One Night with a Sweet-Talking Man
Chapter
1
San Francisco
1869
Jed Fraser swung his long legs over the side of the bed and propped his throbbing head in his hands. Cheap whiskey always gave him a headache. After a long moment, he stood up to open the window in the room. The scent of rotting fish in a barrel below punched him in the nose; he slammed the window shut.
The blond woman in the bed sleepily opened her eyes. "Where you goin', honey?" she asked when he began to dress.
"I have to walk off this headache. Go back to sleep, Millie."
She rolled onto her side. "You comin' back, Jeb?"
"It's Jed, not Jeb. And no, I won't be back."
He laid some bills on the dresser, picked up his seabag, then paused at the doorway and looked back at her.
"Thank you. You were great, Millie."
Surely no woman chose prostitution as a profession willingly. What had forced a sweet gal like Millie into it? And what would wanderers like him do if she hadn't?
The soft snores coming from the bed indicated she had already returned to sleep.
Outside he walked briskly to the dock, where he took a deep breath of sea air as his gaze ... read full excerpt from One Night with a Sweet-Talking Man ebook
