Texas Wide Open (27 page)

Authors: KC Klein

BOOK: Texas Wide Open

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If he let himself, if he got lost in her body, he’d never let her go. Right or wrong,
willing or not, he was ready to go back to the days of the caveman and drag her back
to his lair.

He opened his eyes and there she was, so close. Eyes confirming everything her body
was telling him. “It was for you,” he said. “I knew one day you’d come back to the
ranch. Your heart is here in this land. This was my one bargaining chip. But I don’t
want this place if you’re not here.”

“This place is nothing without you.” Her hands came up and cupped his face, and she
kissed him. Her mouth warm and open against his. And he breathed in her scent and
kissed her back.

It took everything he had to pull his mouth away from hers. “You better be sure, Katie.
This is your last chance. Because if you say yes, then it’s forever—you hear me. There’s
no going back.”

Katie nodded, tears in her eyes. “I love you. I always have.”

She went to kiss him again. But he’d lost too much not to be cautious. Not to cross
every T, dot every i. “No.”

“What?”

He took her hand and dragged her inside to his kitchen, the screen door banging open
behind them.

“Cole, what are you doing?”

“Something I should’ve done on our wedding night. Hell, something I should’ve done
the day you turned eighteen.” He put a pen in her hand and pointed at a piece of paper
on his table. “Sign.”

“What is it?”

“Our marriage certificate.”

“Cole.” Katie laughed and it felt like a bath of liquid sunshine. “There’s no need.
I—”

“Sign.”

She laughed again and scrawled her name on the black line.

He was careful to watch as the last letter was finished, and then picked her up and
carried her to his room. He threw her on the bed and watched as she bounced, her eyes
sparkling. Then the tightness around his chest eased.

He stood and unbuttoned his shirt, never taking his eyes from her face. He pulled
the garment off, then ripped at the cuff when it caught.

“There’s no going back now.” He grinned to lighten his words, but he spoke from somewhere
deep inside where there were no lies. “I’m never gonna let you go. You know that,
right? This means forever.”

She raised her arms to him. He was in them before his next breath. She kissed his
jaw, temple, forehead. His breath shuddered.

“I’ve been yours since I was eight years old.”

He couldn’t stop kissing her. He moved down her throat, kissed the valley between
her breasts. Then laid his lips on her stomach and felt each inhale. He quieted against
her, taking in the rhythm of her beating heart, willing his own to match. He wrapped
his arms around her and was suddenly afraid to move. His old friend doubt came back
for a visit. “Katie, how do I know you won’t regret this? Things between us have always
been hot and cold. What makes this time different?”

Katie stroked his hair, her fingers lovingly twisting the strands around her fingers.
“I don’t know, Cole. I do know things won’t always be easy, and I can’t promise you
I’ll never smack you upside the head, since you’re one of the most stubborn men I
know. But I can promise you one thing. After we fight,” she said with a sexy twinkle
in her eye, “I won’t wait near as long to let you make it up to me.”

And he wouldn’t wait near as long either, because now he knew . . . the best part
of fighting with Katie was the making up with her afterward.

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Sweet Plains, Texas, wasn’t so sweet to Cody, Noah, and Beau Tucker. But now the Tucker
boys are men, ready to take on the questions that have haunted them since they left
home . . .

Cody Tucker shook the dust of his two-bit hometown off his boots ten years ago—right
about the time his college sweetheart, Shelby Lynn Harris, married his so-called best
friend. But when his dad dies, Cody finds himself home again and knee deep in the
past. Except now his rowdy beer buddy is the sheriff, his housekeeper is a blue-ribbon
chili chef, and the family ranch is in the red. The only thing that hasn’t changed
is Shelby Lynn . . .

Shelby Lynn has gone through a lot of heartache thanks to Cody. But that’s all over
now. She just wants a chance to live the life she’s made for herself in peace. The
trouble is, the Sweet Plains chili cook-off is heating up, the Ladies of Sweet are
as riled as hornets, and as soon as Cody gets near, she forgets all about peace. Cody
is pure temptation—and she knows just how good it feels to give in . . .