“Umm . . . hello.” Jenny was fresh out of the shower, her hair still damp, her face free of makeup. She looked delectable. After last night, the sight shouldn’t have made him want her again, but it did.
“My grandmother wasn’t supposed to get here until this afternoon,” Cain grumbled, tossing a dark look at Nell. “I could hardly toss her out.”
“Of course not,” Jenny said.
“Besides, I knew it wouldn’t be long before she figured out something was going on between us.” Not that he knew exactly what that something was—aside from incredible sex and this over-protective feeling he had toward Jenny.
“I think I see a coffeepot over on the bar,” Nell said from her perch on the sofa. “Why don’t you go get dressed? I imagine I can persuade Jenny to make us a cup.”
Cain didn’t argue. He had learned not to argue with Nell Barrett when he was six years old. He hated throwing Jenny to the wolves in the guise of a sweet old lady, but he had a feeling Jenny could handle it.
Cain smiled as he closed the bedroom door.
Figuring she had no choice, Jenny brewed a pot of coffee and found two cups in a cabinet over the wet bar. “Black, if I recall.”
“That’s right.”
Same way Jenny drank it. Neither of them had led a pampered life. Maybe black, no-frills coffee was a symbol.
“So you and my grandson . . .” Nell blew over the surface of the steaming brew to cool it, then took a healthy swallow.
Jenny just sipped her coffee. There was no way she could deny Nell’s insinuation.
“All right,” Nell said. “I’ll tell you the truth. As soon as I realized my grandson had a woman in his bedroom, I wanted to find out who she was. He might be a grown man, but he’s still my boy. I was just hoping it wasn’t that Millicent woman or that schemer Anna Hobbs.”
Jenny’s chin came up. “I don’t think he’s seeing either one of them.” Or he’d better not be. Jenny had no idea what was happening between her and Cain, but for the brief time they were together, she wasn’t about to share.
“I can see by the look in your eyes that would be a deal-breaker for you.”
“For the time we’re together, yes.”
“Good for you.” Nell sipped her coffee. “Actually, I’m a little surprised to see you here. Perhaps my warning was too subtle.”
“If you think I’m expecting wedding bells and picket fences, you’re wrong. Along with your warning, my brother made me well aware of Cain’s track record. What you don’t know is I was married before, and it was a disaster. Marriage no longer holds any appeal for me.”
Jenny set her mug down on a coaster on the coffee table. “You told me the truth, so I’ll do the same. My husband and I were not . . . that is, we were not . . . sexually compatible. I thought it was my fault, that I just didn’t like sex. Then I met Cain.”
“Well, now, this is finally getting interesting.”
Jenny steeled herself. Nell wanted to know what was going on, and though it was really none of the older woman’s business, Jenny knew how much Nell meant to Cain, so she would tell her.
“I was attracted to Cain from the start. That was several months ago, when he began coming into the saloon. I stayed away from him on purpose. People talked about him. I knew his reputation with women. But he never came on to me, never used the same old, worn-out lines my male customers tossed out.”
“Certainly not. My boy has higher standards than that.”
“Cain offered me a job. I needed the money, so I took it. And the job presented a challenge. I hadn’t realized I was missing that in my life.”
“So you went to work for him.” Nell sipped her coffee. “And something changed.”
“That’s right. Things started happening, crazy things, stuff spinning out of control at the hotel. Cain always seemed to be there when I needed him. Not once, but over and over. There’s a chance he saved my life.”
Nell nodded. “The night you were attacked.”
“Yes. The way things were going, anything could have happened.”
“So you’re here out of gratitude.”
Anger surged. She could feel the heat in her cheeks. Jenny took a steadying breath. This was Cain’s grandmother, the person he loved most in the world.
