LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Really?”

      He nodded. “Definitely. That’s why once I drop you at the ranch I’ve got to go. I’ve already had one night of passion go wrong on me. I have no intention of repeating history.”

      “Did you love her?”

      “We don’t even remember the night very much,” Last admitted. “But the aftermath was a killer, never mind the hangover. My baby is an angel, though. She’s gonna be a man slayer when she grows up. Looks like her mom, thank heaven, except with a bit of darkness in her hair and eyes.” He glanced over at her. “Sort of like you.”

      Poppy felt something tingle down her spine, something very much like a magic trick played perfectly.

      “The problem is,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes, “I would love to make love to you. But I just can’t afford that mistake again.”

      “That scared?”

      “I told you, I’m living the cliché,” he said, grinning at her with a wink. “The ultimate untamable bad boy. All I can say is that you would like it. I would like it. And it would definitely be something we both remembered.”

      That tingle turned into a warning shiver. She was not at a place in her life where she could be seduced. Even by such a master of seduction as this cowboy, who, no doubt, was not exaggerating his skills. “Maybe I should have accepted the lion tamer,” she murmured.

      “They broke the mold for sure when they made him,” Last said. “Why didn’t you marry him?”

      “I knew he was asking me as a friend. I didn’t want that, even for the sake of the children. It wasn’t fair to him.”

      “And the ringmaster? I got the sense that he was rather fatherly.”

      She nodded. “He was. He offered, but I saved him from his kindness. Staying with them, with the circus, wouldn’t have endeared me to the judge. It was time to go.”

      “And along I came,” Last said, turning off the highway onto a side road. “I want one last drive along the beach before heading back toward the land of stability.” He gave a heavy sigh. “I must warn you, we have a strong dose of superstition in our family. And if I get the sense even for a second that you might be invoking The Curse in me, I might have to…to send you into town to live with the Union Junction stylists. You’d like them,” he said. “They’d mother your kids to death. And the children would be closer to school.”

      “What curse?” Poppy asked. “I don’t usually believe in such things.”

      “Good,” Last said, satisfied. “This one has to do with love, and it’s happened to every single one of my brothers. When they found their true loves, they got hurt.”

      “That’s…silly,” Poppy said. “What have I gotten myself into?” She glanced into the backseat, where the children slept, comfortable in the double cab.

      “I’m sure everything’s going to be just fine,” Last told her. He peered through the windshield. “What the hell is that beside the road?”

      “A dog?” Poppy looked harder. “A sea lion!”

      “No way,” Last said. “They’re too fat to get all the way over here.” They were close enough to the ocean to see the waves from the road, but the road was still too far for a sea lion, at least by Last’s standards. Stopping the truck, he said, “I’m going to go check on whatever it is.”

      Poppy watched anxiously as he snuck up on the hapless creature. She turned on the truck’s hazard lights so drivers coming around the narrow, winding road would see them.

      To her surprise, she saw Last struggling with the animal. It seemed as if he was trying to push it back toward the sea. And just when it appeared he might be winning, the animal turned on him. Flippers and arms battled. Gasping, Poppy hit the horn with all her might. Startled, the animal lumbered back toward the ocean. Last lay on the ground for a moment before picking himself up and dragging himself into the seat of his truck. “Just like the rodeo,” he said. “I’m always getting tossed.”

      “Are you all right?” Poppy asked. “That was horrible!”

      “I’m fine,” Last said. “By golly, it was harder to corral than a bull. It nearly got the best of me!”

      “That’s because it was a bull, obviously,” Poppy said. “A junior sea lion bull, beached and confused.”

      “Yes. And damned unappreciative.” Last checked his ripped shirt. “It took exception to me saving it.”

      “It didn’t look like you were saving it. It wanted to kill you! What made you try to move a wild creature?”

      He groaned. “I move all kinds of wild creatures all the time, some that weigh a couple tons and have impressive horns and sharp hooves. Believe me, I didn’t think it would be any more difficult than throwing a cow to the ground or corralling a mad bull. It looked like a bunch of harmless blubber lying there all pathetic.”

      “You smell like seal,” Poppy said. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

      “I’m just badly hurt,” Last said with a groan. “I may need a doctor.”

      “Scoot over. I’ll drive you to the hospital.” As she stared at him clutching his side, she shook her head. “I want you to know this one doesn’t count.”

      He looked at her through pained eyes. “What one?”

      “The Curse thing. The don’t-hurt-me thing.”

      The pain left Last and he sat up, staring at her. “Oh, no,” he said, his tone angry. “Oh, no, no, no. You cannot be The One.”

      Chapter Three

      Last had known this woman and her children were trouble the moment he’d laid eyes on them. They were even more trouble now that they were going to cost him an airplane ticket out of California and into the land of ultimate bungee jumping. Most particularly, they were going to get him in a lot of trouble with Mason, who already thought Last hadn’t properly learned the Condom Song since he’d become an unwed father. Bringing home two more children would only make matters more awkward between him and his eldest brother.

      Last stared at Poppy for a few moments, his whole body screaming with pain and his mind shouting horrific echoes of denial.

      “This time, The Curse is wrong. Actually, I feel fine now.” He struggled to sit up in the driver’s seat. “I’m completely healthy, with not one pain an aspirin can’t fix. I just need you to drive.”

      “What?” Esme asked.

      He took a deep, shaken breath. If he was honest, he’d admit the sea lion had scared the hell out of him. What looked like harmless, soft flubber had really been equal to any mad thing he’d met on the ranch, including Mason. There was a possibility he had a cracked rib.

      “You drive,” Last repeated, getting out of the truck to limp around to the passenger side. “I’m according you the honor of driving a man’s truck, which has never been driven by a female.”

      She shook her head. “No way. I want no part of you or your truck.” She sniffed in a hoity-toity way, but he didn’t have the strength to argue with her.

      “Look. Get your foxy little ass out of my seat so I can sit down.”

      “You’re hurt!”

      “No, I’m not,” he said through gritted teeth.

      “I think you are.”

      “I think I’d know if I was!” A star passed before his vision that seemed as big as Halley’s Comet. He slumped into the seat she’d vacated. “Drive.”

      She cleared her throat. “Last, can I say something?”

      “Sure,

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