Free Carol Finch by Oklahoma Bride

ninny.
    “As much as I love this property that calls out to me, I want to claim it for my brother and his new wife,” she gushed as she clutched her dirty carpetbag to her chest. “On the way down from Kansas, Clint was thrown from his horse. He suffered a broken leg and concussion. He barely gets around on the crutch I…found…for him and it will be impossible for him to make the Run. His wife is seven months’ pregnant and she is in no condition to take Clint’s place in the race for land. I’ve looked after my younger brother since wewere kids. Now I want him to have a fresh start, the chance to make a new life.”
    To her dismay, she realized tears were dribbling down her cheeks. She managed to reroute them, but she couldn’t seem to clamp down on her tongue as she should have. Rafe didn’t care what a difficult life she’d had. She wasn’t his responsibility. He had a blue-blooded fiancée waiting for him back East. He didn’t care that she had somehow gotten attached to him the past few days.
    It was ridiculous, but it didn’t stop her from pouring out her heart to him. She felt the insane need to make him understand there was good reason she had turned out the way she had. She didn’t expect him to like her, but she wanted him to understand what motivated her.
    “I doubt that you can begin to imagine what it’s like to be uprooted and moved from one lawless cow town to the next while your father drowns his woes in whiskey and gambles away every cent he’s accumulated. I doubt you know what it’s like to be a woman who has to dress as a boy and sweep up in smoke-filled saloons, while calico queens and drunkards paw each other and fling lewd remarks, just so you can acquire enough money to feed yourself and your little brother.”
    “Where is your father now?” he asked gently.
    “He got caught cheating at poker and the dispute ended badly for him. I couldn’t afford to give him a proper burial.”
    “I’m sorry, Rissa.” Rafe tried to pat her consolingly, but she shrugged him off and rambled on before the tears washed away her voice.
    “I never had the chance to make friends, only passing acquaintances. Never had a home to call my own or enough money to buy a gown as fine as this one thatyou borrowed for me. And now look at it!” To her horror, Karissa wailed like an abandoned baby when she realized the gown had suffered irreparable damage. “And how am I going to earn the money to replace this gown? What little money I made from washing, scrubbing and mending will barely cover food and supplies for my brother and his wife!”
    Shamelessly Karissa fell into Rafe’s arms, knowing perfectly well she didn’t belong there, that she wasn’t particularly wanted there, but needing to be held and comforted.
    Of course, she would never be able to look this man in the eye after she had reduced herself to blubbering tears, but she had to get through the night—somehow—if she was going to marshal her spirits to face another trying day.
    “I—I’m s-sorry,” she whimpered, humiliated. “I— I—”
    To her further mortification she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him squarely on the mouth. It was a reckless mistake, a complete lapse of good judgment. She had no idea why she thought she needed to kiss Rafe Hunter so desperately. He didn’t belong to her, would never belong to her and she was only reaffirming his belief that she was nothing more than a trollop.
    But suddenly Karissa forgot all the reasons she shouldn’t be kissing him, because he was kissing her back and the world tilted on its axis and time ceased to exist.
    It didn’t take long to realize that Rafe Hunter kissed as well as he handled a rifle and sat on a horse. He stole the breath right out of her lungs and ignited a fire in her blood that all the water in the creek couldn’t extinguish. Karissa had never felt so wild, reckless and needy, neverknew desire could leave a woman’s head spinning so furiously that