Read The Kissing Stars for Free Online Page B

suddenly sour taste in his mouth, unable to peel his gaze away from the scene inside the cabin. Tess was here, all right.
    His wife lay sound asleep, sprawled like a blanket across a bare-assed naked man.

    TESS WOKE abruptly, exhaustion clawing at her body even as she realized something was wrong. Immediately, she reached for Andrew’s neck and felt for a pulse. Weak, but still beating, thank God.
    She brushed back a lock of his carrot red hair and placed a weary hand against his forehead. Hot again, blast it. When she’d finally lost the battle against sleep, he’d been shivering with chills. Now the fever had him burning up again, and he’d kicked off his blankets. She was surprised he hadn’t pushed her out of the bed like he had the last time she’d crawled in beside him to help him keep warm. She’d fallen asleep then, too, and when he got hot, he’d rolled her onto the floor.
    But she wasn’t on the floor now. So what had dragged her from the sleep she so dearly needed?
    Brow wrinkling, she glanced around the room. Someone stood hidden in the shadows in the corner. “Jade? Is that you? What are you doing in here? You know no one is allowed inside.”
    “I can see why.” Gabe Cameron stepped into the light and added in a hard tone, “Adultery is something better kept private.”
    Gabe . Tess’s stomach fell like a meteor and she groaned aloud “Well, Aries, Cancer, and Cassiopeia,” she muttered. When she’d stood him up in Dallas, she’d suspected he might follow her home. But since he’d given up on her easy enough the first time, she’d figured the odds at fifty-fifty. Thank goodness she’d hedged that bet by taking precautions. As soon as she’d returned to Aurora Springs, she’d sent Will off with Doc. “I need this today like Rosie needs singing lessons.”
    For the briefest of moments, he appeared distracted. Then he folded his arms and sneered, “I can’t imagine a time when it’s handy to get caught cheating on your spouse.”
    “Oh, be quiet. You don’t have a clue of what’s really going on, Gabe Cameron.”
    “Don’t call me that,” he said, taking a step forward. “My surname is Montana now. Don’t hang anything else on me.”
    “Fine. Call yourself whatever you want, but I’m still Mrs. Cameron.”
    “At least you remember the Mrs . part,” he noted, pointedly eyeing the bed.
    Tess sniffed. She’d bet her favorite star chart he hadn’t changed it legally, but that wasn’t worth mentioning. Tired, she rolled out of bed and braced herself, preparing to confront him. When she got a good look at the furious light in his eyes, she almost crawled right back in. Gabe was obviously itching for a fight and unless he’d changed significantly in the past dozen years, she could count on the battle taking a while.
    Lovely .
    “You used to be smarter than this,” she observed before turning her back on her husband and devoting her attentions to Andrew.
    She could almost hear Gabe fuming as she retrieved the basin of fresh water and bed linens outside her door. When she dipped a cloth into the water and began sponging her friend’s overheated, freckled face, she would have sworn she heard her husband grinding his teeth.
    She rinsed the towel, then stroked it across Andrew’s naked chest, fully expecting Gabe to protest. She didn’t anticipate his grasping her around the waist and lifting her bodily away from Andrew’s sickbed, then yanking the cloth from her hand.
    “So maybe I know you’re playing nursemaid instead of bedmate, but that still doesn’t mean I want to watch my wife performing this kind of intimacy with another man.”
    “Close your eyes, then,” she replied, making a grab for the damp washrag. “You’re acting the half-wit, Gabe. You haven’t fretted over what your wife’s been doing for the past twelve years. No reason for you to start now.”
    He muttered something she couldn’t make out and held his arm out as she struggled with him, the cloth