Chance Meeting Read Free Page B

She’d been completely bowled over. Steve Sheppard could have stood as his double. And if that weren’t enough to set a woman’s pulse fluttering, Steve had a Kentucky accent and a dimple when he smiled that could cause a total meltdown. An entire year had come and gone, with Allegra virtually throwing herself at him. To no avail. It was supremely frustrating, the way Steve constantly brushed her off and avoided her. Today, however, represented a major breakthrough, finally getting him alone for long enough to prove just how exciting a woman she could be. She’d do anything for him, she wanted him so bad. Now two idiotic kids had burst in, ruining everything. Allegra wanted to spit, she was so mad.
    At her angry questioning, one of the girls had frozen. The other seemed incapable of controlling her fit of giggles.
    Actually, Ty hadn’t been laughing at all, but as her hand was clamped over her mouth, neither Steve Sheppard nor Allegra Palmer could tell. Ty had instinctively tried to hide her expression of astonishment, embarrassment, and, worst of all, envy. She was fourteen and had never in her whole life witnessed two people in the midst of an intimate embrace. Sure, she’d seen stuff happen in movies and on TV, but that was nothing like seeing the real thing. She was still somewhat stunned, dazedly wondering whether she, too, would behave that way, if given the chance—would she plaster herself recklessly against the body of a man, kissing and kissing and kissing? Her eyes strayed to Steve Sheppard, and she blushed hotter than the ovenlike air around her.
    Allegra didn’t like being ignored. These obnoxious little twits still hadn’t answered her, and she hadn’t succeeded in scaring them away, either.
    “Steve.” Her voice was whiny, petulant. “Make them leave. They shouldn’t be hanging around here, anyway. No one who doesn’t ride with Golden Crest is supposed to be in the vans.” To hear her, one would think Allegra owned the stable.
    “Lighten up, Allegra,” Steve replied with barely veiled impatience, disliking her attitude. Back home in Kentucky, it took far longer when talking to strangers to reach the level of rudeness Allegra so easily attained. “I don’t think these girls are planning on stealing any equipment, are you?” His gaze narrowed on them, trying to make out their features. All he could tell so far was that one of them was quite tall and thinner than a twig on a sapling. The other was perhaps four inches shorter and had lovely, eye-catching curves in all the right places. Both were wearing breeches and field boots. Their hair was pulled back tight and flattened smooth. A dead giveaway that they had on those thin, nylon hair nets trapping each strand of hair in place. Wildly unattractive, those hair nets, but the judges were extremely picky about proper attire. No loose hair flowing out from under hunt caps accepted. So the girls had to be riding today, they weren’t merely spectators, and both of them were young.
    He saw the shorter one nudge the skinny one, forcing her to step forward up the ramp. By his side, Allegra stiffened, as if ready to pounce, perhaps strangle them with their hair nets if that’s what it would take to get rid of them.
    No way did Steve want to be left alone with Allegra again. He might be forced to say something so brutal it would send her running off to Daddy Palmer. “Allegra, why don’t you go see whether Show Me is ready yet. I still have enough time to watch you school him over some fences before I have to warm up myself. Just got to find my chaps. Why don’t we meet outside in a few minutes at the warmup ring?” He dangled the carrot in front of her, sure Allegra would grab it. It wasn’t that she cared terribly much about preparing properly for her classes. As a matter of fact, she was one of the laziest riders he’d ever seen, the hugely expensive horses bought by her doting parents an utter waste, except that those horses were so