Page 91 of Texas Glory
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Grimacing, he considered returning his mouth to hers and kissing her until she forgot the question and his strange behavior, but he had to know the truth. Dammit, he had to know. “Amelia told me that her toes curl when Houston kisses her. I was just trying to see if your toes curl when I kiss you.”
She turned a lovely shade of rose and rolled her shoulders toward her chin. “My whole body curls when you kiss me.”
“Your whole body?”
She nodded quickly. “Every inch.”
“Well, hell,” he said as he settled his mouth greedily over hers with plans to keep her body tightly curled for the remainder of the night.
“Susan Redd,” Dee said.
Dallas glanced up from his ledgers. Dee was sitting in his office, curled in her chair, a stack of letters on the table beside her. “Susan read what?” he asked.
She threw her head back and laughed. Lord, he loved her laugh, the ivory column of her throat, the glimmer of joy in her eyes.
“Susan Redd, R-E-D-D. That’s the name of the woman I’m thinking of hiring to manage the hotel. She runs a boardinghouse back East which I think gives her wonderful experience. Don’t you agree?”
He planted his elbow on the desk and ran his thumb and forefinger over his mustache. A small thrill always raced through him when she asked his opinion, when she shared a corner of her dreams with him. “What I think … is that we need to go to bed.”
Her eyes widened, not with fear but with wonder and anticipation. “Dallas, it’s not even dark yet.”
He scraped his chair across the floor, brought himself to his feet, and stalked toward her. “I made love to you this morning, and it wasn’t dark then either.”
“That was different. We hadn’t gotten out of bed yet.”
“A mistake I can remedy.” He took the letter from her fingers, tossed it onto the table, and scooped her into his arms.
Laughing, she nuzzled her nose against his neck as he carried her out of his office. The front door opened and Austin sauntered into the house.
“Where are you going?” Austin asked.
“To bed,” Dallas said as he started up the stairs.
“What about supper?”
“Go see the cook.”
“Go see the cook,” Austin said. “That’s what Dallas said. Then he and Dee start giggling like a couple of coyotes drunk on corn whiskey.”
Houston looked across the table at Amelia and smiled. “So you decided to come help yourself to our meal?”
Austin shrugged. “Better than waiting on those two. They might never come back downstairs.” He winked at Amelia. “Besides, Amelia’s meals taste better than the cook’s.”
Reaching around the pot of beans, Amelia patted his hand. “I appreciate the compliment. It sounds as though things are better between Dallas and Dee.”
“Strange is what they are,” Austin said as he cut into the beefsteak.
“In what way?” Houston asked.
Austin planted his elbow on the table and pointed his fork at Houston. “Dee reads to us every evening. Dallas is supposed to be working in his ledgers. Only he ends up watching her. Then she’ll look up and forget all about reading. They’ll just stare at each other for a few minutes, then Dallas will say it’s time for bed, and they’ll leave, and I’m left to wonder
what’s going on in the story. Dee started readingSilas Marnerto us over a week ago and she hasn’t finished the first chapter yet.”
“You might have to start reading to yourself,” Amelia suggested.
“It isn’t the same hearing the story in my voice.” Austin continued to cut his steak. “I just need to be patient. I reckon things will get back to normal once Dallas gets his son.”
