Texas-Sized Temptation by Sara Orwig Read Free Book Online Page A

of his own. We’ve got a big complex with several homes.”
    â€œI noticed when I came in.”
    â€œI meant it when I said you could have been arrested for trespassing if you had been caught.”
    â€œI figured since I obviously wasn’t coming to steal livestock and I’m a woman, they would give me time to explain what I was doing and at worst, run me off your property. I really didn’t expect to get arrested. Besides, the sheriff is a cousin of my foreman.”
    Jake smiled. “You’re probably right then. It’s a long ride by horseback.”
    â€œWhatever it takes to talk to the untouchable Benton.”
    â€œDefinitely never untouchable to you. I’ll be happy to convince you just how ‘touchable’ I am,” he teased.
    â€œDon’t you dare,” she answered, smiling at him. He caught a lock of her hair, twisting it in his fingers and causing slight tugs on her scalp that were as noticeable as every other physical contact.
    â€œSo, Caitlin, what do you want in your future?” Jake asked.
    â€œTo continue my photography. To marry and have a family.”
    â€œWhat happens to the photography when you marry and have a family?”
    â€œI’ll juggle them the way others do. I have leeway to set my own hours for a lot of my work. What’s your future, Jake? No marriage, no family, continue to make money.”
    â€œRight. No change, really.”
    â€œYou’ve grown up in basically the same surroundings I have, yet our families have been totally different. You have a controlling father and siblings. My father didn’t want to acknowledge my existence and my grandmother raised me. I have a half brother, but I might as well be an only child, because Will cared nothing for me.”
    â€œThat must have hurt.”
    She gazed into blue eyes that hid his feelings. He looked as impassive as if talking about the weather. “I was adopted when I was only weeks old, so I have had my grandmother all my life and she showered love on me. I was happy with her and loved her totally. It hurt to be snubbed and rejected, but not deeply. I don’t feel scarred from it. I just don’t want it to happen again to a child of mine,” she said, facing Jake and getting a strange feeling inside. Seduction could lead toan unexpected pregnancy, a baby born out of wedlock, just as she had been. She didn’t want that to happen to a child of hers and the one way to ensure it didn’t, was to stay out of any man’s bed.
    â€œSo seduction is out of the question tonight,” Jake remarked lightly as if teasing her, but she was certain the remark was made in earnest.
    â€œMost definitely,” she answered quickly. How easily she answered, yet how difficult it was to stick by her resolution.
    They sat and talked with Jake touching locks of her hair or her shoulder or lightly caressing her nape. Casual touches that she didn’t care to draw attention to, yet they were fanning flames. Finally, she stood. “Jake, it’s late. I should turn in.”
    â€œSure, I’ll show you a guest bedroom.”
    When she walked with him down a long hall, he pointed out different rooms. She stopped to look at an enormous dining room with a table that would seat thirty, a cathedral ceiling and a stone fireplace. “Do you ever have this many guests to fill this table?”
    â€œYes. Parties. There are times I have a lot of company out here. Gabe and I will have things together. There are family parties, too.”
    â€œDo your parents spend much time here?”
    â€œNope. Dad has a ranch in the Hill Country where the area is green and scenic. This place was our family ranch, but Dad deeded it to me and gave Gabe another one he owned.”
    She nodded. “How nice. A father who passes things on to more than the oldest child. Of course, mine wouldn’t have passed anything on to me if I had been the oldest child. I told you,