Read Online A Promise of Thunder by Connie Mason - Free Book Online Page A

offered no resistance. She was too tired to argue. The hectic events of the past few days had taken their toll, and losing Buddy had been a shock to her system. Before they reached the outskirts of Guthrie, Storm was already asleep, using Grady’s broad shoulder as a cushion for her head.
    Storm never stirred when Grady placed an arm around her, drawing her tightly against him. The evening had grown cool and shesnuggled closer against him to absorb his comforting warmth. She didn’t even awaken when they reached her claim and he carried her into her tent, placing her gently on the bedroll that served as her bed and covering her with another blanket he found nearby. After unloading her provisions and stacking them against the tent, he drove the wagon to his own claim, unloading his supplies before unhitching the horses and hobbling them nearby. He’d return the wagon the next day, he decided, giving him another excuse to see Storm.
    Workers arrived with Storm’s lumber the next morning, and within days the cabin took shape. Meanwhile, Grady began work on his own dwelling, which was rising much more slowly since he was working alone. Storm had decided to move her cabin site more than a half mile away from the place where she had originally erected her tent; it now stood on a grassy knoll beneath a stand of trees that would shade her home in the blistering heat of summer. The site also gave her a good view of her land. And better yet, it was farther away from Grady’s cabin site, which was nestled on the bank of the river.
    The digging of the well was going more slowly than the raising of the cabin, Storm thought as she trekked across Grady’s land with a pail in each hand. She had driven the wagon to a section of his roped-off claim, then walked the rest of the way to the river to draw water for theday. It was a daily chore, one she had come to loathe. Each time she crossed the half-breed’s land she felt more and more indebted to him, and she didn’t like the feeling. Sometimes she saw him working on his cabin and she nodded in greeting, and other times he was nowhere in sight. Inspecting his land, she supposed. She had to admit it was a much better piece of land than her own quarter section and she envied him his claim.
    This morning the absence of hammering sounds told Storm that Grady wasn’t working on his cabin. Her relief was profound when she realized she wouldn’t have to see him with his splendid torso bared to the sun as he worked on his cabin. The sight of a half-naked Grady, his bronze muscles taut and slick with sweat, nearly always sent her pulses spinning out of control.
    “How is your cabin coming along?”
    Storm spun around, dropping the buckets she had just filled at the river’s edge and spilling the water onto the ground. “Must you sneak up behind me like that?”
    “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I always move quietly; comes naturally, I suppose.”
    “Look what you’ve made me do,” Storm said crossly.
    Scowling up at him, she nudged an empty bucket with her booted toe. Only then did she get a good look at him, and she gasped in dismay. He was shirtless, as usual, and pantless as well. The brief breechclout he wore left littleto the imagination. Storm’s eyes settled briefly on the taut piece of deerhide stretched across his loins before flying back up to his face.
    “I can remedy that easily enough,” Grady said, picking up the buckets and walking down to the river bank.
    Storm gulped and tried to look away when he bent over to draw water. A goodly portion of his taut buttocks was exposed, and the sight thoroughly unsettled her. When Grady completed his task and turned around, her face had turned a dull red. When comprehension dawned, he gave a soft, mocking laugh.
    “Does my body disturb you?”
    “I—no, should it?”
    “You make a terrible liar, Storm Kennedy. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were an untouched maiden. Did you never admire your husband’s body? Or