Rawhide and Roses by Maddie James Read Free Book Online Page B

she’d ever had to do. For around him, her body just seemed to respond. There was no thinking about it.
    The next twelve days were going to be pure hell. And not the kind of hell that she’d originally thought.

Chapter Five

    Two hours later found Kim in the center of the string, plodding along on an old gray mare named Sunshine who was at least twenty years old and moved like she was seventy. Thad led the string up a slow incline into the mountains. Several pack mules, she and Jillie, Tim and Aaron, and the couple she’d not put names to yet, along with the two wranglers named Ben and Luke were interspersed throughout the middle. Mack brought up the rear. As Kim glanced around her at the battered chaps, hats, and boots the men wore while sitting tall in their saddles, she let herself be drawn into a fantasy of the wild, wild west. She fashioned herself Miss Kitty and another cowboy entered her daydream in the form of Matt Dillon. When he strode closer to her on his horse so she could see his face, Matt Dillon turned into none other than Thad Winchester.
    Shaking away a chill that crept over her spine, Kim let her gaze rest only on the reality of her situation. She was riding a stupid horse up the side of a huge mountain!
    So far they had encountered the remnants of a beautiful sunrise, a misty fog that lifted as the sun rose over the San Juan Mountains , and a host of dewy, spectacular wildflowers as they headed into the Weminuche Wilderness.
    They spoke only in whispers and Kim, for one, welcomed the peace that surrounded her. It was as though they were entering the wilderness with a reverence to its pristine beauty. A calm fell over her. If she needed anything, right now, she guessed she needed this. Although she would have never admitted it to anyone, especially Jillie, she admitted it to herself. After the hectic past twenty-four hours, she needed peaceful bliss and a calm scenario surrounding her to bring her back into focus.
    She never would have thought it, but she was enjoying this immensely.
    Finally, she relaxed in her saddle. Her old gray nag wasn’t going to go anywhere in a hurry, but the pack string as a whole wasn’t in a hurry. She wondered if this was their normal clip, or if Thad was deliberately slowing things down for her, thinking she couldn’t handle a faster pace. Not that he would extend her any kindness. That would be the last thing she’d expect from the mighty Thaddeas Winchester.
    She didn’t care. Enjoying the peaceful panoramic view around her was all she cared about for the moment.
    Her gaze drifted to the head of the string and landed on Thad. She was far enough away that she couldn’t see anything but the rigid line of his back as he sat in the saddle and the shadow his cowboy hat threw over his shoulders. Every once in a while, when he turned to check the string of mules behind him, she caught a brief glimpse of his profile.
    She had to wonder about the man. He was obviously dedicated to his ranch, his business, but did he have a life outside of that? And what was it about her that clearly irritated him?
    “Whoa!”
    The shout went up somewhere from behind. Momentarily lost in her daydream, Kim started as the male voice pierced the quiet. Quickly jerking on the horse’s reins, she managed to stop Sunshine before she rear-ended the mule in front of her. Then Kim noticed Mack riding up beside her.
    “Kim! Didn’t you see the gear trailing out of the manty in front of you?”
    “What?”
    “The gear. Half of the gear is hanging out on that mule up there—the other half is strewn across the last fifty feet or so of the trail. You’ve got to watch for stuff like that.”
    “What?” Kim repeated. She looked two mules up. The mule in front of Jethro had indeed lost half of one of his manties, and now, the load unbalanced, the decker was sliding to the right. The mule didn’t seem to like it very much. With a soft curse, Mack rode ahead and dismounted.
    “What do you want me to