Page 20 of Untamed Heart
She carried on walking around to the front of the house, leaving the two of us in the same charged silence as before.
Before I could embarrass myself further, I turned to walk away, but not before catching a last look from under his hat. His eyes seemed to burn into mine, as if asking a question. Before he could vocalize it, I disappeared inside.
Dignity in shreds, back in my room I started pulling my clothes on with unnecessary aggression. Embarrassment coursed through me, my heart still thudding, as the feel of his eyes on my body replayed in my mind.
I pulled out one of the new sweaters, a deep blue with a cream tribal print across the front and back, tucking the front into the jeans and doing up my belt. I scraped my chaos of curls back into a low bun and settled my expression into corporate blankness. I might have to face him again, but I would do it with clothes on and a poker face even Cressida would approve of.
As I groaned at the sheer cringe of it all, my bruised ego also reminded me of the mess the last hot guy had caused.
I hesitated, seized by a sudden urge to call Hestia and fill her in, relive the last ten minutes and listen to her reaction. No doubt she’d tell me to jump him and be done with it, but even if he hadn’t worked for Lil, there was still the small matter of dumping Kyle. There were no messages on my phone, but that was bang on trend for when theUS‘client’ was in town. I made the time difference calculation: just after 2 p.m. He’d be in the middle of work. It’d have to wait until later.
As I wound my way down to the kitchen-diner, contemplating just how to deal with Kyle, I heard the sound of voices and laughter.
‘There she is,’ Lil exclaimed, holding a spatula up in the air, hair tucked into her shirt collar as she leant over the big steel stove. ‘Take a seat over there – Jesse, scooch over, will you? Lottie – you met Jesse last night, and that’s Bailey.’
Both smiled, Bailey shooting up and holding out her hand.
‘Well, howdy – it sure is nice to meet some of Lil’s family at last!’
She was my height, 5’5” at a push, but stocky where I was willowy. She had the build of a gymnast and the handshake of a bodybuilder, and her smile was as white as her eyes were green. A thick auburn braid hung over her shoulder.
‘Hey,’ I said shyly. Then to Jesse, who was watching with a mischievous smile in the background, ‘I promise I’m not normally a crier. Yesterday was a bitch.’
Bailey laughed, clapping me on the back and guiding me to Jesse’s side of the table, a long bench in front of a vast dresser, full of family trinkets.
‘It ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before.’ He smiled, his face lighting up as he considered me. I silently resolved to ask Lil how she’d managed to employ not one, but two guys who looked like they’d take on a grizzly and win, before posing for a high-fashion photo shoot. Even without the cowboy hat, with his sandy hair swept back and stormy grey eyes fixed on mine, I had to look away at the table to keep from staring. ‘I’ve got two sisters,’ he continued, as if my stare was nothing out of the ordinary. ‘I’ve seen just about every emotion on the damn scale – sometimes all at the very same time, if I’m real lucky.’
He winked, stretching over to steal a piece of bacon just as Lil reached the table and offloaded a short stack of pancakes onto each plate. There were two empty spaces – one for her and one for . . .
‘There you are,’ Lil said, swatting away Jesse’s hand as he reached out for more bacon.
Cole.
This time, shirt firmly in place and buttons done right up to the neck – just as I’d done with mine – he carried his hat over to the pegs on the wall and placed it next to three others.
‘Who wants eggs?’ Lil asked, juggling another two pans on the stove.
‘Yep,’ Jesse and Bailey said, now fighting over the coffee and cream.
‘Can I give you a hand?’ Cole asked in a voice low, approaching Lil, his eyes averted from the table.
My traitorous heart began to pound, but I held my neutral expression in place. Even if my eyes did slide down to his ass, hugged pretty perfectly by the Wranglers wrapped around it.
Lil threw him a grateful look but shook her head. I noticed again the deep furrows under her eyes, the manic flyaway hairs around her hairline. Although never polished, Lil had always been put together, scrubbed and made up, pretty enough to turn heads without a whisper of make-up. But now . . . it was as though her seams were exposed, ragged and worn at the edges.
I pretended to listen as Bailey messed with Jesse, but I poured myself a coffee and took a sip, resolving to help. Really help. I’d combine straightening out my life, job hunting, Kyle, all of it – but Lil would take equal priority. I owed her.
‘Nice to meet you again. Almost didn’t recognize you with your clothes on.’
The room suddenly went quiet, just the crackle of eggs frying on the stove as I looked up from my mug into Cole’s eyes. He held his own poker face, just a hint of amusement tugging at the corner of his mouth as he sat down, reaching for the orange juice.
‘Likewise,’ I replied quietly, a suffocating mix of embarrassment, annoyance and pure, feral attraction merging into one word.
At Jesse and Bailey’s shock, Lil laughed.
‘Cole was chopping logs by the store, woke Lottie up in her tiny little city pyjamas.’
Jesse snorted.
