Reckless Promise Read Online Free

distance.
    Alice hurled herself into his arms. He
gathered her close, his dark head bent to her. Poppy stopped,
breath wedged in her chest, and watched. As if she were the one
melting against him, the heat of his embrace surrounded her. The
strength of his arms held her safe—
    She sent a last, sour glare at the entwined
silhouette and stamped up the path, heading around the lodge toward
the pool for a few minutes to herself before happy hour. She didn't
do tall, dark, and deceitful. This was Home on the Range ,
not Some Enchanted Evening , no matter what her traitor body
said.
     
     

Chapter 2

    Mac carried his beer into the Great Room that
stretched across the back of the lodge, thankful to be out of the
tin can plane, out of the city, and back in jeans. Damned good to
be home, with his family, where he belonged.
    His gaze wandered around the room, idly
cataloguing the guests. At least a dozen couples lounged in the
chairs and sofas in front of the crackling fire. Just about full
capacity for the ranch. Kids played ping pong, watched TV, and
chased each other across a floor big enough for square dances.
    He smiled at the sight of the littlest one,
tagging after a posse of bigger boys, waving a toy pistol almost as
big as he was. Mac wasn't about to get on the marriage-go-round
again, but a family needed kids. Alice and Tom ought to get
busy.
    His gaze sharpened on two women sipping wine
at a table in the corner. Alice had followed him to his room and
bent his ear about all the single women in residence while he
unpacked. These two looked like nice, ordinary ladies having a
nice, ordinary, G-rated vacation. Had Alice exaggerated? Or even
lied? No. Alice didn't lie. He looked around for other singles,
skipping over two men who might or might not be a couple.
    Ah. This might be Alice's problem. He watched
a brunette barracuda drape herself over the counter that doubled as
a bar in the evening, checking out all the men. A single woman on
the prowl, for sure, but no temptation for Tom there, or for him
either.
    He turned, and saw a redhead. This must be
the woman who had Alice in such a tizzy. Alice had fussed, whined,
and complained, finally shouting through the bathroom door over the
noise of his quick shower until he'd promised to keep the woman
away from Tom.
    Alice hadn't lied.
    Temptation, in spades.
    The woman Daddy would have warned him about,
if Daddy had ever bothered.
    The woman Mac had waited for.
    She stood in the doorway doing nothing more
than looking around the room, but she might as well have been a
Molotov cocktail for the way she blew away his relaxed musings. He
lifted the bottle, urgently needing liquid in a mouth that had gone
drier than Death Valley in high summer.
    Thank heavens for his lifetime habit of
protecting his little sister. What if he hadn't come home when she
had called?
    From the torch of tousled red curls to the
fringe on her scarlet moccasins, this woman was fire waiting to
take a man to hell in a glorious blaze. What felt like every drop
of blood he owned left his brain to pool lower. A tingle started in
his fingertips. He thought— She took a deep breath and he was
beyond thought in a single heartbeat as the tingle zinged through
his gut, leaving him as aroused as he'd ever been in his life. He
needed to walk across the room and talk to her, but he wasn't sure
he could walk, and he certainly wasn't in any shape to move out of
his shadowed corner.
    As soon as he regained some control, he'd be
there beside her, ready to do his duty for his sister. Wasn't
family loyalty a virtue? This time virtue would definitely be its
own reward. He leaned against the wall and surveyed her, from the
thousand-shades-of-red hair down over curves that made his fingers
itch, past the mile of leg that a man would die to feel wrapped
around him. Rescuing his sister had never been this good
before.
    He started edging around the room, but before
he reached her, those two single men, the ones who had paid