It was a good thing she couldn’t actually feel the daggers Kristi invisibly threw at her. But Kristi’s murderous feelings were all too easy to read.
Cody pulled out one hand and brushed it down her arm. “You’ve been very popular tonight. Everyone looking at you. Several of the guys kissed and hugged you.”
She caught the irritated tone and disapproval in his voice and ignored her first instinct that he might be jealous.
Yeah, right.
Like Cody would ever be jealous of another guy hanging out with her.
He’d more likely plant a hand on her back, shove her toward the guy, and say, “Here, you take her.”
Instead of giving in to the fantasy that she was Cody’s girl and he hated seeing her with other guys, she remembered all the years he’d made one thing clear to the men on the ranch: If they wanted to play with a woman’s affections, they’d do it with any woman but Brooke. She was strictly off-limits.
They’d taken the warning to heart, even if they sometimes teased and flirted with her.
But they’d been different with her tonight and Cody noticed.
Apparently, he wanted to make things clear to them once more. No matter how old she was now, she was still off-limits to the guys who worked for them.
“Everyone’s just happy to see me. I’ve been away longer than usual.”
“You should come home more often. Your mom misses you.”
It hurt that he didn’t include himself in that sentiment. “I’ll try. I’ve been busy with my classes.”
“You’ve kept your grades up?”
“Of course.” She inhaled, unable to help herself. God, he smelled good. He smelled like home. She’d missed him so much, but stayed away, so they both could grow. Her by easing into being completely independent and to get over him. And Cody focusing on his career and the first long-term relationship that seemed to be going the distance, with Kristi.
Cody held her gaze, his serious. “I hope you aren’t spending your weekends partying with frat boys. All kinds of dangerous things can happen at one of those parties. Least of which is some asshole slipping something into your drink and taking advantage of you.”
Cody always looked out for her, but this was truly being overprotective.
Of course she called him on it. “Well, Dad, I swear I’ve never been to one of those parties or sipped a single beer in my whole life.” Her words dripped sarcasm. She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Cody. You went to college. If memory serves, there were a great many parties you told me about.”
“Then you should take the warning seriously. I want you to be careful. A house full of drunken assholes is no place for a girl like you.”
She raised a brow. “And what kind of girl am I?” She truly wanted to know how he saw her.
“You’d better not be the girl at those parties going home with some random guy.”
She laughed. She’d never gone home with a guy from a party—random or well known.
Okay, technically, there was that one time. But she didn’t sleep with him.
Cody had been in her heart so long, she’d never had a serious relationship with a guy. She’d never allowed herself to look at another man and think what it would be like to have him touch her. When she thought about being with a man, it was always Cody in her arms.
She hoped he hadn’t ruined her for other men. She wondered if she’d ever look at another man and not compare him to Cody.
“I knew every single one of them.” She kept her tone completely serious despite joking with him.
Cody’s whole body tensed for one split second before he whipped toward her and grabbed her shoulders again. “What the hell? Are you crazy?”
She wrapped her fingers around his forearms, holding on before he scrambled her brain again. Stunned by his abnormal behavior, it took her a second to think clearly.
His fingers bit into her skin, pressing muscle to bone. His pulse thundered at his throat. Furious with her, his mouth pulled into a disapproving frown.
She tried to soothe him with her soft voice. “Cody. I was only kidding.”
