The Bride Prize. Susan Fox P.

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СКАЧАТЬ entitled to his inheritance though. Being born to a Merrick entitled him just as being born to a Davis had entitled her to her inheritance.

      “Let’s go in and sit down,” she said, then led the way out of the kitchen into the hall. She heard Shane chuckle softly.

      “Might be a good time to mention that there’s a hand-size grease spot on the right cheek of your britches.”

      Corrie halted to glance back to see if he was teasing or serious, and of course, his blue gaze danced with amusement.

      “Truly?”

      Instead of answering, Shane held up the folded newspaper he must have picked up off the kitchen table on his way past. “You can sit on this.”

      Corrie walked on into the living room. She waited while he opened the newspaper on the seat of an overstuffed chair before she dropped down on the cushion, grateful for the soft landing, and that she’d managed not to spill her glass of ice water.

      Shane took a seat on the upholstered footstool that matched the old chair. He nodded toward her glass.

      “By rights, that water should have slopped all over. You always did have a kind of elegance.”

      Again Corrie caught a glimpse of…something…in his gaze. And again she tried to ignore it and made a doubtful face.

      “No more elegance than the nearest gate half off its hinges.”

      A little of his smile faded. “You still don’t know how to take a compliment. You probably haven’t figured out yet that most of the men in these parts make eyes at you and think naughty thoughts.”

      The shock of hearing him say that was second only to the flash of shame she felt. Men barely noticed her, and it stung a little to have him call attention to it, even in a backhanded way.

      She smiled as if it didn’t matter, blew out a half-embarrassed, half-exasperated breath, then reached back to catch her braid and bring it over her shoulder to strip the leather tie from the end. Braided, her dark hair went to just below her shoulder blades. Unbound, her hair fell nearly to her waist.

      “Maybe I ought to send you to the barn for a shovel before it gets too deep in here,” she told him as she set the glass of water aside to start unraveling her braid.

      And immediately wished she hadn’t when she caught sight of the solemn expression that dropped over Shane’s tanned face as he watched her fingers work. That odd, fluttery feeling came winging back and she immediately tried to suppress it.

      “I don’t mean to be rude and bossy,” she said then, “but would you mind picking another place to sit so I can pry off these boots? The seam on my sock hasn’t set right all day.”

      Shane dealt her another small surprise when instead of obliging, he grinned and reached down for her right boot to lift her foot. The gesture was completely new between them, and she was too caught off guard to do anything but stare as he pulled off her boot and set it down.

      “I interrupted a stampede to the shower didn’t I?” One side of his handsome mouth quirked up.

      Corrie was still a little too surprised to realize until after he’d leaned down to reach for her other foot that his arm had effectively trapped her ankle on top of his hard thigh.

      “You never minded getting dirty,” he remarked, “but once you got to the house you were always in a girlish rush to get cleaned up.”

      Then he had her other foot up and was stripping off the boot before he settled that foot next to the other on his thigh. The idea of having both her feet in his lap seemed incredibly intimate, which finally goaded her out of her silence.

      “Is there a reason you’re so friendly with my feet?” she asked as she pulled them back, relieved when he allowed it.

      “No good reason,” he admitted. “Just wondered how long you’d let me do it. You ever had a foot massage?”

      “Nope. Don’t want one either.” Corrie felt a little prudish suddenly for taking this so seriously, but something had changed between them. Shane had always treated her as a pal, one of the guys. He was gentler with her of course, but there’d never been even a hint of real man/woman things, or even much acknowledgment that she was female.

      Yes, there’d been that time when she’d turned her head at the wrong time as he’d been leaning over to whisper something silly to her. His lips had brushed hers, but they’d both jumped back as if they’d been burned. Then they’d laughed like hyenas over it. This wasn’t at all like that one time.

      Now Shane’s smile leveled a little, but the intent look—that new look—in his eyes sent heat into her face. “You’re still an innocent, aren’t you, Corrie?” His voice dropped lower. “I can’t tell you how rare and special that is out there in that big, wide world.”

      Corrie gave him a wary look, unsure what to say to that. Or to any of this. That seemed to tickle him. His face brightened and he chuckled as he leaned forward to tug on a lock of her hair before he abruptly stood.

      “You go get that shower, darlin’. I need to get on down the road, but I’ll call you later. ’Kay?”

      Darlin’? Corrie’s gaze was all but glued to his and she’d been unable to break contact with it as he’d risen. Her soft and belated, “’Kay,” was part squeak, part whisper, as if she’d somehow lost her voice.

      She didn’t get up as she watched him turn and stride to the hall then to the front door. Once he was out of sight, her gaze fell and fixed on the footstool.

      Confusion swamped her, and for the first time in her life, Corrie felt the magnitude of her inexperience. She could talk work or business or politics with just about any man, but she was ignorant about male/female things. She knew about courting and the mechanics of sex, but she had only hazy theories about how those things actually got started in real life.

      Or, more specifically, in her life. The boys she’d grown up around hadn’t minded working alongside her on roundup or doing ranch work or on projects at school. She was a hard worker and they’d liked that she’d pulled her own weight and that she wasn’t squeamish or timid with the stock. And she’d been a favorite in classroom situations where the teacher wanted boys and girls to work together. Probably because she’d gotten good grades in everything, and the boys hadn’t needed to worry that Corrie Davis would get lovestruck and moon over one of them.

      But when it had come to school dances and other dating opportunities, they’d passed her up like a mailbox along a highway. Town girls and girls who’d learned how to bat their eyelashes and flirt had gotten the dates. Girls who’d worn makeup and panty hose and short little blouses and skirts that bared midriffs and thighs. Girls who’d seemed to have been born knowing how to use their female powers to wrap boyfriends around their little fingers. Not girls like her, who could rope and ride, arm-wrestle them on a dare, bait a fishhook, and go hunting.

      It had been the town girls’ example that she’d tried to follow when she’d fallen for Nick Merrick. Some of those girls had been plain, but they’d made over their plainness with eye shadow and other little beauty tricks from magazines. Her mistake had been in thinking Corrie Davis could do the same, with the same happy results.

      Thinking of all that again reminded her that she’d been feeling СКАЧАТЬ