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“I’m not. You won’t be my problem in a few hours.”

“Yeah? Who comes next?”

“Clint. He’s taking you up to the main house to meet Miss Dulcie.”

“Is that right?” She peeked at me through one eye. “I’m sure she’ll be quite impressed with my undressed state.”

“Clint’s going to bring you some clothing.”

“Nice of Clint.” She made another soft sound before finally pulling herself up into a sitting position, tugging at the blanket to keep herself covered. “Why does your Miss Dulcie want to meet me?”

“You’re a guest on her property. She wants to meet everyone who comes here.”

“How efficient of her.” She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling at tangles as she did. Westin watched as she tugged awfully hard at a few of them, making a face when it caused her pain. She was ruthless, finally smoothing out her thick hair and twisting it into a loose bun, winding the strands tightly around its base to keep it in place. “When does this happen?”

“At six.”

“And where will you be?”

The words on a date were on the tip of Westin’s tongue, but something made him stop them from spilling from his lips. Normally, it was easy for him to keep things close to his chest, but something about her made him want to keep talking, to tell her things he wouldn’t otherwise.

He set his phone on the table and got up to cross to the window. He peeked outside, watched as Bowie escorted a couple of women to the other guest bunkhouse, a building less than a hundred yards behind this one. The women were tall and slender, blond ponytails bouncing behind their heads as they walked quickly to keep up with the gentle giant. One whispered to the other as she gestured toward Bowie, clearly admiring something about him. Or making fun of his size. Westin couldn’t be sure which it was, but when he turned to gesture for them to go into the bunkhouse and they started to giggle, he had a clear hint as to which it’d been.

“What are the chances your ex will continue to track you?” he asked of his own guest.

“Pretty good, I’d say. But I doubt he’d think to look here.”

“Why is he so determined to find you?”

Lea made a little noise that made Westin turn. A part of him wished he hadn’t because she picked that moment to whisk the blanket from her body, sitting up a little straighter so that he could get a good look at the length of her with just that towel to cover her. And the towel had slipped out of place in several sections, falling open at her thigh, her hip, revealing a curve that only a lover should have a view of. But that wasn’t as good as the near-complete breast it also revealed, showing him everything but the cylindrical shape of her nipple, though he got a good idea of what it looked like from the way it pressed against the material of that towel.

Westin cleared his throat, allowing his eyes to move over the length of her. If she was willing to show it off, who was he to deny her the enjoyment? There was beauty in the female form that Westin hadn’t had the joy of viewing recently. Why not allow himself the opportunity she was dropping right there in his lap?

Her skin was pale save where it was marked by a scattering of freckles here and there. Her thigh was a milky expanse marred only by a single, deep-brown mole near her hipbone. And then there was a small spatter of freckles across her lower belly that moved up toward her ribs, a pattern that begged to be explored, that asked a fingertip to connect those particular dots. Then there was another of those singular marks on the lower curve of her breast, another spot that wanted to be touched, that nearly begged to be nibbled, tasted, the texture of that anomaly of skin to be explored. And that sunflower, resting in the valley between those beautiful breasts. He would have given anything to be that sunflower in that moment, feeling the heat of her skin, the softness of those perfect mounds. Just a taste, a little touch…

He chewed the inside of his cheek as those thoughts rushed through his mind in a matter of seconds, that hot need so intense that he could feel his body come to attention, a stiffness in his jeans reminding him that he was most definitely still a young, healthy man.

“Does that answer your question?” she asked softly before tugging at the towel to make a vague attempt at covering the exposed sections of her skin.

“Not really,” he said with forced nonchalance. “A man can find a desirable woman almost anywhere if he looks hard enough. I’m sure this Fang can find someone just as sexy as you elsewhere.”

“I don’t know if I should be flattered or insulted by that comment,” she said as she stood, the towel finally falling completely into place, much to Westin’s disappointment. “I can’t tell if you’re interested or just annoyed.”

“I’m not here to be either,” he said flatly. “I’m here to make sure that man doesn’t try to take off with you again.”

“But you’re a man.” She sidled up to him, pressing her shoulder against his chest as she shifted, turning to face him full on, her nearly naked body just an inch or so from his. “Surely it’s not every day you find yourself alone with a practically naked woman.”

“Is this how you seduced Fang?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes there isn’t enough time for the classic rules of seduction.”

“Is that what this is? A circumvention of the classic rules?”

“You can think of it any way you’d like as long as you play along.”

“Sorry, lady.” Westin rested his hands on her shoulders, intending to push her away but finding himself unable to pull up the strength to do so. “I’m not that kind of guy.”

“Then what kind of guy are you?” She turned her head slightly as she lifted herself up on her tiptoes, her lips coming so close to his jaw that he could feel the heat of her, could smell the sweet scent of the soap she’d used in the shower. “What does it take to get a reaction out of you, cowboy?”