Free Cowboy to the Rescue by Stella Bagwell Page B

dissuade her from searching for the truth? Tell her that it’s an impossible task and to forget it?” She shook her head. “I can’t do that. And I don’t know why you would want me to. Unless you’re scared.”
    Lex stiffened. Of all the things he’d been accused of, especially by a woman, being cowardly wasn’t one of them. Was she right? Was he scared? Scared of learning his father had been murdered. And scared of being around her every day and feeling himself falling deeper and deeper under her spell.
    But he wasn’t about to admit any such thing to her. He didn’t even want to admit it to himself. “You’re wrong,” he insisted. “If you think I’m worried that you’re going to dig up something criminal about my dad, you couldn’t be more off base. He was a good man through and through. Deep down, I’m more certain of that than I am of my own name.”
    She tilted her chin a fraction upward. “If that’s the case, then you must be making all of this fuss because you want me gone from here. Why?”
    Desire wrapped around his frustration and finally pushed him to reach for her. As he folded his arms across her back and lowered his lips to hers, he whispered, “Maybe because I’m tired of not being able to do this.”

Chapter Five
    F or the past week, Christina had been telling herself over and over that she was never going to kiss the man again. That she wasn’t even going to give Lex Saddler the chance to kiss her a second time.
    Yet the moment his arms had come around her and his lips had fastened over hers, she’d been as lost as a raindrop in a downpour.
    Without stopping to think at all, she angled her head to match his and latched her fingers over the tops of his shoulders. Her response was countered with his hands on her back, drawing her tight against the front of his body.
    The intimate contact swamped her body with heat, and she was certain her blood had turned to liquid fire as it swam through her veins at lightning speed. The taste of him was dark, wild and exciting, and too good to resist. With a tiny moan deep in her throat, she opened her mouth and accepted the insistent prod of his tongue against her teeth.
    Sweat began to dampen her skin, then roll in tiny rivers between her breasts and into the waistband of her slacks, while the air in her lungs was slowly but surely disappearing. At the same time she could feel his hands kneading her back, then slipping lower and lower, until his palms were cupping the curve of her rear.
    It wasn’t until he hauled her hips tightly against his that reality hit her. Their kiss had gone beyond a meeting of lips. It was a sexual embrace that was rapidly leading her to a total meltdown.
    Mustering all the strength she could find, she finally managed to drag her lips away from his and twist out of the heady circle of his arms.
    Long moments passed before Christina was composed enough to speak, yet even then her voice was raw and husky.
    â€œYou like going against my wishes, don’t you?”
    He chuckled softly, and she felt his fingers tangling in the loose tendrils of hair sticking to the sweat on the back of her neck.
    â€œWho are you trying to kid?” he asked in a low voice. “You wanted that kiss as much as I did.”
    The fact that he was so right only made her feel more frustrated with herself. Yet even as she told herself she should step away from him, the touch of his fingers was luring her, seducing her. “Okay. Earlier you were trying to be honest with me,” she said huskily. “So I’ll admit that I—” She forced herself to turn back to him. The dark shadows slanting across his face gave his rough-hewed features an even more rakish look, and she was forced to swallow hard before she managed to finish speaking. “I find you very attractive. And there must be some sort of—chemistry between