Page 46 of Cowboy Devil's Embrace

“Don’t thank me. I bought it like this on purpose.”

“So short people couldn’t get in?” I teased.

“Nah. So one day I’d have an excuse to help a pretty woman climb on up,” he said, close enough to my ear, shivers raced down my spine like wild horses across a plain.

I pretended not to be affected, but the knowing smirk on his too handsome face said he knew better.

I sat primly as he closed the door and buckled my seatbelt, pretending that didn’t just happen.

Pretty woman.

Yeah, right. More like women. Just how many had he had in this truck?

Look at him, Pen, he must have hundreds of girls he can call on a second’s notice.

This was a mistake.

I was an idiot for agreeing to go out with him. Max was a stranger, and I was still pulling my life together after the divorce.

“Hold on, I see your brain working a mile a minute. Tell me what’s wrong,” he said, those brilliant blue eyes of his narrowed on my face as he put the truck into drive.

“Look, um, Avery meant well trying to shove us together?—”

“That’s your friend from the other night?” he interrupted.

Gosh, his truck smelled good.

Like new.

I couldn’t help but breathe in deep, and oh boy, was that a mistake.

If I had a weakness when it came to men, it was cologne.

I hated overly pungent smells of any kind and before right then I would have been ready to bet Max wore something over the top.

Except, when I breathed in, I was greeted by something dark and spicy just beneath that new car scent.

Whatever fragrance he wore, it wasn’t overwhelming in the least.

It was subtle.

Sexy.

Probably expensive.

But I didn’t hate it.

Not at all.

I sucked in another breath, closing my eyes as I tried to identify what it was.

Was that sandalwood?

And leather.

Wait, there was more. Like the woods or a pine forest?

And there was an elusive spiciness, too.

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