Granite Man & Warrior

Forcing herself to let out the breath she had been holding, Mariah MacKenzie fumbled with the brass door knocker, failed to hang on to it, and curled her trembling fingers into a fist. Fifteen years is a long time. I should have telephoned. What if my brother doesn't remember me? What if he throws me off the ranch? Where will I go then? Using her knuckles, Mariah rapped lightly on the door frame of the ranch house. The sound echoed like thunder, but there was no response. She lifted her hand again. This time she managed to hold on to the horseshoe-shaped knocker long enough to deliver several staccato raps. "Keep your shirt on! I'm coming!" The voice was deep, impatient, unmistakably masculine. Mariah's heartbeat doubled even as she nervously took a backward step away from the door. A few instants later she was glad she had retreated. The man who appeared filled the doorway. Literally. Mariah started to say her brother's name, only to find that her mouth was too dry to speak. She retreated again, unable to think, unable to breathe. Cash McQueen frowned as he stared down at the slender girl who was backing away from him so quickly he was afraid she would fall off the porch. That would be a pity. It had been years since he had seen such an appealing female. Long legs, elegant breasts, big golden eyes, tousled hair that was the color of bittersweet chocolate, and an aura of vulnerability that slid past his hard-earned defenses. "Can I help you?" Cash asked, trying to soften the edges of his deep voice. There was nothing he could do to gentle the rest of his appearance. He was big and he was strong and no amount of smiling could change those facts. Women usually didn't mind, but this one looked on the edge of bolting. "My car b-boiled," Mariah said, the only thing she could think of. "The whole thing?" Cash's gentle voice and wry question drew a hesitant smile from Mariah. She stopped inching backward and shook her head. "Just the part that held water." A smile changed Cash's face from forbidding to handsome. He walked out of the house and onto the front porch. Clenching her hands together, Mariah looked up at the big man who must be her brother. He had unruly, thick hair that was a gleaming chestnut brown where it wasn't streaked pale gold by the sun. He was muscular rather than soft. He looked like a man who was accustomed to usingwickedly arched, darker than his hair, and his eyes were-- "The wrong color." "I beg your pardon?" Cash asked, frowning. Mariah flushed, realizing that she had spoken aloud. "I'm--that is--I thought this was the Rocking M," she managed to stammer. "It is." All other emotions gave way to dismay as Mariah understood that the unthinkable had happened: the MacKenzie ranch had been sold to strangers. Of the many possibilities she had imagined, this had not been among them. All her plans for coming back to the lost home of her dreams, all her half-formed hopes of pursuing a lost mine over the landscape of her ancestors, all her anticipation of being reunited with the older brother whose love had been the bright core of her childhood; all that was gone. And there was nothing to take its place except a new understanding of just how alone she was. "Are you all right?" Cash asked, concerned by her sudden pallor, wanting to fold her into his arms and give her comfort. Comfort'he asked himself sardonically.Well, that too, I suppose. God, but that is one sexy woman looking like she is about to faint at my feet. A big, callused hand closed around Mariah's upper arm, both steadying her and making her tremble. She looked up--way up--into eyes that were a dark, smoky blue, yet as clear as a mountain lake in twilight. And, like a lake, the luminous surface concealed depths of shadow. "Sit down, honey. You look a little pale around the edges,"Lowell, Elizabeth is the author of 'Granite Man & Warrior ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373772544 and ISBN 0373772548.