Free The Lone Rancher by Carol Finch Page A

of charm? No.”
    â€œTouché. I’m not known for my devastating charm.”
    She bubbled in laughter—and realized that she had been so intent in conversation with Quin that she hadn’t realized the other four dinner companions had ambled up behind her.
    She glanced back to see them staring curiously at her, making her self-conscious. “About time you showed up,” she said as she turned on her heel. “Cahill and I were just saying that we’d likely starve to death before you got here.”
    Adrianna sashayed up between Bea and Butler to hook each one by the elbow, leaving Cahill to fall into step with Lucas and Rosa. The unexpected intimacy of her conversation with Cahill disturbed her. It seemed they had passed a milestone of some sort. It was more dangerous somehow. Indeed, it was safer to be at odds with him. If she lost that edge, she would be fighting a battle with herself, because he presented the kind of alluring temptation that was unfamiliar to her.
    Desiring a man was unchartered territory for Adrianna. Didn’t she have enough going on in her new life without stumbling into perilous pitfalls like that? She didn’t need further complications.
    Quin Cahill was about as complicated as it got!

Chapter Four
    T wo days later, after savoring Elda’s tasty breakfast, Quin stepped onto the front porch. He frowned warily when Ezra Fields strode toward him. “Something wrong, Ez?”
    The lanky cowboy nodded grimly. “Thought you’d wanna know there’s some cattle missing from the west pasture. Most of ’em we branded recently. They’re some of the calves you planned to drive to Dodge City in a few weeks.”
    Quin whirled around to grab his hat. Ezra was still standing on the lawn when he exited the house. “Something else?” Quin asked as he jogged off to saddle Cactus.
    â€œYeah, I stepped out of the bunkhouse after dark last night and I thought I saw some torches to the west,” he reported as he tried to keep Quin’s quick pace. “I didn’t think much about it then. Just figured McKnight’s cowhands were riding fences. After some of our cowboys checked this morning and found yourcalves missing, I got to wondering if rustling was what I saw last night.”
    Quin gnashed his teeth. If this was round two of Boston’s mischievous pranks, he didn’t find it amusing. Repairing fences and gathering scattered cattle cost time and money.
    Hell’s jingling bells! He should have suspected something like this, he mused angrily. At lunch earlier in the week, that green-eyed hellcat had been sociable and she had even flashed him several smiles after they had shared confidences in the middle of Town Square. Like a fool, Quin thought they had reached a truce. Apparently, she was still peeved at him for making the blundering mistake of insisting she should return to New England where she belonged. Which she should, of course, but try to tell her that and see where it got you!
    â€œWant me to help search for your cattle, boss?”
    Quin glanced behind him, so wrapped up in his bitter thoughts that he’d forgotten the cowboy was a few steps behind him. “No, Ez. I can handle this.”
    â€œYou don’t think that spiteful chit did this, do you? Just like she hired away Rock?”
    Quin didn’t reply, just stalked into the barn to toss a saddle on Cactus’s back. “Go back to your chores. I’ll see what I can find out.”
    With practiced ease, Quin prepared Cactus for riding, then thundered west. Well, so much for the amiable thoughts and erotic fantasies about Boston that had been spinning in his head. She’d tried to lure him under her spell by dropping her hostility, plying him with smilesand treating him like a friend rather than her worst enemy.
    Damnation, what a skilled actress she was. But then, he suspected she’d had plenty of practice in the crowded ballrooms and