Wild Texas Rose Read Online Free Page A

the horses were more than merely a living to her. They were her family now.
    Tying a clean apron over her dress — it was her best bengaline dress, for all that she’d turned it — she removed Goliath’s saddle and wiped him down. Grooming him, she noted the sculpted muscularity of his neck, shoulder, and leg, his firm belly, his strong croup, buttocks, and thighs. No other creature on earth was blessed with such a combination of intelligence and strength.
    No other creature except …
    It had been a near thing nine years ago. She’d been visiting her horses in the stable. Thorn had been visiting her. Two young people who had been unlikely friends their whole lives. He’d brought out the merriment in her. She subdued the streak of wildness in him. No one had thought, when they were children, that they would become mates, but by the time they were seventeen, everyone saw the attraction that drew them together.
    Her mother had talked to her, seriously, about the importance of maintaining a pure body and mind. But she didn’t address the desire that Thorn created in Rose.
    Her father had talked to her about Thorn’s wild ways, his increasing penchant toward mischief, and his lack of repentance for his deeds. But he didn’t address Thorn’s uncanny comprehension of her needs and thoughts.
    Her parents — staid, upright, Christian people — couldn’t understand the heat between Thorn and their daughter, but they felt it, and in their plain way imagined that their words could dampen the fire.
    And naive little Rose believed what they believed.
    So Thorn touched her that afternoon in the barn, she hadn’t expected to tumble into the straw like some weak-kneed easy woman.
    But she had.
    He’d been sitting there on the rail, watching her groom her first colt, and when she stepped out of the stall, he’d jumped down beside her.
    “Rose, honey, you know what I’d like?” he had asked.
    She’d shaken her head, smiling up into his serious face.
    “I’d like to rub you all over, just like you did that colt.”
    Her smile faded. Something about his tone, and the way he towered over her, made her want to soar like a hawk on the wind.
    A dangerous pursuit, but irresistible.
    “I’d like to stroke your back” — his hand rubbed her spine — “and your waist and your breast” — his voice quivered a little — “and your legs all the way up…”
    The updraft caught her, she opened her mouth to gasp in excitement — and he kissed her. Kissed her face and neck as if he wanted to swallow her whole. His lank body shivered with need, and he muttered, “I think of you, Rosie, all the time. All night, all day, wanting you, dreaming of you … damn it, Rosie, please.”
    “Don’t swear,” she admonished as she took him by the wrist and led him to the empty stall.
    She had to take his hands and place them on each of the points he wished to touch, but once she gave him that permission, he took liberties she’d never imagined.
    The heel of his palm massaged her nipples.
    She liked that.
    He pushed aside her bodice and chemise and put his mouth there.
    She nearly flew right off the straw and into the air.
    He laughed — even in his youthful rush, he was wickedly happy — and he whispered, “Tell me I’m not alone in this. Tell me you dream about me, too. Rosie?” He pushed her skirt up around her waist and struggled until he had his pants pushed down to his knees.
    “Yes. Please. Yes. Thorn!” She half-screamed when he opened the slit in her drawers and pushed his finger inside her.
    “Hush. Quiet, now,” he warned, but he grinned into her face, inviting her to share his delight. “God, you’re ready for me. You’re slick. It won’t be so tough. I won’t hurt you much, and then you’ll be mine. Tell me, darlin’. Tell me you’ll be mine.” He was coaxing as he positioned himself. “Mine.”
    Then the stable door slammed open.
    They both jumped, shot out of flight in midair.
    “Miss Rose!”