Free Operation Cowboy Daddy by Carla Cassidy Page A

she might have.
    Her gaze was too soft and she was far too easy to talk to. Everything about her drew him in. He wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling, and more than anything he wanted to know what her full lips would taste like beneath his own.
    He got up from the sofa and she did the same. Together they walked to the front door. When he turned to tell her goodbye, she stood far too close to him and her lips were parted in a way that shot rational thought right out of his head.
    Without giving her any advance warning, he threw an arm around her waist, pulled her tightly against him and then covered her mouth with his.
    She released a small gasp, but she didn’t step back from him and, rather than telling him no, she opened her lips to him and responded.
    Fire danced through his veins. Her lips were soft and warm and they only increased Tony’s appetite for more. Her breasts pushed against his chest and the heady scent of her surrounded him. The kiss went on for several long moments and then she broke it and stepped back from him.
    The flames of his own desire shot out of her eyes, letting him know that she’d been as moved by the kiss as he had. “That wasn’t really a good idea,” she said, her voice slightly husky.
    He grinned at her. “It wasn’t really a bad idea.” He reached out and tucked a strand of her long hair behind her ear, his fingers noting the silky softness.
    “Tony, it wouldn’t be wise for us to indulge in any kind of a relationship other than what we have right now.” She took a step back from him.
    “Do we always have to be wise?” he countered.
    “I try to be,” she replied. Joey cried out from behind them. “I need to get him. Good night, Tony.”
    The dismissal was evident in the firmness of her tone. He murmured a good-night and then headed for his truck. Moments later his headlights slashed through the darkness of the night as he drove toward the Holiday ranch.
    On the surface, he and Mary seemed perfect for each other. Neither of them wanted marriage, and if he was to judge by her response to his kiss, then she was as attracted to him as he was to her.
    He didn’t see how having an intimate relationship with her would in any way screw up things between them. They were both adults and seemed to be on the same page. Even thinking about making love to Mary had him half-aroused.
    He rolled down his window to allow in the brisk night air to cool him down. He’d always believed that he found his peace sitting outside his bunk room or in the recreational area in the back of the cowboy motel.
    But these nights shared in Mary and Halena’s company had filled him with a new kind of peace, one he’d never felt before. It was because her home was filled with love.
    A chill walked up his spine as he thought of the break-in that had occurred the night before. She’d made light of it, but the whole thing concerned him.
    Had it really been an attempted robbery? What else could it have been? Would the man come back to try again? Certainly there was plenty of merchandise inside the house that could be sold in places where it could never be tracked. Tony could only hope that a shotgun-wielding Halena had really scared the hell out of the man and he’d never return.
    He rolled up his window and fought against a sense of deep foreboding. He had no idea where it came from or what it meant. He just knew that his senses were whispering to him that something bad was going to happen.
    He’d felt this same way right before the cowboys had found Cass Holiday’s broken body on the lawn between the big house and the cowboy motel after the tornado.
    The only thing the men could figure out was that she had been on her way to warn them about the impending storm, when it suddenly hit and sent a large tree branch at her that struck her in the head.
    She’d died trying to protect them.
    Had Tony brought danger to Mary’s house? He couldn’t imagine how her watching Joey could put her at