Branded as Trouble (Rough Riders #6)(68)

“Hi Chassie.”


“I mean, wow, nice to see you. You caught me by surprise.”


“I sorta figured that.”


“Guess I oughta knock before I barge in next time. Not that it’s never mattered before since you’re the first woman I’ve seen in my cousin’s house for an overnight…ah hell, I’m makin’ a mess of this, aren’t I?”


“Forget it.” Although, India was secretly glad to see she wasn’t the only one who babbled from nerves.


“Where’s Colt?”


“In bed. I lost a bet so I had to get up and make coffee.” She’d sworn she couldn’t come from just the vibration of the water jets on her clit, but Colt had proven her wrong. Twice. Early morning Lorelei James


shower sex, with the oscillating water spray aimed just so…oh, what a way to lose.


“Colt is always up at the crack of nothin’, hard at work,”


Chassie said.


Was he ever up. And hard. Dammit, talk about a continual loop of sex on the brain. “He’s tired.”


“I’m glad.”


“You’re glad?”


“Yep. He’s been alone a long time.” Chassie set the metal, foil-covered pan on the counter. She turned and gave India a once-over, taking in Colt’s long-sleeved button-up shirt, her bare legs, and her mussed hair. “He needs someone like you.”


India resisted jerking the lapels closed, even when chances were good whisker burns and love bites decorated her skin alongside her tattoos. “Someone like me…meaning?”


“A woman who really knows him. And really likes him. And believes in him. And makes him happy. You do all that for him.”


“I do?”


“Come on, you had to have known how crazy he’s always been about you, India.”


“I swear I didn’t.”


“Well, then, you were the only one.”


Had she really been so blind?


“I suppose you’re wondering why I’m here at nine in the mornin’.”


“I hope our activities last night weren’t loud enough to wake up the neighbors and you’re coming to complain.”


“Nope. You’ll never hear me complaining about loud sex.”


Chassie grinned and pulled herself onto a barstool. “I can’t sleep so I’ve turned into Betty Crocker. It’s sort of embarrassing. I started baking. Bread, rolls, cookies, muffins, you name it. Trev and Ed can only eat so much, so poor Colt is stuck with the remnants.”


“As a bachelor, I imagine he hates getting fresh baked goodies.” India smiled. “Is the baby keeping you from sleeping?”


Chassie’s hand caressed her rounded abdomen. “The fear of childbirth is keeping me awake most of the time. I hate doctors and hospitals.” She shuddered. “And I can’t convince my boneheaded men that I’d rather have a midwife deliver the baby at home, in our bed, where he was conceived, instead of in an impersonal hospital.”


India admired Chassie for bucking conventions and living with and loving two men, despite the many tongues wagging in the community about the arrangement. “Sky was terrified of giving birth. But when the time came…she was fine. Afterward, she said the unknown was the worst part for her. It couldn’t have been too bad because she went through it again fifteen months later with twins.”