Read Online Texas Passion by Anita Philmar - Free Book Online Page A

a frown marred
his brow. “His dad has everything arranged for Thursday night. We’re setting up
tables for food and drinks in here. We’re even having a fiddle player so the
cowboys and ladies can dance. Ms. Lillian is bringing the girls around nine,
and they’re not scheduled to leave until dawn.”
    Four days.
She scrambled for a plan to keep Trent away from those women. Feeling defeated,
Catherine fought the tears burning behind her eyelids. “Do you think it’d help
to talk to Ms. Lillian?”
    “No.” He
grabbed his shirt off a hook and shoved his arm into the sleeves. The ripple
affect of his chest muscles sent a tingle of longing through her. Would Trent
look as good without a shirt on?
    “Ms. Lillian
lives more than fifty miles away. There’s no way you can ride across the state
without the whole county finding out about it.” Tom stomped past her and
grabbed the bay’s reins to lead the horse into a stall.
    The pungent
odor of manure assaulted her senses. She glanced down and whipped her skirt
from the mess on the dirt floor. What could she do? The man deserved to
celebrate his safe return from the cattle drive.
    “And what
exactly would you say to her anyways?” Tom stepped out of the stall and closed the
door. The sound rumbled through the large barn. “She won’t listen to you. The
McCalls are one of her biggest clients.”
    “Fine.”
Catherine, struggling for a viable alternative, grabbed his arm. “Then help me
arrange for him to meet me somewhere else that night.”
    “Cat, the man
hasn’t seen you in four years. He won’t want to give up a night of fun with a
whore to have tea with you.” He scanned her blue, silk dress as if she still
belonged in Boston. “Your mother would probably faint if she learned you wore
such a get-up to parade through the barn.”
    She tightened
her grip and refused to let Tom step away. “I’m not serving him tea.”
    His gaze met
hers. She raised an eyebrow and caught the moment he deduced what she planned
to offer Trent. “Your father will kill you if he ever finds out, and me along
with you if I agree to help.” The slight slump in his shoulders and his grim
smile signaled his defeat.
    Catherine
grinned and released his arm. Tom might be married, but he knew her dream and
he wouldn’t let her down. “The hunting cabin out in the back forty should be
the perfect place for us to meet.”
    Tom stared at
her a moment, his expression revealing his need to argue. Then, as if coming to
terms with her stubborn determination, he nodded, pulled a handkerchief from
his back pocket, and wiped his hands. “And how exactly do you plan to pull this
off?”
    ****
    Noise echoed
from the barn’s rafters. A fiddler played a lively tune while the men and women
squirmed on the dirt dance floor and twisted to a beat that had nothing to do
with music. The sweet scent of liquor filled the area. Trent licked his lips
and spotted a few men passed out in the corners.
    Not
particularly in the mood to party, Trent eyed the half-dozen women in the barn.
One sat, bouncing on a cowboy’s lap. Against the far wall, another woman took
Lester’s hurried thrusts. The ecstasy on her face ignited an ache in his groin.
He shifted his gaze to the whores on the dance floor and located a busty blonde
by the buffet table holding court with two half-drunk wranglers.
    He closed the
barn door and proceeded to the beer barrel. Maybe a drink would dim the
conversation he’d just had with his father. He picked up a glass. How could his
dad expect him to marry a girl he hadn’t seen in years?
    “Hey, Trent,
it looks like you got to the party a little late. Good thing, Ms. Lillian saved
a special girl just for you.” Tom White, the ranch’s foreman, stood alone
against a nearby stall.
    “What? Isn’t
this the selection for the evening?” Trent scanned the half-clad women. Had his
father set up a private session in the hope of softening his resistance toward
the idea of marriage?