Free Lone Rider by B.J. Daniels Page A

screams. No one around to be the wiser. Once he disposed of her body...
    And what a body it was. His ache had a choke hold on him, and yet something inside him wanted more from her. He’d had women, but none like this one. He wanted this to be different from the others, most of them women he hadn’t even had to force himself on. But they’d all left him feeling empty. This one, he thought, would be different. But only if she came to him willingly.
    The thought almost made him laugh. Women didn’t find him...attractive. Especially one like this. He wasn’t bad looking for such a big, hulking guy. That was usually what reeled in the desperate women he’d known. It was when they’d seen his temper or got a glimpse of the darkness inside him—that’s when they wanted nothing to do with him.
    He couldn’t hide that part of himself. At least not for long. He would end up hurting this woman. He always did. He would see the change in her eyes—just like he had the others. One minute they were fine with him. The next all they wanted was to put as much distance as possible between him and them.
    But they never got away easily. He was too big, too strong, too fast for that. Even hurting them, though, hadn’t given him the satisfaction he so desperately wanted, needed. Ultimately, they all left him, and he ended up feeling empty and alone.
    For once, he wanted a woman to want him—with all his faults.
    He stared at little Bo-Peep. She was different. She was the kind of woman he would never have stood a chance with off this mountain. Hell, she dressed like she had money. Even her horse looked expensive. Didn’t she say her daddy would pay a million dollars for her?
    He’d laughed at the time, but now he wondered if she hadn’t been telling the truth. What had she said her name was? Bo Calder. The name didn’t ring any bells. She’d probably been lying about the money as well as her name. Not that it mattered. For all his dreaming of her coming to him willingly, he doubted she would last the night.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    B O CUPPED SOME of the water in her hands and brought it to her face. The icy cold had a numbing effect. She let it run down her arms, washing away the last of the blood but making her scrapes and cuts burn.
    â€œI been thinkin’,” Ray said, his tone softer, deadlier. “Ya and me...” He let his words trail off.
    She looked over at him. He’d taken off his shirt and now splashed water up on him, under his arms, across his stomach. She hadn’t realized how big he was, but standing in the creek he looked like a giant.
    He saw her staring at his scars and quickly looked away. She did the same. Her legs were numb from the snow-fed stream by the time he waded out to her. He lifted her into his arms again and carried her back to a large flat rock on the creek bank.
    She wished her entire body were as numb as her hands and legs. She tried not to flinch at his touch, sensing that anything might set him off.
    His sudden kindness filled her with both hope—and terror. Did he feel sorry for her because he knew what was coming next? She watched him out of the corner of her eye. What was he thinking? She could well imagine given how he looked at her.
    â€œYou ain’t married,” he said. “I ain’t never been married, not really. I’ve shacked up with my share. None like you.” He stopped.
    The almost full moon had reached the tops of the pines, sending an eerie light over the landscape. A hush had fallen over the mountainside. All of it felt surreal as if she was caught in a never-ending nightmare.
    No breeze stirred the pines. Even the faint murmur of the creek beside her seemed far away. She wrapped her arms around herself, trembling from the cold and the terror of what would happen next as she watched him retrieve her clothes.
    â€œPut these on,” he said and looked away.
    She swallowed, trembling with both