Winning The Cowboy's Heart. Karen Rock
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Название: Winning The Cowboy's Heart
Автор: Karen Rock
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Rocky Mountain Cowboys
isbn: 9781474090995
isbn:
“You’re a mind reader now?”
“Nah, I’m just clever.” The smirk spread, revealing even white teeth against her freckled face, the contrast unconventionally attractive. “And I also think I’m hilarious.”
He bit back a laugh and slid by her into the house, shaking his head at her brashness.
“Oh, Heath?” she called, and he stuck his head around the doorframe. One of Jewel’s hands lifted a single finger; the other rounded into an O shape. “Cades one, Lovelands zero.”
The smile lingered on his face as hot water pounded on Heath’s sore muscles while he twisted beneath the showerhead’s spray minutes later. Jewel sure had an ego, but she had the talent to back it up, too. He snapped off the water, wrapped a towel around his waist and sauntered from the steam-filled bathroom.
“Oof!” He collided with someone—someone much too petite to be one of his brothers. Small, calloused hands landed on his bare chest. His muscles clenched as his heart stopped and then sped up.
Jewel Cade’s enormous brown eyes trailed up his contracting abdomen to his face. “Travis said I could find an extra deck of cards up here.” Air separated her halting words. She yanked her hands down. “We’re playing Texas Holdʼem. Want to play?”
He shook his head, wordless. No. He did not want to play with the aggravating redhead who nettled him like a burr. Her soft mouth parted, and the tip of her pink tongue appeared on her generous lower lip.
“Come on, Heath, don’t you want to live dangerously?”
He pictured icicles dangling from barn eaves, his breath frosting winter air, the sting of sleet hitting his cheeks...anything to stop the temptation to sample her full lips. “Kelsey wants me over for dinner.”
Jewel’s sparkling brown eyes dulled and darned if he didn’t want to make them shine again. Get out of here, he ordered himself, yet his feet had other ideas and stuck him in place.
“But what do you want?”
“Peace.” He ducked back in his room and slammed the door. Her chuckle wove through the thick pine anyway. He paced to his closet and savagely buttoned on the dress shirt and pants Kelsey bought him for his birthday. His rough fingers fumbled to knot the tie. Once, twice...five times. He yanked off the noose. Kelsey’s impending frown flashed in his mind’s eye.
Contrary to Jewel’s opinion, he already knew he wasn’t suited for this ranching life, let alone the one awaiting him once he married. Or maybe it was the other way around and his life didn’t suit him. Either way, he needed to resign himself to it...if she’d just leave him be and stop challenging him.
Was that too much to ask?
When it came to Jewel, his money was on yes.
In the hall, he’d wanted to kiss the everlasting smirk off her face. She tested the limits of his self-control, self-denial and unselfishness.
That, of course, was the problem.
Some part of him apparently liked being unrestrained and taking what he wanted. It’d be his downfall, though, if he didn’t keep his distance from bold, spirited Jewel Cade.
Hopefully, dinner with Kelsey would give him clarity. A loud, raucous laugh erupted from downstairs, Jewel’s shout mingling with his siblings’. He jammed on his hat and clomped outside. He sure wasn’t getting any peace here, not with a certain redhead underfoot and messing with his head.
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