Read Comanche Cowboy (The Durango Family) for Free Online Page B

going to be married anyhow—”
    “What?” He looked at her blankly.
    She gestured. “You know. Aren’t you accepting my offer?”
    “Now wait just a minute. No one said anything about marriage. . . .”
    “My stars! I did, too!” She felt both humiliation and anger. No, maybe it was disappointment at the way he was backing off like a skittish wild mustang. “My papa doesn’t have any sons, only five girls. He could use a son-in-law to take over and run the ranch.”
    Maverick looked bewildered and backed off. “Whoa now! You mean what you said back in Wichita, you meant marriage?”
    He sounded incredulous, which puzzled her. Of course she had meant marriage. She had a sudden vision of Papa’s little country church all decorated with Blue Bonnets, scarlet Indian Blanket and Indian Paintbrush blooms.
    She smiled at him, imagining him all dressed up, reaching out to her as she came down the aisle in white. “I come with a dowry,” she said hopefully. “The Lazy M’s a nice spread. Like I said, I’ve got four little sisters and no brothers to inherit it.”
    “I think we’re back where we started,” Maverick said wryly, reaching into his vest for cigarette “makins.” “I don’t need a ranch, Cayenne. Maybe you didn’t understand. I’m the old Don’s adopted son. I come in for a share of the Triple D.”
    The giant Triple D empire that spread across two counties, and she’d been trying to buy him with eighteen dollars or the dowry of her papa’s modest ranch!
    “I feel like a fool.” She brushed her hair back and gestured helplessly. “I. . . . don’t know what to say. You could have told me your last name was Durango.”
    He rolled a cigarette expertly one-handed. “Last names never seemed to have come up today, Miss—? Miss—?”
    “McBride,” she answered haughtily. “Cayenne Carol McBride. And I suppose now that you’ve let me completely humiliate myself, I’ll just get my horse, ride back to Wichita, and try to find someone else. . . .”
    “McBride,” he said softly, the cigarette halfway to his lips. “McBride. A common-enough name, I reckon.”
    “I reckon,” she agreed, leaning over to pick up her hat off the ground. “Why, do you know a McBride?”
    His hand seemed to tremble as he stuck the cigarette between his lips. “No. I never met a man by that name.” His tone seemed suddenly hostile, guarded. “The family’s from Texas?”
    She reached for the bay’s reins. “You should know from my politics that we’re not just Texans, we’re Southerners.”
    He lit a match with his thumbnail and studied her with a searching look that made her uneasy. “Couldn’t be,” he murmured so softly, and she was not quite sure she caught the words.
    “What did you say?” Cayenne watched him smoke and study her, as if really seeing her for the very first time. The storm clouds built even higher behind him, all silver gray and lavender. Above, the eagles flew up into the sun until they were only tiny black dots against the golden light.
    “I guess I’ll be heading back to town,” she sighed regretfully when he didn’t answer but just stared at her. She patted the bay’s nose. “Papa Joe’s going to be awfully disappointed when I don’t get there.”
    “Say that again?” There was something about his expression that scared her. It was a mixture of shock—no, something worse; something dark and ugly.
    He was only weary and put out with her, that was all. She supposed he couldn’t be blamed for that. Cayenne had created problems for him. “I said Papa Joe would be disappointed—”
    “Cayenne,” he said very slowly, deliberately, “just where is your family from?”
    She checked her stirrup, made ready to mount. “Kentucky. I told you Papa was a Southerner.”
    Maverick had gone loco from the heat. At least that was her first thought from the look on his face. She was even more startled by the way he threw his head back and laughed long and loud. “Well, I’ll