How to Break a Cowboy by Daire St. Denis Read Free Book Online Page B

inviting me to join you.” He spreads a blanket out on
the ground and opens up the food bag.
    Moving onto the blanket beside him, I take the water bottle
he offers me, drink and then pass it back. I watch him drink, his head tilted
back, his throat corded with sinew, his skin golden brown. “It’s my pleasure,”
I say, my voice sounding kind of husky.
    He screws the cap back on the bottle and eyes me beneath the
brim of his hat. “What is it about you?” He reaches for my cheek and grazes my
skin with the back of his knuckles.
    The contact, though innocent, keeps my breath coming faster
than it should. I lean toward him and reach up along the inside of his arm,
marvelling at the strength of his forearm muscles.
    “Tess?”
    “Mmm?”
    “Can I kiss you?”
    My breath is coming too hard for me to answer. So I nod and
wet my lips.
    But he doesn’t kiss me right away. He only looks at me with
that deep, soul-searching look and those midnight eyes. Slowly, ever so slowly,
he leans down. With a simple lift of my chin, he urges my face up to meet his.
    Oh God. His lips are so soft. I melt against him, wrapping
my arms around his neck. His hat tumbles off the back of his head when he
slants his head to kiss me deeper, sweeping his tongue through my mouth and
teasing my lower lip with his teeth.
    He pulls away and presses his forehead against mine. Thank
God I’m not the only one breathing hard now.
    “You know,” I say softly. “When I first met you, I thought
you didn’t like me.”
    He moves back from me and reclines onto his elbows. “I
didn’t,” he says without apology.
    “What? Why not?”
    Cocking his head to the side, he takes another one of his
sidelong looks at me. “You showed up out of the blue and like that—” he snaps
his fingers, “—you manage to snag the thing I’ve wanted for a long time.”
    “Wade,” I say quietly.
    He tugs on a loose thread in the blanket. “Yeah. Wade.” He
looks up at me. “Wade and Connor together would be even better.”
    Oh hell. Do I ever know the truth of that statement.
    “Wade wants you, you know,” I say.
    “No, he doesn’t.” He goes back to tugging on the string.
“He’s made that perfectly clear.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
    He considers my words for a moment. There is a hopeful sound
to his voice when he asks, “Did he say something?”
    “No. But he doesn’t need to. It’s obvious in his reaction to
you. Whenever you’re around, he’s as tightly wound as a—”
    “As a bronc behind the gate,” Connor offers, joining our
conversation as he collapses onto the blanket beside me.
    “I didn’t even hear you come up,” I say, startled.
    “Sorry,” Connor says, leaning forward to give me a juicy
kiss. “I was being quiet, hoping I might find you two in a compromising
position.”
    Laughing, I say, “You almost did.”
    Connor shoots a smug expression Dallas’s way. “You owe me
twenty bucks.”
    Dallas shakes his head at Connor and picks up his fallen
hat, settling it on his head.
    “What?” I ask.
    “I told Dallas he wouldn’t be able to resist you.”
    “You made a bet?”
    “It was before I met you,” Dallas says with a twinkle in his
eye. “I pretty much despised you from the moment I heard you were coming. I
didn’t think—”
    “You didn’t think there was any way in hell you’d be
attracted to her, did you?”
    Dallas looks me straight in the eye when he shakes his head.
    “And now,” I whisper.
    “You know how I feel now,” he whispers just as softly,
scorching me with the intensity of his gaze.
    “You want to fuck her, don’t you?” Connor says, kneeling
behind me, his hand coming around the front of me, undoing the top two buttons
of my shirt.
    My lips are parted. I still haven’t recovered from climbing
the hill, though it is not physical exertion or altitude that’s causing my
breathlessness. It’s Connor’s body pressed up against mine from behind, it’s
his hands down the front of me and