Pete (The Cowboys) by Leigh Greenwood Read Free Book Online

bunkhouse all the time.”
    “I’ll bet he didn’t like that.”
    “No. It made him real mad.”
    She paused before the door to Uncle Carl’s room. She couldn’t force herself to open it.
    After a moment, Peter stepped past her and opened the door. “Doesn’t seem to be stuck. Opened easy as pie.”
    He walked into the room and turned when she didn’t follow. “You know you have to come in, don’t you?”
    She nodded.
    “Are you afraid of me?”
    She shook her head, but she was certain he could see the fear in her eyes.
    “You don’t have to be. I know I’m nothing like you remember, but if you give me a chance, you’ll see I’m really not very different.”
    Anne felt like a fool for being so hesitant. Here was the man she’d begged to marry her, who had agreed to marry her, she was certain, only because he felt sorry for her and wanted to help her, and she was acting as if she had something to be afraid of. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me.” She came to a halt three steps inside the room.
    “It’s probably that wolf bait you call an uncle coming in here and trying to palm off that half-dead old man on you. That’s enough to cause any female to go off in a dead faint.”
    “I never faint.”
    “Good.” He looked sincerely relieved. “Ticklish females make me nervous.”
    After the way he’d stood up to her uncle and Cyrus, she couldn’t imagine Peter being nervous about anything.
    “You are scared of me, aren’t you? At least you’re frightened at the idea of sleeping in the same bed with me.”
    She didn’t answer.
    “Come on, tell the truth. We’re not going to do well together if we start hiding things from each other.”
    “Yes, I am a little afraid.”
    “Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. Do you know what’s supposed to happen tonight?”
    “Yes … no.” She couldn’t live on a ranch and not know what happened, but everybody acted so secretive when it came to what went on between a married couple, she figured they’d left out something important.
    “Well, it’s not going to happen tonight,” he said. “So you can stop looking scared to death and take a deep breath.”
    She felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from her heart. She felt almost giddy with relief. But her moment of comfort was brief. Didn’t he like her? Did he find her unattractive? Would he make her leave? “Don’t you want me?” she asked.
    He looked a little embarrassed. She couldn’t imagine why. Men weren’t supposed to be nervous about bedding a woman. From all she’d heard, they practically had to be forced to wait a decent interval.
    “I like you just fine,” Peter said. “You’re very pretty, but we don’t know each other. Well, hardly anymore, that is. You’ve had a very upsetting day. It wouldn’t be right to rush into something like this right away.” He waited a moment. “Don’t you agree?”
    She nodded.
    “Okay. Why don’t you show me where Dolores put my clothes. While I get my things organized, you can get ready for bed.”
    Anne froze. There was only one bed in the room. He couldn’t mean they were to sleep in the same bed, not after what he’d just said. He was busy opening and closing drawers.
    “Seems like everything here is yours,” he said when he turned to her. “You sure have a lot of clothes.”
    “Some of them belonged to my mother.”
    He held up one brown dress and frowned. “It looks too large.”
    “Mama was bigger than I am. Uncle Carl said I’d grow into them, only I didn’t.”
    “There’s certainly a lot of them.” He looked at his own clothes and frowned. “We’ll have to see about getting me something else to wear. I don’t think these are suitable for working around the ranch.”
    She thought he looked very nice. She liked him dressed up. “Dolores said she put your clothes in the chest of drawers.”
    “Probably because she couldn’t find any room in the wardrobe.” He looked at her a moment. “Something