Read Online The Texan's Diamond Bride by TERESA HILL - Free Book Online
Authors: TERESA HILL
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I…It doesn’t matter now,” she said.
He was a Foley. His father had been involved with her mother years ago, fathered a child with her and then walked away. What kind of man was he? What kind of man was the son?
She’d gotten her heart and her ego bruised more than once, and then she’d developed a healthy distrust for men in general, which she’d totally ignored with this man.
What a time to let down that sense of caution.
From outside, the wind came up in a gust that sounded more like a roar. The cabin walls literally shook from the force of it, and the rain kept pounding down.
They ignored each other as best they could for most of the day. He built the fire up until it was roaring. She emptied a few cans of beef stew into a heavy metal pot that hung from a hook over the fire and cooked until it smelled heavenly.
Something about cooking over an open fire and being hungry made it even taste that good.
He was coldly polite, thanking her for the meal, making sure she knew how to hang the pot over the fire and get it off without burning herself, and then keeping to himself on the side of the room farthest from the fire.
Every now and then he went outside, pacing along the side of the cabin under the tiny overhang and staring at the storm.
By nightfall, she’d cleaned the whole place, for lack of anything better to do, fixed another meal of canned ravioli and finished one of only three books she’d found in nooks and crannies in the cabin. A paperback mystery about a wealthy woman whose husband stole every dime she had and ran off, very nearly never to be found again.
It was perfect for her mood right now, when she was thinking you really could never trust a man.
And then she decided she might as well get ready for bed, something she’d been dreading, because there was only one.
She hesitated, not sure what he intended.
From behind her, she heard him say, “Go ahead. Take the bed. I’ll sleep by the fire.”
“On the floor?”
“We slept on the ground last night, Red, and did just fine.”
Yes, they had. Still, she didn’t want him to be nice or gentlemanly or anything like that. “You’ll get cold,” she said.
“Won’t be the first time, won’t be the last. And tonight we’ve got a fire.”
She nodded, not turning around, not wanting to look at him or to think of what she’d expected this night to be. It was ridiculous, anyway. To think she’d waltz onto the ranch and find this man who did nothing but work the land, an ordinary, hardworking man who wouldn’t know about her family’s money and power and even if he did, wouldn’t care.
Just a man who would get all tangled up in her, practically on sight.
And it was absolutely the last thing she needed to be thinking about right now, with her family absolutely going crazy and their jewelry store empire in some serious financial difficulties, her trapped here with the enemy, caught red-handed trying to steal a priceless diamond right out from under his nose.
Oh, her family would claim ownership if she found it, but it would be a legal fight that could last years, and she’d be painted as a thief by his family. But in the end, she thought her family would prevail, and his would say the diamond was one more thing stolen from the Foleys by the McCords.
All that between them, plus her mother’s affair with his father, the child it had produced…
Don’t be stupid, Paige. Forget about the man. You have to.
Because he didn’t exist anywhere except inside her fantasies anyway.
She climbed into the bed. It was cold but quite comfortable. Either that or she was exhausted, if not from the previous day and night, from the emotions of this whole ordeal.
He knew who she was, and he knew what she’d come here for. Which meant she’d failed in a mission to help her family through a difficult time financially.
It was one problem her family had right now that she’d thought she could actually solve. Not the thing with her mother or Rex
He was a Foley. His father had been involved with her mother years ago, fathered a child with her and then walked away. What kind of man was he? What kind of man was the son?
She’d gotten her heart and her ego bruised more than once, and then she’d developed a healthy distrust for men in general, which she’d totally ignored with this man.
What a time to let down that sense of caution.
From outside, the wind came up in a gust that sounded more like a roar. The cabin walls literally shook from the force of it, and the rain kept pounding down.
They ignored each other as best they could for most of the day. He built the fire up until it was roaring. She emptied a few cans of beef stew into a heavy metal pot that hung from a hook over the fire and cooked until it smelled heavenly.
Something about cooking over an open fire and being hungry made it even taste that good.
He was coldly polite, thanking her for the meal, making sure she knew how to hang the pot over the fire and get it off without burning herself, and then keeping to himself on the side of the room farthest from the fire.
Every now and then he went outside, pacing along the side of the cabin under the tiny overhang and staring at the storm.
By nightfall, she’d cleaned the whole place, for lack of anything better to do, fixed another meal of canned ravioli and finished one of only three books she’d found in nooks and crannies in the cabin. A paperback mystery about a wealthy woman whose husband stole every dime she had and ran off, very nearly never to be found again.
It was perfect for her mood right now, when she was thinking you really could never trust a man.
And then she decided she might as well get ready for bed, something she’d been dreading, because there was only one.
She hesitated, not sure what he intended.
From behind her, she heard him say, “Go ahead. Take the bed. I’ll sleep by the fire.”
“On the floor?”
“We slept on the ground last night, Red, and did just fine.”
Yes, they had. Still, she didn’t want him to be nice or gentlemanly or anything like that. “You’ll get cold,” she said.
“Won’t be the first time, won’t be the last. And tonight we’ve got a fire.”
She nodded, not turning around, not wanting to look at him or to think of what she’d expected this night to be. It was ridiculous, anyway. To think she’d waltz onto the ranch and find this man who did nothing but work the land, an ordinary, hardworking man who wouldn’t know about her family’s money and power and even if he did, wouldn’t care.
Just a man who would get all tangled up in her, practically on sight.
And it was absolutely the last thing she needed to be thinking about right now, with her family absolutely going crazy and their jewelry store empire in some serious financial difficulties, her trapped here with the enemy, caught red-handed trying to steal a priceless diamond right out from under his nose.
Oh, her family would claim ownership if she found it, but it would be a legal fight that could last years, and she’d be painted as a thief by his family. But in the end, she thought her family would prevail, and his would say the diamond was one more thing stolen from the Foleys by the McCords.
All that between them, plus her mother’s affair with his father, the child it had produced…
Don’t be stupid, Paige. Forget about the man. You have to.
Because he didn’t exist anywhere except inside her fantasies anyway.
She climbed into the bed. It was cold but quite comfortable. Either that or she was exhausted, if not from the previous day and night, from the emotions of this whole ordeal.
He knew who she was, and he knew what she’d come here for. Which meant she’d failed in a mission to help her family through a difficult time financially.
It was one problem her family had right now that she’d thought she could actually solve. Not the thing with her mother or Rex
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