Read Cinderella's Big Sky Groom for Free Online Page A

she chuckled. “And now I am going to leave you. I’ve a dear friend in town from Billings for the night. She’s in the Ladies right now. I’ll tell you what, I won’t even interrupt you again to introduce her, because I can see that the two of you want to be alone.”
    Lynn opened her mouth to protest that remark, but Ross caught her eye before she spoke. She read his look: What’s the point?
    She had to agree with him. Lily Mae Wheeler would think what she wanted to think. And anything Lynn said to her would only give her an excuse to stay and chat longer.
    â€œEnjoy those filets,” said Lily Mae. “Don’t they just turn right to butter inside your mouth?”
    â€œYes,” Lynn agreed. “They’re delicious.”
    With a last jingling wave, Lily Mae trotted off.
    Ross watched her go. After a moment, he said, “You’ll be relieved to know the hostess is leading her to a table in the far corner, behind a pillar. She won’t be flashing all those capped teeth and shaking her bracelets at us through the rest of the meal, after all.”
    Lynn felt she had to speak up on Lily Mae’s behalf. “She has a good heart.”
    Ross shook his head. “But we’ll be an ‘item’ by tomorrow. When she gets to her regular table at the Hip Hop and starts spreading the news.”
    And what will Trish say when she hears?
    Lynn decided not to think about that. It would work out. She’d explain to her sister that they’d needed to talk about Jenny. Which was the truth.
    Ross picked up his fork again. “It doesn’t matter, does it, what Lily Mae Wheeler thinks or says? We know the real situation, after all. And it’s not as if we’ve been caught doing anything but enjoying a meal together.”
    Their eyes met. She sighed. “You’re right. There’ll be a little talk. And then, when we don’t see each other again, the talk will die down.”
    â€œRight.” He said the word very low. And then, for several nerve-racking seconds, he said nothing more, only looked at her, making her pulse pound too fast and her face feel overly warm.
    At last he shrugged. “Being talked about is the price you pay for living in a town like Whitehorn, where everyone knows everyone else’s business.”
    â€œExactly.” Carefully she cut a bite of meat and slipped the delicious morsel between her lips.
    Ross watched her. He liked watching her. Liked it way too much.
    Yes. Too much. Those were the operative words here. He liked watching her too much, was enjoying himself too much.
    He should call a halt right now.
    This was not going to go anywhere. Lynn Taylor might seem a temptress tonight, but he knew damn well that she was an innocent at heart.
    She didn’t want what he wanted, which was to sit here for another hour or so and look at her some more. To listen to her slightly throaty voice, to catch an occasional whiff of that enticing perfume she wore.
    Then, when they’d lingered over the meal for much longer than they should have, he wanted to take her home. To his bed. Where he would enjoy her all the more.
    Until the night was over. At which time, he would want her to go back to her own life and leave him to his.
    And she would want…what? He couldn’t say for sure. But hadn’t she just as much as told him she was looking for a prince?
    Ross Garrison was no prince. And nothing was going to happen between him and Lynn Taylor.
    Looked at from just about any angle, seducing her would be a fool’s move.
    He’d seen the way Danielle Mitchell treated her. And those two hairdressers, too. Even Lily Mae Wheeler. Everyone in Whitehorn loved Lynn Taylor. They all seemed to feel protective toward her.
    He had a practice to build here. And seducing thetown innocent was not going to help him create trust with potential clients.
    He should eat his steak, ask his few questions about his young client,