Brazen (Brazen #1)(20)

“What’s the deal with his truck?”

“He loves that truck,” J.T. said.

She shrugged. “I didn’t see anything special about it.”

J.T. snorted. “You wouldn’t. It’s a guy thing. He bought it six months ago. Custom paint job, big tires, roll bar with lights—you know, guy stuff.”

She rolled her eyes. “A truck is a truck is a truck.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

The waitress swung by and delivered Jasmine’s shots. Jasmine gripped one of the small shot glasses in her hand and raised it toward J.T. “To Barley, Texas and being back home.”

“I’ll drink to that,” J.T. said, raising his beer.

“What do you mean she went into town?” Seth demanded. “How the hell did she get there?”

Carmen frowned at his tone and tsked under her breath. “She drove. How else would she get into town unless you wanted her to walk like you made her do this afternoon?”

Seth sighed. “I didn’t make her walk, Carmen. You know once Jasmine’s made up her mind about something, there’s little you can do to change it.” And then another thought occurred to him, about the same time he realized that Zane wasn’t home and hadn’t been home all day. Which meant there was only one way Jasmine could have driven into town. He groaned even as he headed to the garage to see what he already suspected.

He stood in the doorway, bracing his hand on the frame as he stared at the empty space where his truck was usually parked. If she so much as put a scratch on it…

She’d be lucky if she didn’t put herself in a ditch somewhere. She hadn’t driven in the year she’d been in Paris, and before that, she’d always tooled around in Zane’s smaller truck, not that she’d driven a lot even then. She’d always been content to tag along with him or Zane wherever they happened to be going.

But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. Hell, she never had been. Even at sixteen she’d had more experience in her eyes than most women a dozen years older.

The memory of her mouth hot against his, her tongue bold and seeking, sent a bolt of awareness through his body. He closed his eyes, not wanting to relive the hurt in her eyes when he pushed her away.

“Seth, J.T. is on the phone for you,” Carmen called from the kitchen.

He shut the door to the garage and walked back to where Carmen stood, phone in hand.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” Seth asked as he put the phone to his ear.

“Not much. I’ve been down at the bar with your girl.”

“Jasmine?” Annoyance inched a slow crawl over his shoulders. The idea of Jasmine hanging out with J.T. irritated the shit out of him. Nearly as much as the idea of her going out with Brad.

“I got called out. Domestic disturbance. On my way to it now. But when I left, she was on her way to throwing one hell of a drunk.” J.T. hesitated for a moment. “It’s not that I don’t trust her. She said she’d get a hotel room if she wasn’t able to drive home. I just worry about her. Something seemed to be bothering her. I thought you’d want to know.”

Seth swore. “You did right. The last thing I want is for her to get hurt. I’m without wheels, but I’ll call Zane. He’s on his way home. I’ll have him stop in and pick her up. In the meantime, I’ll call Tucker and have him make sure Jasmine stays put until Zane gets there.”

The room was a little blurry. Okay, maybe a lot blurry. But she was having too much damn fun to worry about calling it a night.

Jasmine shook and shimmied, stomped her feet and clapped her hands in time with the country song the band was playing. More than one man was happy to dance with her. At least three skirted her periphery as she shook her head, hair flying.

One grasped her hand and spun her around where she collided with the chest of another. She smiled up as the second man put his hands on her shoulders and let them slide down her arms.

Yet another, too-tall, too-sexy cowboy pressed against her back, rotating his hips into her ass. Sweat beaded her forehead and her breath came heavier. How would it feel to be between Seth and Zane?

She closed her eyes and imagined for a moment that it was them who surrounded her body. She’d watched them one night. Saw them make love to the same woman. She’d been mesmerized by the sight and had been horribly jealous of the woman whose name she’d never even known. And then there was Mary Jo, town hairdresser. After seeing her between Seth and Zane, Jasmine had never been able to bring herself to go into Mary Jo’s salon.

She’d wanted it to be her. Already confused by her feelings for both brothers, those interludes had given her a taste of what it would be like to have them both.

But it wasn’t until she arrived in Paris and had met Cherisse that her secret fantasies had taken a serious flight into reality. Seeing her friend in a polyamorous relationship, a happy, loving situation, had given Jasmine hope that maybe she could love both men and that maybe they could love her in return.

When she’d told Cherisse about Seth and Zane, Cherisse had laughed and asked her why she was in Paris and not back in Texas.

As tempted as Jasmine had been to return, she also knew that the time away would do her—and them—good. She needed to spread her wings, prove her independence, and she also needed to return to them a woman. Not the needy, insecure girl they’d taken care of for so long.