Montana Mavericks Weddings Read Online Free PDF Page B

be in the same room with you without getting aroused, even after four years of keeping my damned distance!”

Chapter Three
    A bby was supposed to go and pick out her wedding gown on Saturday. She’d asked Becky to go with her, but at the last minute, Becky had an emergency of her own. Her sister fell and although she wasn’t seriously injured, she had to be taken to the hospital and Becky had to go with her.
    It was like an omen, Abby thought miserably. Chayce had been back three days and her heart was breaking already, especially after what had happened the first night he was home again. He’d acted as if nothing had happened, and she’d tried to, but the memory haunted her. She’d seen Troy only the day before and he was as morose as she was. It was as if he knew how she felt about Chayce. But they were both trying to get past it. Maybe buying the wedding dress would help.
    She started out to her little foreign car and found Chayce leaning against the banister on the front porch, dressed in boots and jeans with a blue-patterned shirt and a white Stetson. His arms were folded over his broad chest and he studied Abby in the concealing ankle-length black-and-white patterned dress she was wearing, with her hair brushed firmly away from her face with its waves tamed by hair spray.
    â€œTrying out for the lead in Arsenic and Old Lace? ” he drawled as he studied her unappreciatively.
    â€œTroy likes me to dress this way,” she said.
    â€œThen perhaps he should marry someone’s maiden aunt instead of you,” he said pointedly.
    She shifted her purse to her shoulder. “Are you going somewhere?”
    â€œWith you,” he said, indicating the pickup truck. “We’re buying a wedding gown, I hear.”
    â€œYou’ll look interesting in one,” she returned.
    He chuckled. “Not a chance. I’m allergic to lace and flowers. Come on. Becky said one of us should go with you. Now,” he added with a dark glance at her clothing, “I understand why she thought so.”
    â€œI like old-fashioned dresses!”
    He opened the truck door for her and moved abruptly before she could get in, so that she cannoned right into him and found herself riveted to him.
    â€œYou don’t,” he said quietly, staring at her. “He’s trying to make you into Eve Payne.”
    She actually gasped.
    â€œAnd don’t pretend that you don’t know it,” he added curtly.
    â€œHow would you know? You haven’t been around me for four years!”
    â€œBecky has,” he replied, his jaw taut, his eyes glittering as he looked at her. “She seems to feel he’s found fault with everything about you.”
    She lowered her eyes to his broad chest, feeling all too comfortable this close to him. Cocooned between his long, powerful legs and the truck, with his arm propped against the body of the cab, he felt warm and reassuring despite the excitement his nearness fostered.
    â€œHe thinks I’m flighty,” she confessed. “And his mother thinks I should have therapy.”
    He sighed heavily. His fingers touched her hair, tugging it forward, out of the stark style she’d sprayed it into. “Even your hair,” he remarked. “It curls, and he doesn’t like that, either, does he?”
    â€œHe thought I could have it straightened. Chayce!” She tugged at his fingers as they suddenly contracted on her hair.
    â€œSorry.” He loosened his hold and smoothed over the curls he’d pulled. His eyes were worried as they searched over her wan face. “You don’t like him to touch you, do you?”
    The question brought her eyes shyly up to meet his. “I never said that.”
    He didn’t smile. His face was somber. “Your body said it for you. You were starving to death for a man’s kisses.”
    She laughed without humor. “Only for yours,” she said dully. “It never changes.