Read Online Falling Softly: Compass Girls, Book 4 by Mari Carr & Jayne Rylon - Free Book Online
Authors: Mari Carr & Jayne Rylon
Ads: Link
torn wreckage of Sterling’s panties, which waved like a flag from the bed of the truck. When they’d jacked it up, the shifting gear had revealed the lacy carnage as clearly as a neon sign.
Viho whipped his head around to find Sam staring at him now, with crossed arms that made him look more like an asskicker than a nerd. Viho offered up an awkward shrug before glancing away from the accusation in Sam Compton’s eyes and found something even more threatening in the knowing stare of Jake Cartwright.
While Viho could brush off the raised hackles of a protective dad, it was a hell of a lot harder to dismiss a condemning glare from the one man who should have had his back unconditionally.
Then again, he’d always known his father—Jake fucking Cartwright—had hated the very idea of him because the loser had never bothered to meet his own son. Or cared enough about the lovesick woman he’d ruined for life to find out why she’d disappeared in the middle of a random night and raced back to a family who’d disapproved of her “sordid” affair with someone outside their inner circle.
Viho spun on his heel before he did something rash. Like deck the guy.
No respect.
Viho had none for Jake, whose laser stare singed Viho’s retreating back as he climbed into the Jeep with Sterling. That didn’t make it hurt any less.
Fuck this town. Fuck these people.
Except the woman who looked at him with kind and remorseful eyes despite her own private catastrophe, whatever that might be. She patted his thigh before starting her car and pointing them toward town, leaving her father and honorary uncle behind, though she couldn’t possibly have known how badly he needed the reassurance of her gentle touch.
He hoped he could do what he had to and escape this nightmare—his own personal hell—without hurting her.
From where he was sitting, it seemed like an impossible task.
Viho dropped his head back against the rest and closed his eyes as he frantically tried to concoct a plan for surviving the next several months. Hell, the next several hours.
It sure as shit wasn’t going to be easy.
Chapter Five
Viho peeked between the branches of the rosebush he was pruning when he caught sight of killer legs wrapped in skinny jeans. He hoped for a glimpse of the woman they belonged to, remembering how they’d felt hugging his hips. Sterling. He subtly adjusted his insta-hard-on before mindlessly snipping a wayward sprig riddled with thorns.
She was torturing him.
Every day, she toured the garden with her grandmother, praising his work and enjoying the product of his labor. He admitted to himself that the grounds were coming along, but her kind words only made him feel like more of a prick for ignoring her. Or appearing to.
It’d been six weeks since she’d found him on the side of the road like garbage someone had tossed out. Except she hadn’t treated him like he was worthless.
The first few days he’d worked on the ranch, she’d gone out of her way to welcome him and make it clear that she would’ve gone right on making him happier than he’d remembered being in a long time. Maybe ever.
Viho couldn’t accept her gracious offer of comfort or companionship. Not when he hid so many secrets—and a truckload of resentment for her father, uncles and especially Jake—from her.
It wouldn’t be fair.
Besides, the gap in their ages was almost ridiculous—it was so big. A fourteen-year difference. He’d never escape Compass Ranch without getting his ass kicked if their affair leaked. The list of reasons why he couldn’t have her stretched longer than the inventory of plants Mrs. Compton had approved for her expansive gardens. So he’d distanced himself, then focused on his duties.
Hell, the job was big enough to last a reasonable landscaper a lifetime. And he could have been content maintaining his design after installing it too. If it didn’t require tending to enemy territory. Just one more thing to resent,
Viho whipped his head around to find Sam staring at him now, with crossed arms that made him look more like an asskicker than a nerd. Viho offered up an awkward shrug before glancing away from the accusation in Sam Compton’s eyes and found something even more threatening in the knowing stare of Jake Cartwright.
While Viho could brush off the raised hackles of a protective dad, it was a hell of a lot harder to dismiss a condemning glare from the one man who should have had his back unconditionally.
Then again, he’d always known his father—Jake fucking Cartwright—had hated the very idea of him because the loser had never bothered to meet his own son. Or cared enough about the lovesick woman he’d ruined for life to find out why she’d disappeared in the middle of a random night and raced back to a family who’d disapproved of her “sordid” affair with someone outside their inner circle.
Viho spun on his heel before he did something rash. Like deck the guy.
No respect.
Viho had none for Jake, whose laser stare singed Viho’s retreating back as he climbed into the Jeep with Sterling. That didn’t make it hurt any less.
Fuck this town. Fuck these people.
Except the woman who looked at him with kind and remorseful eyes despite her own private catastrophe, whatever that might be. She patted his thigh before starting her car and pointing them toward town, leaving her father and honorary uncle behind, though she couldn’t possibly have known how badly he needed the reassurance of her gentle touch.
He hoped he could do what he had to and escape this nightmare—his own personal hell—without hurting her.
From where he was sitting, it seemed like an impossible task.
Viho dropped his head back against the rest and closed his eyes as he frantically tried to concoct a plan for surviving the next several months. Hell, the next several hours.
It sure as shit wasn’t going to be easy.
Chapter Five
Viho peeked between the branches of the rosebush he was pruning when he caught sight of killer legs wrapped in skinny jeans. He hoped for a glimpse of the woman they belonged to, remembering how they’d felt hugging his hips. Sterling. He subtly adjusted his insta-hard-on before mindlessly snipping a wayward sprig riddled with thorns.
She was torturing him.
Every day, she toured the garden with her grandmother, praising his work and enjoying the product of his labor. He admitted to himself that the grounds were coming along, but her kind words only made him feel like more of a prick for ignoring her. Or appearing to.
It’d been six weeks since she’d found him on the side of the road like garbage someone had tossed out. Except she hadn’t treated him like he was worthless.
The first few days he’d worked on the ranch, she’d gone out of her way to welcome him and make it clear that she would’ve gone right on making him happier than he’d remembered being in a long time. Maybe ever.
Viho couldn’t accept her gracious offer of comfort or companionship. Not when he hid so many secrets—and a truckload of resentment for her father, uncles and especially Jake—from her.
It wouldn’t be fair.
Besides, the gap in their ages was almost ridiculous—it was so big. A fourteen-year difference. He’d never escape Compass Ranch without getting his ass kicked if their affair leaked. The list of reasons why he couldn’t have her stretched longer than the inventory of plants Mrs. Compton had approved for her expansive gardens. So he’d distanced himself, then focused on his duties.
Hell, the job was big enough to last a reasonable landscaper a lifetime. And he could have been content maintaining his design after installing it too. If it didn’t require tending to enemy territory. Just one more thing to resent,
Similar Books
