Free Redheaded Stranger: A Cowboy Love Story (Bluebonnet, Texas) by Amie Stuart Page B

changed quickly, hustling and bustling around each other like the old married folks he sometimes felt they were. He enjoyed the feeling of peace that settled over him. Despite her, Delaney , and his dad, it seemed some of the equilibrium had been returned to his world. Everything was almost in order.
    "And not a hair out of place." She grinned back, makeup in one hand, a cosmetic brush in the other. "I should mess up your hair, but you smell too damned good to be that mean to."
    He stepped closer, leaning against the doorjamb of the tiny bathroom, arms crossed. "Keep sassing me like that, and I’m going to quit letting you hang around my mother. Now, turn around."
    One last swipe of the brush across both cheeks, and she turned. He laid the heart-shaped diamond pendant across her chest and hooked it. She turned to face him, pausing to look in the mirror and run her fingers across it. The stone shimmered even in the dull bathroom light. "I never told you how beautiful this was or thanked you properly."
    "You can thank me properly later," he teased, handing her a velvet box.
    "Keep sassing me like this, and I’m gonna quit bringing you to the country. What’s in the box?" She eyed him, taking it from his outstretched fingers and opening it with a breathless, "Alexander!"
    He slipped into the tiny bathroom and hugged her. "Do you like them?"
    Them being a pair of earrings that matched the pendant he’d given her yesterday. "They’re beautiful." She shook her head, her eyes sad. "It’s too much."
    "They’re your Christmas present, and you’re worth so much more. I love you, and you and Darrach are my world. I would never deliberately jeopardize that." One finger gently stroked the side of her face.
    She sighed and closed the box with a dull thunk , leaning into him. The soft, clean, flowery scent of her perfume tickled his nose. "I know, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run off with Darrach like I did."
    "I probably would have done the same thing in your shoes. I honestly don’t know if I can ever come to terms with her , but I think I like having Darrach here. I like being here with him...but damn my thighs are sore."
    "From your early morning ride?" she asked with a chuckle.
    "Yeah," he murmured, his lips inches above hers.
    "I love you," she whispered as his tongue traced her full lips. He moaned as their tongues met, his fingers tangled in her short curls. She locked her arms around his neck, her mouth and tongue as insistent as his.
    He finally broke the kiss as the need for air won over. "Maybe they could take Darrach, and we could stay here?"
    "You think?" She pressed another soft kiss to his lips.
    "No. We have to go, don’t we?" She gave him a regretful nod, and he released her with a sigh. "I suppose we should head downstairs."
    "Two minutes." She held up the box containing her earrings. He backed up and eyed her while she put the diamond hearts in her ears, trying to be objective. Darrach had her slightly flat nose and wide-set eyes, but hers were a soft, chocolate brown and fringed with long, dark lashes. The white turtleneck hugged her torso, accenting round, firm breasts and a slender waist. He smiled at her derriere encased in hip-hugging jeans as she turned this way and that, picking and pulling at her curls. "Quit staring at me like that."
    "Like what?"
    "Like this is a desert island, and I’m a coconut."
    He shouted with laughter and pulled her close, planting one more soft kiss on her lips. "Darrach’s bag is ready."
    "Then let’s go."

Chapter Eight: Keilana
    "S ure you don’t want to take your fiddle?" I asked as Alex quietly closed the bedroom door. I wasn’t sure what had happened between my husband and my in-laws, but something had changed, and for the better. Something to do with his old fiddle. Which I hadn’t even known he could play. My husband and I had very few secrets, so I found that one rather telling. Whatever the change, I was grateful. He seemed more relaxed.
    "I’m sure.