Tex Times Ten Read Online Free PDF

you.”
    “Well, there’re reasons for that.”
    She frowned at him. “Thanks for bringing me the cake, Tex. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go to sleep now. I’ve got to work tomorrow.”
    He nodded, noting the distance in her tone. “All right, Cissy. I’ll tell Hannah you’re doing fine.”
    “You do that,” she said absently, turning away.
    And darn it, she didn’t even seem to notice when he raised the window. Glancing at her, he realized her thoughts were somewhere else. She’d pulled some pictures from a drawer in her nightstand, but he couldn’t see what they were. Caught between bravado and bragging, he decided there was no other way to get her attention back on him.
    He jumped.
    Then he waited for her to look out to make certain he was in good health, his head crooked around so that he could see her expression.
    She closed the window. The lace drapes fell together.
    “Damn,” he said to himself, limping toward his truck. “Even superheroes get a little applause for exiting out of windows!”
    But Cissy hadn’t seemed to care, much like she hadn’t seemed impressed when he’d ridden that bull to victory, twice. Only this time, he’d kissed her for real. And pulled away fast. He hadn’t been prepared for how much he wanted to have her. The feel of her beneath him all slick and compliant in that silk had made his brain pulsate with fire! He’d had to stop himself from…
    He frowned. She hadn’t seemed as rocked as he had.
    So then he dove out a window. “Damn,” he said again.
    She was supposed to notice.
     
    C ISSY FORCED HERSELF not to fly to the window and peer out to see if Tex was okay. That lunatic! But what could a woman expect from a man well versed in the daredevil sport of bullriding?
    “You are so not father material,” she muttered, swiftly flipping off the bedside lamp and going to the window to surreptitiously peek through the lace drapes. He was limping, the creep! “That’s what you get for being so desperate to avoid my kiss,” she told his retreating form. “Now you’re only worth forty bucks.”
    And he wasn’t husband material, for sure—notthat she was looking to mine the fields of bachelors. But Tex had proved that she’d never be able to count on him. The man broke into her bedroom and then leaped out her window.
    “I can’t trust you,” she said as he drove off. “And if I need anyone in my life right now, it’s someone I can trust.”
    She had a family to raise. “I can just see him teaching my kids to have a wild hair like his,” she murmured, picking up the picture once again. Her eyes clouded over as she looked at the faces of the tiny people who depended on her. Counted on her.
    “I need stability in my life,” she told herself as she crawled into bed. “Stability. And someone who doesn’t call wedding cake un-wedding cake and then cut it with a hunting knife!”
    Getting up, she grabbed the box off the dresser and slipped the cake under her pillow. “I’ll just ignore Mr. Superstitious’s dire warning,” she said. “It’s not like I’d dream of future husbands, anyway.”
    More like she’d have nightmares. Of Tex.
     
    “W HAT’S YOUR PROBLEM ?” Mason demanded as Tex limped into the ranch’s main house. It was just the two of them living there now, and that fact alone was starting to string Tex’s nerves tight. Mason was not a pleasant roommate.
    “I just turned my ankle a bit,” Tex said. “It’s nothing.”
    Bandera and Navarro came in behind him, eyeingTex as he fell into the recliner and struggled to get his boot off.
    “Need help?” Bandera asked.
    “Not really,” Tex said, gritting out the words. His ankle hurt more than he thought it would.
    “Hang on,” Navarro said. Gently, he took hold of the boot and did his best to pull it off without hurting Tex.
    “Arrgh!” Tex moaned in spite of himself.
    “Where the hell have you been?” Bandera asked. “Ranger called here a while ago and said to keep an eye out