A Knight In Cowboy Boots Read Online Free PDF Page A

wanted to—or thought she wanted to—Maddie’s knees locked. Stepping through the door was too irrevocable.
    Zach turned puzzled eyes on her. She shook her head helplessly, answering the question he wasn’t asking. Lightly, he traced the side of her face with the back of one finger before tipping her chin up as he stepped closer. Maddie melted into his gentle, undemanding kiss.
    Then Zach stooped, caught her up in his arms, and carried her into the room like a bride over the threshold. Slick, she thought, but with amusement behind the judgment.
    He pushed the door closed with his foot.
    A light left burning in the bathroom lit the room with soft light and softer shadows. She expected him to lay her on the bed. Instead, he set her down on the edge then, in a fluid motion, he sat beside her. Thigh to thigh, he devoted the next few minutes to kissing her thoroughly. At last, he broke away with a long sigh.
    When he crossed the room, Maddie saw he hadn’t been lying about having a radio. An iPod sat on the bureau. He just hit the power button and selected the track. Maddie closed her eyes as country singer Josh Turner sang the opening line of No Rush in his luscious baritone voice.
    She opened her eyes when she sensed Zach standing in front of her. His hand was extended in invitation. “I promised you a dance.”
    Maddie looked up in astonishment. “Here?”
    “Why not?”
    Why not indeed, if it delayed having to make this decision? She put her hand in his.
    Zach pulled her up from the bed and into his arms.
    She knew immediately fate had brought her a man who knew how to dance. With almost subliminal changes in pressure, the hand against her back guided her. He held the fingers of her right hand in his, tucked up against his shoulder.
    They danced to the lazy tempo of the love song. Maddie smiled; she had forgotten how good it felt just to be held. Zach’s cheek nestled against her hair as Josh Turner sang about not rushing into love. She snuggled her head against his shoulder, appreciating not being rushed into bed, even though the hard line pressed against her belly dispelled any thought that he really was only interested in dancing.
    Maddie knew this album. When the song ended, another of her favorites, Your Man , came next. Its lazy two-step tempo was also suitable for slow dancing.
    Zach had other plans. He stepped back to spin her under his arm, then tugged her back into his embrace. As Josh sang about turning the lights down low, Zach led her gently through country swing steps. He swung her away from him then twirled her, at a pace not much faster than a stroll, finishing with her back in his arms. Maddie couldn’t contain her smile. Zach smiled back, and even laughed softly when Maddie tangled up the steps and came back too hard, banging up against his chest. He caught her in his arms, stabilizing them both. She might have been embarrassed if the alcohol in her bloodstream wasn’t mingling with the champagne-bubble feeling of being held by him.
    Before releasing her, his hands traveled down her rib cage, over the small of her back to the curve of her bottom.
    Before Maddie could respond, he spun her away. When she came back, he pulled her close for a few bars, brushing his groin against hers in the two-step rhythm. Maddie decided he had a delightful style of seduction.
    As the end of the song approached, Zach spun her out to the end of his reach then pulled her back. Instinctively, Maddie knew he was going for some sort of flourish. With the bed just inches behind him, she screwed up her courage. As he pulled her toward him, she let herself come back too hard and knocked him backward across the bed. She fell with him.
    “You vixen,” he laughed. “You did that on purpose.”
    “So sue me,” she laughed back.
    “No need for that. You’re guilty as sin. Gotta pay the penalty.” With one arm tight around her, he put his other hand on the base of her skull and pulled her into a long, wet kiss, the most