Page 4 of Rainwater
“A man with backboneandsass,” she teased. She watched the wide grin slash across his face and wished for more time with him.
What was she? Crazy? She had enough trouble. More than she could handle right now with Ellie and the Triple X, not to mention Jay. She knew she hadn’t heard the last from him. Besides, this stranger was involved some way with the rodeo. She was sure. And she couldn’t let history repeat itself. She wouldn’t.
“Down this road, you said?” he questioned while his bright eyes traveled over her face, then touched intimately on her hair as if it were changing colors or something equally magnificent.
She got the strange feeling that he was as reluctant to leave, as she was reluctant to let him.
Ignoring the weakness that his smile aroused, she managed to keep the breathlessness out of her voice. “Yes. You can’t miss it. Why don’t you come to dinner tonight?” The words were out of her mouth before she could engage her brain. “After all, you saved me from getting punched out. The least I can do to repay you for your help is give you a home-cooked meal.” She stumbled over the words like a tongue-tied teenager. Her face flushed again.
He went very still. The raw pain that passed across his face wrenched something deep inside her.Who’d hurt him, she wondered. Who had hurt him so much that a friendly invitation to dinner would make him look as though someone had ripped open a wound? She remembered what Jay had called him and winced inside. Derogatory words came easily to Jay.Even in this PC time, how many times had Corey’s heritage been belittled, she wondered.
He had been hurt enough to make a simple dinner invitation seem like a gift from God.
He looked at her so long she thought he wasn’t going to say anything. He rubbed at his eyes and pushed his hair back again. His voice cracked slightly when he finally answered.
“That’s very kind of you, but I’ll have to decline.” He paused and looked down the street as if trying to maintain his composure.
At his refusal of her invitation, she felt slightly relieved and intensely disappointed at the same time.
“You don’t owe me anything, by the way,” he said. “Creeps like that cowboy need to be taken down a notch or two. I don’tlike seeing women abused.” He looked at her suddenly and the fierceness in his eyes caused her chest to tighten. “I especially don’t like seeing you abused.” His jaw clenched and he closed his eyes wearily, and she suddenly noticed how tired and drawn-out he looked. “Any decent man would have done what I did.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” She looked away because the vulnerability in his expression was too much to bear. Why did people have to be so damn narrow-minded?
“They didn’t seem too eager to help.” She gestured to the men and women who were still giving them interested glances as they made their way to their cars. “Everyone in this town is afraid of Jay and his brothers. They were bullies in high school, and they’ve only gotten meaner and nastier since then.”
“My advice would be to stay away from him, but I guess that’s hard to do in a small town.” He pushed away from the bike with a sigh.
“I would, but he won’t stay away from me.” Jennifer remembered the painful grip Jah had on her wrist in the bar two nights ago. Remembered his pawing and his sweaty face pressed to hers. She got disgusted all over again.
Corey’s eyebrows snapped into a frown. “Is he stalking you?”
“He considers himself irresistible and something of a lady’s man. I bruised his ego. He’ll get over it. I think he’s harmless, at least I thought so before today.”
He looked as though he was going to say something else, but then changed his mind. “Why don’t you report him to the sheriff?”
“The sheriff? He’s been trying to find evidence on Jay and his brothers to put them away, but he hasn’t been able to get anybody to press charges. Like I said, everyone in this town fears him.”
“Why is that?” Corey asked, drawing closer to her.
“Things happen to people who cross Jay.”
“Scare tactics. Very effective. Steer clear of him, darlin’,” he drawled softly, then, unexpectedly taking her hand, he brought it to his mouth and placed a soft kiss where her thumb joined her wrist. “Thank you, Jennifer Horn, for the directions and the dinner invitation.” He dropped her hand almost reluctantly and slipped on the mirrored sunglasses, but then peeked over them. “Stay away from jackasses. They bray awfully loud, but they can kick pretty hard.”
She smiled. She was flustered and tried not to show it. The kiss was just a brush of his lips, but she felt the contact as if it were a fiery brand. He rewarded her with a slight upturning of his mouth. Then he laughed softly. He pulled the gloves out of his belt, slipped them on, then reached back to pull the hat on, cinching it tight under his chin.
“Take care, Corey,” she murmured, her regret rising unexpectedly, leaving her with an inexplicable feeling of emptiness.
He straddled the bike and Jennifer couldn’t help noticing the thick, rippling muscles in his thighs. Definitely a rodeo rider, with legs like that.
“I will, and thanks again for your help and the gracious invitation to a stranger.” He tipped his hat and a flare of awareness punched her in the gut. Why she found the simple act sexy, she couldn’t comprehend.
“You’ll be okay?”
“Yes,” she said pointing to her green truck with the Triple X’s on the side of the door. “My truck’s right over there.”
She watched him ride away, watched until he was out of sight.Trouble. He looked like big-time trouble to her. An outlaw with a gallant streak. A battle-scarred warrior, from the looks of him. Thief of hearts, if ever she saw one. She needed to steer a wide berth around him while he was in town.
It was safer for her.
