Read Online It Took a Rumor by Carter Ashby - Free Book Online Page A

business?”
    “Yes. And quite honestly, it’s very generous. I didn’t even want to offer it, but Dad said if I got a chance to talk to you again, he wanted to give it a try.”
    Jake’s jaw muscles ticked. He nodded. “Very generous. I’m not sure what part of ‘You can’t put a price on family’ is unclear to you, Ivy. But we ain’t interested.”
    “You can speak for your father on this? On these numbers?”
    “On any number.”
    “You won’t even try?”
    “I don’t even want to.”
    She threw her hands up and let them drop to her sides. “You know, it’s one thing to have principles. It’s something else to be just plain stupid.”
    “My granddad built this business—”
    “With his own two hands. Blah, blah, blah. Wake the hell up, Jake. It’s all fine and good to have grand ideas, but eventually reality comes knocking. This is reality.” she held her phone up.
    “You can take your reality and shove it where the sun don’t shine!”
    “Oh, my God, how do you live like this? How do you make your decisions based on these laughable, outdated ideas of family loyalty?”
    “Maybe because I have a soul! You’ve got nothing in there but a cash register.” He pushed two fingers against her chest, over her heart.
    “I’d rather have no heart than no brain.” She pressed two fingers against his forehead.
    “Your momma’d be mighty disappointed in you right now.”
    “Don’t you dare bring my momma into this!”
    “You think she’d be happy about you trying to tear a family apart?”
    “I’m not trying to tear you apart! This wouldn’t be tearing you apart!” She held up her phone again.
    This time, Jake grabbed the phone and chucked it up the creek. It landed with a short splash on her side of the fence. He stared after it, frozen in shock at his own rashness.
    Ivy watched it’s progress before turning wide, enraged eyes on him. “You son-of-a-bitch!” She shoved him hard in the chest.
    Maybe it was because he wanted to shove her back but couldn’t, her being a girl and all. Maybe it was misplaced emotions. Confused switches in his brain somewhere crossing the signals. Whatever the reason, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her in for a kiss. A hard, angry kiss. A kiss meant to punish, though he wasn’t sure which of them he was punishing.  
    He let her go and pulled his lips away.  
    She gaped at him, lips parted, breasts heaving. An instant later she was in his arms, her mouth hungrily taking his, her legs wrapped around his waist, his hat falling into the creek. He turned, moving toward his truck, intending to open the door. Somewhere in his brain there was a voice of reason, but when you find yourself pleasantly between a woman’s legs, instinct tends to take over. Instead of getting her into the truck, he slipped on a wet rock and wound up slamming her against the door instead. She cried out.  
    “You okay?” he gasped.
    She nodded and mumbled something unintelligible before burying her fingers in his hair and taking his mouth again. He shoved the skirt of her dress up over her hips and pulled one side of the bodice down, baring a breast. He groaned in agony. He covered her breast with a greedy hand. For a moment, it shocked him back to reality. Here he was groping little Ivy Turner’s breast out in the open for God and anyone to see, except there wasn’t anyone here. Her breath came in hot bursts. He looked up. Their eyes met and for a moment he thought she would ask him to stop. But then she smiled. It was a split-second of camaraderie in the midst of a turbulent storm. In a blink, it was over, and her blue eyes darkened with lust as she smashed her mouth against his.
    There was thin lace beneath her skirt. Fragile lace. He broke from her lips and growled, “How much do you care about these panties?”  
    “They’re my favorite ones—” She cried out as he ripped them off, and laughed as he fumbled with his belt, button, and zipper. After that, she wasted no