Read Cowboy Command for Free Online

innate strength.  She mentally slapped herself.  Men couldn ’t be trusted to provide comfort and care, only sex and heartache.  If she hadn’t known it before Randall, and she should have, she knew it now.
    “ About another forty-five minutes.  We chose an out of the way airstrip that’s rarely used.  You can close your eyes if you like, maybe catch a nap.”
    She wouldn ’t sleep but closed her eyes, slumping against the window.  She wouldn’t need to talk to him if she pretended to be asleep.  She didn’t want to talk about things any more.  It only made her depressed and she wasn’t the type to be depressed. 
    No matter how depressing reality actually was.  She would keep thinking about going home.  Keeping the thought would get her through this. 
    She wanted her life back.  She only needed to figure out how to make it happen.

Chapter Three
     
    “ Pass the butter, son.”  George Reilly, Seth’s father, and the patriarch of the Reilly family, held out his hand.  Seth passed the dish and looked back down at his plate.  He didn’t really want to talk about his upcoming day, as was the norm at breakfast time.  The fact was he didn’t really know how he felt about the woman he had vowed to protect. 
    She was more beautiful than he ’d expected, and definitely younger.  Evan hadn’t described her at all, but for some reason he’d pictured her differently.  Perhaps older and more cynical.  She’d worked for a billionaire financier for the last six months, after all.  Seth had been shocked to find her quite young and astonishingly pretty, with her long wavy brown hair and her golden brown eyes.  Her complexion was clear and creamy with a touch of gold, probably from the Florida sun.  He hadn’t been able to discern if her figure was as attractive as her face in the large coat she wore, but from what he could see she looked tiny and delicate.
    Or maybe she looked delicate because he could remember how sad she ’d looked with tears running down her face, making a mess of her mascara.
    He ’d also been surprised by how easy she was to talk to.  He’d always had trouble making casual conversation with strangers, but she had him talking right out of the gate.
    “ You’re quiet this morning.  Rough day ahead?  Setting up a speed trap or something?”  Seth’s brother, Jason, grinned at his own joke and shoveled more pancakes into his mouth.  His pretty wife, Sarah, elbowed him in frustration.  “Will you please chew your food?  You know you get indigestion if you eat too fast.”
    Jason paused to give his wife a loving look.  Seth came from a long line of love.  His grandparents, now retired in Arizona, had been married more th an sixty years.  His parents had been married for over forty years.  Jason was married to his high school sweetheart, Sarah, with a baby on the way.  His older brother, Sam, was married to Cindy, the girl from the ranch down the road.  When Cindy had shown up at the local watering hole with another cowboy, Sam had quickly dispatched the other man and closed the deal.  Two months later they were married and seven months later they had a beautiful baby girl, Amie.  Sam had recently built a new house on the family ranch so he and Cindy didn’t always come to eat at the ‘big house.’  Seth and his brother also had their own homes, but Seth found it easier to eat with his parents.  It wasn’t worth it to cook for only one person.
    Seth was thirty-five years old and he ’d never been in love.  Not really.  He’d felt lust and even care, but never love.  He was pretty sure no one had ever been in love with him either, which made him wonder whether he was lovable at all.  Maybe he lacked something his brothers, and other people, had.  His girlfriend, Eliza, often told him he could be remote and controlling.  He knew she was right but he also knew without control and order there was nothing but chaos.  No one knew better than he what tragedy