Claire McEwen - Wild Horses

This wild stallion can’t be tamed

Todd Williams is still the naive idealist he was in college. Only now he’s endangering lives—Nora Hoffman’s to be exact. Nora hasn’t seen Todd since he decided that saving the rain forest was more important than their relationship. Until the night she’s nearly crushed by the stampede he causes. Now Todd is determined to make amends, for everything.

She may not agree with his methods, but even Nora can’t deny the importance of his fight to save the wild horses. With the attraction between them still sizzling and the fate of the horses in the balance, Nora must decide just how much she’s willing to risk.

Nora stood up, feeling shaky and sick.

“I need to go, Todd. I’ve got to work early. Thanks for the drink.”

“Nora, hang on.” He stood up, too, leaned a little across the table with his hand out, palm open.

“No.” She took a deep breath and looked right at him. “I know it’s a strange coincidence that we ran into each other in the dark, and that we’re in the same town. But that doesn’t mean we have to be friends. Let’s just agree to be polite and we’ll both be fine. I won’t be in Benson forever anyway.”

“But...”

“See you around, Todd.” There was old pain in her, burning deep and low—pain she didn’t want to feel and most of all, didn’t want him to see.

Nora pushed through the double doors of the bar, inhaling the cool night air with relief. She jumped into her SUV and gunned the engine out of the parking lot, not stopping until she was outside town and she could see every star, horizon to horizon.

She parked her car and stepped out. Leaning against the driver’s side door, she looked up at the glittering sky. How did Todd have the power to make her crazy after all these years? Nora took a deep breath of the clean air and let it out slowly. She just wanted all her feelings about him to be gone.

To live life without the burden of her old, dusty love for him.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the first book in my Sierra Legacy series. Like my previous books, it’s set in the fictional town of Benson, CA. I wasn’t ready to leave my beloved Eastern Sierra yet!

Let me introduce you to the Hoffman family—or at least those not on the run from the law. Siblings, Nora and Wade Hoffman, raised in a notorious criminal family and grappling with that legacy.

Wild Horses is Nora’s story—but she shares it with the wild horses that roam the high desert.

While researching the east side of the Sierra Nevada for my previous books, I learned of the issues facing our nation’s wild horses. The more I read, the more I was drawn to the intense conflict that surrounds them. Are these beautiful animals an important part of our history or just a feral pest that should be eradicated?

The country’s past and present collide around the lives of wild horses and I wanted this romance to mirror that. So I created wild and restless Todd Williams, who, armed with a strong sense of justice, has made saving the wild horses his cause. And I imagined cautious and practical plant biologist Nora Hoffman, who’s documenting the negative effects the wild horses have on the native plants.

Then I gave Nora and Todd a past with a wild love. A first love so great neither of them could forget.

Wishing you joy,

Claire McEwen

A portion of my income from this book will go to charities working to ensure humane treatment and responsible, compassionate management of America’s wild horse and burro herds. For more information, please visit my website, clairemcewen.com.

Wild Horses

Claire McEwen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CLAIRE MCEWEN lives by the ocean in Northern California with her husband, son and a scruffy, mischievous terrier. When not dreaming up new stories, she can be found digging in her garden with a lot of enthusiasm but, unfortunately, no green thumb. She loves discovering flea-market treasures, walking on the beach, dancing, traveling and reading, of course! Please visit her online at clairemcewen.com.

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For Peggy Adams, who rescued me with horses, humor and her beautiful, generous heart.

This book is the thank-you I didn’t say often enough.

And for Arik, who rescues me with love.

Thank you!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE ODOR OF sagebrush rose spicy and rich as Nora wove between the low bushes. The crunch of the dry soil beneath her hiking boots fragmented the evening silence. All the scents and sounds of the high desert were magnified after dusk.

She shrugged her pack up higher, the tools, notebook and water bottles she carried heavy on her shoulders. The glamorous life of a plant biologist. There was nothing like the freedom and beauty of the Eastern Sierra landscape. But at moments like these, her muscles wobbly after fourteen hours on the trail, she wondered what it would be like to have a regular job. Maybe one that left her with some energy to go out with friends after work.

The image of herself dressed up, out for drinks or even some dancing, had her smiling wryly into the darkening night. Who was she kidding? She had no friends around here, and drinking and dancing had never really been her style. Her hot date tonight would be with her laptop and her notebook. After such a long and productive day, she had a ton of new information to organize. The hulking shadows of deserted storage buildings loomed into view, set at the top of the small rise ahead of her. Everyone had gone home already, and the Department of Range Management compound was silent. Nora couldn’t wait to be home, too, and beneath a hot shower.

An unfamiliar metallic clank stilled her thoughts and halted her steps. The sound came from the direction of the corrals, where wild mustangs, captured from the surrounding area, were waiting to be auctioned off. Nora had seen them, dim silhouettes in the dawn light, as she’d hiked out today. They’d been huddled together in one corner of the exposed, dusty corral, as if seeking comfort in each other’s company. She heard the clanking again. Maybe one of the horses was restless. Or could a predator be nearby, upsetting the poor captive animals?

But what should she do if coyotes, or a mountain lion, were harassing them? She moved quickly, keeping her footsteps quiet as she jogged toward the storage buildings. Maybe there was some kind of tool there that she could use to scare predators away.

Then the sound of metal slamming into metal ripped through the night again. And her heart slammed against her chest in answer. She froze and tried to calm herself—a gate must have come open, that was all. Then a man’s voice sliced through the night, shouting, “Go!” The command was distinct—and so was the answering whinny.