Just Her Luck (53 page)

A happy nervousness.

Sawyer smiled at me, brown eyes alight in his ruggedly handsome face.

He took my hand under the table and entwined mine with his.

I gave him a shy smile back, giving his hand a squeeze.

He leaned down to whisper in my ear, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by my favorite blonde attention hound.

Doggy bone anyone?

“Am I the only one who sees the wrongness of this?” Thatcher complained, winking at me-
the turd
- when no one was looking, letting me know he was fuckin’ around.

Faker!

I grinned.

“What’s got you smiling like that, baby?” Ephraim whispered, glancing over at Thatch.

“Oh, nothin’,” I whispered back, taking a bite of chicken.

My cell phone went off right then, chiming away from the living room.

I excused myself to go answer it.

I normally wouldn’t, but I was worried it might be Ruthie.

That thought alone galvanized me into action.

“Hello?” I blurted, “Hello?” catching it on the last ring.

“Hey, cous’.”

It’s Barry.

His voice wasn’t upset or strained, so I wasn’t really worried.

“Hey, Bare, what’s up?”

“This thing came up... and I just wanted to make sure you’d be around. Just in case Ruthie needed anything.”

“Sure. Does she need me to go over there?”

“Are you kidding?” he snorted, his voice crackling a bit from the other end, “She’d skin me alive if she thought I’d asked you to babysit her.”

I smiled at that.

She would too.

“Naw. I just need to know she has someone. Just in case something comes up. You know?”

“I do. Thanks for giving me a heads up, Barry. You should know you can call me for anything.”

“Yeah, I do, and thanks. I just worry about her, you know? She’s been rubbing at her back a lot lately. I think she’s been over doing it,” he paused suddenly, shifting around, answering someone else, but came back on a second later, “but I don’t dare say anything to her about it or she snaps at me. I just needed to know you’d be there.”

Someone shouted in the background, and I could hear Barry shifting, moving around more, probably to face whoever was shouting for him.

“Well, I gotta go, cous’. I’ll catch ya later, ‘kay? Love ya, bye.”

“Love you too. Bye.”

I hung up and set my phone down, turning around to find Ephraim standing there, a little off to the side.

“Is everything alright?” he asked.

He looked worried, standing by anxiously.

I waved my hand at my phone and walked over, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

He looked like he didn’t quite believe me.

I wrapped my arms around him tight and poked him in the ribs.

“Alright. Alright,” he laughed, pulling back and away from jab happy fingers, “You win. Everything’s fine.”

“How dare you question me with… with…
questions!”
I harrumphed in faux offense, making him laugh more.

Sure I was done, he pulled me back into his embrace.

“That’s another thing I love about you, baby. You’re sillier than a goose,” he teased.

“Guess that makes us evenly matched then, doesn’t it?” I quipped, giving him a wink and a crooked smile.

“How you figure?” he asked curiously, pulling back enough to peek down at me.

“Well…
you’re goofier than a pig wearing lipstick and you have a face to match.”

He scoffed and quirked a brow at me.

“Mockin’ me now, baby? I don’t sound like
that.”

Yes, yes he does,
I disagreed, but I didn’t say it out loud.

He sounds
exactly
like that.

He’d actually said something similar to Thatch the other day when they were bickering, but I chose to keep quiet.

“And anyways, you sayin’ I’m ugly, Genny?” he mock growled, hoisting me up against his chest.

Gripping his wide shoulders, I glanced behind me and,
coast clear,
I wrapped my legs around his waist, reaching up and shoving my hands through his soft brown strands of tufted hair, tugging lightly at the pretty brown locks, moaning quietly into his mouth when he decided to grip my ass under my skirt and rock me against him, pushing the zipper of his jeans into my panty covered clit.

Things started to get hot and heavy fast, so fast I was about to break down and proposition him right here in the living room.

My sexy cowboy must have been thinking something along the same line as I was and moved fast.

Without breaking our lip lock, he started heading towards my room, his long legged stride determined.

“Put her down and get your ass back in there,” Reeve grumbled, just coming out of his office, catching us right before we made it to my door, “If I have to choke down Mama’s greasy, over cooked chicken then so do you!”

Busted!

I turned an unnatural shade of red and tried to squirm out of Ephraim’s hold.

Reeve, who had been staring holes into the back of my head the whole time, squeezed past us in the hall, his hand brushing my thigh.

“You might wanna fix your hair before you go back in there, gremlin. They’ll know you had fuckin’ on your mind if you go in with them swirlies all askew.”

“Oh!” I growled out angrily, trying to get at Reeve from Ephraim’s arms.

Reeve chuckled happily as Ephraim held me back, sauntering down the hall.

“I hate you.” I glared at the back of his head, irritated at Ephraim now too for joining in on the chuckling.

All at my expense, of course.

Reeve stopped at the end of the hall, pausing for a long time, stopping dead in his tracks.

“Do you?” he asked quietly, confusing me for a moment, “Do you really?”

“Do I what? Hate you? What the hell do you think, moonshine?” I quipped, sliding down Ephraim’s torso, trying to straighten my hair and dress.

Reeve cleared his throat roughly, like maybe he wanted to comment, but must have thought better of it, keeping quiet.

Without a backward glance or another word, he stiffened his shoulders and continuing down the hall.

His gait turned formal, more forced jerky movements and less natural grace as he hurried towards the dining room.

I crossed my arms over my chest, staring off after where he’d just left.

What? No parting shot? No last word?

What was up with that?

Reeve
always
has to try and get the last word in.

It’s weird if he doesn’t.

Maybe he’s not feeling well,
I thought, frowning as I contemplated the possibility.

What the hell am I saying?

I drew back at that.

Am I actually saying I
want
the asshole to brow beat me?

I shook my head at myself, trying to pick apart my feelings about it all, and just ending up more confused.

“You know,” Ephraim said absently, trying to love up on me. “It’s nice to know you can say it.”

“I’m mad at you, traitor. You were taking
his
side, agreeing with the enemy.”

He laughed, playing with a long lock of my hair.

“Aw, baby. Don’t be mad. I was only teasin’.”

“And what do you mean it’s nice that I can say it?” I demanded.

I slapped away his hands again as he ignored my irritation and tried to play with another one of my curled up locks again.

I’d pinned it up today, going for a vintage pin up style, half of it up and half of it down.

Victory rolls anyone?

There’s not much else to do around here today with Barb not letting me do anything and my work all caught up, so I prettied up my hair.

It rocks today, if I do say so myself.

Enjoying my fit of fussing, ‘E’ acted like he was going to touch the pinned up rolls in my hair.

I growled warningly.

“Just kiddin’, baby,” he grinned adorably, softening my ire, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

I scowled, but let him bring me flush against him, resting my head carefully against his chest.

Don’t mess with the ‘do’!

Breathing in deeply, I inhaled the scent of man, sweat and leather.

Good god, he smells yummy.

I could just eat him up.

I peeked up at him from my snuggle against his shirt and gave him a look, prompting him to explain his earlier comment.

“That you can say you love somebody. I heard you saying it on the phone,” he explained.

He jiggled my arm a little, winking and grinning to let me know he was just kidding, but it affected me, more than even I knew.

I smiled back, but it fell the second he wasn’t looking as we walked back to dinner.

I do love him too,
I thought, frustrated with myself, feeling a headache coming on.

I just don’t know how to just say it.

Burnin’ Bridges Or Mendin’ Fences

After the parents had all left, a promise extracted from me to let Barb drag me around shopping in a few weeks, my guys and I had all called it a day and are now watching some guy movie, tossing popcorn at each other during the boring parts.

Okay, so Thatcher and I were tossing popcorn, the rest of them were more or less trying to catch it in their mouths or dodge it, depending on the person.

“Pssst.” A soft whisper to my right.

I smiled, but didn’t look, feigning interest in the movie.

“Psst.” It came again.

“Hmmm?” I glanced over through the corner of my eye.

“How are you feeling?” Ephraim whispered, kissing my injured palm, right above my stitches.

“It doesn’t really bother me anymore,” I whispered back.

“Shhhh!” Thatcher whispered fiercely, grunting when Ephraim glared at him.

I patted Thatcher’s shoulder and he quieted, running his hands up and down my calves, sitting between my legs on the floor.

“No,” Ephraim continued, “I meant, how are you
feeling
?”

I looked at him blankly.

“You know?”
he said meaningfully and glanced down between my legs.

Ohhhh. Duh, Genevieve.

“Oh. I’m still a bit sore,” I confided quietly, catching Sawyer’s attention.

“Are you okay, honey? Want me to rub you down again?” Sawyer murmured huskily.

His hand reached over and rubbed my thigh, his warm, heavy palm’s heat seeping through my pajama pants.

Looks like my lion man wants to play.

Merowr.

I applauded myself silently for not squirming or melting into a little puddle at his feet.

On the outside, anyways.

Sawyer smiled down at me, the sexy twinkle in those deep brown eyes filled with unmasked heat and lust, making me gulp hard, fighting a major case of the shivers.

Oh, my.

Squeaking a little, I stilled his hand when it started to get adventurous in front of everyone.

“I told you they weren’t looking for socks,” Bowen muttered through a faked cough from right next to me, removing Sawyer’s hand from my thigh as Sawyer leaned over him to touch me, replacing it with his own.

‘Later’ Sawyer mouthed, grinning at me.

Reeve walked into the room then and stopped dead in his tracks.

He took us all in, cuddled up on the couch, my guys all around me, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“Come on, asshole,” Thatcher motioned for Reeve to join us, “It’s gettin’ to the good parts.”

Reeve sat down, but he seemed really reluctant to do so.

He kept glancing at me throughout the rest of the movie, I noticed, peeking surreptitious glances.

It was awkward and on top of that, I felt like an intruder all of the sudden.

He’s made it very clear how he feels about me in
his
house. Thoroughly letting me know his thoughts on my presence in
his
home.

He said he couldn’t do anything in his own home because I’m always here, wherever it is he’s wanting to be.

Well, I’m not going anywhere
, I thought determinedly.

Unable to quell the feeling of being watched, I glanced over at him and caught him watching me again.

He reacted fast, so fast I almost didn’t catch it, masking his expression quickly,
whatever it had been before,
when he saw I’d caught him.