Read Corbin's Fancy for Free Online

damnably unruffled at the prospect. Didn’t that Bible-jockey know when to be scared?
    Jeff advanced on his brother; he was going to hit him—even though his conscience stung like hell, he was going to hit him.
    Except that Fancy Jordan suddenly flung herself against Jeff’s chest. The impact of her gave him a swift, sweet, piercing jolt.
    “Stop!” she screamed.
    Jeff caught her shoulders in his hands and even this contact, born of anger as it was, caused him a strange mingling of joy and alarm. “What the—”
    “Step out of his way, Fancy,” Keith interceded quietly, evenly.
    Fancy’s small, straight back stiffened and she glared up into Jeff’s face with those wide violet eyes, daring him to do God-knew-what. “No,” she said in a clear voice.
    Mostly to make a rather unadmirable point, Jeff lifted Fancy off her feet and set her aside as though she were a doll.
    She immediately returned, but this time there were tears standing along her thick eyelashes. “Please,” she said. “I’ll do anything—I’ll go away or whatever you want. But, please, don’t do this!”
    Jeff stared down at her in amazement, moved by her tears and infuriated that he could be deluded by one of the oldest of feminine wiles. The desire to fight was gone, replaced by another kind of need.…
    “You’ll be late for church,” she said pointedly, looking back over one shoulder at Keith.
    Keith grinned and shrugged. “Sorry, Jeff, but the lady is right. Anybody want to come along?”
    Jeff made a rude snorting sound, but his eyes kept going back to Fancy’s upturned face, no matter how he resisted. What magic was she working?
    They stood like that, in a mutually stricken silence, for some minutes, the spell breaking only when Keith and Alva drove away from the house in a buggy, on their way to services.
    “Why did you do that?” Jeff managed to ask.
    One golden eyebrow arched, and the tears that had stung him so were evaporating in the bright sunlight. A breeze made a tendril of her hair dance. “Do what?” she retorted.
    Jeff was maddened. “Why did you break up the fight before it could get started?”
    She shrugged and turned to walk away. “Keith was late for church,” she said.
    Jeff grabbed her by the shoulders and whirled her around to face him again. “Damn it, Frances, don’t you dare walk away from me!”
    “I don’t answer to that name,” she said loftily, and then she had the gall to turn away again.
    Jeff swore loudly, wrenched her back toward him, and, to his total and absolute surprise, kissed her. Her soft, full lips had all the resiliency of a brick for the first moment or so, but then they softened and parted for him. He took full and savage advantage of this, all the while thinking that Temple had trained her well.
    Seeming to know what was going through his mind, she backed away, glaring up at him with furious eyes, her cheeks flushed. “Don’t ever do that again,” she choked out.
    “I intend to do far more than that,” Jeff replied flatly.
    “Try it and I’ll rip your lips off,” she shot back, whirling and storming off toward the barn in strides far too long for her short, slender legs.
    Jeff stood still for a moment in the middle of thelawn, stricken by her, infuriated with her, wanting her more than he’d ever wanted a woman. Then, having no choice, he strode after her. Damn it, no woman but Banner O’Brien had ever spurned him and he just wasn’t going to tolerate that again!
    He reached the wide open doorway of the barn and halted, breathing as though he’d just run all the way from town. Letting his eyes adjust to the shadowy interior, the sweet scent of hay came to greet him, drawing him in. “Frances!”
    Silence.
    Jeff sighed, ran one hand through his hair in exasperation. “Fancy?”
    He heard her then. She was crying softly, hopelessly. The sound broke over Jeff like a tidal wave.
    “Fancy?” he repeated, entering the barn.
    “Go away!” she sobbed indignantly. “Just