“Well?” Roman prompted. “What about Tara Lynn? And FYI, if you dismiss her the way you have the other four women I’ve suggested, then I’ll just keep suggesting. Because one way or another, you’re getting laid.”
Roman had already made that crystal clear.
“I’m sick and tired of seeing you so down,” Roman added.
“Hell, I’m sick and tired of it, too. And if getting laid will help with that, then I’m all for it. Just not with Tara Lynn.” Garrett paused. “Or those other four women.” He paused again when Lady walked in, her hungry eyes already scoping out the place for her next conquest. “Not her, either.”
Roman gave him a flat look. “Anybody else on your no-sex list?”
His brother had meant for that to be smart-ass, but Garrett answered it anyway. “Yeah. None of the women who keep coming to the house.”
“You’re significantly whittling down your prospects,” Roman pointed out. “My advice—instead of whittling, be more, well, inclusive. It’s sex, not a marriage proposal.” He drank more of his beer. “Do you plan to tell me what’s going on between Nicky and you?”
“Nothing’s going on.” It was an honest answer. Well, honest from one perspective anyway. There certainly wasn’t any sex going on. Or kisses. “She didn’t tell me it was her brother who had been with Meredith. I had to hear it from Meredith herself.”
“Seems to me that’s who you should have been hearing it from. If you wanted to hear it, that is. Kyle is Nicky’s brother. Of course, she wasn’t going to spread shit about him.”
Garrett paused in midsip. “Did you know it was Kyle?”
“No. But it’s not surprising. I know Kyle from the rodeo circuit. He used to ride broncos, and wedding rings and vows don’t mean much to him. Obviously not to Meredith, either.”
They did to Garrett. Roman, too. For all of his brother’s sleeping around, he didn’t keep company with married women.
“Besides,” Roman went on, “you need to cut Nicky some slack. Shitty parents, shitty brother, shitty husband.”
Garrett turned to him so fast that he would have sloshed his beer had the glass been full. “You knew her husband?”
“Knew of him. Let’s just say that Nicky’s brother didn’t keep things as close to the vest as Nicky does. According to Kyle, the guy cheated on her.”
Well, hell. That hit Garrett a lot harder than it probably would have if he hadn’t known just how deep the cut felt from having a spouse step out on you. At least Nicky’s hadn’t been on YouTube, but that probably meant she hadn’t been hurt. That also perhaps explained why there’d been no obituary online. Maybe she just hadn’t felt the need to share the demise of a man who’d treated her like dirt.
“Please don’t tell me the cheating happened when she was pregnant with Kaylee,” Garrett said.
“Don’t know the timing. Her brother quit riding for me about four years ago, before Kaylee was born.”
That didn’t mean the cheating hadn’t continued. Damn. No wonder Nicky had needed a place to come and heal. She’d been dumped on by everyone in her life. Including him.
“Back to sex,” Roman said a moment later. “I think you should have a go at the next woman who comes through that door. No wait, make it the second woman who walks in.”
At that moment, the door opened, and Sophie walked in. Nicky was right behind her, making her woman number two.
Some men might have thought that was an eerie coincidence or maybe even fate. Garrett knew the real reason, though. Roman had almost certainly seen their sister and Nicky through the window.
Sophie scanned the room, spotted them, and walked toward them. Nicky was right behind her, but she didn’t have the same “woman on a mission” expression as Sophie.
“I knew I’d find you here,” Sophie greeted, but her attention landed on Roman. “You’re trying to set up Garrett with one of these barracudas.”
“I am,” Roman readily admitted. “And you’re here, trying to set him up with Nicky.”
Nicky looked stunned, as if Roman had just handed her a vibrating dildo. She probably would have slunk out of there if Sophie hadn’t had a grip on her arm.
“I don’t object to that, by the way,” Roman went on, “but Nicky’s got doubts about how all of this will play out.”
Garrett had equal doubts. Especially because Nicky was the only person with more emotional baggage than him.
“It’s okay,” Garrett assured her. “Roman has no filter.”
“You agreed to come here and get laid,” Roman reminded him. It also proved that no-filter thing.
“And Nicky agreed to come here and stop it,” Sophie explained.
“Well, not really—” That was all Nicky managed before his sister continued.
“Sex for the sake of sex isn’t going to fix anything.” Sophie stared at Garrett when she said that. “What you need is to have a good talk with Nicky.”
“Talk instead of sex,” Roman mumbled. “Yeah, that’ll work. They’ve been dancing around this attraction since Nicky came back to Wrangler’s Creek. They need to just take out their frustrations in bed.”
Again, no filter, and this wasn’t doing anything to ease those doubts Garrett had. But those doubts didn’t extend to Lady. She finally set her sights on him and began to saunter his way. Since he wasn’t in the mood for another flirting session where she kept bumping herself against his dick, Garrett finished off his beer, stood and took hold of Nicky’s hand.
Her surprised expression went up a notch but then she saw Lady and must have realized why he was doing this. It made him a dick to use Nicky this way, but he really wasn’t ready for another round with Lady. Or another round of Roman’s suggestions. And besides, he was feeling sorry for Nicky.
“Leaving so soon, Garrett?” Lady asked, her bottom lip lowering to a mock pout.
“Yeah, Nicky and I have a date.” There, he’d marked his territory. Sort of. It would get the likes of Lady off his back, maybe his mom, too, but he didn’t want to put Nicky through another wringer.
Garrett tossed a twenty on the bar to pay for the beer and headed out with Nicky. “Sorry about that,” he said as they made his way to his truck. “The date thing just popped out of my mouth. And I think both of us were ready to leave.”
She didn’t say a word. Nicky just stared at him while she put on her seat belt.
“We can drive around for a while, and then I can take you back to Z.T.’s house,” he added. He hoped that would cause her to look relieved.
It didn’t.
She kept staring at him. “What did Roman tell you about me?”
Man, he had to be wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Or maybe she just knew Roman and his penchant for not holding anything back. However, Garrett intended to do some holding back.
“Roman knows your brother,” he settled for saying. There, he’d just put the ball in her court. If Nicky wanted to add more about Kyle, she could.
“I see.” That’s all she said for several snail-crawling moments. “And the reason you said we had a date was to get Lady off your back?”
He nodded, started driving. “I can tell her the truth if you want.”
“No.” She didn’t hesitate that time. “This way, Meredith will hear and will maybe quit smiling.”
“She’s smiling?” Garrett wasn’t. He was frowning.
“Gina seems to think so. I believe Meredith told you about Kyle to make sure there was a wedge between us.”
Shit. If so, it’d worked. For two weeks anyway. Garrett wished people would start wearing signs to show their real intentions. Except he didn’t want a sign right now. Not when he was holding stuff back from Nicky.
“You could tell Meredith to leave,” Garrett suggested.
“I considered it. Then dismissed it. There are
several people in that house I don’t like.” She said Lady’s name and covered it with a cough. “But the group therapy sessions are about to start. I’m hoping that after a few of those, some people will feel well enough to leave.”
Garrett thought about that for a moment. “What if they all feel well enough to leave?”
“There’s a waiting list. Six others want to come, but there’s no room for them. Sorry,” she added. “I know you want us out of there.”
Not as much as he had a couple of weeks ago. At least, he didn’t want Nicky gone. “You’ll be going through the therapy, too?” he asked.
That got her staring at him again. “All right, spill it. What else did Roman tell you?”
Hell’s Bells. He really just needed to keep his mouth shut.
Since he didn’t want to be driving for this part of the conversation, Garrett pulled over near the end of Main Street. It was far enough away from the shops and foot traffic that Nicky and he would have some privacy. Not a kissing kind of privacy, but being out in the open like this might give him some willpower that he sorely needed whenever he was around Nicky.
“Kyle told Roman that your husband cheated on you,” Garrett admitted.
He’d already had a few regrets in this conversation, and that was another one. The moment he said the words, Nicky got that look in her eyes. The sad, haunted one that was almost identical to the look she’d had at her folks’ old place.
“He did cheat on me,” she finally said, and she glanced away, her attention focused on the nothing that was going on outside the window. “That’s something we have in common. And you know how you don’t want to talk about what happened with Meredith? Well, I don’t want to talk about this, either.”
“I’m sorry.” Garrett didn’t know what else to say. Because, yes, it was something in common. Something he wished Nicky hadn’t had to go through.
She huffed. Not the reaction he’d been expecting. He’d thought she might be on the verge of tears. However, there were no tears in her eyes when she turned back to him. Nor was there a sad, haunted look. She suddenly seemed very determined about something.
“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me,” she insisted. “In fact, there’s only one thing I want you to feel when you look at me.”
Garrett hesitated a second, trying to figure out what she meant by that. Maybe she wanted him to be put off by her past. But that wasn’t what Garrett felt. Even if that would have been the safer option.
But apparently safe wasn’t in the cards today.
He took hold of Nicky, and for the second time in two weeks, he kissed her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GARRETT DIDN’T THINK it was right for a man to lie to himself so he didn’t try to justify this. It was wrong. Period. Even if he had been ready for a relationship, the timing sucked. Nicky was here to heal and get over her past.
He was reasonably sure that this kiss wouldn’t help with that.
That didn’t stop him.
He kissed her and just kept on kissing her. There it was again. That punch of attraction. Not that he actually had to kiss her to feel it. It came whenever he laid eyes on her, but the punch was significantly harder with his mouth on hers.
She tasted good. Like those memories that could always stir him in just the right place. Specifically, his groin. His dick rather liked the idea of this kiss and thought it was going to get lucky. It wasn’t. The kiss would have to be the beginning, middle and end of this particular mistake.
Nicky came up with some mistakes of her own. She moved in as close as she could get considering she was still wearing her seat belt. That meant no real body-to-body contact, but she upped the stakes by running her tongue over his bottom lip. French. Just the way he liked his kisses.
She made a sound of pleasure, soft but potent because it revved up things even more for Garrett. He groped his way down to her waist to undo her seat belt, missed, and his hand slid right into her crotch. The next sound she made was one of pleasure. But a different kind.
“If you’re trying to give me an orgasm, you nearly did it,” she muttered against his mouth and went back for another round of kissing.
Garrett immediately got right back into the kiss, but he also couldn’t get his mind off what she’d just said. Maybe that’s why he didn’t move his hand after he undid her seat belt. It would take a special kind of stupid to try to give a woman a hand job while parked on Main Street, but he toyed with the idea of what it would be like to feel and hear Nicky shatter.
Especially since he wasn’t so sure she’d shattered the one time they’d been together.
His lovemaking skills had been nonexistent then. Plus, that’d been coupled with the fact that he hadn’t even known Nicky had been a virgin.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you hadn’t been with a man before?” Garrett blurted out.
In hindsight, he wished he’d stapled his lips together instead of saying that.
She looked at him, blinked. “Is this something you really want to talk about right now?”
Easy answer. “No.” And he hauled her back to him.
The kiss continued, but obviously he’d screwed up the mood because she pulled back, met him eye to eye. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you would notice,” she said.
All right. He had his answer, and he pulled her to him again, without the seat belt keeping her at bay, so he finally got sweet contact. Her breasts landed against his chest. All in all, that was a very good place for them to be. It sent some signals straight to his dick.
Unfortunately, what she’d said sent some signals to his brain.
Now, it was Garrett who pulled back. “You didn’t think I’d notice? Trust me, I noticed. For one thing, you yelped in pain, and you kept on wincing. I hurt you. That’s not something a guy just forgets.”
She stared at him, maybe questioning his guy-hood right now because she was clearly in position for him to shut the hell up and resume the kissing. With just a little nudge, he could have her breasts against his chest again. With a harder nudge, he could have her in his lap.
Something that couldn’t happen, of course, but a man’s dick could dream.
“You didn’t hurt me,” she muttered. Then, shook her head. “Okay, it hurt, but there were some good parts, too.”
“Name one.” He really wished he had that stapler because it was obvious neither of them wanted to discuss this. Yet, here they were.
“It started to feel good after a while.” She didn’t hesitate, which helped his ego some.
“There was no a while to it,” he corrected, causing her to smile. He liked that smile and wished she would do it more often.
She glanced away. Moved slightly away, too. “It was still a wonderful experience for me. Not necessarily the act itself, but you held me afterward while you were cursing yourself. You do remember the cursing, don’t you?”
He nodded. He remembered all right. Garrett had called himself a few choice names. Like dickhead. “If I’d known you were a virgin, I would have taken more care with you.”
No, that wasn’t the truth.
“I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it,” Garrett confessed. At least he would have liked to think that. Of course, after Nicky and he had started making out, his decision-making skills had taken a serious nosedive.
Nicky nodded as if she’d known that all along. And that made him frown. Then, curse.
“You didn’t tell me because you knew I’d stop?” he asked.
“Don’t judge,” she scolded. “We weren’t in the same places in our lives we are now. I was seventeen,” Nicky emphasized. “And I was with Garrett Granger.”
And trying to escape a hellhole of a life at home. Garrett certainly hadn’t helped with that. She’d seen him as some kind of grand prize, and he�
�d been anything but. Still wasn’t. Just minutes earlier he’d asked Roman about the halo effect of the Granger name. Roman had dismissed it, but Garrett certainly wasn’t doing that.
That killed the rest of his “pulling her into his lap” mood.
“You’re about to say you’re sorry, aren’t you?” Nicky asked but didn’t wait for an answer. “You’re beating yourself up for something you can’t change. Stop doing that.”
He was about to tell her that he deserved a good ass kicking, but it became impossible to speak. That was because Nicky latched on to the back of his neck, snapped him to her and resumed kissing him.
Garrett had been certain that his make-out session with Nicky was a done deal. But he was wrong. With just the touch of her mouth to his, his body revved up again, and he was already considering the logistics of the lap idea. Nicky helped with that, too. She hooked her arm around him, angling their bodies and dragging him closer. So close that her left thigh landed against his. Not quite a lap but it stoked the fire into a full blaze.
Mercy. The memories came. Good ones this time. Of all the kissing and touching that had landed Nicky and him on that chaise in the library. Especially the touching. And Garrett reenacted some of those memories now by sliding his hand between them. Yeah, this was definitely a good memory.
He moved his hand over her breast, and even though she had on a shirt and a bra, he could still feel her nipple, all hard and puckered. He brushed it with his fingers, all the while deepening the kiss. It was good. But he knew how to make it a whole lot better. He put his hand beneath her top, pushed down the cup of her bra and touched her the way he wanted.
The way Nicky apparently wanted, too, because she moaned with pleasure.
It definitely wasn’t those wincing sounds of pain that she’d made on the chaise. Nope. This was the moan of a woman who liked what he was doing.
So Garrett did more.
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