John Riley's Girl by Cooper Inglath

Author:Cooper, Inglath [Cooper, Inglath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2012-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

DID THEY HAVE any idea how right they looked together?

From the vantage point of Cleeve Harper’s arms, Racine decided there was something about the two of them that seemed predetermined long ago. John Riley and Olivia Ashford just fit, they complemented one another the way a man and woman should.

The recognition of it hit her with a little stab of envy. It was a shame they couldn’t see what the rest of the world saw.

“You’re a good dancer.”

She glanced up to find Cleeve looking down at her with an odd expression in his eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re pretty good at railroading a girl onto the dance floor yourself.”

“A man does what he must,” he said, smiling.

Racine sighed. If she knew what was good for her, she’d let him find another partner after this song ended. But for reasons she’d be the first to admit weren’t in her best self-interest, she ignored the voice of common sense, and they danced on a while longer. Cleeve told her silly jokes with corny punch lines in his boisterous voice. And Racine laughed. The kind of laughter that made her stomach hurt. She hadn’t done a lot of laughing the last few years. Doing so now with Cleeve felt like taking up exercise after years of being sedentary.

The music slowed down, and Cleeve drew her in a little closer. Attraction swirled inside her, and she wished, just for a moment, that this was real, that they were both free to pursue it.

Cleeve told her about the alfalfa he’d baled that afternoon, the prettiest he’d had in a couple of years. Racine asked questions, basic stuff—how do you know when it’s ready to cut? Do you really get up at three-thirty every morning to milk the cows? She’d always loved the idea of living on a farm, of having animals to take care of, fields to walk in.

It was obvious to her that Cleeve loved what he did every day of his life. She recalled a few of the comments she’d overheard Macy Harper make to other people in the post office, of how she lived for the day when she could convince him to sell that stinking place.

“You and Jimmy split for good?”

Racine looked up at Cleeve’s for-once serious expression. “Signed the final papers three days ago. That’s pretty much for good as far as I’m concerned.”

He appeared to consider that, sent his gaze off to the other end of the crowd and then wound it back to her face where it stayed. “You are one stunning woman, you know that, Racine?”

Warmth welled up inside her, followed arms and legs to fingers and toes. If laughter had been scarce in her life, then compliments had become extinct. She’d forgotten how good they could feel coming from a man to whom a woman felt a definite attraction. There was no denying it, she was attracted to Cleeve Harper. He thought she was stunning. And so it took every bit of fortitude she could muster to say, “Thank you, Cleeve.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.