This Calder Sky by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page A

he began drying her legs, starting with her feet and working his way up the calves of her legs to above the knees. He rubbed hard to stimulate the circulation. His roughness brought a barely stifled sound of protest from her. Chase knew he was causing a thousand nerve ends to tingle painfully.
    When he was through, he jabbed a long branch upright in the sandy soil beside the fire and draped his damp shirt over it to dry. It was only then that he became aware of the squishing wetness of his socks and boots. He pulled them off and squeezed the water from the woolen socks, laying them on the outer edge of the fire to steam.
    Through all of this, Maggie watched him silently. Feeling began to steal back into her body, the shuddering reduced to occasional shivers, thanks to the warmth of the fire and the heavy, man’s jacket around her.
    Both her father and her brother, Culley, weresmallbuilt men. Neither had the broad, muscular chest and arms that Chase Calder had, or that thick patch of chestnut hair on his breastbone. She studied the play of those flat, ropy muscles as he worked, all hard flesh and bone. He seemed a mountain of a man to her. A trace of awe surfaced and Maggie fought it down the only way she knew how.
    â€œYou look ridiculous in that hat with no shirt or boots,” she told him.
    â€œI do, huh?” Taking off his hat, he set it on the ground and ran a hand through the unruly thickness of his umber hair. Then he cast her a wicked glance. “You aren’t exactly well dressed, either, kid.”
    â€œThat’s because you took my clothes.” The wetness of her long hair against her skin was becoming uncomfortable. Maggie tried to lift it outside the collar, while keeping the jacket securely around her and her arms inside. “And I’m not a kid,” she added in protest, still struggling with the heaviness of her hair.
    â€œI noticed,” he murmured dryly. Vividly, he remembered what she looked like beneath that jacket and could attest to the fact that she possessed a woman’s body. The memory of it stirred him as he watched the trouble she was having. “I’ll do that,” Chase volunteered and rose to step behind he.
    Starting at her cheekbones, his fingers moved down below her ears and tunneled under the heavy weight of her hair, lifting its length from under the jacket and spreading it down the outside of the back. There was a certain sensuality in holding all that hair in his hands. It burned him like a black fire. Chase released it and stepped away to pick up a stick, snapping it in two in an effort to stop the surging rush of his white-hot senses. He crouched beside her to add the broken pieces of wood to the fire.
    â€œHow old are you, Maggie?” He used her name unconsciously, riveting his gaze to the dancing flames.
    â€œSixteen.” She bit her lip at the lie and admitted, “I will be in August.”
    Chase turned his head to study her, a smile slanting his mouth. “Sweet sixteen and never been kissed.” There was a harsh quality to his mocking tone that didn’t match the way he was looking at her.
    His words caused Maggie to huddle deeper in the jacket, drawing her knees to envelop more of her legs in its hugeness. “Clyde Barnes kissed me once when we were playing in the schoolyard.”
    â€œHow old were you then?”
    Her chin went a little lower and she avoided his gaze to stare at her toes. “Thirteen.” There was a defensive crispness to her answer.
    â€œNobody can say you aren’t without experience,” he murmured with drawling roughness.
    â€œI never said I was experienced.” She flashed him a sideways look of injured pride. “Clyde wasn’t even thirteen yet.” The intensity of his gaze was more than she could hold. “I know it’s different when a man kisses you.”
    There was a pulsebeat of silence; then his hand was on her neck, turning her head and lifting her chin