A Cowboy to Marry Read Online Free Page B

personal as he backed off. “But I’ll be in touch.”
    â€œI look forward to it.” Libby’s tone was crisp and businesslike. Spine stiff, she walked him to the door.
    As soon as he’d left, she whirled back to Holden and inhaled, the action lifting the soft curves of her breasts. A pulse worked in her throat as she kept her eyes meshed with his. “You had no right to tell Jeff Johnston he couldn’t go up to the second floor.”
    Holden found himself tracking the fall of honey-colored hair swinging against her shoulders and caressing the feminine lines of her face. Wondering if it was as silky to the touch as he recalled, he asked, “You were really going to let Jeff Johnston see the bedrooms?”
    â€œNo, of course not.” Libby propped her hands on her hips and sent him a chastising look. “Not without having a chance to tidy up and get the property ready to show!” She inched closer, inundating him with a drift of cinnamon perfume. “But that’s not the point, Holden.”
    Desire sprang up within him, as surely as irritation had. Reminding himself she was off-limits for a whole host of reasons, he returned carefully, “Then what is the point?”
    Their eyes locked, providing another wave of unbidden heat between them. “You intimated to him that you and I are having a fling.”
    â€œNo.” Holden savored her nearness, and the pleasure that came from being alone with her, in a way they hadn’t been for months now.
    He turned and wandered toward the cozy family room in the back of the house. “I said we are involved,” he corrected, as he passed another row of photos, of Percy and Libby together, involved in all the outdoor activities Percy loved.
    Reminded that Libby was once his best friend’s wife, Holden shoved his hands in the pockets of his wool trousers and drawled, “I just didn’t say how we are involved.”
    She stepped out of her heels and stood holding the sexy shoes, as if she wanted to lob them at his head. “Same difference,” she snapped.
    Holden let his glance drift down her spectacular pantyhose-clad legs to her toes. “Really?” His gaze returned slowly and deliberately to her face, pausing on her lips, before moving to her long-lashed green eyes. Ignoring the threat of the stilettos, he leaned closer still and dropped his tone to a husky whisper. “’Cause I don’t remember anything sexual or romantic happening between us.”
    Libby sniffed and sent him a quelling look. “Only because you came to your senses and put a stop to it.”
    Wanting something wasn’t the same as taking it. Particularly when they both had been lost and hurting, searching for any way to end the pain.
    As it turned out, Holden recalled soberly, neither of them could have lived with that.
    Curtailing his rising emotions, he shrugged. “You said it was for the best.”
    Libby kept her distance, eventually drifting over toward the fireplace, where she pivoted, her back to the mantel. Raking her teeth across her lower lip, she admitted quietly, “And that was true. I wasn’t myself that night.”
    For a long time, Holden had let himself believe that.
    Now, cognizant of the tension that charged the air between them, he studied the mixture of regret and longing in her eyes. Found himself theorizing before he could stop himself, “And maybe you were yourself, Libby. Maybe your instincts were right.”
    Another shadow crossed her eyes. “What are you saying?”
    Holden looked at the gold broken-heart pendant shimmering against the delicate ivory of her skin. Lower still, he could see the hint of cleavage in the V neckline of her black cashmere sweater dress. “That if I hadn’t been such a gentleman… If I had allowed us to follow through on our urges…”
    Maybe she wouldn’t have held him at arm’s length all this time. Maybe they