LITMIR.BIZ

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      Unlucky for her, he didn’t compromise, either.

      He leaned in, closing some of the distance between them. Her lips parted, and for just one moment he saw Kate Garrett soften. But it was only a moment. Then the steel was back, harder than ever. He waited for her to back down, waited for her to step away and hiss at him.

      But she didn’t. She simply stood there, holding him fast, her breasts rising and falling with each indrawn breath.

      The noise faded into the background, and the people around them turned into a blur as his focus sharpened on Kate. The only thought he had in his head was that this was without a doubt the strangest moment of his entire life.

      They were playing chicken—he knew her well enough to realize that. She was challenging him, and she thought he would back down.

      That was fine. It was almost normal. It was the undercurrent beneath the challenge, the one making his heart beat faster, making his stomach feel tight, that was giving him issues.

      She leaned in slightly and without even thinking, he took a step back, breaking her hold on his chin. Breaking whatever the hell thread had wound its way around them.

      “I’m going to get you that soda,” he said, knowing his tone sounded way harsher than he intended. “Go hang out with your friends. I’ll meet you over there.”

      He expected her to argue, but she didn’t. She just nodded and moved around him cautiously, her dark eyes glued to his for a moment before she averted them and made her way to her group.

      He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

      Well, that was fucking weird.

      “Monaghan,” Ace, said sidling over to his end of the bar. “Can I get you something?”

      “Two Cokes,” Jack said, resting his forearms on the bar.

      Ace laughed and pushed his flannel shirtsleeves up. “Sure. You want me to start a tab for that?”

      “I’ll pay now,” Jack growled.

      Ace grabbed two glasses and filled them with the nozzle beneath the bartop. “So... Kate Garrett?”

      “What about her?” Jack asked, feeling irreversibly irritated by the other man now. Because he could feel himself being led somewhere, and he didn’t like it.

      “You and her are...”

      “What? No. Fuck no.”

      “It looked like something to me. So I wondered.”

      “It was nothing,” Jack said, ignoring the rush of heat in his blood that made him wonder if it was more than nothing. “Just messing with her.”

      “That’s what I’m saying,” Ace said, smiling broadly. “Anyway...why not?”

      Anger surged through Jack’s veins. “For one because I like my balls where they’re at. And if I ever touched Katie, Connor and Eli would remove them. And then Liss would sew them onto the top of a winter hat as a festive decoration. Additionally? She’s a kid.”

      “She’s not a kid,” Ace said, his eyes fixed across the room. “And I’m not the only one who realizes that.”

      Jack turned and looked and saw Kate nearly backed up against the wall by some asshole cowboy who had his hat tipped back and his jeans so tight his thighs were probably screaming for mercy. He was leaning in, holding her hostage.

      Because he was an asshole. And never mind that Jack’d had her cornered only a few minutes ago. It was totally different. No matter what Ace thought, he wasn’t trying to get into her pants.

      But that guy was.

      “Excuse me,” Jack said, grabbing the sodas and moving away from the bar.

      He stalked across the room, his eyes on Kate and the cowboy. And then he stopped, the two frosty glasses sweaty in his hands. He had no clue what the hell he was doing. About to bust in on Kate flirting with some guy... Chad something, if Jack remembered right. Your standard frat bro with spurs.

      Not the kind of guy he would recommend she talk to. But she could if she wanted to, and he had no say in it.

      She was right. He wasn’t her older brother.

      A fact he was very aware of right then.

      So instead he paused at an empty table for two and set the drinks down, flicking an occasional glance over to Kate. But he didn’t sit. Not until he got a read on the situation.

      She looked over the guy’s shoulder and locked eyes with him, just for a moment, and then her expression turned defiant. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, batting her eyelashes in a near-cartoonish manner.

      Then she arched her back, thrusting her breasts outward, and Jack about choked on his Coke. She was... Well, she was being pretty obvious but Jack wasn’t sure she knew what the hell game she was playing.

       She isn’t a kid.

      No, she wasn’t, but she flirted like a fifteen-year-old who’d only ever seen it done in bad teen movies. Why hadn’t anyone ever...talked to her about this shit?

      She was over there throwing herself to the wolves. She was playing the game, and she had no idea what the prize was.

      He thought back to his rodeo days. To the way he and the other guys had been with women. Love ’em and leave ’em...fast. But those women had known just what they were asking for and Kate so clearly didn’t.

      Watching her with this guy, who couldn’t touch the skill the guys on the circuit had, Jack had a sudden vision of her surrounded by the type of guy he knew waited for her in the pros...

      Yeah, lamb to the slaughter was what came to mind.

      She was just so damned naive.

      She tilted her head to the side, putting her hand on the guy’s shoulder, laughing loudly enough for him to hear her.

      Then the cowboy leaned in and said something, and Kate’s face flushed scarlet, her posture going rigid against the wall. She was saying something back and then the guy leaned in closer.

      Jack took a couple of steps closer to the couple—so he could tell Kate her ice was going to melt and make her Coke taste like sadness, not for any other reason—and it put him in earshot of the conversation.

      “If you want to get out of here,” Chad was saying, “we can get in my truck and I’ll take you for a real ride. Especially if you’re into giving a little head.”

      And in a flash Jack saw Kate walking out of the bar. Getting into that truck. Undoing that asshole’s belt and lowering her head to...

      “Okay. Enough.” Jack took two long strides forward, his blood pounding hot and hard. It was time to intervene.

      * * *

      KATE FELT A SHIFT in the air, and it was welcome. Her conversation with Chad had started out well enough, and she could tell it had annoyed Jack. Which was sort of the idea after the shit he had pulled earlier.

      Buying her alcohol to make her sweet, pressing her up against the bar, looking at her like she was a fucking sunrise or something. Setting off a burst of heat low in her stomach that made it impossible to pretend anymore that she didn’t know what was happening.

      Attraction. That was why his presence made her feel itchy. Made her feel restless and hot, like a spark ready to ignite.

      It was the worst. It was literally the worst. Worse than knocking over a barrel at a key moment, worse than a fresh cow patty between your toes and even worse than trying to eat a salad without ranch dressing.

      Worst. Worst. Worst.

      And so she had decided to try to parlay that attraction into an interaction with Chad. Because if she was that hard up for a little male attention, Chad was certainly a better

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