Page 62 of Her Property

“You don’t have to do that,” Graydon said, but the woman shook her head, her eyes flickering with anger. Graydon knew better than to argue. When Brady still didn’t move, Graydon took the bill and slapped it into Brady’s palm.

The woman stalked by them. “Now if you’ll kindly move your truck I’d like to carry on to my destination.” She got back in her car, slamming the door after her.

Brady rubbed the bill between his fingers as if he was checking to see if it was real. He pinched his lips. “This won’t cover my bumper—”

“There’s nothing wrong with your goddamned bumper,” Graydon said. “You just got yourself a free fifty bucks. Get the hell out of here while you’re still ahead, Brady.”

Brady walked over to his bumper and rubbed a thumb along the chrome. “Can’t you see this dent? It’ll cost at least two hundred bucks to get this knocked back out.”

“Oh, for the love of—” Graydon strode over to Brady and snatched the bill. “I’m giving this back.”

Brady’s mouth fell open. Then he swiped the money back.

Graydon had to bite his cheek to resist laughing. Brady had a terrible poker face.

Brady looked like he was going to say something else, but after glancing at Graydon, he scowled and stormed back to his truck.

Graydon let out a breath as Brady squealed off and turned back to the woman in the SUV. She was wrapping and unwrapping her fingers around her steering wheel.

She looked pissed.

Graydon came back around the side of her car.

Before he could open his mouth, she said, “I could have dealt with that myself.”

He was taken aback, then flooded with embarrassment.You idiot. Not everyone needs a knight in shining armor.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure you could have. You did.” And he meant it. By the fire in her eyes, he could tell she’d unleashed worse on plenty of Brady Smyths.

His apology seemed to surprise her. She cleared her throat, tucking her waves behind her ears.

“Well, thank you anyway, for stepping in.”

He stared at her a second too long, and for a moment, it was as if each of them was daring the other to look away first. Finally, she looked down at her window frame. His fingers were curled around it. He pulled his hands away, embarrassment slipping neatly into place.

“Are you passing through or—” he began. But she had her finger on the window button and the glass began to rise.

“Thanks again,” the woman said before the window sealed shut between them.

Graydon couldn’t do anything but nod and watch as she drove away.

Lucy

Lucy Fulham’s cheeks didn’t stop burning all the way to the motel. In fact, they seemed to keep getting hotter. She was pissed at that twerp in the giant truck. But even more pissed at the other one. The big, scruffy… big one. Shecouldhave handled that embarrassing little incident just fine on her own.

And holy hell, was it embarrassing. She didn’t think she could remember any time in her life, ever, where she had done something so completely mortifying.

Rear-ending someone because she wasoglinga man!

But it wasn’t just any man.No matter how many times she replayed the incident—slamming into that giant pickup withballshanging from its bumper, ugh—she couldn’t shake the image of what made her so distracted the first place. That man standing in the back of that truck, lifting his overly worn t-shirt up to wipe the sweat from his brow. She cranked the A/C and blared the car’s radio, but it didn’t do anything. His glistening bare torso was seared into her retinas.

Then when he’d leaned into her window? The scruff of his stubble going down his neck and that scar running the length of his jaw… Lucy wondered what it would be like to run her thumb along it, to feel the bristle of hair and the soft line of scar tissue underneath…

“Arrrrghh!” She growled out loud, gripping the steering wheel as if she could squeeze the images from her brain.

Getting lost in thirst traps was not what she had come to this little town for. She had come to do a job, earn a paycheck, and get out.

And lord knows she needed a paycheck.

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