Read Online Cupid, Texas [1] Love at First Sight by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online

lady-of-the-manor tilt to her head, extended a hand, and offered him her best hostess smile as if she wasn’t standing wet, muddy, and barefoot at the edge of a pond.
    He rushed to take her hand, his breath quickening and his heart rising as if it was filled with helium. When they touched, palm to palm and skin to skin, a startling tenderness swept over him, so strong and unrelenting that he almost jumped back on his Harley and sped away. Only his desire to find Red kept him rooted against the onslaught of excitement, pride, desire, and fear.
    She smelled like fresh-baked cookies, not honeysuckle as he’d supposed, and the look in her blue eyes was so otherworldly that Dade understood that her delicate image would haunt the recesses of his memory for years to come.
    Years? How about for the rest of his life?
    Impossible, but unshakable. How was it she seemed the very blueprint of the woman he’d never dared dream existed?
    What the frig? This was lunacy and he wanted no part of it. No part of her.
    He dropped his hand and it was all he could do not to back up. Dade never backed down. Ever. Instead, he held her wide-eyed stare, determined not to let it show just how much she disturbed him.
    “Natalie,” he murmured like some love-struck fool. “Pretty name.”
    “It means born on Christmas Day.”
    “Were you? Born on Christmas Day?”
    “No.”
    “Neither was I.”
    Her smile deepened. “Look at that. We have something in common.”
    He raked his gaze over her again. That’s the only thing we have in common, babe.
    “You looking for a room?” Her lyrical voice stroked him as warm as the arid morning breeze.
    “I am.”
    “I don’t have one.”
    “You were leading me on?”
    “I’ll have a room tomorrow, but only for a few days. We’ll fill up after that for the Fourth of July weekend. Will that do?”
    “You already rented out Red Daggett’s room then?”
    A startled expression skimmed over her face. She hauled in a breath so deep that her chest rose high. He tried not to look at her breasts again, but dammit, he was only human, and she was so delicious that he could eat her up with a spoon. “Where’d you hear about Red?”
    “Jasper Grass told me about the vacancy after he gave me Red’s job.”
    “Jasper’s already replaced Red?” She frowned, knotted her hands.
    “Looks like.”
    “So you’re the new bouncer at Chantilly’s?” Her gaze darted to his biceps.
    His ego couldn’t help flexing his arm. “Bouncer slash bartender.”
    “How nice for you.”
    “Any particular reason you’re being catty?”
    “You did cause me to take an unexpected mud bath.” She gestured toward the pond, the plastic six-pack ring still clutched in her left hand.
    “I thought we’d already moved past that.”
    “Because of you, I have to go shower, and my schedule is packed. I really don’t have time for a shower, but clearly I have to make time.”
    “And yet you do have time to rescue ducks in distress.”
    “I always have time to help those in distress.”
    Dade pressed his lips together. I’m in distress. I need rescuing. Where in God’s name did that thought come from? He lowered his eyelids, crossed his arms over his chest. “I apologize for mucking up your day.”
    “You’re forgiven,” she relented.
    He wanted to ask her a million things. Are you feeling the same way I’m feeling? Does your stomach hurt? Is your chest tight? Does the sun seem incredibly bright? Do you have an irresistible urge to get naked with me?
    “So about Red’s room?” he prompted.
    “He hasn’t officially vacated it.”
    “But he’s gone?”
    “He left his things. He never checked out.”
    “So he’s missing then?”
    She shrugged, but he saw concern on her face. She cared about Red.
    “Did you report him missing?”
    “How is that any of your business?”
    “I need a place to stay.”
    “Red always comes back.” She raised her chin. “It would be disloyal of me to give away his room.”
    He