Rather than roll over and drift back into dreamland, I'd spent all that time, plus what it took to finally nod off last night, thinking about him.The damn man had even invaded my dreams.Again.
The bastard.
I should’ve been home free, seeing as he hadn’t parked out in front of my house.That should’ve eased some of my tension.Instead, I had wondered where he was, what he was doing.Who he was with.
Damn man.
Why did he have to make me feel so much?Think so much?Wantso much?
I didn’t need a whole hell of a lot.I wanted a simple life.One that involved working and spending time with my friends and family.Not necessarily in that order.No, I didn’t have a lot of money, but I had enough to pay the bills.Sure, my truck had seen better days, but it still got me from point A to point B just fine.I had a roof over my head and food to eat.I didn’t need any more than that.
Most importantly, I didn’t want the headache of a relationship, of worrying what a man was doing or where he was all the damn time.Been there, done that.The headache wasn’t worth it.
Not that I thought Lynx would be anything like Billy.When I really thought about it, I knew that my relationship with him had been more about convenience.We had lived under the same roof, but we hadn’t actually been together in a really long time.It hadn’t been ideal, but it had given me the independence I needed with him always gone.
I was just now settling into my new life, the real independence that I had now that I'd booted Billy to the curb.
And then Lynx Caine went and infiltrated my thoughts.
And boy, did he.Every freaking thought in my head seemed to be about him.Most of them involved the sexy man naked, fucking me, claiming me in a way I seriously doubted I would walk away from.Lynx was the dominant kind, the type of man who went after what he wanted and didn’t stop until he got it.
It certainly didn’t help that I hadn’t had sex in…
God.Did I even know how long it’d been?Valentine’s Day?No, it was before that.Hell, it might’ve been Christmas.At least nine months, probably more.
Kind of ridiculous considering I'd been in a committed relationship with a man.
Well, not entirely committed.I'd been faithful, but Billy… Yeah, right.
I couldn’t remember exactly when I'd been with him last, but I knew I'd put a halt to having sex with him once I'd suspected he was stepping out on me.And then I had stuck around because it had been easier than leaving.My stubborn streak had kept me rooted in that house, refusing to move back home with my mother and grandfather.Billy had been the lesser of two evils.Again, mostly because he had been gone more often than not.
The bottom line was, I'd been an idiot.
A great big honking idiot.
Then Lynx had to go and stir up my hormones, send my libido on the fritz.Make me wish for things that were beyond my reach.
As I lay there, I thought back to that night by the lake all those years ago, the first time I'd gotten a taste of Lynx, the first time I'd realized I was so far in love with him I would never be able to be happy without him.Ten painfully long years ago.
Up until that night, we’d rarely said anything more than the required pleasantries, but I had always had a crush on Lynx Caine.Always.He was the tough guy no one wanted to mess with, the bad boy all the girls swooned over.Him and his cousin, both.Some of the girls considered the cousins interchangeable, but I had only had eyes for Lynx.
That night, after his mother’s funeral, I had gone looking for him.I'd borrowed my brother’s truck and driven out to the Circle C.Back then, they hadn’t had a fancy solar-powered gate to keep anyone off the property, so I had ventured past acres of dry grass, then past Lynx’s house.
I'd found him down by the water, sitting on his tailgate, staring out into the darkness.Alone.So freaking alone, it had broken my heart to see him like that.Rather than run the other way, I had shored up my nerves, climbed out of the truck, and joined him.For a good ten minutes, neither of us had spoken and I had been okay with that.But when he finally turned his attention on me, my heartbeat sped up, my body igniting from the mere sound of his voice.
“What do you wanna do after you graduate?”Lynx asked, his raspy tone making my body warm significantly.
“I’ve still got two years,” I told him.
“I know.”He peered over at me.“But when you do graduate?”
I shrugged.“Not really sure.”
“You wanna leave Embers Ridge?”
I shook my head.That was about the only thing I knew for certain.I was a small-town girl through and through.There wasn’t enough money in the world to get me to move to the big city.
Lynx grinned, but it was sad.“You gonna settle down, have lotsa babies?”
