Read The Texan's Diamond Bride for Free Online

I mean…I managed to distract you for the last few moments, didn’t I?”
    “I—I—I can’t believe you—”
    “You haven’t flinched over the last two lightning strikes, in case you didn’t notice. So from where I sit, it seems to be working.”
    From where he sat!
    Well, from where she sat, she was…She was on top of him, all lean muscles and heat and…and…
    She had pushed herself upright at one point, wasn’t snuggled against him as she had been at first, but she was still sitting on his lap, her hands pressed against his chest for balance and to keep her from getting any closer.
    “I don’t…I just…I don’t do this.”
    “Do what? Snuggle? Kiss? Play around a little?”
    Play around a little?
    “That’s what you’re offering to do?” she asked.
    He shrugged easily. “I’m saying I’m open to the possibilities.”
    He made it sound so innocent, like nothing of consequence at all. Like passing the time in casual conversation or something.
    “Actually,” he said. “Now that I think about it, not absolutely anything. We couldn’t actually have sex. No condoms. I don’t generally ride around the ranch prepared in that particular way.”
    “Not an opportunity that normally presents itself during a normal workday at the ranch?” she quipped.
    “No, Red. I have to say, it just doesn’t happen. Damned shame, don’t you think? I love working this ranch. Something like that happened every now and then…Well, I’d have to say the job would be just about perfect then.”
    “Get lonely out here, Cowboy?”
    He nodded.
    She shook her head. “I can’t decide what to make of you. If you were half-serious about that or just…just—”
    “I was going to kiss you,” he admitted, laughingbeautifully, that rich, deep voice of his wrapping around her like a spell in the dark. “Although I am up for just about anything you’d like. I mean…a man needs to take care of a woman. It’s just…what a man does.”
    “Make the sacrifice? Since I’m afraid and everything?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Is this some cowboy code you live by? You’re honor bound to offer your body to a woman in distress—”
    “That’s just what a man does.”
    Paige didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or charmed.
    Both, probably.
    “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted.
    “You don’t have to say anything. I was just letting you know you had options.”
    “Oh, well. Options. Okay.”
    “But really, why don’t you just stay here with me, lean down against me.” He eased her down against his chest. “There you go. And let your head go right here.” Against that warm, inviting curve of his shoulder and his neck. “That’s it. Close your eyes.”
    He spread the blanket over her and him. She could feel him breathing deeply and easily, feel the heat of his body, his heartbeat beneath one of her palms.
    He put one of his hands over her ear, and with the other ear buried against his chest, it blocked out a lot of the sound, making a little cocoon of safety for her.
    It was nice.
    Really nice.
    “Go to sleep,” he whispered. “You’ll be fine.”
     
    She tried.
    She really did.
    But the storm kept going. She’d be nearly asleep, then find herself jerked out of that half sleep by lightning, feel his arms tighten around her to let her know she wasn’t alone, feel the glorious heat of his big, hard body, and then find herself thinking of what he’d offered.
    It was just a night.
    Just a little comfort in the dark on a big, scary night.
    She knew lightning wasn’t going to come snaking inside the rock overhang and get her. It wasn’t chasing after her.
    But an irrational fear was just that—an irrational fear.
    And she’d been battling this one since she was a little girl and had gotten caught in her tree house during a big storm. No one had known she was there, and she’d stayed well hidden inside of it, huddled into a little ball, shaking and crying like she never had in her life. Her mother’s