Rafferty's Bride by Mary Burton

Author:Mary Burton [Burton, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Bag?” Meredith coughed, trying not to look guilty. “What are you talking about?”

Travis nearly laughed as he watched the play of emotions on Meredith’s face. Shock. Outrage. He sipped his coffee. “The carpetbag. The one stuffed so full it’s barely staying closed.”

“Oh, that one.” Meredith rose and picked up their plates. She frowned as if giving the matter great thought. “It’s just full of old blankets and sheets.”

“Give it up, Meredith. You were planning to ditch me tonight.”

Carefully she laid their plates in the sink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He leaned back in his chair, comfortable. She was a bad liar. “You were planning on leaving me.”

She kept her gaze averted. “If I were going to leave you, I would have done it by now. Besides, it’s going to rain.”

“You didn’t want to leave me until you were sure I could take care of myself. We both know I can now.” Her loyalty pleased him.

A week ago, he’d been so sure of her betrayal. Now he wasn’t certain of anything.

She shrugged. “You said you’d help me. Why would I run?”

“I only just agreed to help,” he pointed out. “When you woke this morning, you knew we’d be leaving for Washington in a day or two.”

She frowned, as if searching for a retort. She couldn’t find one and apparently settled on the truth. “Yes, I was going to leave. But you have to admit, you haven’t been very reasonable.”

Her logic caught him off guard. “I’ve been very reasonable. I am going to help you, aren’t I?”

She shot him a glance over her shoulder as she washed the dishes. “Yes, now. Until this moment, though, you were like a runaway train. There was no changing your course.”

He sipped his coffee to hide his smile. How many times had a commanding officer told him the same? “Being focused has kept me on course.”

“Bullheaded,” she mumbled.

To his surprise, he was enjoying himself. The banter exhilarated him. He’d never talked to Isabelle like this and he’d certainly never talked with his men or commanding officers with such familiarity. A man could get used to having Meredith around.

Travis set down his cup, annoyed at the direction of his thoughts. Any kind of relationship between them was impossible. He understood that, accepted it. Yet, he still wanted her naked and under him.

So why the connection? He couldn’t muster an ounce of logic to explain it, but like it or not, it was there.

Drying her hands, Meredith set a kettle on the stove. “Bullheaded is also a good quality. I’m going to need tenacity to get out of this mess.”

“Then you’ve come to the right place.”

A smile tugged the edges of her lips. “Now that you’re on my side, I’m not so afraid of returning to Washington.”

My side. She spoke the words so casually, yet they rang in his head like a church bell. Pleased and irritated that she’d given him her trust so freely, he shifted.

She set two mugs on the table and sprinkled tea leaves in them.

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.