Cupid's Confederates Read Online Free

too hot for heavier fare, anyway.
    “Did I or did I not tell you to come in here and put your feet up?” he asked mildly.
    “Oh, Lord. I haven’t disobeyed another order?”
    “You have.” Zach took a tray from above the refrigerator and nudged her aside with his hip to finish what she’d started. “You were in enough disgrace already,” he mentioned over his shoulder.
    “Oh?” The sun had turned his skin bronze over the summer, a bronze that delightfully set off his light eyes. She’d always basically disliked the muscle-bound type, but she was extremely fond of Zach’s muscles, primarily because his sinew was attached to a lean frame that radiated sheer maleness whenever he moved. Fluid was the word. His body was tough and hard; inside, though she’d never tell him, there was tender stuff. Gentleness, even, when no one was looking and the lights were off. “So your swim felt good?” she asked idly. “Lord, it was hot this afternoon. Did you get Grady’s tractor fixed?”
    “The tractor’s fixed, the semi’s already been here to pick up the peaches, the equipment’s all ready for tomorrow…and anyone could have been driving around the farm while you were streaking about naked.”
    She followed Zach into the living room, carrying the smaller tray with iced-tea glasses and silverware. “I wasn’t streaking about naked. I took a quick dip in the pond to cool off. The bees have to be separated or they’re going to swarm,” she added seriously.
    “How’s the honey production?”
    They settled themselves on facing couches. “Absolutely stupendous. Mead time this fall.”
    “Oh, Lord.” His wry grin made her chuckle. There was nothing messier than making mead, or honey wine. It took them a full fall afternoon of sticky-sweet messes that had become a tradition…as was the one evening a year when they both became perfectly silly on the stuff, once it was finished fermenting.
    Zach didn’t waste any time dipping into the platter of fresh food. “You were not just taking a quick dip in the pond to cool off. You were flaunting again.”
    “I never did understand why I married a man with such a dirty mind. I was simply swimming,” Bett said virtuously, and dove into her own plate.
    “Bull. You knew I’d come after you.”
    She leveled him a scolding frown, between grabbing a slice of cucumber and smothering it with dip. “You’ve accused me of this kind of thing before, you know. And I’ve explained to you that my mother raised a shy, modest type, hardly an exhibitionist… Did you check the peaches for tomorrow?”
    “The north fifteen. We’ll probably spot-pick in the orchard behind the house as well. They’re nearly ready, and with this heat they could turn by tomorrow. Did you get the baskets?”
    “At a discount.”
    “How’d you manage that?” Zach shoved a foot against the coffee table.
    “Seduced Kramer.”
    “That must have taken dedication.”
    “It did,” Bett said fervently.
    “Dedication, courage and a cast-iron stomach.”
    “Well, you know me,” Bett agreed. “I was desperate. Couldn’t get anyone’s attention down by the pond…”
    “For two cents, Mrs. Monroe, I’d probably beat you.”
    By some coincidence, Bett found three pennies in her jeans pocket. She tossed him two, and waited interestedly.
    Zach got up, all right, but only to answer the second ring of the telephone. The phone inevitably rang off the hook in the early evening. Farmers calling farmers, primarily to encourage each other’s heart attacks. The forecast was for the heat wave to continue tomorrow, and once the weather report was over the anxiety attacks began.
    Bett leaned back against the couch, half closed her eyes and felt gentle waves of weariness invade every limb. At least they didn’t have to go back out again tonight, since the semi had already been in. Not that their garden wasn’t begging for an hour of attention, but her priority was a little intimate time with Zach. December was