Free Lone Rider by B.J. Daniels Page B

fear and relief. She felt as if she’d dodged a bullet. But only momentarily, she reminded herself. She’d seen the naked lust that had lit his eyes brighter than even the rising moon.
    Her heart pummeled her ribs. She pulled on her jeans and shirt, her fingers shaking uncontrollably as she tried to button her jeans. He’d put his shirt back on, covering the array of scars she’d seen across his chest and back.
    â€œI’m just sayin’ we could be good fer each other up here. I’d take care of ya.” There was something pitiful about the way he said it.
    Her head jerked up as she realized he was asking her to be his mate up here in the mountains. The insanity of it couldn’t have made any of this seem more terrifyingly real. She said nothing, couldn’t have spoken if she’d wanted to.
    â€œYa must be hungry,” he said, quickly changing the subject. “Come on.” Picking up her boots and socks, he motioned for her to follow him back to the open spot where he’d left her horse. He’d opened himself up to her. Something in his look warned her that if she tried to run, things would go very badly for her.
    She followed him, walking barefoot on painfully sore feet. He looked back at her once over his shoulder, and even in the light of the rising moon, she could tell he was pleased she hadn’t tried to get away.
    Bo took a breath, then another as she fought to understand this change in him. He wanted her to like him, and yet at the same time there was a heartlessness about him that would make him hurt her without flinching if things didn’t go as he wanted.
    This change in him seemed so incongruous that she felt as if she were walking a tightrope across a deep canyon. One wrong step... She took another deep breath. He’d said she was tough. Well, she would have to be. He wanted her to like him, she told herself again. If that meant he wouldn’t force himself on her... She could only hope for time—and an opportunity to present itself for her escape.
    She couldn’t chance failing, because there was no doubt in her mind what would happen then.
    * * *
    J ACE WATCHED AS the moon rose over the pines and scattered the mountainside with fool’s gold. He rested against a large tree trunk as he leaned back into the dark shadow of the boughs and kicked himself mentally for thinking this was going to be easy. He should have known finding someone as complicated as Bo Hamilton wouldn’t be easy.
    He’d first noticed her at grade school the day she walked into the building. He’d been a second grader, Bo a kindergartener. He’d seen something on her freshly scrubbed face, a stark determination as if she’d made up her mind to take on kindergarten as though it was a battle to be won. He’d loved that about her right away.
    His attempts to get to know her had been rebuked, though. She didn’t seem to make friends easily, standing like she was in her older sisters’ shadows.
    Jace rubbed a hand over his face. Since that day he’d been chasing Bo Hamilton, he thought with a curse. And she had been distancing herself from him. Listening to the night sounds, he wondered where she was tonight.
    What if she had taken a different way out of the mountains? What if she was already back in town? What if he was on a wild-goose chase?
    No. Bo was still up here. Had she been headed back to face the consequences, she would have traveled the most direct route—the same one she’d taken when she left.
    She could have camped at any of the spots on the way back into the mountains, and yet she’d kept going. Where had she been headed?
    He suspected she hadn’t had a plan, or she would have taken a credit card and headed for the airport. Instead, she’d gone camping? He reminded himself that she was a cowgirl. This was her country as much as his. This was where he found peace. Maybe this was also where she found it.
    Had