Read Online A Cowboy For Christmas (A Copper Mountain Christmas) by Katherine Garbera - Free Book Online Page B

pointing to the left side of the hearth. She’d already started decorating with a few boughs she’d picked up at the Christmas tree lot earlier. She’d placed them on the mantel with a string of twinkle lights that she’d found in her old bedroom. “... or over there in the middle of the bay window.”
    Carson looked at both areas then back at her. “It’s up to you, I think I’d put it in the window if you want my opinion.”
    “ Why?”
    “ It’s dark in that corner– plus the tree will spill over in front of the fireplace and if you put a blanket on the floor and sit there it’ll be crowded.”
    “ I think it might be cozy with a fire on one side, the tree in the front and you on the other,” she said. Giving voice to what she wanted. She hadn’t been shy before her downfall and she hated that she’d lost that part of herself.
    But today out the in the snow, kissing Carson had reminded her of herself. The woman she was searching for. She still didn’t really know who she was, but she was remembering a few things about herself that she’d forgotten. And one of them was if she was home for Christmas she was wanted to spend it with this cowboy.
    “ You sure about that?” he asked.
    She pulled him close and kissed him long and hard and deep – and when she took a step back she noticed his cheeks were flushed and his lips swollen and wet.
    “What do you think?
     

 
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    “ I think I better get that tree inside and send my boys home so we can be alone,” he said, turning toward her front door. He wasn’t ready to play games with her and this had the feeling of a game. She’d kissed him and then thrown down a dare.
    “ Now who’s running?” she taunted.
    He didn ’t like being called a coward and in essence that was what she was doing. “I’m not the one who ran away fifteen years ago or even this afternoon. Make sure those doors are unlocked – and you might want to keep your dog out of the way. The guys won’t be able to watch the tree and your pet.”
    “ I guess I need to apologize for that,” she said.
    “ Only if you mean it,” he said, unable to stem the anger he felt as he watched her and wanted her. It was one thing to let her leave him when they’d been eighteen but to open his heart up to her again... ? And there was no denying that’s what he wanted.
    “ I do. I’m sorry for running away.”
    “ Are you done running?”
    She just stood there with the light from the house surrounding her and the pretty Christmas garland all around her. She looked like an angel and he wanted to believe she could be his miracle, but she wasn’t.
    He turned on his heel and walked at a fast clip to the door. He was debating skipping dinner with her and just going home. He’d forgotten how easily his heart could be bruised but leave it to Annie to show him how simple it was.
    “ Car?” she called.
    He hated that he liked the sound of his nickname on her lips. He wished he could think of her the way he viewed all the other women in town. Paige and Flo and Sage—though Sage was engaged to be married now – but he had never lusted after any of them. And he didn’t want to lust after Annie either. But dammit, she’d always been different.
    “ Yeah?” He glanced over his shoulder and she stood there in the middle of her living room with the logs burning in the fireplace behind her. She wore a pair of slim-fitting jeans and a long-sleeved red thermal top with the top buttons left open. She looked too damned tempting. He knew he wasn’t leaving because this was the one place he truly wanted to be.
    “ I’m sorry. I was trying to prove something to myself, not hurt you.”
    He wanted her to be strong and sassy the way she ’d always been and there was no way that could happen as long as she was still running. And even if a person stayed in one spot, she could still be hiding out. Like his brother Lane who was back home because as he’d so eloquently put it, he needed