The Texan's Diamond Bride: The Texan's Diamond Bride / The Texas Tycoon's Christmas Baby

“I’m not stupid. I didn’t go in without telling someone what I was doing. If my brother doesn’t hear from me by 6:00 a.m., he’ll be here soon after that to get me out.” She hesitated with the phone, then looked out into the storm. “Do you think—”

“No way,” he said. “Not in this.”

She tried anyway. “I have to,” she told her cowboy. “My brother will go nuts before this storm is over.”

Of course, he was right.

No signal.

She put the phone away and hoped she could reach her brother by morning, because he would be frantic otherwise and if the flooding kept him from getting here to her…Well, it would not be pretty.

Her brother thought he could move mountains. And he would to get to her if he thought she was in trouble, and then their whole plan to find the diamond would come out. If the Foleys knew what Paige was up to, she’d have to fight to set foot on this land again.

Yeah, she had to reach Blake by first light, if not sooner.

Paige made herself keep going with her unpacking, until she came to a thick, warm sweater and a fitted pair of sweatpants. She unbuttoned her coveralls and slid out of them, pulling on a second layer of clothes over her jeans and tank top, in favor of the coveralls, which were grimy and dusty from the old mine.

She and Travis shared some granola and water, watched the storm for a bit and then he suggested they might as well bed down for the night. It was early, but the sooner they slept, the sooner they’d wake up and could try to get out of here.

Paige looked over their options. “That spot’s the most sheltered, the farthest out of the rain.”

He nodded.

She took her coveralls and spread them out on the cold ground right against the back wall of the overhang and motioned for him to make himself comfortable.

As she suspected, he planned to sit up and watch the storm, settling himself with his back to one wall, facing out toward the gloomy night.

“You’re sure this area isn’t going to flood that quickly?” she asked.

“Reasonably sure, but I’m not taking any chances,” he said. “I’m going to watch and make sure.”

She sat down beside him, thinking to watch the storm herself.

“There’s no reason for both of us to stay up all night,” he said. “Or for both of us to be uncomfortable. Come on, Red. I won’t bite.”

He held out an arm to her and she settled against his side, finding a welcome heat and a body that was hard-muscled, but not as hard as the ground.

He put the survival blanket over her and still had enough left over to cover about half of him, and soon she was toasty warm, her head on his chest, her whole side plastered to his.

She felt his hand at the side of her face, covering her eyes and blocking the lightning, at least a bit.

“Go to sleep,” he said. “I won’t let anything hurt you.”

She tried. Really tried.

But the wind slowly and steadily picked up, the fierceness of the storm growing with every moment. Every bolt of lightning had her struggling more and more to cover her fears, to stay still, to keep breathing easily and deeply, when all she wanted to do was get as close to him as possible and beg him to make it all stop.

It was a foolish thing, being afraid of something as simple as a storm, and yet, there it was. Caught in this eerily dark world, she was afraid.

And there was so little in life she truly feared.

She worked her face deeper into the curve between his shoulder and his neck and closed her eyes. “It is the hurricane, isn’t it? The way the winds keep building. It’s…That’s what hurricane winds do.”

“Yeah, it looks like we got the hurricane,” he told her, arms holding her tight.

“So we just sit here and see how much worse it gets?” That seemed completely unreasonable.

“Not much else to do, Red.”

“I mean, we don’t know how much worse it’s going to get or when its going to stop—”

“No, we don’t.”

“Tornadoes spring up from these storms when they’re over land—”

“Sometimes,” he admitted.

“Tornadoes, lightning, flooding. Perfect night—”

She broke off with a gasp as a huge clap of thunder drowned out her words.

He scooped her up and deposited her sideways on his lap, even closer than she had been to him, draped the blanket around her and grinned as he looked down into her eyes.

“You know, I could make you forget,” he said.

“What?”

“The storm. That you’re afraid—”

She sputtered, surprised and furious. “I am not afraid!”

“Red, you flinch every time a bolt of lightning strikes. Not a lot, and I know you’re fighting it, but you do. And that’s fine. I mean, it’s no big deal. We’re all afraid of something, and I’m just saying, I’m here. I’m happy to be of help, to get you through the night. Whatever it takes.”

Paige shook her head, having a hard time thinking, between being on guard about when and where the next bit of lightning might strike and trying to hide her fears and then having this man…this altogether tempting specimen of man make her an offer of…what, exactly?

“Are you saying, you’ll…that you’ll—”

“Whatever you want,” he said smoothly, a hint of amusement and, she thought, sheer wickedness in his tone.

“You think I would be so caught up in you and whatever you were doing to me, that I’d forget all about the storm and being afraid? You think you’re that good?”

“I’m saying I’m willing to try, that I’d certainly give it my best shot. I mean…I managed to distract you for the last few moments, didn’t I?”

“I—I—I can’t believe you—”

“You haven’t flinched over the last two lightning strikes, in case you didn’t notice. So from where I sit, it seems to be working.”

From where he sat!