrenaline junky, but it fueled him like nothing had in a long time, and it sure as hell beat the gym and his holo-workouts.

“So, how do we sneak a hundred people into a town of sixty-seven?” he asked.

The hike back to the TCR proved far more pleasant than expected. Doyle assumed he’d be plagued by sounds of mountain lions prepping for attack. But instead, an ink black sky filled with endless stars and a bright ball of a moon tracked his every movement. Breathtaking beyond belief, it kept his gaze darting between the rocky footing and twinkling mass of eternity above.

Confronted with the vast beauty of an entire universe, people sometimes felt small. But for Doyle, it felt reassuring. How could saving the lives of two amazing humans possibly be bad? How could one person, even a resort full of people, possibly have a detrimental effect on that?

Whistling, he shot up toward the entrance to the TCR using the boosters in his boots. He made his way through the fake resort town, bustling with passengers, coming to a halt when a shriek accompanied a man rushing from the nearest door labeled “bank” and clutching two full sacks.

Doyle didn’t have time to dodge as the bandit, half his face covered with a black kerchief, rushed right through him and out the other side.