Page 30 of Cowboy Under Siege

How could one small nonsexual touch make her feel so hot and sweaty?

She pressed her lips against any little sound of want that might slip out. Between this man throwing her off balance and the situation she was in, she had to findsomethingwithin her control.

“Or you could have just asked me for the code,” she argued.

He ignored her comment. “The only contacts you have are for your accountant, your personal banker and your friend.”

He glanced up from her phone and met her stare.

“What friend is that?” she asked.

“Someone named Mina.”

“She’s not my friend. She’s my hair stylist.”

Lowering the phone, he let out a heavy breath. “Your phone makes me sad.”

Fury flooded her. With a gasp of outrage, she snatched the device from his hand. “How dare you judge who I do and don’t allow into my life! Who would you be close to if you learned from an early age not to get attached and now you really can’t trust anyone?”

Her chest felt ready to explode. The last thing she wanted to be reminded of was how alone she was. As if she hadn’t spent her entire life feeling like an outsider, a freak. Even her own father accepted money from her mother to give up parental rights.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” He rested a hand on her knee, and she shoved it away.

“You have brothers. Even if you do shout at them,” she muttered.

He bowed his head. “I spoke too hastily. I only meant that it makes me sad that you don’t have someone to turn to, Trinny. Forgive me.”

His apology seared through her, threatening to incinerate the wall she had to keep shoring up whenever he was around.

She needed to shift the focus off her. “Whatwereyou fighting with your brothers about, Jaren?”

He didn’t respond.

“Corrine said it was over me.”

He stared for a long minute before he finally blinked. “Corrine needs to watch what she blurts out.” He pushed out of his crouched position. Long legs and a hard ass moved out of her vision.

She got up and stormed after him to a set of modern patio doors that opened the entire wall to a massive deck overlooking the wilderness. He stood looking out.

Without turning, he said, “You’re right—I have my brothers. Not only the two you met, but two who are still in Georgia. All of them would gut a man for me if I asked.”

She winced at the barbaric sound of that. Every minute she spent in this man’s company, he cracked the door open further, giving her a glimpse into just how wild and dangerous he might be.

How dangerous he IS.

A shiver rolled through her, and she wrapped her arms around her middle.

He must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned sharply to face her. “In this business, we have to trust each other. I can’t imagine the life you describe, doll…but I’m here to help you.”

She dropped her stare to his boots. “Trust is a big word I know very little about. But the people I do let in are part of my life for a reason. The three contacts in my phone?” She met his stare. “Are my personal tribe. Before I left, I bought a new phone and changed my number. After a big purge, those three people were all I had left. They’re the only ones who made the cut.”

He nodded as if he understood, but how could he? He had brothers, a family, ateam.

“You could have just told me that you bought a new phone before I checked it for trackers, Trinny.”

She grunted. “You didn’t give me a chance. Do you want to go through my purse too, by chance?”

She stuffed as much in her purse as possible simply because her level of paranoia had hit an all-time high. She wouldn’t take any chances with the few things she needed or held dear.

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