Wild Texas Rose Read Online Free

women, and she looked both sorry and embarrassed as she quoted, “Never wrestle with pigs, Rose. They enjoy it and you get dirty.”
    Rose didn’t want to, but she had to ask. “What are you saying?”
    “Thorn doesn’t want you forever. Not forever. Not more than he wants any other woman who crosses his path. He wants revenge, plain and simple. Rose, he’s been in prison, and your testimony put him there.”
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    Rose took a deep breath of the chill night air.
    Freedom. It smelled like freedom.
    Freedom from overbearing ranchers, from insincere pleasantries, from business discussions that pointedly excluded the lone concerned female. Freedom from the worry of the ranch, the horses, their disappearance. For a few moments, until she reached home, she could pretend she was carefree again, riding the rises and dips of the Davis Mountains without a thought beyond the moment.
    Leaning down across Goliath’s neck, she spoke softly, encouraging him, and he leapt forward. Stretching his neck out, Goliath mouthed the bit and seemed to sense her need for flight, her sheer pleasure in his motion. With polished responsiveness, the intelligent horse monitored their progress, watching for the tumbleweeds that might entrap him, the gopher holes that might trip him. The night wind urged them along. The stars shone; the moon trickled a thin white light over the oak-studded landscape. Together, Rose and Goliath frightened a mule deer from its cover. Together, they heard a coyote crying its lament.
    Freedom. Perfect, mindless freedom.
    You’re going to be mine .
    Rose never swore, and right now she regretted it. Why, when she released the restraints from her thoughts, did Thorn always appear? He was a thief, for he stole her sense of freedom and replaced it with guilt.
    Guilt that she’d sent him to prison, although she knew it had been the right and proper thing to do. Guilt that she’d been too cowardly to go to his mother and apologize for sending her son away. Guilt that he had been humiliated enough to steal that saddle in the first place.
    Yet when Rose saw him tonight, nine long, guilt-ridden years had vanished, swept away by a swagger and a wink. He did want her. It was there, in his confident smile, his brash claim, the press of his body against hers. But did he want her for revenge, as Sue Ellen claimed? Or did he want her horses, as she feared?
    Surely not. As a boy, Thorn had always been fearless and brazen and quick-tempered, but he’d always been kind — and more than kind. Passionate, generous, dedicated to her and their love.
    But she didn’t know him anymore, did she? Perhaps prison had changed him. Perhaps he really had run with the wolves for the last ten years … and she imagined she heard a lonely howl. She imagined she heard the distant drum of pursuing hooves, and she felt the prickle of awareness as someone’s gaze followed her progress.
    She whispered encouragement to Goliath until the canyon arms dropped their embrace, and she rode into the broad, mountain-ringed valley of Corey Ranch. The clapboard house stood on a rise above the stream, its broad porches commanding a view of the stables and the fenced area where the less valuable horses grazed and dozed.
    All looked peaceful.
    Yet anxiety clawed at her as she swiftly rode to the corrals. One, two, three, four … twenty-four horses were in the enclosure, exactly the right number. Hurrying on, she went into the dark stable, leaving the great door open for a bit of light, and again counted. Twenty stalls. Eighteen horses. Just as it should be, with one stall left for Goliath and one left empty for any unexpected guest.
    Letting the peace of the dark, warm, familiar stable enfold her, she realized nothing was out of order. Nothing was amiss.
    As she led Goliath to his stall, she spoke softly to the horses that reached out with neighs and nudges to greet her.
    She loved them all. Wily, gentle, affectionate, high-spirited —