Daddy in the Making. Crystal Green

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СКАЧАТЬ also been a “Told you this woman was just as temporary as the others” look.

      Conn jerked his chin toward Rita, conveying that he still had a lot to take care of and that maybe Emmet should read some of those framed articles on the wall to pass the time. Emmet shrugged and wandered off.

      As Rita shuffled papers, probably wishing Conn would think she was too busy to continue talking, he didn’t take her none-too-subtle hint.

      â€œI apologize for the inconvenience,” he said softly, not wanting to make a scene. Strangely, that woman-luring charm his brothers had commented on still came easily to him when not much else did. “But I could really use your help.”

      He added a smile for good measure. He had a feeling it had worked a million times.

      â€œMy help?” She didn’t look up at him. “Are you asking me for a place to stay the night again? A warm bed? A willing woman who doesn’t know any better than to listen to your promises?”

      Oops.

      â€œBegging your pardon,” he said, “but I hope you’ll believe me when I tell you that I don’t know anything I said to you that night. There’s a good reason I came back here, and it wasn’t to return a necklace.”

      Eyes narrowed, she waited for him to go on.

      He leaned his elbow on the desk, setting his hat down on it. Even from this distance, she smelled like berries and vanilla, and he nearly closed his eyes as the scent traveled through him, warming him deep down. It was as if he hadn’t ever forgotten this part of her, even though the memory had just reemerged.

      But he shook himself out of it. Good God, he didn’t have time to be sniffing around a random woman who was no doubt one of many more. He needed to talk to her, not to get her into bed again.

      â€œThis is going to sound odd,” he said. How did a guy get around to telling a woman something that amounted to the lamest excuse in the world? Why would she even believe him?

      But what else was he going to say?

      He was still holding her necklace. “I’d really like your help in … Well, first off, I need to know when we …”

      â€œDid it? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

      All right. That was one way of getting over the awkwardness. She was just as forthright as his brothers.

      â€œI wish I were kidding,” he said. “I had some business at the Hervy Ranch about a half hour away in July—”

      â€œI know. You were dealing with livestock. You told me that right before you talked me into …”

      She pressed her lips together, color rising in her cheeks. A buzz skimmed his belly at just the mention of what had gone on between them, even though this wasn’t the time or place for it.

      The important thing was that he’d done more than just had sex with her. She was someone he’d talked to around the time of his accident, although he didn’t know how long they had chatted before getting to the bedroom. If she could just give him more details about their time together, maybe that would kick-start his brain and he could piece together more of what had happened before and just after the accident.

      She shot him a slanted look. “Why the hell wouldn’t you know when we …” She lowered her voice, glancing around. Discovering that the lobby had emptied, she added, “Were together?”

      Here it went.

      â€œWhen I left St. Valentine,” he said, “I got in an accident on the way to my appointment. Enough of one to send me in an ambulance to the hospital.”

      She raised her eyebrows. On her face he saw shock … until her gaze softened for a vulnerable moment.

      â€œAn accident?” she asked.

      â€œThat’s right. And afterward I didn’t remember where I was, who I was … My brothers and mom were there to help me put things together. Most things, anyway. I’ve got holes right where a lot of my memory used to be.”

      She just kept watching him, her gaze finally going from soft and gray to unreadable and cool.

      Then she laughed softly, and it wasn’t a funny laugh. Her gaze was sad now.

      â€œThis is a joke, right?” she asked.

      â€œNo.” What kind of psychotic would approach her again just to lay a line like this on her?

      â€œWhatever it is, it’s not funny at all.”

      Conn started to assure her that he was deadly serious, but she had already abandoned her stack of papers and rounded the desk corner, her body fully revealed now.

      As he laid eyes on her slightly swelling stomach pressing against her skirt, he froze, unable to follow her.

      Rita Niles never looked back at him. She just blindly headed for the hallway, then the closed door to the tearoom, hoping he wouldn’t see where she’d gone.

      Conn Flannigan, the man she’d put so much hope in, even after one night. Dumbly, naively, regretfully.

      She calmly opened the door, but as soon as she was in the empty kitchen, she leaned on a stainless-steel counter, dizzy, her pulse so loud in her ears, so wild in her chest, that she almost slumped to the floor.

      But not quite, because she’d promised herself that nobody was ever going to do this to her again. Not after what her ex-fiancé, Kevin, had done to her. And definitely not after she’d dropped her guard during a wonderful night of seduction with this cowboy, finally believing that she’d been wrong about love all these years.

      She rubbed the curve of her belly, fighting the tears.

      Conn Flannigan.

      When she’d seen him in the lobby today, it’d shocked her right down to her toes, her body tingling in places that should’ve been smart enough to go numb after she thought she’d been left high and dry by him. But, with him standing there, with his thick, black hair that curled up at the ends, with his shining blue eyes, with every inch of lean, tall cowboy in a Western shirt, jeans and boots, she’d come alive in very dangerous ways.

      And it was happening now, too, as that night filtered back to her.

      She’d been sitting in the Queen of Hearts Saloon, resigned to hours of drudge work ahead of her at the hotel. She’d been in threadbare jeans, an untucked blouse, with her hair pulled back in a haphazard ponytail, yet when he’d walked in, she was the only one he’d looked at.

      And that look … Even now, she shivered from the intensity of what it’d done to her—breathing fire under and over her skin, sizzling through her until it consumed every inch. She could’ve even sworn that time had stopped for both of them, could’ve sworn that every one of his cells was vibrating just as hard as hers were.

      If СКАЧАТЬ