Read Online Bound, Branded, & Brazen by Jaci Burton - Free Book Online Page B

hit every goddamn bump in the road. But he didn’t. Not that it mattered, since even in the dark he saw her face grow pale.
    “I really don’t feel good, Mason.”
    He punched the button and rolled her window partway down.
    “Suck in some fresh air.”
    She did, inhaling and exhaling. And grew white as a sheet.
    “Pull over.”
    He turned down a gravel side road, threw it into park, raced around to her side and jerked her out of the car just in time. She dropped to her knees and he held her hair while she vomited up the contents of her wild party tonight. When it seemed like there was nothing left to give up, he grabbed a bottled water he had stashed in the side pocket of the truck and washed her face, then told her to take a sip. He put her back in the truck and drove back to the ranch, then carried her inside and up to her room.
    She was quiet now. Her eyes were closed, and she was limp as a dishrag and soaked through with sweat.
    He laid her on the bed, her hair a tangled mess around her face.
    She looked like shit.
    He walked out into the hallway. Brea’s and Jolene’s rooms were both dark. As a matter of fact, Jolene’s truck hadn’t been out front. Maybe they’d stopped at the all-night diner in town for breakfast. He supposed he could wake Lila . . .
    Well, hell. It wasn’t like Valerie had anything he hadn’t seen before. He went back into her room, watched her chest rise and fall with deep, even breaths. He pulled off her boots and socks, then undid her belt buckle and unfastened her jeans. He pulled down the zipper and tugged the jeans over her hips and down her thighs, revealing purple silk panties, tiny strings holding them up on her hips.
    Christ. His cock twitched to life as he drew the jeans down her legs, his knuckles brushing the softness of her skin. He felt like a pervert undressing an unconscious woman. A woman whose body he knew all too well.
    Sucking in a breath, he took the hem of her shirt and pulled it up, baring her flat stomach, her ribs, and over her breasts. Her purple bra matched her panties. She sighed, inhaled deeply, her breasts rising with that breath.
    He was fully hard now, mentally cursing this really stupid idea. He lifted the shirt over her head and threw it on the floor, then slid his hands under her back and undid the hooks of her bra in about two seconds flat. Hell, he’d always been good at undressing her, especially when they’d been frantic about getting naked and getting skin-to-skin with each other.
    Thoughts like that weren’t going to settle his dick down soon. He pulled her bra off, stood there looking at her dusky pink nipples that hardened to tight points in the cool bedroom, and wished he were anywhere but here. He was no freakin’ Boy Scout. He was hard as a fence post and his balls were throbbing. This was the woman he’d spent half his life thinking about sinking his cock into. And here she was, lying in the bed they used to make love in together, nearly naked, her legs softly parted, her nipples hard, just like his dick.
    Shit.
    “Come on, darlin’, let’s get you under the covers.” He scooped her up long enough to jerk the covers down. She moaned, softly, while he repositioned her, pulled the covers over her. Then she rolled to her side and shoved her nose in the pillow.
    He turned off the light and pulled the door handle.
    “Thank you, Mason,” she mumbled from under the covers.
    He closed the door and tiptoed downstairs and out the front door, slamming into his truck and peeling off down the road. He rolled the window down, hoping the cold breeze would chill the heat roaring through his body.
    He still wanted her. Even worse, he was leveled by how much he still cared for her, still wanted to care for her. She was still as vulnerable now as she was when her life had been shattered all those years ago after the death of her parents. He’d always thought she’d leaned on him then because of that. Maybe she had. And maybe it had been something