Matt (The Cowboys) Read Online Free Page B

chair. “You’ve got five minutes.”
    “I think it’ll be better if we stop trying to act like this is more than it is,” Matt said as soon as the door closed behind the sheriff. “We each want something real bad and have to marry each other to get it.”
    “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying we ought to look at this like a business arrangement. I’ll do my part and you’ll do your part so we can adopt the children.”
    “After that?”
    “We can figure that out later.”
    “I think we ought to figure that out now. I want you to help me open my own hat shop in San Antonio.”
    “Will you take the children with you?”
    “Naturally.”
    “It might be better if they stayed on the ranch.”
    “I promised April I’d take care of those kids. I mean to keep my word.”
    He didn’t press the point. A year from now she might not feel the same. If her hat business didn’t work out, she might have to go back to working in a saloon.
    “What do you want?” Ellen asked.
    “To keep the boys.”
    “Nothing else? Not a wife? Kids of your own?”
    He let his gaze fall as he shook his head. He didn’t want her to know that was exactly what he wanted.
    “I’ll sleep in the same bed with you because I have no choice,” Ellen said, “but you’re not going to … You can’t expect me to … No touching.”
    “No touching,” Matt said, hoping she didn’t suspect he was more relieved than she.
    “Good. Because the first time you do, I’m leaving. I’ve been through that with the Lowells.”
    “I’m not like that. I told you—”
    “All men are like that,” Ellen said, interrupting him.
    “You’ve had an unfortunate experience.”
    “Not just me. It’s how men see women. Remember, if you want your kids, stay away from me.”
    Ellen couldn’t believe she’d actually agreed to marry Matt, and that she was on her way to the courthouse to make it official. They walked down the street in a loose group, the sheriff, Matt, and the boys ahead, and Tulip, Tess, and herself following. Despite the warmth of the spring sunshine, she felt chilled through. She had to be crazy. She didn’t even know the man. He could be a lunatic for all she knew. People said he had to be strange to want to stay on that ranch by himself all the time. Ellen didn’t pay attention to malicious whispers, but there was a lot of whispering.
    Nearly all of it by women.
    No woman could catch as much as a glimpse of Matt without being affected to her core by his looks. Not every woman liked blondes—most seemed to prefer men with dark hair—but that preference went out the window when it came to masculine, rugged Matt Haskins. No clothes could hide the swell of muscle in his thighs and arms. Or his easy grace.
    The haunted look in his eyes seemed to touch the heart of every woman who met him. She’d heard women say he was a man in pain, a man in need of a good woman’s love. But Ellen had her doubts. In her experience, handsome men expected to get what they wanted for no other reason than that women wanted to give it to them. They acted like rules applied to everybody except them, promises were made to be broken, and their looks would earn them forgiveness regardless of what they did.
    Matt had been quick to agree to all her conditions. In fact, he seemed ready to accept just about any requirement she cared to lay down. Why?
    Because he didn’t intend to abide by anything he said, so it didn’t matter what he promised?
    The thought made her uneasy. After her cousin’s husband’s efforts to catch her alone, Eddie Lowell’s assault, and fighting off the men in the saloon, she didn’t feel safe around any man. She’d vowed never to put herself at the mercy of a man, especially not by marrying him. Now she was about to do exactly that. She’d be alone with Matt on his ranch, miles from town, beyond the reach of her friends. Her friends! That was a joke. Tulip was the only person who might care what happened to her, and Tulip