Read Online To Tempt a Wilde by Kimberly Kaye Terry - Free Book Online

than to ignore her when she was in full-on rant mode.
    â€œI raised you and I know thekind of man you are. You’re a strong man. You got hurt, and you’ve got your pride. I understand that. Okay, deal with it. Move on, or be this way for the rest of your life. It’s your decision. But taking out on all women what one did is not only stupid but it’s getting old, Nate. Real old. It’s time to move on. Put on your big-boy shorts and deal with it.”
    Nate felt a smile threaten to breakfree, despite his irritation at Lilly’s interference into his life and his overall sour mood.
    That was all she’d said, but it had been enough.
    So much so that Nate now found himself doing something he never thought he would, purposely seeking out Althea.
    Ignoring the tension between them, the reason for it, wasn’t going to make it go away. The sooner he faced her, this…whatever it was betweenthem…the sooner he could get her out of his mind, his thoughts, once and for all.
    â€œAre you busy?”
    Nathan Wilde’s deep voice broke into Althea’s thoughts.
    Spinning around she came face-to-face with the man who had been playing havoc with her mind during the day, her body at night as he crept his way into her dreams regularly since the day they met.
    â€œI…I didn’t know you were around,” she lied,swallowing down the melon-size ball of anxiety. Although she hadn’t seen him, as usual she’d been aware of him the minute he came within a fifty-foot radius of her.
    It was late afternoon, and after finishing work, she’d been at loose ends and had wandered over to watch the men break in a new steer. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
    Standing so close to Nathan Wilde, his scent, hisheady unique smell reached out and strangled her. Taking a stepback, she put as much distance between them as she could without it being too noticeable, her hip bumping against the wood railing.
    Her gaze went over him. Dressed in what she’d come to think of as typical cowboy wear, he wore a fleece-lined sheepskin jacket, worn jeans and equally worn cowboy boots. But on him, the traditional farewas anything but.
    The jeans hugged his thick, muscular legs, the jacket, unzipped, revealed a plaid shirt, the top buttons undone and a sprinkling of dark hair at the V peeking through.
    When he stopped in front of her he removed the ever-present Stetson he wore, revealing a face that again made her breath catch at the back of her throat.
    â€œMs. Dayton?” He broke into her thoughts, and Altheafought against the heat she felt raising to her cheeks. Standing there just staring at the man, he probably thought she was a few bricks shy of a load.
    â€œAlthea…please call me Althea, Mr. Wilde,” she murmured, extending an olive branch. When he didn’t return the favor, inviting her to call him by his first name, she pulled herself upright, straightening her shoulders.
    She reached a hand up totry and push a strand of hair back into her ponytail, the biting wind blowing the errant strands across her cheeks.
    She raised startled eyes in his direction when he reached a gloved hand out and pushed the strand back up into her hair. Moistening her bottom lip with her tongue, she thanked him, her voice hoarse.
    â€œI’m going out to the south pasture. Wondered if you’d be interested in goingalong?”
    Althea tried, but knew she failed, to prevent the surprise from showing. For him to actually invite her to be with him was no less than startling. She was still reeling from their last encounter.
    Which was why she’d gone out of her way to avoid any interaction or contact with him the few times she’d seen him over the past few days. And he seemed just as determined to avoid her.
    Overthe days, although the ranch was large, and there was work to be done literally from sunup to sundown, from baling hay, moving cattle, tending the various acres and a