Lone Rider. B.J. Daniels

wanted to turn his back, run away from the problem. But he hadn’t, and neither would Bo Hamilton when he found her.

      Jace realized he wouldn’t be able to track Bo much longer. He needed to make camp before it was too dark to see.

      But just as he started to look for a spot to spend the night, he saw the footprints in the dirt. The tracks were man-size, large, moving in a scraping manner that dislodged a lot of dirt.

      What caught his eye, though, was the fact that the tracks crossed Bo’s horseshoe prints. Someone had walked past after she’d ridden up into the mountains.

      Swinging out of the saddle, he studied them in the waning light. Seeing the man’s boot prints in the dirt, he decided he wouldn’t build a fire tonight. He staked his horse some distance away from where he’d rolled out his sleeping bag.

      The last thing he wanted was to become the hunted, because if he was right, Bo Hamilton was on the run—and she wasn’t alone.

      * * *

      WHEN RAY FINALLY quit dragging Bo up the mountainside in the dark, she collapsed on the ground in tears. Her wrists were rubbed raw from the rope cutting through the duct tape he’d bound her with. The fabric of her shirt was torn at both elbows, the skin beneath it scraped and bleeding.

      “Get up,” Ray ordered as he swung down from her horse. “And stop yer blubberin’ or I’ll give ya somethin’ to cry about.”

      She couldn’t move, couldn’t walk another step. Nor could she stop crying. The sobs racked her body, generated by fear and exhaustion and the bitter taste of defeat. She was at this man’s mercy, and he had proven he was merciless.

      He took an intimidating step toward her. She closed her eyes and curled into a tight ball, bracing herself for the kick. To her surprise, he bent down close to her.

      “Ya done good,” he said, his voice sounding both surprised and pleased. “Yer tougher than ya look.”

      She didn’t feel tough as he dragged her to her feet. As he untied the rope from her wrists and peeled off what was left of the duct tape, she flinched at the damage that had been done.

      “There’s water in that creek over there. It’ll make ya feel better if ya clean up.” The tenderness in his voice suddenly frightened her more than the gruff ruthlessness she had come to associate with him.

      Before she could protest, he swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the water. It was full dark now, the sky overhead lit with stars and the gleam of a full moon as it rose up behind the pines to the east. The creek’s surface shimmered in the silken light.

      Easing her down on the creek bank, he pulled off her boots and her socks. When he reached for the buttons on her jeans, she tried to pull away.

      He slapped her hard enough to snap her head back. “Don’t fight me. Don’t ever fight me.”

      She swallowed, her skin stinging from the slap. Closing her eyes, she felt him fumble with the buttons of her jeans before he jerked them down to her ankles, then off. She pressed her eyes closed more tightly, expecting him to remove her panties, as well. Tears leaked from beneath her lashes, but she was sobbed out.

      Instead, she felt his fingers on her shirt. The snaps loudly clacked as he jerked her shirt open then eased it off one shoulder, then the other. She hugged herself, praying he wouldn’t try to remove her bra.

      “I’ll help ya into the water,” he said next to her ear a moment before he lifted her into his arms again. Wading out into the creek, he lowered her slowly into the icy water.

      The cold took her breath away as she balanced precariously on the smooth silken surface of the rocks beneath her, the water up to her thighs. He let go of her. She wobbled there in the middle of the stream, water rushing around her. The freezing water made her lower body ache.

      “Wash yerself,” he ordered, taking a step back, but not so far that he couldn’t reach her if she tried to scramble out of the creek and up the adjacent bank.

      * * *

      RAY FELT DESIRE curl in his belly as he watched her. He didn’t know how much longer he could contain himself. He wanted her, and it didn’t help that he could take her so easily. There was no one around to hear her screams. No one around to be the wiser. Once he disposed of her body...

      And what a body it was. His ache had a choke hold on him, and yet something inside him wanted more from her. He’d had women, but none like this one. He wanted this to be different from the others, most of them women he hadn’t even had to force himself on. But they’d all left him feeling empty. This one, he thought, would be different. But only if she came to him willingly.

      The thought almost made him laugh. Women didn’t find him...attractive. Especially one like this. He wasn’t bad looking for such a big, hulking guy. That was usually what reeled in the desperate women he’d known. It was when they’d seen his temper or got a glimpse of the darkness inside him—that’s when they wanted nothing to do with him.

      He couldn’t hide that part of himself. At least not for long. He would end up hurting this woman. He always did. He would see the change in her eyes—just like he had the others. One minute they were fine with him. The next all they wanted was to put as much distance as possible between him and them.

      But they never got away easily. He was too big, too strong, too fast for that. Even hurting them, though, hadn’t given him the satisfaction he so desperately wanted, needed. Ultimately, they all left him, and he ended up feeling empty and alone.

      For once, he wanted a woman to want him—with all his faults.

      He stared at little Bo-Peep. She was different. She was the kind of woman he would never have stood a chance with off this mountain. Hell, she dressed like she had money. Even her horse looked expensive. Didn’t she say her daddy would pay a million dollars for her?

      He’d laughed at the time, but now he wondered if she hadn’t been telling the truth. What had she said her name was? Bo Calder. The name didn’t ring any bells. She’d probably been lying about the money as well as her name. Not that it mattered. For all his dreaming of her coming to him willingly, he doubted she would last the night.