Page 91 of My UnTrue Love
“Ignore it.” Bill advised, nipping her ear.
“You say that whenever anybody comes over.”
“Only person I ever invited here is you. Everyone else who shows up is a damn trespasser, who I’m too busy to deal with.” His palms were easing under her skirt again. “I’ve got my hands full with more important…”
“Clementine?” Dinah called from outside. “Make yourself decent and get out here. I wanna talk to you about that damn coyote.”
Clementine’s eyes widened in horror. She was half-naked and making out with a man, ten feet from her grandmother’s possible-former-lover! With a squeak of alarm, she jumped off Bill’s lap, scrambling to right her clothes.
Bill pitched his head back and blew out an aggravated breath. “Fuck.”
“Clementine!” Dinah knocked again.
“I’m coming!”
“Youwouldbe, if she hadn’t showed up.” Bill grumbled.
Clementine studiously ignored that. She pulled open the door, smoothing down her hair and hoping she looked respectable. “Hi, Dinah. How nice of you to stop by.”
“…Unannounced.” Bill chimed in, slanting the older woman a glare.
Dinah scanned Clem up and down in a way that made Clem suspect she’d buttoned all her buttons wrong. “Humph.” She arched a brow at Bill. “Interrupting your busy morning, am I?” She didn’t seem very repentant.
Bill sighed.Loudly.
“Well, I came by, because I heard what happened at the Lone Prairie.” Dinah continued. “Not directly from the owner of the joint, mind you. Nobody seems to know just what’s happened to him.”
“Who cares what happened to him?” Clementine scoffed. “Desert Pete wouldn’t pay Bill! I was very upset by his unfair attitude.”
Dinah kept staring at Bill.
“I don’t like it when Clem’s upset.” He said mildly.
“You talked to Desert Pete?” Clementine had wondered what “bothersome errand” got him up so early. Hopefully, he hadn’t beentoomischievous. “Did you get our money?”
He smiled a bit. That was answer enough. He was such a gifted negotiator.
Dinah cackled. It was the first time Clem had ever heard her laugh. “Well, I imagine Desert Pete’s feeling upset, too. …Wherever he might be. Not just because of his present circumstances, either. It’s all over town that you busted up his saloon.”
“Bill didn’t start that fight.” Clementine defended, hitching her neckline higher.
“Maybe not, but he sure as hell finished it.” Dinah kept her sharp eyes on Bill. “I hear you changed into your coyote-self and tossed some son of a bitch into a wall.”
Bill stared at her, saying nothing.
“That sounds much more violent than it was.” Clementine rushed to explain. “Bill was the real victim.”
Dinah’s attention stayed on Bill. “I also heard that son of a bitch put his hands on Clem, first.” She pursed her cherry-red lips around her cigarette. Herunlitcigarette. Was she not smoking, because she’d taken Bill’s warning about Clementine’s health to heart? “I assume you didn’t cotton to that.”
“Nobody touches my mate.” Bill relayed that information in a placid tone, but it had Clem’s pulse rate speeding up.
When shifters called someone their mate, it was very, very serious. It probably wasn’t fair to assume thatBillwas very, very serious, given all the recent upset to his sensitive temperament. Still, Clem couldn’t quite stop her very, very serious hope.
Dinah grunted. “I passed some time away with a coyote, in my younger years. Might’ve mentioned that. He helped me build The Kitchen.” She sighed in fond remembrance. “He was a lawless varmint, who high-tailed it outta town with a posse hot on his tail. Miracle that he didn’t swing from a noose, for all the trouble he caused.” She considered Bill thoughtfully. “You favor him a bit.”
“Must’ve been a good-lookin’ son of a gun.”
“Oh, he was.” Dinah gave a sly smile. “And he once ripped off a man’s jaw for disrespecting me at a rodeo. I don’t like to prioritize male companionship over all other options. Feminine ways, for example, have many a charm.”
