Hard Rain. B.J. Daniels

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      She shifted her boots in the dust. “I’d appreciate it if you would help me find my horse.”

      “By all means let me help you find your horse, then. As you said, it’s the least I can do. Would you care to ride...Miss Hamilton?” He motioned to his horse, glad he hadn’t called her princess, even though it had been on the tip of his tongue.

      Looking chastised, she shook her head. “And, please, my name is—”

      “Harper. I know.”

      “Thank you for not mistaking me for my twin.” She sounded more than a little surprised. “Not even my own father can tell us apart at times.”

      He could feel her looking at him, studying him like a bug under a microscope. He wondered what she’d majored in at college. Nothing useful, he would bet.

      “Thank you also for helping me find my horse,” she said into the silence that fell between them. “I really don’t want to be left out here on foot if my horse has returned to the barn.”

      He thought the walk might do her some good but was smart enough not to voice it. “The last I saw of your mare she was headed up into the foothills. I would imagine that’s where we’ll find her, next to the creek.”

      She glanced up at him. “I should probably apologize for hitting you.” When he said nothing, she continued. “With everything that’s been going on in my family, I thought you were... Anyway, I’m sorry that I hit you and that I misunderstood your concern.” He could hear in her voice how hard that apology was for her.

      And, he had to admit, her family had recently definitely been through a lot. The family had seemed to be under attack since her father, Senator Buckmaster Hamilton, had announced he would be running for president. Three of her sisters had been threatened. Not to mention the mother she’d believed dead had returned out of the blue after twenty-two years—and her stepmother had been killed in a car accident. It was as if tragedy was tracking that family.

      “Apology accepted,” he said as he picked up her cowboy hat from the dust and handed it to her.

      As they walked toward sun-bleached cliffs and shimmering green pines, he mentally kicked himself. He’d had a crush on Harper—from a distance, of course—for years, waiting for her to grow up, and now that she finally had and he’d managed to get her attention, he couldn’t imagine a worse encounter.

      Not that he wasn’t knocked to his knees by her crooked smile or the way she had of cocking her head when she was considering something. Or the endless blue of her wide-eyed innocence—all things he’d noticed from the first time he’d laid eyes on her. He smiled to himself, remembering the first time he’d seen her. She’d just been a freckle-faced kid.

      Somehow, he’d thought... She’d be grown-up and one day... He told himself someday he and Harper would have a good laugh over today’s little incident, before he mentally kicked himself.

      He’d actually thought he’d rescued the woman of his dreams—until she’d hit him.

      * * *

      BRODY MCTAVISH. HARPER grimaced in embarrassment. She’d been half in love with him as far back as she could remember. Not that he had looked twice at her. He’d been the handsome rowdy teen she used to spy on from a distance. She’d been just a girl, much too young for him. But Brody had come to parties her older sisters had put on at the ranch. She and Cassidy were too young to attend and were always sent up to bed, but Harper often sneaked down when everyone else, including her twin, thought she was asleep.

      Several times Brody had caught her watching and she’d thought for sure he would snitch on her, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d given her a grin and covered for her. Her nine-year-old heart had beat like a jackhammer in her chest at just the thought of that grin.

      She’d seen Brody a few times after that, but only in passing. He’d graduated from high school and gone off to college before coming back to the family ranch. She’d been busy herself, getting an education, traveling, experiencing life away from Montana. When she’d heard that her sister Bo was dating Jace Calder, she’d wondered if he and Brody were still best friends.

      It wasn’t until the wedding that she got to see him again. She hadn’t been surprised to find that he was still handsome, still had that same self-deprecating grin, still made her now grown-up heart beat a little faster. She’d waited at the wedding reception for him to ask her to dance since they were both attendants, but he hadn’t. She’d told herself that he probably still saw her as a child, given the difference in their ages.

      Glancing over at him now, she didn’t even want to consider what he must think of her after this. Not that she cared, she told herself, lifting her head and pretending it didn’t matter. He probably didn’t even remember the secret they had shared when she was a girl.

      As they walked, though, she couldn’t help studying him out of the corner of her eye. Earlier, she hadn’t appreciated how strong he was. Now that she knew he wasn’t some predator who had been trying to abduct her—something she’d been warned about as a girl since she was the daughter of a wealthy rancher, not to mention US senator—she took in his muscled body along with the chiseled features of his handsome face in the shade of his straw cowboy hat.

      No matter what he said, he hadn’t accepted her apology. He was still angry with her. She’d given him her best smile when he’d returned her hat from the ground and all she’d gotten was a grunt. Her smile was all it usually took with most men. But Brody wasn’t most men. Isn’t that why she’d never been able to forget him?

      “I feel as if we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,” she said, trying to make amends.

      Another grunt without even looking at her.

      “My fault entirely,” she said, although she didn’t really believe that was true and hoped he would agree.

      But he said nothing, nor would he even look at her. He was starting to irritate her. She was doing her best to make up for the misunderstanding, but the stubborn man wasn’t giving her an inch.

      “You can’t just keep ignoring me,” she snapped, digging in her boot heels as she stopped shy of the pine-covered hillside. “Have you even heard a word I’ve said? If you don’t look at me right this minute, Brody McTavish, I’m going to—”

      He swung on her. Had she not been standing flat-footed she would have stumbled back. Instead, she was rooted to the ground as suddenly he was in her face. “I’ve been listening to you and I’ve been looking at you for years,” he said, his voice deep and thick with emotion. “I’ve been waiting for you to grow up.” His voice faltered as he dropped his horse’s reins. “Because I’ve been wanting to do this since you were sixteen.”

      Grabbing her, he pulled her against his rock-hard body. His mouth dropped to hers. Her lips parted of their own accord, just as her arms wrapped around his neck. Her heart hammered against her ribs as he deepened the kiss and she heard herself moan.

      The sudden high-pitched whinny of a horse only yards away brought them both out of the kiss in one startled movement. Turning, she could see her horse in the trees. Her first thought was that the mare had gotten into a hunter’s snare, because the whinny was one of pain—or alarm.

      Brody grabbed her arm as she started past him to see what was wrong with her horse. “I think you should wait here,” he said, letting СКАЧАТЬ