The Cowboy's Pregnant Bride. Crystal Green

      And when she was just inches from him, he thought—no, he wished—that she would stand on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. The very idea seemed to shine in her eyes.

      Or maybe that’s just what he wanted to see there.

      His pulse seemed to fill the slight space between them.

      Bang, bang. Each sound echoed against her, then right back at him, hitting him hard in the chest, the belly.

      But then she blinked, as if she were coming out of a spell, and he did, too, barring his chest with his arms out of a lack of any better response.

      She laughed, cutting the tension, and started to walk out of the room. But then she turned back, her voice a bare, nearly shaking whisper, as if she’d suddenly realized that she shouldn’t have told him a thing about herself.

      “Jared, Brett doesn’t know where I am.”

      That protective streak reared up again. Good God. She’d run away from Brett?

      She was watching him closely. “You’re going to keep my secret, just like I’ll keep the one about Tony’s journal, right? Because I’m going to have to lie to the rest of this town. I don’t want Brett to ever find me.”

      That vulnerability he’d only now discovered in her clutched at his rarely used heart, and he couldn’t help giving himself over to her, just this once.

      His voice was as quiet as hers when he said, “I won’t say a word.”