Read Online Bad News Cowboy by Maisey Yates - Free Book Online Page A

Why hadn’t anyone ever...talked to her about this shit?
    She was over there throwing herself to the wolves. She was playing the game, and she had no idea what the prize was.
    He thought back to his rodeo days. To the way he and the other guys had been with women. Love ’em and leave ’em...fast. But those women had known just what they were asking for and Kate so clearly didn’t.
    Watching her with this guy, who couldn’t touch the skill the guys on the circuit had, Jack had a sudden vision of her surrounded by the type of guy he knew waited for her in the pros...
    Yeah, lamb to the slaughter was what came to mind.
    She was just so damned naive.
    She tilted her head to the side, putting her hand on the guy’s shoulder, laughing loudly enough for him to hear her.
    Then the cowboy leaned in and said something, and Kate’s face flushed scarlet, her posture going rigid against the wall. She was saying something back and then the guy leaned in closer.
    Jack took a couple of steps closer to the couple—so he could tell Kate her ice was going to melt and make her Coke taste like sadness, not for any other reason—and it put him in earshot of the conversation.
    â€œIf you want to get out of here,” Chad was saying, “we can get in my truck and I’ll take you for a real ride. Especially if you’re into giving a little head.”
    And in a flash Jack saw Kate walking out of the bar. Getting into that truck. Undoing that asshole’s belt and lowering her head to...
    â€œOkay. Enough.” Jack took two long strides forward, his blood pounding hot and hard. It was time to intervene.
    * * *
    K ATE FELT A SHIFT in the air, and it was welcome. Her conversation with Chad had started out well enough, and she could tell it had annoyed Jack. Which was sort of the idea after the shit he had pulled earlier.
    Buying her alcohol to make her sweet, pressing her up against the bar, looking at her like she was a fucking sunrise or something. Setting off a burst of heat low in her stomach that made it impossible to pretend anymore that she didn’t know what was happening.
    Attraction. That was why his presence made her feel itchy. Made her feel restless and hot, like a spark ready to ignite.
    It was the worst. It was literally the worst. Worse than knocking over a barrel at a key moment, worse than a fresh cow patty between your toes and even worse than trying to eat a salad without ranch dressing.
    Worst. Worst. Worst.
    And so she had decided to try to parlay that attraction into an interaction with Chad. Because if she was that hard up for a little male attention, Chad was certainly a better bet. Also, the idea of being into Chad didn’t fill her with terror and a whole lot of “dear God no.”
    But that was before he leaned in and told her just what he’d like to go in the back parking lot and do with her.
    And she had no idea if she was supposed to want to, if she was supposed to be flattered, or if she was supposed to punch him in the face. She was just too shocked to process it. Fascinated, really. That somehow a little conversation and back arching had turned into...that.
    But she didn’t have any time to process it, because a deep voice broke the interaction between her and Chad and broke into her muddled thoughts. “Is there a problem here?”
    It was Jack. And she wondered then if him moving closer was the shift she had felt. Disturbing. On so many levels.
    â€œI don’t think there’s a problem here,” Chad said, tugging his hat down, when only a few minutes earlier he had pushed it back. “Kate?”
    â€œNo,” Kate said, “no problem.” She was feeling completely at sea and in over her head, but she wouldn’t admit that, not to Jack. She would fight her own damn battle. If she was even going to fight it. Maybe she would go in the back parking lot with Chad and undo his belt in his truck as he had suggested.
    The