Long, Tall Texans_ Boone (Long, Tall Texans #35) - Diana Palmer Page 0,23

“You and Clark have been like siblings for years. Why the sudden passion?”

“Passion?” she parroted.

“He’s dating you. Didn’t you notice?” he asked sarcastically.

“We went horseback riding,” she pointed out. “There are a lot of things you can’t do on a horse!”

His eyebrows made arches. “Really? What sort of things?”

He was baiting her. She glared at him. “You said you wanted cinnamon buns and coffee. There it is.”

She started toward the door again.

Incredible, how fast he could move, she thought dazedly when he was already at the door before she reached it. She had to stop suddenly to keep from running right into his tall, powerful body.

He turned so that her back was against the door. His dark eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. She felt like a small, delicious and decidedly alarmed bunny.

He knew it. He smiled slowly and his eyes began to glitter. “You’re afraid of me,” he said in a slow, deep tone.

Her hands spread behind her against the door and she tried to melt into it. He was very close. She could feel the heat from his tall, powerful body, smell the clean, spicy scent of him as he leaned closer.

Now he had an advantage, and he knew it. She’d done a stupid thing, trying to run.

“You aren’t afraid of Clark or Bentley, though, are you?” he persisted.

“They’re nice people.”

He made a short, rough sound deep in his throat. “And I’m not?”

She dragged in a ragged breath. Her eyes would only go as high as his top shirt button, which was unfastened. Thick, black curling hair peeked out from under it. She wondered if there was more across his broad, muscular chest under the fabric. He never took his shirt off, or even opened it past that top button. She was curious. Her thoughts surprised her. She hadn’t thought that way about a man in a long time.

He recognized her fear for what it was. One lean hand came up to her cheek and brushed back strands of soft blond hair, the gesture sensuous enough to make her shiver. She couldn’t hide her reaction to him. She didn’t have the experience.

Pressing his advantage, he bent and brushed his nose lazily against hers in an odd, intimate little caress that made her breath stop in her throat.

“You smell of lilacs,” he whispered. “It’s a scent I never connect with any other woman.”

“It’s only shampoo,” she blurted out. She was shy and nervous. She didn’t understand what he was doing. Was this a pass? She couldn’t remember a man ever treating her like this.

“Is it?” He shifted, just a little, but enough to bring his long legs in contact with hers, in an intimacy she’d never shared with a man.

Instinctively her small hands went to his chest and pushed once, jerkily.

He pulled back from her with a rough word. His eyes were blazing when he looked down at her. “Did you think I was making a pass at you?” he challenged tightly. “You’d be lucky! I don’t waste my time on children.”

She was shivering. His whole posture was threatening, and he looked murderous.

“Hell!” he burst out, furious at his own weakness and her cold reaction to it. She was just a little icicle.

Her lower lip trembled. He was scary like that. She still connected anger with physical violence, thanks to a friend of her father’s. She cringed involuntarily when he lifted his hand.

Her blatant fear put a quick cap on his temper. He stopped for a moment, puzzled. What he was learning about her, without a word being spoken, fascinated him. She really was afraid of him. Not only of his ardor, but his temper, as well. She thought he was raising his hand to strike her. Which posed a worrying question. Had some man hit her in the past?

“I was going to open the door, Keely,” he said in a totally different tone, the one he used with children. “I don’t hit women. That’s a coward’s way.”

She forced her eyes up to his. She couldn’t tell him. She kept so many secrets. There were nightmares in her past.

He frowned. His fingers went to her cheek and drew down it with an odd tenderness. They moved to her soft mouth and traced it, and then lifted to smooth back her hair.

“What happened to you?” he asked in the softest tone he’d ever used with her.

She met his eyes evenly. “What happened to you?” she countered in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper to divert