Page 32 of Texas Hold Em'
I took a draw, held the smoke in my lungs for a moment, and released. “Come here.”
Carrie studied me coolly. “Why?”
“Why?” I looked her over from head to toe. She had some nerve walking out of this place looking like that and not telling me what she was up to. It was all a ploy. I knew that. Carrie wasn’t the sort of woman to dress in revealing clothes and go for a walk on the town. She was a Ranger through and through. But this little getup? It worked for me. “Because I fucking told you to, that’s why.”
Carrie’s lips pressed together in a firm line. For a moment, I thought she was going to give me a piece of her mind, but I realized she was trying not to smile.
“I don’t have to listen to you, you know,” she said.
I flicked ash and leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. “You’re not going to tell me what you were doing, are you?”
She shook her head slyly.
Damn her. And damn me for liking the added layer of mystery. Her fearless edge had captivated me last night, and now I found myself even more drawn to her and that mischievous glint in her blue eyes. The woman was controlled chaos, if there was such a thing, and more than anything I just wanted to understand her.
Who was she when she was alone?
What thoughts consumed her when it was only her and a silent room?
Was she as fearless in her own company as she was in mine?
Carrie wandered toward me, taking her time with seductive strides as she pushed her hips out with every step. The muscles of her exposed stomach shifted under taut skin and she tucked her long blonde hair behind one ear. The red lipstick she’d applied shortly before leaving the house had faded to a dark pink, and it wasn’t as defined around the edges of her lips as it had been two hours ago.
“Were you worried about me?” she asked.
“Worried?” I flicked the rest of my cigarette and crushed it under my boot. The butt lay squashed and dead with all the others beside a sprout of green weed attempting to climb between the paving stone cracks. “Sweetheart, you must have me confused with someone else.”
“Really?” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Because from where I’m standing, you seemed a little worried.”
Devil woman. “I know you can handle yourself,” I said.
She stopped about two feet away from me. “Do you trust me, Tex?”
I searched her eyes. “That’s a complicated question.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” My gut wanted to say that yes, I did trust her, but my head swirled with all of Jackson’s warnings and his own doubt about her. This was a woman completely capable of doinganything.If she wanted to, she could kill me. I was sure of that.
And there was always a chance that she intended to do just that.
However, as I looked into her eyes, I didn’t see menace or malintent. I saw openness and a silent plea on her parted lips.
She wanted exactly what I wanted.
“I want to trust you,” I said, because that was the only thing I could say that wasn’t a lie, and for some reason, I didn’t want to lie to her.
She nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Do you trust me?”
Carrie smiled. Instead of answering me, she pulled her red crop top off over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her tits were a milky white compared to the rest of her tanned skin. She squeezed them together in her hands and whispered, “I want to.”
That was all I needed to hear.
I surged forward, swept her up in my arms, and pushed her back into the kitchen, where I pinned her against the cabinets while I tore her leggings off. She giggled and gasped as I tore the fabric free, and once she stood before me in nothing but a strappy pair of black underwear, I nipped at her lips for a desperate kiss.
She held my face in her hands and kissed me back, panting against my lips, her breasts crushed against my ribs. I had to lean down to her to make up for our difference in height, but I loved how she felt in my arms. She wasn’t a fragile woman, quite the opposite, but she was petite. She knew how to use her body to her advantage in a fight, I was sure, and she could probably hold me at bay for a time, but I loved how she softened to me.
