He snorted. “You started it, remember? And let me point out the pierced navel. You don’t want the attention, don’t invite it.”
She looked down to where her T-shirt had ridden up and then yanked the sides of her over-shirt closed. A flush rose in her cheeks as she cast a furtive glance down the aisle. When her attention returned to him, anger glittered in her brown eyes. “I didn’t invite anything. You better hope I don’t tell my brother about this.”
“Go ahead,” he snapped. “You tell, I tell. He’s known me for eight years—who do you think he’ll believe?”
She glowered in silence.
“That’s what I thought.” Colton added one last insult over his shoulder as he walked away. “Besides, Joel knows I like blondes. Tall ones. Not ski
nny little birds from the big city.”
Yeah, right. Good one, Colton. The blood still simmered in his veins.
Three steps away, he remembered the gloves and spun back around. She straightened warily when he jerked the guilt-ridden purchase from his back pocket.
“Here.”
She stared at his offering before reaching to accept the soft, tanned leather. Her confused frown mirrored his own feelings, but he strode away, shoving them aside to throw himself into physical work until Joel turned out of the drive with Britt and Kendra a couple hours later.
Alone on the ranch, he took the opportunity to let himself into the guesthouse with his spare key. A quick tour revealed a clean house. Beds made in the two smaller bedrooms, and when he went into the master with its king bed, it was made up, too. Unfortunately, it was obvious she’d claimed it as her own.
He sighed. He should’ve guessed.
In the kitchen, he retrieved a piece of paper from the drawer under the phone, but noticed the phone book on the counter. A slip of paper marked a spot in the yellow pages. Curiosity got the better of him and he flipped the book open. Several names were underlined in the Attorneys At Law section and he recalled her threat to sue him for harassment. The name Michael Kabara was circled instead of underlined.
Services offered in divorce, family law, wills, estate planning, real estate, business and corporate law, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and Civil Rights laws.
Apparently she hadn’t been bluffing. Considering the page in front of him as he sat at the table, he thought over what had occurred in the barn.
Okay, yeah, he’d carried it too far. He’d known that even as he walked away, but no way in hell he’d apologize. He would, however, be more careful in the future when trying to discover what angles she was willing to use to her advantage. He didn’t want to help her con, not even unintentionally. Besides which, he didn’t think his blood pressure could take it.
He started to replace the bookmark until he saw his name on the piece of paper that’d marked the page. Looking closer, he saw it was a list, titled First Paycheck. Number one: repay Colton $35.00. Number two: repay Colton for groceries…$30.00 (?). Skimming the rest, he noted the items for Noah far outnumbered the ones for herself.
This list of priorities didn’t coincide with what he knew about her. He’d bet he wasn’t expected to view the list, so what was her angle? There’d been no thank you for the groceries, though apparently, she intended to pay him for them; yet, at the same time, she contacted attorneys to sue him over a stupid kiss.
It made no sense.
She made no sense.
He frowned at the black and white evidence in his hand, compared it against the circled phone book ad and other facts he’d already established. The result was a headache-inducing, inconclusive, perplexing contradiction that he didn’t like one bit.
Damn her!
Before his resolve weakened, he took a firm hold of his confusion and put it in its place. He hadn’t imagined her stealing his wallet. He hadn’t imagined her lying to his friends about it. And he damn sure hadn’t imagined her begging him to lie to Joel about it just before that disastrous kiss.
Chapter Six
In the darkened bedroom, Kendra sat straight up and strained her ears to pick up anything unusual. Any sound to explain why she suddenly found her eyes wide open in the middle of the night without having had the dream.
A glance at the clock brought her up short. It was only ten-thirty. In the absence of any other explanation, she began to imagine that Robert had found them. Her heart pounded so hard in the acute silence, she heard the thump of each beat.
Then she heard a sound that chilled the blood in her veins—the muted sounds of footsteps on the kitchen linoleum. They were too heavy to be Noah’s…
Noah!
She flew out of bed and peered into the hallway. All clear. Pressing against the wall, she scurried to the entryway between the living room and kitchen. A quick glance revealed the living room to be empty. In the dim illumination from the light above the sink, she saw the kitchen was, too. Whispering across the floor in her bare feet, she grabbed a butcher knife and went to check on Noah.
She froze at the sight of a hulking shadow backing out of his room. If he hurt Noah…A blinding red wave of anger swept through her and she sprang forward, the knife raised high. “Leave him alone, you monster!”