Cherished by Jill Gregory Read Free Book Online Page A

anywhere in the world. He had searched for her,
methodically, patiently, critically, refusing to settle for
anything less than perfection, and at last, at the Governor’s Ball
in St. Louis not many months before, he had found her.
    Now, Breen thought, watching from the window
in his study as the buckboard drew up before the front steps and
the Tobias family alighted, she was here at last.
    His waiting was over.
    She’s a jewel, a rare and spectacular
jewel
, Breen reflected as he surveyed Juliana’s small, piquant
countenance, softly illuminated by the night’s first stars. He
enjoyed the fact that she had journeyed all this way without the
faintest idea of his plans for her. As a matter of fact, he had
enjoyed everything about Juliana Montgomery from the moment he had
first met her at the Governor’s Ball. Her beauty, her gracefulness,
her enchanting, tinkling laugh. He had known as soon as he set eyes
on her that she was everything he could ever want in a woman, that
she possessed the qualities he had long been searching for in a
wife. She was lovely, sophisticated and refined, yet spirited
enough to make him proud when he walked into a room with her on his
arm. None of these mealymouthed, insipid little debutantes would do
for John Breen, nor would a homespun Colorado girl suffice. In
marriage, as in everything else he put his hand to, he had to have
the best, a woman all other men would envy him for possessing. As
soon as Breen had glimpsed Edward Tobias’s niece, decked out in
pink tulle and lace, waltzing round and round the ballroom with a
score of foolish boys panting after her like pups chasing a bone,
he had known that Juliana Montgomery was the perfect bride for
him.
    It was time for him to marry, time to think
about begetting himself a son to whom he could pass on the empire
he had built and which he was constantly expanding. But his wife,
and the mother of his son, had to be special, someone as remarkable
in her way as he was himself. Juliana was that. Every inch a lady,
yet not shy, not prim and boring. There was a natural grace and
poise about her, a subtle, tantalizing sensuality that had struck
him immediately. She looked soft as a kitten, yet when they had met
there had been laughter and confidence in her eyes, a directness
that he admired. He couldn’t wait to get her in his bed. Breen had
a sixth sense about such things. He’d have bet a fortune that
beneath Juliana’s golden innocence lurked a passionate woman, a
woman just waiting to be driven wild by a man’s caresses. He would
be the one to oblige her, too. No one else. He’d kill any other man
who touched her. Breen vowed that to himself as he let his gaze
travel over the elegant features and feminine enchantments of the
girl walking toward his door. He smoothed the tip of his mustache
before turning from the window. Yes, he thought with satisfaction,
he would have her, and before the month was out.
    Walking up the lane to the ranch, Juliana
breathed in the icy sweetness of mountain pine. She glanced toward
the peaks of the Rockies, instinctively drawn by the vista of
looming mountains, and was so transfixed, she did not notice the
rest of the family lingering behind. As she trod up the steps of
the porch, still gazing at the lavender sky and great dusk-shadowed
peaks, the front door was suddenly thrown open. A tall man in
elegant gray shirt and breeches strode across the porch and smiled
directly down at her.
    “Welcome, Miss Montgomery. Welcome to Twin
Oaks.” Taking her arm, John Breen guided her up the final step and
drew her onto the porch.
    Juliana murmured a greeting in response, and
thought he would turn to Uncle Edward and Aunt Katharine and usher
them all into the house. But to her surprise he ignored the others,
and drew her along the porch to a window where light streamed out.
Still holding Juliana’s arm, he stared down at her, studying her
face and hair, illuminated by the glowing light. His smile deepened
at her surprised