Page 21 of Wrangling a Wild Texan

Sunny glanced over her shoulder at Reid who was crouched behind her in the dark. She hadn’t planned on volunteering to help him figure out what was going on with Sophie. Especially when she didn’t like the man and he had made it perfectly clear he didn’t like her. But the look of desperation in his eyes when talking about Sophie touched something in her heart. While he might not like her and she might not like him, it was obvious he cared for Sophie and was struggling to be a good guardian.

What kind of a person would she be if she ignored his plea for help?

Not to mention that it gave her something else to think about beside an empty gallery that needed to be filled with artwork.

“Lower your voice,” she said in a hushed whisper. “Do you want Sophie to hear us?” She turned back to the trailer and the window they’d been waiting to open for the last twenty minutes.

She felt Reid shift behind her. His scent wafted over her as it had been doing ever since they’d crouched down in their hiding spot. It had taken her a while to figure out all the components.Definitely, horse and leather, but there were also hints of Irish Spring soap, Downy fabric softener, and some kind of musky cologne. The night of the party, there had been no cologne. She was positive. And she would have thought that if he wore cologne, he would wear it to a party. So why not then and why tonight when all he was going to be doing was spying on his niece?

Before she could come up with an answer, his warm breath fell against her ear and her panties melted. She’d always had this weird thing with her ears. It was like they were directly connected to her lady parts. Of course, not one man she had dated had figured that out. So there was no way Reid knew he was making her wet just by speaking low and sexy.

“This is a bad plan. I’m not going to hide in the dark like some silly teenager spying on my niece.”

She tried to nonchalantly scoot away from him before her panties incinerated. “It’s not spying. It’s merely keeping a teen from doing something she really shouldn’t be doing.”

He shifted closer, his breath on her ear feeling at least ten degrees hotter and his manly scent twice as consuming. “Which I can do by simply confronting her about the texts I found on her phone.”

“And like I told you numerous times, that will only tick her off even more and make her want to get back at you by having sex with JC. We need to get more information before we decide what to do.”

“We?”

“Fine. You. And could you back off a little? You’re crowding me.”

“In case you didn’t notice there’s not a lot of room behind this rock. If I move farther away, Sophie will spot me when she climbs out the window. If she climbs out the window. I’m not so sure you know what you’re talking about.”

She turned to him, then wished she hadn’t. He was close. So close the brim of his cowboy hat brushed the top of her head. She tried to scoot back, but the rock was behind her. So all she could do was stare into his gold-drenched eyes and try to act like she didn’t feel like a stick of butter left out in the hot sun.

“Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve snuck out of more windows than I can count.”

Those eyes narrowed. “What? Did you try to sneak out of every window in the big ol’ mansion you grew up in?”

She wanted to laugh, but she wasn’t about to let Reid know how she grew up. “I’ve always loved a good challenge . . . or maybe more of a good thrill.”

There was a subtle shift that happened as soon as the words left her mouth. A shift she could sense more than see. A charged undercurrent filled the space between them. No man had ever made her tremble in her life and yet there was no other way to describe the quiver that ran through her as she looked into his eyes that had turned from a champagne gold to a molten gold.

“Are you cold?” he asked in a husky whisper.

Cold? She was about as far from cold as a person could get. She was burning up. Burning up with want for the man crouched in front of her. When his work-roughened hands closed around her bare arms and rubbed up and down, the trembling turned into more of a quaking.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t like her and she didn’t much like him. She wanted him and she was tired of acting like she didn’t. Angling her head beneath the brim of his hat, she moved toward those stern lips that had parted on a soft exhalation.

But before she could taste them, Reid’s head jerked up and his eyes widened. “Shit! Sophie.” He pushed her down behind the rock.

She’d had men on top of her before, but never with so much awareness. Her brain seemed to register it all at once. Thesculpted planes of his chest pressed against her cheek, the cold hardness of his belt buckle pressed against her stomach, the tensing of his thighs on either side of her hips as he held most of his weight off her.

She had wanted him to touch her and, now that he was, she should be burning up with desire. But strangely enough, her desire had faded to a low throb while another emotion consumed her.

Calm.

Sunny had never been calm in her life. But that was the only way to describe the feeling that settled over her as she listened to the strong thump of Reid’s heart beneath her ear. The closest she’d come to the feeling had been when she’d tried float therapy and spent time in an enclosed pod of warm water, just floating there and listening to her own heartbeat. But that had only calmed the antsy feelings inside her for a few minutes before she’d freaked out and buzzed for the attendant to let her out.

But there were no antsy feelings now. All she felt was a strong sense of security. Like nothing could ever harm her as long as she remained right where she was.

Which explained why she felt so disappointed when Reid pushed to his feet.

“Come on.” He helped her up. “She’s headed to Cooper Springs. As soon as I find out who this JC kid is, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”

She was so dazed by her strange reaction to being in Reid’s arms that it took a moment for his words to register. By the time they did, he was heading into the trees and she had to race to catch up with him.

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