Bobbi Smith Read Free Page A

salvation, galloped away.
    Randi was desperate to break free of her captor. She fought him with all her might. His strength proved overpowering, though. She was trapped and helpless.
    Hawk struggled mightily to control Bruiser and to keep a firm hold on the youth at the same time. He’d expected to be thanked for saving him from his runaway horse, not attacked, but the boy was furiously fighting him. Hawk shifted his grip on the youth, hoping to still his resistance, and it was then that a shock of pure physical awareness jolted through him.
    Suddenly Hawk realized—this was no boy he’d rescued.
    This was a woman!
    He was stunned.
    “Hold still!” he ordered harshly. He tightened his hold on her even more now to ensure she was protected. He didn’t want her to fall and be hurt.
    Randi was stunned, too, when she heard her captor’s angry command. It surprised her that the warrior could speak English, but she wasn’t about to give up her fight for her freedom. She’d heard stories of what happened to Comanche captives, and she was determined to escape him and the terrible fate he no doubt had planned for her.
    She struggled even harder, but to no avail. His strength was as unyielding as iron.
    The depth of her fear and panic grew even more.
    “I said hold still!” Hawk snarled as he finally managed to bring Bruiser to a halt. He only wished this wildcat of a woman were as easy to control as his horse.
    “No! Let me go!” she shouted.
    Irritated by her frantic struggles when all he’d been trying to do was help, Hawk decided it was time to oblige her.
    “Yes, ma’am,” he drawled.
    Yes, ma’am?
Her captor’s response shocked and confused Randi. No warrior would ever talk that way. . . .
    And then he released her.
    Stunned by her sudden freedom, Randi gasped as she awkwardly half slid, half fell to ground. In her descent she lost her hat, freeing her hair from its simple binding to tumble about her shoulders in wild disarray. It took her only a second to regain her footing, and when she did, she drew her gun and spun around, bringing her weapon to bear on this stranger who’d dared to accost her.
    “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Randi demanded. She glared up at him, startled to find that her first impression had been right—this man definitely looked like a warrior. His skin was bronzed by the sun, and there was no doubt of his Comanche heritage in his high cheekbones and dark good looks. But then confusion set in. Although she’d believed him to be a warrior, she realized now that his hair was cut shorter than that of any Comanche she’d ever seen, and he was wearing denim pants and boots and a gun belt.
    “Easy, there,” Hawk said quickly, surprised and more than a little impressed by her aggressive behavior. He kept his hands away from his gun, and he made no sudden moves. He didn’t want to give her any reason to start shooting. “I didn’t mean you any harm.”
    “You could have fooled me!” Randi charged angrily, trying to hide her confusion. This man was not at all what he’d seemed. “What do you want?”
    Hawk stared down at the blond beauty standing so defiantly before him. How he’d ever mistaken her for a boy, he didn’t know, but then, he’d never seen a female wearing men’s pants before. Hawk had no idea who she was, but he already knew she was a wild one, and certainly not a woman to be taken lightly, judging from her expert handling of her sidearm.
    “My name’s Morgan, Hawk Morgan.”
    “Yeah. So?” Randi wasn’t about to let her guard down just because he’d introduced himself. She kept her gun on him.
    “And I was rescuing you,” he finished.
    “Rescuing me? From what?” Randi was outraged that he’d thought she’d needed help. “I didn’t need any rescuing!”
    “It sure looked like it to me,” he drawled.
    “Well, you were wrong.” She still refused to admit, even to herself, that he might have been trying to help her. Slowly, she lowered