Page 18 of A Lot Like Forever
Faith tried not to bristle, knew that Sam was trying to look out for her. “How many times do I have to tell you that I’m here working? It’s a hell of a lot better than the bar. And let’s not start on how well you deal with guys doing wrong by me.” She laughed. “Not that any of them have been deserving of being roughed up before now.”
Her brother made a growling noise and she pushed away from him and jumped up onto the counter, staring down into eyes the exact same shade of brown as hers.
“So there’s nothing going on between you?” he asked, sipping his coffee, then grimacing at the heat. “I didn’t walk in on anything this morning when I showed up?”
“For the last time,no,” she insisted, hoping her cheeks didn’t flush. A couple of months ago, hell,aweekago she’d have stripped her gorgeous boss down to nothing at the first opportunity. But that was before. Nate had flirted with her, and he hadn’t so much as touched her inappropriately since she’d arrived. “I needed somewhere to stay; he needed a housekeeper. It was a win-win situation for both of us.”
Sam leaned forward, arms on the counter across from her. “Just be careful around him, okay?”
“You’ve already warned him off me, Sam,” she said, wondering if she was pushing it by admitting what she knew. “I know he wasn’t allowed to come near me when I was a teenager, that I was the one girl he wasn’t allowed to try his luck with, and he seems pretty sure that the rules of not coming near me are still in place.”
“It was for your own good,” Sam muttered, but he didn’t meet her gaze, was obviously embarrassed at being caught out. “And it still is.”
“Well, now I’m all grown-up, Sam, and I can look out for myself. You don’t need to tell me who I can and can’t be with.” The way he was acting he was almost pushing her toward Nate.
“Like you did with Cooper? After what that asshole did to you--”
“Nate would never lay a hand on a woman,” she said, interrupting him. “Don’t you ever compare him to Cooper.”
Sam shook his head, coffee cup braced in one hand. “He won’t break your bones, Faith, but he will break your heart. I know he will, and seeing you like that would hurt me more than seeing you with a bruise on your stomach. It’d kill me, because that kind of pain doesn’t’ just disappear in a week like an ugly bruise that fades to nothing.”
Faith’s belly flipped, both from the reference to the blow she’d taken the day before and from just thinking about Nate, about the power he could have over her, how hard she could fall for him if she let herself. But she wasn’t going to. Getting into his bed was one thing, but she would never let him close enough to break her heart.
“I’ll be fine, Sam. I promise.”
“And you’re sure you don’t want to stay with me?”
“Three’s a crowd,” she told him, jumping down and pressing a fleeting kiss to his cheek as she took his cup off him, put it in the sink, and then grabbed his hand, hauling him down the hall. “Now it’s time for you to go. I have work to do, and I’m guessing you do, too.”
“Just be careful.”
Faith laughed and pushed him out the door. “You say that like I’m about to go on an African safari without any protection from the wild animals.”
He groaned. “That’sexactlywhat you’re doing.”
She just shoved him and then shut the door behind him. Sam was wrong; she wasn’t in danger of Nate or any other man breaking her heart.
She was going to finish her master’s degree, work hard over vacation to save money, and then make her own way in the world. Carve out a career from what she loved. Now was the time to let her hair down, have fun while she planned out her future. If her sexy rancher boss wanted some no-strings-attached fun, one day she might consider it. But not just yet.
