Beauty and the Brit by Lizbeth Selvig Read Free Book Online

Bonnie hopped out of the car. “And Hector won’t find us.”
    It was worth being here just to have Bonnie free of Hector. Rio steeled her heart and repeated her warning to herself. This was not a home. It was charity. Charity she intended to repay.
    A warm breeze caressed her face when she stepped from the car, as if true August had awaited them here in the country while the city shivered in unseasonable coolness. Turning in place, she took in the surroundings. Fifty yards from the house, the driveway opened into a large yard connecting a complex of buildings. A neat white-and-green barn stood closest, and she assumed the tan metal-sided building that dwarfed it was a riding arena. As she admired the flower beds, the tidy lawns, and the grove of shade trees in which they stood, two riders led horses out of the barn door.
    “Look!” Bonnie pointed.
    A trickle of disappointment slid through Rio’s stomach. Neither rider wore jeans or cowboy boots, the cowgirl uniform she’d dreamed of owning, along with her own horse, since she’d been a kid. Neither of these horses wore a big, cow-roping saddle. There wasn’t a Stetson in sight. Instead, the two girls wore form-fitting breeches with inner knee patches and prissy black helmets.
    “You’ll find this is a busy place.” Jill stood beside her. “Never a dull moment in the barn and arenas, but the house stays pretty private, so you’ll be fine there.”
    Rio simply stared.
    “Everything all right? You look a little shell-shocked.” Jill touched Rio’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. It must be overwhelming.”
    Rio finally responded to the kindness in Jill’s words and nodded. “I’m a fish on the sand here,” she admitted. “I was imagining more jeans and dust.”
    Jill laughed. “Don’t worry. You’ll find plenty of those, too.”
    Bonnie apparently harbored no disappointments. “I love those riding breeches! They look super-hot.”
    “Super-practical,” Jill amended. “I’ll find you a pair to borrow. You’ll see.”
    “Honest?” Bonnie looked at Rio as if for confirmation of this amazing promise.
    All she could do was shrug again. If Jill did find Bonnie a pair of breeches, it would at least make three pairs of pants the girl owned. Between fire, smoke, and water damage in the house, neither of them had been left with much wearable clothing.
    “I’ll get you set up inside,” Jill continued. “David could be finishing a lesson. He’ll find us.”
    Rio quit listening when a third person emerged from the barn. For an instant she watched casually, but then his movements, his wave of thick, dark hair, and a smile visible across the distance shocked her into recognition.
    David.
    She took him in, and her heart fell in disillusionment. In tight-fitting breeches, a pale green-and-white striped polo shirt, and tall black boots hugging his lower legs all the way to his knees, he looked as un-macho as the two stylish women who’d just passed by. If Rio could have created a picture that screamed “I am the opposite of a cowboy,” this would have been it. For once, even Bonnie was quiet.
    And yet, as the length of his confident stride carried him closer, the contours of his thighs and breadth of his shoulders erased anything she’d mistaken for effeminate about him. Her disenchantment faded enough to make room for curiosity.
    “Rio. Bonnie,” he called out. “I’m glad to see you’ve made it safely. How was the ride down? Construction traffic?”
    Jill shook her head. “Easy peasy.”
    “Brilliant.” His accent and warm smile gave the word an onomatopoeic brightness.
    He faced Rio directly, and her memories of him turned to pale shadows. The real man, with his sculpted cheeks and rich, glinting brown eyes, turned her heart and pulse into a marimba band, drowning her disappointment further with the fluttery music of gut-deep attraction. Tight riding pants and all, he was flat-out gorgeous. How could she have forgotten?
    She tore her eyes away,