For Honor’s Sake Read Online Free PDF

the blond beauty beside her and stepped forward. Rod could not help but note the fear visible in the startling blue eyes of the blond and felt a twinge of pity for her. In his estimation she was far too fine to waste herself on one of the crude miners flocking into San Francisco seeking riches that for most would never materialize.
    To Julie the waiting was worse than anything she had ever experienced. Watching the disreputable-looking men surrounding the platform made her wonder what she had gotten herself into and she wished she had not listened to Polly those six long months ago. The one redeeming feature of this whole fiasco was the hope thatone day she would find her father. Could he be somewhere in the crowd? she wondered, glancing about the room with renewed interest.
    The tall, dark man was so different from the rest of the men in the crowded room that Julie’s eyes were drawn to him immediately. He seemed totally out of place, almost bored with the proceedings, which made Julie curious as to his presence here in the first place.
    The man was tall and strongly muscled, his lean, sinuous body as lithe as a whipcord. His skin was swarthy; his hair dark as midnight. His eyes were black beneath jet brows, and his full, sensuous mouth set below a long, aquiline nose smiled lazily at no one in particular, white teeth flashing. His cheekbones were high, the planes of his cheeks spare, the set of his jaw arrogant, as though the world was his for the asking. His dark eyes held a deeply cynical, almost insolent look and the full, sensuous mouth had a reckless, faintly derisive twist that only added to his attractiveness.
    His powerful shoulders and broad chest tapered to a narrow waist and a firm, flat stomach. His tight leather clothing emphasized the bold thrust of his pelvis and thick, corded thighs. A slightly rumpled white shirt open at the neck with long full sleeves, a leather belt with large silver buckle and a flat-brimmed sombrero completed his impressive appearance. Try as she might Julie could not take her eyes from the handsome man. Although there was a savage quality about him that frightened her even while it attracted her, Julie could not help but wish the man she was to marry would look like him.
    Suddenly Julie heard Polly squeal and abruptly came out of her reverie to find her friend embracing her. A wild whoop rent the air as a young man burst through the crowd intent on claiming his bride. The man couldn’t have been more than twenty-one and was good-looking in a rough sort of way. He was big andbrawny with a shock of blond hair that grew shaggy about the nape of his neck. He was dressed in typical miner’s garb which was surprisingly clean. His name was Conner Furley and it was obvious that he was immediately smitten with the young woman about to become his wife. Before Polly departed with her young man she shot an exultant look at Julie as if to say, “I told you so.”
    Finally Julie found herself standing alone on the platform and she shifted nervously from foot to foot. She started violently when number thirty was called, holding her breath as she scanned the room, inexplicably meeting the fathomless gaze of the man dressed in leather. She stood very still, her eyes held by his, and suddenly a feeling of warmth suffused her body. It was as if something from deep inside him reached out and touched her. Something from the depths of her burst into life as their eyes met and held.
    “Who holds number thirty?” repeated Mr. Goddard for the third time. Julie grew uncomfortable as a deathly silence fell in the room.
    Rod stared at Julie, unable to believe that in his large hand rested the right to claim the lovely girl standing alone on the platform. Obligation was all that kept him from bounding up and claiming his woman as each of his predecessors had done. Rod could well imagine the scene should he show up at Rancho Delgado with an Anglo bride. Not to mention Elena’s rage, which he had no wish to