Read McKettricks of Texas: Austin for Free Online Page B

happy!”
    Austin began to laugh. He snorted first, then howled.
    Paige kept driving, but she was moving at the break-neck speed of a golf cart in first gear.
    â€œWhat,” she demanded, “is so freaking funny?”
    In the next instant, with a visible impact, Paige realized for herself what was so freaking funny. Her bending over—in any direction—was guaranteed to make him happy, and he could recall a few times when she’d had a pretty good time in that position, too.
    The best part was, he didn’t have to say any of that.
    She wrenched the car over to the side of the highway, shifted into Park, and flipped on the hazard lights.
    Paige sort of pivoted in the seat then, and he watched asa tremor of anger—and possibly passion—moved through that compact, curvy little body of hers and then made the leap across the console and turned him instantly, obviously hard.
    â€œMaybe,” he said, “we ought to just have sex and get it over with.”
    She simply stared at him.
    Mentally, Austin pulled his foot out of his mouth. Shoved a hand through his hair and wished his hard-on weren’t pressing itself into the ridges of his zipper—he’d have a scar, if this kept up.
    â€œLet me rephrase that,” he said.
    Paige blinked.
    Time stretched.
    Cars passed, the drivers tooting the horns to say howdy.
    Polar ice caps melted.
    New species developed, reached the pinnacle of evolution and became extinct.
    â€œI’m waiting,” Paige said finally. A little lilt of fury threaded its way through her tone.
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œFor you to ‘rephrase’ that ridiculous statement you just made. ‘Maybe we ought to just have sex and get it over with,’ I think it was.” She adjusted her sunglasses, smoothed the thighs of her jeans, as she might have done with a skirt. “It’s hard to imagine how, Austin, but I’m sure you can make things even worse if you try.”
    It wasn’t as if he had to try, he thought bleakly. When it came to Paige Remington, he could make things worse without even opening his mouth.
    â€œIt was just a thought,” he said, disgruntled. “There’s no need to overreact.”
    â€œOverreact.” Paige huffed out the word, made a big show of facing forward again. With prim indignation, she resettled herself, switched off the blinkers and leaned to consult the rearview mirror before pulling back out onto the highway. “You are such a jerk,” she told him.
    Austin couldn’t think of a damn thing to say in reply to that—nothing that wouldn’t get him in deeper, anyhow.
    â€œI can’t believe you said that,” Paige marveled.
    Austin’s response was part growl, part groan. He’d forgotten just how impossible this woman could be when she got her tail into a twist about something—or how little it took to piss her off.
    Shep whined again.
    â€œYou’re scaring the dog,” Paige said.
    â€œ I’m scaring the dog?” Austin shot back, keeping his voice low. “ You started this, Paige, by calling me a jerk!”
    â€œYou are a jerk,” Paige replied, raising her chin, her spine stiff as a ramrod, her face turned straight ahead. “And you started this by saying—by saying what you said.”
    He couldn’t resist, even though he knew he should. “That we ought to have sex and get it over with, you mean?”
    She glared at him. Even through the lenses of her sunglasses, he felt her eyes burning into his hide.
    He grinned at her. “Well,” he drawled, “now that you bring it up, maybe a roll in the hay wouldn’t be such a bad idea. We could get it out of our systems, put the whole thing behind us, get on with our lives.”
    Her neck went crimson, and she just sat there, her back rigid, her knuckles white from her grip on the wheel. “Oh,that’s a fine idea, Austin. Just what I would have expected