Read Online Cowboy Fever by Joanne Kennedy - Free Book Online Page A

he’d dished out last time they were together.
    She turned over and looked at him. His eyes were closed, and he was smiling. It made her realize he’d never smiled back then. Being with him now felt different—safer. She could feel the solidity of him, the stability of his new life.
    It was like being with another man—but he was still Teague. There was still a hot, hard danger at his core, and she realized that’s what had been missing in the boys she’d bedded at school. They were safe. Superficial. What you saw was what you got. With Teague, there were depths inside she might never understand. Depths, and dangers.
    Walking away was still the best plan.
    She eased off the bed and gathered her clothes. Slipping into her jeans, she realized they’d forgotten about protection. Oh, well, she told herself, shoving her subconscious nervous Nellie to the back of her mind. It was only once. Once wouldn’t matter.
    Fully dressed, she sat down on the side of the bed and leaned over, letting her hair brush his bare chest as she kissed him gently on the lips. His eyes opened.
    â€œI have to go,” she said.
    He sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Okay.” He gave her a sideways look, as if he was trying to figure out how she felt about what had just happened. “You all right?”
    â€œSure. I’m fine.” She turned away and stretched so he could see just how “fine” she was.
    Besides, that way she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye.
    ***
    Teague watched Jodi stroll out of the room as if they’d just had lunch at Applebee’s. She evidently didn’t take things as seriously as she used to.
    He wasn’t surprised. They’d switched places in every other way. So now he was the one all caught up in emotion and she was the one who walked away.
    Served him right.
    At least they wouldn’t have to have one of those after-sex conversations where they talked about their feelings. Good thing—because he had no idea what his feelings were.
    Oh, he knew he loved her. There was no doubt about that. But he’d loved her all his life, and he didn’t know if what had just happened between them signaled a change in their relationship.
    After all, Jodi had grown up. She’d seen the world, and obviously she was a lot more experienced when it came to men. He wasn’t certain, but he was pretty sure she’d been a virgin the last time they’d… gotten together.
    Dang, he didn’t even know what to call it. Had this been a casual encounter, a hookup? Or had it been a cataclysmic event that sealed them together forever?
    It felt pretty cataclysmic to him, but judging from Jodi’s casual good-bye, it hadn’t meant that much to her.
    So should he follow her?
    He wanted to—right now. Hell, he wanted to tag along behind her and curl up on the foot of her bed like a stray dog. He wanted to sit, stay, speak, and roll over at her command.
    But he had no idea what she wanted.

Chapter 10
    The Brand Boutique: The Best of the West and to Hell with the Rest.
    The sign’s sentiment might not be poetic, but it was sure as heck accurate. Jodi’s mother loved Western clothes, Western men, and Western decor, but she hated everything else about Western life. Horses, dirt, hot summers, cold winters, cattle, rodeo—she hated it all. She’d especially hated the ranch—the center of Jodi’s life, and her father’s.
    But you’d never know it to look at the Brand Boutique.
    It was housed in a generic strip mall that crouched at the very end of Purvis’s three-block-long city center. Tall brick storefronts housing the Rexall, the ancient movie theatre, the Okay Café, and an assortment of saloons and office buildings abruptly gave way to the low, blocky strip mall and a Conoco station that had better be any visitor’s last stop before they launched themselves into the endless high plains beyond the city limits.