Page 16 of Reckless Skye

He’d taken his cowboy hat off for dinner, revealing dark-brown hair trimmed short. He made polite conversation with her from across the table, and although he listened intently whenever she spoke, he focused more on the food in front of him than her, and when he did make eye contact, it was quick and polite and impersonal.

She knew something had been said by the way Janey acted as if nothing was off, but Ryan looked at TJ as if his son had sprouted another head at the dinner table.

Skye hated that she’d been so obvious, hated that she’d panicked with TJ at the barn and then gotten teary when Janey had shown her to the guest room. She told herself that she was just tired, but the truth was, there was something about the Jones family that just made a person feel safe and welcome. It was them as much as it was her. They were the family she’d always dreamed existed once she’d realized her own was a living nightmare.

Still, she refused to be the type of woman everyone tiptoed around. Her own mother had taught her how quickly those habits could become a lifestyle. So, when TJ pushed back from the table with, ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see to the horses,’ Skye got up too.

‘I’ll help.’

‘You really don’t have to,’ he hurried to say. ‘I’ll see to Smokey.’

‘No, I’ll see to Smokey.’ She looked to Janey for permission out of habit. In Holden’s house, dinner was to be on the table by seven and cleared, the dishes done, by eight. ‘Could I help you clear up before I go?’

‘No, honey. But thank you for offering.’ Janey stood and started gathering dishes. ‘You two go on.’ She smiled sweetly, but Skye caught the pointed look she gave TJ, one that had him rolling his eyes the moment his mom turned her back.

When they were out of hearing from the farmhouse, Skye demanded, ‘What did your mom tell you?’

TJ slanted her a sideways glance. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Oh, come on. In the space of thirty minutes, you went from Cowboy Casanova to the perfect gentleman.’

His heavy footfall crunched over the dry red dirt.

Over dinner, the sun had gone down, giving way to blue dusk that cast an eerie glow. If she’d been on the road, Skye would have found a stopping place already, but here, with TJ, she was too irritated to be nervous.

‘Look, you’re reading too much into it.’

‘I don’t want to be treated differently just because you feel sorry for me,’ she insisted, and because he was rapidly walking ahead, ignoring her, she grabbed him by the arm and yanked him.

TJ spun around. For just one second, his posture was charged with temper, his eyes dark and dangerous.

Skye instinctively took two hurried steps back.

TJ’s demeanour changed instantly. His body softened, and although she saw that it cost him, his eyes went carefully blank. ‘My mom’s a giant softie.’ He grinned, trying, she knew, to distract her from her fear. ‘She thinks you can’t handle me.’

In her anger, Skye didn’t even remember that she’d had the same thought. ‘What’s to handle?’ she demanded. ‘A middle-aged bull rider who thinks he’s God’s gift to women? Buddy, you’re a dime a dozen.’

For one crystal second, all he did was stare at her. But just when she thought he’d say something, he surprised her by throwing back his head and laughing – loudly.

Skye crossed her arms and cocked one hip, refusing to be charmed by the deep, husky sound of TJ letting loose. He raised his fingers to the bridge of his nose and pinched as if it would help him regain himself.

Once he’d sobered some, she asked, ‘You done?’

Those eyes, laughing again, found hers. ‘I knew it.’

Skye just raised her eyebrows.

‘You see, Mom thinks you’re fragile. But me’ – he grinned wickedly – ‘I see you beneath that porcelain doll exterior. And you’re more likely to bite a man’s hand off than run from it.’

Skye hunched into her jacket. She desperately wished that were true. But it wasn’t. Not even close. And it hurt to hear him so confidently mislabelling her.

She’d run. And she’d left her mom behind with nobody to defend her against Holden. And that … that about killed her. The guilt rose. That carefully controlled grief consumed her so suddenly that she couldn’t catch it, couldn’t stamp it back down. So, instead, she channelled it. She took all that pain and shame and used it to summon a wicked smile.

‘Damn straight,’ she replied. And before she stepped past him, she let her teeth flash dangerously. She leaned in, whispered, ‘So, you’d best be careful where you put your hands, TJ.’

The warning, issued in a low, feral tone, had the opposite effect than Skye had intended. TJ’s body roared to life, flooding with heat. The words Fuck me flitted through his mind. And those hands she’d just warned him to keep to himself itched with the urge to touch her, if only to show her how much she’d like what they could do.

With any other woman, he would have settled in for the chase. But that same warning signal flashed, reminding him that Skye was running from something. And that changed the rules of the game.