Read Online The Cowboy Claims His Lady by Meagan McKinney - Free Book Online

pleasure and damnation with one lopsided grin.
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    Droopy-eyed, Lyndie reined Girlie left, to follow the rest of the pack. They’d been at the trail for over an hour when they’d come to a crossroads.
    â€œNot there. Don’t ever go there,” Justin instructed the group as they were about to take the wrong trail.
    â€œWhat’s up there?” Lyndie asked, tagging to the rear with Justin.
    The trail-man only looked distant. “Som’un bad happened on that trail. We don’t use it anymore.”
    Lyndie strained to see up the winding trail as far as she could. Mini avalanches of rock littered the path. The trail seemed to become almost vertical as it wound up the mountain into the snow.
    A shiver went through her. Somehow she knew that was the path on which Katherine had lost her life.
    She stared ahead at Bruce.
    He seemed pointedly oblivious of the forbidden path. Instead, like any good guide, his attention was on his riders and the condition of the trail ahead. But he sat his horse with a stiffer back than usual, and Lyndie wondered if passing the fork in the trail hit a raw spot within him.
    â€œDoes anyone ever go up there anymore?” she asked Justin.
    He only shook his head. “When the boss is in a temper he goes, but only then.”
    Lyndie returned her attention to the trail, her thoughts far away.
    Roger and Annette were ahead of her on a couple of Appaloosas. Another two women, sisters, had signed up for the dude ranch from Los Angeles. They were outrageously flirtatious with their guide Justin, a burly redheaded cowboy who headed the trail, and Lyndie almost envied them.
    They were playing.
    Bruce abruptly went to the rear on his dun quarter horse, Beastie Boy. Girlie kept wanting to turn around and nip Beastie Boy. At one point, Lyndie laughed out loud: the horses seemed to be mirroring the tensions of their riders.
    But she got nothing but a frosty stare from Bruce.
    Finally they stopped at a stream where the chuck wagon met them for breakfast.
    Justin held her horse while she dismounted. She had liked Justin on sight. The young man was every woman’s idea of the boy next door. His grin was contagious, and she could see he had a soft spot for the ladies. Kim and Susan, the women from L.A., positively purred whenever he got within pheromone distance.
    â€œHow you like it so far?” Justin asked Lyndiewhile they were served bacon and eggs from the chuck wagon fire.
    â€œUnfortunately, I missed yesterday’s lesson, but I guess I can keep up,” Lyndie offered.
    â€œI’ll be happy to give you time in the ring if you need extra schoolin’.” Justin winked.
    She couldn’t hide her grin. There was something so wholesome about Justin. She could understand Kim and Susan’s enchantment. He was what he was—outrageously on the prowl—as opposed to his boss, Bruce Everett, who was anything but comprehensible.
    â€œI think I can muddle through, but thank you for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind.” Lyndie smiled and walked past Bruce.
    He only scowled.
    When she sat down against a tree trunk, she was dismayed when Bruce settled next to her.
    â€œSleep well?” he asked diabolically, as if he could read her dreams.
    She tilted her mouth in a dismissive smile. “Why wouldn’t I?” she challenged.
    He cocked an eyebrow.
    She dug into her eggs with a vengeance.
    â€œTonight’s the rodeo. You up to it?” he mentioned, chewing on his bacon.
    â€œIs that part of the program?” She buttered a biscuit.
    â€œAbsolutely.”
    â€œThen, I guess I can spare eight seconds.”
    He laughed, but then quickly sobered. Those gray eyes honed in on hers. “It’s a long eight seconds. You ever ridden a bull?”
    â€œNo,” she said truthfully.
    â€œThen, you should try it.” He went back to his breakfast.
    The featherlight tingle traveled down her spine to her belly, and then