Page 39 of A Taste of Whiskey
She shoved Ezra toward the bathroom and unlocked the door to the tack room, whispering, “Go. Quick.”
He hurried into the bathroom and heard the tack room door open.
“Hey. What’re you doing in here?” Doc asked.
“I was putting tack away, but I knocked stuff off the shelf, and it took forever to put it back. I need to check on the horses. Walk with me.”
Smart.
Ezra leaned his palms on the sink, staring at himself in the mirror. The rebellious bad boy she brought out in him grinned like a fucking beast, but the responsible father and therapist told him he was playing with fire.
Chapter Eleven
SASHA TRIED TO pay attention to the conversations going on around her at dinner, but her heart was racing, and her stomach was all knotted up. She’d been on edge all day, hoping to see or hear from Ezra so they could talk. But he hadn’t sought her out, and now, while she could barely eat, he sat beside her acting totally normal, eating barbecue ribs like he hadn’t said dirty things to her and made her come just a few hours earlier.Thiswas the Ezra she knew. The calm, sensible, unflappable single father and therapist, so different from the jealous, lustful,hungrybeast she’d gotten a delicious taste of in the barn. She hadn’t even known she’d like a guy who was that aggressive and said filthy things that made her panties melt. Maybe she wouldn’t like it if he were anyone else, but sitting so close to him brought it all rushing back.
How did he turn off his desire so easily? Was it because he was experienced with meaningless hookups?Oh no. Was what they’d done in the tack room a onetime thing?
Was all that talk about what he was going to do to her just to rev her up for what he’d been hoping to do to her in the tack room before they were interrupted? Was that why he’d really locked the door?
Great.Now she was thinking about him doing those things to her. She chugged ice water and glanced around the table to see if anyone noticed she was frying from the inside out.
Cowboy tore a piece of meat off a rib with his teeth and arched a brow at Doc, who was cutting his meat off the bone with a fork and knife. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Doc said.
“Afraid of ruining your manicure?” Cowboy asked.
“No, asshole. I have a date, and I don’t want to get my shirt dirty.”
Ezra leaned forward to see around Sasha and said, “Where are you taking her?”
How could he act so normal when she was losing her mind? She remembered what he’d said about fucking women senseless and never seeing them again and couldn’t help but wonder if in his mind this was the same kind of situation despite what he’d said about nobody else touching her. Those knots in her stomach tightened.
“We’re going”—Doc glanced around the table at the girls—“bowling.”
“Yeah, right,” Billie said sarcastically. “It’s a hookup.” She bit into a rib.
“Bowling is more fitting, since he’s going to strike out anyway.” Cowboy snickered.
Sasha needed to get out of her own head and went for a distraction. “Remember that time Doc asked out the girl at the bowling alley and she turned him down?”
“Oh yeah. I remember that,” Cowboy said. “He refused to go bowling for months after that.”
“Didn’t we miss a bowling birthday party because of him?” Dare asked.
The banter wasn’t helping. She got up to refill her drink, hoping a little distance would make it easier for her to act normal. As she filled her glass, her father walked over to refill his.
“Hi, darlin’. You okay? You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”
“Me? No. I’m good. I was thinking about something I forgot to order from the feed store.”
“A’right. Doc mentioned a cat was chasing mice in the rehab barn. From the look on your face, I was worried they were causing trouble.”
Her nerves flared, and her mother’s voice trampled through her mind.Your father might be a big man, but he’s as stealthy and as clever as the day is long.She felt like she was ten years old again, getting caught faking sick to stay home from school. Did he know about her and Ezra? Did Doc?No way.Doc would have called her out if he had. Wouldn’t he? Yes. Of course he would. She was just being paranoid.
“Nope. No trouble. Everything is good.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” He put his hand on her back. “Any rascals give you grief, you tell your old man, and I’ll take care of them. Enjoy the ribs, darlin’.”
