Rogue Stallion Read Online Free PDF

one desperately.
    After a minute, Sterling put down his coffee cup and took hers away from her, setting it neatly in line with his. He leaned back on the sofa, his body turned toward hers.
    “Tell me.”
    She clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “I’ve never talked about it,” she said shortly. “He’s dead, anyway, so what good would it do now?”
    “I want to know.”
    “Why?”
    His broad shoulders rose and fell. “Who else is there? You don’t have any family, Jessica, and I know for a fact you don’t have even one friend. Who do you talk to?”
    “I talk to God!”
    He smiled. “Well, He’s probably pretty busy right now, so why don’t you tell me?”
    She pushed back her long hair. Her eyes sought the framed print of a stag in an autumn forest on the opposite wall. “I can’t.”
    “Have you told anyone?”
    Her slender shoulders hunched forward and she dropped her face into her hands with a heavy sigh. “I told my supervisor. My parents were dead by then, and I was living alone.”
    “Come on,” he coaxed. “I may not be your ideaof the perfect confidant, but I’ll never repeat a word of it. Talking is therapeutic, or so they tell me.”
    His tone was unexpectedly tender. She glanced at him, grimaced at the patience she saw there—as if he were willing to wait all night if he had to. She might as well tell him a little of what had happened, she supposed.
    “I was twenty,” she said. “Grass green and sheltered. I knew nothing about men. I was sent out as a caseworker to a house where a man had badly beaten his wife and little daughter. I was going to question his wife one more time after she suddenly withdrew the charges. I went there to find out why, but she wasn’t at home and he blamed me for his having been accused. I’d encouraged his wife and daughter to report what happened. He hit me until I couldn’t stand up, and then he stripped me….” She paused, then forced the rest of it out. “He didn’t rape me, although I suppose he would have if his brother-in-law hadn’t driven up. He was arrested and charged, but he plea-bargained his way to a reduced sentence.”
    “He wasn’t charged with attempted rape?”
    “One of the more powerful city councilmen was his brother,” she told him. She left out the black torment of those weeks. “He was killed in a car wreck after being paroled, and the councilman moved away.”
    “So he got away with it,” McCallum murmured angrily. He smoothed his hand over his hair andstared out the dark window. “I thought you’d led a sheltered, pampered life.”
    “I did. Up to a point. My best friend had parents who drank too much. There were never any charges, and she hid her bruises really well. She’s the reason I went into social work.” She smiled bitterly. “It’s amazing how much damage liquor does in our society, isn’t it?”
    He couldn’t deny that. “Does your friend live here?”
    She shook her head. “She lives in England with her husband. We lost touch years ago.”
    “Why in God’s name didn’t you give up your job when you were attacked?”
    “Because I do a lot of good,” she replied quietly. “After it happened, I thought about quitting. It was only when the man’s wife came to me and apologized for what he’d done, and thanked me for trying to help, that I realized I had at least accomplished something. She took her daughter and went to live with her mother.
    “I cared too much about the children to quit. I still do. It taught me a lesson. Now, when I send caseworkers out, I always send them in pairs, even if it takes more time to work cases. Some children have no advocates except us.”
    “God knows, someone needs to care about them,” he replied quietly. “Kids get a rough shake in this world.”
    She nodded and finished her coffee. Her eyes were curious, roaming around the room. There werehunting prints on the walls, but no photographs, no mementos. Everything that was personal had something military