A Daddy for Dillon Read Online Free PDF

huge pie pan in front of his plate. Her movements were smooth and graceful, tempting his gaze to follow the curve of her waist and hips, the press of her blouse against her breasts. She was a beautiful and sensual girl. But still, a girl. It wouldn’t be wise to let himself be attracted to her.
    She’s more than a girl, Laramie. She’s a woman with a child. Maybe you don’t want to acknowledge that because you’re afraid you could let yourself get all tangled up in her.
    Jerking his thoughts back to the present, he said, “It’s good that your son is strong-minded. That’s the way a man should be.”
    Turning away from the table, she motioned for Dillon to come to her. “Come along, Dillon, so that Laramie can eat his dinner.”
    “Me eat! Me eat, too!”
    Leyla rounded the work island and took her son by the hand. “Okay. We’ll go wash your hands and then you can sit at the breakfast bar. But you must be quiet and polite while Laramie is eating.”
    “Why can’t he sit with me?” Laramie asked.
    Leyla tossed him a guarded look. “I— Because this is not his home. You—”
    “This is his home for as long as he’s here,” Laramie pointed out. “And we’re partners. We’re supposed to eat together. Right, Dillon?”
    The boy nodded eagerly at him, then cast an uncertain look up at his mother. With a sigh of resignation, she said to Laramie. “This is not the way it should be.”
    He grinned at her. “How is it supposed to be, Leyla? With you and Dillon hiding out of sight, while I sit and eat alone? That doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
    “I was not hired to—”
    “You were hired to cook my meals. If you don’t want to eat with me, that’s fine. I’ll accept that you don’t like my company. If you and Dillon would like to eat with me, then I’d be pleased.”
    He watched a range of conflicting emotions pass over her face, the main one being surprise. And he suddenly realized she was trying to keep her distance because somewhere in her past she’d been made to feel unwanted and she was naturally assuming that he didn’t want her around.
    Finally, she said, “Since Dillon and I haven’t eaten yet, I suppose it would all right.”
    “Good. I’ll go wash up and be right back,” he told her.
    Minutes later, Laramie sat eating chicken pot pie and wondering if it was him or men in general that put Leyla on guard. Even though she’d agreed to sit and eat with him, she’d said little more than five words. Dillon hadn’t said much more, but Laramie figured while Leyla had taken the boy to wash his hands, she’d instructed him to remain quiet. Laramie admired her for teaching the boy to have manners, especially at the dinner table, but he missed the child’s spontaneous chatter.
    If Dillon was his... He suddenly brought his thoughts to a screeching halt. Dillon wasn’t his and he needed to remember that the child’s rearing was none of his business. But that didn’t mean he needed to stay completely silent.
    “Dillon, do you like cats and dogs?”
    “Cat. Tommy went bye-bye,” the child said as he poked a bite of food into his mouth.
    Laramie looked to Leyla to see her lips were pressed to a grim line. The sight made him wonder how it would be to taste those lips, to ply apart their hardness until they were full and sweet and soft against his.
    “We had a cat named Tommy,” she explained. “But I had to give him away because we were moving here. Dillon wasn’t too happy about that. But he has to learn that giving up things is a part of life.”
    Laramie shook his head. “Why in the world did you think you had to give the cat away? He would have been perfectly welcome here on the ranch. We have at least fifteen or twenty barn cats running around the place. He could have joined them for a mouse dinner.”
    “Mouse dinner,” Dillon repeated with a toothy grin at his mother. “I want some mouse dinner, too, Mommy.”
    Laramie couldn’t keep from chuckling, while across the