Kindle Edition
Peggy Ann Craig
Category:
Romance
Pages: 334
Copyright: July 19, 2014
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Only the mountain held the secret of what happened that one horrific morning.
On a cold and still night, a frightened woman makes a frenzied escape down a wooded mountainside. Fear is her only companion. Silence is her only salvation.
Anna Nicholson had lived all her life under the shadow of prejudice in the remote village high on Mount Louis whose reclusive people were considered as wild and primitive as the wilderness from which they lived. So when she awakes one morning to find herself in a stranger's barn with a rifle to her face and no memory of how she got there, she is overcome with a gripping fear. Yet, instinctively knew it did not arise from the big and burly cowboy standing directly behind the Winchester rifle or the other nine fierce cowboys who called the ranch home, but instead from a memory she could not recall. One, she feared, in which she was the source. Mistaken for a mute teenage boy, Anna is able to hide unseen and unheard from an evil she could not recall.
Wade Haddock is the rough and tough but lonely cowboy who finds a frightened Anna in his barn. Convinced the isolated wilderness was no place for a woman, he allows Anna to hide away on his sprawling Rocky Mountain ranch believing her to be a mute teenage boy. While gradually succumbing to the bond growing between them, the wall around his guarded heart begins to slowly crumble. Only to discover Anna's deception. and a memory that could destroy their love.
Excerpt
Taking a deep breath he slid a look over at Mac and took note of his slow movements, calculating the estimated time before the bull decided he no longer wanted to share his pen.
Glancing back at the boy he said in the most controlled tone of voice he could muster, “Okay, look, if this is all about a bath, you can skip it. Hell, if you’re willing to risk your life over it you obviously really don’t want to take a bath. So, agreed. Now, would you kindly move very---and I mean very slowly in this direction.”
The boy hesitated, obviously weighing the validity of Wade’s words then glanced over at the bull. With caution he finally moved toward the fence. Mac lifted his head and cocked his ears but did not follow. Instead he stood and watched as the boy slowly made his way from the safety of the tree to the side of the pen.
Just when he reached it, a breeze picked up the corner of his blanket and flapped it in the wind. The bull snorted, moved his hind legs in irritation and began to position himself in what Wade knew was a charge.
Without a moment’s pause he reached over the fence, grabbed the boy and blanket, and then flung him over the fence to safety. His movements were so quick he didn’t have time to steady himself as the pair of them went flying onto the dusty ground. To help break the fall Wade threw them into a roll until they came to a stop a few yards away from the bull pen.
Even though the boy was small he still proved quite the punch, knocking the wind out of Wade momentarily. He lay on the ground trying to catch his breath while the boy lay sprawled across his torso.
When the dust finally settled, the oddest thing he noticed first was an unfamiliar smell. He couldn’t rightly put his finger on it, but it reminded him of days long ago when he was a boy running between the clothes line hanging out back behind the house to dry. It smelled—he screwed up his forehead trying to think of the right word—fresh. Which almost made him chuckle, seeing that the boy looked like he just had a roll in the pile of cattle dung out back.
At first Wade didn’t notice what was happening, too occupied with catching his breath and familiarizing himself with the odd scent, but then something unexpectedly stirred which had no business stirring. The boy moved, trying to orient his bearings. Wade felt the boy’s scrawny little leg rub up against Wade’s much larger one and that something stirred more obviously this time.
With a horrified thrust he pushed the boy off him and leaped to his feet. The boy quickly curled up into a ball on the ground, drawing the blanket closer around him. He didn’t look up and Wade was glad.
He had no idea where that reaction came from. It certainly wasn’t because he was lacking in that extra-curricular activity. Hell, he just came back from it. Maybe it was the long nights on the cattle drive. Maybe he didn’t get enough sleep. Hell, he really needed a bath now.
“Get the boy a bucket of water.” He informed Joe. “He can use a washcloth to clean up.”
He studied the shivering boy once again sitting on the ground chin tucked deeply into that ridiculous blanket. One corner of the blanket dropped and exposed a slender shoulder before the boy snatched it back up quickly. Wade’s member stirred once again. He let out an angry growl and turned away viciously. “And, dammit, get the kid some clothes. He’s shivering to death.”
Wade didn’t look back as he stormed up to the house thrusting thoughts of the boy aside. He certainly was not going to think or explore his unusual reaction to him.
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