LITMIR.BIZ

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your exit.”

      Chad turned to face Jack, pushing his hat back again. That was one annoying nervous habit. “How is it your business, Monaghan?”

      Jack chuckled and crossed his arms over his broad chest, the muscles in his forearms shifting, and in spite of herself, Kate felt her heart rate pick up a little bit.

      “It’s my business because anyone who’s bothering Kate has to deal with me.”

      “Oh, really?” Kate all but exploded. “Anyone bothering me has to deal with me, Monaghan. End of discussion.” And now she was just pissed. She turned her focus back to Chad. “And you. I wouldn’t go out back with you and do...that...even if you bought me a whole dinner at The Crab Shanty.”

      “Oh, come on, Kate. You are obviously asking for it,” Chad said, his tone dripping with disdain now. “Shoving your tits in my face like that.”

      And suddenly, Chad was being pulled backward, then spun around and slammed up against the wall. Jack was gripping the collar of his shirt, his forearm pressed hard against the other man’s collarbone. “If you’re in the mood to get your jaw broken tonight, then keep talking,” Jack said, his voice a growl. “Otherwise I’d walk away.”

      A hush had fallen over the bar, all eyes turned to Jack and Chad.

      And on her, too. She had lost control of the situation, and she didn’t like it at all.

      “Jack, don’t,” Kate said.

      “Are you actually defending this dickhead?” Jack was incredulous.

      “No. But I don’t need your help to say no. Let go.”

      Jack released his hold slowly, but there was still murder glittering in his blue eyes. “Whatever you want, Katie.”

      And then Chad lunged at Jack. It was a mistake. Before Kate could shout a warning, Jack was in motion. His fist connected with Chad’s jaw, the sound rising over the lap steel that was filtering into the room from the jukebox.

      “What’d I tell you, asshole?” Jack looked down at Chad, his expression thunderous. “I would’ve let you off because she asked. But since you made it about you and me... Hopefully, you don’t have to get that wired shut. Drinking out of a straw for six weeks would really suck.”

      Jack stepped over Chad’s crumpled form and walked out of the bar. Kate looked around the room. The only people who were still watching were members of the rodeo club. Everyone else had gone back to their darts and their drinks. A punch-up in Ace’s wasn’t the rarest of events. But seeing as Jack had just punched out one of their own, the club was still interested.

      “Well, he was being an ass,” Kate said, turning and following the same path Jack had just taken out of the bar.

      It was downright chilly out now, the fog rolling in off the ocean leaving a cool dampness in the air. She could hear the waves crashing not too far away but couldn’t see them because of the clouds.

      The moon was a white blur of light mostly swallowed up by the thick gray mist. She could see only the faint outline of Jack, walking to his truck, thanks to the security light at the far end of the parking lot.

      “Are you just gonna leave me here?” she shouted, breaking into a jog and going after him.

      “I figured you could get a ride,” he ground out.

      “I did not need you to come over there and intervene.” She stopped in front of him, and he turned around to face her.

      She could only just make out the strong lines of his face, could barely see the way his brows were locked together, his expression still enraged. “It looked like you did. Don’t be such a stubborn child all the time. If Connor or Eli had been here, they would’ve done the same thing.”

      “You aren’t Connor and Eli,” she bit out.

      “No,” he said. “But I’m something. And I’m not going to apologize for being mad about a guy talking to you that way.”

      “Maybe I wanted him to talk to me that way.” She hadn’t.

      “Then raise your standards.”

      “As high as yours?” she asked.

      “At least I know what I’m doing. You’re like a...lamb being led to the slaughter.”

      She laughed, an outright guffaw, in spite of the fact that she found very little about this funny. She was attracted to Jack, she had just caused a major scene in Ace’s, and now this. “Does anything about me look adorable and woolly? I didn’t think so. I’m like a...a bobcat. I’m not a lamb.”

      “I thought you were a badger.”

      “That is beside the point. Maybe I’m a badger-cat. Anyway, the point is I don’t need you to take care of me.”

      “Maybe not. But I’m not going to stand there while he says things like that to you.”

      “Why not? Why do you care?”

      Her words hung in the silence, resting on the mist. And she wished they would just go away, because they felt exposing. And he was looking at her, making her heart beat faster, making her stomach seize up. Now that she knew, it didn’t seem so irritating. It seemed like something else entirely.

      Her shower the other day, the way her skin had felt so sensitive, the way Jack had flashed through her mind, rose up to the top of her thoughts. She nearly choked on her embarrassment then and there.

      But she didn’t say anything. She didn’t back down.

      “Because I could tell he was asking for things you weren’t ready for,” he said, his voice muted now.

      “You don’t know what I’m ready for.” She forced the words out, her throat scratchy and dry.

      He took a deep breath, lifting his head, his expression concealed by shadow. “I guess not. But I’m going to go ahead and assume based on knowing you and the way you were flirting that you don’t have a whole lot of experience.”

      Heat flooded her face. “I don’t really want to talk about this with you.”

      “Why not? As we have established,” he said, his voice lowering slightly, “I am not your brother.”

      A shiver ran down her spine and settled in her stomach, leaving it feeling jittery and uncomfortable. “Right. That’s been well established.”

      He looked pained. “I mean, look, you could maybe...talk to Sadie about this? Or Liss?”

      “I’m not looking for advice,” she said. “Anyway, Liss feels like crap, Sadie’s busy, and they would both rat me out to my brothers, who would... It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

      “Right.”

      “And I’m good at flirting, Jack.”

      “You’re not.”

      “Yes, I am. I could have closed the deal with him. All I had to do was shove my boobs in his face and he was good to go. It’s not like it’s hard. I mean, I didn’t really expect for him to say...all that. But it’s not like I repelled him.”

      “That’s not how you flirt. That is how you get...not a date. You get something else. And really, what you did had less to do with it than...just the guy you were talking to. You have to understand some guys are just after one thing. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

      The air felt thick between them, and she couldn’t blame it on the fog. It was just like earlier, when he dropped her at the bar. When she reached out and grabbed his chin, his stubble rough beneath her skin, so undeniably masculine, so undeniably something she’d never felt before.

      Damn him, he was right about her experience. Or lack of it.

      She’d never even been kissed. Which put Chad’s offer firmly in the no column. But...what

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