He looked at me with heat. Interest. I was smart enough to recognize the signs.
Maybe I could do this. Flirt. Have fun. Get laid.
It started like this. Right? My belly suddenly fluttered. Oh, damn. What was I doing?
No law enforcement officers. Shit.
He’d know, somehow, what I was doing. I might have driven five hundred miles, but Dax had already proven he’d keep bothering me here. And if Levi found out I was ordering drugs under the premise of them being for Mr. Claymore’s horses but were really being given to Dax?
Handcuffs and not for sexy times.
“I swear I can see your mind working overtime.” He studied me. “No wonder you needed a nap.”
He was joking, but it stung. He was right. My mind never shut down, especially freaking over the mess I was in.
“Hey, there.” He lifted my chin with a finger, so I met his eyes. I didn’t see anything but concern. Understanding. “That smart brain of yours works all the time, huh?”
I nodded.
“Well, how about you take a little mental break? Seraphina’s all settled for the night. I checked on her myself. There’s nothing for you to do but have dinner with me.”
If he only knew. No! He could never know. Still, he was being kind. Thoughtful. Gentle. And it was true, the horse was settled, and there really wasn’t anything I could do tonight, even for Dax. With a few words, he’d smoothed it over and made me feel better. Maybe it was the soft tone of his voice. Somehow it was soothing. He didn’t make me feel bad for being in my head all the time.
“Like a date?” I picked the light banter back up. The direction we were headed had been too revealing.
He grinned and turned away to head downstairs.
I followed him into the living area, where he plunked down on a couch and patted the spot beside him.
“Yup, a date. Just the two of us over dinner.”
I laughed because this wasn’t a romantic candlelit dinner for two in a fancy restaurant. This was the two of us on a couch with a covered dish.
I settled beside him, just far enough apart so our thighs didn’t touch.
“There’s my girl. See? That wasn’t so hard.” He gave me a wink. My heart fluttered at how he called me his girl, but he ruined it all by adding, “But the offer for sitting on my lap still stands.”
I gave him the primmest of looks. “I’ll have to decline that offer, generous though it may be.”
I held out my hand for the plate of food, and he unwrapped it and gave it to me.
“Oh, it’s generous,” he said, and my body heated at the blatant innuendo.
He then got serious about seeing me fed. “Hope you like burgers. If not, I put a little of everything on there for you.” He produced silverware wrapped in a cloth napkin from his back pocket. It was true, the plate was piled high with food—fresh salad, a burger, a slice of watermelon, and scalloped potatoes. “Marina made those buns fresh today. They’re to die for.”
“Marina?” I asked before taking a giant bite of the burger.
“Oh sorry. She’s Audrey’s sister. Believe it or not, she married Boyd’s brother, Colton.”
“That’s crazy,” I said, mouth full. It was delicious, and I was shoveling it in like a growing teenage boy, which was another thing I didn’t usually do in front of people I didn’t know. I had better manners than this, but Levi didn’t seem to mind.
He reached out, swiped a little ketchup from the corner of my mouth.
I stared at his mouth as he sucked the tip of his thumb. Oh my.
I didn’t remember feeling so attracted to a guy before. Maybe it was because I felt strangely comfortable with him. I barely knew him. Why was there this… feeling between us? It was weird and thrilling and a little exciting.
This wasn’t the hang-out-with-friends comfortable.
No. I didn’t think I’d ever consider this big guy with the gorgeous eyes and the potent personality as a friend.
A huge zing of sexual attraction ensured the flutters were ever-present. My nerve-endings were alight, even scarfing down a hamburger. It was disconcerting to be so wrapped up in this man’s attention. Maybe it was the sexy dream I’d had that was bleeding over into being awake. With him.
No. He was just hot. Attentive. Considerate. Gorgeous.
And a lawman.
I demolished the burger and moved onto the salad with the plate settled on my lap. “How many people live on the ranch?” I asked because I’d already met too many to remember. “How big is it?”
He shifted, settled back further into the couch, as if he had no intention of going anywhere. “Rob and Colton live in the main house with their wives. As I said, Colton’s married to Marina. Rob’s wife is Willow. I think Colton’s going to build another house on the property sometime soon, like Boyd and Audrey have. Clint—the guy you’ve been chatting with about the breeding—his family has a place up on the mountain, but he used to live here with us before he mat—married. His wife’s Becky, and they had a baby in April.”