Cowboy Take Me Away Read Online Free PDF Page B

tingly all over at having Chase so up in her space. He smelled hot, like he’d been working out in the sun, the masculine scent of him doing nothing to quell the desire flaring within her. Even after all these years, the pull she’d always felt toward him hadn’t eased any.
    â€œYou had dirt on your face,” he murmured, brushing another spot on her forehead this time before stepping back.
    â€œThanks,” she managed.
    Hope smiled back at him, wishing to hell he hadn’t just touched her. She didn’t need to remember what it was like being close to Chase, and those eyes of his … enough. She dug her nails into her palm to push the memory away, the other hand hanging at her side as she watched him use his shirtsleeve to wipe his own face. One of the things she’d always loved about Chase was that he wasn’t scared of rolling his sleeves up and doing hard work himself. They’d both grown up with more money than they could count, but they’d been determined to prove themselves no matter what when they’d been in college.
    â€œHow is it that you can look so damn gorgeous out on the job?” Chase asked her, blinking those gorgeous thick black eyelashes that framed eyes the color of the darkest brandy.
    Hope swallowed, glancing back at the cows for something to do. “So you’ve had these girls organic for how long?” She decided that changing the subject was the easiest way to handle Chase—flattery wasn’t something she was used to dealing with. And that sure as hell wasn’t the kind of thing he’d have said to her in college.
    â€œAll their lives,” he said, pushing his hands into his pockets and taking a step closer. “A good percentage of our pasture is certified organic now, and I’ve been raising this herd myself, away from the rest of our stock. It’s been a long-term plan of mine for years.”
    â€œWhy’s it taken you so long then?” she asked, surprised.
    â€œBecause it’s taken all this time for Nate to believe that organic is worth the investment. It was one thing giving me some pasture to dedicate to it, but he’s always been too tight on the purse strings to indulge me in buying a few hundred organic weanling heifers.”
    â€œSo this is you proving him wrong?” she asked.
    â€œYeah, something like that.” Chase laughed. “It’s a no-brainer, but that old saying that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it? That was kind of the mentality here for a bit, and besides, Nate’s always been more interested in oil than cows. But he couldn’t exactly stop me spending my own money, could he?”
    Hope smiled. “How about you? What do think about oil?” She knew a lot about his family—it would have been weird for them to have been best friends for so long and for her not to have known about them, but he’d never talked much about oil.
    â€œOil has made our family more wealthy than my grandfather could ever have imagined, so it’s always got to come first.” He pushed his shoulders up, shrugging at the same time as he raised an eyebrow and glanced over at her. “But I still love cattle beasts, and ain’t nothin’ gonna change that.”
    She nodded. She got it—ranching was in her blood too, and even though she’d never turn down oil money, she couldn’t imagine not having animals in her life.
    â€œSo tell me, Hope, when did you become so adverse to flattery?”
    Hope almost choked on her own tongue. “Excuse me?”
    â€œDon’t get me wrong, I love talking ranching with you, but we both know you avoided what I said.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, a brazen smile kicking one side of his mouth up. “All you needed to say was thank you.”
    Hope couldn’t help but smile back at him. “Thank you,” she muttered.
    His dimple caught her eye, the expression so sexy it made her hot