Page 47 of Texas Scandal

“Funny how family can manipulate us,” he said with the kind of wistfulness that said there was a story behind those words. Since she needed a distraction from her own family drama, she decided to ask about Tiernan’s.

“What happened in yours, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“My father died when I was in elementary school,” he started. “My grandfather stepped in to be ‘the man’ of the family and destroyed it instead.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Tiernan,” she said. “Is that why you don’t live on your family’s ranch?”

“It’s a big part of it,” he said. “We all jumped ship the minute we turned eighteen.”

“What about your mother? Are the two of you close?” she asked.

“Looking back now, I was a jerk to take off the way I did,” he said. “She did her best to mediate. I think she just wanted us to have something from our dad and that was the reason she put up with her father-in-law.”

“You were barely out of high school when you left,” she said. “We all thought we had life figured out back then, didn’t we?”

He chuckled, and it was the first break in tension this morning. “I can’t speak for you but I was an arrogant little twit. More testosterone than common sense.”

“I read somewhere our brains aren’t fully developed until we’re twenty, so there’s that,” she said.

“Explains a lot of my bad choices early in life,” he said. “Not the ones I made later, I’m afraid.”

Tiernan was finally opening up about his personal life, so she decided to capitalize on the moment.

“A story like that always begins with a romance,” she said, ignoring the flush she felt along with the twinge of jealousy.

“I recently made a bad decision there, too,” he said. “Guess I can’t blame youth, hormones and inexperience on that one.”

“People can slip past the radar,” she said. “Doesn’t mean we’re stupid. Just means we actually trusted someone who took advantage of us.”

His self-deprecating laugh probably shouldn’t charm her. “When you put it like that, I don’t feel like as much of an idiot.”

“You’re not,” she said. “Believe me. We’ve all been there at one time or another.”

“Explain,” he urged.

“I was engaged after college,” she admitted. Before he could accuse her of baiting him to get his secrets, she added, “Looking back, he would have turned out just like my father and brother. We were the ‘perfect’ couple on the outside. Both came from politically climbing families. My father approved very much, despite the fact Brently Fox would have cheated behind my back and never truly loved me. Between that and my father’s behavior in general, I stopped trusting everyone a very long time ago.”

Tiernan studied the stretch of road in front of him for a long moment. “Sounds like a lonesome way to live.”

“When you put it like that, it is,” she conceded. “I never get hurt, though.” To say she had daddy issues was a lot like saying brown was a color. But she was just beginning to realize how deep those scars were.

“Never take a risk. Never get burned,” he agreed, nodding. Then his tone changed. “I rode broncos when I was younger and there were rides that scared the hell out of me deep down. I never let those fears take the wheel. Fear is good. It’s built in us to keep us alive. Sure doesn’t make us happy, though. Some of the highlights of my career came because I stared those fears in the eyes and dared them to do their best.”

“I can’t imagine how scary your job must have been,” she said, not quite ready to run toward the unknown or what scared her. “I’ve always taken a safe route there, too.” Looking over her life so far, she’d never pushed out of her comfort zone until recently. And despite the dangerous circumstances, she’d never felt more alive.

Could she face down her fear enough to ask Tiernan what she wanted? One night of distraction. One night of getting lost with him. One night of what would be the best sex of her life?

She opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it shut when his cell started buzzing.

Chapter Nineteen

“Where the hell are you?” Prescott asked. He’d never been one to lose his composure, so Tiernan was taken aback. This wasn’t a good sign considering they were in the middle of a murder investigation and the sheriff had blinders on when it came to other suspects.

“Anywhere you want us to be,” he responded, hoping this new development wasn’t as bad as he feared it might be. “Why?”

“How fast can you get home?” Prescott continued.

“Half an hour,” he responded. He’d have to push the speed limit. “Do we get to know why?”

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