Tried and True by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Author:Kathy Lynn Emerson [Emerson, Kathy Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1998-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

By the time the boat touched ground by the dam, Nessa seemed as anxious to go ashore as he was. Without waiting for him to assist her, she clambered out, nearly tripping over her skirts in the process. She took two steps on the soft earth, tottered, let out a shriek, and froze.

“What? What's the matter?”

She was staring in horror at the low water near the dam. “I think I just stepped on a snake. A big one.”

There was no sign of anything more threatening than a stick lying on the muddy ground. He thought it likely she’d slipped on that, or maybe trod on a root concealed by the slime. It was too early in the year for snakes. “Did it bite you?” he asked as he got out of the boat, just in case he was mistaken. If she’d been bitten, she’d know it.

“No.” She had gone dead white and her lips trembled. “I’m not sure where it is. Or what kind it was.” She seemed certain there had been a snake. He was equally sure her imagination had run away with her. They had been talking about snakes earlier. He’d led her to believe there were some inhabiting the barn.

His gaze on her quivering lips, he put his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling all over. She needed him to take care of her. To comfort her.

Grant’s body hardened in a rush. He wanted to kiss her again more than he wanted his next breath.

“You’re holding me too tightly,” she whispered.

Abruptly dropping his hands to his sides, he fought to get himself under control. He was forgetting his own resolution to return quickly to the house, before anything more happened between them.

Cold-bloodedly, he set out to scare her away, exaggerating for effect. “Two varieties of snake are common in these parts,” he said in his lecturing voice. “Milk snakes are big, but they’re nonpoisonous. Then there are water moccasins. We’re right at the northernmost edge of their territory. One of Katie’s brothers was bitten on the arm by a water moccasin when he was a kid. It swelled up bad enough that he had to go to the doctor. He killed the snake first, though. Hung it up for everyone to see.”

“Lovely.” She just stood there, shaking harder. She ought to be running for the house. Didn’t she know how dangerous it was to stay put?

Desperation made Grant creative. “In Tunis’s daybook, he writes of the time Katie found a water moccasin in one of the sheds. It was going after baby swallows in a nest and that made her so mad, she forgot she was afraid of snakes and—”

Nessa clapped one hand over his mouth. “I don’t want details! And the last thing I need is another lecture.”

They were standing very close. Too close. The day’s dying light aureoled her hair, mesmerizing him. He couldn’t seem to help himself. As her fingers slid away from his lips to caress the nape of his neck,

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