Read Online Midnight Rose by Patricia Hagan - Free Book Online Page B

wherever he’d gone. He might have taken another horse, planning to attack her far from the house, where no one would hear her screams. But by God, he’d have a fight on his hands!
    Glancing around quickly, she spied a large stone and grabbed it fora weapon.
    Then she felt a wave of sweet relief as the rider came out of the woods, and she saw it wasn’t Zachary—it was Ryan Youngblood, and he was riding a magnificent white stallion.
    Looking at the rock she was holding, he realized he’d startled her and apologized, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was about.” Glibly, he lied, “I was just out riding and must have wandered onto your place without realizing it.” Actually, he’d been there every day, even in the rain, waiting for her. He’d about given up hope, figuring Keith had been mistaken, seen someone else out riding along the stream.
    Bemused, she told him, “It’s all right. You just took me by surprise.” She noted he was wearing a white shirt, open to his waist, and her gaze helplessly moved from the thick mat of dark blond hairs on his broad chest, downward to rock-hard thighs in form-fitting trousers. He exuded strength, and, yes, there was something almost feral about the way he was looking at her with those smoldering blue eyes, making her tremble, not with fright, but a kind of delicious anticipation.
    “Well, it was fate.” He dismounted and slowly approached her. He was toying with the reins, wrapping them absently about his fingers as he drank in the sight of her. “I must say you’ve been on my mind almost constantly since the other night, and…” With a teasing smile, he huskily reminded her, “As I said, I’ve been dancing with you in my heart ever since.”
    Erin was warmed by his words but maintained her cool demeanor. “Well, we certainly gave people something to talk about.”
    “You like to shock people, don’t you?” he surprised her by bluntly asking.
    “I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say that,” she replied with equal candor, “but I pride myself on hiving a mind of my own.”
    “We’re a lot alike. I sensed that right away. Maybe that’s why I’m so taken by you—your spirit, plus other attributes…” His gaze raked over her appreciatively before he continued. “This is a nice spot. Do you always come here?”
    “Always,” she admitted, her voice even despite the tremors within. “It’s private, till today.”
    He walked past her, as though looking for something, then pointed to the bank. “Lots of horses. Wagon wheels. Somebody comes around,” he noted curiously.
    “’Coon hunters, probably,” she speculated, noticing the tracks. “They must come at night. I’ve never seen anyone during the day.”
    He was quietly thoughtful for a moment, then told her how once, as a boy, he and a friend had built a raft and passed this very place as they ran away from home, heading downriver. “We intended to go all the way to Norfolk, where we hoped to stowaway on a ship and sail to England.”
    “How far did you get?” she asked, amused at such antics.
    He laughed. “My father was waiting for us at Cooley’s Bridge, about a mile on downriver. Waiting with his belt, I might add.” He rubbed his backside for emphasis. “I walked for the next two weeks, couldn’t even sit on a horse. It was a long time before I thought about sailing to Europe again, believe me.”
    “But you eventually made it, or you wouldn’t have learned the valse. Or did you make that up to tease me?”
    “Why would I do a thing like that?” He frowned at such absurdity. “Of course I learned it over there. You caught on very quickly, by the way. We’ll have to try it again sometime. I enjoy shocking people too,” he teased.
    She saw the mischievous gleam in his eye, sensed he had a rebellious streak, and she liked that—a lot. “I envy you,” she said then, “being a man and able to travel to faraway places, do anything you want to do. I’d love to be so