“You will never get me in your bed,” I hiss with as much disdain as I can muster.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” He winks, then pushes off my car.
I fight the urge not to roll my eyes at his confidence. “I need my dress,” I say, changing the subject.
He shrugs. “Come over and get it. You know where my bedroom is.”
I don’t trust him, and he knows it. “God, I hate you.”
“I might’ve been drunk off my ass last night and have a hangover from hell today, but I noticed the way your nipples hardened while you were straddling my dick. I’d say that’s the furthest thing from hate, sweetheart.”
His arrogant attitude makes me want to chop off his balls.
“You know what? You’re right…” I step toward him and press my chest to his, bracing my hands on his shoulders.
He arches a brow almost like he’s shocked at my admission.
“In fact…” I arch my back so my breasts press against him, then jerk my knee hard between his legs.
“Jesus fuck!” He collapses to the ground, holding his groin and cursing my name.
I bend down so he can meet my eyes. “If you learned your damn lesson, you’d stop gettin’ yourself into these type of situations.” I give him a shit-eating grin, and he scowls.
Before I can leave, four ranch hands walk out of the B&B. Diesel and Riley laugh as they come closer.
“Dude…” Riley snaps his gaze to mine. “What’d he do now?”
“Just doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut,” I respond casually.
“C’mon, man. Back to work.” Diesel grabs Grayson’s hand and helps him to his feet. “Stop harassing her, and maybe she'll stop tryin’ to kill ya.”
Grayson flashes me a murderous look. “You’ll pay for that one, too.”
Instead of heading home, I go to my cousin Rowan’s house. She married Diesel two and a half years ago, but since I know he’s working, we can talk without any eavesdropping. They have two kids together plus Diesel’s seven-year-old son from a previous hookup. Though Rowan manages the Circle B Saloon in town, she does a lot of the bookkeeping and scheduling at home. It’s nice for her since Rory turned three this month, and Ruthie is a year and a half. I like when she’s working at the bar because it gives me an excuse to go there and hang out.
“Hey girl,” she greets me at the door. “I was hoping to talk to you. C’mon in.”
“Where’s my favorite little cousin?” I tease Ruthie, who’s glued to Rowan’s hip.
She lets me take her and hugs me as we walk into the kitchen. “I was just about to make another pot of coffee. Want some?” Rowan asks, filling the pot with water.
“Yes! Hook me up, please. I forgot to grab some at the B&B,” I tell her, setting Ruthie down when I sit at the breakfast bar.
“You forgot?” She arches a brow.
“More like…distracted,” I correct.
“So the rumors are true then? I want all the details.” She smirks.
Since I know she’ll hear about it anyway, I start at finding Grayson drunk off his ass, to driving him home, then ending with tying him up and bailing.
“Holy sh-crap! Diesel said he was trapped for three hours before he got ahold of Ethan. Was he at the B&B this mornin’?”
“Yep…he declared war, then I kneed him in the junk. Once he fell to the ground, I walked away.” I shrug. “He deserved it.”
She eyes me, knowing I won’t tell her why but I’m sure she’ll ask anyway.
“Trust me, it was payback. Maybe he’ll stop being a shithead and leave me alone now.”
Rowan snorts. “Doubt it.”
Rory goes to Rowan and repeats my bad language. “Shithead. Shit. Head. Shithead,” he says.
My eyes widen, and I grimace. “Sorry…”
“We don’t say that, okay, buddy? It’s not a nice word,” Rowan informs him, glaring at me in the process.
“But Kenzie said it. Does she get a time-out now?”
Rowan blows out a breath. “Yep. She has to sit in the naughty chair for twenty-seven minutes.”
Rory’s eyes widen. “That’s a long time.”
“That’s how old she is,” Rowan says. “Why don’t you take Ruthie to get some PlayDoh from the playroom?”
“Okay!”
After he runs out of the kitchen, I apologize again. “My bad. I forget there are little ears around.”
“It’s fine. Diesel slips all the time and gets put in a time-out daily.” She snickers.
Once the coffee is brewed, I add cream and sugar, and we catch up. Since I was doing wedding party things yesterday and she was busy wrangling two kids, we didn’t get to see each other that much.
“So while I know what happened after the reception, how were things before that?” she asks.
“Good, I guess.” Grayson clung to me like a piece of lint, but after we took photos, I avoided him. He’s like a puppy…I turn around, and he’s so close, I nearly trip over him.