Keep It Together - By Lissa Matthews Page 0,5

kept trying to tell her to turn around and look at the man on her property.

After a few more minutes, she gave up and lowered the gun. With a sigh, she faced him and was immediately grateful for the fence at her back or she’d have stumbled.

Good God, he looked yummy. His hair was a little longer, curling along his collar, and his brilliant blue eyes, the ones that looked at her in her dreams with barely restrained lust, were shielded from her now by a pair of aviator sunglasses. That was probably a good thing. She didn’t want to see those eyes full of mild, friendly concern. That would totally ruin the fantasy life she had with him in the deep, dark recesses of her subconscious, sleepy-time brain.

“Happy now?”

“Getting there.” He said it with a smile and… Dear heavens. Chrissie almost lost her ability to think. She’d had the same issue when he’d come to see her that morning six months earlier, only now she was feeling unsteady, wobbly even. Holding a loaded gun in that state wasn’t good. She needed to unload the damn thing before she hurt one or both of them.

She lowered her gaze and unhinged the barrel. The remaining bullets popped free of the chamber, and she removed them. “You didn’t have to come down here, you know. You could have called or something.”

“Wouldn’t have felt right. Face-to-face is more personal.”

Personal wasn’t necessarily a good thing under the current circumstances. He was concerned for her, and she was trying to figure out how to strip him out of his nice clothes and have her way with him, ease the tension that had been building up inside her since the first night he’d popped into her dreams. No, personal was likely a bad idea. She was already caught off guard with him showing up.

She still wanted to jump his bones.

She’d been perfectly happy dreaming about him, having an affair in her head with him, getting her jollies in a make-believe bed with him, but in person? Oh, that just made her want him with a desire she wasn’t sure she could keep a lid on. He was potent in that Southern gentleman way with a come-hither Texas smile that beckoned her.

He needed to go back home. Only, he was closer now. She could see the toes of his boots from the corner of her eye. She picked up the bullets and, with shaky hands, stuffed them back into the box. On even shakier legs, she stood and walked a few feet to lay the gun in its case.

“What are you really doing here, Colt?” If she sounded a little antagonistic, well, so be it. Defense mechanisms and all that.

“I told you.”

“Right. To say yes about something and check on me. I’m a little confused, though. What’s the yes for, and what did I give you six months to think about?”

“Marrying you.”

Yeah, unloading the gun had been the smart thing to do. “What are you talking about?”

“You said maybe you shoulda married me instead. I figured I needed to take some time to think it over, and you needed some time to heal after Russ.”

He said it so casually she thought he was joking, just trying to make her laugh. “I didn’t say that.” But almost immediately heat flooded her entire body from the inside out. “Oh, God. I did, didn’t I?” She was light-headed now, feeling very faint, and “mortified” didn’t even come close to covering the rest of it. Couldn’t the ground open up and swallow her whole? “Well crap.”

“You did,” he answered quite matter-of-factly and with a slight, yet satisfied smile. He reached for her, and she couldn’t do anything but try and hold herself steady. Her feet wouldn’t move, not even when her brain was screaming at them to do so. His smooth businessman’s fingers tilted her chin as his other hand lowered his glasses. “And yes, you should have.”

She could see the truth in his crystal clear blue eyes. He meant it, and that made her want to run even more. Where to, she had no idea, but she needed to get away to think about how best to get out of this little mess.

“I can see you’re a bit shocked and need time to process my answer. Perfectly understandable. Let’s see, how about a week? Is that enough time? Two weeks to get your pretty head wrapped around it? I was thinking a wedding at the end of the summer would