Taste of Passion (Madaris Novels) Read Online Free PDF Page B

hated admitting it but her lips hadn’t been the same since. It didn’t take much to remember his taste, the texture of his lips, the expert way they had taken hers and focused on giving her pleasure. She had gotten so wrapped up in the kiss that for a moment she had lost all sense of time, place, and control. All she had been able to think about was the feel of his broad, masculine chest pressing against hers and the slow, purposeful way his mouth had moved over hers.
    She opened her eyes after experiencing a shiver that had gone straight to her core. Without thinking she took her fingertips and touched her lips, knowing the kiss they had shared was one she wouldn’t forget.
    Deciding that she needed a cold shower, she was headed toward the bathroom when the phone rang. She glanced at the clock. It was past ten and nobody called her this late unless it was one of her partners at the law firm needing her advice about something. Samira Di Meglio and Peyton Mahoney were friends she had met in law school and they had been more than ready to form a law practice with her. It still amused the three of them when clients walked in expecting to find three men by the names Mac, Sam, and Peyton and then to discover three women instead. She was proud to say that since the law firm had opened nearly five years ago, their business had increased and they were winning more cases than they were losing.
    She reached for the phone. “Hello?”
    She heard someone on the other line but no one responded, so she repeated her greeting. “Hello?”
    When the person continued to breathe in her ear butrefused to say anything, Mackenzie decided she had more to do with her time so she hung up the phone. She continued toward the bathroom thinking that some people evidently had nothing better to do than to play games on the phone.
     
    The caller hung up the phone, satisfied. They had the right phone number. The next step would be to make sure they had the correct address.

Chapter 3
     
     
    “Nice place, Mac.”
    Mackenzie leaned against the closed door and watched Luke, who was standing in the middle of the floor after his gaze had given her living room one wide sweep.
    “I’d heard you had a pretty large spread, but I didn’t expect all of this,” he added.
    She shrugged, thinking that most people didn’t. Her parents, Colt and Anita Standfield, had known each other for a long time. He was a full-blooded Cherokee and she was a Black Cherokee known as a Cherokee Freedman. After college they had married and settled here on land in Oklahoma that Colt’s grandfather had given them. And yes, it was a large spread that encompassed over a hundred acres of land along with the ranch house where she had been born. But compared to some ranch houses, hers was rather small. The only thing her parents had wanted under the roof of the modest stone structure was what they’d considered the necessities: three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, living room, and dining room. And just like her parents, Mackenzie thought the size of house fitted her needs perfectly.
    The land was another matter. It had been too much for her to handle, so when she had moved to Louisiana after college to work at a prestigious law firm, she had leased portions of the land and its upkeep to several Cherokee families.
    After returning home and opening the law office intown, she had purchased several horses, and Jake Madaris had helped by providing her with a few heads of cattle. And then with Ashton’s assistance, she’d hired several men whom she could depend on to keep the ranch running and operating smoothly. That had been five years ago and since then she had come to realize just how much being back home meant to her. With every day that she spent here, the more she appreciated the legacy her parents and grandfather had left to her.
    She took a deep breath as she moved away from the door. “I’m glad you like it. No matter where I went I considered this home and had always