Read Online Bride of the Shining Mountains (The St. Claire Men) by S. K. McClafferty - Free Book Online

set
the only boundaries in existence. They were men with whom Jackson had a great
deal in common.
    Though born to wealth, he thought like they did. He drank and
caroused with the same lusty abandon, he chafed beneath the constraints of
polite society, he shunned responsibility, and was generally considered
unpredictable and but halfway civilized. Perhaps it was his Choctaw blood—and
some factions certainly seemed to believe that such was the case—that rendered
him restless and dissatisfied. And though he’d never been the sort to lay a
violent or u nkin d hand upon a woman, there were some nearby of which the same
could not be said. That knowledge burned into his brain as he raced down the
narrow path, burst through the sparse growth of cottonwoods, and blundered upon
the object of his concern.
    She was standing in the shallows of the river, her state of
undress leaving nothing, beyond the outcome of this encounter, to Jackson’s
imagination. With her long, dark tresses streaming moisture and the swift
current rippling around her firm, round buttocks, she appeared a water nymph,
as wild and untamed as her surroundings. Turned half-aside and gilded by the
newly risen sun, she stole the breath from Jackson’s lungs, rooting him to the
spot.
    He was well aware that he should have warned her of his presence,
should have turned back before she saw him, should have done half a dozen
things to allow her to save face and him to preserve his sham facade of being a
gentleman. Instead, against his better judgment, he simply stood, his blood
warming as his gaze caressed her skin.
    Blessedly clean and kissed with a fine sheen of pale golden light,
it glowed like the rarest of opals, flawless except for the tiny mole gracing
the upper curve of one small but perfect breast.
    She was thinner than the women of Jackson’s doubtful acquaintance,
yet her charms were all the more evident, all the more delectable for the fact
that they were less than ample. Her breasts were high and lovely, her nipples a
succulent tawny pink, puckered from the water’s chill. Gazing at her, Jackson
knew such an insatiable hunger, such an irresistible urge to strip away his
clothing and join her there in the cold mountain stream, that he could scarcely
contain it.
    Biting back an inward groan, he battled his baser urges, reminding
himself that to seduce her would be to prove G. D. and Tom Bridger right and
prove he really was a cad, totally lacking in morals.
    The battle was quick and decisive. Jackson’s lustful thoughts
emerged the victor. He took a step toward her; at the same time, she wiped her
eyes to clear her vision, turned toward the shore, and went still.
    If she was shocked to find him there, incensed that he dared to
invade her privacy, she concealed it well. She met his gaze unflinchingly, the
widening of her clear gray eyes her only outward sign that she was aware of the
danger in her situation.
    The moment drew out, tension throbbing in the air between them
like a tangible and electrifying thing, and still she did not tear her gaze
away.
    What on earth was wrong with her? Why didn’t she flee, or flay the
hide from him with some scathing diatribe?
    And then it occurred to Jackson that perhaps—just perhaps—she did
not wish to run away, did not wish to be anywhere but where she was right now.
Mayhap her heart was racing just like his. Mayhap she wanted his touch, his
kiss, every bit as much as he longed for hers. “Come out of there,” he said,
unaccountably glad that his voice could work independently of his thoughts, for
in his min d he was laying her down in the grass, covering her slight frame
with his, cajoling away her virginity. “The water’s cold—you’ll catch your
death.”
    Simple words, emphatic words, couched in the form of a direct
command. Reagan bristled. “Fearful of losin’ your investment?”
    But he ignored the comment, reaching down to grasp her arm just
above the elbow, aiding her ascent to the grassy bank.