Catch Me by Lorelie Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

shook his head as he grabbed up her reins and mounted his own horse.
    The woman was about as plumb confusing as a gun-toting, hard-drinking preacher. So many contradictions and cross-purposes, he didn’t have a chance at figuring her out. Good thing he didn’t have any plans to do so before he dumped her at Masterson’s feet.

Chapter Six
    They rode long and hard, until Maggie was about as sore as she had ever been. She was used to long trail rides on her father’s land, but it wasn’t the same thing. For one, she’d never ridden an entire day with her hands bound to her saddle.
    It made her nervous. She’d trained innumerable hours with Sandie, to the point where the mare anticipated the slightest shift of Maggie’s thighs. It wouldn’t take much to get Sandie to canter off, but then what would she do? The reins were tied to the rifle loop on Collier’s saddle. Even if Sandie was willing to risk her mouth being ripped to shreds by the bit, Maggie didn’t think they had much chance of escape. A good three hands taller than her horse, Collier’s gelding had the long legs and deep chest of a good runner.
    Much like its owner.
    With nothing to do but stare at the trees or brood on her captor, Maggie chose brooding.
    But keeping her anger up while maintaining a proper seat on the horse when her hands were tied, was exhausting. Downright bone sapping. The inside of her thighs burned and her lower back felt like a bobcat had sunk its claws in her. Her dress wasn’t made to ride astride in, so it had drawn up indecently high around her calves, and they’d been rubbed raw on the bottom edge of the saddle.
    By the time Collier led them away from the trail and into the woods to a stream, she’d just about figured her brain was too tired for any thought whatsoever.
    So when he swung off his gelding and it struck Maggie what a nicely formed posterior he had, she nearly squeaked in shock. The rest of him was prime stock as well, from his solid shoulders to the narrow hips his gun belt slung over. She even liked his thick forearms, with their golden dusting of hair that edged out beneath his shirt cuffs, and the rough turn of his neck into his shoulder.
    She wasn’t completely ignorant of relations between men and women, no matter how Father and Robert had tried to shield her. After all, two of her friends were married and Eloisa even had a darling baby girl. Though neither Eloisa nor Patricia would tell more than the basic details, Maggie understood lust and how it worked.
    She’d just thought she had more brains than to become attracted to the man who’d abducted her.
    As a result, when Collier appeared at her side to untie her hands from the saddle, she flinched.
    He sighed. “I’m really not out to hurt you.” He flicked the twine free with a couple quick motions. “Not unless you try to hurt me first.”
    She slid off Sandie and tried to twist the pain out of her back. It didn’t work. Collier uncinched the saddles and set them side by side, then pulled the blankets off the horses. Those he draped over a nearby branch. He plucked a flat-backed brush from a bag and wiped the salt-flecked sweat from his gelding. Maggie took that as her cue to sit a spell. She leaned back against her saddle and let the tightness slip from her spine.
    He threw a disgusted look over his shoulder. “You know, you could help out a little.”
    She waved her tied-together hands. “Untie me and I’d love to.” She gave him her biggest smile. “I tell you what, you untie me and I’ll even cook and clean up after.”
    He snorted a rough approximation of a laugh and shook his head. “I slip those loose, you’ll be gone before I can even blink.”
    Maggie settled into the saddle and stretched her legs. “Then, I guess I’ll just watch.”
    He groomed both horses and set them to grazing at the far side of the clearing, downstream of the creek. She watched while he built a fire and put together a meal of more beef jerky and beans, then