Texas Bride

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 the stove. Then, while the water heated, she tried to figure out how to send her visitor on his way before he asked any awkward questions.

Dani smoothed her hand over her precious cargo, but inspiration still didn’t come. The Queen of Coping’s drawing a blank today.

The lid on the saucepan started to jitter. Grateful for the distraction, Dani shook oats into the boiling water and began stirring. With her other hand, she rubbed the ache that had returned to her lower back.

By the time the oatmeal was ready for the last of her brown sugar and raisins, the pain had faded again. But the baby still hadn’t kicked. Dani bit her lip as she added the flavorings to the hot cereal. If something was wrong... If anything happened to her baby...

Dani stirred harder, trying to dissolve the fear suddenly choking her.

Even before the soft sounds and oddly familiar smell opened his eyes, Josh remembered... everything. The flash flood. Being banged around like the tennis ball in a championship match. The angel who’d ordered him out of his sinking car. Being cold and wet, then warm and dry.

He’d been lucky, that was for damned sure. But... Now what?

One part of him wanted to forget the whole near-death experience and just slide back into his old routine.

But another part insisted he remember what he’d discovered: something was missing from his life. Okay, but—Josh grimaced at the rough ceiling overhead.

But nothing, he told himself. Only fools waste second chances. And any fool could tell you how to fill that emptiness inside.

“Hell,” he whispered to the lumber overhead. He still wanted a baby, but the biology hadn’t changed in the past six years: fatherhood still required a woman’s participation. And after Carrie, he could never trust a woman enough to share such an intimate bond.

Which meant no babies for Josh Walker.

Well, there were other meaningful things in life.

Find someone... help them. His sister-in-law’s advice floated through his brain again. Okay, when he got home, he’d see about signing up to tutor poor kids or something.

“Oh, good. You’re awake.”

His lips quirking at the unintentional irony, Josh glanced up. And rational thought disappeared, buried in an explosive, visceral male reaction he’d never before experienced.

Yesterday’s angel stood over him, her soft, full lips curved in a sweet smile that made him long to trace her mouth with his finger, then with his own lips, then plunder the moist, warm depths with his tongue....

Shocked by the intensity of his desire, Josh blinked, then blinked again as her thick braid slid forward over her shoulder to dangle an inch from his nose. The rope of hair glowed like polished maple; his hand itched to take its silky weight.

“How do you feel?” she asked, her green eyes clouded with concern.

Very alive. Very male. Very ready to prove it.

Trying to slow his pounding pulse, Josh took a deep breath and caught her scent: sweetness and soap and... woman. It made him ache, then turn on his side to hide his body’s instant response.

“Fine, Ms.—I’m sorry I don’t know your name,” he mumbled, fighting desperately to regain control. This didn’t happen to him.

But it was.

“Dani Caldwell,” the woman said, then bit her lip. “Please—forget you heard that.”

“Whatever you want, Dani,” he agreed. “You saved my life. Words seem pretty inadequate, but—thanks.” I wonder if her skin feels as soft as it looks. As he propped himself up on one elbow, Josh’s free hand moved toward his rescuer.