Rage of Passion Read Online Free PDF

not pleased to have me around,” Maggie murmured.
    “Well, it's my home, too,” Janet said doggedly. “And I love having you here. Do have some more beef. It's our own, you know.”
    “Purebred Santa Gertrudis?” Maggie exclaimed in horror, staring blankly at the platter Janet was offering her.
    “What?” Then Janet got the message and laughed. “No, no, dear. Gabriel raises some beef cattle as well. Purebred…oh, that's sinfully amusing. Gabriel would eat his horse before he'd eat one of the purebreds. Here, have a roll to go with it. Jennie bakes them fresh every day.”
    Maggie took one, savoring it, and not for the first time she had misgivings about the wisdom of coming here. Gabriel seemed to be out for blood, and she wondered if the Coleman ranch wasn't going to become a combat zone.

Chapter Three
    I t
was
vaguely like living in a war zone, Maggie thought as the first few days went by. Gabriel was impatient and irritable because of his arm, and he seemed to hate the whole world. Nothing pleased him—least of all, it appeared, having Maggie in the house. He treated her with a cold formality that raised goose bumps on her arms. It was obvious that he was tolerating her for his mother's sake alone. And just in case she hadn't already guessed it on her own, he spelled it out for her at breakfast three days after she'd arrived.
    He glanced up coldly when she sat down. It was just the two of them, because his mother was still upstairs. She and Maggie had been up late talking the night before, and Janet seemed to sleep poorly anyway.
    “I'm sorry, am I late?” she asked, throwing out a white flag.
    He smoked his cigarette quietly, his icy eyes level and cutting. “Do you care, one way or another?” he asked.
    She took a deep breath. “I realize you don't want me here…”
    “That's an understatement.” He rolled the cigarette between his lean, dark fingers while he studied her. “What did she offer you to get you down here, Margaret?” he added suddenly, using her name for the first time since she'd been at the ranch.
    Her eyes widened. “N-nothing,” she stammered. “I just needed some rest, that's all.”
    “Rest from what?” he persisted. His pale eyes cut into hers. “You're thin. You always were, but not like this. You're pale, too, and you look unwell. What's going on, Margaret? What are you running from? And why run to me?”
    Her face went white. She caught her breath. “As if I would
ever
run to you…!”
    “Don't be insulting.” He lifted the cigarette to his chiseled lips, watching her. “Talk to me.”
    She was closing up, visibly, her body taut with nerves. “I can't.”
    “You won't,” he corrected. He smiled slowly, but it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was impatient and half angry. “I'm not blind. I know my mother, I know how her mind works. You're the sacrifice, I gather. Are you a willing one, I wonder?”
    “I don't understand,” she said, bewildered.
    “You will,” he promised, making a threat of the words. He got to his feet, more easily now than he had three days ago. He was improving rapidly; he even looked better.
    “I came to visit with Janet—not to get in your way, Gabriel,” she tried one last time, hating her lack of spirit.
    Gabriel seemed frozen in place. It was the first time she'd said his name since she arrived. He looked at her and felt a wave of heat hit him like a whirlwind in the chest. Odd, how it had always disturbed him to look at her, to be around her. She got under his skin. And now it was worse, now that she was vulnerable. It irritated him to see her like this and not know why. Was it an act? Was it part of the plan his mother had mentioned when she'd thought he was out of earshot? He was wary of the whole damned situation, and the way Maggie affected him after all these years was the last straw.
    “In my way, or in my bed, Maggie?” he asked, deliberately provoking. “Because you wanted me when you were sixteen. I knew it, felt it when