Cowgirls Don't Cry(84)

“You think I don’t know that? I’ve known you for four years. I’ve seen that dark look in your eye and then you come back a day or two later bloody and bruised. I don’t fault you for not wanting me to see that side of you, but I’m fully aware it’s there.”


He rested his forehead to hers. “You have no idea what it means to me to hear you say that.”


“I think I do.” She touched her lips to his in a gentle kiss.

“Come to bed with me, Jess,” he murmured in her hair. “Let me show you my other side.”


“Okay. But I think I might be stuck to the floor.”


“Shit. Sorry.” Brandt rolled and brought her to her feet. “Shower first.”


“Deal.”


Halfway down the hallway she snickered.

“What?”


“Isn’t it ironic that I have pear-scented soap?”


Chapter Sixteen


“I really wish you’d reconsider and stay here for Thanksgiving, Jess. The roads in Wyoming ain’t the best this time of year and I don’t want you to get stranded someplace.”


Jessie set her duffel bag by the door and snagged her winter coat off the coat rack. “I’ll be fine. It’ll be easier for everyone if I’m with my family. Besides, it’s only three days.” Driving to her mom’s was preferable to staying by herself when Brandt took Landon to his parent’s on Thanksgiving Day—since she hadn’t been issued an invite. She’d spent last Thanksgiving alone, eating a microwaved turkey and dressing meal, watching reruns of holiday classics and bawling her eyes out about the pathetic state of her life. An experience she’d rather not repeat.


Brandt sighed. “Ain’t no talkin’ you out of this?”


“Nope.” She buttoned her coat and slipped on her gloves. “Just double check that everything is shut off before you leave. I’ll call you when I get there, okay?”


“Okay. But first…c’mere and give me some sugar.” He curled his fingers around her lapels and tugged her closer.

Then he proceeded to turn her inside out with one of his long, drugging kisses, chock-full of passion, sweetness and heat. Boy howdy did Brandt’s kisses pack a wallop. Her knees and her will went weak.

Until he chuckled against the corner of her mouth. “You sure that didn’t change your mind?”


“Nope.” She backed up and he released her. She reached for the duffel bag strap but Brandt firmly knocked her hand away and picked it up. She still wasn’t used to all his gentlemanly quirks, but she really liked them.

But you could get used to them, couldn’t you?

Yes.

She opened her truck door and whistled. Lexie’s furry body was a blur as she leapt into the cab. Her tail wagged so hard it left wet prints on the passenger window.

Brandt hoisted the duffel into the truck bed. “Landon is gonna miss Lexie the next few days. Did you say goodbye to him?”


She wasn’t sure how Landon would take it, given he sometimes screamed when Jessie left him with Brandt or vice versa. The last thing Brandt needed was a cranky, confused toddler. But Jessie suspected Brandt wouldn’t see the logic in her decision not to give Landon an official goodbye, to tell him to be a Lorelei James


good boy and all that parenting stuff, especially since she wasn’t his parent. Yet, she didn’t want Brandt to think she didn’t care because she was starting to care too much and that scared the holy bejeezus out of her.