Sizzle All Day by Geralyn Dawson Read Free Book Online

Jake said as he sauntered into the room. He grinned at Robyn, scowled at the dog, then arched a brow toward Gillian. "The chewing-gum enthusiast, I assume?"
    "Aye. Mr. Delaney, allow me to introduce my sister, Miss Robyn Ross."
    "You may call me Robbie," she piped up, smiling with delight at the antics of the dog, who thankfully had abandoned her inquisitive sniffing at the hidden door along the wall. "What happened to your dog?"
    Delaney repeated the story he'd told Flora, then apologized for allowing Scooter to run loose through Rowanclere. "Ordinarily I walk her with a sling, but today when I wasn't looking, she took it into her head to go exploring."
    "I'd prefer she limit her investigations to something other than my ankles," Gillian responded dryly as Scooter commenced to nipping at the hem of her dress.
    Gillian sensed the Texan's gaze as she tugged her skirt from Scooter's mouth. Glancing up, she caught the puzzled look he directed toward the bulge around her midriff. Hidden behind a polite smile, Gillian ground her teeth in frustration. The man paid altogether too close attention.
    Then his gaze drifted upward and lingered a second too long on the cleavage displayed by her neckline. Gillian held her breath. While ordinarily a comparison of hers and her sister's bosom revealed little difference, pregnancy had made Flora's bounty more bountiful than usual. Would he notice?
    Men always notice.
    Wonderful. Now she must worry about her belly and her breasts.
    Thankfully, Robbie summoned Mr. Delaney's attention by kneeling beside Scooter and scratching her behind the ears. "She just drags her hindquarters everywhere she goes?"
    The Texan explained about the sling he used to assist the dog, and Robyn's face lit up like a gaslight. "May I take her for a walk, please? I'll be careful with her, I promise."
    "Certainly. If it's all right with your sister."
    Gillian nodded, welcoming the ankle-nibbler's riddance. "You may have half an hour. After that you must return to your studies, Robyn. Today is no holiday."
    The Texan's eyes twinkled with mischief as he gave her a wink. "It's not? And here I thought it was National Chewing Gum day."
    Gillian couldn't reply. The wink had struck her dumb.
    Mr. Delaney was a handsome man. With that roguish glimmer in his eyes, he curled a woman's toes.
    She stammered some nonsensical reply as he helped Robyn slip the dog into the sling and the pair took off at a run, leaving Gillian and the Texan suspended in a silence she found both uncomfortable and... stimulating.
    Probably because he was staring at her again, only this time he concentrated on her lips. A faint crease of worry marred his brow. Gillian found herself wanting to lift her thumb and smooth it away.
    He cleared his throat at the same time she summoned up a cough. His lips twisted in a quick, self-deprecating grin, then he said, "So, I take it this is Rowanclere's weapons chamber?"
    "The muniment room. We're in the oldest section of the castle, part of the fourteenth-century keep. In an attempt to preserve our history, renovations here have been kept to a minimum."
    "I see." Delaney lifted a piece of breastplate armor from the table and examined it casually. "Looks like this fella died in battle."
    "I don't know about the man who wore it, but the suit itself lasted centuries until the Terror of the Tower did it in."
    "Terror of the Tower?"
    "Robyn attacked it with a broadsword last week."
    "Ah." He flashed a grin and added, "Reckon she could use her gum to put him back together?"
    Gillian forced her toes to uncurl. "Better beneath his breastplate than her dinner plate."
    His laughter sent her toes curling up again. At this rate I'll wear holes in my stockings. "Tell me about your book, Mr. Delaney."
    "My book? Oh, yes, my book." He wandered around the room inspecting the feel of a crossbow, then testing the sharpness of a claymore blade as he rattled off a convoluted tale of the differences between Old World castles and frontier