Dallas Nights Read Online Free PDF Page B

took me that first time and linked us forever, I want you to make love to me.”
    His broad shoulders vibrated as a shiver passed over him. She dropped to the ground and hurried away without looking back. If he followed, she’d rejoice. If he chose not to… well, she’d cross that bridge when it stretched before her.
    The soft ground s ank under her boots. She picked her way to a spot along the top arch of the heart shape, where it was drier. Lowering herself to the ground, she wrapped her arms around her knees and waited.
    Afraid to look up.
    When a splash erupted, she gasped. Dallas’s socked feet disappeared under the surface of the pond.
    Ellie jumped up and ran to the edge. Across the pond, his boots and hat lay abandoned on the bank. Heart stuttering, she screamed, “Dallas!”
    He didn ’t surface. Gaze fixed to the water, she waited for movement—ripples—anything to indicate he was okay.
    Terror iced down her spine. “Dallas!”
    He broke the surface, gulped for air, and dove again. The flip of his feet cr eated a splash, and she followed the rings out to the shore until they were as fine as rings in an old oak tree.
    Her heart thudded wildly. There could only be one reason he ’d dive into the pond—to retrieve her necklace. But there was no way he’d find it—it had to be buried in the mud at the bottom, and the pond was large.
    She hitched up a leg and ripped her boot off. Tossing it to the bank, she moved to the other. Mud squished into her socks, and she yanked them off too.
    When he didn ’t emerge, she panicked and dove into the water. The cold waters filled her sinuses and bubbles tingled over her skin. She pushed downward with a strong stroke. Opening her eyes afforded her a view of green, murky water and living things on the bottom.
    No Dallas. She shoved up an d drank in a lungful of air. At the same moment, Dallas wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. She jerked around.
    Water streamed from his tanned skin, and his thick brown hair was matted to his head. He grabbed her hand and pressed something into it. She clamped her fingers on the circle pendant.
    As she opened her mouth to give him hell for scaring her, he closed the half an inch between them and covered her mouth with his.
    The tender stroke of his tongue ignited her, and all of her worries flowed away. She locked her arms around him and fitted her body to his.
    He kicked through the water, propelling them both toward the shore. When his feet touched, he dragged her up the bank like a big cat hauling its prey into a tree. She clung to him, helpless against his strength.
    But she didn ’t want to be anywhere else.
    Chest heaving, she stared up at him, dizzy from her scare and from his hard body pressing her down. He located her hand and plucked the pendant from it.
    With eyes darker than night, he slid the cool metal onto her ring finger. Shock tore through her.
    “It’s not a proper ring, Ellie, but I’ll put one there as soon as I get to town. Marry me, baby. There’s never been another woman for me. I knew it at fifteen, sixteen, eighteen years old. I tried to deny it all of this time, but I can’t anymore.” He trailed his lips between her brows.
    A sob shook her chest, and she one-handedly gripped him, pulling his sodden body down until he crushed her perfectly. When th ey got up, their depression would be visible in the soft earth, and they would have marked the ground around Hart’s Pond as surely as Dallas had marked her soul all those years ago when he’d taken her virginity.
    “ Say the words,” he coaxed, voice gritty.
    Sh e folded her fingers around the loose metal pendant. His intense stare might frighten some, but not her. She sank into the depths of his eyes and never wanted to surface.
    “ Yes, a thousand times, yes,” she gasped.
    He kissed her, grin holding her prisoner, a nd his arousal battering her lower belly. She rubbed against it, aching for it to stretch her, fill her. The character of the boy