Lawson considered taking Eve to his office, but Nicky and the kids were home. Eve probably didn’t want to face anyone right now. That’s why Lawson got her into his truck and started driving.
“I can’t go home right now,” Eve said when she saw the direction he was going. “I don’t want to be around Tessie or Aiden when I’m like this. This crying-mess is best for adult eyes only.”
“I’m taking you to my place.” It was risky. Eve and he usually had no willpower around each other, but Lawson figured they were safe from having sex, considering Eve’s and his state of mind.
She didn’t object to the destination, maybe because she’d be closer to Tessie but not right there with her. In fact, Eve could keep watch of her place with the binoculars that Lawson hadn’t gotten around to throwing out.
Eve rummaged through his glove compartment and came up with a Kleenex so she could blot at the tears. “I was going to tell Tessie about you being her father, but I’ll hold off. I don’t want to add it to what she’s already feeling.”
“Uh.” That’s all Lawson managed to say because Eve snapped toward him.
Her teary eyes widened. “You told her?”
“She guessed when we were at the apartment in Austin, and I didn’t lie to her. So, she knows.”
He couldn’t tell how Eve felt about that. She sure didn’t look relieved. “How’d Tessie take it?”
That wasn’t an easy question to answer. Tessie hadn’t seemed upset. Not with him, anyway. But she had unleashed a little wrath about Eve. Lawson kept that to himself though. Eve was already beating herself up enough without dumping more on her.
“I think she’s still trying to work out how she feels,” Lawson said, settling for that. “That’s why I haven’t been by to see her. I wanted to give her some time.”
Eve stared at him. “I thought you stayed away because you were avoiding me.”
“I was but not for the reason you’re probably thinking.” It was the truth, but Lawson wished he’d thought about it before blurting it out.
She blinked. “Oh.”
Yeah, oh. He’d wanted to give Eve and himself some thinking time, too. So they could come to terms with the fooling around they’d done in Austin.
He expected Eve to launch into a discussion as to what he was feeling, et cetera, but she sat in silence as they drove to Heavenly Pastures. The silence ended, though, when she saw what someone had left by the gate. The pile of curled horns looked as if a bear had taken a dump.
“Tessie’s story will only make this sort of thing worse,” she muttered.
Lawson knocked some horns from the top of the security box and entered the code to open the gate only after he checked around to make sure there were no hornies or paparazzi. He didn’t see anyone, but with all the woods nearby, someone could be watching—that was likely how someone got that photo of Eve and Tessie. Just in case that someone tried to rush in and snap some more pictures, Lawson waited until the gate was fully closed behind them before he continued the drive to his house.
The first thing Lawson saw when he pulled into his driveway was something he didn’t want to see. Not a heap of horns or a Swaron trespasser. But rather Prissy Pants squawking and running around.
“Uh, what’s a chicken doing here?” Eve asked.
Lawson had no idea how the hen had gotten there. Vita didn’t have the security code for the gate unless the fates had revealed it to her. With the way his luck had been going, it was possible.
Lawson soon saw a clue as to the appearance of the chicken. A note was stuck in his door, and he immediately recognized the handwriting. It was Dylan’s.
“‘Saw Vita in town, and she insisted I bring this ugly chicken to you because she said you were in danger of being cursed again,’” Lawson read aloud. Dylan had triple underlined insisted. “‘FYI, you’re paying for the shit to be cleaned out of my truck. Dylan.’”
Lawson could only sigh. He wasn’t in danger of being cursed. The curse seemed to already be there.
Since he rarely locked his door, Lawson was cautious when he opened it, and he looked around for any other curse paraphernalia from Vita. Or for Darby naked beneath a raincoat. Nothing, thank God. Maybe the fates felt they’d already given him enough for one day.
At least he didn’t have ass stitches.
Not yet, anyway.
Eve took cautious steps when she walked in, too. She glanced at the binoculars by the front window and the bottle of whiskey on his coffee table.
“It’s been a rough couple of days,” he grumbled.
She went to the bottle and had a closer look. “It’s not open.”
“If it hadn’t been a rough time, I would have opened the bottle and had a shot or two.” Lawson fully expected to have to give her some kind of explanation to go with that, but Eve only nodded and made a sound of understanding.
“It’s like Ooey Gooey for me,” she said.
Lawson was sure he gave her a blank stare because now he was the one who needed the explanation.
“It’s ice cream,” she added. “Or guaranteed cellulite in every bite, as Cassidy likes to call it. I only eat it if I want it, not because I’m trying to choke down my sorrows.”
So, she did get it. More or less. He only hoped he didn’t have to explain their coping mechanisms to anyone else.
Eve went to the window and used the binoculars to look at her house. “Tessie’s car is still there, so no escape attempt yet.” Her back was to him now, but he had no trouble seeing her shoulders drop. “God, Lawson. What are we going to do?”
It was another tough question, but at least Eve had made it a “we” instead of an “I.” He’d been mulling over some possibilities in between tamping down the whole lust thing he had whenever Eve was around.
“Have you grounded her?” he asked.
She nodded. Sighed.
“Maybe we could arrange for her to see a counselor,” Lawson suggested. “Roman’s son, Tate, has been seeing one since he had some problems last year.”
Another nod. “She has an appointment day after tomorrow. Not sure she’ll go though. When I told her about it, she just grunted.”
If Lawson thought it would do any good, he’d volunteer to take Tessie. Heck, he’d go to the appointment with her.
Lawson made a third suggestion. “I could try to talk to Tessie if you think it’ll help.”
Judging from Eve’s even faster sigh, she’d already considered that, too. “She’s just so angry, and it might stir her up even more than she already is.”
He couldn’t believe he was even thinking this, but he was going to take a page from Kellan’s book on this. Right now, it could make things worse for him to be around his own child.
Even if that’s where he wanted to be.
Well, hell. Sometime in the past couple of days, the daddy switch had flipped inside him, and suddenly none of his other problems could hold a candle to what was going on with Tessie. Ironic that the biggest issue in his life was one that he couldn’t do anything to fix.
“I’ve even considered talking to Vita,” Eve went on. Not a sigh this time but a groan, and she quickly waved it off.
Obviously, this was eating away at Eve for her to have thought of something that extreme. “I could lend you the chicken.” It was a lousy joke, but Lawson was pleased when it earned him one of those half smiles from Eve.
With that half smile on her mouth and the weariness everywhere else on her face, Eve looked at him. Really looked. It was a connection that could only lead to trouble. Which was probably why she glanced away. She took her looks and glancing to his house, and it occurred to him this was the first time she’d been here.
“The place looks great,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. She probably didn’t know that the gesture stretched her shirt buttons to the max. It created a gap that allowed him a p
eek at her bra.
He felt his body clench, then beg.
She walked past him and to the kitchen, and her face twisted up a little when she saw the green granite. “I’m guessing this wasn’t your first choice,” she said, running her hand along the smooth surface.
“It wasn’t even my one-millionth choice.”
That brought back some of the smile, and she kept walking, going through the kitchen and to the wall of windows that faced the creek. “Now, this was your first choice for a view.”
Yeah, it was. And while he’d never actually imagined Eve standing there like that, she sure made a pretty picture with the light haloing all around her. Haloing through her thin top, too, since he could now see the outline of her body.
His body begged some more, but Lawson planted his feet and didn’t move.
She sighed again and mumbled something he didn’t catch. However, Lawson had no trouble hearing the rest of what she had to say. “This might be the only house in Wrangler’s Creek where we haven’t had sex.” And with that comment, she looked over her shoulder at him. “Did you bring me here for sex?”
The right answer to that was no. And it was truthful. Well, truthfulish, anyway. He hadn’t been thinking about sex when he’d brought Eve here, but he was thinking about it now.
“On a scale of one to ten, just how bad of an idea would it be?” she added. But Eve didn’t wait for him to answer. She came charging toward him, hooking her arm around him and pulling him to her.
“Screw it,” she grumbled. “Let’s go for making it the worst idea we’ve ever had.”
* * *
EVE KNEW THIS was wrong, but that was probably only adding an extra layer of heat to it. Forbidden fruit combined with bad timing and privacy was a recipe for unplanned sex. Of course, when it came to Lawson, breathing was its own recipe for what was happening.
And what was happening was full-blown foreplay. Right out of the gate.
There was kissing, groping and a level of urgency that made all of this seem as if sex was the cure for all their problems. Maybe the cure for world peace, too. Eve was pretty sure it would give her some peace, anyway. Well, it would after Lawson took care of this pressure-cooker need that was flash-firing inside her.
Thankfully, he had the cure for that.
Eve went after his clothes, aiming for the buttons on his shirt and the zipper of his jeans. She sucked at both, a reminder that as teenagers they’d often had sex while nearly fully clothed. That’s what happened when lovemaking venues were truck seats and semipublic places. Panty removal, his zipper down, freeing him from his boxers, and a condom.
Easy peasy.
But now that escalating need gave her the fine motor skills of a toddler.
She gave up on the shirt though she did pop some of the buttons. Lawson, however, proved to her that he still had nimble fingers and an ample undressing skill set. He yanked off her top and tossed it somewhere before he scooped her up and went in the opposite direction of her shirt.
Wherever he was taking her, he kissed her along the way, which made the trip very pleasant indeed. He hadn’t lost a step with that magic mouth because he managed to kiss her neck and the tops of her breasts before he maneuvered his way down a hall and to a bedroom. And he kept kissing when he laid her on the bed. At least he did until he pulled back.
Eve reached for him, hoping he hadn’t changed his mind about this, but he was merely shimmying off her shoes and jeans. Panties, too. Leaving her stark naked except for her bra. But Lawson rid her of that as well, and while she very much wanted to be naked to hurry this along, she also wanted to be able to ogle him the way he was ogling her.
Oh, mercy. He was ogling her.
“I have stretch marks,” she said, wishing that she’d done some extra time on the elliptical. And cut out that last carton of Ooey Gooey.
“I like stretch marks,” he drawled, and he kissed a couple of them as if to prove that.
Eve had no idea if he was lying, but when he kept going, kissing her lower and lower, she didn’t care about such trivial things as truth. When he gave her a kiss right between her legs, Eve no longer cared about ogling or oxygen. Yes, breathing was definitely overrated compared to this.
She let him continue with those special kisses until she was so close to an orgasm that she could feel it rippling through her. That’s when she latched on to Lawson’s hair and pulled him back up so they were aligned in just the right way for more than just special kisses. She also got serious about getting him out of his shirt, jeans and boxers, but she might have failed again if Lawson hadn’t helped her with all three.
He fumbled around in the nightstand drawer and came up with a condom. Eve didn’t even try to help with that because she was too busy getting in some of that ogling. It had definitely been worth the wait and the effort that it took to get him out of his clothes. This was no longer a boy’s body but rather a man’s. Lawson had filled out nicely.
In all areas.
She reaped the benefits when he finally got the condom on and pushed inside her. It was possible that fairies had strewn gold glitter behind her eyes and in her head. Possible, too, that she’d reached some level of pleasure that no woman had ever reached before.
Part of her didn’t want to move for fear of scaring off the fairies and bringing on a too-quick climax, but Eve’s body didn’t give her a choice about that. She moved, lifting her hips to benefit from every one of those “filled out” thrusts. She hooked her legs around his waist and moved right into the rhythm with him.
The years just melted away. So did her troubles. So did the memory of her stretch marks. The only thing she could feel, see and taste was the amazing man who sent her and the fairy glitter soaring and flying. Lawson did his own soaring, too, and she felt the climax rack through him.
Well, it racked for a couple of seconds, anyway.
“Shit,” he grumbled.
That wasn’t the response Eve had been expecting. Lawson wasn’t a talker when it came to climaxes. She’d never even gotten an Oh, God from him, much less a word like that.
Nor had she gotten the words that followed next.
“Shit,” he repeated. “The condom broke.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
LAWSON WAS CONSIDERING two options. Finding a big rock so he could hit himself in the head. Or letting Prissy Pants peck out his eyes. Even though that might not be enough punishment for what he was feeling.
In all the years he’d been having sex, he’d never had a condom break. Maybe there was no good occasion for something like that to happen, but this sure as hell felt like crap timing. Aiden wasn’t even four months old yet, and Eve was up to her eyeballs with Tessie. She didn’t need a worry like this. Neither of them did.
Eve had assured him it was the wrong time of the month for her to get pregnant, but there’d been something in her eyes.
Fear.
Yeah, that was it.
Fear that there was no wrong time of the month when it came to her getting knocked up. After all, the condom hadn’t broken all those years ago when he’d gotten her pregnant with Tessie, so they were perhaps the most fertile couple in Wrangler’s Creek.
Still, despite their history, Eve had dismissed it, managed some goodbye kisses and a smile before she’d gotten dressed and walked home. Lawson had volunteered to drive her, but she’d insisted on walking. Probably so she could look for a big rock along the way to hit herself on the head.
Cursing himself and the condom company, Lawson showered, threw on his clothes and headed back to work. He’d frittered away a good chunk of the day thinking about Tessie and Eve. And thinking about having sex with Eve. Of course, a portion of that frittering had included actual sex.
Damn good sex.
In fact, he could have put it at the top of his best sex ever if it hadn’t been for the condom malfunction.
“This had better be about a cattle sale gone wrong and nothing personal,” Lawson snarled when he stepped from his truck. “Because if it’s anything but ranching business, I don’t want to hear it.”
“It’s personal.” Roman clearly hadn’t heeded his warning. “I just saw Eve, and she had a hickey on her neck.”
Lawson cursed. “If I left a hickey, it wasn’t on her neck.” Though one on her inner thigh was a possibility, but he seriously doubted that Roman had seen that part of her anatomy. Which meant this was a fishing expedition. One to reel in some personal information.
“So, you did have sex with her.” Roman huffed. “Now, normally I wouldn’t care a rat’s nuts about that, but she looked upset.”
Hell. Lawson didn’t doubt that. He was upset and likely looked it, too. “Did she say anything?”
“Only that she was out for a walk to clear her head. I’m pretty sure we already had a conversation about you not dicking around with her.”
“I’m not dicking around with Eve!” Lawson said that a lot louder than he’d intended, and he got not only some ranch hands’ attention but also the attention of Nicky and Belle, who were in the sunroom.
“Then what are you doing?” Roman asked.
Lawson didn’t have a clue, and he didn’t have to think of an answer that wouldn’t have satisfied Roman anyway because the sound of a car engine gave him a reprieve. Or at least he thought it was a reprieve.
A confusing one.
It was Mila, but she wasn’t alone. Her small car was jammed with people. Specifically, Tessie, Cassidy and Aiden, who was strapped into his infant seat between Cassidy and Tessie. No sign of Eve though.
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