Read Online The Rebel's Return by Beverly Barton - Free Book Online

ballroom, down to the lobby and outside to the covered portico. He asked the valet for his car and while they waited, he watched Maddie.
    â€œStop looking at me like that,” she told him.
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike I’m the first woman you’ve seen in ten years.”
    â€œI haven’t seen you in seventeen years.”
    A warm flush spread through Maddie’s body. Why was it that Dylan had a way of saying things that affected her in a sexual way? His words went to her head the way champagne did, producing a similar intoxication.
    â€œThirty minutes. That’s all,” she told him. “I shouldn’t be leaving the party this way, but—”
    â€œBut you couldn’t resist me any more tonight than you were able to when we were sixteen.”
    The valet brought the black Porsche to a halt in front of the country club. Maddie eyed the car suspiciously.
    â€œYours?” she asked.
    â€œMine,” he replied.
    â€œNot borrowed?”
    He chuckled. “Bought and paid for. The bill of sale is in the glove compartment, if you’d like to check.”
    Dylan tipped the valet generously, then shooed him aside when he opened the passenger door for Maddie. Dylan assisted her into the car, then rounded the hood and hopped in behind the wheel. He revved the motor, flew down the circular drive and out onto the open road.
    The evening breeze assaulted Maddie’s hair, which tonight she’d worn in a sophisticated French twist. Tendrils eased free; some curled about her face and others stuck to her cheeks. She’d look windblown and mussed by the time they returned to the club, but she didn’t care. Lately she’d been daydreaming of a man like Dylan Bridges coming into her life and sweeping her off her feet. Little had she realized that the man himself would re-enter her life and make her experience daring, dizzying feelings that prompted her to throw caution to the wind. A thirty-minute escape wouldn’t hurt her. She could allow herself that much time away from reality, couldn’t she?
    Maddie reached up, removed the pins from her hair, shook her head and let her long tresses fall free. In her peripheral vision she caught a glimpse of Dylan stealing a quick glance at her. She tossed back her head and laughed. Leaving behind responsibilities and uncertainties, she raced off into the dark Texas night with a man she’d known only as a teenage rebel.
    Dear God, when was the last time she’d felt this good, and so totally alive with anticipation?

Four
    D ylan had a difficult time keeping his eyes on the road. Of all the women he’d known in his thirty-three years, Maddie Delarue was one of a kind. She was not only the most beautiful, but the most tempting. Yeah, sure, part of the fascination was the fact she’d been the star of his adolescent wet dreams, the girl he’d fantasized about scoring with, the forbidden fruit he hadn’t been able to resist trying to pick. But what the hell did he really know about the woman she was now? Not a damn thing other than she had enough money to buy and sell anybody in Mission Creek, including the Wainwrights and Carsons. And he knew one other thing—he still had the hots for her. How was that possible?
    He’d recognized her instantly, the moment he’d seen her standing in the country club lobby, looking like some fairy-tale princess in her chic black gown and her sparkling diamonds. By the time she’d rushed over to him when he entered the ballroom, he was fighting to tame his body’s reaction. He hadn’t gotten that aroused that fast since he’d been twenty.
    â€œWhere are we going?” Maddie asked.
    â€œDoes it matter?”
    â€œNo, I suppose it doesn’t. Just remember you promised to get me back to the club in thirty minutes.”
    â€œThen we can’t go far,” he said. “I seem to remember a bumpy dirt road not far from here. Is it still