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Travis turned his gaze on her, as if seeing her for the first time since he arrived, and a sickly smile slithered onto his face. “Sister Doyle. You don’t want to associate yourself with these people.”
Sister Doyle?Okay, asshole.
“It’sBrooke.Ms. Mansell-Doyleif you insist on being formal.” She definitely sounded annoyed. “And these are exactly the types of men I want to associate myself with.”
I wanted to stick my tongue out, and say,Nyah, so there. This was why I shouldn’t interact with the general public.
Travis clucked and shook his head. “Poor, naive Brooke. You have no idea what he’s selling here, do you?”
I definitely wanted to disintegrate this guy, and Deacon’s clenched fist said he was considering a more tangible approach.
In contrast, a sweet smile spread across Brooke’s face. “I do know. I got a hands-on demonstration last night.”
Wait. What?
TEN
BROOKE
I shouldn’t have saidthat. Why did I say that?
I didn’t care if Travis knew that I’d had any sort of intimacy with Deacon; I saved terms likehateandloathefor the severest of people, but I detested Travis Paddock. He’d pretended he cared about my grief, then pursued me without pause a year or so after my husband passed away.
But telling Travis anything was the equivalent of hanging large banners on every shopfront on Main Street.
Worse, the look on Adam’s face was somewhere between shock and hurt.
No one was saying anything, but everyone was staring at me. What was I supposed to do now?
I gave a light laugh that sounded fake to my own ears. “Just kidding. But don’t insult my intelligence like that again. I don’t believe you have the power to walk in here and shut things down because you see perversion where most people see a chair.”
Travis’s nostrils flared. “This is not a game, and I’m not a cliché movie villain, trying to steal your livelihood. You can’t sell those things under current zoning, and it will be on the docket at the next council meeting, Mr. Onassis.”
“I look forward to arguing my case.” Deacon’s reply was smooth, and his expression blank. “You can find your way out?”
“Brooke.” Travis nodded at me before he left.
“Freaking asshole,” I muttered as the door swung shut behind him.
For the second time in as many minutes, I was met with twin expressions of shock. “Sorry.”
“Never apologize,” Deacon said. “Andbravo, by the way. I can only think of a few things sexier than the way you put him in his place.”
I ducked my head, not sure how to respond. Was he teasing me? Did it mean more? After last night…
Which I was supposed to remember didn’t mean anything beyond the physical. No reason to read more into Deacon’s words than I did before.
“Speaking of, but not really—” Adam’s tone drew my attention. “Was there or was there not a hands-on lesson last night?” he asked. “Because that denial wasn’t exactly convincing.”
It really wasn’t, was it?Oh geez.Wait. If Adam didn’t know, Deacon wasn’t talking about it. Out of respect, or because what we did didn’t matter?
Nope. I wasn’t going to fall into endless questions when I’d been given an answer. “It was just a lesson.”
“The orgasms-and-no-clothes kind of lesson?” Adam asked.
I couldn’t do this. Yesterday, I couldn’t talk about sex without blushing, and that hadn’t changed. There was no way I could casually toss out an answer in the same tone I might use when ordering food at a drive-through.
“There were both clothes and orgasms.” Deacon could. But I knew that.
