Page 15 of Make Me Crazy (Loco, Texas 2)

“I’m never drinking again.” She moaned in agony.

He smiled in spite of her misery. “Yeah, I’ve said that before too.”

When the retching ceased, she leaned against the side of his truck, and whispered, “I puked on the front of my shirt.”

He grimaced. “You have any attachment to it?”

“No, why?” She asked tiredly.

He took out his pocket knife. “Because I’d rather not stink up my truck.”

She didn’t protest, which told him exactly how out of it she was. He cut through the back of the t-shirt, praying she wouldn’t move and noticed she was still wearing the wrap. “Okay I’m going to open the truck. Slide the shirt off and crawl inside.”

“What if someone sees me?” Her words were slurred and impatience took over.

“Rand, you’re wearing a sports bra and some kind of wrap thing. You’re more decent that most of the women in that bar.”

She didn’t say anything else, just slid the shirt off and opened the truck to crawl in.

“Do you need anything from your truck?” He asked the question as he pulled his keys out of his pocket and climbed in behind her.

She shook her head and lay down across the seat, her head resting on his thigh. The little brain in his pants jumped to attention at the contact, and he cursed as he started the truck. Backing up slowly, he pulled out onto the highway, reaching down to run his hand over her hair, the strands soft as a rabbit’s fur against his palm. His fingers trailed over the contours of her face of their own volition, and she moved against him with a moan.

His erection danced again at the feel of her warm breath against his jean clad thigh. Damn it, he should not be having this reaction to Rand, especially after watching her puke her guts out. He heard her soft breathing over the sounds of the truck engine and almost turned the radio up, but her voice stopped him. “Thank you for taking me home.”

“Hey, you’ve taken care of my drunk ass enough times, it was about time I returned the favor,” he said, smiling in the dark as he rubbed her back.

There was quiet again briefly before she apologized, “I’m sorry for drinking so much.”

“Its fine, Rand, just take a nap.”

The drive back to the Double C was quiet and when he parked the truck in front of her porch, she didn’t even stir. He tapped her arm lightly and said, “Hey, you’re home.”

She started to sit up, but grabbed her head about halfway up with a groan. “Shit, Jake, stop the truck please.”

“Is the world turning too quickly for you?” He asked, chuckling. Opening the door swiftly, he caught her wince as the dome light hit her. “You okay?”

“Ugh, bright.”

He laughed again and hopped out of the truck, coming around to the passenger side. He opened the door in time to catch her as she stumbled out of the truck. “Whoa,” he said, holding her up with an arm around her waist. “Come on drunky, let’s put you to bed.”

He took a few steps and just gave up helping her walk, finally resorting to picking her up into his arms. For a tall girl, she wasn’t as heavy as he was expecting and he marched across the drive and up the porch, reaching awkwardly for the door knob. He made a beeline for her room, ignoring Scout’s high pitched meows until the damn cat almost tripped him.

“Stupid cat, get out of the way,” he said as he kicked the door open lightly. He tried to lay her on the bed gently, slowly pulling his arms out from under her, and flexing them. She might not be that heavy, but dead weight was a killer to lug around.

When she moaned again, he walked into the bathroom and dampened a wash cloth in warm water, hoping to clean her up a bit. He turned on the light in the bedroom and reached into her drawer for some pajamas, and came up with a flannel night shirt that snapped in the front.

Moving back to the bed, he sat down next to her, and started to remove her clothes. She stirred, but her eyes didn’t open as she quietly asked, “What are you doing?”

He dropped her boots to the ground and went to work on her socks. “I’m just going to clean you up and get you ready for bed.” Once the socks were gone, his hand reached up to unbuttoned the top of her jeans.

Her response was a soft snore, and he unzipped the rough denim, sliding the jeans down over hips and long, long legs. He tried not to look at her simple cotton briefs, or the soft skin of her thighs, as he pulled the jeans all the way off, but damn it, her legs were amazing. Shapely, pale limbs of hard muscle that he knew from experience could wrap around a man.

He lifted her up to a sitting position and took the edge of her wrap, unraveling the fabric until the sports bra was all that was left. Trying to distract himself, he started listing everything he needed to order for the store as he reached out and lifted the white cotton bra up and over her breasts. He glanced down and his throat tightened as he got a look at what Rand had been hiding from the world.

Her breasts were perfect, just full enough to fill a man’s hand and firm, the pink nipples hard against the cool air. Looking away, he tried concentrating on the bra again. It was stuck on her arms and a sweat broke out over his skin as he pulled the bra all the way off and threw it with a curse. Keeping his eyes on anything but her chest, he took her arm and slipped it into the flannel shirt, then pulled her forward so he could wrap it around her back and slip her other arm through the sleeve. He quickly snapped the front closed and laid her back down, drawing a ragged breath of relief.

Picking up the wash cloth, he gently cleaned her face. She weakly protested the coolness of the rag and when he finished he stood up to see what she had in the kitchen. Stopping by the cat’s bowl to dump some food inside, the ungrateful creature actually growled at him.

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