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"I suppose you're gonna sell me one?"
I tipped my head to one side. "Got a dozen in the back of the truck."
"’Course you do." Jack shook his head, grumbling, but I caught the small smile that lit his face as he pushed the door open and let me follow him inside.
CHAPTER TWO
A week later I was back at Red Hart for no other reason than that the girl with the wild hair and green eyes refused to leave my head. I might have fantasised about her too many nights in a row, but that had nothing on the real thing.
A tray of creams, gels and solvents was laid out before me, each marked neatly with a feminine hand. By the time she was five minutes into her sales pitch, my hands were in my pockets in an effort not to run my fingers through her wild hair and see if she liked it if I tugged on a strand to pull her closer. Blood ran in the wrong direction, leaving me with too much brain space and not enough focus for the clever girl before me who’d send me broke if I let her.
And by God I wanted to let her.
Trav looked over with a brotherly, protective eye, and it wasn't hard to see why.
She was beautiful. Stunning with the elven sort of fragile, summery look, though I knew she was no stranger to Montana’s terrifying winter, nor their gentle snowfalls, and icy hours dark filled with terrible storms, nights of wondering if you'll make it through to morning.
Fragile, yet strong. Sassy, if she chose to talk, and her pitching me her creams was the longest I’d ever heard her speak. Judging from fading marks and the shadows that shifted beneath her skin in the pastel purples and yellows, she was no stranger to the mountain’s harder edge to life. I studied themarks as she stopped talking, taking note of how often a larger bruise was surrounded at the top with several smaller ones.
Rage brewed in me as I glanced at Travis, my mouth open. He shook his head, keeping his jaw in a hardline.
If you know she’s being abused, why don't you do something?
You don’t know anything about Longside.
He was right; Longside was a touch too close to Double B where my mother reportedly worked, though there were plenty of other reasons traders and drifted stayed away from the rich family’s boundaries.
Travis’ personal wealth and subsequent bank of power in Northern Montana was no small thing, either. But he was infamous for not getting in anyone's business. Even if he had the sort of brotherly love for the girl before him, I knew he wouldn't interfere. His twin sister, on the other hand?
That was the firecracker I had to rouse if I wanted to protect this girl.
My girl.
I shook my head just as she glanced up at me.
"Ahh- I was thinking of...” I clamped my mouth shut helplessly.
Sienna witnessed my embarrassment without a single fidget, her eyes deep and luminous. She didn't back off for me, offering a sweet sort of smile that hit me well below the belt line.
"I got lost in my head, you know?" It was an odd thing, having a suddenly one-sided conversation with the girl who I knew wouldn’t answer now that she’d stopped talking. Sienna’s presence always offered me a sort of peace, watched over by the protective man who’d do anything for those on his land.
I like that about Travis. The man had respect for that, and from many others I knew.
Out here, true loyalty was a rare currency.
I looked down at the jars and made a quick decision. "These three.” I pushed the small glass pots forward and scooted aside the smaller containers.
Sienna stood back, her eyes hard on me, her slim arms folded over her white blousy top. Her back couldn’t have been straighter if I pushed her back against a wall and kissed her until she clung to me.
Head in the game, Kyle.
Very deliberately, she leaned forward and pushed the smaller containers of what I thought was lip balm back into my pile and tapped the lisp with a small, but unforgiving smile.
This girl will have me by the balls if I let her.
And I knew I’d let her.
“The boys don’t need lip gloss,” I protested. “I've got no one to sell this shit to.”
