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"you belong to me."
The way he said it made her knees weak. She hated her inability to think up a snappy reply. She
couldn't even pretend to be amused. Her mouth was hot and swollen, like her young body. She was
aching for something. She was hungry, empty. Her lips carried the taste of him, masculine and spicy
and minty, with an undertaste of whiskey. She could smell his aftershave on her face. She was
drowning in unfamiliar longings. She wanted to step close to him and feel his body respond to hers as
it had when they kissed. She wanted his mouth hard and hun-gry on her lips again. She wanted to feel
his skin against hers...
"On paper," he added when her lack of response to the statement made him uncomfortable. "After the
annulment becomes final, what you do is no concern of mine. Ever again."
He turned on his heel and walked back into the hall, leaving Christabel standing alone in the darkness
with her heart on the stone floor.
She'd only started back in when she saw Judd going out the door with Cash. Apparently there was
some trouble between Leo Hart and Janie Brewster as well, because they were going out the same side
door that Christabel and Judd had just come back in from. She heard later that Janie and Harley
Fowler had held the crowd spellbound with an impromptu waltz.
Grier and Judd came back in, and soon afterward, Judd took Tippy Moore home. She argued, from
the look of things, but he was determined. Grier wouldn't tell Christabel what was said between the
two men. But he was grinning when they left the hall at midnight.
CHAPTER TEN
Things were peaceful around the ranch after the Cattleman's Ball, because Judd and Christabel weren't
speaking.
The film crew broke late Tuesday so that everyone could spend Thanksgiving at home. Even the
famous model apparently had family somewhere back east, because she went, too. Christabel had
expected Tippy to stick close to Judd during the holiday.
Since she and Judd weren't speaking, Christabel assumed that she and Maude would have the house to
themselves. Judd did turn up on Thanksgiving morning, though, silent and preoccupied. Missing
Tippy, Christabel thought wickedly. She was polite to him, but that was all. Maude glared at both of
them while she and Crissy worked in the kitchen.
"Some Thanksgiving this is," she scoffed. "With the two of you like wrestlers squaring off and
looking for a better hold."
Judd glared at Christabel. She glared right back.
Maude threw up her hands and started working on her pump-kin pie.
They ate in a companionable silence. Judd had halfheartedly watched the Thanksgiving Day parade,
but without any real interest. He was still brooding about the murder case and the lack of suspects. He
was worried about Christabel as well, especially since Jack Clark had actually come onto the ranch to
confront her. He'd confronted Nick, and the man had told him about the cut fences as well. Too late, he
believed her about the poisoned bull.
He should have listened, and not dismissed her worries as childish fantasy. Now they had two
poisoned bulls to deal with, as well as a murdered neighbor.
He was worried because there weren't enough men around the place to keep a proper eye on things.
Their foreman, Nick, was good, but he'd been away from law enforcement for several years and his
senses weren't finely honed by day-to-day work situations, as Judd's were. Christabel could shoot a
gun, true, but what if Clark invaded the house in the middle of the night, when she and Maude were
asleep?
"Could you try a little harder to make my Thanksgiving miserable?" Maude asked both of them after
a particularly long silence. "I mean, if you're going to do a job, do it right."
They looked shamefaced.
"The turkey is just right," Christabel offered.
"And the dressing is out of this world," Judd agreed.
Maude looked vaguely placated as she dug into a second helping of mashed potatoes.
"Have you had any luck finding Hob Downey's killer?" Christabel asked abruptly.
Judd glanced at her and shook his head. "Jack Clark was my best suspect. His alibi is ironclad."
"That's what Cash said." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]