It was all about the woman who was close to driving me insane. Right out of my godforsaken mind. This heedlessness that I couldn’t tame getting loose of its chains.

Wanted to kick myself in the damn head for sending that picture last night.

I’d fucking tried to keep it friendly.

The scrape with her father had reminded me why I had to.

But seeing her through the week had whittled that conviction down to shit.

And there I’d gone, pushing her in the direction that she kept saying that she didn’t want to go.

Problem was, the way she looked at me told an entirely different story.

I’d nearly lost it when she’d gotten back from work yesterday evening. A crack running right down my middle when I’d seen the way she’d sat in the cab of her SUV staring out the windshield at the house as if she were coming home for the first time.

Like she’d finally stumbled on where she belonged.

Then she’d stepped out and I’d been slammed by her aura.

Floored by the sight.

So fucking pretty in that western outfit that it’d taken every ounce of willpower I’d possessed not to toss myself right over the railing to go striding for her, but there’d been no stopping the truth of my words from sliding out.

I’d always had a thing for cowgirls.

But with her? It was something more. Something that should send me running but instead had me contemplating foolish things.

I mean, fuck, this was Douglas Wagner’s daughter we were talking about. Not that I blamed him, but the dude fucking hated me and could have me by the balls if he wanted to.

He was the one person who’d discovered what I’d been involved in.

A desperate man getting mixed up with corrupt people often had a catastrophic effect.

And believe me, it’d been fucking catastrophic.

I still had no goddamn clue how I’d walked out of the wreckage still standing. Still breathing.

And there I was, the fool that kept crawling back in that same direction.

I’d hit a breaking point last night when she’d flipped off her light and the window had gone dark.

Visions assaulted me.

Fantasies.

Ones of her on the other side of the wall.

In her bed.

Naked and spread out.

Fuck me, I wanted to disappear into the curves of that lush, tempting body.

Dive into the clear, endless depths of those eyes.

Fuck her out of my mind because the obsession I was forming was getting out of control.

But I knew that wasn’t going to happen.