A Cowboy to Marry by CATHY GILLEN THACKER Read Free Book Online Page A

her hips. “It’s been a long day. A lot has happened.”
    â€œMmm-hmm.” Holden studied her some more. “Sure it’s not something else?” he prodded.
    She widened her pretty eyes, all innocence. “Like what?” she asked with Texas belle sweetness.
    And if there was one thing Libby was not, it was a coquette.
    Holden stepped even closer. “Like the kiss…that almost happened. That is still on both our minds every time we are alone.”
    Color swept into Libby’s cheeks. “So what if it is?” she taunted defiantly. “I’m sure we’ll get rid of the notion sooner rather than later.”
    Holden grinned, the man in him rising to the womanly challenge in her. “I prefer sooner,” he murmured.
    Libby scoffed and tossed her head. “Well, so would I! But…there’s no way to do that.”
    â€œSure there is,” Holden told her confidently. “I’ll show you.”

Chapter Four
    Holden threaded his fingers through her hair, then bent and kissed first her temple and then her cheek.
    â€œTrust me,” he whispered, as his mouth drifted slowly, inevitably toward hers. “This is the only solution…if we’re ever to have any peace….”
    Much as she was loath to admit it, Libby knew he was right. Giving in to the curiosity that had been plaguing her for years now, she went up on tiptoe. Holden groaned, pulling her flush against him. Her heart racing, Libby parted her lips to the investigating pressure of his. He responded by kissing her even more deeply. Her entire body going soft with pleasure at the unhurried coaxing of his lips and the seductive stroking of his tongue, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her hips to his.
    For the first time in her life, she began to see what she’d been missing. This was the kind of kiss she had always dreamed about and never received. Evocative. Inundating. Tender. The kind that made her feel all woman to his man. The kind that made her feel that being close to someone again might not be such a crazy idea, after all….
    Â 
    H OLDEN HADN’T COMEHERE tonight intending to kiss Libby. In fact, his plan had been to delay the physical indefinitely.
    But that had been before he’d seen the veil come over her eyes yet again, in a way that made him wonder why intimacy of any kind with him was such a threat to her.
    And suddenly he knew.
    He broke off the kiss, dropped his arms to his sides and stepped back. “All this time I thought the reason you were so ill at ease with me was because we almost kissed.” He paused, looking deep into her eyes. “But that isn’t it at all. Is it?”
    Â 
    O F ALL THE THINGS she did not want to discuss, her foolish behavior had to be at the top of the list. “I was an idiot that night, long before I hurled myself at you.” One giant mess of hormones and pent-up emotion.
    He gave her an understanding glance. “You thought you were pregnant.”
    Misery engulfed her. “And I wasn’t.”
    Holden caught her hand when she would have turned away. “But you didn’t know that when you called me and asked me to drive you to the hospital.” He squeezed her palm compassionately. “You thought you were losing your baby.”
    Libby leaned into his touch despite herself. “Had I been with child, that baby would have been three months along. Instead, all that was happening inside me was a lot of cramping and the beginning of the worst menstrual period ever! I’ve never felt so ridiculous or been so humiliated in my entire life.”
    Holden studied her. “And Paige and I witnessed it.”
    Libby struggled to get a grip. “The difference being that Paige is a physician and a woman.” Her best friend had been able to view the situation with the clinical detachment that Libby had needed. Holden had reacted muchmore emotionally. Which had made her feel even