Page 20 of Texas Scandal

“I had a great interview yesterday,” she said on a sharp sigh. “An offer was supposed to come through either last night or today.”

“You haven’t checked your phone to see,” he said. “How do you know it didn’t?”

“I’m afraid of my cell after what happened yesterday,” she admitted. “The second news gets out that I’m somehow connected to a murder, my mother will freak out. My current boss most likely blew up my phone with texts, demanding to know where I am. The man has no boundaries. Well, not actually him but someone else in the office will get that assigned task. I know that I need to check in considering the fact I have responsibilities but I just can’t right now.”

“I don’t blame you for not rushing toward that insanity,” he said.

“It would be nice to know if I got the offer, though,” she said. “I’m certain to lose my job and even if I don’t, I can’t go back there anymore. Not to work for a guy who thinks his college son can hit on me without any consequences.”

Tiernan felt his jaw muscle clench. “That is the furthest thing from being acceptable.”

“Tell my old boss that,” she quipped. Then, she studied his face for a long moment. “On second thought, maybe not.”

“I have a temper, but I’d never use it on someone,” he defended. “I learned to keep it under control years ago when I saw the aftershocks. Sure, it might feel good in the moment to get out the rage with a willing participant. In the long run, it only ever made things worse. Broke relationships to the point they could never be repaired.” He stopped himself right there before waxing too poetic.

She nodded. “I was angry with my father for so long and I just held it all inside. At some point, it becomes poison and you have to let it go.”

“Have you?” he asked.

“I’m a work in progress on that one,” she admitted. “Since my parents’ divorce, it’s been easy to restrict visits to holidays. I never have to stay long because I’m always off to the other person’s house.” She sat there, silent, for a moment that stretched on. “It occurs to me that I had a sibling I never met or knew about. How strange is that?”

“We might be able to get some information about the young man now that we have a name,” Tiernan offered, picking up his laptop.

A host of emotions played out across her face before she settled on saying, “Let’s do it and see what we come up with.”

He moved to sit beside her so he could share the screen. Their outer thighs touched, causing heat to rocket through him. The urge to lean into it was darn near a physical ache the size of Texas sitting square on his chest. With her background, it was nothing short of a miracle she hadn’t turned out to be a manipulative woman like Corinne. She’d had daddy issues worse than anything he’d seen, and he’d seen plenty. The impact a father had on his daughter had caused Tiernan to take note. Not that he planned on having kids anytime soon. They were a “one day” possibility that always seemed pushed into the future. At thirty-three and with no desire to get mixed up with another Corinne, he figured single life wasn’t so bad. Being a bachelor had its perks. There was no one around to tell him not to watch a game on Sunday afternoon in the fall. Texas and football were right up there with God and country to most folks. He couldn’t say he was as obsessed with the game as most in these parts, but he liked to watch the occasional battle on the gridiron.

He typed in Jason Riker and isolated the search to Texas. An Instagram account turned up at the top of the page. He clicked on the link. The first thing he noticed was the young man’s face in the circle.

“He can’t be out of high school yet, can he?” Melody asked. She must be thinking the same thing. “This makes everything so much worse.”

Tiernan couldn’t agree more.

“I recognize this woman,” she said, pointing to one of the posts of what looked like mother and son. “And, look,” she commented. “Her name is Bebe.”

“Okay, let’s see if we can figure out his age based on his posts,” Tiernan said. There weren’t many, which surprised him. He’d never gotten into the whole social media craze beyond hiring someone to manage a couple of pages for him, but young people seemed to be on it all the time.

He didn’t have to scroll for long considering there were only eighteen posts.

“There’s no hint of the kid except art he’d posted that looked like he’d done,” she said out loud as she pointed to the picture. “What about tags?”

Tiernan hit the button, and then scrolled.

“You hit the nail on the head with your guess about his age,” he said. “Look at this photo from June where this kid says she missed him at graduation in a comment.”

“He’s practically a baby,” she said low and under her breath.

Tiernan nodded.

“Looks like he played soccer at one point,” he said, scrolling down to a team photo with the wordsbest friendsas a caption.

“He left school before graduation? I wonder why?” Emotion came over her in a thick wave, threatening to drown her. She tucked her chin to her chest and sniffed, hiding the fact a few tears had spilled down her cheeks. The urge to thumb those droplets away was too great to ignore. So he reached over, electricity be damned, and did just that. He let his thumb linger on her chin as he tilted her head toward his. Her tongue darted across her bottom lip, leaving a silky trail, and it was as though a bomb detonated inside his chest. If he sat like this much longer, instincts were sure to take over. Before he could put a little space between them, Melody shifted her position enough to kiss him.

TIERNAN’STHICKLIPStasted like dark roast, her new favorite flavor. His spicy scent flooded her senses, awakening something deep and primal within her. Need welled up and one word came to mind...more.She wanted more of Tiernan. More of his muscled arms around her, holding her. More of his rough, calloused hands roaming her body, reminding her she was alive. More of his weight on top of her, pressing her into a mattress, helping her get lost even for just a little while.

In this moment, she was in a haze and all she wanted was to lean into it, into him. So, she did. Melody parted her lips and teased his tongue inside her mouth. The low, throaty groan that tore from his lips only acted as more fuel. She lifted her hands to his shoulders and braced herself by digging her nails into his skin.

In the next second, Tiernan shifted their positions until he was on top of her, covering her with his heft. He balanced most of his weight on his arms and a knee that was acting as an anchor against the leather.

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