Page 21 of A Match Made in Montana

Three dots appeared, disappeared again. Finally, his phone bleeped again.

Indeed.

He had to laugh. The prim word thrown in after their flirtatious bantering, was hilarious.

Still grinning, he texted.See you tomorrow.

Within seconds he had an answer.No wine, remember?

Chuckling, he sent her an emoji.

By the time he’d showered and climbed into bed, he was still smiling. Minutes later, he had to kick off the blankets. Damn, vivid scenes of naked bodies on midnight-black sheets were running through his mind already and he hadn’t even fallen asleep.

Chapter Seven

The first batchof scones burned. Dumbstruck, Annie stared at the nearly charcoal-colored round blobs on the tray she’d grabbed out of the oven. This had never happened to her before!

Muttering, she opened the trashcan and dropped the humiliation in it before Mitch or Vivian could witness the mess.

Of course, she hadn’t been able to fall asleep last night. What she’d tried instead was reading a science-fiction story. After several searches, she’d downloaded a book of Ursula K. Le Guin, a famous science-fiction author. The book she’d picked was apparently one of the author’s earlier works—the coming of age of a young wizard.

The story was brilliantly written and actually kept her interested but… One would think reading about mages and wizards summoning beasts would fill her mind with the wonder of other realities, but no, she’d ended up dreaming again about Craig O’Sullivan and his searing kisses. Every time she’d closed her eyes, there he was with his killer smile, sexy body, and dark blue eyes.

Dropping the burnt tray onto the kitchen counter, she again began to measure out the flour and baking powder. Whisking the eggs for the next batch, she tried to focus on the task at hand, but of course, after only a few seconds her thoughts began to stray again.

Those freaking lines from the romance novel she’d been reading, when Craig had found her in the hammock, seemed to be forever stuck in her head, intruding at the most inconvenient times.

The beading of nipples—there had to be another way to describe this particular reaction, surely?—heroesshuddering, andtalking hoarsely. She’d always smiled when reading this, it was just a fantasy, not something that happened in real life, surely?

And then Craig had kissed her, had touched her, and what had happened? Nipples beaded and not only did the hero shudder, the heroine was definitely also doing some shaking and trembling herself. Not to forget the talking hoarsely and oh, theyou’re killing mewhile he was looking at her as if he’d wanted to pick her up and take her to his cave or wherever heroes took the women they fell for.

Fell for?Where did that come from? Nobody was falling for anybody, damn it. The whisk slid out of her hand, toppled the bowl in which she was mixing the ingredients and the gooey, yellow batter ran over her legs, covering her feet.

“Se-rious-ly!” she cried out. “I can do this in my sleep, what’s wrong with me?”

Vivian appeared in the kitchen door. Annie felt like crying. Of course, her sister would pick this exact moment to step into the kitchen. It wasn’t any fun to make a mess without anyone to witness it.

“Annie?” Vivian rushed closer and took in the mess with one glance. “What happened?”

“I am burning the lot of them!” Annie growled looking down at her feet covered in the mixture for the scones. “Every single one.”

Vivian sniffed in the air. “It smells as if something has already been burnt—what else do you want to burn? And why are you up so early? It’s Saturday.”

“It’s those freaking romances I’ve been reading. They’re the reason for this mess and why I’ve burned scones. Burnt scones! Who does that? I’ve certainly never burned anything before in my life. But those books are ridiculous and make me do and dream…” Annie caught her breath. As usual, there was no stopping her thoughts running out of her mouth.

Vivian lifted an eyebrow. “Anything I should know? Is it really the romances or could it be a certain visiting Irishman?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Craig is leaving soon. I should probably just date more.”

“So, I take it last night’s date with Hunter didn’t go well?”

“It was very nice but…”

“No sparks?”

“Not a one.”

“But with Craig…”

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