Chapter 8: The Night

Daisy was spending the night at the widow's, and I had told no one why I wanted her there.

Jesse's truck came up the drive at nine.

He stopped at the fence and sat for a moment with the engine ticking.

Then he got out with nothing in his hands, exactly as I'd asked.

I met him on the porch with the door shut behind me.

"Terms," I said.

"All right."

"No Lottie in this house tonight. No Birdie."

"Done."

"And nobody says my brother's name. Not once."

His jaw moved.

"You've said that for five years, Hat."

"Then you're used to it."

He looked at me for a long moment, and he nodded.

"No Dean," he said.

I opened the door.

He followed me into the kitchen, and I turned around so fast he nearly walked into me.

I had been practicing what I would say all day.

All of it left my head when he took his hat off, and the lamp caught the scar through his eyebrow.

"I'm still angry at you," I said.

"I know."

"I'm going to be angry at you tomorrow."

"I know that, too."

"Then kiss me before I change my mind."

He kissed me.

It was not gentle.

He had my face in both hands and my back against the kitchen counter before I had finished the word.

His mouth was hot and hungry and tasted of coffee.

I got my fists in his shirt and dragged him closer.

I knew the sound he made when I bit his lip.

It was low and rough, and it went straight through me.

"Hat," he said against my mouth.

"Don't talk."

I pulled the snaps of his shirt open one by one, and he let me.

He pushed my sweater up and over my head and dropped it on the floor.

His hands found my breasts through my bra and squeezed, and I arched into him and heard myself moan.

"God, I've missed you," he said.

"I said don't talk."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Cowboy Husband Neglected Me Ignored Our Baby for Another Woman's from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.