One Magic Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

was. Had he gone without her? A shadow near the trunk of the maple tree moved and he stepped into the dim light of the moon.  His chiseled features were even more beautiful in that pale glow.
    "I'm sorry," he said at once, taking her hand. "I didn't mean to frighten you." He held her hand as he might have a child’s.  Her breath seemed to cling to her body and refuse to go out again. He was a dark shadow beside her, the impetus of his stride moving her along the worn path that led to the creek.
    Fall scented the air, the fragrance of ripening apples and drying corn making a heady brew. Overhead, stars glittered, their brilliance magnified by the cool crispness.
    In a low voice he said, "The stars seem close." They walked on until they reached the bank of the creek.  He seemed to be thinking. “There’s nothing like the sound of water bubbling over rocks.”
    “In the summer, I keep my windows open so I can hear it.”
    “Lucky you.  I’ve always wanted to live near water. This little creek is a gem, classic with the weeping willows growing along the bank.  It reminds me of one we had on a ranch where I worked in Wyoming.”
    "I thought you were born in Los Angeles."
    "No. I wasn't a show business brat like you. My father worked on a ranch. Still does. He thinks I'm crazy, a black mark on the Rundell name.  Meanwhile he spends his life taking orders from some big shot who probably doesn’t know as much about cattle as my dad."
    A faint smile touched her lips. "He wanted you to be a cowboy?"
    "Yeah."  There was a harshness in the slowly drawled word.
    "You didn't want that?"
    “Working on somebody else's ranch and snapping to whenever they decided there was work to be done, whether it was one o’clock in the morning or five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon?  I wasn’t cut out to be a hired hand.  Of course, my ranch hand background came in handy for breaking into stunt work.”
    “I guess it did.”  They walked along the path that bordered the creek and the thought of him as a young, ambitious boy in Wyoming with no outlet for his talents dominated her thoughts, but when the shadow of a willow crossed his face and the moon highlighted the dark beauty of his well-shaped head and black hair, she remembered he was no longer a boy striving to break out of the mold; he was a successful writer and producer who moved in the cynical world of show business. She couldn’t let herself feel sorry for him.  “Is all this delving into your past supposed to encourage me to talk about mine?”
    “It wasn’t supposed to encourage you to do a damn thing…except listen to a fellow human being talk about the things that keep him awake at night.” 
    In the moonlight, her face was pale, her eyes dark shadows.  “I don’t feel sorry for you.  At least you can be proud of your family. They’re honest, decent people who work for a living.  You don’t have to feel your skin crawl every time someone says their name…”  Her voice broke.
    "Leigh." He pulled her into his arms and the sweet, smoky scent of his clothes, the hard contours of his body under the leather nearly seduced her into staying there. 
    “I shouldn’t have said that.  I don’t need your sympathy.”
    “I wasn’t giving you sympathy.  I was giving you understanding.  Seems to me you’ve had damn little of that in your life.”
    His head shadowed her from the moon, and his mouth came down on hers, soft, coaxing her to relax and take his kiss.  She fought the dark, rising tide of desire his mouth created as best she could, but her body wasn’t listening. 
    He lifted his head and his face was kind.  "I know you, Leigh.  I know what you’ve been through.  Just let me offer you a little comfort from a fellow human being.”  His words were powerful, seductive, and though she fought not to give in, when his mouth hovered over hers once again, her own softened slowly, tentatively, and at last, allowed him access.  This is what she’d been