The Gunslinger's Gift Read Online Free Page A

he asked, his tone curious. “I’m trying to
think of when you might have seen me, and beyond looking in a mirror after a
shave for a few moments, I can’t think of any other times.”
    “There
are many portraits of you,” she admitted, with a blush staining her cheeks.
“Charcoals, pencils, every medium I could think of. You fascinated me.
Everything about you always has. That’s why I knew who you were the second I
saw you. Only, to me, you were Billy, not James.”
    “I
rarely used my given name,” he said. “After I was brought into the Guardians, I
distanced myself from my Wild Bill days as much as I could. Thankfully, they
had me in training for a number of years, so the so-called legend died off on
its own. Except for those damn dime novels.” Huffing out a breath, he watched
her and shrugged. “You can call me whatever you want to, though I warn you,
I’ve been untrained to answer to Billy for a while now, so it’s going to take
me a bit to get used to it again.”
    “That’s
okay. I’ve grown used to calling you James.” She would miss Billy, but that was
the past and James, her James, was the future. “I might slip and call you Billy
from time to time, but I’ll do whatever I can.”
    “I
don’t mind hearing it from your lips. You may need to smack me if I’m ignoring
you when you use it, though,” he said, with a grin. Leaning in, he kissed her
cheek and hugged her close. Sighing, he drew back slightly and looked at the
clock. “Don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready for some sleep. I haven’t
been sleeping well since we got back. The friction between us has been messing
me up. If you want to watch TV or a movie, go right ahead. After growing up in
a time when gunfire was commonplace, not a hell of a lot can wake me up.”
    “No,
thank you. I’d like sleep, as well. I haven’t slept well in far too long.” She
moved so that she was standing before him. “Do you have a shirt you can loan
me? I’d like to get cleaned up, but I don’t want to leave you.”
    “Definitely.”
Getting up, he put a hand on her back and guided her down the wide hallway to a
door. Pushing it open, he urged her inside then hit a light so she could see
the bedroom. He moved around her to a dresser where he pulled out a long,
button up shirt. “Bathroom is right through there. Towels are on the shelf and
anything else should be in the vanity. I’ll just turn the lights off in the outer
room then come back to wait on you.”
    “Okay.”
She held the shirt in her hand and chewed her lower lip. Then, she stared up at
him and grinned. “Are you going to take your weapons and put them outside of
the bed? I would like to sleep with you without a gun in bed with us.” She
hoped that wasn’t asking for too much.
    “Uh,
right, yeah.” He smiled at her in a sheepish manner. “I guess I should move a
few of them. Sorry, it’s an old habit I’ve never been fully able to kick.” He
went to the door and paused, turning to look at her. “Did your sister tell you
about the greeting she got when she and Jason showed up at the house that
morning?” he asked in a curious, yet very cautious tone.
    “Other
than Vi giving me heck because I was sleeping with you?”
    He made
a face, wrinkling his nose up and huffed out a breath. “I may have quite
possibly, with a high degree of accuracy, pulled a gun on her. I just reacted
to a noise in the place that shouldn’t have been there. But I identified her
right off and didn’t even have my finger on the trigger. I think she may have
dropped a load in her shorts, though, given the look on her face.”
    “Fabulous.”
Fi giggled. “How mad was Jason that you pulled a weapon on his woman?” She
paused and watched him. “I don’t do weapons well at all. And I dislike fire
even more.” Which he would know, because of the way that she’d had a fit when
he’d started a fire in the fireplace on the Island.
    “He was
actually fairly amused. He’s been around me