Six White Horses Read Online Free PDF

insulting!" Patty hissed.
    "You're a prude, Patty King," Morgan chided.
    "Why?" she challenged angrily. "Because I don't like men disrobing me with their eyes?"
    The grooves around his mouth deepened. "You'd better keep your voice down."
    Self-consciously Patty glanced around the small dance floor, her eyes seeing the amused looks that were being directed at them. She wanted to squirm like a butterfly on a pin, but she wouldn't give Morgan that satisfaction.
    "You're insufferable," she murmured quietly. "You enjoy making me look a fool."
    "You dig your own hole," Morgan responded dryly. "I just watch."
    Long ago she had stopped hearing the music, letting her feet automatically follow his lead. So when the song ended, her feet kept moving until she bumped into the broad wall of his chest. Before Patty could regain her balance and step back, his arm had tightened around her waist.
    "The song is over. Will you please let me go?" Patty demanded coldly.
    "Where will you go? The party has disbanded, so you won't want to go back to the table."
    The band began playing another slow tune. The hand on her back firmly guided her to follow his steps, turning her at a slight angle so she could see the table where Lije was seated. Only he, Diana and Blake Williams were there.
    "Where's grandpa?" she asked, tearing her gaze from the fingers Lije had laced through his wife's as the two hands rested on the tabletop, the tenderly intimate contact there for all to view.
    "He's playing a game of checkers with Lefty," Morgan informed her. "I suppose you could go back to the table. While Lije and Blake discuss his horse, you could help Diana pick out some names for the baby."
    "Stop it!" The desperate command was issued in an underbreath taut with pain.
    The natural direction of their steps turned her away from the table. With a start, Patty discovered that her fingers had been digging into the solid muscle of Morgan's shoulder. Instantly she relaxed the grip. As she did so, some of the fight drained out of her.
    "So you've condemned yourself to following the rodeo circuit the rest of your life, have you?" Morgan commented.  
    "What?" Patty asked faintly, not really following his statement.
    "At the table, you said you weren't the marrying kind," he reminded her. "We both know it's really a case of 'if you can't be Mrs. Masters, you don't want to marry anyone.' Since you don't intend to marry and settle, down, that only leaves you the circuit."
    "I was thinking about opening a Roman riding school in a few years," Patty shrugged, for some reason unable to take offense at his gibes.
    "And where have you planned to locate it? In New Mexico? On your parents' ranch? Nextdoor, so to speak, to Lije?" Morgan jeered softly. "Are you hoping that after a few years the luster will wear off his wedding band?"
    A weary frown creased her forehead. "I'm tired, Morgan. Will you please leave me alone?"
    His usually mocking features were drawn in serious, thoughtful, lines. "I imagine you'd like to go."  
    Patty didn't answer, but her gaze swung to the side table where her grandfather and Lefty Robbins were bent over the checkerboard. Their games were inevitably grudge matches that could go on for hours. Morgan had followed her gaze.
    "I'll take you back."
    Immediately she stiffened. "No, thank you. I'll take the truck and grandpa can find his own way to the trailer."
    "It will be the wee hours of the morning before they break up," Morgan stated firmly. "They'll either have to walk or take a taxi back to the grounds."
    "I don't want you to take me," Patty declared, pushing her weight against the iron hand on her back. "Besides, Jill will be furious if you leave with me."
    "I can't imagine Jill being jealous of you."
    "Thanks a lot!" she hurled sarcastically. "You're really great for a person's ego!"
    The song ended and he laughed down at her. "I only meant that she knows how much you despise me. She'll hardly think that you and I will be sneaking off to indulge in