My Heart Lingers (A Hearts of Misty Mesa Story): BWWM Interracial Romance Read Online Free PDF

damsel in distress.” He swiped his hand through his hair. She supposed he left his Stetson in the living room. He rose to his feet, headed to the door, and then stopped. “The rodeo is going on tomorrow night. I’m thinking of entering the lasso competition again.”
    “You used to practice lassoing all the time. As a matter of fact, you tried to rope anything that moved, even if it wasn’t walking on four legs.”
    “Not anything. Just you, because you hollered louder than a calf when being chased.”
    “Great. Just the thing every girl loves to be compared to, a small cow.”
    A smirk appeared on his well-shaped lips. “That would never be on my list of things to compare you to.”
    Kyra stopped herself. Why was she flirting with him? That wasn’t the way to behave just because he did her a favor by taking her home. Her mind drifted again. She had a flashback of Cole fooling around as a teenager, chasing her with a lasso. She had run all the way to the hay loft. He followed her inside, and that was where they had their first experience.
    Was it the last time Kyra had actually been out to his ranch? She remembered it like it was yesterday.
    “Back to what I was saying about the rodeo tomorrow.” Cole helped her snap out of her nostalgia. “If you’re up for it, I could take you. Unless you find those Chicago types much better companions than us good ol’ country boys.”
    “Just stop, Cole.” She stifled her laugh at his mock self-deprecation. “You watch way too many movies.”
    Cole was over six feet tall and judging from the tautness of those muscles beneath his molded shirt, close to two hundred pounds. His strength was honed from years of hard work on a ranch with livestock and heavy equipment, not sweating to Pilates in the gym. Most of the men she knew in Chicago wouldn’t be able to go toe to toe with him for one hour on the ranch.
    “So you want to go?” He awaited her answer concerning tomorrow’s rodeo.
    “Sure. Why not? It’d be fun. I think I packed a pair of jeans in my suitcase.”
    “You’re kidding, right? Tell me you haven’t lived in the city so long you forgot what the word casual means.”
    She grinned when he showed his disdain for urban life once more. “If I haven’t worn a pair of jeans in a while, it’s not Chicago’s fault. You can thank my old job. I practically lived at the firm.” She sighed. “Well, I guess that’s all dust in the breeze isn’t it?”
    He lifted an eyebrow.
    Kyra shook her head. “Look, now you have me speaking western jargon.”
    “Wait till tomorrow and I’ll have you doing more than speaking it.”
    Whether his statement carried more than one meaning, it caused warmth to spread low in her core. “Is that right? Care to tell me what you mean, cowboy?”
    “You’ll find out tomorrow if you come to the rodeo. Pick you up at six?”
    “I’ll be here.”
    He nodded. “Nice to see you in town again. See you tomorrow.”
    “See you then.” She heard the front door shut behind him. She gulped down the rest of her sports drink, her mouth suddenly gone dry. Did he really mean what he said about her being in Misty Mesa again? He was very friendly and courteous to her, a gentleman in how he helped her get home. Was he saying those things just to be polite, or had he truly gotten over the past?
    She got up from the air mattress and stepped lightly into the bathroom to shower. When she came out twenty minutes later, the doorbell was ringing. Maybe it was her neighbor Mrs. Banks. “Coming,” she yelled, hoping that whoever was at the door could hear her. Kyra threw her bathrobe on in place of her towel and left her bedroom.
    She favored her left ankle as she walked to the front door and answered it. A pizza deliveryman squinted at her before reading the receipt taped to the cardboard pizza box. “I have an order of cheese, pepperoni, and black olives for Kyra?”
    “I’m Kyra, but I didn’t order a pizza. There must be a mistake.”
    “No