Page 22 of Cowboy’s Last Stand (His to Protect #1)
N atalie pulled on her sweatshirt before she drove away.
She didn’t bother to change out of her wet shirt. She wasn’t cold. She might never be cold again after that sizzling make-out session. When she pulled into her regular parking spot at the library, she rested her head against the steering wheel with a low groan.
So much for keeping her distance.
One minute, she’d been spitting mad and soaked to the skin.
Then she’d seen him without his shirt on, and her brain had short-circuited.
He’d stared at her like he’d wanted to feast on her body.
After a few kisses, she’d completely lost her mind.
If he hadn’t paused to take a breath, she might not have come to her senses.
She still had the taste of him in her mouth.
Her palms tingled from the contact with his bare chest, and desire pulsed between her legs.
She’d felt his arousal pressing hard against her, proof that his manhood was in excellent working condition.
She hadn’t really doubted it. There was too much heat between them, and he exuded masculine vitality.
She just couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong with him.
Maybe it was her own relationship anxiety projected onto him. Her life had been a series of hardships. Her husband had died young. The experience had nearly destroyed her. She had good reasons to be wary of a passionate affair with Jason.
She got out of her car and walked the four blocks to Marcus’s school. He was on time today, his jacket hanging out of his backpack. He chattered about a new class pet, a green lizard in a glass terrarium.
“I get to feed him next week,” Marcus exclaimed.
Natalie listened with one ear, distracted by the afternoon’s events.
It occurred to her that she didn’t feel guilty about the interlude.
She felt giddy. Kissing Jason might have been a mistake, but she couldn’t wait to do it again.
She strode down the sun-dappled path with Marcus’s hand in hers, unable to suppress a smile.
When they reached her car, she opened the door for Marcus and made sure he buckled up in his booster seat.
As she approached the driver’s side, she noticed a piece of paper stuck under her windshield wiper.
Probably an advertisement for something she didn’t want.
She grabbed the flyer with reluctance. The trash cans were too far away to bother, and she couldn’t litter in good conscience.
She climbed behind the wheel, intending to toss it in the passenger seat.
Then she realized it was a personal note.
She unfolded the glossy yellow paper and read the message inside. There was a picture of an old-fashioned bomb that appeared to have been cut out from a comic book, along with four mismatched letters. They’d been pasted into a jarring caption: BOOM!
“What is it, Mama?”
“Nothing,” she said, crumpling the note.
“Just trash.” She shoved the ball of paper into the glove compartment and glanced around the busy parking lot.
Patrons traveled to and from the library entrance.
There were mothers with children and seniors carrying stacks of books. No one appeared out of the ordinary.
Natalie knew there wasn’t an explosive device attached to her car.
She’d only been parked here ten minutes.
Billy didn’t have the stealth or expertise to plant a real bomb.
The note was right up his alley, however.
It was a juvenile, low-tech attempt to intimidate her.
Even so, she was disturbed by the ghoulish message.
She wondered if Billy was watching. Now she felt the chill of her wet clothes penetrating the layer of her sweatshirt. Her skin broke out in gooseflesh as she turned on the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.
When they arrived home, she changed her shirt and busied herself with a series of chores.
She considered calling Wade or telling Jason about the note, but she decided against it.
Billy was only trying to rattle her cage.
Why give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d succeeded?
She was also worried about Jason’s reaction.
He’d threatened to kill Billy during their physical altercation.
She considered the possibility that Billy had ulterior motives beyond instilling fear. Maybe he was trying to instigate another fight with Jason or exact some kind of revenge on him. Billy wasn’t the type to forgive or forget.
“Can I say hi to Jason?” Marcus asked.
“Not right now,” she said. “He’s busy.”
“I want to do tai chi.”
“I’ll do it with you.”
“You?”
“Why not? I’ve been watching.”
He raced to the living room to start the DVD.
They stood side by side, barefoot, and attempted the martial arts motions.
It was harder than she’d thought. Marcus had improved his form, but he still had moments of wild kicks and chops.
Natalie ignored him and tried to mimic the instructor.
She enjoyed the challenge of it and the intense focus required.
By the time the video ended, she had a fine sheen of sweat on her skin.
“Mom,” Marcus said.
“What?”
“You’re spacing out.”
“Aren’t you supposed to space out?”
He didn’t answer, so she tickled him until he collapsed with laughter.
“I love you,” she said, kissing his head.
He said it back easily. He was too young to be embarrassed about her displays of affection, even in public. One day he would probably squirm out of her embrace instead of running toward it. The thought made her want to hug him harder. Her emotions were all over the place today.
When it was almost time for her shift at the bar, Natalie returned to the upstairs apartment.
Jason was running the floor sander, his dust mask on.
At her knock, he turned off the machine and pulled the mask down.
She tried not to think about the state she’d left him in earlier or how he’d dealt with it.
“Going to work?” he asked.
“Yes. London will come over in a few minutes.”
“Are you sure you want to pay a babysitter when I’m here?”
She nodded. She didn’t expect Jason to look after Marcus on top of everything else. “I’m going to have her stay until ten if you don’t mind.”
“Do you want me to check in on her? Make sure she’s not smoking joints with Marcus?”
Natalie chuckled at the question, which was tongue in cheek. She could trust London not to get her five-year-old son high. The babysitter wasn’t that bad. “You don’t have to do anything. But that reminds me, we’ve never exchanged numbers.”
He crossed the room to the wall outlet, where a device was plugged in.
“Is that a flip phone?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you find it in my grandpa’s things?”
His teeth flash white at her joke. “What’s your number?”
She gave him her information and removed her phone from her pocket to enter his. Then she realized something. “I don’t know your last name.”
“It’s Reed. With two e’s.”
“Jason Reed,” she said, adding him as a contact.
The name sounded familiar, as common names often did.
She plugged in his number and put her phone away.
He was staring at her, his expression inscrutable.
She flushed at the memory of how he’d stared at her in the bathroom when she’d brazenly stood before him in a wet T-shirt.
“Should I wait up?” he asked softly.
“You should rest,” she said, flustered. “In fact, I think you should take a day off. You can’t work all weekend.”
“You’re the boss,” he said in a sardonic tone.
Natalie said goodbye and left, her pulse rioting. She could only avoid contact with him for so long. If they continued to be near each other, giving hot looks left and right, they were going to sleep together. It was inevitable. He was too exciting, too irresistible, too…
Dangerous?
There was still something about him that made her uneasy.
Something he kept hidden, like a fatal flaw.
Maybe he had a penchant for violence. He’d been suspiciously eager to enter a fistfight on her behalf.
He’d threatened to hunt Billy down if he bothered her again, and he’d sounded serious.
That was before he even knew her. It was strange for a man to be so aggressive in defense of a stranger, and he’d seemed to relish the task.
She told herself she was being too cautious.
Jason hadn’t shown any aggression since the night they’d met.
He’d remained calm during the firecracker incident.
He hadn’t flown off the handle at the VFW.
He’d been extraordinarily patient and gentle with her son.
After she’d revved him up in the bathroom and left him wanting, he’d respected her boundaries.
She hadn’t even needed to say no. He’d read her responses and given her space.
She didn’t feel physically unsafe with Jason; she felt emotionally unsafe. He was dangerous to her heart.
It remained to be seen how dangerous he was to others and what he was hiding. What if he was secretly a maniacal vigilante who killed bad men? That was farfetched. What if he’d left behind a wife and children, like Wade had insinuated? Depressingly common.
Before heading to the bar, she walked two houses down and knocked on London’s door. The girl answered with her earbuds in, hair tangled, and feet bare.
“Oh my God,” London said. “Am I late again?”
“No, you’re fine. I just wanted to talk.”
She crossed her thin arms over her chest. “About what?”
“I heard you got a ride home from Deputy Hendricks the other night.”
London’s blue eyes widened. She stepped forward and pulled the door shut behind her. “Who told you that?”
“He did. He said you were hanging out with Billy and Gabe.”
Petulance settled over her features. “Yeah. So?”
“Did he warn you about spending time with them?”
She blinked a few times. “He said underage drinking is illegal.”
“Anything else?”
She twirled a lock of pale hair around her finger, uncertain.