Strong Enough (Meet Me in Montana #4) - Kelly Elliott Page 0,3

the girl I had met in the bar last night sprawled out on the bed, her blonde hair covering her face. The sheet was pulled down and barely covered her ass. Shit, I had fallen asleep in the blonde’s bed. That was something I never did. I really must have had a lot to drink last night.

With a sigh, I swung my body around and sat there as I tried to steady not only my heart, but my breathing as well.

Another fucking dream about Merit. I scrubbed my hands over my face and sighed. I’d been having them for the last five months. Ever since I saw her at the New Year’s Eve party at the Shaw’s house. God help me.

I shook my head and stood. One quick look around the hotel room showed my clothes had been stripped off my body with haste. The moment the blonde approached me at the hotel bar and started flirting, I knew I had drank too much. I knew where it would lead, yet I did it anyway. Because even though my body was in Tacoma, my thoughts were back in Hamilton, Montana, and I needed something to drown out those rampant images of my hometown and the female I couldn’t get off my mind. My thoughts weren’t even on Striker, the bull I had drawn and would be riding the next day, when they should have been on that very thing.

I hadn’t slept with a woman in weeks. Hell, it might have been months. I had needed the release, yet sitting here, looking at the blonde in the bed, I still felt like utter shit.

Quickly, I gathered up my clothes and headed into the bathroom. I shut the door and looked down in the trash at the used condom.

“What in the hell are you doing, Dirk?” I mumbled as I focused on my reflection in the mirror.

I splashed water on my face, pissed, and then got dressed. As I made my way back out into the room, I heard her moving around on the bed.

“You’re leaving?” she asked.

“Yes.”

With a humorless laugh, she said, “Well, I guess when you said you were only interested in a fuck, you weren’t lying.”

I placed my cowboy hat on my head and exhaled. “Listen, I’m sorry. I was pretty drunk last night and—”

“Don’t. You told me at the bar what you wanted. I wanted it too. Don’t be sorry. Besides, I think you were the best sex I’ve ever had.”

I smiled. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

An awkward silence filled the room before I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “So, yeah, I’m going to go ahead and take off.”

As I turned to leave, she called out, “Hey, cowboy.”

I turned to look back at her.

“Whoever she is, I hope things work out. You’re a nice guy, despite the fact that you’re bugging out in the middle of the night.”

With a frown, I let out a confused laugh. “There isn’t anyone, so I’m not sure—”

She brought her hand up and shook her head. “Trust me, there’s someone. You simply haven’t let your guard down enough to see it.”

She got out of bed and walked across the room butt-ass naked. She winked at me and then closed the bathroom door.

That was my cue to get the hell out of dodge. As I made my way to the elevator, I thought about what she had said. Why in the hell would she think there was someone in my life? What did I do to give that impression?

I pulled out my phone and checked my email. I needed a distraction because I didn’t want to even think about what I’d said to Merit in my dream.

I rubbed the back of my neck and let out a frustrated groan. Then one of the unread emails in my inbox caught my eye. It was from an old friend of mine from high school, Philip Wilcox. He’d left Montana and moved to New York City for a while after he graduated college. He’d been on the NYPD before eventually moving back to Montana. He worked for the state, or maybe the Feds, no one really knew. What I did know is if I ever needed anything, he was the guy to help.

I stared at the subject line of the email. A part of me felt guilty for having Phil dig up anything on Merit. But something about her behavior on New Year’s Eve didn’t seem right to me at all. We hadn’t seen or spoken