Page 24 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

Justice felt like he’d been set upon by a pack of feral dogs, and no amount of running put him ahead of them. The sight of

Rue in the dress had been something that he wasn’t prepared for. He was even less prepared for her to ask him if he’d been

looking .

He’d been looking since she’d shown up to the polar plunge in that bikini.

He’d been looking since he’d seen her in the wedding dress for the first time.

He’d been looking for longer than he’d ever wanted to admit, keeping himself leashed whenever he could. Because she was Rue .

She was pure and wonderful and his in a way no one else had ever been.

And her body was damned glorious.

It felt like an actual sin to admit to himself that he had looked at his best friend’s rack, and thought it was the best he’d

ever seen.

Not very much felt like a sin to him. But that had.

At that moment he’d made the determination that he was going to stay stone-cold sober all night, because if he had to protect Rue from other men and from herself while she was in a vulnerable state, then he was going to do it.

Because the woman was dressed to make bad decisions.

And there were far too many men who were going to be happy to take her up on them.

It was why it had caught him unawares like that. Same as the swimsuit.

Normally there were such clear rules around Rue he didn’t even have to think about go and no-go zones.

Tonight, she was dressed like a damned menace—and one thing Ruby Matthews had never been was a menace. But there was a reckless

fire in her tonight and Justice couldn’t figure out if he was terrified, or in awe.

When they pulled up to Smokey’s Tavern the place was already heaving. It was Thursday night, but the cold winter ensured the

place was packed out no matter the day of the week. It was about the only thing to do in town, really. Especially when it

was still cold as hell and liquor and warm bodies were about the only things that sounded good.

When he and Rue had been kids, their version of that had been to hang out in the barn with a space heater and some blankets,

eating snacks they bought from the store with their pocket money.

And speaking of that, Rue was looking very not like a kid tonight. Not like herself really either, which he was sort of relieved

to identify because that meant it was a little less appalling that he’d checked her out. The dress was so much tighter and

lower and shorter than he was used to on her, her makeup heavier. She was Rue but not Rue, and that had thrown him off for

a moment.

His gut tightened. Rue but not Rue. Part of him whispered, That would be ideal .

Lord. No. Absolutely not.

One thing Justice would never do was drag anyone else deeper into his shit. There were things not even Rue knew. Things no

one else needed to know. Much less have to deal with.

He was the keeper of his own demons. And that was the best thing he could be, he knew.

But he wasn’t here to deal with his own demons. He was here to make sure that Rue’s didn’t get the better of her. And yes,

the last forty-eight hours had been interesting, to say the least, but she was going through something. And he was not going

to...

He looked over at her. She looked beautiful. Any man in there was going to immediately want to take her up on the offer that

she was presenting in that dress.

She’s Rue. At the end of the day, she’s not going to do anything .

Her version of being wild so far had involved going on a trail ride and jumping into a pond.

Granted, her swimsuit had been a little bit wild. And he kept thinking of the moment in his truck cab after. When he had talked

about the cave-in and the inside of the vehicle had gotten overly warm. When she had put her hand on his.

He gritted his teeth. That was just a no-go area for him. He had grown up with her. They had survived being teenagers together.

He hadn’t been completely honest with her when she had asked when he had made the decision to become what he was.

The reality of the situation was he had been sixteen and she had started getting beautiful.

In a way that he couldn’t ignore. So, it had seemed like a better idea to take the invitation of the seventeen-year-old daughter of a farmhand that had just moved there, who had more experience and sophistication then he did.

Who had shown him exactly what she wanted, and hadn’t even wanted to get emotionally attached.

It had been the beginning of taking that path every single time. If there was a fork in the road and the option was intensifying

one of the connections he already had or staying in the shallow end of the pool, he chose the shallow end. Nobody got hurt.

Everyone had a good time.

Rue was sacred to him. A sister, maybe. Or something deeper.

He had a sister, and he loved her deeply, but it was still different than the relationship he had with Rue.

He’d decided a long time ago that he had no more business touching Rue than he did sitting in the front row at a church on

Sunday. Sacred things weren’t for men like him.

He was a master of the profane, and little else.

He was just going to have to keep walking on the path that he had put himself on all those years ago. Because it was the right

thing to do.

He wasn’t blindsided by the fact that he thought she was beautiful. He was blindsided by his inability to artfully look the

other way. He had failed at that yesterday. The tension between them when they had gotten back to the house had been real.

Palpable. The issue was she had looked at him too. And then tonight in her explosion of nerves she had acknowledged something

that neither of them had ever verbally acknowledged before. That they both thought the other was attractive.

Which was maybe a silly thing to get hung up on. It didn’t have to be that deep.

It just was. Because it wasn’t just two friends complimenting each other. It was stickier.

Maybe the real reason he’d been okay with Asher was that it gave Rue what she wanted, and kept her at a very safe distance.

Maybe that was it. Maybe that was why.

It made sense. He didn’t especially like it, but it made sense.

“Are we just going to sit in the truck forever?”

He looked at Rue, his eyes shining bright. He wondered if she was afraid she was going to lose her nerve if they didn’t go

in.

“Listen,” he said. “No one is going to say anything to you about your wedding and if they do and it bothers you, let me know

and I’ll punch them in the face.”

“No,” she said. “You can’t keep punching people in the face for me.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“It is true.”

“I’m just saying, you look beautiful.” There. He had said it, and it had come out exactly like it ought to. Like a compliment.

Free and easy. Exactly like it should have. “You’re gonna go in there and you’re going to have a good time. However that looks

to you. Drink, dance. I’ll be there.”

He felt squarely back in the position he should be right then. Her protector. Her guide. That was what he was supposed to

be.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ve never been drunk before.”

“You don’t have to get drunk. It’s not some magic portal to having a great night. I mean, some people think it is. And I’m not going to say that I haven’t used it as one myself a time or two. But you can have fun in other ways.”

“You’re beginning to sound like an after-school special.”

“Wow.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

When they walked in, the place was wall-to-wall bodies. Men and women dressed so that they could find a partner to help them

stay warm a long winter night. Rue’s dress didn’t even look scandalous in context. It was funny that it had shaken him so

deeply. Just because it was Rue. There were women in dresses that were even shorter, even lower cut, and they didn’t stir

the faintest bit of interest in him.

He hadn’t hooked up for a couple of weeks. He had been entirely consumed by the lead-up to Rue’s wedding, and then by the

aftermath of the lack of wedding. He just hadn’t even cared to do it. That was odd. Because he had been using it as an escape

ever since that first time. But he couldn’t want that tonight anyway. He was keeping tabs on Rue.

And what if she leaves with some other guy?

Well. That wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t ready to do that. She was definitely wanting to spread her wings a little bit

in all of that, and it was fair. But she took this kind of thing really seriously, and it would be a mistake for her to hook

up with somebody on the rebound.

As if that wasn’t human nature.

“I’ll order us some drinks,” he said.

Rue looked nervous, and it was her mannerisms that made her look out of place, not anything else.

She was picking at her nails, her shoulders hunched slightly.

She didn’t look afraid; she looked excited, but tentative at the same time.

This was definitely not her scene. She had been to Smokey’s before, of course, but usually with Asher, dressed in something entirely different.

She probably felt like she was on display, and she was.

He had caught a couple of men noticing her the minute that they walked in.

He was going to keep an eye on those guys.

“Can I get two beers? And... how about a couple shots of Jack?”

He wouldn’t have any of that. He would have his beer and that would be it. That way he would be good to drive Rue home. But

if she wanted to do this, if she wanted to get wild, fine. He would babysit.

He brought the drinks back to the table and she eyed the shot suspiciously.

“No pressure,” he said.

“It feels like peer pressure,” she said. “My mom and dad warned me about that.”

“Did they?”

She laughed. “No. Of course not. They never warned me about anything.”

He laughed, even though it was dark. Because it was the kind of dark that they shared.

Dark like getting trapped in a cave. Dark like finding out years later, after years of night terrors and phobias, that you

got left there for as long as you did because...