“Of course, Miss Reed. It all goes on the expense report. If you provide us valuable information, you’ll be well provided for.” He offers the crook of his arm, but I disdain to take it.
I turn my nose up at him and prance prettily up the porch steps. “Seems to me information is more valuable if it’s not provided.”
“Oh, I have my ways of getting it out of you.” His wink is entirely too swoon-inducing and panty-melting.
“I, too, have ways of keeping things to myself, and I’m warning you, my lips are not loose.” I finish by curling my tongue three hundred sixty degrees around my wide-open, lipstick-laden mouth.
~ Braden ~
Oldest trick in the book.
A woman uses her sexual allure to get a man to do whatever it is she wants.
Even though I know what she’s up to, heat expands my body parts and warns me I have to be extremely careful with Miss Sammie the Snake.
I’m going to totally enjoy taking her down and getting her to do what I want. Oh yes. She can swing those hips and sashay her sweet behind all she wants, but a man with no conscience can’t be conned.
I check into the bed and breakfast and pay for two rooms. While Sammie chit-chats with the middle-aged owner, I check my missed calls.
I’ve received eleven since I silenced my phone, and they’re all from my stepmother, Jolene Brant Powers. Has to be bad news.
I don’t speak to her and rarely talk to my dad. She was my mother’s childhood friend, and she certainly wasted no time moving in on my dad before my mother’s body was cold.
“I have to take a call,” I tell Sammie after carrying her backpack to her door. “See you in the morning.”
Her face falls a moment when she realizes I’m not chasing her tail or reacting to her lip-circling motion, but she recovers gamely. “Maybe not. Thanks for the ride, partner, but I’ve got people to call and places to go.”
“Home for Christmas?”
“Working on it.” She winks, and her smiling eyes twinkle.
I’m too worried about my father to banter. As soon as she’s in her room, I turn down the hallway toward my room and call Jolene.
She answers on the first ring. “Thank God I got you, Braden.”
Her voice is strained and tight, sending chills deep into my heart.
“Is Dad okay?” I barely croak out the words.
“He’s fine. It’s your grandfather. He had surgery for lung cancer and is resting at the ranch.”
“Is he going to be okay? How come I didn’t know about this?”
“He’ll go back for a scan after the New Year. But it doesn’t look good.”
“What can I do for him?” I open the door to my room and sink to the bed, wiping cold sweat from my forehead.
“Make his last Christmas special,” she replies. “Please come to our ranch with your family and try to set your differences aside.”
“Christmas is the day after tomorrow,” I gasp. “It’ll take me at least fifteen hours to drive over.”
“I tried contacting you earlier, but you changed your phone number. Took a while to track you down,” Jolene says.
“I’m sorry. I was in the middle of a job.” The excuse sounds lame even to me.
“Jon’s looking forward to seeing you. Do you have family? I need to figure out the accommodations. Ben and Brittney have a little girl, and Nash’s girlfriend has two children. I’ll understand if your family has other plans, but your grandfather is pulling rank this time.”
“I’ll only need one room.” I start to admit I have no one, but I have to keep Sammie close, or she’ll fly the coop, and I’ll lose my bounty. “Actually, I’ll need two beds.”
