Benjamin Read Online Free PDF Page A

his expression.
    “That doesn’t mean I don’t get cold.” She fed more kindling into the fire.
    “You’re sending out a signal in the dark.”
    She narrowed her gaze. “A signal to who?”
    “Whoever is following us.”
    Her heart slammed against her ribs. “No one is following us.” She resisted the urge to peer into the twilight. She had always been careful, almost too careful, and to her knowledge, no one had ever been able to track her.
    He didn’t respond except to continue to spear her with an eerie gaze.
    Keeping her outward calm, although her stomach danced with anxiety, Grace used a rock to crush coffee beans, then scooped them into the pot. As the fire grew larger, she got to her feet to scout for larger pieces of wood.
    “Where are you going?”
    She decided that the man chose to annoy her. To keep her off balance. She huffed an impatient breath and went about her task.
    “Somebody has to gather wood for the fire.”
    She stomped around in the dark, finding sticks and larger chunks of wood and filled her arms. She’d be damned if she let him tell her when to build camp or if she could have a fire. Grace was a grown woman who’d taken care of herself all her life. Ben didn’t need to worry about her or how she did things.
    Grace returned with an armload of wood to find him kicking dirt on the fire. Anger ripped through her. How dare he?
    “What the hell are you doing?”
    “Get down and shut up.” He yanked her to the ground, spilling the wood everywhere. His hard body covered hers and pushed her into the loamy earth.

Chapter Three
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    B en held her down with more effort than he expected. She was taller than most women, and strong. Very strong. Amidst her struggling against his hold, he could feel the curves of the female form beneath him.
    He told his body not to react. It took every single speck of control to maintain his position. He wanted to savor the feeling of being on top of a woman, but the survivor in him pushed away need. As it always did.
    She tried to knee him in the balls. “Get off me.”
    He blocked her with a hip. Damn, the woman had knees like knives. “Shut up and listen,” he hissed.
    The unmistakable sound of horses. Of men.
    Her eyes widened, the green eyes bright against the color of the twilight sky around them. Thankfully she stopped fighting him and their position became something else altogether. Ben was on top of her from head to foot, pressing down into her feminine form.
    It was heaven. It was hell. It was unbearable.
    It was the closest he’d ever been with a woman other than family. Physical interaction was something he avoided, no matter whom he was with. Now he was the one who’d initiated the touching, which was more of a tackle than a touch. His gut tightened along with various other parts of him. There wasn’t a single moment of time to have this experience yet it was happening.
    And he wasn’t sure he wanted to stop. Yet danger was around them.
    The horses weren’t very close but if there’d been light or smoke from a fire, the people riding would have found them. He didn’t know who it was and it didn’t matter. Ben hadn’t seen anyone the last few months unless he chose to. Until she came along. Grace. Or Duffy. Whoever the hell she was.
    She’d ruined everything.
    He’d been content to live his life in the shadows, but she shifted the earth beneath his feet. The thought of her child, little Henry, in the hands of a Cunningham filled him with enough rage to burn the state of Texas.
    He couldn’t look into her eyes any more. She made him want to kiss her and confess everything, which was ridiculous because he didn’t even know her. But he wanted her to understand what her son went through, was enduring, so she could help him. He was being pulled in two different directions and it was tearing him apart.
    Ben hadn’t been able to tell his family about what happened until recently. After he’d beaten Manfred Cunningham to death, he was