“Thank you.”
“For what? Saying you’re beautiful?”
“That too, but no. For rescuing me. From the moment he picked me up, he literally didn’t stop talking about himself and hinting about how rich he is.”
“I’m pretty sure you could have rescued yourself,” he said, looking at her. “So why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to be mean. Although, I doubt I could have dented his ego with an axe.”
Connor choked on a laugh. Sooner than he’d wanted they reached the apartments. Sierra’s apartment was in the building next to his. He parked in the new covered garage the apartment tenants shared. A nice perk, especially during the winter.
“It’s still early,” Sierra said as he walked her to her apartment. She’d told him it wasn’t necessary but he did it anyway. “Would you like to come in?”
Where was she coming from? “Why?”
“Why not?”
He still had three days to go to win their bet. He’d managed the day when he was cleaning her up and fixing her scrapes, but it hadn’t been easy. Every day since had only made it harder to resist her. He didn’t trust himself to be alone with her, especially if she was…amenable. And he had a feeling she would be. But the longer he knew her, the more he got to know her, the more he wondered if there could be something real and lasting between them. And if that was so he didn’t want to blow it.
Which was crazy. He’d never even been tempted to settle down. Never been serious about anyone. Not since years ago, anyway. And given what had happened then, once had been enough for a long time. Then he met Sierra and all bets were off. Why now? Why with Sierra?
“Connor?”
“Oh, sorry. No, I can’t.” She looked surprised. “Three more days,” he added, and left her staring after him.
He was definitely crazy. But if he was going to do this, he would do it properly. Take her on dates. Have fun, doing something other than having sex. See if they were compatible beyond sex. Find out if they could have an actual relationship, a word he’d avoided since he left the army. Avoidance. Why?
He knew why. He just didn’t want to think about it. Part of a past he mostly tried to forget.
*
The next evening,at the Graff pub with some of her friends, Sierra watched Connor walk in. Damn it, the man had no right to look as good as he did in his shearling jacket, jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat. He wasn’t a cowboy. He drove an SUV, not a pickup, not that driving a pickup made him a cowboy. Okay, she guessed he was a cowboy, part time anyway. She knew he and Logan helped out on the ranch. Although Liam was the rancher, the horse breeder, she knew Connor and his brothers were close. Connor had told her as much.
He’d turned her down when she asked him to come in the night before. She admitted it bothered her. It wasn’t as if she’d never been turned down before. Hell, her husband had left her for another woman. The ultimate rejection. But she could read Connor, even after only one night together. He wanted her. She knew it. If he didn’t, why was he sticking to their deal? From everything she heard at the hospital, and everywhere else in town, he hadn’t touched another woman in months. Certainly not in the month since they made their deal. According to Connor, he hadn’t been with anyone but her since Las Vegas. Three more days, he’d said.
Damn, he was adhering strictly to their deal. Even with her.
She’d only agreed to give him a chance. To date him, not sleep with him. Unless she wanted to, which she very much did. It had been a long month for her, seeing him almost daily, and she still, after over two months since their one night together, dreamed about the damn man. It wasn’t fair. Sure, their night together had been fun. The sex had been, well, great. But that didn’t mean you could build a lasting relationship out of it.
But she didn’t want a lasting relationship, she reminded herself. She wanted fun. A light, pleasant, exclusive while it lasted relationship that they’d both enjoy but that wouldn’t leave either of them heartbroken when it ended. And if Connor McFarland wasn’t the perfect man to provide that then she didn’t know who was.
Sierra had been surprised by how easily she’d already made friends. Sam, of course, was one of the main reasons for that. But the women themselves were the other reason. They were friendly, sincere, fun, and they welcomed her into their group with an ease she wasn’t accustomed to. Once Sam had moved away from Dallas and Sierra had married, she seemed to have drifted away from her other women friends. It was nice to have a group of women friends again.
Honey Gallagher was married to Sean Gallagher, one of Dylan’s brothers and an ER doctor who Sierra knew from work. Sean was often working in the ER when Sierra and Connor brought patients in. She’d met Honey briefly but hadn’t had a chance to talk to her very much.
“How are you liking Marietta?” Honey asked.
“I like it a lot. Sam kept telling me I would. She’s been trying to get me to move here since she did.”
“What made you decide to do it?”
“I got divorced.”
“Oh, sorry. That must have sucked.”
Sierra laughed. “It did. After that I needed a change, so here I am.”
Sam was talking to someone Sierra hadn’t met. The other woman said something about meeting the love of her life in an unexpected way. “The story she told me sounded a little like how you and Sean met,” Sam said to Honey after the woman left.
