Page 63 of Rocky Mountain Devil

He grinned. “Was that ano way on earth, don’t you dare, or are you secretly wanting me to paddle you?”

“Have you done that?” she demanded. “I mean, no, don’t tell me. I don’t even want to think about that, yet at the same time I want to know. And that’s not a yes or a no to you doing anything tomethat involves my bottom.”

This time a snicker escaped. “Yourbottom? Really? So proper.”

Her lips twitched into a smile.

“You’re not distracting me,” he warned. “We’re not going anywhere until you confess.”

It took a moment before she nodded. “Fine. You probably want to let me up, though.”

“That serious, huh?”

“Kind of?”

He didn’t let her go far. Just back to vertical so they could look each other in the eyes as he kept hold of her hands. “Tell me.”

She took a deep breath. “Jeff leaves town today, but he decided before he goes he should clear up the ‘misunderstanding’ between us.”

“Bastard.”

“No, he’s definitely the acknowledged first son of his father,” she muttered. “Let’s stick withasshole.”

“Genealogy aside… Spit it out, woman.”

“He insists he didn’t really break up with me. That it was a misunderstanding on my part when he decided we should slow down.”

“Asshole.”

“Right? Because it wasn’t possible for him to actually make it clear that he wanted to be with me because I was ‘being difficult’ to get a hold of.” She made more air quotes.

Rafe was missing something here. “Because he broke up with you.”

Laurel paused for a moment. “Ididn’tmake it easy on him. I was upset, and I didn’t want him to get back together with me because it was easy. I wanted him willing to work a little.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry, this whole conversation is weird considering you and I are going out.”

“Do you not remember the conversations we used to have back in the day when I was dating, and you weren’t?”

“But that’s the point,weweren’t dating then.”

He shrugged. “I told you everything. Heck, you found out the morning after I lost my virginity.” A terrible thought flashed into his brain. “Oh my God. You and Jeff—that’s what part of what this is about, isn’t it?”

She looked absolutely miserable. “If you’re asking if we had sex, yes. We did.”

Rafe liked the guy even less. “Do you think he’s already left town?”

“You’re not going to rip his arms off, so settle down,” she muttered. “He didn’t force me or anything. I told you, I thought things were serious between us, and we were attracted to each other.” Laurel covered her face with a hand. “This is embarrassing.”

“Because you had sex?” The idea wasn’t sitting comfortably with him, but it wasn’t right for him to have double standards. “Don’t beat yourself up over something that’s pretty natural. And fun,” he grudgingly admitted.

“I’ve had way more fun fooling around with you,” she said quietly.

Oh, hell yeah.

“Way to stroke my ego.”

She flashed him a grin but her amusement quickly faded. “The point is, I thought something real was happening before he called it off, so when he came back, I wanted him toprovehe was serious.” She shrugged. “He didn’t. Not in my books, and I was dealing with…some other stuff at the time, and in the end, that’s when I realized Bible College wasn’t for me.”

“You never wanted to see him again?” he guessed.