Born To Be Wild by Patricia Rosemoor Page A

I’m an adult. A man. I don’t have to ask your permission for anything.”
    “You were nineteen only last week. Another birthday doesn’t exactly qualify you as an adult. It sure as hell doesn’t make you a man! And if it did, then shame on you—that girl is still a high school kid! And a Falcon! How did you get involved with the devil’s spawn in the first place?”
    Micah drew himself up to his full height—he might still be narrower, but he was a few inches taller than his father. “Don’t you ever talk about Isabel like that!”
    “Or you’ll what? Leave the ranch? Desert your family?”
    Just by saying it, his father drove a knife through Micah’s gut. “I didn’t say that!”
    The ranch was his life. His future. As the oldest, he would someday succeed his father in running it. Throughout the years, even as a screwup in high school, he’d known that someday all this would be in his care. It had seemed like a distant reality back then, but Isabel had taught him about honoring his roots, had made him understand what it was to be a dependable man. The future of Wild Ranch was his responsibility. This was his home, the only one he’d ever have, the only one he’d ever wanted.
    He couldn’t imagine another way of life.
    He couldn’t imagine Isabel not being in his life, either.
    His father went on. “Leaving the ranch is the only way you’re gonna be with that girl—”
    “Her name is Isabel!”
    “She’s not welcome here, Micah. Not a Falcon. Not ever! Not for any reason! You take up with her, you turn your back on this family, and this family will do the same to you!”
    Furious with his father, Micah did just that, turned his back on the man and mounted Slade. His father tried to step between him and the barn door to stop him, but Micah just forced Slade forward so the horse’s shoulder bumped his father out of the way.
    “You remember what I said, boy!” his father shouted after him.
    How could Micah forget?
    He kept hearing his father’s brutal words over and over, during his ride out to Suicide Hill, taking the longer, safer way around. And especially when he took Isabel in his arms and kissed her with all the love he’d been saving up for her. All the love he’d been holding in check.
    Only he couldn’t hold it back any longer.
    His father had forced his emotions to a fever pitch.
    Micah had to show Isabel exactly how he felt about her. Would always feel about her.
    So when she started to go down on him, he let the intense feeling of her warm, wet mouth flow over him for just a moment, then placed a hand on either side of her head to stop her.
    “I want it to be real,” he said, his voice gritty with despair and desire. “I want to show you how much I love you tonight.”
    Breathless with excitement, she said, “I thought you’d never ask.”
    He’d been ready—had wanted to ask—from the first time he’d kissed her, but he’d been waiting to make sure she was ready and really loved him, and that she wasn’t doing it just because she thought she was supposed to.
    Isabel pulled him down to the ground with her, the wild grasses and pine needles softening their makeshift bed.
    Moonlight spilled over her. She was so beautiful…and she was all his.
    Her expression filled with joy. They stripped off their clothes and he touched every inch of her perfect flesh, kissing and caressing the woman he loved. And then he found that same joy burying himself deep inside her. Sharing the bliss of a perfect union.
    Only afterward did he think about the condoms he’d been carrying in his wallet for months.
    Not that it mattered.
    They loved each other and would be together forever, no matter what his father had threatened.
    No matter what happened, nothing could ever come between them.
    Nothing.

Chapter Seven
    The Gecko Saloon hadn’t changed much since Isabel had last seen it. She’d only been inside the place a few times years ago with Cruz and Reyna, when she’d stayed over at the