Too Fast to Fall (Jackson Hole 1.10)

What if she told him that? How would he respond? She smiled wider at the idea.

“Where are you from?” he pressed.

“Idaho. A town about an hour west of Pocatello.”

“How did you end up here?”

She shrugged, not wanting to get into details. She’d ended up here by running. First from home, and all the chaos there. Then from Ellis, and the life she’d jumped into without thinking. And again, from a life she’d started to build in Montana and then grown tired of. She didn’t want to tell him any of that, but her heart swelled with the knowledge that he wanted to know her. He wanted her.

Swallowing hard, she decided to tell him a little. “I left home the moment I turned eighteen. I married Ellis. Then I wandered for a while. That’s all. Now I’m here.”

“Why’d you leave home at eighteen?”

Because I couldn’t handle taking care of a pill-popping mom, so I abandoned my dad and my sister and drove out of town as fast as my Camaro would take me. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the weight of his palm against her hip. “You know, same old story. My grandfather left me his car when he died. I couldn’t wait to get out on my own. I thought it would be all fun and games.”

“And then there was Ellis?”

She smiled. “And then there was Ellis. Believe it or not, I thought he was a knight in shining armor.”

“But he wasn’t?”

She sighed. “I don’t want to talk about Ellis.”

“I’m still worried. What’s he doing here? Hanging around? Bothering you?”

“Nate.” She opened her eyes to his worried frown. “I can see why you became a cop. You’re protective. Overprotective. But I don’t need that. I can take care of myself. I always have.”

His eyebrows twitched. “Always?”

“Well. You know. For a long time.”

“That’s not what you said.”

Jenny felt like squirming, caught under his silver gaze. “You know how it is.”

“I don’t, actually. I was raised right here in Jackson Hole. My parents and sister still live here. Sunday dinner once a month. And much bigger gatherings for holidays. That was my cousin Luis you saw with me at the bar. None of us went very far at all.”

“Maybe…maybe I just like to run.”

“Maybe you need to. What are you running from, Jenny?”

She pulled her chin slowly in, eyes narrowing at the strange focus of his gaze. She felt a sudden desire to curl tighter. To cover her nakedness.

“Why is he here? You must know.”

Now she did cover herself. She folded an arm across her breasts as she pushed onto her elbow. “Wow. I can’t… Wow. I thought you wanted to learn more about me. But you want to know about him? What is this? Some weird jealousy kink?”

His intense gaze finally flinched to alarm. “No! That’s not what I meant. Look, I saw him. Today. I was looking into another issue and I saw Ellis’s van. I called you about lunch so I could ask you about it. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Whatever energy she’d lost to the sex, Jenny quickly regained through mortified rage. She leaped from the bed. “I thought you wanted to have sex with me!”

He reached for her, and she jerked away, trying not to notice his beautiful body. She hadn’t had time to look, and now she refused to. “I obviously wanted to have sex with you,” he said as he followed her slow retreat across the room. “Come on. We had sex.”

“I’m pretty clear on that!” Boy, was she. She was absolutely aching with that knowledge. Inside and out, her body reminded her with every move that she’d had sex with Nate Hendricks. And he’d come here to investigate.

But…investigate what?

The thought added another layer of awfulness to the moment. A nice, thick layer of guilt. Ellis was up to no good, and now Jenny was helping him.