Taking Her Chance Read Free

her mamma, and worked as a waitress at a diner until I could afford to take care of her.
    “Anyway, fast forward to the night we met. From my point of view, it could only be classified as magical. It was everything mamma said love could be, and it scared the ever-loving hell out of me. Pictures of us living in domestic bliss flashed through my head, but not one of those pictures included me putting on a suit and going to work at an advertising agency. The fear of making the same mistake my mamma did drove me out of your bed and kept me from returning your phone calls.”
    “Oh, baby, I wasn’t looking for a wife back then. Nor have I ever wanted to keep a woman barefoot and pregnant in my kitchen. Your drive to succeed was, and still is, one of the most attractive things about you.” His heart ached for everything they’d missed out on because she hadn’t stuck around to talk about her fears.
    “I’m so sorry I didn’t give you a chance. I just knew if you opened your mouth and tried to sweet-talk me into giving up everything I wouldn’t have been able to say no. I needed to experience success in my own right. I’ve paid the price for that choice every night and day since then.” She picked up their joined hands and rubbed her cheek against his knuckles.
    He groaned, wanting desperately to be in her room, alone and naked.
    “No man has measured up to my memory of you. It didn’t take me long to quit trying to date. Work became my sole focus and it paid off in that I have my own agency. But there’s still a big, huge gaping hole in my life.”
    Chance felt his mouth go dry as the Chihuahuan Desert. He’d heard enough; it was time to pick up where they’d left off all those years ago. “Come on, baby. I think I’ve got just the thing to start filling that hole.” He stood up, pulled her chair out for her, and slung a possessive arm around her shoulders. She belonged to him and he wanted every man on the Golden Mustang Dude Ranch to know it. Hell, he wanted every man within a one-hundred-mile radius to know it.

Chapter Three
     
    Beth opened the door to her cabin and gasped. On every available surface candles were strewn, casting a soft glow on the big open room.
    He leaned over and whispered into her ear. “Do you like it, baby?”
    “Oh, Chance, it’s amazing. When did you have this done?”
    Taking off his Stetson, he slipped past her, set it on a chair, and pulled the champagne out of the ice bucket. “I had a signal set up with the waiter. When I ordered the wine he knew to get the wheels in motion and set this up.” He popped the cork and poured two glasses of effervescent wine. He glanced at her, unsure for a moment. “I wasn’t sure who I was going to meet here tonight and well, if we hadn’t clicked I wouldn’t have wanted to put any pressure on you or whoever else it might have been. But if there was a spark, I wanted to be prepared. I just could never have guessed that I would have walked in to find you.”
    “I still can’t believe it. I mean I submitted my application just a few days ago.” She shook her head and then sipped the straw-colored liquid.
    “A few days! I’ve been waiting for six months.” Chance sounded almost disgruntled.
    Laughter bubbled up from deep within. “Let me guess, you basically described me on your application? Because I absolutely requested an exact replica of you, at least what I could remember.”
    He laughed. “Yeah, I did the same thing. I wonder how Selena Markam knew to wait? How she knew you would eventually seek out her services?”
    “I don’t know, but honestly at this moment I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
    “I agree.” He set his glass down and stalked toward her like a mountain lion hunting a deer. Cornering her against the bed, he pulled her flute from her suddenly nerveless fingers. “I want to taste your sweet lips again, Beth.”
    A dull throbbing pulsed between her legs that matched the racing rhythm of her heart.