Hard to Handle (Caine Cousins #2)(19)

Lynx climbed in his truck. “You have the power to keep me out. Why would I need you to bail me out?”

Rhys chuckled. “What do you want, Lynx?”

“Keep some patrols runnin’ by Amy’s tonight, would ya?”

Another gruff laugh. “Tired of sleepin’ in your truck?”

“Naw. Just thought I’d give Reagan some space. But only if I know she’ll have someone watchin’ the house.”

What he needed was a solid eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. At least then he might have a chance of bringing his A game tomorrow at breakfast.

“I’ll keep a deputy out there tonight,” Rhys said.

“Thanks. And I’ll talk to RT and Z tomorrow, see if they can get someone closer to her. If that bastard comes back to that house, I don’t want her alone in it.”

“Agreed. And understood.”

“Thanks.”

Lynx tossed his phone in the center console and turned the engine over. He’d give Reagan a little time to herself. After all, he wasn’t going to push his luck.

But three days from now … all bets were off.



By the time the sun came up, Reagan had been awake for at least half an hour.

And didn’t that seriously rankle? Absolutely no reason she couldn’t sleep in this morning and her brain wouldn’t cooperate.

It was Lynx’s fault.

Rather than roll over and drift back into dreamland, she’d spent all that time, plus what it took to finally nod off last night, thinking about Lynx. The damn man had even invaded her dreams. Again.

The bastard.

She should’ve been home free seeing as he hadn’t parked out in front of her house. That should’ve eased some of her tension. Instead, she had wondered where he was, what he was doing. Who he was with.

Damn man.

Why did he have to make her feel so much? Think so much? Want so much?

Reagan didn’t need a whole hell of a lot. She wanted a simple life. One that involved working and spending time with her friends and family. Not necessarily in that order. No, she didn’t have a lot of money, but she had enough to pay the bills. Sure, her truck had seen better days, but it still got her from point A to point B just fine. She had a roof over her head and food to eat. She didn’t need any more than that.

Most importantly, she didn’t want the headache of a relationship, of worrying what a man was doing or where he was all the damn time. Been there, done that. The headache wasn’t worth it.

Not that she thought Lynx would be anything like Billy. When she really thought about it, she knew that her relationship with Billy had been more about convenience. They had lived under the same roof, but they hadn’t actually been together in a really long time. It hadn’t been ideal, but it had given Reagan the independence she needed with him always gone.

She was just now settling into her new life, the real independence that she had now that she’d booted Billy to the curb.

And then Lynx Caine went and infiltrated her thoughts.

And boy, did he. Every freaking thought in her head seemed to be about him. Most of them involved the sexy man naked, fucking her, claiming her in a way she seriously doubted she would walk away from. Lynx was the dominant kind, the type of man who went after what he wanted and didn’t stop until he got it.

It certainly didn’t help that Reagan hadn’t had sex in…

God. Did she even know how long it’d been? Valentine’s Day? No, it was before that. Hell, it might’ve been Christmas. At least nine months, probably more.

Kind of ridiculous considering she’d been in a committed relationship with a man.

Well, not entirely committed. She’d been faithful, but Billy… Yeah, right.

She couldn’t remember exactly when she’d been with him last, but Reagan knew she’d put a halt to having sex with him once she’d suspected he was stepping out on her. And then she had stuck around because it had been easier than leaving. Her stubborn streak had kept her rooted in that house, refusing to move back home with her mother and grandfather. Billy had been the lesser of two evils. Again, mostly because he had been gone more often than not.

The bottom line was, she’d been an idiot.

A great big honking idiot.

Then Lynx had to go and stir up her hormones, send her libido on the fritz. Make her wish for things that were beyond her reach.

As she lay there, Reagan thought back to that night by the lake all those years ago, the first time she’d gotten a taste of Lynx, the first time she’d realized she was so far in love with him she would never be able to be happy without him. Ten painfully long years ago.

Up until that night, they’d rarely said anything more than the required pleasantries, but Reagan had always had a crush on Lynx Caine. Always. He was the tough guy no one wanted to mess with, the bad boy all the girls swooned over. Him and his cousin, both. Some of the girls considered the cousins interchangeable, but Reagan had only had eyes for Lynx.

That night, after his mother’s funeral, Reagan had gone looking for him. She’d borrowed her brother’s truck and driven out to the Circle C. Back then they hadn’t had a fancy solar-powered gate to keep anyone off the property, so she had ventured past acres of dry grass, then past Lynx’s house.

She’d found him down by the water, sitting on his tailgate, staring out into the darkness. Alone. So freaking alone it had broken her heart to see him like that. Rather than run the other way, Reagan had shored up her nerves, climbed out of the truck, and joined him. For a good ten minutes, neither of them had spoken and Reagan had been okay with that. But when he finally turned his attention on her, Reagan’s heartbeat sped up, her body igniting from the mere sound of his voice.