Til Death Do Us Part Read Online Free

minute!”
    â€œI told you when I offered you a ride that it would be a while before I went back that way.” J.T. guided Washington closer to the stream.
    â€œAnd I just told you to take me back to the ranch house right now. If you’re smart, you’ll do what I tell you to do. After all, I have a gun and you don’t.”
    â€œLady, is this any way to treat a man doing you a favor?”
    â€œI don’t consider your coming on to me as doing me a favor. I asked for help, not for you to…to—” she sought for the right word “—for you to proposition me.”
    He snorted. “I didn’t proposition you. I just asked if half-breed men fascinated you.”
    â€œAnd you—you—” He had pulled her against him,making her acutely aware of the fact that he was still very aroused. His nearness created an unnerving sexual awareness in her—the first she had experienced since the rape. And that desire frightened her. When this man, who wore a silver-and-turquoise ring identical to hers, had swept her off her feet and into his arms, her desire for him had unsettled her equilibrium.
    J.T. slowed Washington to a standstill, dropped the reins and reached around the woman’s body, grabbing her hand. An angry woman with a gun was dangerous. Joanna struggled against his superior strength, but in the end all her fighting did was toss both of them off the Appaloosa and onto the ground. She lost her .25 in the fall, the small handgun clanking loudly as it hit a nearby boulder.
    J.T. was thankful the damned thing hadn’t fired. A stray bullet could have killed either of them. Now Joanna pelted her small fists against his chest, fighting him like a wildcat, and with absolutely no rhyme or reason to her hysterical battle. No, that wasn’t exactly true, J.T. acknowledged. He was a stranger. Despite the fact that he was Elena’s brother, Joanna really didn’t know him. For some absurd reason the woman assumed he was intent on ravaging her, with or without her permission.
    â€œI’m not going to hurt you,” he said in as calm and reasonable a voice as he could muster while the two of them rolled around over the uneven terrain. “But you’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t stop acting like this.”
    Joanna paid no heed to his warning. All she could think about was the fact that she was lying on the ground, out in the middle of nowhere, with a huge, hard man on top of her.
    J.T. grabbed one of her wrists, then managed to grip the other, manacling them both in one of his hands. He pressed his body against hers, cursing himself for beingaroused. Squirming beneath him, tossing her head from side to side as she jerked her shoulders in a vain effort to free herself, Joanna glared up at him and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
    In one swift move, J.T. stood, dragging the screaming redhead to her feet beside him. He released her immediately. Her breathing deep and ragged, she glowered at him, a pink flush staining her cheeks. Her eyes, such a dark green they appeared almost black in her anger, focused on him with rage as she balled her hands into fists.
    J.T. lifted his arms above his head, high in the air, as a gesture of surrender. He hoped she would realize the error of her assumption and calm herself.
    â€œWhat the hell happened to you?” he asked. “I apologize if anything I said insulted you or made you think I was going to attack you.”
    â€œIt wasn’t—” Joanna gulped for air “—just what you said. It was what you were doing.”
    â€œI didn’t realize you hated the way I was touching you. I thought—”
    â€œYou had no right to touch me, to caress me, to press yourself against me like that!” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, to make eye contact.
    â€œLady, you didn’t protest anything I did until I asked if you had a particular fascination for half-breeds.