Page 30 of Wrangled Up

Sweet Claire with the round limbs and honey lips. Giving her a night of passion was more than she deserved. He’d been shocked athow Christian had held himself in check with her, not touching her until Tucker gave him the go-ahead. Out of respect for Tucker? Or was there another reason?

Tucker cranked on the hot water in the shower and stripped out of his sweaty clothes. When he stepped under the spray, visions of his last shower struck him fully in the gut.

“Fuck.” He couldn’t even get away from Claire here. She was going to be his goddamn end. Giving himself again was out of the question. But hadn’t he done just that when he dragged her into his life?

Holding back with her was as impossible as with Heather.

He soaped himself, washed it all off and got the hell out of the shower.

The ham steak was calling to him.

But when he got to the restaurant, they were out of ham steak. And the waitress wore a dress not unlike Claire’s waitress uniform.

Christ, what was he going to do?

Part of him yearned to move along down the highway. Look for a new place to dig in. His roots were miles away, back at the ranchwith his horses and his green fields—with Claire and Christian.

As he forked a bite of chicken and dumplings into his mouth, he turned away from any idea of going home yet. His head was a mess, and he had to get it screwed on straight before confronting his ghosts and one little curly-haired angel.

He had no idea what to do with the emotions coursing through him for Claire. She deserved much better than a broken-down cowboy who was still in love with his dead fiancée.

She deserves someone like Christian.

Pain plucked at his heartstrings. What if he returned to find that Claire and Christian had hooked up? Christian was the perfect no-baggage solution to Claire’s needs. And theyhadenjoyed each other in bed.

Shaking himself, Tucker set aside his fork and tossed a few bills on the table.

“Was there something wrong with your chicken and biscuits?” the waitress asked.

“No, it was fine.”There’s something wrong with me.

As he walked back to the motel, he couldn’t stop the freight train of his thoughts from barreling out of control. If he wanted Claire, claiming her would be easy enough. She was just waiting for him. But he wasn’t the kind of guy to switch directions so easily. Once his sights were set on a goal, he rushed at it with all speed. Trouble was, he’d been running toward Heather forever. He didn’t know how to stop.

Chapter Five

“Davis, heads up!”

Christian braced his forearms on the man-sized hole he’d just dug to lay pipe in and popped his head over the rim. He spotted the excavator rolling toward him and his fellow road workers scattering out of its way.

Locking his muscles, Christian hoisted himself, throwing his upper body across the ground. Then he scrambled up and out of the way.

As he stood at the roadside, covered in crumbles of earth, he watched the equipment straddle the hole and continue on down the road.

He started back to his hole—joining pipes a solid goal in his mind—when a horn blast made him look up.

Traffic was backed up for half a mile on this stretch of single-lane construction, but there weren’t so many cars that he didn’t immediately pick out the old, faded blue one that belonged to Claire’s Aunt Letty.

A grin stretched over his face so far, his cheeks ached. Heat bloomed in his stomach and began a heavy throb in his groin.

Jogging across the road to her, he ducked to smile through her open window.

“Hey, asphalt cowboy. You feeling that barn work this morning as much as I am?” Her hair was pulled back today in a messy knot, the curls a riot of dark springs.

“Yessum.” He tipped his hard hat into his hands and cradled it before him. This morning, they’d met in the barn at first light in order to muck out as many stalls as possible before he had to come to work.

She chewed on her lower lip then released it with agonizing slowness. He watched each plump bit emerge from her white teeth, his heart a wild staccato. His gaze locked onto the wetness on that luscious, pink lip.

“You got to go back to bed?” He’d tucked her exhausted form into her car after their hard work and sent her home, hoping she’d crawlback into bed before her own shift at the diner. Only one of them was going to be completely dead on their feet, if he had his way.

---