Jed's Sweet Revenge by Deborah Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

animals for several more minutes. When she finished, Jed seemed mesmerized, as if hecouldn’t think of anything to say. Finally he told her in a low voice, “You love everything here, I figure, and everything here loves you. I see why.”
    Thena caught her breath. How could the man put so much sexiness into such ordinary words? This conversation could quickly get out of hand. She stood up and jabbed a finger at his half-eaten food. “Yes, well. Hurry and eat. I’ll call one of the other horses up for you. I’ve trained a few besides Cendrillon.”
    “You just want to watch me get stomped by a half-wild stallion,” he joked. “But I made my livin’ for a lot of years ridin’ rodeo broncs, so don’t get your hopes up.”
    “Why did you stop competing?”
    “I got stomped by a half-wild stallion.” He smiled a little and pointed to his neck. “Cracked two vertebrae. That was when I decided to train quarter horses for a livin’. Right now I’m huntin’ for a ranch to buy. I’m gonna have the best quarter horse ranch in the country, one of these days.”
    “That costs money. You must have inherited a lot.” She looked at him in a disapproving way that told him exactly what she thought of his sour attitude toward a family that had done him the favor of making him rich.
    That was a mistake. His eyes immediately hardened. “It was my mother’s money, meant for her.” Jed squinted up, and his deep voice cut her attitude to shreds. “If she’d had it years ago, she’d still be alive. I didn’t ask for the money or this island, but I got it. And I don’t feel one damned bit bad about havin’ what should have been hers.”
    Thena felt her face turning pink. “I … there’s probably a lot I don’t know about all that,” she said hurriedly. “And it’s none of my business. I didn’t mean to sound judgmental. All I care about is what you intend to do with my … the island.”
    Jed’s anger dissolved under her earnest response. “I reckon I look real bad to you, and I’m sorry aboutthat. I don’t expect you to understand the way I feel about this old Gregg family place.”
    Thena measured the stoic quality in his voice and the strong resolve in his face, but behind his hazel eyes she believed she saw genuine sadness on her account.
    “You don’t look bad to me,” she told him. Why she wanted to soothe this man’s feelings, she didn’t know. Thena sighed in dismay at her jumbled emotions. “You just look like a mainlander who has to be educated.”
    “So teach me, gal.”
    For a breathless second they stared at each other in awkward anticipation—anticipation of what, Thena didn’t want to consider. She began backing away.
    “Eat,” she urged. “I’ll go get the horses.”
    Jed watched her until she disappeared into the forest. You don’t look bad to me, she’d said. He felt like a half-grown boy on the verge of giving a giddy whoop.
       Thena knew the minute Jed settled onto JackJaw’s buckskin back that she was in the presence of a man who understood and loved horses as well as she did. Already astride Cendrillon, she watched Jed expertly guide the stallion in loping circles on the beach. JackJaw wore nothing but a blue nylon halter and rope reins.
    It was a powerful sight, lithe man and fluid horse moving so gracefully together on her beach, and Thena felt sweet tears rise under her dark eyelashes. Jed Powers couldn’t be heartless enough to sell her island—it was impossible. His expression was serene and his smile was honest. Honest and very attractive.
    She became aware of molten warmth shimmering through her body. She suddenly seemed too hot, as if she had her own internal sun, and when a birdtrilled in the pines nearby, she felt an odd, poignant emotion race up her spine. She thought her island had strong powers. Well, perhaps this unusual man had powers too. His last name might be appropriate.
    Jed slid the stallion to a halt beside Cendrillon, and Thena smiled weakly