Christmas at Home (Spikes & Spurs #5) - Carolyn Brown Page 0,75
I just want to hold you and whisper sweet things in your ear the rest of the day.”
She cuddled even closer to him on the narrow sofa. “I could stay right here forever. I am so sleepy.”
It was there. It wasn’t a myth that writers talked about. There was really afterglow and it really did wrap around them like golden sunshine.
He picked up her hand and kissed her fingertips. “Then nap, sweetheart. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Promise?” she asked.
“I’m not going anywhere, Sage.”
She awoke to G. W. McLintock’s buddy saying something about him knowing what Katy’s temper was. She opened her eyes to see a dark-haired woman sitting on McLintock’s lap, and he had a whiskey bottle in his hand.
Creed would be dead if he ever cheated on her. Her predominant genes had gotten the upper hand with her body, but the hot-tempered Irish genes ruled her heart. Creed’s chest shook with laughter. She watched him for a long time, being very still and studying his cheekbones, his full sexy mouth, his heavy dark lashes. How could she ever let him go?
The movie was near the end and McLintock was chasing the flaming redhead, Maureen O’Hara, through the streets when Creed looked down and realized she was awake.
“Well, hello, sleepyhead. The movie is about over and it’s even better than the last time I watched it. Would you get that mad at me over lipstick on my collar?”
“Number one, we are not married. Number two, you don’t want to test my mettle.”
“You’ve seemed pretty tame to me,” he said.
“Honey, cowgirls can’t be tamed and this cowgirl has some pretty hot Irish blood in her.”
“But you are a painter, not a cowgirl.”
She reached up and patted him on the cheek. “You can take the cowgirl out of the canyon. You can put paintbrushes and sketch pencils in her hands. You can even put a dress on her. But you can’t take the canyon out of the cowgirl and all this old canyon knows how to produce is cowgirls. A mealymouthed, sissified woman wouldn’t last two weeks in this place.”
“That what happened to Mrs. Lawton?”
“Eva? No, she was a cowgirl from Claude, Texas. You ever seen a baby chicken right out of the egg?”
He grinned and kissed her on the nose. “Of course. Baby chickens, baby geese, and baby ducks.”
“They don’t have much in the way of wings until they’re a few weeks old. Eva was just getting her wings when she got pregnant and had to marry Lawton. When they came in full strength she wanted to fly but she had a husband, a ranch, a mother-in-law from hell, and a new baby all tied around her neck.”
“So she flew away?”
“That’s right. She did.”
“What happens if I test your mettle?” he teased.
“You’d better make that doghouse real comfortable.”
* * *
There had been no doubt in Creed’s mind that he was going to buy the ranch when Ada Presley came back. He liked it. The price was more than right. And he’d fight Sage to the last breath to have it.
And then he lost his heart to her.
And then she cried.
He laid aside his book and turned out the lamp on his nightstand. He’d rather be curved around her body in her bed, but she hadn’t asked him to spend the night with her. They’d had glorious daytime sex twice, but when it was over they’d gone on about the business of running a ranch or in her case, painting a picture.
He wanted to wake up with Sage in his arms. The time between that Wednesday night and the day Ada would come home was so short. In two weeks it would be over and he’d be driving up the road out of the canyon.
Sage deserved happiness and he loved her enough to give it to her.
He laced his fingers behind his neck. With the curtains opened, he could see the Christmas lights burning brightly on the barn and barbed wire fence. He imagined Sage as a child running down the short hallway, slinging open the door and jumping on the bed on Christmas morning.
The room went from semidarkness to instant light. He threw a hand over his eyes and sat straight up in bed. Electricity could plunge the house into darkness but he’d never heard of it flashing on when the switch was off.
The bed bounced when Sage jumped in the middle of it.
“Creed, wake up, you’ve got to see!”
Things came into focus slowly when he uncovered his eyes.