Free What a Texas Girl Dreams (Crimson Romance) by Kristina Knight Page A

me.” He looked into her eyes for a long moment, and Monica felt herself slipping farther and farther into the fantasy of a first date and a real relationship. His big hands rested on her knees for a moment and then turned her so that her legs were outside the truck. Heat from his hands seared through her jeans, warming her after the coolness of the air-conditioning. “Take off your boots.”
    The world snapped back into focus.
    “Take off my what?”
    “Your boots. Where we’re going you won’t need them.”
    “Needing and wanting are two very different things.” Like how she needed her freedom, but wanted to be with him. Yeah. Two very different things.
    He leaned a fraction closer to her, his lips a hair’s breadth away from hers and his fingers playing with the backs of her knees. Monica fought to keep her eyes open and on his. She curled her toes against the hard bottom of her boots as if that would keep them on her feet. She was not going on a trail ride without shoes.
    “I’m very aware of the differences,” he said in a low voice. “So how about this: if you want to win the dare, you need to lose the boots.”
    “We didn’t settle the stakes yet.”
    A grin spread across his face. “Eager little thing, aren’t you?” He waggled his eyebrows and tossed his cowboy hat onto the back seat. Then, he opened the suicide door to the rear of the cab and pulled out two pairs of hiking boots. He held the smaller pair up for her inspection. “You’re an eight, right?”
    He knew her shoe size? How did a man she didn’t let into her life know her shoe size? Curious, she took the hiking boots, slid the Luccheses off her feet, and tied the new, clunky pair around her ankles.
    “So we’re going hiking? In the Hill Country when it’s ninety and blazing? I think your date-planning abilities need a little work.”
    “Maybe. Terms?”
    “Okay. If I survive this date without succumbing to heat stroke, I’ll cook you dinner sometime.”
    “You can do better than that.” He lifted Monica down from the high seat and took her hand, leading her toward a trailhead. “I thought heat didn’t bother native Texans?”
    “I didn’t say it bothered me. I just said it’s hot and probably not the best day for a hike.”
    He nodded and then tilted his head to the sky as if considering the sunshine. “Well, I suppose we might need a little shade before long. Come on. Let’s go find some.”
    Monica followed Trick at a leisurely pace. He didn’t have a picnic basket or backpack filled with water or food. So wherever they were going had to be close. She’d expected him to drive to a secluded beach at Canyon Lake, but the lake was nowhere to be seen. Excitement tickled her belly.
    “How about this: if, by the end of this date, you haven’t changed the way you look at Texas, we’ll go back to the no-dinner-no-movie-just-sex kind of dating?”
    “Why would I want to change the way I look at Texas? It’s my favorite place in the world.”
    He shrugged one shoulder and took her hand so they were walking side by side along the trail. “What do you like best about Texas?”
    “It’s familiar. Comfortable. It’s home.”
    He nodded. “Maybe Texas can still surprise you. What do you say? Want to change your view of Texas just a little bit?”
    Monica thought about that for a long moment. No, she didn’t want to change her view of Texas. It was hot and noisy and beautiful and quiet. She liked things just the way they were.
    Still … She’d never known Trick to go for big gestures or to plan dates. Coming to the ranch, with flowers no less, and driving more than fifty miles to Canyon Lake in the middle of a workday had to mean a plan. A man with a plan was a dangerous thing. The single excited butterfly in her stomach morphed into an even dozen.
    “And if I have changed the way I look at Texas?”
    He looked down at her, his eyes darkening with some emotion she couldn’t quite read. An emotion that made her catch