Never Love a Cowboy Read Online Free PDF

he won’t leave…because of the baby.”
    Jessye darted a glance at Abbie’s stomach and was hit with a sharp stab of envy. “I think you’re both likely to be the reason he’s staying.”
    “Whatever the reason, I’m glad he’s not going. I just don’t want him to look back in later years and regret that he missed this great cattle drive.”
    “Your marriage sure took me by surprise. I thought these Englishmen were just passing through.”
    “That’s what I thought, too, but Grayson found a reason to stay.”
    The tender expression of love that glowed in Abbie’s eyes as she gazed across the land to where her husband stood caused an unaccountable ache deep within Jessye’s chest. For what she thought she’d once possessed, for what she now knew she’d never held.
    “We’d best get going. We’re burning daylight,” Jessye announced.
    Abbie wrapped her arms around Jessye and hugged her tightly. “Be careful. There’s more to these Englishmen than meets the eye.”
    Jessye nodded, suddenly aware that was her greatest fear.
     
    Sitting on a log, Harrison watched the sparks shoot up from the campfire while the stars looked down. He’d never known such peace.
    “I swear, Harry, I’m beginning to think you’re ona first-name basis with the bottom of that deck of cards.”
    Harrison gazed into Jessye’s lovely green eyes. Although he’d never seen her bright red hair unbound, he had a feeling it was as untamed as she was, because curling strands constantly sought their freedom, circling her face, offering the hint of a glorious crown.
    She was currently skewing her luscious mouth in such a way that she could blow a constant breeze over those loose strands—an indication that she was holding three of a kind or better.
    He loved poker. After his arrival in Texas, he had quickly mastered the game. It contained so many possibilities, and the challenge was to make certain that he barely beat his opponent. He had learned the hard way that a royal flush was never drawn three times in one evening.
    He was fortunate the gambling gentlemen of Galveston had only broken his hand and not drowned him in the Gulf waters. He wasn’t certain his father would have seen the irony in his demise. His father had feared his gaming debts would land him in the River Thames and had sent him to Texas as an alternative.
    He flexed his fingers, trying to work out the stiffness that occasionally crept in to serve as a reminder of his foolishness.
    “Is your hand hurting?” she asked.
    “It gets a bit stiff if I don’t move it often. Did you want to kiss it and make it well?”
    Her response was a look of disgust designed to send him scurrying to a corner in shame. It never worked.
    “I can’t believe you cheated some fellas—and got caught.”
    “They did not catch me cheating. They assumed I was dishonest because I was blessed with three royal flushes that evening. I could not convince them it was only luck.”
    “You couldn’t convince them because no one is that lucky. You had to be cheating, no two ways about it. Makes me doubt my wisdom in financing this cattle venture.”
    “I’d never cheat you, Jessye love.”
    “Prove it.” She slapped her cards on the ground. Three queens.
    Unfortunately, he could not now reach for the deck and swap his cards without her noticing. “Lady Luck is smiling on me tonight,” he said as he laid down a full house.
    She snorted in a very unladylike manner. “I don’t know how you do it, but I know that you cheat every time.”
    “Jessye love, I would never cheat you.”
    She scoffed. “You’d cheat the devil if you could.”
    He gave her a disarming smile. “Now that I would do, but I’d never cheat an angel.”
    “I’m no angel.”
    He pressed his aching palm over his heart. “I beg to disagree.”
    He scraped his meager winnings across the ground. She wouldn’t wager more than two bits per hand, which made accumulating wealth a slow process. “Another hand, Jessye,