Page 39 of Indecent Lies

He couldn’t say he’d had much practice with soothing a woman. His mother was as cold as a deep freeze and the girls he’d been involved with over the years pretty much took care of themselves.

Poppy was sweet and vulnerable and it rose instincts in Texas he’d never felt before.

Was she missing her fiancé? Regretting her decision to run away? He could help her fix it if she was. Even when his heart and belly both jolted in protest.

“What isn’t fair, Poppy?” He repeated as she laid her forehead against his.

“She doesn’t get to have both. That’s not fair. She already has one, she can’t have two.”

His brows pinched in the middle with confusion as he watched her unfocused eyes. It was Poppy who took herself from his lap, just as well, his groin had no business aching so full the way it was.

She flopped into the very corner, making herself very small. “She got one, she can’t have both of the Hunt boys. She’s a vile witch with her nasty tongue and greedy ways. She gets one, but no, she wants two.”

Oh.

Fuck.

She was talking …slurring, about Addison.

There was nothing like seeing a pretty girl fired up with flames in her eyes and heat caressing over her cheeks. Even if the girl in question was fucked up with too much liquor.

Now he knew she’d heard his conversation with Snake.

Her kiss had come out of literal nowhere and so had her declaration about his brother’s wife.

She can’t have both of the Hunt boys.

Stomach muscles tightened in a great fist, but there was no time to ask her what the fuck she was talking about or how she knew about him, Mal and Addison, because she’d passed out.

Texas sighed, dragging a hand down over his face as he uncoiled his body to stand to his feet. He carefully slid both arms under her legs and upper body before lifting her gently.

Time to put the drunk to bed.

He would get answers from her tomorrow.

ELEVEN

“I don’t need another drink – said not me last night.” - Penelope

Waking up with a hangover for the first time in her life was not fun.

Like at all, not even for a second.

She felt pain unlike anything else the moment her eyelids opened, so she did the wise thing and shut them tight, burrowing under the blankets.

One slight movement and Penelope felt the world shifting under her.

Her stomach rolled from side to side and the throbbing which started in her temples indicated that she most probably had an inoperable brain tumor because there was no pain like the pain she was experiencing.

“Oh, my God, I’m dying.” She groaned to herself and felt like her spine was fused to the sheets but there was no way in hell she was moving.

Some time passed when her bladder demanded that she get out of bed.

It was the worst trip to the bathroom ever.

Nauseous and dizzy, she forced herself into the shower in hopes the hot sprays would bring her back to life.

It didn’t help.

---