Riding West Read Online Free PDF

too busy doing other things. Celia nodded, watching him crouch to adjust the coffeepot on the coals in the fireplace.
    “It‘s about ready,” he told her with a nod toward the table.
    Glancing around, she looked for her clothes but saw nothing but the swept floor and plain, sparse furniture. “I wouldn‘t mind getting dressed,” she said pointedly. “Where are my clothes?”
    “You don‘t need clothes.” His expression was perfectly bland.
    Speechless for a moment, she stared at him.
    “I like you naked,” he explained as if it were the most reasonable thing on earth he‘d obviously taken her clothes and put them somewhere. “Shall we sit up and eat?”
    Celia sputtered, “You expect me to sit at the table nude and calmly eat with you?”
    He winked, an uncharacteristic wicked grin surfacing again. “It‘s a little fantasy of mine.”
    A part of her wanted to laugh, but a greater part of her wanted to strangle him. “Well, too bad. Parker, give me back my shift, at least.”
    He shook his dark head. “Not right now. I make the rules, sweetheart, in case you haven‘t noticed. It never did get me anywhere to let you lead me around by the nose, so while we‘re here anyway, things are going to be as I like them.” His ebony brows lifted in open amusement. “And I like you naked. I like it a lot .”
    He had to be the most infuriating, high-handed…outrageously handsome cowboy west of the Mississippi. Celia furiously watched him fill two plates with crisp bacon, steaming beans and biscuits, and had to admit the food smelled wonderful.
    He looked wonderful, too. So tall and graceful in his quick, economic movements, the chiseled planes of his face and lean length of his body utterly masculine and entirely too attractive for her peace of mind.
    Trying to eat with a blanket wrapped around her probably would be awkward and he‘d end up getting an eyeful anyway.
    Perhaps it was best to just comply, she decided with an inner glimmer of an idea. He might just be sorry he‘d ever suggested this particular disgraceful notion.
    When he set the plates on the table and gazed at her expectantly, an infuriatingly smug smile tugging at his mouth, Celia smiled right back. “I don‘t suppose there‘s much I can do about this…fantasy, is there?”
    “Nope.”
    “I am hungry,” she admitted, eyeing the steaming plates.
    “It‘s not fancy but I‘m a decent cook.” Parker stood politely by the table, waiting for her.
    “It smells good but I need to…” She wasn‘t sure exactly how to express what she needed, and that was to relieve herself and some water and a cloth would be welcome.
    It was a little disconcerting to realize he understood perfectly. “I heated some water earlier,” he said in an off-hand voice. “It‘s in a bucket on the porch.”
    “You don‘t expect me to go out there without anything on.”
    He just lifted his brows. “Who‘s going to see?”
    Fine. If he wanted to be that way, she could give it right back.
    She let her lashes drift down a fraction as she eased the blanket over her breasts, slowly exposing them. Sliding her legs over the side of the bed, she stood and stretched a little in a deliberately provocative way that thrust out her breasts as she shook back her long, tangled hair.
    When she walked the few steps to the door, she saw his gaze had darkened slightly and he certainly wasn‘t looking at her face.
    Good . If he was hoarding her clothes and making her walk outside naked, she was going to exact a little revenge.
    True to his word, a bucket of warm water sat outside, and once she‘d availed herself of the nearby bushes, she washed quickly, the morning air warming but still cool and crisp. He was still inside, standing by the table when she went back in. She shivered a little because she had no clothes but he pretended not to notice.
    At least she was pretty sure he pretended. He seemed a bit distracted.
    She sat down, waiting for him to sink into the opposite chair.