Compromised Hearts Read Free Page A

relieve himself then came to squat by him near the fire.
    “Mornin',” he said finally. “I’m Thornton.”
    “I’m Cloud Ryder. Hungry?” He dished out some oatmeal for the boy when he nodded.
    “This is good as Mama’s.”
    “Have you and your mama walked far?”
    “Miles and miles. We’re going home. ‘Way from Injuns.”
    “Where’s your pa?” Cloud sipped his coffee, occasionally glancing towards the still sleeping girl.
    “Wiv the angels,” Thornton said calmly, repeating Emily’s explanation. “Injuns kilt him dead so the angels took him. They take dead folk, you know.”
    Cloud nodded even as he mused that the angels would no doubt toss
him
back. He had become too hard and too many men had died at his hands. He would probably never see Heaven’s gates. And though the killing had been part of a war, he doubted that fact would save his soul.
    “You and your mama are alone then?” he prompted and the boy nodded.
    To Thornton, Emily was his mother. Theangels had taken his other mother and left him a new one. He was blissfully ignorant of any misconception the man opposite him was forming.
    “Are you going home too?” the boy asked.
    “Yup. Going to set up my ranch.”
    “Wiv cows?” Cloud nodded. “I fink my new home has cows.”
    “Where is your new home?”
    “Out dere.” Thornton pointed towards the faintly visible mountains. “Sandly’s, I fink.”
    Smiling, Cloud gave up trying to get any specifics. Children of Thornton’s age were not very concerned with details.
    “I fink Mama’s getting awake.”
    “Mmmm, I think you’re right.”
    Watching her stretch made Cloud’s loins tighten. Despite her delicate build, there was an unconscious voluptuousness to her movements. He could not wait to feel her beneath him, her lithe grace working to satisfy him.
    She sat up, rubbing her eyes in a distinctly childlike gesture. When her gaze fell on the spot where Thornton had lain he saw her tense. An instant later he found himself staring appreciatively into a pair of wide, somewhat frantic jade green eyes.

Chapter Two
    A fter assuring herself that Thornton was alive, Emily stared at the man crouched by the fire. Her relief over Thornton’s safety rapidly vanished, and she wished desperately that she had some weapon.
    When the stranger stood up, she trembled. The man was well over six feet tall. Although he was lean, she was not deceived into thinking him lacking in strength. A woman who could stretch to two inches over five feet if she wore shoes and stood on tiptoe had no chance against him.
    Thick hair, the blue-black of a raven’s wing, hung to his broad shoulders; a red bandana tied around his wide forehead and knotted at the side kept it out of his eyes. Abuckskin shirt hugged his muscular torso and was partly unlaced to reveal a smooth, dark chest. Dark pants disappeared into buckskin boots that hugged the bottom half of his long muscular legs.
    As if his height and strength were not intimidating enough, there were the harsh lines of his face. High cheekbones and a high-bridged nose told of his Indian blood, as did the coppery tint of his dark complexion. His thin-lipped mouth was set in an unreadable straight line. The scar added a fierceness to his lean features that did nothing to ease Emily’s fears.
    Swallowing her panic, she met his gaze. His eyes were a deep, rich brown ringed with amber. She had never seen such eyes. Neither had she seen eyes so lacking in expression.
    “Please,” she said softly, “don’t hurt the boy.”
    Cloud shook himself. He realized that she thought him an Indian and, quite naturally, had assumed the worst. He had known the harsh sting of prejudice all too often in the past.
    “ ‘Bout time you woke up, ma’am. Day’s near gone.”
    She closed her eyes briefly in relief. “You aren’t an Indian.”
    “Well, partly. Grandmother on my father’s side was Cherokee. Coffee’s made.”
    Following the direction of his gaze, she recalled her