Wild Texas Rose Read Free Page B

view of her snow-white bosom. “That’s even more than the model fifteen Singer sewing machine I wanted you to buy me.”
    “A lot more, and what do you need a sewing machine for? My mother never had a sewing machine. She sewed all our clothes by hand. And what’s good enough for my mother is good enough for my wife!”
    “I know that, Sonny, and you’re right.” Sue Ellen fluttered her eyelashes. “And your mother rode her own horse, and here you’re paying four hundred fifty dollars for Starbright for me. Your daddy would be so proud!”
    His daddy had been famed for his stinginess. But Sonny was a healthy male animal who did his best thinking with his glands, and his glands were working overtime now. “Four hundred twenty-five,” he said weakly.
    “Sonny, darling, Starbright is a better horse than that cheap thing Ana Marie Lewis got.” Sue Ellen’s fingers fluttered, captured Sonny’s hand, and brought it to press on one of her breasts. “Won’t you pay four fifty for Starbright?”
    Mesmerized by Sue Ellen’s cleavage and the feel of her in his palm, Sonny nodded up and down, up and down. “Never paid as much for a horse before, but I’ll do it for my little sugar.”
    “Sonny, you are the sweetest thing.” Sue Ellen brought his hand to her lips and kissed it, then shoved it back at him. “You go inside and tell Royal and Ana Marie Lewis that you bought the best horse in Texas for me, and don’t you let on you know anything about Ana Marie’s horse. It’ll be really funny if they pretend they don’t know a thing.”
    Still stunned with lust and his own extravagance, Sonny did as he was told.
    Sue Ellen watched him fondly. “If there’s one thing that man loves better than a roll in the hay, it’s bragging about his possessions. And right now, he could strut sitting down.”
    “You weren’t the belle of three counties for nothing,” Rose observed, amused by Sue Ellen’s wholesale manipulation of Sonny. “You put that training to use even now.”
    “Did you think he got everything his own way?” Sue Ellen observed Rose shrewdly. “You did, didn’t you? I know Sonny’s a bully and a shyster, sometimes, but I keep him on the straight and narrow.” Moving down the steps, Sue Ellen came to Rose and shook Rose by the shoulders. “But he’s no thief, and he’s not a ruthless criminal. Rose, I want you to stay the night.”
    “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.” Rose placed her hands over Sue Ellen’s and pressed lightly. “Thanks to you, I’ve sold a horse—”
    “Two horses, after Sonny talks to Royal Lewis.”
    “—and I’ve had a break from the ranch. But it’s true what Sonny said. I don’t want it noised about, but someone is stealing my horses, and I’ve got to catch the bastard.”
    “You can’t do that by yourself.”
    “I know.” The smile that charmed even Sonny broke across Rose’s face. “I don’t want you to repeat any of this — in fact, I want you to shut Sonny up about the thieving—”
    “Done.”
    “—but I sent for a Texas Ranger.”
    “A Ranger? You sent for a Ranger?” Sue Ellen seemed stunned by Rose’s audacity. “When?”
    “A couple of months ago, when the stealing first began. Patrick tries to help, but he’s too old to do more than help train horses and sneak off to Fort Pena to play some cards when he thinks I don’t notice.”
    Shivering, Sue Ellen rubbed her arms. “There’s a chill in the air tonight. Must be winter coming on.” She took a restless turn around her well-tended rose bed and came back to stand in front of Rose. “Are they sending somebody?”
    “I received word they’d send a Ranger as soon as one was free.”
    “That should be soon.” Sue Ellen reassured herself. “There’s not much to do now that the Indians have been subdued. But in the meantime, Thorn’s back.”
    A thrill rattled Rose, a thrill she hoped Sue Ellen hadn’t noticed.
    But there wasn’t much Sue Ellen didn’t know about men and