Casey clutched at her seat belt, almost afraid to ask.“What?”
“You people are too uptight.You need to loosen up a little.If you did, you might find out you-like it.Better yet, you might even live long enough to spend all that money you’re so dead set on making.”
There wasn’t a civil thought in her head as Ryder turned off the highway and into another parking lot.But when he opened the door to help her out, the odor of charbroiled meat made her forget her anger.A few moments later, she realized where he’d brought her, and if she hadn’t been so hungry, she would have laughed.
As he led her in the restaurant, she would have been willing to bet the last dollar she had in her pocket that, by tomorrow, it would be all over Ruban Crossing that Eudora Deathridge had eaten French fries in the back seat of a car.What was going to ice this piece of gossip was the fact that Casey and her honky-tonk husband had also shared a late-night dinner at Smoky Joe’s.As restaurants go, it wasn’t bad.It was Smoky Joe’s sideline that gave him, and his restaurant, such a bad reputation.
Casey lifted her chin as they walked inside.She could tell by the sounds coming from the back room that the floor show was in full swing.
“Wonder what’s going on back there?”Ryder asked, as he guided Casey to an empty booth.
“Mud wrestling,” she said.One eyebrow arched as she waited for his reaction.
His interest sparked, he had to ask.“Women or ’gators?”
“Women,” she replied.
She watched as the light in his eyes faded.She sighed.She should have known it would take more than naked women in a hot tub’s worth of red clay to get him excited.
“I think he saves the ’gators for Saturday nights.”
He handed her a menu.“Good.It’ll give us a reason to come back.”
CHAPTER 6
“I’m coming out.Are you decent?”Ryder yelled.
Casey pulled the sheet up past her breasts and tried to look relaxed as the bathroom door opened.He emerged, but she’d closed her eyes too late.My God!Doesn’t he own a bathrobe?she wondered.
“I’ll be through in a second,” he said.
Casey could hear drawers opening and closing and clenched her eyelids even tighter.That damp towel around his waist was far too brief for her piece of mind.
Footsteps moved toward the doorway.
She opened her eyes.Too soon.She’d looked too soon.He was still there, standing in the doorway in a pair of white briefs.Lamplight spilled into the bedroom from behind him.
This time, his presence did more than unnerve her.Even though his face was in shadow, she knew he was watching her.
She held her breath.
He didn’t speak.
In the bathroom next door, water dripped from the showerhead and into the tub.Then dripped again.Then again.Then again.
He started toward her, one slow step at a time.Casey stifled a moan, clutching at the sheet until her fingers went numb.Once she started to speak, and couldn’t remember enough words to string together in one sentence.She went from panic to dismay to a calm she didn’t expect.But when he walked past her and into the bathroom without saying a word, her calm moved to disbelief.
This time when he emerged, he didn’t look back.The door swung shut between them with a firm thud and Casey was left with nothing but the sound of a racing heart.The drip no longer dripped.The man was no longer a threat.She was safe and sound and alone in her bed—and she didn’t remember ever feeling as lonely as she did right now.
“What’s wrong with me?”
She rolled onto her stomach, punching her pillow and yanking at her nightgown until she heard ribbons tearing.Finally, she closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep, and blamed her restless spirit on the barbecue she’d eaten at Smoky Joe’s.
A chair scooted in the other room.He was obviously making his bed out on the floor.The comfort of hers as opposed to the one he was about to take made her feel guilty.She thumped her pillow and shifted her position.She just couldn’t help it.He’d known from the start this wasn’t going to be a normal marriage.
But no one told him he’d be sleeping on the floor for the next twelve months.
The long, unmistakable rasp of a large metal zipper being undone plucked at her conscience.The sleeping bag.
