A Suitable Wife: A Sweetwater Springs Novel Read Online Free Page B

After all this time.”
    His gaze caught hers and lingered.
    Silence filled the room, broken only by ice falling into the bin inside her freezer.
    “Is there something going on here, I should know about?” J.T.’s gaze swung back and forth between them.
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Rosie shot back at him and turned her attention to making her own sandwich. “Haven’t you ever heard of hospitality? Just because you’re rude enough to serve yourself before a guest doesn’t mean I have to follow suit, big brother. Today Sam is a guest, tomorrow a tenant . . . as well as a friend.”
    J.T. quirked a brow and kept eating.
    Jeezus Pete. What had driven her to tack on that last bit?
    * * *
    H ours later, Sam sat in the near-darkness, listening to crickets and cicadas filling the night air with a relentless buzz. In the distance a Bard owl made his usual hooting queries of “Who-cooks-for-you? Who-cooks-for-you-all?” with startling regularity.
    He swung his bare feet onto the chaise and eased back into the cushion. Dog-tired but too restless to sleep, he sought quiet solitude in which to unwind, but had forgotten how noisy rural areas could be. Oddly enough, though, the nonthreatening racket was leaching the day’s tension from his body.
    The porch floor creaked, alerting him he was no longer alone.
    “Listening to nature’s concert?” Rosie asked, easing into a twin chaise. The scent of a flowery soap, citrus and mint mixed with the earthy night as she took a deep breath and exhaled. His body stirred to life.
    “I’d forgotten we called it that.” His awareness of her was bordering on ridiculous when just the scent of her turned him on. Unable to resist any longer, he chanced a look in her direction. “We were way off the mark. It’s more like the tuning-up session.”
    She smiled at his response. With her fresh-scrubbed face upturned, head against the cushion and eyes closed, she appeared ethereal in the moonlight. The crew neck of her nightshirt showed between the overlapped lapels of a pink and white seersucker robe. Tied securely around a nipped-in waist, the robe’s hem stopped just above the knees of her shapely legs.
    He’d be willing to bet she didn’t cover that much when he wasn’t around. It was too hot for it. Even in shorts and a tee, he still felt the heat.
    Her hair, still damp from a recent shower, flowed over her shoulders, spilling across high, generous breasts. There was nothing overtly sexy about her position or her attire, but she stirred his desire all the same.
    My God. J.T. and Travis would kill him if they could see him giving their mature little sister the once-over, his body reacting.
    Not good.
    He shifted, raising the knee closest to Rosie. No need advertising his response to her. He averted his gaze, focusing on fireflies floating across the backyard.
    Appearing.
    Disappearing.
    Like his resolve.
    He’d forgotten about the seemingly magical insects putting on a show. Someday soon he’d catch a few in a jar and show Lorelei. She’d like that. Though he no longer believed in magic, whether it be bug related or the kind of old-fashioned and enduring love his grandparents had known, he did enjoy seeing the wonder in his daughter’s eyes.
    He had to do whatever was necessary to protect her, to keep her innocence alive as long as he could. Even if it meant relinquishing his freedom and being celibate for a while longer.
    Logic. That’s what he needed. Cool, clear logic. And work. Lord knew, he had plenty of it to keep him busy between the two proposals due soon and the screenplay Hollywood was waiting on, based on his best-seller from two years ago.
    “You as tired as I am?” Rosie’s soft voice held more drawl than usual.
    “Probably. But this is nice.”
    “It is. I love it out here this time of night. It’s warm, but not unbearably hot like during the day.” She stretched her arms high overhead before covering a yawn. “It’s getting late, though. We should go to