The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,9

was bossy without meaning to be. He didn’t want to start this trip out like that. He genuinely did not. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to be efficient.”

“Efficiency is not a trait I associate with you.” Jolene wasn’t looking at him. She was opening the pantry door.

“Awkward,” Elle said. “Do I need to do a weapons check on y’all?”

Elle’s comment was a bit dramatic, even as a joke. Feeling all-around uncomfortable, Chance didn’t respond. He went over to the sliders that led to the pool and whistled for Dolly. After a second, she came tearing around the corner. “Hey, my pretty girl. Come on over here.” When the dog bounded up to him, he bent down and rubbed her head. “Missed you, girl.” He kissed her soft fur, laughing when she licked his cheek.

Standing up, he smacked his thigh. Come, Dolly. Let’s go for a ride.”

Dolly bounded past him into the house and over to Jolene. She sniffed at her bag of food and wagged her tail. Chance followed her, leisurely, studying Jolene as he approached her. For someone who had said she would be willing to cut a record with a potbelly pig, she was looking mighty unhappy. Apparently he was the pig. That didn’t sit right with him at all.

He was still filled up with feelings for her, sexual and otherwise, and she was looking at him like he was a hair in her dinner. This dynamic wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t write under these conditions. Plus he refused to believe that she despised him. It just wasn’t something he could swallow. Just because they hadn’t made it work, didn’t mean he wanted her to hate him. Quite the contrary.

So he lazily reached up and put his hands on her shoulders and starting massaging them. “Come on, Jolene, let’s go for a ride.”

She jumped at his touch. Then her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”

“Just trying to make the best of an awkward situation. We’ve got work to do. Let’s have some fun with it.”

The strap of her sundress slipped down from his movements and it exposed even more of her breast. Lord. That was a beautiful thing right there. When he looked back up, it was obvious she’d seen him staring at her bare flesh.

“I didn’t agree to your terms.” She raised her eyebrow in challenge. “Any more than you agreed to mine. So let’s get this show on the road, Rivers, without the Don Juan goes country routine.”

Right. His terms. Naked songwriting. Sex. He’d thrown it out there and she had shocked him by suggesting they play a couple to the media again. It bothered the hell out of him to think that the only thing chapping her ass about their break up was that the media had made it look like he had cheated on her. Clearly, she wanted to save some public face but he was not feeding the media monster, no matter how much cleavage she taunted and teased him with.

Then again… that was very tempting cleavage.

“Like I said. Let’s go for a ride.” Was he stubborn? Yes. Was he going to find a way to get his end of the bargain? Oh, hell, yeah. They were going to bang out this album, quite literally. He was going to tear her up in bed. He was going to destroy her with more orgasms than she’d ever thought possible. He was going to have a negative impact on her ability to walk.

Jolene leaned in so close that for a second he thought she was going to kiss him. His cock hardened in anticipation.

“I’m driving,” she murmured.

Then she left him standing there in kitchen.

When he followed, it occurred to him that he was the one chasing tail.

Damn woman.

Three

Jolene turned the air conditioning on high in her truck. Lord, she was hot and it wasn’t just the humidity. It was Chance and his smoldering looks and bad-ass swagger. One glance down at her chest and a few flirtatious words and she was panting like Dolly after a round with her tail—just as he had said. Fortunately, the ride wasn’t that long, because neither of them were speaking and she was all too aware of his body close to hers in the small confines of the cab.

Mostly he amused himself leaning back and talking to Dolly, who kept popping her head up between them. He had all sorts of petting and affection for the dog, and damn, if she wasn’t a little envious. Which was