Hard Lovin' Read Online Free PDF

truck and take you back to yours.” He paused. “Aren’t there people looking for you? Weren’t you missed last night? You don’t look like someone who could just drop off the radar.”
    “No,” she lied. “No one. But I’m good.” She rose up on her knees and wound her arms around his neck. “But you’d better come back for me.”
    Although I have no idea where the hell I’ll be in the meantime.
    “You want a shower, too?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “I’ll do it later when I get…When I get back to my place.”
    “All right.” He brushed his mouth over hers. “Just give me a few here.”
    When she heard the shower running Erin found the remote and turned on the television, flipping to one of the local channels. She nearly passed out when she caught the tail end of the news bulletin.
    “And her father, Rance Braddock,” the anchor was saying, “tells us the Texas Rangers have also been called in to help in the hunt for his daughter. In a prepared statement he said, ‘When I find the person who took my daughter he’ll wish he’d never been born.’ As of this moment the Braddock Ranch is in lockdown as they await further word. So far no ransom has been demanded but kidnapping is still not being ruled out.”
    A picture flashed on the screen of her, the engagement shot she’d had taken that T.J. and her father had insisted on. It was replaced in seconds by a shot of her father and T.J. speaking to a reporter on the front porch of the ranch house.
    Erin turned off the television and stuck the remote under a pillow with shaking hands.
    Shit, shit, shit.
    Now what? If she got in her truck and went home they’d lock her up despite the fact that she was nearly thirty-one years old. Her father would make sure that wedding went through no matter what and that would be the end of any chance she had to regain control of her life. And suddenly, with Grady, she wanted that very badly. She didn’t care that she’d known him less than twenty-four hours. He was right when he’d said they’d connected on the most elemental, the deepest levels. She couldn’t walk away from that. From this special newness that was like a breath of fresh air.
    So what if she knew nothing about him? Something strong had blossomed instantly between them something her gut instinct told her she should hang on to. She knew deep down he wasn’t Cal and that was all that mattered. And she couldn’t go back to the ranch. That just wasn’t an option. And the freedom from restrictions and control that was a part of Grady’s life beckoned to her like the sweetest chocolate.
    Thirty years old and I’m running away from home.
    She swallowed the hysterical laughter that threatened to bubble up inside her.
    By the time Grady opened the bathroom door she’d turned everything over in her mind about a hundred times and knew she had only one possibility open to her. She swung her legs off the bed and plastered her body against his, winding her arms around his neck.
    “Take me with you.” She stood on tiptoed and whispered kisses along his jawline.
    Grady froze and stared at her. “What?”
    “Take me with you. Please, Grady. I won’t be any trouble.” She knew she was babbling but she didn’t care. “I even have some money. And I’ll bet at the places where you work I can get jobs waiting tables.”
    She looked straight into his eyes. Could he tell how desperate she was?
    “Erin.” He tried to set her away from him. “That’s impossible. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
    “I do, I do. You said we’d connected and you wanted to see me again. This way we won’t have to wait.”
    “I said when I got rid of the baggage filling up my head. Sugar, you’ve probably got people waiting for you. A home to go to. I’m just…” He dropped his hands from her and spread them wide. “I’m just a bum. A whistling gypsy bumming from place to place. You don’t want that.”
    “Yes, I do.” She grabbed the front of his