To Love and Cherish by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

blouse that won’t showdirt. And,” he added darkly, “Danny’s permission, if you can get it.”
    â€œDanny won’t mind,” she said without thinking.
    â€œI’d mind if you belonged to me,” he said flatly. “I’d mind like hell.”
    â€œYou aren’t Danny,” she reminded him softly. “If you mean it, I’ll go and change.”
    He glanced at the wide leather band that held his watch in place. “I mean it for the next twenty minutes. After that, I’m gone.”
    â€œI’ll be ready,” she promised. She dug into her breakfast with an appetite that would have done credit to an athlete after a 20 mile hike.
    Â 
    She met him at the corral, neatly dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a yellow tank top, without makeup, her eyes sparkling.
    He frowned down at her. “Just likea cowgirl,” he murmured. “And still no makeup. Don’t I rate it, or do you really prefer to go without it?”
    She dropped her eyes. “I don’t have any reason to try and attract your attention, King,” she reminded him. “And even if I did, I don’t like pretentiousness.”
    â€œGod, what a word!” he chuckled.
    â€œI told you before I didn’t like artificial things,” she replied as she followed him to the horse he’d saddled for her—a young Appaloosa filly.
    â€œNeither do I, honey, but you’ll have to do more than go without makeup to convince me.”
    â€œWhy bother?” she asked quietly. “You enjoy believing the worst.”
    He raised an eyebrow and stood looking down at her as he lifted the filly’s reins to the pommel of the saddle. “You might change my mind if you worked at it,” he said in a low,deep voice that sent shivers down her spine.
    She stared at him, her heart almost shaking her with its pounding as she met the look in those dark, deep-set eyes.
    â€œDon’t panic,” he said softly, and a thin smile touched his hard mouth. “You’re safe enough—for the moment.”
    He put her up on the filly and mounted his own black stallion gracefully, reining in alongside her as they rode out. She couldn’t manage to look at him just yet. That curious look in his eyes had drained her of courage.
    â€œWhere did you get the hat?” he asked after a minute, his eyes flicking to the brown suede hat sitting jauntily atop her ebony hair.
    â€œYour mother loaned it to me,” she murmured. She glanced at him. “I thought roundup and all was leftto the ranch manager,” she murmured, desperate to find a safe topic of conversation.
    â€œJim Deyton runs things when Dad and I are away,” he agreed, narrowing his eyes as he watched cattle grazing in the distance. “And I’ve got a man who takes care of the purebred stock full time.”
    â€œOne man to do nothing but that?” she exclaimed.
    He glanced at her and a pale smile touched his hard mouth. “You don’t know much about cattle, do you, honey? How much do you think that seed bull of mine is worth—the Santa Gertrudis?”
    She blinked, “Oh, probably at least a thousand dollars,” she said.
    â€œTry a quarter of a million.”
    â€œDollars?!” she choked.
    â€œDollars. We own sixty-two percent of him. Brownland Farms owns the other thirty-eight percent.”
    She sighed heavily. “My gosh, I didn’t realize one bull was worth all that much money.”
    â€œThat particular bull damned well is. He’s sired six champions, and he came from a foundation herd sale on the ranch a few counties over.” He glanced at her. “I imagine you know the one?”
    â€œAnybody who knows Texas knows that one,” she admitted. “Even if they don’t know cattle.”
    â€œYou could learn. You already like the ranch, don’t you, city lady?”
    She nodded, casting her eyes around at the gently rolling