Cowboy's Kiss Read Online Free

confiding any more than that.
    â€œThere are no free rides with me,” he threatened. “If you live here, you work here.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have it any other way,” she claimed, hoping she wasn’t biting off more than she could chew. “And before you go around smearing verbal mud on my mother’s good name again, you also had better know that she didn’t sleep her way into my inheritance, either. Originally Shag had wanted her to be left the quarter share, because he genuinely loved her and wanted to provide for her should he die before she did. But she wouldn’t hear of him leaving her anything at all. She didn’t know until after his death, when the lawyer contacted me about the will, that he’d honored her wishes about herself and given it to me instead.”
    â€œAnd you’re going to earn it,” he said, the threat in his voice again. “Tomorrow I have to take some oilmen out to the wells on the farthest end of the ranch and I’ll be gone until suppertime, so you have until the next day to rest up. And then—if you don’t get smart and leave—you’re mine.”
    Okay, so he did manage to send a shiver up her spine.
    Still, Ally toughed it out, raising her chin to him as if accepting any challenge he could toss her way. “Fine,” she said. “But there’s one stipulation I have, too.”
    This time he lifted his chin at her, daring her to venture it.
    â€œNo matter what your feelings about me or my being here or your father’s will, my daughter is not to be burdened by it. I was hoping to find that you were like Shag—kind, patient—”
    â€œShag, kind and patient? You must be out of your mind.”
    Ally had no intention of arguing that with him, too, though she was curious as to why he seemed to dislike his father so much. She went on as if he hadn’t interrupted her. “My daughter has been through a lot in the last few years and I won’t have any more inflicted on her. So I’m telling you here and now that you’d better watch your step around her.”
    â€œWho the hell do you think you’re talkin’ to, lady?” he shouted again.
    â€œYou,” she shouted back. “Just keep your bad attitude clear of my daughter.”
    He let out a sound that was equal parts disgusted sigh, mirthless laugh, and disbelief at her audacity. But Ally wasn’t going to let it bother her. Too much. Instead she turned and hit the swinging door she’d come through and left the kitchen in what she hoped was a blaze of righteous indignation, feeling those blue eyes on her the whole way.
    Jerk! she thought. Insufferable, rude, insulting, hotheaded jerk! No wonder Shag had kept his connection with her mother and her and Meggie so completely separate from his life and family in Wyoming. He’d probably been embarrassed to let anyone know he was related to a person like that!
    Yet Ally remembered Shag suggesting that she and Meggie might benefit from some time up here, so he couldn’t have been hiding his oldest son. And in spite of him, he must have thought the good outweighed the bad.
    Which was what Ally had to hope for. Because now that she had Meggie here, now that she’d talked herself blue in the face about how great this new beginning was for them, she couldn’t just turn tail and run before giving it a chance. Regardless of Jackson Heller the Jerk.
    She’d just have to comply with whatever he wanted her to do to earn their right to be here and hope he steered clear of Meggie.
    No, she wouldn’t hope he’d steer clear of Meggie. He’d better steer clear of her. Because if he so much as looked cross-eyed at her daughter, he might find himself with a rolling pin stuck up that romance-novel nose of his.
    Ally climbed the steps and stormed into the room across the hall from where Meggie was, wondering what she’d gotten them into, praying that