A Convenient Scandal
Page 19
“So let’s be mad, just for a night. In the morning we can go back to being a Clayton and a Slade, opposing forces in this long, futile war that we never started.”
Alex closed her eyes and shook her head. She wanted him but she didn’t like wanting him, found herself wishing instead that she could put him in the past, where he belonged. Maybe she did need to sleep with him again to flush him out of her system. After all, reality was never as good as fantasy, and then they could both finally move on.
“So, yes or no?”
Alex thought she saw apprehension in his eyes, the fear that she’d reject him, but the emotions flashed across his features too quickly for her to be sure. “Yeah, I’m coming with you.”
Daniel stared down at her, his handsome face serious. “Your place or mine?”
Alex thought about their options, knowing that the ranch house at the Lone Wolf was out of the question and, as she’d heard, Daniel had converted an old barn on The Silver C. While his house was a better option than Gus’s mansion—Daniel might be met with the working end of her grandpa’s shotgun if they were caught—their chances of discovery were still too high.
Which left only one other place available to them...
“Sarah’s tree house.”
Daniel’s hand tightened on her hip and she knew that he was remembering, just as she was.
A long time ago, the tree house had been a boys’ fort and a girls’ secret club. It had held sleep outs and camping trips and overnight sleepovers. Much later it had been the place where Daniel took her virginity, where they’d spent stolen afternoons and blissful starry nights.
“You remember where it is, right?”
Daniel rubbed his jaw. “Of course I can find it. I just haven’t been there since...”
You left, Alex filled in the words for him. The tree house was deep in Slade land and Daniel had no reason or wish to be on Slade land. Land that had once been part of The Silver C spread.
The river-fronted land was one of the first parcels of land Gus bought from Rose when times had got tough, and Alex knew that Daniel mourned the loss of the property. The Silver C had once been the largest spread in four counties, but it was now on par with the Lone Wolf in acreage, a bit of a comedown for the once-mighty Claytons.
“I’ll meet you at the tree house,” Daniel said, his voice clipped. He lifted his wrist to look at his expensive watch. “In half an hour?” He rubbed his hand over his jaw and shook his head. “I can’t believe that I am risking getting splinters in my butt to have you again. Nobody but you, Alex Slade, would tempt me to do this...”
His words shouldn’t make her smile but they did. She opened her mouth to explain that the tree house wasn’t as bad as it had been... No, she’d let it be a surprise.
“Are you going to walk there?” Daniel asked.
In moonlight or bright sunshine, she always walked to the tree house. “Yes.”
“I’m going to go home, pick up my dirt bike and I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Daniel told her, his eyes steady on her face.
Good, that gave her some time to think about what she was doing, to talk herself out of this madness.
Daniel narrowed his gaze. “Do not stand me up, Alexis.”
Although it unnerved her how he’d been able to read her thoughts, she couldn’t suppress the shiver of excitement that tap-danced up and down her spine. He was gorgeous and determined and he wanted her.
No, she wouldn’t stand him up. She couldn’t; she wanted this, wanted him. “I’ll be there.”
Daniel nodded, swiped his mouth across hers in a brief but molten-lava-hot kiss. “See that you are.”
Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN-13: 9781488046391
A Convenient Scandal
Copyright © 2019 by Kimberley Troutte
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