Page 25 of The Forbidden Texan
He placed his fingers lightly on her throat, feeling her racing pulse. “So why is your heartbeat racing?”
“You know what you do to me, what we do to each other. But that doesn’t make it a good idea to continue.”
“Oh, darlin’, what we do to each other is rare and marvelous and I don’t want to stop and you don’t want to stop, either.”
“I will, though. We just started restoring this old house. I’m not going to fall into your arms and into your bed the first night we’re together out here. That can’t happen,” she said, trying to stay firm and sound convincing.
“Maybe not, but a few kisses never hurt anyone. Besides, kissing you is infinitely better than just sitting around and sorting trash, which I know we have to do, but not every second.”
Smiling, she shook her head. “Sit back and let’s enjoy our drinks to celebrate that you discovered your real heritage. And it is something to celebrate, because it sounds to me as if it might be a whole lot better than being a Ralston with a dad you don’t care about and a family feud you have to deal with.”
She was right about that. He couldn’t argue with her logic. But right now he was feeling anything but logical. Summoning the self-control that had kept him alive in Afghanistan, he forced himself to cool down and stop thinking about Emily’s hot kisses and her soft, luscious body.
“It’s difficult to get back to old letters with you so close,” he said, “but I’ll do my best.”
“Good. We’re on a tight schedule. I need to go back to what I was doing.” Setting her glass on a table, she turned and he walked beside her to the door.
“Emily, I have something coming up on Saturday. It’s a charity dinner dance in Dallas and I’m an honoree, so I have to attend. Will you come as my guest?”
She inhaled. “I’d love to,” she answered smiling at him. “That’s nice, Jake. What’s the charity?”
“RAPT—Rescue A Pet Today. There are three of us being honored. After hurricanes that hit the Louisiana and Texas Gulf coasts, we flew our own planes into flooded areas to pick up dogs that had been rescued to take them where they had a better chance at adoption. This was before I went into the service. They waited until we were all available to have this event in our honor.”
“That’s wonderful. Doug loves dogs. I’ll tell him because that’s one of his charities.”
“I seriously doubt if there is anything I do that will impress your brother.”
“That dog rescue will. Right now, I better get back to work.” She stepped into the hallway, then turned back to look at him. “You know if we both used common sense, you wouldn’t ask me to a dinner dance and I wouldn’t go but...” She let the thought float there as she walked away.
Once again, Emily was right. If he’d used common sense, he wouldn’t have asked her.
But common sense had vanished with their first kiss.
Lucas
Lucas combed his unruly hair that went right back into curls. He had a board meeting at their Kincaid Energy office, the family oil business, this afternoon, but right now he had another mission. He rubbed his clean-shaven jaw and glanced at himself. He was in a Western-style navy business suit, white dress shirt, navy tie and black boots. He intended to go next door and see if he could get a Ralston to speak to him.
He left his penthouse condo and walked around the corner to go into another office building and across the lobby to a small shop where a slender redhead was leaning over a jewelry counter.
She was concentrating on a tray of rings on the counter in front of her and his gaze traveled slowly over her. She had rosy cheeks, long dark red-brown eyelashes and long silky-looking red hair. Her creamy skin was flawless and beautiful. The dress she wore was some soft tan fabric that clung to her figure and revealed tempting curves, a tiny waist and then the counter hid the rest of the view of her. He had seen her moving around before and knew she had gorgeous long legs. Today she wore a gold bracelet and three rings on her fingers, but no engagement ring or wedding ring.
“Did you design all those?” he asked and she looked up. Her eyes were green, thickly lashed and beautiful.
“Yes,” she answered, putting the tray below on a shelf. “I’m sorry, I was really concentrating. How may I help you?”
“I’ve seen your jewelry. You’re talented.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling with a flash of white teeth.
“I want to get my mother something pretty for her birthday. Maybe a necklace. You do design necklaces, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes. What does she like? Any color or type? Something formal or casual?”
“She likes old stuff and she has lots of jewelry. Just something pretty. You’re wearing a pretty one,” he said, glancing at a necklace around her slender neck. It was a gold medallion with a ring of diamonds near the center.
“I made this one and have another like it for sale.”
“My mother has two grandkids now. It’s probably so old-fashioned you won’t have any, but do you have lockets? She had one with pictures of the grandkids but the necklace broke. Lockets might be out of style—at least I’ve never seen any except on my mom and my grandmother.”
