Tucker's Crossing Read Online Free PDF

Too bad they were things a man like him didn’t have the right to want, let alone possess.
    “I want to know what the hell you’re doing in my mom’s kitchen.”
    Hurt swelled in her eyes and he wanted to feel good for putting it there, but it only served as a reminder of how he’d lost her to begin with.
    “I live here.”
    Had he heard her right? “Run that by me again. I thought you said you lived here.”
    “That’s right.”
    Now it was his turn to pale. “How long?”
    “A couple of years ago, your dad,” she stumbled, “I mean, Silas got ill. He needed a nurse. I needed a job. So I applied.”
    “You lived here! With my dad!” The thought of Shelby here, with Silas, in this house, didn’t sit right. Hell, it gave him new fuel for nightmares. It was just one more betrayal to add to the list. “What were you thinking?”
    “Just what I said, your dad needed a nurse and the job came with a place to stay.”
    Running a hand through his hair, he tortured himself with every horrible situation that he could possibly think of involving a fragile, genuine woman like Shelby and his beast of a father. In less than two seconds he’d come up with enough to make him sick.
    Done with the conversation, Cody headed for the back door. He needed space to decompress before he snapped and air that didn’t remind him of his failures.

    “Cody—” Shelby panicked.
    He was leaving. Just like before, only this time she would be forced to actually watch him walk out the door. Her hard-laid plans would all be for nothing. And that was not acceptable. Too much was at stake.
    “Oh, no you don’t.” Stubborn determination threw her into motion. Storming across the tile floor, she yanked him to a stop, forcing him to face the problem head-on. “Don’t you dare walk out on me. We aren’t even close to being done here.”
    Every muscle in his arm tightened under her grasp. Cody spun around in a defensive motion. He was amped and ready to strike. Anyone else in her situation would fear for her life, but not Shelby. And that said something about him .
    Cody might be a massive wall of raging testosterone, but he was also the gentlest man she’d ever known. In their time together, she’d never felt anything but utterly adored and protected. Even loved. Right up until he walked out.
    “Let go,” he ordered.
    “Not until we talk.”
    “I mean it, Shelby Lynn. Let. Me. Go.”
    That was the problem, she couldn’t.
    “And what if I say no?” Bold words for a woman who needed his cooperation.
    Without taking his gaze from hers, he issued a single command: “Don’t push me, Shelby Lynn.”
    Shelby let go, but sent him a threatening glare. “Oh, I haven’t even begun to start pushing.”
    To her dismay, there was no change in his expression. He crossed his arms, looking relaxed in his Armani button-up, totally unaffected by her threat. Here she was, ready to burst into tears and he was disciplined as always, which put a burr in Shelby’s temper.
    “Is that right?” Nope, not even a smile.
    “You don’t scare me, Cody Tucker.”
    Whoa. That got his attention. Cody stood staring at her, his face so full of disbelief and pain that she staggered back a few feet. Did he actually think she was afraid of him? Maybe she didn’t want to know.
    With a curse, Cody stalked toward her too fast for her to react, eating up the distance between them in two forceful steps, fury radiating off his every inch. Shelby couldn’t have moved even if she’d wanted to, which she wasn’t entirely sure she did.
    Cody clasped her face between his hands, and leaned down toward her, filling up more and more of the room until all she could see were his eyes, his lips stopping only a scant inch from her mouth, electricity filling the minuscule space.
    “Damn you, woman. Why can’t you ever just let things be?” His words danced against her lips. Their bodies brushed, their breath mixed, and then they were kissing. Hot, hard kisses that were