Wrangling the Redhead by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

of you came first.”
    “How’s that any different from you deciding to take off from whatever you were doing in California? Or did you get fired and come crawling back here with your tail tucked between your legs?”
    “Hardly,” she retorted. Unwilling to elaborate, though, she forced a smile. “And you’re right. It’s no different, except that in your case my friends are involved, and nobody hurts them without taking me on in the process.”
    He gave an exaggerated shudder clearly meant to mock her. “I’m trembling in my boots.”
    “You should be. Believe it or not, you’ve seen me on my best behavior. Once I get riled up, a tornado seems tame by comparison. If you doubt that, I can give you a long list of testimonials.”
    His lips twitched. “Is that so?”
    “Yep,” she said, then rose gracefully to her feet. “If you don’t believe it, just try me.”
    As she walked off to get her horse, she was almost certain she heard him put his own twist on her words from the day before.
    “I just might do that, Miss Lauren,” he murmured, but then he drew his Stetson down over his eyes and leaned back against the tree as if he didn’t have another thought to spare for her.
    Lauren cast one last scathing look in Wade’s direction, mounted her horse and headed back to the ranch.
    “It’ll be a cold day in hell before that man gets a chance to try,” she muttered as she rubbed down her horse, checked his feed and then stalked into the house.
    For a few fleeting moments, she and Wade Owens had actually seemed to be on the road to a peaceful coexistence. It hadn’t taken much to shatter that illusion, though.
    Oh, well, she had dealt with her share of pigheaded men over time. It was just too darn bad that this one was sexy as sin.

Chapter Four
    A s soon as he heard the sound of pounding hooves, Wade lifted the Stetson shading his eyes and watched Lauren race away. The woman could ride, no doubt about that. He’d deliberately set a tough pace for her earlier, but she hadn’t been the least bit fazed by it. In fact, she’d come darn close to beating him at his own game. Okay, for a few minutes there, she had beat him. If he hadn’t been so impressed, he might have found it annoying.
    More important from his perspective, there was no question that she knew how to get to Midnight. The horse was skittish as could be around him and had been from the beginning, with no evidence of improvement. But in twenty-four hours, Lauren had the stallion literally eating out of her hand. If she could accomplish a miracle with Midnight, he had no quarrel with her sticking around. He had big plans for that horse. Hecouldn’t help wondering, though, if Lauren knew about them.
    More important, he wondered if she really would be here long enough to finish the job or if this was some temporary lark. Something told him she had the same capacity for restlessness that he had. He hadn’t bought that stuff about the allure of California fading. He had a hunch she was just the type who moved on whenever the mood struck her. Though they hadn’t gotten into what kind of work she’d been doing out there, for all he knew she’d changed jobs once a year or even more frequently.
    That was yet another reason to steer clear of her, he warned himself. Why invest any emotion in a female who wouldn’t be here long enough for him to learn much more than her name…which, come to think of it, he didn’t actually know. Just Lauren, she’d told him. What was that all about? Didn’t she see any point in full disclosure with the hired help?
    “Don’t be a jerk, Wade,” he muttered as he mounted his horse and headed farther up into the hills to see if he could spot the wild horses that had eluded them earlier. It wasn’t as if Lauren whoever-she-was was important in the overall scheme of his life. Why should he give two hoots what sort of secrets she was keeping hidden or what kind of snob she was? As long as she did what Grady asked of her