SAFE HAVEN

Chapter 1

  This is my first book... I'm just trying my best... please if I'm not  doing it well let me know and don't leave rude comments... your not  forced to read it... and feel free to  point out any mistake... #thanks and do enjoy the chapter!

THE TEXAS MORNING was pristine and breathtaking beautiful, the air intoxicating with it's scents of fresh mowed grass and newly tilled earth. Butterflies flitted over the fields. Rolling Green hills were splashed with the jewel-like hues of wildflowers.
   The setting was picture-perfect except for the blacktop highway, ugly tear in the landscape. It was also so dangerous stretch of highway, a deadly couple of miles that twisted and dipped and rose.
   The purity of the morning and the cathedral silence was suddenly shattered by sounds of an ancient truck, which emitted a rooster tail of blue smoke as it rolled to a stop.
  A young woman, tall and shapely, climbed out of the passenger side of the truck. As she closed the door, a soft breeze teased her black hair around her face and made the Hem of her dress flutter. She hoisted her suitcase from the bed of the truck and waved her thanks to the old man she'd hitched a ride from.
  Avery Peterson watched as the truck until it disappeared around a bend in the highway. She took a steadying breath to boister her courage and turned her face the ornate wrought-iron sign arched high over the lane entrance. Her exhausting trip was almost at an end.
  Despite her eargerness to finish it, she hesitated knowing that when. She walked under that arch she would truely be cut off from her world as she'd known it
  Her life has been torn apart and turned inside out. She was scarred and bruised. She'd survived, but the price has been high. Once, not too long ago, she'd had it all. A beautiful home. Family and friends. She'd a career, a position in society. She'd had power, money and the respect of her peers. She'd even had a fiancé. Now all she had was herself.
  For the first time it hit her: she was free. She was safe. Avery laughed. She'd found a safe haven - Haven, Texas, that's is- and it beat the hell out of the home she'd had for the past eight months.

  She picked up her suitcase. Everything she owned was in it, none of it old. There was nothing to tie her to her past, nothing to remind her of what she'd endured. Nothing to openly declare she'd been a fool. The heaviness of her case was pleasant reminder that she was carrying her life with her. It felt damn good to realize she was leaving everything else behind.
  Her resolved firmly set, she straighten to her full five foot eight, lifted her chin and walked under the archway of the Circle M Ranch. She'd been told the owner was Logan Monathan, Who raised cattles and quarter horses.
  Once she was through the gate and actually on the property, her steps faultered. She was so far from Seattle it felt like another world. But that was what she wanted. Avery adjusted the shoulder strap of her bulging purse. Switched the suitcase to her other hand and started walking again.
  It didn't take long for the thicket of overhanging tree limbs to thin out enough for her to see how far she had to work. She gasped in her dismay. The lane snaked for several hundred yards over the rolling land toward a Grove of cottonwood trees on the crest of a hill, where she knew, from the detailed directions she'd been given the ranch house was.
  She was stronger now. She could handle anything. Gripping the heavy bag firmly, she put one foot in front of the other. On both sides of the lane, barbed wire fences sectioned off green rolling pastures. Cattle and horses munched on the lush grass, their tails swishing lackadaisically back and forth, batting flies.
  By the time Avery reached the house, she was out of breath and perspiring heavily. Too exhausted to really admire the two-story Victorian house, she did a quick impression of butter-yellow walls, hunter-green shutters at the windows and the front porch that extended the width of the structure. The thump and bump of her case against the steps and her heavy breathing were the only sounds until she collapsed on the top step with a loud groan. She cursed whoever had messed up and neglected to collect her at the bus station, hoping it wasn't an omen of things to come.
After taking a few minutes to regroup, Avery was on her feet again straighten her dress and tried to smooth out some of the wrinkles, then pressed the door bell as she waited, she attempted to put some order to her hair, then waited some more. On the fourth try of the bell with still no answer.
  "Dammit, someone was supposed to be here," she grumbled and made a decision to go looking she left all her belongings on the porch and wandered around to the side of the house.
  She sounded a corner to the back and shaded her eyes to see rail fences and several others buildings. One was small, one story version of the main house. It's porch was shaded by blooming wisteria wines desperately in need of pruning. From the location of a truck and other machinery, she figured that two of the building were garages of some sort.
  Despite the warmth of thesund, she shivered. The whole place was eerily quiet, Asif everyone had just disappeared. Still, it awarded her the luxury of looking around and studying everything.
The last building puzzled her. It was huge, square, redbrick structure with a slate roof and few windows. She looked from the Victorian house to the building again and realized what it was that nagged at her. While everything else seemed rundown, the redbrick building was modern and we'll kept, expensive looking. Though she knew little about ranch life, she figured it was the barn. Maybe shed find someone there.
  She'd just skired the big truck, which was half-filled with hay bales, when she heard the sound of running water. She checked her pace, and it was then she saw him. Maybe it had been too long since she'd been so close to so much testosterone, but the sight of him made her tingle with. Nervous energy.
He was solid built and naked to the waist, his tight, sun-faded jeans riding low on his hips. Bent forward with the hose held at him. He let a stream of water wash over his dark head and upper body.
  Avery felt her heart slam against her ribs as she watched the water slide over his muscular shoulders and roll across his broad back, then trickle to his narrow waist and soak the waist band of his jeans.
  She was transfixed by the way his muscles rippled under the tanned skin. Then he dropped the hose, straighten to what appeared to be at least six-four, and ran his fingers through his hair. Lifted her eyes from the knotted stomach muscles to his face, she bit her lips, his cheekbones high and sharp. His jaw, while strong, looked unrelenting. His chin and cheeks were lightly scarred from what she assumed was adolescent acne. His eyes were large and light brown, the color of autumn leaves, yet distant somehow. The only remotely soft feature that hinted at any flexibility was his wide mouth with it's well defined lips. At the moment they were held in a Stern line.
  A breath sight trembled across her own lips. He wasn't handsome, not by her standards. But there was an aura of strength and pride about him . He was, she thought, the sexiest man she'd ever laid eyes on.
  "Are you going to stand there staring," he snapped, " or are you going to throw me that towel?"
  She jumped, every nerve in her body alive with embarrassment. "I'm sorry", she mumbled, grabbing the towel from the truck bed she was standing beside and pitching it to him. He plucked it from the air a d began drying his hair, chest and stomach, never once taking those eyes off her.

    "You want to tell me what you're doing here?"

Alright this is the first chapter I hope you all enjoyed it?😊.. pls don't forget to vote and leave a comment!