Sweet and Wild - Carmen Jenner Page 0,18
go there again? She was drunk and wandering around near the B and B. I thought it was safer to bring her back here than return her to the ranch house and wake your mama.”
West sighs into the receiver. “That’s a good point, I guess.”
“She drank a lot.”
“Wine?”
“Worse, whiskey.”
“Shit. Lemon never could handle her whiskey.”
“I know it.”
“Okay, Wade and I are in town, and God only knows where Wyatt is. He disappeared as soon as we got home, but you call if you need us.”
“Will do.”
“I know I don’t need to tell you that if you touch her—”
“Don’t you have any faith in me as a man who knows right from wrong and who happens to be a pretty decent human being?”
“Well, let’s see. You made out with my little sister when she was sixteen, took her virginity at seventeen, and let’s not forget that you—”
“Yeah, okay. I haven’t always been the best judge of character when it came to her.”
“Colt, when it comes to Lemon, you could never tell up from down.”
“It’s different now.”
“Is it? Let me ask you something. In the time she’s been back, have you thought about picking up right where you left off?”
I let out a disgruntled sigh.
“I rest my case.”
“She’s safe with me.”
“Lemon has never been safe with you. Do you know why?”
I tense and grit out through my teeth, “I know you’re about to tell me.”
“You two are all kinds of wrong for each other, and I think you’ve been through enough.”
“Why don’t you let me worry about what I’ve been through and what I’m capable of handling.”
“Well, when she skips town again in the middle of the night, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”
“I’ll bring her back in the mornin’.”
“See that you do it before Mama wakes and finds her gone. She don’t need any more heartache right now.”
“Uh-huh.” I end the call and bounce the phone against my palm as I exit the bathroom and stare at the woman in my bed. Lemon hasn’t moved. Her hair falls into her face and I cross the room and brush it back like I’ve done a million times before. A quiet sigh leaves her parted lips and I have to resist the urge to sweep my thumb across them and see if they’re as soft as I remember.
I may have promised her brother I could keep my hands to myself, but seeing her laid out before me, I wanna touch her everywhere. I just bet her fiancé would love that now, wouldn’t he?
Moving away from the bed, I sit in the armchair, watching her sleep. I can’t sleep here and still be awake enough to work in the pastures tomorrow. And I can’t go to the bed-and-breakfast because it’s locked up tight after office hours. So I have no choice but to climb in beside her, but I don’t like my chances of getting any shut-eye tonight. Not when the only woman I’ve ever loved is sleeping beside me, the way I’ve always wanted.
Turning out the light, I take off my jeans and leave my boxers in place as I slip beneath the covers. I yank them out from under her and she rolls into the middle of the bed. I gently try to push her over, but if I’m honest with myself, I don’t try too hard. I lie back against the pillow and cover us both with the blankets as she snuggles in closer, her head on my chest and her arm draped across my waist. I ease my arm out from under her and wrap it around her shoulders, gently holding her to me.
In the morning, she’ll get up and things will go back to the way they were. I’ll regret ever pulling her into my cabin. I’ll regret pushing the hair back off her face and holding her like she belongs to me, because the truth is, she don’t belong to anyone. Maybe she never did.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Colt
Twenty years old
Several hours after I received the biggest ass-whooping of my life, I emerge from my bedroom and sit at my daddy’s table. Skirt steak and potato again. He don’t know how to cook nothing else, and I ain’t dumb enough to complain because he’s kept me fed ever since Mama died. I think that’s why finding me with Lemon Winchester was such a slap in the face, because without the paychecks we bring in from Winchester Wild, we’d have no food on our table and no roof over our heads.
We