Mastered by Malone (Haven, Texas 6)

“Was that what I was doing?” he muttered. “Wasn’t quite sure.”

What the heck did that mean? Before she could question him, he looked down at the bottle of pills. “You have to take these with food?”

“Um, best to, yes.”

“All right. You get up and dressed. I’ll make you some breakfast.”

“I don’t need you to make me breakfast. You need to get to work.”

He just studied her. “Fine. Make yourself breakfast. Then get some more rest. No housework today. No baking. You rest. You take your meds and you rest.”

He stood and set the bottle down. “You never answered me before. Anything else about your health I need to know? There was no birth control in that drawer.”

“I really don’t think that’s any of your business.”

He just stared at her.

“I get a shot twice a year, all right? I can’t remember to take those little pills.”

He nodded. “I’ll call Molly, see if I can get her out here to see you. Sooner the better.”

Right. Because she wouldn’t want this to happen again. Even if she didn’t particularly want to talk to some stranger about what she’d seen, it had to be better to living like this, surely.

8

Mia stood beside Alec on the porch and watched as the small car drove up the driveway, bouncing along the potholes.

“You should really get those holes filled in,” she told him. “They nearly knocked out all my fillings when we were driving up here.”

“That’s the idea,” he told her.

“What? Do you get kickbacks from a local dentist if you send them a certain number of customers each month?”

He just sent her a look. “No, they’re there to make people uncomfortable. So they don’t come back.”

She didn’t really know what to say to that, so she just fell silent. The whole time she’d been here, there had only been one visitor to the Lonely Horse Ranch, and he’d been sto

pped at the gate. She only knew because Jaret had been cursing up a storm about someone called Osborne who wanted to buy the ranch and wouldn’t give up.

So she guessed he was right, the potholes did the job. As did the gates. And the fact that there were always a couple of Malones around at all times.

“Why do you have such security measures?” she asked.

All she got in reply was another look.

Right. She got it. He wasn’t going to answer that. There were a lot of things he wouldn’t answer. Nerves bubbled in her tummy. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t talk to a stranger. But she also didn’t want a repeat of the other night. Nope, she could puke on someone once but twice was just taking it too far.

Oh, hell. She really was losing it.

A woman climbed out of the car, and the sunlight caught her gorgeous, red hair. She had a killer figure. All curves. Mia was kind of surprised that she was dressed in just a pair of plain, black jeans and an oversized, bright-blue shirt.

She clenched her hands around the porch railing. Her knees went weak. “I’ve changed my mind.”

He didn’t say anything, but she could sense his gaze on her. Then he moved closer, not touching her, but his scent surrounded her. Mia felt the desire to lean back, just to lean into that strength for a while. But she held herself tensely. It was bad enough he’d seen her at her weakest. He wasn’t her boyfriend, he wasn’t even a friend, he was just the poor guy who was unfortunate enough to have to deal with her.

“It’s going to be okay, Mia.” His breath whispered against her neck and she shivered slightly. The last two nights she’d dreamed about him, when she wasn’t having nightmares. Dreamed of him touching her. Tasting her. That instead of sleeping that night in his bed, he’d rolled over her, pressing his weight against her, telling her he couldn’t spend another moment in her presence without taking her.

She didn’t know whether to be peeved or relieved that hadn’t happened.