Maggie's Mountain Read Online Free Page B

felt a bit unbalanced as he watched her climb off the rock and begin to turn away.
    “Are you okay?” He hadn’t meant to ask; the words just slipped out.
    She waved her hand in the air but refused to look at him. “I’m fine.”
    Annoyance sizzled to exasperation and he found himself closing the distance between them, his interest piqued. “Is that why you were out here sobbing like your heart was broken?”
    She didn’t have to utter a gasp for him to feel her shock. “This is my land, Mr. Warrick. What I do on it is none of your business.”
    “You’re a prickly one, aren’t you Maggie Mae?” When she would have rushed in the other direction, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Damn it, I’m trying to be neighborly here.”
    She gave a bitter little laugh as she finally met his gaze. “Neighborly? Really? Is that why you’re keeping me here?”
    Hale ground down the desire to demand answers. The patience he’d once been so proud of was quickly deserting him, leaving heat in its wake. He could feel her skin, soft under his calloused fingers, warm to his rough touch, with an erratic heartbeat reverberating just underneath the surface. Putting his hands on her had been a mistake.
    “Just…I didn’t mean to scare you, okay?” He could hear the tension in his words and swallowed to ease it. “You’re right. This is your land. I should be the one to leave.”
    Maggie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Yes, you should.” She waited a beat. “But you aren’t the first one to miss the markers, and you won’t be the last. If you had the need to walk here, then I won’t chase you off. I have to get back anyway.”
    He squeezed her wrist, a silent, automatic protest, before deliberately letting her go. “I didn’t mean to intrude. You’re…all right?”
    She appeared to take his temporary flag of truce as she shifted her weight to one foot. “It’s my husband’s birthday.”
    The sucker punch to his solar plexus was painful. “Oh.”
    She nodded in mute acknowledgement, hesitating for another moment. “You should be careful; there are still snakes out.”
    “I remember the woods.” He gave her a small smile, and was strangely hurt when she didn’t return it. “You should be careful, too.”
    “I’m wearing hiking boots and carrying a revolver.”
    Why that should sound so sexy made no sense to him, but it did. His body tightened, on sudden and high alert as she moved away. She didn’t get far. One moment she was steady, the next she was twisting, pinwheeling her arms as she searched for balance. She began to fall, gravity pulling her down the slight hill toward him. Hale didn’t think.
    He moved rapidly, bracing himself as he held out his arms to catch her. She fell backward, a soft, solid weight against his chest. The contact was a furious charge, jolting through his system with a violent shudder.
    Everything seemed to stop. There were no sounds except her breathing, no scents except her warm flesh. He felt the pressure grow and expand from his chest all the way to his loins. Before he realized it, instinct took over, and he nuzzled her ear with a movement so subtle it couldn’t be anything but seductive. He tightened his grip on her waist, felt the heat of her skin through her jacket and shirt. He had never been so knotted up with the desire to touch a woman before. He didn’t like it, not a bit.
    “Just being neighborly again, Maggie, I swear.” He ruined his words by inhaling her scent.
    If he thought he’d experienced a woman’s frigidity before, he’d been wrong. She went utterly still, her body going cold against his. She straightened her spine with extreme care, not bothering to struggle against his embrace, instead stinging him with her quiet dignity. His words hadn’t been deliberate; he’d slipped into teasing persuasion without thinking, forgetting for the moment who and where they were. She’d been crying over her husband, and he’d been trying to feel her up.