Wild Mustang Man by Carol Grace Page A

Another encounter. Of the closest kind. The kind where the male, musky scent of his body filled her senses. The kind where she couldn’t get enough breath in her lungs to breathe. Why hadn’t she left ten minutes ago? Five?
    She took a deep breath. “No,” she said, “it didn’t. 1 thought it would be best if we avoided any more—”
    “Awkward situations?”
    She nodded. She couldn’t have said it better herself.
    “I told you it wouldn’t happen again. Don’t you trust me?”
    “Yes, of course.” It’s me I don’t trust, she admitted to herself.
    “What have you been doing with yourself? You must be bored out of your mind, hanging around Harmony.”
    She managed a cool smile. “Not at all. I have my camera. There’s lots to take pictures of. Being from here, you probably don’t see the beauty of the landscape. But I see it through a stranger’s eyes.”
    “Is that right?” he asked, skepticism lacing his voice. “By the way, don’t feel you have to come to my father’s birthday party. It won’t be anything exciting. Just family.”
    “I don’t know what makes you think I need constant excitement, that I’m bored if I’m not in the middle of Union Square. I’m perfectly capable of amusing myself anywhere. As for the party, I said I’d come and I will. I’m looking forward to it. I don’t have a big family. In fact there’s just two of us left, my dad and I. And I don’t think I’ve ever given him a birthday party. Your mother was kind enough to invite me and...and I’m coming.” Just knowing he didn’t want her there made her determined that even wild horses couldn’t keep her away.
    “Suit yourself,” he said.
    “Yes, I’ll do that.”
    There was a long silence. She stared straight ahead through the windshield. She could feel Josh’s eyes on her, tracing the outline of her cheek; feeling the heat of his gaze as it lingered on her eyelids, then her lips. His fingers rested on the edge of the open window. Then he raised one hand and plucked a blade of grass from behind her ear. Her skin burned where he touched her. Next he stroked the outline of her cheek with one broad finger. Her heart pounded. She had to get out of there. All she had to do was insert the key in the ignition, but she missed. Her car keys rattled. Her nerves rattled more. But at least they were silent.
    Why didn’t he just get back on his horse and ride away? Or was he waiting for her to make the first move.
    “Well,” she said, “I’d better be getting back to town.”
    “What for?” he asked.
    “Lunch.” She looked at her watch. “It’s lunchtime.”
    “Who are you having lunch with?” Josh could just picture all those randy cowboys who hung out at the diner putting the moves on the attractive newcomer.
    “Do you care?”
    “Well, you’re new in town. There are men who would take advantage of a pretty stranger.”
    “A pretty stranger. That’s the nicest thing you’ve said about me since I got here. You’ve done everything but have me run out of town.”
    “How can you say that?” he said with a flicker of amusement in his eyes. “You misunderstood me. That’s just our way here in Harmony. You’ll get used to it. If you’re around long enough,” he added in an undertone.
    “I’ll be around long enough to get the film footage I want, I assure you,” she said, meeting his cool blue gaze. “And after that I’ll be out of your hair.”
    With a firm grasp on the car keys, Bridget finally turned on the ignition. Josh took a step away from her car, and she tore out of his driveway without a backward glance while she still had the last word. Not an easy thing to accomplish in his company.
    “What did you and Bridget do this morning?” Josh asked Max across the lunch table as they ate a bowl of canned soup together.
    “Some stuff. Wait till you see what I got. A movie of me and Bridget.”
    “A movie?”
    “Yeah, I made it, too. The part about her. She showed me how. She made the