Wicked Force (Wicked Horse Vegas #4.5)(22)

Carrie, never one to pull punches, nods at me. “They’re jealous. That’s all. Started when you won that talent show, then when your album dropped they still sort of hung on because everyone thought you’d be famous. When that didn’t work out, they just turned catty but I wasn’t about to tell you that. Not with dealing with your dad and everything. Now you’re a big hit in Vegas, and they’re more than jealous again. So I’m glad they didn’t want to hang and it’s just you and me today.”

While my heart hurts a bit to know I could so easily lose friends—friends by the way who still text me as if we are still quite chummy—I’m fortified to know that Carrie never has wavered. Sure, we’ve not seen each other at all since I moved to Vegas, but she has been my one constant link back to my hometown. We try to talk at least a few times a month by phone and text far more than that.

After graduation, Carrie got a job working as a trail guide for an adventure company here and she loves it the way she loves Cunningham Falls. She’ll never leave.

“Well, let’s catch up,” I suggest to her, more than willing to move on from the other girls. “Work going well?”

“I love it,” she beams. “Hiking the back country in the summer and I’m going to start ski instructing in the winter months. I need to start making enough money so I can move out of my parents’ place.”

I give her a commiserating nod. “I totally get that. It’s not all that easy to live with your parent.”

“At least your mom is cool,” she says, without really knowing about the conflicts we face on a daily basis as I struggle to understand her true role in my life. “My parents want me to stay home on Friday nights and play Scrabble with them.”

The mention of the world Scrabble and my mind drifts off to Kynan.

And that kiss we shared last night.

A kiss that curled my toes, did the strangest of things to my body, and left me with insomnia most of the night. I was worried it would be weird in the morning, but he was just regular old Kynan with me. Ready to chat about anything or give me a cute grin when something amused him.

Such as how I started staring at his mouth while we were eating breakfast at Ed’s Diner.

“Hello, Earth to Joslyn,” Carrie says, snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Where did you go there?”

I blink at her and realize she must have been talking to me and I didn’t hear a damn word of what she said. Further proof that I have Kynan rooted deeply in my mind and can’t seem to shake him.

I look to my left and see Jayce in the same position. His head moves side to side as he surveys the crowd, in between bringing his gaze to me for a few moments. I scan the crowd around us, and don’t see Kynan, but I didn’t really expect to.

Giving my attention back to Carrie, I lean in closer to her. She immediately understands I’m about to unload something personal and potentially juicy, so she scoots closer to me and tilts her head expectantly.

“So... one of my bodyguards—”

“You have bodyguards?” she asks loudly and looks around. “Where are they?”

I grab her arm and tug on it to get her attention. “Don’t look but one of them is standing over there against the fence.”

Of course she looks. And then she ogles, which yeah... Jayce is kind of cute. But he’s no Kynan.

“Are you hitting that?” she asks as she slowly turns her head back my way.

“No way,” I exclaim.

“Can I hit it?” she asks.

I slap her on the arm and she grins at me.

“Anyway,” I continue on. “One of my other bodyguards... Kynan.”

“That’s a great name,” she says dreamily.

“He’s British,” I tell her and she sighs. Shaking my head, I move on with my story. “Anyway... we’ve gotten close, as in friendship. But there’s this crazy attraction between us and you can feel it. It’s hard to not give in to it, you know? And then last night... I asked him to kiss me, and he did, and Carrie... it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Carrie stares at me when I finish talking.

She stares at me some more, like she expects more to the story.

When nothing is forthcoming, she slowly drawls, “Okay... tell me about the part where you had mind-blowing sex?”

My shoulders sag, as do my spirits. I shake my head. “He said we can’t. That he’s got a job to protect me and he can’t get involved with me personally.”

“So fire him,” she suggests.

“One step ahead of you. I already tried it and it didn’t work.”

Carrie looks over to Jayce again, then back to me. “So what are you going to do? Just let it go? Because... you like this guy, right?”

“So much,” I tell her softly. “He’s all I think about.”

“Does he feel the same way about you?” Her tone this time is hesitant and I can tell she wants to make sure I’m not being led on in any way.

I think about that for a moment, and realize I know something to be true. “I’m pretty sure he does. I felt it in that kiss, but more than that, it’s in the way he talks to me. The interest he has in me. Not Joslyn the singing star, but in me. And he’s opened up so much. He confides things he’s never told anyone else.”