Cowgirl In Pearls by Jenna Mcknight

Cowgirl In Pearls by Jenna Mcknight

Author:Jenna Mcknight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-07T00:00:00+00:00


DUTCH AND CHLOE sat next to each other on the side of the hill, overlooking the truck and trailer, overseeing the horses. At least she was watching the horses. He was wondering if the rest of her underwear was lime lace. It was a far more delightful image than wondering who the hell drove the green-and-rust pickup truck she’d described to Carlson and him.

“You’re sure you’re all right?”

Chloe sighed. “For the hundredth time, yes. Would you stop asking?”

“Sorry, can’t.”

She looked sexy as all get out in his shirt, with the tails flapping around her thighs. In her skin-tight, tan jodhpurs, it wasn’t difficult to imagine her wearing none at all. Visions of a morning after flooded his mind and made other conversation exceedingly difficult.

That, and he was still figuring ways to impress her.

“Maybe you’d like to soak in a warm tub or something.”

She nodded. “There isn’t one in the dorm, though.”

He knew that. He had another plan. Hopefully, one of these times, one would work. Otherwise the summer was going to be over before he’d accomplished anything. She’d head back to school in Santa Barbara, probably, and leave him holed up here for the winter.

When his foreman and crew finally arrived, Dutch gave Chloe a hand up. He was quick to notice she moved slowly and carefully. “I know I’m not supposed to ask, but—?”

“Just stiffened up.”

He assisted her into the Jeep by placing his hands anywhere he thought would help—without getting him slapped in the process. When he felt something brush against his leg, he looked down and saw Friday staring up at him. “Yeah, you, too. Get in.”

She put her front paws up on the running board and gave him a look more sorrowful than anything Katie or Nicole had tried on him.

“I guess she’s sore, too,” Chloe said. “I’ve dumped her onto the floor twice now.”

Before the dog could remember to growl at him, he scooped her up and dumped her onto Chloe’s lap. “Maybe you’d better hold her this time.” After he was behind the wheel, he gently suggested, “You kind of have to put your arms around her to hold her, you know.”

Chloe remained rigid in her seat. “I don’t think so.”

He rested his elbow on the steering wheel and studied the odd picture the two of them made. Not the usual devoted owner/loving pet image. “She doesn’t like you much, does she?”

“Gee, I’m not sure,” she said with dry sarcasm.

“Why keep her, then?”

She started to answer right away, then gave it more thought. “I promised,” she finally said.

“Her?”

“No, someone who loves her.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s my friend, and she went away to school in Europe, and she knows no one else’d take care of this mutt.”

“Yeah, I can see why. She must be a really good friend.”

“You have no idea.”

He U-turned the Jeep and headed up the narrow, winding road to his lodge, hoping it wouldn’t make anyone carsick. Ten minutes later, they rolled through a gate. “We’re back on my land now.”

When he pulled to a stop in front of his native-timber-and-stone lodge, the dog jumped out, but Chloe didn’t.



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