Page 9 of Guarded Hearts

The one staring at her lips as if they’d done him some personal injustice.

Or as if he wanted to lay claim to them.

Her insides clutched at the thought of being kissed by her ex now. The black stubble gracing his jaw wouldsearher sensitive skin. His lips appeared to be as firm as marble. And if he held her against his body, she might feel like she was hugging a hardwood tree.

That thought made her gaze drop. Before she realized where exactly her eyes were going, it was too late. She’d looked at the front of his jeans, searching for the outline of that long, thick, perfect cock that had been her first.

A chance he’d never get again, that was fordamnsure.

As she moved to the 19th-century cherry wood desk to start writing her lists, she grew aware of every twitch of Carson’s big body. She pulled out the chair and sank to it, keeping him in her peripheral vision.

Faye hadn’t been wrong to say he was handsome. Carson Malone had always been hot. Every girl who ever set eyes on him would attest to that. But his boyishness had been altered as if from an artist’s brush.

Where there was once a chiseled jaw, it was now sliced in with harder brushstrokes. His nose had been broken at some point, and he bore a scar above one brow, a jagged line that cut into the hairs and created a fine line.

He was tanned by the sun, as though he still worked outdoors on the family ranch. And he was…well, big all over now. His forearms were roped with muscle, and a line of star tattoos lined the underside from wrist to elbow.

She drew out a sheet of paper and began writing down the places where she’d lived in the past twenty years. Coming up with his second request was much more difficult.

None of the men in her past could ever be called boyfriends. They were merely guys who flitted in and out the door. Some had been better than others. But none had truly hooked her.

Not like Carson.

She swallowed hard against the painful lump that had lodged in her throat from the moment he spoke those first brutally cold words to her. Words she didn’t deserve. After all,hewalked away fromher.

He never came back to Wyoming, never called or wrote a single letter.

She steeled her spine. That pain was an echo from the past. Now, she had much, much bigger troubles. Each time her mind touched on the text message she’d received about the painting looking better above her bed, her blood ran cold.

Carson returned to the window, arms folded in a nonchalant pose. Layne ignored him and worked on her list.

When she finished, she got up and carried the paper to him.

He took it with a flicker in his eyes.

A painful twist in her stomach made her back away from him.

He glanced at the paper and skimmed it far too fast, giving little effort compared to the one she’d just exerted.

“This is it?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve only lived in New York City all this time?”

She nodded. “It’s my homebase. But I do stay in hotels and rental units all over the world when I travel. You’ll see the ones I stay at most often are listed.”

His stare didn’t leave her face. But it left her with a warm trickle low in her belly.

“And your list of boyfriends? This list only has six.”

She arched a brow. “So?”

“Six doesn’t sound like very many over a twenty-year period. Are you married?”

She tried not to show her response to that question. It was horrible enough getting questioned on a regular basis by her father, who thought his only daughter should settle down. She didn’t need Carson Malone giving her the third degree about her relationship status.

Or lack of.

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