Read Online Hell on Wheels: A Loveswept Classic Romance by Karen Leabo - Free Book Online Page B

Dilly’s twenty-something flavors. “I’d like a small vanilla cone, please,” she said decisively to the clerk.
    A strangled noise came from Roan’s direction. “A vanilla cone?”
    “What’s wrong with that?”
    “You are sorely lacking in dietary imagination, Vicky.” He stepped in front of her. “We’ll have a triple-decker hot fudge sundae with pistachio mint, peanut-butter banana, and, ummm, mocha fudge. And two spoons.” He turned triumphantly toward Victoria. “Now, doesn’t that sound adventurous?”
    “It sounds nauseating. And my name’s Victoria.” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
    “Oops, sorry. I slipped.”
    “You do that a lot.”
    “C’mon, Vic-TOR-ee-ah,” he said, enunciating her name until it sounded like it had ten syllables instead of four. “Try the sundae. If you don’t like it, I’ll buy you that plain ol’ vanilla cone. Deal?”
    She couldn’t imagine why her choice of ice cream made any difference to him, but to keep the peace, she agreed. A few minutes later she found herself sitting across from him, skeptically contemplating the quivering mound of ice cream.
    Roan handed her a spoon. “Dig in.”
    She took a small sample. It was good—very good, in fact. She took a second, larger bite, and then a third. Roan joined her, mixing all three flavors on his spoon at the same time.
    “You want the cherry?” he asked.
    “Do you?” she countered.
    “I asked first.”
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake, we’re acting like a couple of teenagers at the malt shop. Please, eat the cherry. I won’t be able to sleep tonight knowing I deprived you of it.”
    He laughed, dangled the fruit enticingly in front of her, then snatched it away and popped it into his own mouth, pulling it off the stem with his teeth. Victoria watched, fascinated despite herself. He had a sexy mouth.
    “What’s wrong with acting like kids?” he asked when he’d thoroughly chewed and swallowed the morsel. “I get the feeling maybe you’ve forgotten what it’s like to just relax and enjoy something for its own sake, without analyzing it to death.”
    She narrowed her gaze. Was that really how she impressed him? An uptight scientist utterly incapable of having fun?
    “I told you before, I’m very focused when it comes to a chase trip,” she said, trying hard not to be offended. “If you got to know me under other circumstances, you would have a different impression of me.”
    “Indeed. I’d like to test that theory.”
    The suggestive look in his eyes left no doubt as to what “other circumstances” he had in mind. Her heartflipped over and she felt heat rushing to her face. What in the world was she to make of him? And what was she to do about her response to him? If he pressed his advantage even a little, she would melt into a whimpering pool of sexual acquiescence.
    She shook her head to dispel the unwelcome images taking shape in her head, then took another bite of ice cream. A click and a whirl caused her to look up again.
    “Will you stop that?” she said testily. She did not particularly want to be captured on film in her present state. She was sweaty and out of sorts, and she probably had ice cream on her nose or something just as bad.
    “I like taking your picture, especially when you don’t know I’m watching you. Your every thought is expressed right in your face, did you realize that?”
    “I certainly hope not!” she sputtered. If that was true, she was in deep trouble.

FIVE
    After the ice cream, Roan found more distractions in Haynie, Oklahoma, than Victoria had thought possible in such a dinky town. First they walked to the local high school and watched the baseball team practice. They ambled through a residential neighborhood where one of the fenced yards housed a Shetland pony, which they petted and fed handfuls of grass. Roan took more pictures. By then Victoria was getting used to it, so she didn’t object.
    Next they found a park, where Roan played Tarzan on the