Texas Bride - Kate Thomas

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me!” She sounded scared.

      Huh? Angels weren’t afraid, were they?

      “C-can you move?” This one was. Palpably.

      Through the reverberating pain, Josh knew he ought to ease the angel’s anxiety. “Yes, ma’am....” He flapped a hand to demonstrate his mobility.

      “Come on, then! There’s no time to waste. Crawl out through the windshield.”

      No. His head would explode if he moved. Better just stay here.... “Don’t want to,” Josh mumbled.

      “I didn’t ask you if you want to, mister. I told you to move. Now do it!”

      Bossy damned angel, Josh thought grumpily, but began to inch his body up the steering wheel at her insistent nagging, gritting his teeth against the waves of pain that washed over him.

      A couple of eternities later, Josh heaved himself over the dashboard and partially through the windshield opening. It seemed to be lined with blue nylon. A small angelic hand grabbed a wad of shirt and added its upward pressure to his efforts.

      Eventually, he lay on rough, wet rock.

      His rescuer sat beside him, breathing raggedly.

      Breathing. Not an angel, then. Real. Me, too.... Yes, now it seemed obvious. He was still alive.

      For one thing, he hurt too much to be dead.

      Josh opened his eyes briefly and stared at a shapely nearby ankle. He wondered vaguely who it belonged to. But he couldn’t focus right now. On anything, except—“Thanks.” He let his eyelids fall shut again, hoping to ease the dizziness.

      “Don’t thank me yet.” The words were tinged with a soft Southern accent—and more concern.

      “Why not?” Josh countered, although he barely managed to form the words through the whirling in his head. “You got me out of the car. You saved my life.”

      “Not yet.”

      “Close enough.” Keeping his eyes shut, Josh pressed his cheek contentedly against the stone. A little rain didn’t bother him. He’d just take a short nap and...

      A faint whiff of flowers and woman alerted him to her closeness. Then his rescuer’s hands were gentle as they smoothed over his limbs and fingered a lump on his temple.

      Her heart, however, was as hard as surgical steel. Her next words proved it. “You’re soaked,” the woman barked. “And this is the desert—with night comin’ on fast. You ever heard of hypothermia, mister? Get up!”

      Damn the woman! Okay, he owed her his life, but—

      Josh pulled himself to his knees. And threw up. “Sorry,” he croaked after his stomach stopped cartwheeling.

      “Don’t worry about it,” she said, amusement now warming her tone. “I’ve sure done my share of that.”

      Josh didn’t get the joke. It didn’t matter; a second later, Ms. Stormtrooper dragged him to his feet Made him slosh a hundred miles or so through a snarling stream. Forced him to stagger uphill for a couple of centuries....

      He threw up again. Conquered a tall step. Crossed a creaking floor. Wondered why heaven smelled like corn bread, then remembered he was still in Texas.

      The gentle hands touched him again and his clothes went away....

      Then he was warm and dry and lying on something soft. In the distance he heard his rescuer tell him not to go to sleep. Every time he opened his eyes, though, the room started spinning. Darkness like thick, black cotton pressed in around him.

      But he was alive. He’d been given a second chance. Josh felt a smile curve his mouth. Okay, he’d admit it. His life had seemed empty lately. But that could change. Would change. Because now he had time to fill the emptiness.

      “Thanks,” he whispered. “Thanks again.”

      With a slow sigh, Josh let the blackness claim him....

      Chapter Two

      Dani’s elbow slipped off the armrest—her eyes flew open. Darn, she’d drifted off again. Sunlight streamed through the window over the sink. Oh, no... It had still been dark outside the last time she’d checked on her unexpected guest.

      With a soft grunt, Dani maneuvered herself out of the battered armchair, then quietly crossed the narrow cabin floor to look at the man in her bed.

      That ribbon of heat coiled through her again.

      It was ridiculous, but with the heavy beard shadowing his hard jaw, he was even more attractive this morning than he’d been last night. When I undressed him.

      The heat got hotter; the ribbon coiled tighter.

      She could still feel his sleek, hard muscles and the smooth, taut skin she’d encountered when she’d peeled off his wet clothes. Still see the broad expanse of his shoulders, his flat stomach, his narrow hips. Her fingertips still tingled from the crisp hair on his chest and legs and around—

      Dani stopped the tantalizing recital with a wry grimace. She’d undressed Jimmy plenty of times after he’d started coming in drunk every night, she reminded herself. It was no big deal.

      Well, actually, this man’s was....

      Oh, just make sure he’s not in a coma, Dani told herself, and carefully lifted one eyelid, then the other. With a sigh of relief, she noted that the pupils, unequal when she’d begun checking last night, were now the same size and reacted to the morning light.

      Gently, Dani let the second lid drop. It hardly seemed fair. This man with the magnificent body and boldly masculine features—and a car that, even wrecked, was worth more than her truck running—this man also had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. They were a rich, vibrant turquoise—the color of the Caribbean sea on travel posters.

      Jimmy’s eyes had been brown. Just brown. Like his hair. And he’d never had a chance to outgrow the gangly adolescent stage; his low-life friends had seen to that.

      Dani allowed herself one short sigh for what-might-have-been. Even though her romantic illusions had been crushed by reality long before Jimmy died, she would have made a satisfactory life out of raising her children and providing her husband with a warm, welcoming home. If she’d had the chance.

      But Jimmy had chosen booze and self-pity instead of her. And all her love, concern and caring hadn’t helped him grow up. Or kept him home.

      And it still hurt....

      Well, at least she knew better than to ever get involved again. Romance was just a liability now, a distraction she couldn’t afford.

      Still... Yielding to temptation, Dani smoothed back a strand of thick, honey-gold hair. The heartbreaker in her bed simply oozed raw male power and sensuality—even while he was asleep! He must have women throwing themselves at him from all directions.

      And how many have you caught, Mr. Joshua Michael Walker? Dani recalled the Virginia driver’s license she’d found in his wallet when she’d looked for an information card listing next of kin—just in case.

      Michael... She’d been considering that name for a boy. Emily, if it was a girl... Plenty of time to decide once it’s here, she told herself, absently massaging a dull ache low in her back as she turned and headed for the cabin’s tiny bathroom. She’d get cleaned up and start breakfast, she decided, before waking her guest.

      As usual, the lack of hot water speeded Dani through her morning routine, but as she changed into clean clothes and tugged the shirt over her rounded abdomen, she frowned. The baby was awfully quiet this morning.

      At least her backache was gone. Maybe the rest of her problems would disappear that easily, too.

      After quietly liberating a saucepan from the small stack of dishes on the drainboard, she measured water into it and set it on

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