Tempting Country (Ruthless Sinners MC 6)

“Hold up... You had sex with one of them?” He gasped.

“Afraid so.” I lifted my head from my hands just long enough to say, “Remember me telling you that I met someone at a bar?”

“Oh, damn.”

“Yeahhh, I screwed up.” I lowered my head back into my hands. “I should’ve known I couldn’t do something like that without it coming back to haunt me.”

“There’s no way you could’ve known the guy was a Sinner.”

“That’s just it!” I looked back up at him. “I should’ve known! I’ve been watching that security footage for weeks now. He’d crossed that screen a hundred times, but it never entered my mind that he would be sitting at that bar.”

“Did he know?”

“There’s no way he could’ve known.” I dropped my hands to my lap and sighed. “I’ve made such a mess of things. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Nothing. You’re going to do nothing.”

“But...”

“You didn’t know who the guy was. You just wanted to let off a little steam, and that’s what you did. Leave it at that.”

“I wish it was that easy.” I leaned closer to Braylon as I whispered, “The sex with him was unbelievable, like really, really unbelievable, and I can’t even look at him without thinking about it.”

“Unbelievable? Hmm…” My heart literally stopped beating in my chest at the sound of Country’s voice. “Glad to know you enjoyed it. Maybe we should try again sometime.”

I whipped around in my seat, and just as I feared, Country was standing in the doorway, smiling like the Cheshire cat. I was completely mortified and wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but sadly, there was literally nowhere for me to hide. I couldn’t let him think that I was talking about him to one of my employees, so I was left with only one choice. I had to lie. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I wasn’t talking about you.”

“Yeah ... If you say so.” His smirk faded as he said, “The guys wanted me to let you know that we’re heading out for a bit.”

“Oh, okay. Any idea when you’ll be back?”

“Can’t say for sure.”

“But you’ll be back, right?”

“Yeah.” Country’s tone was soft and reassuring. “We’ll be back.”

“Okay, I’ll see ya when you get back.”

He gave me a quick nod, then turned and disappeared down the hallway. I leaned back, making sure he was gone before turning my attention back to Braylon. “How much do you think he heard?”

“Enough.”

“Damn.” I let out a groan. “I just can’t win.”

“Well, he’s clearly interested in hooking up again.” Braylon shrugged. “So, it isn’t all bad.”

“You aren’t helping.”

He chuckled. “I had to try.”

“Yeah, thanks.” I rolled my eyes, then stood. “Wonder where they ran off to.”

“I don’t know. If it was me, I’d be checking out the surrounding area, but it’s hard to tell with those guys.”

“You’re right about that.” I shook my head as I started for the door. “I have a feeling they’re going to give me a run for my money over the next couple of days.”

“I certainly hope so, or they aren’t the men we thought they were.”

“Very true.” As I headed down the hall, I shouted, “Let’s hope Riggs was right about them!”

I left the office and went to start getting dinner prepped for the night. Since the weather was nice and not too cold, I decided to use the picnic area out by the old church to grill burgers. I asked Lumley, one of our workers, to gather some wood for a fire and place it by the pit. Thinking it would be a good place for us to talk, I moved some chairs over and got a cooler of beer, then placed them around the fire pit.

Even though I had no idea how long they’d be gone, I decided to start on the burgers while Braylon and Lumley got the fire going. As I hoped, the guys returned not long after I’d finished grilling the burgers. They all gathered around and made themselves a plate, then carried them over to the picnic tables. We sat down to eat, and I expected them to start talking, but no one said a word—not to me or each other.

I wasn’t sure what was wrong. It was a perfect night. It wasn’t too warm. It wasn’t too cold, and the food was really good—even if it was just burgers. I thought maybe one of them would eventually say something, but no such luck. The silence was getting to me, so I tried to open the line of communication. “I was thinking we could use this time to talk a little.”

None of them said a word. They simply gave each other an odd look, then continued eating. Hoping to get at least one of them to open up, I asked, “So, none of you have any questions about Langford Manor or the products we have to offer?”