Free I Cross My Heart by Vicki Lewis Thompson Page B

“Now?”
    “Of course. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs. You give me that special glance and, whoosh, my panties are wet.”
    “I probably shouldn’t be happy about that, but I am. I might have had that effect on other women, but they’ve never told me.”
    “Trust me, Nash, you’ve had that effect on other women. I can guarantee it. For whatever reason, they were too proud or too shy to let you know. I’m not too proud or too shy, although normally I can be both. It must be the multiple orgasms that have loosened my tongue, along with every other muscle in my body. You’re better than a deep tissue massage, my friend.”
    He allowed himself to bask in the admiration shining in her gray eyes. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. And although I can’t imagine doing business with someone who’s recently had his head between my thighs and his mouth on my hoo-ha, I’m dying of curiosity about this deal of yours.”
    He grinned at her. How could he do anything else when she was so completely adorable? He hoped she’d go for the concept, but if not, he’d had an unforgettable experience being here tonight.
    He took another sip of his coffee and considered how best to broach the subject. In the end he decided on simplicity. “I want to buy the Triple G.”
    She blinked. Clearly this wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. “Oh.”
    Now that it was on the table, his heart thudded with anxiety. He wanted this more than he’d realized. “I don’t have a big down payment, but if you require more than I have, I may be able to borrow some from Jack. There are programs for first-time homebuyers and I should qualify. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. I’ll figure out the money part.”
    “I’m not worried about—”
    “If you sold to me, you wouldn’t have to be so concerned about how the property appears to a prospective buyer. I know how it looks, and I don’t care. It’s a nice size for starting out, and it abuts the Last Chance, which belongs to one of my best friends. The location is awesome for me.”
    “So you’d live here?” The idea seemed to bewilder her.
    “That’s generally what a person does when they buy a place, unless it’s strictly for investment. I want to live here. I want to build it back up, get horses, maybe a goat or two, and—”
    “A goat?”
    “Sure. There’s this one goat at the Last Chance named Hornswaggled, although we all call him Horny. He’s an amazing animal. If we have a horse that’s acting up, we put Horny in the stall for a few days, and the horse settles right down. He has a special friend named Doozie, a mare that Gabe bought, but he’s a calming influence on all the horses. Yep, I’d definitely invest in at least one goat.”
    She continued to stare off into space, as if she couldn’t comprehend having him buy this place. And yet she’d been planning to sell it all along, so it couldn’t be the idea of selling that had her so distracted. No, it had to be the idea of selling it to him.
    Although he still wasn’t sorry about having sex with her, he had a tiny regret that he hadn’t mentioned the possibility of buying the ranch before they’d walked into her bedroom. He’d been about to say something when she’d taken the bull by the horns and admitted to craving his body. Some guys might have managed to refuse that offer, but he hadn’t.
    Besides, rejecting her sexual advances would have hurt his cause, not helped it. A spurned woman wasn’t likely to sell her home with generous terms to the guy who had spurned her. No, the thing that had landed him in this mess was easy to identify.
    Toward the end of dinner, they’d both announced they had confessions to make. Being a courteous cowboy, he’d allowed her to go first. Once she’d confessed her interest in him, he couldn’t very well change the subject and offer to buy her ranch. That confession had been shoved to the back burner.
    He’d hoped it hadn’t been removed from the stove