Read Online Plain Trouble by Kathleen Y'Barbo - Free Book Online Page A

can’t…” Giggles threatened but she managed to tame them by looking away. “Let go of the bonnet,” she said, “and then you can pull your hand out.”
    Joe shook his head.
    “Stubborn man.”
    His glare wasn’t as effective given his position, but he seemed not to notice.
    “All right then,” she said. “I’ll have to come and fetch the bonnet.”
    Bess made her way with ease over the rocky terrain, her skill honed after a lifetime of skittering up and down the hills on the ranch. In no time, she reached the ranger and thrust her hand toward the bonnet.
    “Here,” she said as she snagged the yellow fabric. “I’ve got it. Now let go and-”
    That’s when the rocks slid from beneath her, carrying Bess and the bonnet down the canyon.

    * * *

    The slide wounded Bess’s pride more than anything else. This she realized when she came to a stop against a boulder firmly embedded on the side of the hill.
    She set her bonnet atop her head but hadn’t the time to tie the ribbons before Joe Mueller came bounding down the rocky incline. He caught her in his arms and held her to his chest, nearly knocking the breath out of her.
    “I thought I’d lost you,” he said. “You were there and then you were just gone.”
    Bess could hear his heart racing, even as hers began to match it. “I was careless,” she said as she braved a look up into his eyes. “Took a step without looking.”
    “Yes.” His face was close. Too close. “You did.”
    “I forgot,” she said, her voice reduced to a whisper, “to look where I was going.”
    He blinked and impossibly long lashes swept high, tanned cheekbones. “Yes,” he said softly, “sometimes that’s how it happens.”
    “Yes, sometimes…” Words blew away with any remaining lucid thoughts as she leaned against a broad and familiar shoulder.
    “Sometimes,” he echoed, “its better to go ahead and let go.”
    Her last sane act was to look into his eyes. The hand that held tight to his arms should have pushed him away. Instead, she held on tight and closed her eyes.
    Besides, she was a twenty-seven-year-old spinster, and nothing ever happened in Bitter Springs, Texas.

Chapter 9

    It was only a kiss. That’s what Joe told himself when he repeated it.  
    Twice.
    From her lack of understanding of the technique, he easily deduced it was her first. And second. And third.
    “Bess,” he said against silky hair that indeed smelled as flowery as he remembered. “You’ve dropped the bonnet again.”
    Dark eyes opened and then widened even as she tried to move backward. Pinned as she was between a rock and a ranger, there was no place to go.
    Acting the gentleman was never so difficult, and yet Joe knew he must. He rose and dusted off his trousers then stepped past her to retrieve the troublesome bonnet. By the time he returned, he found Bess sitting on the rock fretting over a smudge of dirt on her dress.
    Gently he set the bonnet atop her head then, with trembling fingers, tied the ribbons into some version of a bow. Doubling the strings over, the bow became a knot.
    “There,” he said. “Now it won’t come off.”
    Bess peered up at him, seemingly unable to move. He was about to ask if she’d somehow been injured in the fall or, heaven forbid, during the kiss, when she blinked hard and cleared her throat.
    “Joe,” she said softly. “Why did you kiss me?”
    Why indeed? Any number of reasons occurred, but Joe couldn’t find his voice. Finally, he managed a smile. “Because,” he said as he offered her his hand. “I fell.”
    Dark brows gathered. “What does that mean?”
    “Bess,” he said as easily as he could, “don’t ask me to explain.”
    Her stare confounded him with its innocence. How long had it been since he’d met a woman like Bess Jones, let alone kissed one?
    “Why not?” she asked as she let him help her to her feet.
    Joe looked beyond Bess to the canyon and the Guadalupe below. From where they stood, a good part of Texas was