Page 7 of Long Arm of the Cowboy

She was eyeing him again, her stare roaming over his bare chest and the front of his boxers. He might be flattered if she hadn’t called him a silver fox.

Okay, he had afewthreads of silver at his temples and in his beard too. But that didn’t mean he wasold.

I’m at my goddamn peak. In my goddamn prime.

Who was he kidding? Compared to Little Orphan Annie—Lark, whoever she was—he was ready for the raisin ranch and a diaper that would get changed once a day if he was lucky.

He shifted his stare to the car and back to her. With a heavy sigh, he pushed the door open wider. “Come in while I get some pants on.”

“Oh good.”

He stifled a groan of annoyance and left her standing in his entryway while he went in search of pants. Every step he took helped shake loose the effects of too little sleep and too many stimulants.

Could she really have a bomb in her trunk? He got the feeling this was just a bad joke on him, set up by one of the Wyntons at his last employer, WEST Protection. If it was real, why would that woman be so damn cheerful?

Any person who matched her shirt to her car was far too damn chipper for his cynical personality.

* * * * *

Clay went to put on those pants that Lark said he needed. Now she was second-guessing her statement.

Did the manreallyneed pants? His perfectly carved ass in those tight-as-skin boxer briefs said otherwise. In fact, any man with a bodythatfine should just burn everything in his closet and sit around in nothing but his underwear.

All that tanned muscle and a tattoo that wrapped around one bicep and his shoulder were enough to make a woman positively twitterpated.

She always loved that word. Society didn’t use it nearly enough, in her opinion.

On top of those creases around his narrowed eyes, and the silver streaks at his temples and in his dark beard, Clay Lexis had turned into onegorgeousman.

She breathed a little sigh of bliss, but her peace only lasted a heartbeat.

Why did she say that stuff about him being a silver fox? This was all her big brother Andrew’s fault. Always rushing her to get her words out. She learned to speak without thinking things through.

This was definitely going to bite her in the ass. Also…why did Clay have to have such a nice ass? She stared at the door of the room he’d disappeared into just as the big man darkened the doorway and walked back out, fully dressed in jeans, a black T-shirt and cowboy boots.

Lark’s insides gave a delicious little quiver at the sight of him looking all tough and rugged and…like he wanted to get rid of her.

He cut a hand through his hair. The brown mop of his teen years was now trimmed short and lay in spikes where his fingers mussed it.

“Come with me.” Without waiting for a response to his highhanded demand, he pivoted and walked away.

Lark’s stare snagged on his broad shoulders, they rocked side to side a little when he walked. When she dropped her stare to his straight spine and the rock-solid planes of his ass, down long, athletic legs clad in denim, she forgot why she was here, but she’d follow himanywhere.

At the front door, he paused to throw her a glance. “On second thought, you should stay here while I take a look in your car. If there really is a bomb—”

“There is.”

He cocked a brow at her. “Then I don’t want you anywhere near it.”

“Do you know how to defuse bombs?”

“Just stay here.”

She got caught up staring at his chest. Those pecs… She was pretty sure they were as good as the ones in the magazines. Those were air-brushed, but his were real.

He walked out of the house. She rushed to the door to watch his progress. Each step was precise and almost sexual.

Her brother’s friend had always been hot, but now Clay Lexis was a totalsnack.

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