“I didn’t knowwe were looking for a cowboy town,” I laughed. I’d started tracing the lines ofhis stomach with my pointer finger, following the length of his raised scar, enjoyingthe way he squirmed but let me have my way.
He lifted up,looking down at me with the devil in his eyes. “You’re in love with a cowboy.Of course he wants a cowboy town.”
I tried not tolaugh. “Oh, really? You’re a cowboy, huh?”
I squeaked fromsurprise when he ripped his arm out from underneath me and pounced like ajungle cat. He straddled my waist, keeping his weight elevated. He leaned overme, slowly pushing my arms over my head by sliding his rough palms along them.
I shivered,anticipating what he was going to do next.
“Oh, I forgot. You’rethe cowboy.”
I raised aneyebrow. “Do you mean cowgirl?”
His smirk waswicked. “Do you mean reverse cowgirl?”
I shook myself out of the memory, knowing it didn’tlead anywhere helpful. Fine, Frisco had been his idea. But he’d never mentionedit again. Not even once. And after that night, we’d talked about leaving lessand less until he was finally arrested and there wasn’t talk about leaving everagain.
Frisco wasn’t his to claim. Not even a little bit.
I dried my tears and headed back to the office. I sawhim leave a little later in his Jeep, the tires kicking up dust in his wake.
That was it, I determined. The last time we needed tospeak. He’d said his piece. And I didn’t have anything more to say to him. Soif he wanted to set up a life here, that wasn’t my problem. He could do histhing. And I would do mine.
Until I figured out how to get us out safely.
Then I’d go find a town that was truly mine.A town that had nothing to do with Sayer or my memory of him or ourpast.
And that would be that.
Chapter Sixteen
I managed to avoid Sayer for a week. Well, avoidwasn’t quite the right word. Maybe ignore would be better because I still hadto see the bastard every day at work.
It wasn’t like we were forced to interact, but Icouldn’t exactly pretend he didn’t exist either. Especially since I had to callhim every morning to wake him up.
And he found lots of reasons to come to the office. Heneeded more towels. He was forever out of towels. It got so bad that I had tointerrogate the housekeeping staff whether or not they were replenishing hissupply. And when they promised that they were, I made them start counting thetowels they gave him just to make sure he wasn’t stealing them for somemysteriously nefarious reason.
Once his Wi-Fi wasn’t workingcorrectly.We discovered later that a chipmunk had chewed through somewires behind his cabin. Another time he needed to remind me to refund him thehot tub discount. He stopped in to grab activity pamphlets and cups of freecoffee and replace his keycards that he kept too close to his stupid cellphone.
He was everywhere I was. And under differentcircumstances, I would have thought it was on purpose. But the way he glaredand growled at me, and tried to speak to anyone that wasn’t me, I knew hedidn’t want anything to do with me. He was just obnoxiously high maintenance.
I mean, how hard was it to remember to put yourkeycard in a separate pocket than your phone?
Not hard.
He was smarter than that. This was a man that I’d oncewatched convince a Ukrainian enforcer he’d accidentally gotten lost in theUkrainian section of town—inside the Ukrainian weapon’s warehouse.
When the office door jingled, I was already working onan exasperated sigh. What now? Was it the Wi-Fi again? Had another ninjachipmunk managed to sever his contact with the outside world in an effort totrap him in his cabin and demand he get naked and take a shower?
No? That was just my sleazy fantasy?
Okay, then. Moving on…
“Hey, there,” a rich, warm voice called my attentionout of my flustered silence. I lifted my gaze to find Jesse standing across thecounter.
My smile was relaxed and genuine after I switchedgears mentally. It only took three seconds. Ten seconds tops. “Hey, stranger.Haven’t seen you in a while.”
His smile wobbled and I mentally kicked myself formaking him feel awkward. We hadn’t talked much since our date was derailed. Hehad texted the next day to make sure I was okay and we’d shared some randomtexts since then, but he hadn’t asked me out again. And he hadn’t made aneffort to see me.
