AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There’s a good reason for that, Logan. It’s not ready yet. I don’t want anyone to see it until it’s done. Mama hasn’t even been here.”
“Someone has to see it if they’re going to help you. Come on, Pepper. We grew up in an old, busted trailer. I guarantee you this house isn’t going to bother me. I want to help.”
“She has help.”
Pepper heard Grant’s voice behind her. All she could do was close her eyes and sigh. Apparently she had not expressed to Grant how much her brother disliked his family and how bad it
would be if he found them here together. This wasn’t going to go well.
“Who was that?” Logan asked with concern lining his eyes.
“That was . . . Grant.” She spoke his name slowly; her mouth didn’t want to cooperate.
“Chamberlain?” His brows shot up and his voice raised a few decibels.
With a groan, Pepper let the door swing open the rest of the way to reveal the smiling Grant standing in the living room.
“Yep,” she said.
“How ya doing, Logan?”
Logan looked Grant up and down. He didn’t acknowledge his question; he just turned to look at Pepper with a disapproving frown. “Why is he here?”
“I told you,” she said. “He’s helping me.” Logan narrowed his gaze at her. Pepper prayed her kiss-swollen lips and teeth-grazed throat weren’t obvious. Her disheveled appearance could be accounted for by working on the house, but a hickey—that would be all Grant’s doing.
“Helping you what?” he asked, his face starting to turn an unpleasant, splotchy red. He was seconds from a full-blown meltdown, she could tell.
“Grant is very handy. He’s helping me do a lot of things.” He’d done an unending list of chores over the last two days, but at the moment, the only things that came to mind involved his tongue.
“He is, is he?” Logan’s gaze traveled back over her shoulder to where Grant was standing. Grant didn’t say anything that she could hear, but he must’ve done something—grinned wickedly, waggled his eyebrows suggestively, made some crude gesture . . . Whatever it was pushed Logan over the edge. Logan’s mouth dropped open, his blue eyes widening in horror. “Oh my God, Pepper, you’re sleeping with him!”
“Shhh!” Pepper hissed, shoving Logan out onto the porch and slamming the door shut behind her. “You just hush your mouth and mind your own business.”
“A Chamberlain, Pepper! Didn’t Mama teach you anything? Didn’t their superior, stuck-up ways turn you off? Or were you blinded by the money?”
Money? Grant had done nothing but cost her money. “All right, you stop right there, mister!” Pepper said, jabbing her index finger into Logan’s chest. She might not have come to terms with how she felt about sleeping with Grant, but she wasn’t about to let her brother tell her what she could and couldn’t do. She’d have sex all day with Grant if she wanted to, and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“For one thing, who I’m sleeping with is none of your damn business. I am twenty-six years old and I don’t need your permission to do anything. I’ve grown up a lot since you left for law school, and you’d better get used to that. I don’t care who you’re sleeping with and I expect the same courtesy if you’re going to be living in Rosewood again.”
“But—”
“No buts, Logan. This is the way it is. I’m not going to tolerate any macho bullshit from you. You’re not going to start any fights with Grant or any of the other Chamberlain boys, and there’s not going to be any crap about defending my so-called honor. This isn’t the dark ages. Grant is a guest in my home and you’re going to treat him that way or you’re going to leave. Got it?”
Logan shuffled his feet on the ground and shrugged. He refused to commit to that. Fine, he could go home if he didn’t like it.
“And lastly, I’m certainly not going to tolerate you accusing me of sleeping with a Chamberlain for money. I mean, really? Do you think I’m a whore, Logan? Because that’s what you just said.”
Logan’s eyes widened as he realized what he’d implied in thoughtless anger. “Of course not, Pep. People can get caught up in the Chamberlain mystique, though. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt. He’s just going to—”
“Use me and break my heart. Yes, I know, Mama has said it a million times. But I’m not giving him my heart, Logan, so there’s not a problem there. He’s helping with my house because I accidently bid on him at the bachelor auction. You were there, you know that. That’s all there is to it. We’re not dating. He’s just spent all morning buffing my floors and no, that’s not a metaphor.”
“So . . . you’re not sleeping with him?” Logan shook his head dismissively as Pepper arched an eyebrow at him in warning. “Okay, okay, it’s not my business if you’re sleeping with him. I get it.”
“Thank you.”
“I guess you don’t need my help today, then.”
She shook her head no. “Maybe in a few weeks when it gets warmer, you can help me with the yard. You were always really good with Mom’s roses and getting things to grow. I don’t have anything, not even a lawnmower, so I’ll need all the assistance I can get.”
