Montana Mavericks Weddings by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

the tears.
    Abby was so stunned, so overwhelmed, by the tenderness, that she almost stopped breathing. Her face lifted to his mouth like a flower to the sun. She could barely get her breath at all.
    He drew her into his arms and held her against him while his mouth gently touched her eyes, her wet cheeks, and finally, finally, her parted lips.
    She stood in his embrace without a hint of struggle, loving his mouth against hers, loving the breathless sweetness of his touch.
    â€œCouldn’t you pretend to struggle?” he whispered against her warm, eager mouth.
    â€œI don’t know how,” she whispered back. Her eyes were closed. She stood on tiptoe to tempt him into lowering his head again.
    His big, lean hands slid into her hair and tilted her head at just the right angle. She didn’t look, but she could feel his eyes on her before he bent again. This time the kiss wasn’t tender. It was hard and rough and deep.
    She gasped as his arms tightened, riveting her to his lean body there in the deserted yard. She lifted her arms around him and held on for dear life, so enthralled that she couldn’t think past the moment. He tasted of coffee and his mouth was every dream she’d ever had.
    He bit her lower lip and lifted his head, violence in his black eyes as they stared, unblinking, into her yielded gray ones. “Why did you have to start talking about children?” he asked half angrily.
    Her gaze fell to his hard mouth. “Is that…why?”
    â€œDoes he like children?” he asked.
    Her gaze fell once more to his broad chest. “Not much.”
    â€œAnd you do,” he said huskily. “You love them.”
    She leaned her forehead against him with a miserable sigh. “Don’t make it worse than it already is,” she pleaded quietly. “You’ve already said that you don’t want me in any conventional way.”
    His hands tightened on her waist. “He won’t like the wedding gown, Abby,” he said grittily. “He won’t like the idea that I bought it for you, either.”
    â€œI don’t care. It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen.”
    â€œOnly because you’ll be wearing it,” he said quietly.
    She lifted her eyes. His were sad and quiet and intent. “Will you marry Delina?” she asked softly.
    His face was like stone. He searched her face slowly, with a kind of deep-buried anguish. “I don’t love her.”
    â€œIs love really necessary?” she asked on a hollow laugh. “Most people make do with what they can get. That’s what I’m going to do.”
    â€œDon’t talk like that!” he muttered. “He’s a good man, Abby. He’s young and steady.”
    â€œHe could be perfection on a white horse and it wouldn’t matter,” she replied. Her eyes met his accusingly. “And you know why, Chayce.”
    He let her go, inch by inch, as if it hurt him to let her go. He stood back. “This is all my fault,” hesaid. “I should never have come home.” He drew in a long breath. “I’ve got some things to see about. I might as well do them before the wedding. But I’ll be back in time to give you away,” he added firmly.
    He was closing doors. He couldn’t have made it plainer. He was going away, to remove temptation from their paths. She’d lose him all over again. But did it matter? She was hurting so badly inside that she thought she might bleed to death in front of him. And she couldn’t say so, or show it. Because he didn’t want her love, or even her. Not for keeps.
    She turned away. “As you wish,” she said in a subdued, careless tone.
    He watched her walk toward the house with impotent fury in his black eyes. She didn’t want to marry Troy. She was going to do it only because she knew she couldn’t have Chayce, and they both knew it.
    For the first time in four years, he wondered