Chapter Three

 

At first she thought she was dreaming. She felt the hard, warm body spooned against her, heard the soft sound of his breath near her ear. Sleep pulled at her and the thought flitted through her mind that she preferred the dream to reality.

Then it sank in. This wasn’t a dream. That hard, warm body pressed against her back was Clint and this was his bed.

Shit on a stick. Memories of last night came rushing back. Her dad had been right. She had a habit of leaping before looking. She should never have had sex with Clint. This was just going to make things more awkward.

She needed to leave. Before he woke.

Well, maybe just five more minutes. It felt so good, and it had been so long since she’d felt this safe. Or satisfied.

The teenaged Clint she’d known and loved had been passionate and eager, but he sure as shit hadn’t known his way around a woman’s body the way he did now. It would be way too easy to get hooked on him. Regardless of the years that had passed, first love was one that was not easily forgotten.

To be reunited with her first love and discover that making love with him was the stuff dreams were made of made him dangerous. She’d had her heart stomped on enough. She didn’t think she could take another stomping and sure as hell, if she stayed, Clint would end up breaking her heart.

His life stood testament to that. He was damn near forty and had never married. Which meant he wasn’t interested in commitment. She doubted her sudden appearance in his life was going to change that. People were who they were. That was a lesson she’d learned the hard way. Anyone who thought they could change someone else was a fool.

She’d been a fool once, when she’d married Eddie. She might be rash and prone to leap before looking, but she also followed the old cliché “once bitten, twice shy.”

Lily eased away from Clint and paused to make sure her movements had not wakened him. When his did not move, she sat and swung her legs over the edge of the bed to stand.

Just as she started to rise, she felt his arm go around her middle and pull her back down, engulfing her in his arms.

“Where you going, Lil? It’s not even daylight.”

She untangled herself from his arms. “I can’t stay here.”

“Why not?”

“Because!” She jumped up, heedless of her nudity and the way he was smiling at her. “I can’t. I’m not a charity case, someone for you to take in because I can’t fend for myself.”

“I never thought you were,” he argued.

“How could you not?” She threw her arms out to her sides. “For crying out loud, look at me!”

“I am,” he said around a grin.

Lily’s hands balled into fists in frustration and fell to her sides. “Clint, I’m serious. I don’t want sympathy.”

“Lil.” He scooted over to her side of the bed and stood to face her. “You’re letting your pride get in the way of your good sense.” He put his hands on the tops of her shoulders. “Now don’t give me that look. I know you don’t like hearing it, but it’s true. If you leave now, where’re you gonna go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why leave?”

“Because.” She mentally cursed herself. That was a stupid answer. Made her sound like some stubborn kid. But there was no way she could tell him the truth. “Because I need to earn my own way, not sponge off others.”

“Fine, then work for me.”

“What?”

“Well, you said you were a trainer. I’ve got two colts ready now, and more on the way. Cam and I are buying some wild horses from a guy in Arizona. They were gonna be put down if they weren’t sold.”

She chewed her lip for a moment. “You and Cam could train them.”

“Yeah, we could. But it’s getting close to market and we’ve got a lot of cattle to tend to and get ready. We could use an extra hand. Hell, we talked about hiring someone last week.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

She considered it for all of five seconds. She might be a fool to take the offer, but she didn’t have any other options at the moment. At least she could earn some money and, when she had enough, she could figure out where to go.

“Okay, how much does it pay?”

Clint laughed. “Already figuring up your budget to get the hell outta Dodge, Lil?”

She looked down, a little embarrassed that he’d read her so well. He put two fingers under her chin to tilt her face up. “No pressure,” he said softly. “But I’d really like you to stay.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he said and grinned.

She smiled up at him. “Well, when you put it that way. Okay, boss, what’s the first order of business?”

Clint chuckled and pulled her to him. “We’re not quite ready for business.”

Lily knew in her bones it was a mistake. She should draw a line. Mixing business and pleasure always led to trouble. The problem was, as had been pointed out her entire life, she was a total sucker for trouble.

Shoving doubts and reason into an already jumbled closet of problems in the back of her mind, she met his lips.