Texas Hustle by Cynthia D’Alba Read Free Book Online Page B

hers. She put her hands over his, loving how large and strong they felt under hers.
    This wasn’t the simple brushing of mouths as before. His kiss was a full-on attack of lips and tongues. Wet and deep kisses that made her insides go soft and liquid. Kisses that had the power to make her forget all her objections to a romantic getaway with him.
    When he bit gently on her bottom lip, she willingly allowed him to sweep his tongue in like an invading army. She sucked on his tongue, not wanting to let it go.
    When he pulled back, she flicked her tongue out to taste the moisture he’d left behind.
    His eyes were dilated and filled with lust. His breaths were ragged.
    “Okay then” he said, dropping his hands and stepping back. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”
    As soon as she heard the front door slam, she dropped onto the mattress. Holy Lord. That kiss had everything inside her melting, including every ounce of common sense. That man knew what to do with his mouth. She let out a long sigh.
    And he was exactly the type of man her parents would hate. A cowboy. A man a little rough around the edges. Hard hands with calluses and bruises. A man who worked outside and sported a tan most of the year. A man who wasn’t afraid of manual labor, and did it every day, in fact. A man whose hair brushed along his collar because he’d been too busy to get a trim. She knew exactly how her parents would react to him if she were ever to bring him to Atlanta. They would waste no time in telling her he was totally wrong.
    Expelling another sigh, she stood, determined to ignore her parents’ voices in her head about how she was wasting her life with her little bakery and needed to get serious about finding the right man to marry and producing the next generation.
    Once she got her clothes hung up and stashed into drawers, she wandered onto the porch and took the swing. She bent her right knee and pulled her foot up onto the chair. With her left, she pushed off and set the swing in motion.
    Darren had left ten minutes earlier when summoned to help Travis. She’d wondered what Travis was bringing that needed help.
    Pretty soon, she didn’t have to wonder any longer.
    A high-powered truck chugged into the drive towing an extended horse trailer. The truck and trailer pulled around the circle, turned by cabin four and followed the road that’d led to the field where Darren had stored his hauler.
    Behind the truck, a white Cadillac Escalade SUV pulled up to the lodge steps and stopped. The back door flew open and a couple of boys around eight or nine spilled out, followed by a black and white dog. Olivia Montgomery Landry exited from the driver’s side.
    “Adam. You and Norman get back here. Don’t let Daisy near that lake. Do you hear me?”
    The boys didn’t return.
    On the lodge porch, Olivia’s mother, Jackie, laughed, the sound carrying easily across the yard.
    From the passenger side, Caroline Graham Montgomery, Olivia’s sister-in-law, stepped out, a broad grin also splitting her face.
    Olivia threw her hands up in the air. “Fine,” she called. “Don’t come back. I’ll let your fathers handle this.”
    That threat seemed to work, because both boys came running from behind the lodge, the dog still dry. They probably just hadn’t had time to make it all the way to the pond.
    The sound of metal clanking and a ramp hitting the ground drew Porchia’s attention back to the long trailer. Darren walked a chestnut-colored horse out, followed by Travis with a black horse. A total of six horses were unloaded and released into the corral.
    Once the horses were unloaded, Mitch Landry used two fingers to produce a sharp whistle. The two boys raced over and helped unload all the necessary tack.
    Porchia rocked the porch swing in a gentle sway as she watched all the activity in the campground. Most of the other women were at the lodge. Isolating herself wasn’t a good way to start an extended vacation with people she would be