World's Most Eligible Texan Read Online Free PDF Page B

around while a gust of cold wind buffeted them and spun leaves into the air. “Could we maybe talk inside?”
    â€œOh! Of course. Come in,” she said, feeling ridiculous and knowing the women in his life knew how to handle moments like this smoothly and casually, while she was acting like a twelve-year-old with her first crush. She moved ahead of him, reached out to unlock the door and dropped her keys. He scooped them up, reached his long arm around her and unlocked the door, pushing it open and waiting for her to enter. Too aware of how close he was behind her, she stepped inside. He made her fluttery and overly conscious of him and of herself and her condition.
    She glanced around her tiny kitchen and thought of his palatial family home in Pine Valley. Her whole apartment would fit into his kitchen.
    She opened her purse to drop her keys inside and the smell of the hamburger wafted into the air. His brows arched and he reached down to pull the wrapped burger from her purse. She could hear the laughter in his voice. “You carry hamburgers and fries in your purse?”
    â€œNot usually,” she said, snatching her lunch from him and carrying it to the counter to set it down. “I wasn’t hungry. Do you want anything to drink?”
    â€œNo thanks, but help yourself.”
    She shook her head. “Let’s sit in the living room.”
    He looked all around as they entered her tiny living room with its white wicker furniture, red, blue and yellow throw pillows, colorful prints on the walls—an attractive room to her, but a far cry from his lifestyle.
    â€œNice place.”
    â€œThank you.”
    He prowled around with both the grace and curiosity of a cat and stepped into the bedroom that opened off the living room. “This is your bedroom,” he said, and she wondered how she had left her room that morning when she had dressed for the doctor’s appointment. She ran her hand across her forehead, watching him as he returned to the living room and moved across the room to the sofa. He tilted his head again.
    â€œAre you going to sit down?”
    â€œYes,” she replied, knowing she was acting ridiculously, but he had jolted her with his sudden appearance when she’d thought he was in Spain.
    When she perched on the edge of the sofa, he sank down near her, looking relaxed and as if he owned the place. He leaned closer, and she realized she should have sat across the room from him. He ran his finger along her cheek. “Big blue eyes just like I remembered,” he said softly, and she wondered if he could hear her heart thudding.
    â€œWhy are you here?”
    Again, he looked as if amusement danced in his eyes. “Glad to see me?”
    â€œYes,” she said cautiously. This time there was no mistaking the laughter in his eyes.
    â€œUh-huh,” he drawled. “Can I ask you a question?”
    â€œSure,” she said, bracing up and wondering what was coming.
    â€œWhy did you disappear the next morning?” His voice was quiet, his words innocuous, but his eyes nailed her and a flush heated her cheeks.
    With an effort she looked away from those damnable green eyes that made her feel as if he could see every thought in her head. “I was supposed to leave town and I needed to get home.”
    â€œOh, yeah,” he drawled in a voice that indicated he didn’t believe that answer for a second.
    She knotted her fingers in her lap. “I don’t usually sleep with a guy the first night I meet him,” she whispered stiffly, feeling her cheeks burn, but there it was, the flat-out bald truth.
    â€œI know you don’t,” he said in such a tender voice that she wanted to fling herself into his arms. His fingers lifted her chin and turned her to face him, and when she looked into his eyes, she felt she was melting and all her resistance was slipping away.
    â€œGo to dinner with me tonight.”
    â€œI can’t