Red-Hot Texas Nights by Kimberly Raye Read Free Book Online Page A

more worked up than the average female. She thought of all the rumors that had circulated about her courtesy of all the boys she’d turned down during high school. Boys too embarrassed to admit the truth for fear that they were the only ones not getting any action. And so they’d lied, and her reputation had grown.
    But then Tyler McCall had peeled off her clothes and made her realize she wasn’t that far off from the sex-crazed girl the boys had always painted her as. So desperate, in fact, that her hands trembled and her knees shook as she moved about the kitchen. It would be so easy to let her need get the best of her. Just like her mother, who’d fallen hard and fast for Brandy’s father and, in the process, forfeited her own dreams.
    She gathered the strength her mother had never had and steeled herself against the unsettling thought. She wasn’t going to drop everything just because Tyler was back in town.
    Sure, she was wound up and due for a little stress relief.
    But first she had to finish up here.
    Nothing was more important than her bakery, and so she forced herself to slow down, take a deep breath, and focus on cleaning with the same painstaking care that she always did before finally putting the last of her supplies away. She double-checked that she had enough petty cash for the morning stream, restocked extra bakery boxes and bags near the register, and wrote the upcoming specials on the decorative chalkboard that sat propped atop the glass display case.
    She made one last pass through the kitchen before stepping inside the walk-in pantry situated near the oven. A careful inspection of the five-gallon bucket and the mash that bubbled and popped, fermenting in the warmth of the small area, and she closed the door.
    Killing the iPod, she hit the lights and headed for the front door. Locking up behind her, she walked toward her car parked near the curb and slid behind the wheel. Firing up the engine, she glanced at the dark street in her rearview mirror and shifted into drive. Tires ate up pavement as she pulled out onto the road and headed down Main Street. Her heart beat double time as she neared the first stop sign and gave herself a mental shake.
    She forced her grip to relax on the steering wheel. It was just another night. Just another drive through town to the outskirts and a sharp right at the Farm Road that led to the Tucker spread.
    Only when she reached the turn and hung a left in the opposite direction did she finally give in to the anticipation that whirled fast and potent in the pit of her stomach.
    There was a time and place for everything.
    And it was time for Tyler McCall.

 
    CHAPTER 7
    There’d been no doubt in Tyler’s mind that Brandy would show up now that she knew he was back. Under the cover of darkness, away from prying eyes and wagging tongues.
    He just hadn’t counted on the sucker punch to his gut when he opened the door to find her standing there in her bakery T-shirt and jeans, her ponytail hanging limp after a long day’s work, her cheek still smudged with flour.
    Seriously. Hard. Fast. Right below the belt.
    Ooomph.
    The air stalled in his lungs. His heart slammed to a stop. His throat tightened. And just like that, his dick snapped to full attention.
    Talk about bat-shit crazy.
    It wasn’t as if she’d dressed to the nines in a leather bustier or a red bikini or something equally trashy and sexy as hell.
    It was a soft cotton T-shirt, for Christ’s sake. A simple pair of jeans. Sneakers. Hell, she hadn’t even bothered to take down her hair or wipe her cheek.
    Then again, it had been two years.
    Two years was long enough to make a man find even the simplest things sexy. Like the silky strands of hair that hung loose and framed her delicate jaw and flushed cheeks. The faintest smudge of mascara just below her eyes that gave them that sultry bedtime look.
    He swallowed against the sudden tightening of his throat and cursed