One Hot Texan

He glanced at the bed beside her, then smiled. “You really don’t remember, do you?”

She ducked her head, feeling that long-lost color returning to her cheeks. Could she actually have become a fallen woman and remembered nothing on the way down?

“Cole?” she said, barely able to croak out the words. “Did you…last night…?”

He buttoned one cuff, then started on the other. “Did I what?”

“You know…” She gestured toward the mussed blankets.

“Ah. You want to know if we made love.” He shrugged. “Would it be a problem if we had?”

Oh, God. Virginia’s hand flew to her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes closed. Every warning her mother had ever issued her came back in a huge rush of condemnation, and she thought she was going to be sick all over again.

A little music, a little fun and a lousy beer or two. That’s all she’d wanted. Then, like some kind of naive fool, she’d allowed herself to fall into the hands of a man who practically made it a profession to rip the reputation out from under any girl he came in contact with. Embarrassment welled up inside her, then took a sharp turn toward anger.

“You—you had no right to do this!”

“No right to do what? As I recall, you were the one flashing cash around last night, looking for a good time.”

“A kiss! That’s all!”

“Now, didn’t I tell you that sometimes you get a whole lot more than you bargained for?” He lifted an eyebrow and dropped his voice. “I’m one of those guys you don’t mess with around closing time.”

“But I wasn’t of…of sound mind,” she argued. “I’d had far too much to drink—”

“Whose fault was that?”

“And then…and then you dragged me home—”

“Saving you from driving drunk, if you’ll remember.”

“And then you did…did this,” she went on, waving her hand wildly over the scrambled sheets and blankets. “And I didn’t even know it!” She buried her head in her hands. She’d done it now. What had probably been heaven last night had bought her a one-way ticket for the other direction.

When she glanced up, his teasing smile had faded. “Is that what you really think, Virginia? That you passed out and I took advantage of you?”

“You were standing in my bedroom half-naked! What else am I to think?”

“Use some common sense, will you? You’re wearing the same clothes you were wearing last night. I’ve undressed a lot of women in my life, but I can’t say I’ve ever put any of their clothes back on.”

She looked at herself and for the first time she realized that her blue jeans, horseshoe blouse and push-up bra were still intact. A little wrinkled here and there, but intact. Only her boots were missing.

“And where I come from,” he went on, “we always undress when we take showers.”

“You could have dressed in the bathroom!”

He gave her a cocky grin. “But that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.”

She glared at him, starting to get a little fed up with his attitude. He thought this was funny. She didn’t see anything funny about it.

“Don’t worry. Your virtue was safe last night. See, I’ve got this weird sexual preference. I prefer my women conscious.”

She had to admit he was probably telling her the truth. If he’d made love to her, chances are she’d have remembered. Thinking about the way he kissed, she was pretty sure he could drag a woman out of a coma if he set his mind to it.

She closed her eyes, and for a brief moment she was back at that bar last night, standing under that neon beer sign with the music pulsing through her, and Cole was kissing her. She had no idea a simple kiss could feel like that, except that there was nothing simple about it. Sensations had bombarded her from all directions, turning her insides to mush and making her feel all dizzy and disoriented. She remembered the way Cole had smelled, that warm, musky, man smell she’d never experienced before because she’d never gotten close enough to a member of the opposite sex. She remembered that boneless, melting feeling that had taken over her body as he crushed her breathlessly against him, and the way he tasted when he slipped his tongue into her mouth and she found out firsthand what all the fuss was about French-kissing. Just thinking about it made her cheeks burn, and she turned away from him, knowing she was blushing. Just once in her life she wished she could keep her circulatory system from betraying every embarrassing thought she had, particularly where Cole was concerned.

She’d asked for a kiss, and he’d delivered. Boy, had he delivered. Thankfully, it appeared that was all he’d delivered. She sighed with relief, feeling as if her one-way trip to hell had just been canceled. When she finally got around to doing that, she swore it would be with a man she loved and a man who loved her, too, even if it took forever to find him. A man she was married to, for heaven’s sake. She’d never make the same mistake her mother had. Never.

She inched her gaze around. “But if we didn’t… I mean, if all we did is sleep, then what are you doing here?”

Cole sat on the chair and pulled his boots on, then stood. He sauntered to the bed where Virginia sat. He towered over her, and she had to tilt her head to meet his gaze.

“I have a proposition for you.”

Virginia closed her eyes. “Oh, God.”

“Take it easy, sweetheart. Not that kind of proposition.” He sat on the bed next to her. She instinctively shrank away from him, and he slumped with frustration. “Are you always this uptight?”

“Yes! When I find a naked man in my bedroom who won’t go away, yes! I get a little uptight!”

“Is that what you really want? For me to go away?”

“Yes!”

“Sorry. That’s not an option.” He checked his watch. “Look, Virginia, I’m a little short on time here, so I’m going to get right to the point. Listen up and try to follow, because I don’t want to have to explain it twice. My grandmother died six months ago. She had a ranch about fifteen miles south of Coldwater that she willed to me, but she attached a few conditions. Part of the deal is that I have to be married and live on the ranch for six months before I get the deed, because she had this crazy idea that I needed to get married and settle down. Are you following me?”

Virginia’s brain still felt fuzzy. “Yeah. I think so.”

“Living on the ranch for six months is no problem. It’s the other thing. The marriage thing.”

She stared at him blankly.

“If I’m going to inherit that property, I need a wife, and I need one now.”

He took a deep breath, then rubbed his hand across his mouth as if he’d give anything to hold back the words that were getting ready to come out.

“What I’m trying to say is…will you marry me?”

4

THE MOMENT Cole said the word marry, whatever fuzziness Virginia still felt from her encounter with three bottles of beer last night was knocked right out of her. She sat up suddenly, staring at him with utter disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“It’ll be a business arrangement. That’s all. None of this till death do us part stuff. We stay on the ranch six months, I get the deed, then we get a divorce. That’s it.”

It was as if Cole were speaking a foreign language. The words themselves came through clearly, but she was having a really hard time comprehending them.

“And there’s something in this deal for you, too,” Cole went on. “Good thing, considering how broke you are.”

Virginia’s brain went on red alert. How did he know that? “Broke?” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I’m not broke.”

“Your bank balance is approximately sixty-seven dollars. You’ve got bills up to your eyeballs and a landlord breathing down your neck. And I don’t see you getting out anytime soon on that lousy salary they pay you at the bank.”

“How do you know—?”

He gave her a knowing look, and all at once she thought about the stuff on her kitchen table, the bills, her check stubs. And then there was her purse. He’d already helped himself to that at the bar. Apparently he didn’t think twice about rummaging through it again, and the thought of it infuriated her.

“You went through my things? While I was in here passed out, you looked through my whole house?”

“Not the whole house. I’m still not sure whether you wear briefs or bikinis.”

Virginia gasped even as her face reddened with embarrassment. “Get out!”

Cole didn’t budge.

“Get out of my house! Now!”

He regarded her for a long time, his dark eyes grim and calculating. Finally he held up his palms in resignation.

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