Cattleman's Choice Read Online Free

didn’t even look rumpled.
    â€œGet off my land, you…” He tacked on a few rough words and bent to lift the other man by the collar. He frog-marched him to the Lincoln, tossed him inside, and slammed the door. “Vamoose!” he growled.
    Mandelyn stood there, frozen, while the Lincoln jerked out of the yard. She stared for a long minute and then, with a sigh, started after it.
    â€œWhere the hell do you think you’re going?” Carson asked.
    â€œBack to town.”
    â€œNot yet. I want to talk to you.”
    She whirled and glared at him. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
    He took her arm and half led, half dragged her up the steps and into the house. “Did I ask?”
    â€œNo, you never do!” she shot back. “You just move in and take over! He made you a very generous offer. You’ve cost me a fortune…!”
    â€œI told you not to bring him out here.”
    â€œYou told my secretary he could come!” she floundered.
    â€œLike hell I did. I told her to tell him he could come if he felt lucky.”
    And poor little Angie hadn’t realized what that meant.
    â€œAngie’s new,” she muttered, standing still in the dim living room. He didn’t even have electricity. He had kerosene lanterns and furniture that she didn’t want to sit on. It looked as if it were made with leftover gunnysacks.
    â€œSit,” he said curtly, dropping into a ragged armchair.
    She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She’d only been in this house once or twice, with her uncle. Since his death, she’d found excuses to stay on the porch or in the yard when she stopped by to talk business with Carson.
    His face hardened when he saw the look she was giving the sparse furniture. He got up, furiously angry, and walked into the kitchen.
    â€œIn here,” he said icily. “Maybe the kitchen chairs will suit you better.”
    She felt cruel. She hadn’t meant to be rude. With a sigh, she walked past him and sat down in one of the cane-bottomed chairs around the table with its red checked oilcloth cover. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to be rude.”
    â€œYou didn’t want to soil your designer clothes on my filthy furniture,” he laughed through narrowed eyes. He sat down roughly and leaned back in the chair, glaring at her. “Why pussyfoot around?”
    She stared at him unblinkingly. “What do you want?”
    â€œThere’s a question,” he replied softly. His blue eyes wandered slowly over her face, down to her lips, and hardened visibly. “Hell,” he breathed at the swollen evidence of his brutality. He pulled an ashtray toward him with a sigh and crushed out his half-finished cigarette. “I didn’t realize how rough I’d been.”
    â€œI’ll put it down to experience,” she said curtly.
    â€œDo you have much?” he asked, holding her gaze. “Did you fight because you were afraid?”
    â€œYou were hurting me!” she said, red with embarrassment and bad temper.
    His nostrils flared as he breathed. He paused a moment, and his next words took her completely by surprise. “You told Patty I was too savage to get a woman.”
    Her mouth flew open. She just sat and stared, hardly able to believe Patty’s betrayal.
    â€œI…I never dreamed…”
    â€œThat she’d tell me?” he asked coolly. He pulled another cigarette from his pocket and lit it with an impatient snap of his lighter. “She was kidding around, she didn’t mean anything. I guess you didn’t either.” He stared at the cigarette. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about getting older, being alone.” He looked up. “When Patty said that this morning, it made me mad as hell. Then I realized that you were right, that I don’t even know how to behave in polite society. That I’m