Read Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) for Free Online Page B

she could feel his breath.
    He swallowed and she saw his Adam ’s apple work. “No. Yes.” He dragged off his hat and rubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s not real, Nell.” His tone was harsh.
    “ It felt real to me!” She swallowed against the hard lump in her throat.
    Cole ’s jaw tightened. “Then,” he said.
    “ Still,” Nell insisted, holding his gaze.
    But Cole resolutely shook his head. “We were dreaming. It won’t work. It was a mistake.”
    Nell hugged her arms across her chest. “I’m not discussing this in a hallway.”
    “ We don’t have to discuss it at all,” Cole said. “We can just end it. Pretend it never happened.”
    Nell ’s eyes widened. “It did happen!”
    “ One weekend.” He said the words dismissively, as if it didn’t matter at all. “It’s not as if we have to go on with it. You’ve got your job in L.A. I’ve got mine here—”
    “ I’ve got my job in L.A. because you told me to take it.”
    “ Because there was—is—no future for you here!”
    Ah, a reaction. Not stolid, unfeeling words. Even his gaze was anguished now, not indifferent. And Nell felt perversely pleased, knowing she wasn’t the only one feeling the pain. It gave her hope. There was a long moment of silence.
    Then Cole sucked in a harsh breath. “Just sign the papers, Nell.”
    No. No, she couldn ’t do that. Not now. Not yet. She didn’t believe it yet.
    But it was going to take more than throwing herself into his arms to get him to change his mind. She could see that now. She had come to Marietta to confront him, assuring herself that once she had done so, everything would be fine, that whatever misgivings he was having while they were apart were not insurmountable; they could be resolved.
    But she ’d seen that stubborn tilt to his jaw before, had kissed those tightly compressed lips. She wanted to kiss them now, to smooth away the angst and the stubbornness and whatever other ornery feelings Cole McCullough had about the world. But she knew better.
    Her dad always used to say, “You can’t pretend something doesn’t exist. You need to face it. Deal with it.”
    The question was: what was she dealing with? And how could she do it?
    She had no answers. She only knew she couldn ’t do it in the hallway. She turned away without saying anything and tried to slide the key card into the lock on the door. She missed.
    “ Give it here.” Impatiently Cole took the card out of her hand and tried to shove it into the lock himself. His hands were no steadier than hers. It took three tries, but finally he got it in and the door unlocked. Shoving the door open, he held it and nodded for her to go ahead.
    She plucked the card from his fingers as she did so. “Thank you.” She slipped past, careful not to touch him though her traitorous body dearly wanted to. She flicked on the overhead light.
    Cole came in after her. Nell heard the door shut behind him with a solid click. She turned, half expecting him to be breathing down her neck. But once inside, he didn’t move, standing instead with his back to the door. He looked angry. But his eyes told a different story. His eyes were as hungry as ever.
    They held the same deep blue intensity she had seen on the day she ’d met him. Whenever they had been together, she’d found it whenever his gaze fell on her. Somehow it connected them. And even now, when his words spoke of divorce, the look in his eyes said something different, speaking instead of the intense connection they shared. The connection Nell hoped they shared.
    “ Sit down,” she invited.
    He shook his head. “I can’t. I’ve got—”
    “ A woman to dance with?” Nell lifted a brow.
    “ She not a date,” he said. “Not really. Her dad is a friend of my old man’s. They grew up together. She’d never been here. Never met a cowboy.” He gave a derisive snort. “Like we’re a different species or something.”
    Some of you are, Nell thought. She didn’t say it.
    “ It’s