Kathleen OReilly - Just Let Go...

You trying to bribe me? Austen asked in an unsteady voice.

Gillian smiled, slow and a little unsteady herself. Is it working?

Gently he lowered her to the ground, and his mouth took hers. It was a long and hungry kiss that involved grinding tongues and grinding hips, and when his hands touched her breasts, they werent so gentle, werent so tender. This was pain, the most beautiful sort of pain. Desire. She caught her lip between her teeth, silencing her cries, silencing her moans.

Gillian had waited years for this, dreamed of it, imagined it a hundred different waysbeing with Austen. But this surpassed any image, any idea shed ever had. He was here. With her. He was finally hereand would he stay? Would she want him to?

Dear Reader,

Bon Jovi has a very cool song, Who Says You Cant Go Home? As I wrote this story, the melody and lyrics kept playing in my head. Austen Hart ran away to his namesake (sort of) town, Austin, Texas, trying to erase his heritage, but no matter how fast he ran, it still haunted him. The image of who we are as we grow up is a powerful thing, not easily forgotten, and it wasnt until Austen found love that he made peace with who he waspartly thanks to our heroine, local girl Gillian Wanamaker.

Writing about Texas is always fun for me. I get to use yall and fixing to and all those great phrases that I grew up with when I was just a young whippersnapper. Whenever I get on the phone and use the word yall people stop, and then I explain and it always cracks me up, because there are no good substitutes for yall.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the second book in the Harts of Texas miniseries. In September, yall come back for Brookes story. You hear?

Enjoy!

Kathleen OReilly

Kathleen OReilly

JUST LET GO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen OReilly wrote her first romance at the age of eleven, which to her undying embarrassment was read aloud to her class. After taking more than twenty years to recover from the profound distress, she is now proud to finally announce her careerromance author. Now she is an award-winning author of nearly twenty romances published in countries all over the world. Kathleen lives in New York with her husband and their two children, who outwit her daily.

Books by Kathleen OReilly

HARLEQUIN BLAZE

297BEYOND BREATHLESS

309BEYOND DARING

321BEYOND SEDUCTION

382SHAKEN AND STIRRED

388SEX, STRAIGHT UP

394NIGHTCAP

485HOT UNDER PRESSURE

515MIDNIGHT RESOLUTIONS

541LONG SUMMER NIGHTS

611JUST SURRENDER

To Texans everywhere, near and far, because
when youre a Texan, you can always come home.

Contents

Prologue

May 2001

SHED BOUGHT THE DRESS six months ago. The perfect halter-tied prom dress in candlelight blue and silver. It had taken her four shopping trips to Midland to find it, but when she saw it, she knew. When she walked, the flounce billowed like a cloud. The sleek bodice accentuated her chest before sliding smooth as silk over her hips. There it clung just enough to show the entire senior class just what hours of exercise could do. Lovingly her fingers had glided over the material, imagining his face when he saw her. She loved the hungry way he looked at her sometimes, as if she was more than a mere mortal, as if she was a queen.

By the ripe old age of seventeen, Gillian was accustomed to men taking a second glance, or whistling when she wore the extra short shorts, which she did on occasion because she liked the whistling, even though her Momma said it wasnt exactly proper behavior. In West Texas, the girls werent supposed to be fast, like in Houston or Dallas, but boredom and hot nights were a fertile combination, and sometimes nature ruled. Nonetheless, Gillian had a strict code of conduct, which shed never been tempted to break

until now.

The sun was long gone, the moon high in a starless night. During the summer, when the dust kicked up beyond the heavens, the whole Texas sky glowed pink. Like a dream. It was nights like this that Gillian felt she was living her dreams.

He emerged from the horizon, his shoulders slumped low, until he saw her. Gillian leaned back on her elbows, breasts to the sky, posing like the pictorials in Playboy , even though shed never admit to studying the sultry photos.

When he saw her, she noticed his effort to act cool, but he picked up the pace. Anxious, she could tell. As he strode toward her, her heart skipped a beat, because there was no boy that was better looking, no boy that kicked up her pulse, no boy that made her ache between her thighs like he didnot even Jeffrey Campbell Maxwell III, who was the star quarterback of the Lions. Everybody expected Gillian to go to the senior prom with Jeff Juniorexcept for Gillian. Gillians heart was set in a different direction. His.

He was long and rangy, not as bulked up as some of the jocks, but there was something different about him. His muscles were crafted from hard work instead of blocking linebackers. His hands were rough from metal rather than free weights.

What took you so long? she asked, wondering if he noticed that she wasnt wearing a bra under her shirt. In her mind, there might as well have been a big neon arrow pointing at her tight nipples.

When he looked at her, his eyes landed somewhere between her shoulders and her belly, and she noticed the quick, nervous bob in his throat.

Good.

Got held up at the garage, he said.

Gillian smiled and held out a hand in invitation. Im glad youre here.

He sat down on the ground next to her, long legs outstretched in front of him. His once-white T-shirt was stained with dirt and grease from the shop, but there were men who were sexy even in grime, and apparently, he was one. And at least for tonight, he was hers.

She shot him one hot look from beneath her lashes, and he wiped his palms on his jeans, once, twice, and then his mouth was on hers, devouring, and demanding a response. He never kissed her like the others, not like Jeff Junior, not like Roger, not like Sonny. Gillian had never truly appreciated the art of kissing until the first time shed touched his lips with her own.

It had been fire.

After she finally caught her breath, his hot mouth tracked her slim neck, following the line of her collarbone, down to where the pulse was drumming at her throat. She wound their hands together, her rose-tipped nails in sharp contrast to the dirt beneath his. But she didnt mind. She loved the way his big hands touched her, hesitantly, reverently like she were his altar. God would probably strike her dead for comparing the carnal artsor nearly carnal arts, she correctedto a place of holy worship, but Gillian knew her biology and if God didnt want teenagers running amok, he wouldnt have juiced them with roller-coaster hormones, like hers.

Not willing to wait any longer, she pulled him on top of her, feeling the rangy strength, the tensile bunching of muscles that seemed poised like a cougar ready to spring. Gillian knew she was playing fast and loose, but tonight the iron-clad Gillian Wanamaker will was noticeably absent. For once, she wanted to nibble at the apple, but not just with any man. Only him.

Ive made up my mind, she whispered in his ear, feathering kisses along the jaw.

About what? he whispered back, his hand sliding slyly down her blouse, touching her with that same nervous intensity. About this? he asked, his fingers tip-toeing across her nipples, touching them, then falling away. She drew in a breath at the exquisite sensations, the burst of heat, the feeling that she was about to explode.