A Very Tempting Texan (Texas Cattleman’s Club: The Missing Mogul) Read Online Free

her lips parted. “I...uh...”
    “I know you remember what it’s like with us. Trust me, Shannon. I’m not going to hurt you. Can you do that?”

Two
    S hannon’s stomach pitched. There was no teasing glint in his eye. No crooked smile to woo her. Only a blunt question.
    “You’re a hard man to forget,” she admitted, her voice wry. He had said nothing more about his desire to buy the ranch, but his questions had been pointed and thorough.
    “That’s not exactly an answer.” His scowl was dark. She shivered instinctively. Rory was completely masculine. Utterly sure of himself. Clearly her reticence displeased him.
    But did she trust him? Or should she? Lacking the inclination to lay her heart on the line and have it crushed, she decided that if she went into this extremely impermanent relationship with eyes wide open, he couldn’t hurt her. She would indulge in his lovemaking one last time. Make one more memory. But she wouldn’t be stupid... or gullible. She had learned her lesson. Taking his hands in hers, she went up on tiptoe and kissed his chin. “My bedroom’s small. The tour won’t take long.”
    He gripped her fingers hard enough to bruise, his pupils dilated. “I’m sure we can think of something to fill the time.”
    The trip up the stairs seemed to take forever. She was shaking and so very aware that he was right behind her. Earlier, she’d sent him to the right side of the landing in search of the guest quarters. Her room was in the opposite direction, a sunlit, simply decorated space that looked much as it had for the last five years. Cotton curtains billowing at the open window. A chenille bedspread that had been her grandmother’s covering the queen-size bed. Cheerful rag rugs underfoot.
    She had redecorated when her parents died, needing an activity to fill the hours when all she could do was grieve.
    Rory was the first man to ever set foot in this room. She’d had a couple of serious boyfriends, one in college and another when she returned home to Royal and lived in her own apartment. That last relationship had ended in an engagement. And almost a wedding.
    Shannon had been young and naive. She’d fallen—and fallen hard—for a man with blond good looks and a smooth smile. Discovering her beau’s duplicitous nature had devastated her. Because apparently, her fiancé was more interested in one day owning the Bar None than in loving Shannon. Finding out the truth had been a painful and salutary lesson about her inability to judge a man’s motives.
    After that heartbreak and later the tragedy that took her parents, Shannon had withdrawn, not willing to risk her heart again. The night she met Rory at the Cattleman’s Club was the first time in years she had made the effort to “glam up” her usual casual style.
    He’d been wearing a tux. Her black dress had been simple, but daring. Seeing the admiration in his gaze had awakened something inside her. Had made her believe that she could find happiness again. But Rory was glitz and glamour when she needed common sense and dependability. She ought to look for someone who shared her values and interests. Someone who could stand beside her as she kept her family’s dream alive.
    Even knowing that, she had been unable to resist him.
    She paused on the landing, out of breath though she climbed these stairs several times a day. Rory took her in his arms, his mouth finding hers with masterful confidence. His tongue slipped between her teeth to taste the moist recesses of her mouth. The bold possession lit a fire low in her belly.
    When she moaned helplessly, he lifted her off her feet, pressing her to the wall. “I may not make it to your bedroom,” he said, the words muffled as he kissed his way from her ear to the sensitive curve where her neck met her shoulder.
    “I forgot to make my bed.”
    “Good,” he muttered. “That will save time.”
    Scooping her into his arms, he carried her the few steps down the hall and across the