Roped In. Crystal Green

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СКАЧАТЬ she turned back around to the bar, she almost dropped her beer. Her hands were shaking because of the adrenaline rush, the tremors in her belly.

      She’d been, what, fifteen when he’d left? Then his father had passed on from that heart attack around the time her own parents had died, and Shane’s older brother, Tommy, had run the Slanted C. Supposedly, ever since then, Shane had been somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas, working on some cutting horse ranch.

      But he was back now.

      And, from the looks of it, he was painting the town red, just as she would’ve expected the rebellious son of the Slanted C to do.

      Maybe connecting gazes with him had thrown Nicki for a loop, because her heart was beating like the drums in the wild country song that the band was now playing. Bang, bang, bang. She tried not to think about the breadth of his shoulders under that dark shirt, his waist tapering into lean hips, the long legs ending in those bad boy boots.

      Then again, maybe his appeal was just in the costume. Maybe she was just thinking too much about those fantasies Candace had been talking about.

      Nicki’s body pitter-patted again, demanding that she turn around to look at him one more time.

      But when she heard a deep voice right behind her, she startled, surprise jabbing her all over.

      “Look who’s all dressed up.”

      A low, dark drawl.

      When Nicki glanced over her shoulder, he was there, so close that she could see the stubble emerging on his cheeks and jawline and smell the lime of the shaving cream he must’ve used.

      He was near enough that Nicki could also see the slight cleft in his chin, the dark blue of eyes that boasted lashes that had no right to be on a man.

      Her stomach lifted and then somersaulted. A foreign feeling, like it’d never happened to her before. Or as if it’d never happened with this kind of force.

      “You recognized me?” she asked loudly, over the music. Somehow, she sounded just like a saloon girl, a little too saucy, a lot interested.

      “Sure I recognized you,” he said over the song.

      Then, to her shock, he reached out, touched a curl that had sprung from her upswept hairdo. Near his fingers, the skin on her neck tingled, sending a shower of awareness over her chest, through her belly, ending in an even more intense drill of lust below the belt.

      He added, “No one’s got hair like this.”

      He let go of her root beer–colored curl, even though it seemed as if he didn’t really want to.

      Or was she imagining that?

      “So…” she said over the band’s music.

      He had to take off his hat, then lean in to hear, and the intimacy kept her body thudding and bumping. Damn, he smelled good, like he’d just gotten out of the shower. Her lips throbbed from being so close to his cheek.

      “You’re back on the ranch?” she added.

      He nodded, turning his face toward her so he could answer. When he spoke, he warmed her ear, making her realize that his mouth was only a kiss away.

      “Tommy recently left with his family for greener pastures with his wife’s family in east Texas,” he said. “And my mom’s off visiting my aunt in Oklahoma for a while.”

      “You’ve taken over?”

      “I suppose I have.”

      He sounded amused by the turn of events, but something in his tone also hinted of a darker reason for his return to Pine Junction.

      But before she could ask about that, he’d already gone back to being that outlaw, one thumb hooked through a belt loop, his gaze lowered as he moved to speak in her ear again.

      “Rumor has it that you’re looking to do business with an out-of-towner.”

      Something took a nosedive in her chest. This didn’t sound like flirting any more.

      “A neighbor’s business is always my business,” he said, “especially if it concerns the introduction of dudes.”

      Definitely not flirting.

      So much for fantasy. Shane Carter had come across the room to merely talk business to his next-door neighbor.

      And you know what? It made Nicki bristle, because she knew that, in his eyes, she still had to be the little-sister type to him, the girl in pigtails he’d protected from his father’s anger once upon a time.

      That wasn’t her anymore, especially tonight of all nights.

      “Do you think city people are going to pollute Pine Junction?” she asked. “Is that what you’re afraid of, Carter?”

      “I have my concerns, seeing as your land borders my family’s. Do you have any idea how selling out to a dude operation is going to change the tenor of the town?”

      Selling out. That stung, mostly because she had thought good and hard about it. But, the truth was, plenty of Pine Junction’s citizens were just as hard up for money as she was. In fact, she was in competition with some of the other ranches for the investment firm’s favor, and their representative would be making visits to some of their spreads, too.

      “Is that why you came back?” she asked, leveling her tone. “To make sure a dude resort won’t cheapen Pine Junction with spas and four-star restaurants?”

      “That’s one among many reasons.”

      His jaw had gone tight. Her heartbeat punched up, and hyperactive butterflies flew through her belly.

      Then he ran another long gaze down Nicki, as if taking a different view of her.

      Her skin flamed as his slow gaze turned into something much more, roaming right back up her body, leaving a trail of tingling, addictive shivers in his wake.

      Nicki’s sex clenched, priming itself for something it hadn’t had in a long time.

      The tingles blazed upward, sending prickles of heat through her—like flames eating their way out from under her skin. Beneath her bodice, her nipples went sensitive, peaking, and she wanted to be touched as thoroughly as she’d been looked at.

      Then Shane raised an eyebrow, as if she’d totally misinterpreted his glance, and her reverie shattered into a thousand heartbreaking pieces.

      This wasn’t a fantasy at all, and that’s what she’d always been afraid of with Shane.

       2

      AS NICKI WADE WALKED away from Shane, he almost stopped her.

      Almost.

      When Shane had first seen her across the room, he hadn’t actually recognized her. His body had only reacted to a punch of lust straight to the gut at the sight of СКАЧАТЬ