Borrowed Cowboy (Shadow Maverick Ranch) Read Online Free PDF Page A

his hand and heaven.
    “I’ve got nothing to offer you, Reese. Pleasure, nothing more.” She had a right to know where he stood, had a right to walk away if he didn’t suit her needs. Although if she turned him away now, he had a feeling one shower—a hundred showers—wouldn’t be enough to rid him of the desire burning through his veins.
    She nodded, her dreamy expression giving his ego a shot of adrenaline. Hell yeah. He’d keep that look on her face all damned night.
    “Tell me you understand, Reesey. I need to know we’re on the same page here.”
    She licked her lips. “I understand I want you. We’ve been here before. I didn’t expect anything of you then, and I don’t expect anything of you now.”
    He dismissed the tug on his guilt strings, not in the mood to revisit the past when his immediate future looked so promising. Plenty of time to talk later.
    Pleasure. That’s what he could give her. Would give her.
    He prayed it’d be enough.
    “Let’s go upstairs.”

Chapter Four
    Reese slipped her hand into his and eased to her feet.
    Her head spun, from the alcohol or the insistent throb between her thighs, she didn’t know. Didn’t care.
    God, she’d come here to apologize, to make things right with Paxton. Not to sleep with him. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d known she would.
    What kind of person did that make her? That she’d thought him married, yet knew she’d give herself to him.
    She knew how painful divorce could be. She’d watched, helpless, while her parents had torn each other apart. She hoped Paxton didn’t carry ugly wounds from his divorce, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t glad he was single.
    Paxton had been her first, the lover she’d compared all others to. Others, being the three men she’d taken to her bed over the course of the last ten years. Three men who’d all been lacking by comparison. It hadn’t been their fault. She’d had years to romanticize her experience with Paxton, years to embellish the memory, as only a young woman could do.
    And standing in the middle of the kitchen, his wicked smile promising a plethora of naughty delights, she couldn’t be sorry. Paxton wouldn’t offer something he wasn’t able to give. No matter how he might’ve changed, honor wasn’t a disposable trait, but one deeply embedded.
    There was nothing, no one, standing in their way. She deserved a chance to put her past to rest so she could move on as he had.
    She wanted everything. Love, marriage, kids. The works. She could’ve had those things. Todd Harper was a decent man. Smart and good-looking. He made a comfortable living as a CPA at an accounting firm in Houston. He’d make a good husband. He was kind and gentle. Stable and trustworthy.
    Yet, when Todd had taken her to bed … he got the job done, but they hadn’t set the sheets on fire.
    Reese wanted her sheets to burn .
    Todd wanted her. She’d turned down his proposal because of a memory no man could possibly live up to. Probably not even the man who’d created the memory in the first place.
    It was time to set the record straight. Apologize, and then get Paxton Mathis out of her system once and for all.
    “You with me, darlin’?”
    Pax tugged on her hands, encouraging her feet to move.
    “Wait.” Shit. How many beers had she drank? Not enough to cause the euphoric sizzle lighting up her nerve endings as though each one vied for personal attention. Her senses honed in on the pulse in her sex. Oh yeah, she was with him, all right.
    How did he do that? No kiss, barely a touch, and she was drenched.
    A knuckle pressed against the underside of her chin, and she met his gaze.
    “I’m dying here, Reese.”
    When was the last time someone looked at her with such open lust? His hunger stole her breath. To hell with apologies, there’d be time for that later. To hell with anything that didn’t include his mouth on her.
    She traced the line of his collarbone with her fingertips. The muscles