Secondhand Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

primly, “wake up. Immediately.”
    He groped for the hat with one hand and lifted it just high enough to uncover an eye. “You,” he said, almost accusingly.
    As if she were the one out of place, not him. “What are you doing here?”
    He took the time to yawn and stretch, and the combination was so damnably sensual that Chloe’s body got to remembering again, with no prompting at all from her mind. He swung his legs down off the sofa and sat up. “I told you last night I meant to protect Becky,” he said, but there was a twinkle in his azure eyes.
    She considered snatching up a sofa pillow and whacking him with it, but she needed the teaching job, having spent most of her savings since being ousted in Tombstone, which meant a degree of decorum was called for, lest word get back to the committee. Assuming she hadn’t already ruined her chances by creating a spectacle the day before, of course. “From what I’ve seen of Becky,” she said, “she is quite capable of looking after herself.”
    Jeb grinned, intensifying the lingering effects of the stretching and yawning, which brought Chloe’s temper to a slow, steady simmer. “That she is,” he agreed. “You’ve found me out, Miss Chloe. I reckon the truth is, I’m here to aggravate you as much as possible.”
    “That’s probably the first honest thing you’ve said since we met,” Chloe retorted. “Well, you can go now, because you’ve aggravated me plenty.”
    He let his gaze drift over her before rising languidly to his feet. “You cleaned up pretty well,” he observed.
    Chloe folded her arms and tapped one foot.
    He chuckled and shook his head. “You little hellion,” he said. Then he leaned in slightly and lowered his voice. “I considered pressing my rights as a husband last night, but I figured you’d scratch my eyes out if I crawled into your bed.”
    “You’re d—darned right I would have,” Chloe said, though secretly she wasn’t so sure. She tended to lose all good sense when he kissed her and when they made love…
    She gave herself a mental shake. They had never “made love,” they’d only torn each other’s clothes off and coupled, always in a sweaty tangle of arms and legs.
    Chloe fanned herself with one hand. Jeb grinned, as if he knew exactly what was going on in her mind.
    She would have killed him, school committee be damned, if Becky hadn’t come down the stairs just then.
    “Well,” said that worthy woman, “if it isn’t Mr. McKettrick. I would have thought you’d be in jail by now, given the state of your temper when I saw you last.” She smiled. “Join us for breakfast?”
    “I wouldn’t think of refusing,” he said, looking at Chloe while he spoke.
    She tried to singe him with her eyes. “I can’t think why you’d want to sit down to a meal with a lying, sneaking cheat like me,” she said.
    “Oh, dear,” Becky objected, though mildly. “You didn’t really say that, did you, Jeb?”
    He smiled endearingly. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I surely did. And I meant every word.”
    Chloe had to stay herself forcibly from picking up a sofa pillow. What had she ever seen in this man? Her body answered the question quickly enough, but her heart was less forthcoming. “Go away,” she whispered, though she had no real hope that Becky wouldn’t hear. She was standing too near and listening too intently.
    “It would be rude to turn down such a generous invitation,” he said, with a slight nod in Becky’s direction. “Besides, I could eat a bull elk.” His eyes gleamed with mockery as he looked down into Chloe’s flushed face. “Thanks to you, Mrs. McKettrick, I missed supper last night.”
    “It’s your own fault,” Chloe snapped. “You could have stayed at the ranch, where you belong.”
    “Mrs. McKettrick?” Becky asked.
    “My name is Wakefield,” Chloe said.
    “That isn’t what you told my father yesterday, out behind the bunkhouse,” Jeb pointed out affably.
    Chloe felt her cheeks