The Rawhide Man Read Online Free Page A

her, she’d avoided the ranch whenever possible, except for flying visits to see Katy. And the family reunions, of course, which came frequently during the year. Not that they were really family, but because of the partnership of her father and his, she was always included and expected to take part.
    “Why did you stay away?” he asked quietly. “We’ve had our disagreements over the years, God knows, but I’ve never hurt you.”
    That was true enough. She stared down at her hands, folded in her lap. “I don’t know,” she lied.
    He lifted a careless eyebrow. “Were you afraid I’d make a pass?”
    She flushed, and he threw back his head and laughed deeply.
    “You were fifteen,” he reminded her with a chuckle. “And you had even less to draw a man’s eye than you do now.” His eyes were on her small breasts, and she wanted to dive through the window.
    Defensively she folded her arms over her chest and lowered her eye to the floorboard, so embarrassed that she wanted to cry.
    “For God’s sake, stop that,” he growled. “You’d appeal to some men, I suppose. You just don’t appeal to me.”
    Was that conscience, she wondered numbly? If it was, it didn’t console her much.
    “I’ll get down on my knees and give thanks for that small blessing,” she said coldly.
    “You’re the one with the small blessings, all right,” he murmured wickedly.
    She half turned in the seat to glare at him, and he chuckled at her fury.
    “God, you’re something when you get mad,” he said with rare mischief. “All dark eyes and wild hair and teeth and claws. It sure as hell beats that so-elegant coolness you wear around you most of the time.”
    She regained her composure with an effort and stared at him calmly. “My mother raised me to be a lady,” she told him.
    “You’re that,” he agreed coldly. “But you’d be a hell of a lot more exciting if she’d raised you to be a woman, instead.”
    There was no reply to a blatant remark like that, so she turned her attention back to the darkened landscape and ignored him. Which seemed to be exactly what he wanted.

Chapter Three
    A ggie Lopez, Jude’s housekeeper, met them in her dressing gown, yawning.
    “Is Bess’s room ready?” Jude asked curtly.
    “Yes, Señor Langston,” Aggie said agreeably, giving Bess a brief but thorough appraisal. Then she grinned. “You need some feeding up,
señorita.
A few weeks of
refritos
and enchiladas and my good Texas chili will put meat on those bones, I promise you. Come, I will take you up to your room and then I’ll bring you some food. The little one has only just gone to sleep. She was so excited…!”
    “But it’s after midnight,” Bess exclaimed.
    “Go ahead,” Jude growled, glaring at her with piercing green eyes, “say something about her bedtime hour. You’ve managed to disapprove of every other damned thing, why not that as well?”
    She glared back at him, her chin lifted. “Children need their rest just like adults do,” she threw at him. “And speaking of rest, look at you!”
    “What’s wrong with me?” he asked pugnaciously.
    “Oh, Lord, just give me a full day with no interruptions and I’ll be glad to give you an itemized list!”
    Aggie was staring at them with her jaw in a slightly drooping posture, her small, plump figure glued to the banister of the long staircase that ran up to the second story.
    Jude glanced at Aggie. “Well, what the hell are you gaping at? Are you going to show her upstairs or not?”
    “You are…really getting married?” the older woman asked, lifting her eyebrows until they almost touched the salt-and-pepper hair that was drawn into a tight bun.
    “It’s a love match, too,” Bess assured her with a tight smile at Jude. “He loves my stocks and I love his daughter.”
    Jude said something rude under his breath and turned on his heel to stomp off into his study. He slammed the door with hurricane force behind him.
    Aggie flinched. “Someday he will break