One Big Mistake - Jennifer Youngblood Page 0,14

pin me in a corner?”

“Not yet, darling,” she purred as she leaned into his personal space. “When I pin you in a corner, you’ll know it,” she uttered.

The air was electric. Everything in Ramsey wanted to pull her into his arms and capture his lips with hers. “As the man, I should be the one to ask you out.”

Amusement flickered over her features. “Spoken like a true Southerner. Alright, superman. You wanna be the man? Well, then act like it. Take control of the situation. Cash has his happily ever-after. Don’t you think we deserve to find ours too?”

He couldn’t take the temptation anymore. Ramsey cupped his hands around her cheeks as he pulled her close, his lips taking hers. A firestorm exploded as their mouths moved together in perfect synchronicity. Hartley melded into him, her fingers slipping around his neck. She pulled him closer with a ferocity that belied her size. Kissing her was fire and ice, all-consuming. This is what he’d been craving with an intensity that had tormented him while they’d been apart.

“What the heck! Take your hands off her!”

Ramsey pulled back, shocked to see a man standing over them.

“What’re you doing?” the guy yelled, his face turning blood red.

Recognition pinged through Ramsey’s brain as two words tumbled to his lips. “Blake Owens?” Blake Owens was the bad boy of country music, notorious for having a different woman on his arm at every event.

Blake let out a string of curse words. “Get up,” he shouted, balling his fists. “How dare you kiss my woman!”

Ramsey’s insides shriveled. “Your woman?” He looked at Hartley whose face had gone ashen. “Are you with him?”

“Dang straight, she is!”

“I’m not your woman,” Hartley retorted to Blake. “I only agreed to come to the celebration with you as your date.”

Ramsey felt the air leave his lungs. He turned to Hartley. “You came here with another man, and then you came onto me?” Disgust settled like glue in his stomach. He felt like a moron. Hartley had been playing him, as usual. And he fell right into her trap.

“It’s not what you think,” she stammered, reaching for Ramsey’s arm. “My publicist thought it would be good for my image to show up here tonight with Blake. There’s nothing between us.”

Blake laughed. “Really? That’s not what you said last night when the two of us were together.”

Ramsey saw the humiliation etched over Hartley’s beautiful face. It made him sick to his stomach. How could he have ever thought he could trust Hartley Raines?

“I went to dinner with Blake last night. A publicity thing,” Hartley said, her eyes pleading.

“Easy to say now when you’re with your little boyfriend,” Blake sneered. “Get up!” he yelled at Ramsey.

A hard amusement swirled inside Ramsey as he raised an eyebrow. “You sure you wanna do this?”

“Let’s go,” Blake growled.

Blake Owens was known for fighting. He and his band had a reputation for destroying hotel rooms. Last month, he’d spent a night in jail for punching a reporter. How could Hartley’s publicist have thought it was a good idea for her to be associated with a slime ball like him? Ramsey rose to his feet, as did Hartley.

“Don’t be stupid,” Hartley fumed to Blake. “Trust me. You don’t wanna tangle with Ramsey.” She wedged in between the two men. Her voice was low and urgent as she got up in Blake’s face. “Don’t cause a scene,” she hissed. “It won’t do either of us any good.”

Rage masked Blake’s features as he shoved Hartley aside. “Get out of my way, Hartley, or you’ll get it first.”

A white-hot anger pulsed through Ramsey’s veins. “What did you say?” One thing Ramsey couldn’t tolerate was violence towards women and children. He’d intended to hold back, not wanting to reflect poorly on Cash and Ava by causing a scene. But Blake Owens had it coming to him. “Maybe we should step outside.”

Blake pushed out a hard chortle. “Here will do just fine.”

He went to swing at Ramsey, but Hartley stepped in front of him. Blake socked her square in the eye, knocking her to the floor.

Ramsey heard gasps as heads turned to them in rapt attention. Immediately, Ramsey bent down to help her up. “Are you okay?” As fighting mad as he was at Blake, he needed to attend to Hartley first.

“I’m okay,” she breathed, holding her eye as he helped her to her feet. In his peripheral vision, Ramsey saw a flash and realized a man was snapping pictures with his phone. Hartley shielded her