Cowboy Secret (The Dalton Boys Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

working, she couldn’t hold back another minute. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
    “Damn you,” he said hoarsely, but even cursing her, he didn’t look mad. He shifted Owen to one arm and looped the other around her waist. She found herself tugged against six feet of hard man. Her nose filled with leather and the tang of hard work.
    He squeezed her once then dropped his forehead to hers. She dragged in an uneven breath. The intimate pose wasn’t what she’d expected. Well, she’d had no clue what would happen when she came here, but this wasn’t it.
    Up close his blue eyes burned. She wanted to look away but was helpless. Owen wrapped his fist around one of his favorite playthings—her hair. He yanked, but she ignored it.
    “Why, Sabrina?” Beck’s words were hot with pain.
    She trembled, wanting to run. Over a year ago moving far away from Beck had seemed best. But now, seeing him hold his baby, she wasn’t so sure.
    “You and I weren’t going anywhere. It was a dead-end relationship.”
    He jerked back. Pain prickled her scalp as Owen’s fist came away with her hair. The place Beck’s forehead had touched hers seemed to throb at his loss.
    “I had a right to know.”
    Now was the time to tell her tale, but she was dead on her feet. She’d driven until a few hours before dawn the first night, then parked in a hotel parking lot, locked the car doors and slept with parking lot lights glaring through the windows. Driving during the day with an infant had been misery. His shrieks for escape still echoed in her ears. She’d had to stop for hours at a time, letting him roll in the grass in a park or just sit in her arms playing with his teething toy.
    They’d lost a lot of time, so as soon as he’d fallen asleep, she’d locked her boot to the gas pedal and driven hell-bent for Paradise Valley Ranch.
    Beck didn’t want to hear the story of her journey, though. He wanted a different tale.
    She bit her lower lip, and his gaze followed it. Something warm blossomed in her core, spreading out before she could douse the flames. At one time, he’d done nothing but look at her that way.
    No, they’d never had trouble in the lust department.
    She settled her hand on her hip, fortifying herself to present her case. But also to throw a wall up between them. She didn’t trust herself not to fall right back into his arms.
    Owen seemed pretty happy there.
    As she turned her attention to the baby, Beck did too. Very carefully he unfolded Owen’s fist and removed the curly hairs from his palm. Owen gave him a wide, spitty grin. A bit of drool dribbled down his chin, and Beck swiped it with a thumb.
    He wiped the spittle on his worn Wranglers, which until now she’d avoided looking at. He filled them out to perfection. Muscled thighs strained, and she knew if he turned, she’d get a look at that fine, hard ass.
    Shoving down a shiver of excitement, she said, “You didn’t sound too worried about the broken condom. And when you came back for your truck, you weren’t concerned about finding me to apologize.”
    He leveled his gaze on her. Eyes dark with anger, mouth a firm line. “You made it pretty clear we were through, Sabrina. There didn’t seem anything left to say.”
    Her nerves snapped, and she wrapped her arms around her middle to keep from shaking loose. “Maybe all you needed to say was if I got pregnant, you’d be there for me.”
    Their gazes locked. For an eternal heartbeat, they stared at each other. So many things hadn’t been said. Like how she’d been in love with him. And carrying his child had been made her feel amazingly close to him. But in the end, she’d known it was for the best.
    Either Beck was there wholeheartedly or not at all. Owen wasn’t going to be a game piece on a board, being moved by parents to make themselves happy.
    She drew a breath so big her lungs creaked. Before she could utter a word of the speech she’d mentally written during her drive, Beck spoke.
    “I was an ass