Native Silver by Helen Conrad Read Free Book Online Page A

the hunger that waited below, just barely restrained, and she gasped, pulling away convulsively, truly shocked by how quickly the danger had showed itself.
    For just a moment, she was dizzy, but she also determined that he wouldn’t see how truly he’d disturbed her.  
    “You may have advanced to that,” she managed to croak out, “but I haven’t.” She turned and started walking through the roses again, stepping quickly. “Have you seen enough flowers? Would you like to go back to the house?”
    “Not yet.” He came along behind her. “I don’t think I’m going to be ready to go in until you promise to have dinner with me.”
    She stopped and glared up at him. “You’ve got to be crazy,” she said raggedly. “You’re a Santiago and I’m a Carrington. You know how impossible it is.”
    He stood with his legs spread wide, his thumbs hooked into his pockets. “You know, I had a feeling you were going to say something like that.”
    She tried to laugh but the sound that came out was slightly rasping. “It doesn’t take a master of perception to see the facts the way they are.”
    He raised his dark eyebrows. “Maybe. But facts often look very different to different people.”
    She shook her head stubbornly. “Facts are facts.”
    His narrowed eyes held a speculative gleam. “ You hate the Santiagos, right?”
    That sounded harsh, and yet it was true. Her chin rose with more defiance than she really felt at the moment. “Yes. With just cause.”
    He nodded slowly. “It might interest you to know that I had no idea you Carringtons felt that way until very recently.”
    She found that very hard to believe. How could he not have felt the animosity that had been brewing right along his borders all these years? “Give me a break,” she replied.
    “And I still don’t understand it,” he went on as though she hadn’t said a thing. “I wish you’d fill me in on just what the beef is.”
    Now she knew he was either joking or playing her for a fool. She whirled and stared up at him. “Don’t you know anything about the history of your own family?”
    His dark eyes were level and candid. “I thought I did,” he said softly. “Maybe I was wrong.”
    She gazed at him, surprised to realize she believed him. He really didn’t know.
    “Will you explain it all to me?”
    She nodded slowly, and he glanced back towards the house. “But not right now. How about tonight?” He grinned, his dark eyes making lazy surveys of her attributes. “Over dinner?”
    Over dinner. Was that really her nodding and saying, “All right,” and “Five o’clock would be fine”? It seemed to be.  
    “And you can fill me in on all the details,” he said as they started back towards the house. “You can explain to me why your sister Lisa seems to like me just fine, while you and your grandfather give me looks that might leave gashing wounds in the hide of a lesser man.”
    “My grandfather?” She stopped again. “When did you see him?”
    He hesitated, looking wary, then decided to go ahead and tell her. “I’m sure he’s told you about the arrangements for the land he’s been living on. I was the one who came over to tell him about the changes a few weeks ago.”
    “Arrangements?” Shawnee’s blood ran cold. “Changes? What are you talking about? What’s happening to the land?’
    He looked at her curiously. “The lease is up. Surely you knew that.”
    “Lease?” Her voice came out like a nail across sandpaper and a wave of nausea swept through her. “My grandfather owns that land.”
    He shook his head slowly, his eyes veiled and unreadable. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that. When my father bought the ranch from Jim Carrington, he allowed him a twenty-acre tract to live on, rent free, for forty years, thinking that would give him more than enough time to find another place to live.” He shrugged lightly. “The forty years are up. My father signed contracts before he died for an access road to