Read Online Capture The Night by Geralyn Dawson - Free Book Online Page A

trailing downward to taste the bounty that had pillowed his head such a short time ago. Her breathy tone sent frissons of heat along his nerves. He tugged at her gown with his teeth, baring a rosy, pebbled peak to his gaze. “Yeah, Beauty,” he answered reverently.
    It was as he bent and took her breast into his mouth that he remembered. Beauty. Maddie. Madeline Christophe. Madeline Sinclair. His wife! He couldn’t make love to his wife. Not this wife, not Madeline Sinclair. Not ever .
    He pulled away just as Madeline sighed a throaty moan. He felt like groaning right along with her. Brazos was used to wanting things he couldn’t have, but this was the first time he remembered having something he couldn’t—or shouldn’t, anyway—want.
    Then she opened her eyes, and what he saw there had him scrambling off the bed and diving for his pants. Those big, brown, beautiful eyes had gone all misty with desire. “Brazos?” she asked, her voice husky and soft.
    He had a helluva time fitting himself inside his denims. Keeping his back to her until he’d managed to get buttoned, he took a deep breath, then turned. She was sitting up in the bunk, and she had that wounded-doe look about her again. The sight of it was like a punch to the gut. “Don’t do that,” he demanded roughly.
    “Do what?”
    “Look at me like that.”
    The sheen of tears sparkled in her eyes. “Like what?”
    Brazos raked his fingers through his hair. “Never mind.” She’d retied the ribbon at the neck of her nightgown, and above the lace collar her skin shone a light pink. Brazos shook his head, chasing away the mental image of other rose-color body parts. “Look, Maddie, we can’t…I don’t…aw, hell.” Leaning against the cabin wall opposite the bed, Brazos slowly slid down to sit on the floor. Propping an elbow on a knee, he held his palm to his forehead and repeated, “Aw, hell.”
    For a long moment, Madeline stared at him. Then she plopped down onto the mattress and said vehemently, “Bloody hell.”
    Brazos looked up, shocked.
    She darted him a sheepish glance. “Oops.”
    He felt a grin tug at the corners of his mouth. He saw amusement kindle in her eyes. Their gazes locked, and suddenly, they both began to laugh.
    “My word, Maddie, you certainly know how to surprise a fella.”
    She rolled over to her side and propped her head on her elbow. “You’ve a few surprises of your own. I’d never have guessed—” She stopped abruptly, and he saw her gaze focus upon the scar on his chest. “What happened to you, Brazos?”
    Automatically, his hand lifted to touch the band around his arm. “It’s nothing.”
    “You’re doing it again,” she said. “You kept touching that armband last night.” Madeline paused before hesitantly asking, “What was it all about? What happened last night?”
    He barely heard her question because the look in her eyes filled him with such…shame. He pushed roughly to his feet. Damn the woman. I won’t be pitied .
    “Brazos?”
    “What?” he snapped, glaring at her.
    She frowned with annoyance and said, “Well, you needn’t use that tone. All I did was ask you a question, which, under the circumstances, I believe I have every right to ask.”
    He ground his teeth together. “Don’t fool yourself. If you’re thinking that what happened in that bunk a few minutes ago gives you any rights at all, you prove the point I was arguing yesterday.”
    “What point?”
    “That women don’t have any more sense than an armadillo.”
    She sat up. “And what, dare I ask, is an armadillo?”
    “An armadillo is one of the dumbest critters the good Lord put on this earth.”
    Madeline’s mouth fell open. “I don’t believe you’re saying something like that to me.” She straightened her spine and lifted her chin, and her fiery beauty rekindled the desire that had continued to smolder inside him.
    Shame and desire create a volatile mixture. With the two emotions whipping around inside him,