Wanted by You Read online

  Wanted by You

  Heather C. Myers

  To Kylee,

  Strive to be independent, wild, and free

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Sneak Peek!

  Acknowledgments

  Did You Like Wanted by You?

  Never miss a release!

  Chapter One

  It was universally assumed that if a woman was well-bred, she was also polite and demure, exceeding in manners and passiveness. Of course, she was well educated in trivial things that men regarded as second best and mostly unimportant, such as music, singing, and drawing. If a woman was bookish, she was deemed too smart for her own good, especially if that woman was more intelligent than a potential suitor. Her voice should be soft, and instead of speaking – much less having – her own opinion, she should stand still, smile, and look pretty.

  At least, that was what the genteel women raised in the West were brought up to believe. Instead of getting an education or some kind of job, their main goal in life was to find a husband and have children. And the only way to achieve such a thing, to attain a genteel and respectable man – even better if he was wealthy beyond all imaginable measures – was to adhere to the rules above. In essence, a woman had to be perfect in every way. And by perfect, she had to be a man's version of perfect rather than her own.

  This reasoning was exactly why Riley Ledger wished she hadn't been brought up as a genteel woman. Or, at least, she wished that she was a boy, because genteel boys got away with much more compared to genteel girls. And that wasn't fair.

  Riley didn't even want to get married. In fact, society, at least in the West, was much more relaxed compared to places like England where marriages were arranged, or at least formed, due to status instead of compatibility. And Riley believed that marriage was more convenient to a man rather than to a woman. A man had the privilege of asking whoever he wanted while the woman only had the power to refuse, unless a parent was persistent that a match be made, whether a daughter wished for it or not.

  Riley had decided at a young age that she would have none of that.

  It was Riley's older sister Kendra who played the part of woman with remarkable beauty and grace. It was Kendra who was the true beauty of the Ledger family, and Riley acknowledged this with good humor. Kendra had pale blonde hair and exquisite blue eyes. Despite living in a small town in the West where the sun was one's constant companion, Kendra still had fair skin and a slim body, always hidden by the latest fashionable gowns. She walked with grace and had a smile for everybody. Her patience inspired Riley to try and attain a fraction of it, though this was a struggle unto itself.

  Kendra was what Riley wanted to be, and at the same time, knew she could never be. Instead of pale blonde hair, Riley had dark blonde – dishwater blonde – hair that was hard to tame. Her complexion, though peachy, was slightly tanned, and freckles covered her cheeks and her nose. Her eyes were a mixture of blue, green, and gold, always displaying whatever emotion the young woman was feeling. Instead of dresses, Riley preferred pants and a nice shirt, but her father refused to let her out of the house unless she was dressed appropriately. Being outdoors mattered more than wearing pants, at least to Riley, and her father had long given up hope that his youngest daughter would marry anyways, so he didn't pay too much attention to her.

  Bradley Ledger was a well-bred man who reveled in being the town's sheriff. However, he didn't actually need to work, given the fact that he inherited a nice sum of money after his wife passed away. A portion of that money went into placing his daughters in an etiquette-based school. When Kendra excelled and Riley didn't, Bradley focused on transforming his oldest child as the perfect bride. So while Kendra was wearing the latest fashion and playing piano at the saloon underneath their home, Riley was left to her own devices in hand-me-downs.

  Oddly enough, this didn't bother Riley in the least. She wasn't jealous of her older sister in the slightest, and was quite glad that her father didn't actually expect her to marry. However, even she had certain obligations, and one of them was accompanying Kendra down to the saloon whenever she played. It relaxed Kendra to know someone, and it gave Riley a place to be. The only reason Riley never argued was because she wanted to support her sister, and it was the only place she could read her book without her father getting on her case about her reading fiction for pleasure.

  Currently, Kendra was playing an up-tempo song that apparently was a favorite of the bartender, and Riley was sitting off to the side, her nose buried deep into a novel. In fact, she was so consumed in her story that she didn't notice a man sitting in the middle of the saloon at a poker table, watching her with an intense green gaze. His thin lips curved upward when he noticed her attention was so deeply focused, and after tossing his cards into the pile, indicating that he had folded, he stood up and slowly walked over to her until he was standing a few feet away from her.

  Riley didn't even notice. Her fingertip quickly pressed on the page, her eyes trying to take in everything at once before flipping the page and continuing.

  This caused the man to frown. He had always been told he had a commanding presence, but how could that possibly be true when a girl of no more than twenty-two years old didn’t even notice him standing before her? Deciding to try a different tactic, he took another step forward and cleared his throat.

  This time, Riley glanced up, raising a cool, arched brow. She stared at him for a long moment before dropping her eyes back down to her book, hating when people disturbed her, especially when she was at the climax of the book. Well, he was a man, after all, and it was rare to find a red-blooded male who actually appreciated a good novel, especially since novels were trivial things. Or, at least, society deemed them as such.

  This time, the man felt his patience slip away from him as his frustration only deepened. The young woman had pointedly dismissed him, something he had never encountered before, to be treated with complete disrespect. "Excuse me," he said, shifting his weight and narrowing his green eyes at her. "But would you mind putting that book down so I can speak to you?”

  Riley let a sigh slip out of her mouth, trying to refrain from rolling her eyes but only succeeding halfway. "Actually," she said, trying to remain as polite as she could. "I assure you that whatever you have to say, I really don't want to hear."

  "Is that so?" the man asked. "Well, you don't even know what I'm going to say, so how do you know it's not what you want to hear?"

  "Because I'm not interested in you," Riley said, glancing down at her book, wishing for nothing more than to resume her reading. "Let me guess. You are going to tell me something charming with a dash of innuendo, aren't you? That's all right and swell for a different kind of woman, but not me. I'm sure my novel has much more interesting things to say to me than you do.”

  The man didn't mean to get so offended, but there were many different elements at play here. The most obvious one was the fact that she was a woman, and she was dismissi
ve to him. He had never been dismissed by a woman before, and he felt himself curl his fingers into fists. Riley had already diverted her eyes back down to the book, resuming her position on reading. Without warning, the man grabbed the book away from her, and when Riley leapt out of her chair to grab it from him, stopped dead in her tracks. His fist was up, as though he was going to hit her. Her breath caught in her throat and she turned her head, closing her eyes tightly as she did so.

  However, the hit never came.

  When Riley suspected that it was safe to open her eyes, she saw another man in front of her, preventing the swing by her pest. He had a black cowboy hat on and dusty brown hair, but other than that, she couldn't make him out. Though he spoke, she didn't understand what he had said due to how dazed she was, but his voice was low and gravelly. He was dressed in brown pants, boots, and a brown vest over a blue long sleeved shirt. He almost looked like a cowboy...

  Before Riley could get a better look at him, before she could thank him no less, Kendra quickly grabbed onto her sister's wrist and quickly ushered her out. "My book," Riley murmured, furrowing her brow.

  * * *

  "I'll get it for you later," Kendra told her in a soft voice. "What you need now is to go home."

  Chapter Two

  "You must stay here," Kendra said, walking through the main doors of the house with Riley in tow. She quickly led Riley up the stairs and into the main portion of the house, finally releasing Riley's wrist. It wasn't as though Kendra didn't trust Riley, but she knew Riley rarely ever thought before she acted, and though nothing usually came from it besides a reprimand from their father, this seemed to be a different situation altogether.

  Kendra placed her hands on her hips and gave her younger sister a hopeful, almost pleading look. "Please, Riley. I know you're first instinct is to fight me on this, but you need to wait here until things cool down. I'm going to go back down because, quite frankly, I haven't been dismissed from my piano yet. I don't think Roger has noticed yet, so I should probably hurry up. But Riley, please stay here and I promise to get your book. And since a fight has no doubt broken out, I'm sure Pa will be there soon, and you know what he'll say if he sees you in the middle of it all."

  "That it was all my fault," Riley muttered under her breath, glancing away from her sister's penetrating stare.

  "Yes," Kendra said, her eyes turning a sympathizing shade of blue. "But it really wasn't. I was there, and besides that mouth of yours, you didn't do anything wrong. Will you be okay by yourself, or shall I stay with you?"

  "Kendra," Riley said with a grin. "I'm a big girl. I really don't think I'm going to encounter anyone here, especially given the fact that everyone knows Pa's the sheriff." She furrowed her brow. "Although, if people knew that particular fact, it doesn't seem fathomable that someone would still attempt to strike me."

  "Well," Kendra said with a sardonic smile, "Ma did name you Riley for a reason. I dare say, Riley, you are good at many things, but riling people up to the point of violence is probably what you are best at." She paused, pushing her lips together. "Though I'm not exactly sure if that's a compliment."

  "Coming from you, my dearest sister, it most certainly is," Riley said, pushing up on her toes and giving her sister a kiss on the cheek. "Now, I am quite certain that I will be fine, but I have to insist that you leave. I don't want to be blamed for Roger kicking you out or anything of that matter, you know."

  Kendra gave her sister a warm smile and, after bidding her sister goodbye, took her leave. It was only then did Riley feel her shoulders slouch forward and her lips curl into a decidedly frustrated frown.

  This was one of the moments when Riley preferred not to be a girl. If she had been a boy, it was almost guaranteed that she would have learned the proper means to defend herself. More than that, she would be free to carry pistols with her to add that extra amount of security. Apparently it wasn't fitting for a single woman to have any sort of means to protect herself.

  Riley pursed her lips together as she sat down on the couch, tilting her head slightly to the side. She wondered what might have happened had that mysterious cowboy not stepped in and prevented the slap from touching her cheek. Because she had never really encountered a violent man before, it was hard for her to make any given conclusion, but whatever that possibility might be, she knew that it could not have been good. Though Riley didn't like to depend on anyone besides herself for her own well-being, she did want to thank the man who had stepped in.

  At that moment, she wished she had her book with her. It would have been the perfect means to pass the time. Drat.

  After a few moments, Riley heard something like a crash downstairs. Her heart leapt into her throat, knowing that neither her father nor her sister would ever crash into something downstairs. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it almost sounded as though someone had tried to come in and fell into the entrance room. There could only be one way to go from there: up the stairs.

  Riley sprang up. If it was that man who had tried to hit her, she knew that she would need some sort of weapon to defend herself with, despite her utter lack of experience. Her feet took her into the kitchen and she quickly clamored through the cupboards until she found a sizeable frying pan she was satisfied with. From there, Riley had no idea where to go, so she stood where she was, the pan held as though she was going to swing it at whoever had stolen into her house.

  The steps drew nearer and nearer until a hat made its way into view, then an unfamiliar face, then a body, and finally boots. It was most certainly not the man who had threatened to strike her, but it was the man who had saved her.

  Just what was he doing here?

  Upon seeing the woman with a frying pan held threateningly in her hands, the cowboy smirked, his clear blue eyes dancing in amusement. "Are you going to hit me with that, darling?" he drawled in his distinctive voice, and for whatever reason, Riley's body responded to it by springing out into obnoxious goose bumps. It wasn't as though she was cold. "I should warn you I have an excellent aim," she said, her voice wavering only slightly.

  "I have no doubt that you do," he conceded, his smirk only deepening. He had a sharp, angled face that was tan probably because he seemed to be the type who worked out in the sun constantly. If she checked his hands, she was sure she'd find them hard and callused. Goodness, he was more appealing than she had ever considered, and that voice only added to his element of danger. "With that mouth of yours, you probably get into a lot more trouble than down there."

  Riley felt her face flush at his quip, which was absolutely ridiculous given the fact that Riley didn't blush. Almost never. Yet, after listening to this man say one thing, she already felt herself go red.

  "What exactly are you doing here?" she forced out, hoping her voice had a decidedly sinister edge to it.

  "I just wanted to make sure you're all right," he said innocently.

  Riley was still suspicious, but she felt her shoulders relax slightly. "So you decided to break into my home?" she asked, arching a cool brow.

  "Aren't you supposed to thank me now?" he questioned, raising his own brow.

  A twinge of guilt flared across Riley's chest, and she finally lowered her weapon. "So it would seem," she agreed. After placing the pan on the sink, she cleared her throat. "Sir, whatever your name might be, it would be my honor to thank you for assisting in my rescue. I am forever grateful to you, and I'm sure that if you would like to speak to my father, he would give you some sort of reward."

  The man grinned once more. "You really know how to make me believe it, doll," he told her dryly.

  "Who are you, anyway?" Riley asked, feeling her patience start to slip away from her. In fact, she was surprised that she had held onto it for that long. Maybe it was because her mysterious stranger was so handsome. "I mean, who do you think you are? Do you realize how scandalous it would be if someone found us alone together? I have a reputation to protect, you know."

  "Somehow, I highly doubt your genteel rep
utation is at the forefront of your mind," the man said. "But you can call me Lucas if you want to give me a name. And you must be Riley Ledger. I overheard some of the men mumble something about you. You really do seem to have a mouth on you, don't you? If anything, it's damn right infamous."

  The swear word that slipped so easily from his mouth caused her to drop her mouth slightly. It wasn't because she was offended, but because no man had sworn in front of her before due to her sex. Except her father when he was particularly angry with her. But after hearing the word drip from his mouth, she found she didn't exactly mind being acquainted with the word as long as he was saying it.

  "Well, I'm glad I could acquaint you with it, but I must insist –"

  Before Riley could finish her sentence, another slam was heard downstairs. This time, however, Riley could easily decipher who it was. Apparently, her father was finished with the saloon downstairs, and judging from the way he suddenly called her name, Riley knew that he wasn't exactly worried about her now that he knew she was okay. In fact, if anything, he sounded incredibly upset. And if he saw the cowboy in here with her ... Well, Lucas might have to save her twice.

  "The closet," Riley whispered hurriedly to him, walking over. "Get in the closet."

  She had managed to open the closet door and shove her rescuer in the small room just as her father made his appearance. Riley was right, he did not look happy.