Page 199 of Ride a Cowboy

No doubt her protector intended to minimize the damage she’d done in terms of compromising their cover story. Climbing the stairs, she tried to summon a bit of guilt for messing things up. For some reason, she couldn’t do it. Foolish or not, she felt safe here. Her gut told her she could trust these people. It had been a long time since she’d experienced that. It gave her hope for the future. Maybe she wouldn’t always be frightened. Maybe the old Bridget was still inside, lurking, waiting for the right time to reemerge.

Please let that be true.

She had reached the door to her room when she recalled Matt’s tempting offer. She smiled and let herself pretend she really was on vacation. She may be a city girl, but she had no doubt she was more than ready to saddle up and ride with those cowboys. She could just imagine all the juicy daydreams she could conjure up in regards to the James brothers.

Maybe her time spent in this room wouldn’t be so boring after all.

For the first time in a long time, the downhill spiral of her life appeared to be changing direction. Yee haw.

Chapter 2

The next morning, Bridget sat down for breakfast in the B&B’s dining room. As she’d expected, Rodney had given her an ass-chewing of epic proportions the previous afternoon. It was well deserved, but she was still smarting a bit from it.

The only reason she had been allowed to come back out in public was because Rodney had determined Todd, Steven and the hunky twin cowboys were decent guys who didn’t have a clue who she and Rodney really were. Besides, as he’d said, the damage was done. There were now witnesses who could identify them to anyone who came looking. The four men would become suspicious if she suddenly took to hiding in the room. He’d decided it would be better if they went about their business as if everything were normal. However, he stressed she wasn’t allowed to set one foot outside the inn.

So much for her riding lessons dream.

Because of the mess she’d made, Rodney’s new goal was to find a secluded cabin to rent in the woods near Saratoga while they tried to piece out the clues in the remainder of the letter.

Much to her chagrin, they would have to leave the B&B immediately. Bridget was loath to return to the solitary existence that had become her normal life the past few months. While Rodney was nice company, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed people until yesterday’s flirtatious conversation with Matt and Mark. She was tired of being alone and lonely.

Guilt pierced her heart with that thought. Lyle’s face as he lay dead on the cold warehouse floor flashed before her eyes. She was doing this for him. She’d made him a promise that night. Three more weeks. Twenty-one days until she could see justice served. She owed that to Lyle. Until then, it was too selfish to wish for anything else.

Once she’d repaid that debt, she’d figure out a way to return to her own life. She just prayed she could find it again.

“That’s not a very happy face.”

Bridget jumped, nearly spilling the glass of water Todd had put in front of her only a few minutes earlier. “Oh God!”

“Damn. Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” Quick hands reached out to catch the water.

Speak of the devils. Bridget glanced up to find Matt and Mark looking down at her.

“Hey,” she said, the racing of her heart no longer based on fear. The sight of the cowboys sent her body into overdrive. “What are you guys doing here?”

Mark removed his hat, running his hand through his hair. “Todd offered us a big breakfast as a thank you for moving the oven. We don’t turn down one of his western omelets.”

“They’re that good?”

Matt followed his brother’s lead, removing his hat as well. “Best in the state. Sorry about scaring you. Thought you saw us walk in.”

She shrugged off her unwanted fears, forcing a lie from her lips. “I was daydreaming.”

“Must have been some dream to take you so far away. Didn’t look like a particularly nice one either,” Mark said.

She used to believe nightmares were only for sleeping. However, after spending the past six months wide awake in the midst of a horrible dream, she now knew better.

She forced the unpleasant thought from her mind and painted on a smile. For now, she was exactly where she wanted to be—surrounded by nice people in a place that felt safe and homey. She’d focus on that instead. She gestured at the empty seats across from her. “Would you like to join me?”

Mark grinned. “Thought you’d never ask.”

She rubbed her hands on her lap as they each claimed a chair at the table. Sweaty palms? Was it due to anxiety from her earlier concerns or girlish nervousness over being so close to the James twins? Rodney would kill her for pushing her luck, but she was running perilously low on common sense or care these days.

The months since Lyle’s shooting had passed in one long blur of constant pain, limitless fatigue and never-ending motion. She was tired of being suspicious of everyone.

Prior to Lyle’s murder, she’d never known a stranger. She’d won friendliest in her high school yearbook’s Who’s Who, and she missed talking to people, hanging out with friends, dating. Most of all, she really missed sex. Not that she was promiscuous, but criminy, it had been nearly a year since she’d even kissed a member of the opposite sex. She wasn’t cut out for a chaste lifestyle.

On top of the everlasting horniness, it was exhausting to look at everyone as the enemy. She hated walking into a room and wondering if someone there was plotting her death. There was something comfortable about the handsome twins that told her she could trust them.

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