Expecting...in Texas by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online Page B

together. Cruz had that kind of effect on her. Just being near her, he drew every scrap of common sense out of her head and replaced it with a yearning so huge that it was almost unmanageable.
    They’d been in the meadow now for at least half an hour. Cruz had been nothing but gentlemanly in his advances, touching nothing more intimate than her arm or her neck. He still managed to reduce her to a mass of needs that were better off unsated.
    She’d had to fight herself more than she had him.
    Stepping away as he came closer to her, Savannah glanced down at her wrist. When she raised her eyes again, she saw that he was looking at her, bemused.
    “You keep looking at your watch. If you’reexpecting someone, they won’t be coming here.” He stared deep into her eyes. “This place is special.”
    From up here, with the valley below, she had to admit that the view was spectacular. How many women had he brought here before her? She had to keep that foremost in mind.
    “Conjured it up just for me, did you?”
    Being out here had always been a humbling experience for Cruz. It put the world, and his ambitions, into perspective. He and his sister Maggie had discovered this place as kids. He came here mostly to be alone with his thoughts. Instinctively, he’d known Savannah would like it. Being here with her seemed right somehow.
    “If I could have, I would have. You belong in a place like this. It puts the beauty of nature up against a gauge.”
    Savannah rolled her eyes. He really knew how to take the most blatant of lies and make it sound like the truth. Or perhaps she just desperately wanted to believe that he meant at least a small part of what he was saying. And that he cared about her, even a little.
    If there was a seedling, it could be nurtured to grow….
    Oh, damn, what was she doing, trying to create hope in the middle of a hopeless situation?
    She ran the tip of her tongue along her lips. “Iwas looking at my watch because I don’t want you to be late, getting back.”
    Coming up behind her, he slid his hands over her arms. And felt her shiver involuntarily against him. A fire leaped through his veins. Far more demanding than what he’d felt when he thought Dallas had bedded her.
    “Let me worry about me,” Cruz said softly. His warm breath whispered along the sensitive flesh along her neck.
    Savannah could feel her stomach tightening.
    “Besides, I don’t punch a clock,” Cruz told her. “That’s not how horse training is done.”
    Keep him talking. If he talks, he can’t kiss. And if he can’t kiss, I can’t melt .
    “How is it done?” Her own voice sounded incredibly squeaky and thin to her ear.
    “With skill.” She could feel his mouth curving into a smile against her neck. “Just like making love with a woman.”
    He knew he could have her if he pressed the tiniest bit. But something held him back. So instead of stoking the fire he knew was already burning, Cruz laid his cheek against hers.
    “Look out there.”
    Below their feet, stretching out to eternity, was perhaps the most breathtaking valley she had everseen. She sighed softly, letting the serenity soothe her. “It’s beautiful.”
    Cruz saw more than just beauty, he saw solitude. A place where a man’s place in life didn’t matter.
    “Nothing for miles.” Suddenly, he wanted her with an intensity he’d rarely felt. But he needed her to come to him on her own, not be seduced into doing it. It wouldn’t count unless she came to him.
    Slowly, he turned her around to face him. “No one would see us. It’s far more isolated than a stable.”
    Her heart lodged itself in her throat, taking up a position that was becoming increasingly familiar. “Did you bring me here just to make love with me?”
    His eyes held hers. What was it about her that drew him in like this?
    “I would bring you anywhere to make love with you, Savannah. And there is no ‘just’ about it.” He broke with tradition, and told her the truth, if only just