The Barons of Texas: Jill Read Online Free PDF

bent over to retrieve his trousers, offering her a view of his muscled back that tapered down to a narrow waist, then continued on to the tight roundness of his buttocks. Her throat went dry. She’d known him for more than two years, yet she’d never once thought to wonder how he would look with no clothes. Now she wouldn’t have to. The close fit of his briefs left very little to the imagination.
    “Jill?”
    “What?”
    “You never answered my question. Are you feeling better?”
    In what seemed like slow motion, he drew on his trousers one leg at a time, so that she could see the arresting play of his muscles beneath his skin. In the sunlight, the hair on his legs was more golden than brown and gilded his tan. When his pants were settled around his waist, she heard the swift, efficient zip of his trousers.
    She felt a pang of regret. It was such a foreign feeling to her that it left her shaken and more than alittle bemused. It was only when she realized that Colin was looking at her with an amused expression on his face that she realized she hadn’t answered him.
    “Okay. I feel okay.”
    “Just okay?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Is the pain completely gone?”
    “All but the memory.”
    His eyes narrowed on her. “What’s wrong, Jill?” His words were soft and filled with concern, the concern she remembered from last night.
    “Nothing. It’s just… I’m sorry you felt you had to stay all night. You couldn’t have been comfortable.” Not the way she’d clung to him. “Were you even able to sleep?”
    “Yes. After you calmed and I was sure you were sleeping well, I went to sleep.”
    She forced a short laugh. “I guess you’re accustomed to sleeping with women.”
    With a glance at her that she couldn’t interpret, he reached for his shirt. “How long have you suffered from these migraines?”
    She stared at his bare chest. “Not long.”
    He shrugged into the shirt. “Wrong answer. I got a glance at the dates on those prescription bottles. A few of them date back nearly a year.”
    She couldn’t get her mind past the fact that they had slept in the same bed. She’d never slept in the same bed with anyone , and that included her sisters. Even more disturbing, there wasn’t anything platonic about the way she and Colin had slept together. As he had said, she’d only really been able to fall into a truly restful sleep when she’d been tangled up with him. Even though sex hadn’t been involved, to herway of thinking, their night together had been incredibly intimate.
    To Colin, it probably wasn’t that unusual. Not that she was branding him as a womanizer. From her observation, he was as likely to show up at a function without a date as he was to show up with one. Even then, he never seemed serious about any of his dates. She should know. More than once she’d been trapped by one or the other of her female acquaintances as the woman alternately salivated over him and moaned over his lack of interest.
    “The migraines aren’t anything to be ashamed of, Jill.” He tucked his shirt into his trousers. “What has your doctor said about them? I mean, does he know what causes them?”
    She slowly shook her head. “I’m perfectly healthy, if that’s what you mean. I’ve been through numerous tests.”
    His expression darkened. “If all your doctor can do is write out prescriptions for you, you should see another doctor.”
    “I have, and he said and did the same thing.” She already felt too exposed, too vulnerable to him. She didn’t want him to know any more than he already did. “But I’m getting better. The last headache I had was two months ago.” She pushed the covers off her, then stopped. Since she’d awakened, she’d been so focused on Colin, absorbing the fact that they had slept together and watching him as he had dressed, that she hadn’t given much thought to what she was wearing. Now she realized she was wearing only a nightgown.
    “Before that, how often had you been