Ooh, that was low. “That supposed to be an insult to him or me? Because you’re missing the mark on both.”
“Do you just talk to hear yourself say words,or do you actually pay attention to what’s going on around you?”
“The average wingspan of a camel is cake times force triangulated.”
“Well, at least I know you’re not an idiot.” His sarcasm was lacking, those black holes had practically swallowed his irises, and she had the distinct impression that he could see the list in her soul that was bullet-pointed with every last one of her fears and insecurities.
Which was the only possible explanation for everything that went down next.
“Kaci? This chump bothering you?” Ron asked.
She had to blink twice before she could tear her gaze from the intensity that was Lance’s attention on her, and then she had to blink again before her brain processed that her ex-husband had his hand on her elbow.
She yanked her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”
“If he’s a problem—” Ron started.
Ifhewas a problem? There was a problem all right. Her ex-husband wouldn’t leave her alone, and she was having irrationally pornographic thoughts about a freaking irritating, arrogant military pilot.
“He ain’t a problem,” she said. “He’s my new boy toy, and this here’s called foreplay.”
And before her brain could catch up, she yanked a fistful of Lance’s polo, went up on her tiptoes, and pulled him down to lay a smacker on his lips.
Except somehow, that smacker turned into something more than just lips smeared together.
Somehow, his hand cupped her neck.
Somehow, his mouth parted over hers.
And somehow, his teeth scraped over her lower lip, and then his tongue licked thesting away, and then a surge of primal lust made her want to wrap her thighs around his hips and see how much cowboy this flyboy had in him.
“Move along, folks,” Tara said somewhere in the hazy distance. “Nothing to see here.”
She wrenched her mouth free, immediately wishing she could put it back while simultaneously wondering if she shouldn’t have gone into researching time travel so she could rewind the past ten minutes to before she got a wild hair to make Ron jealous with Lance.
Again.
Ron was still there, waving his grumpies like a flag in a hurricane, his scowl so big it needed its own ZIP code. “Was that really necessary?”
“No, but it was damn fun,” Lance said. He had one hand on her ass, and though he’d answered Ron, he was staring at her.
As though he couldn’t decide if he’d lost his marbles or if he’d found the next best thing to chucking pumpkins.
Her belly quivered.
This man wasn’t safe. Or reliable. Or even nice.
At least, not in her experience.
“You go on home,” she said to Ron. “My business isn’t your business anymore.”
Ron turned the colonel stare on Lance. “If you hurt her?—”
“Sugar, my momma’s got me covered,” Kaci interrupted. “And she don’t get him till after I’m done, and I know you know how I handle men who hurt me.”
Ol’ Grandpappy gave a heavy sigh, but he moseyed away with a parting, “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Kaci swallowed hard, then put on her daughter-of-a-beauty-queen posture and peered down her nose at Lance, eventhough she had to look way up to do it. “I do believe you can consider that debt paid in full. I trust we won’t have any reason for further communication after this.”
