Read Online This Kiss (Made In Montana Book 12) by Debbi Rawlins - Free Book Online Page A

the boy next door one minute, and sex wearing a Stetson the next. It had to stop. Being in the same room with him was nerve-racking enough. But this close?
    Just as she was about to free him, someone knocked on the door.
    “Oh, Ethan... Ethan Styles?” It was a woman’s singsong voice. “Are you in there, sugar?”
    Sophie stepped back. “You expecting company?”
    He shook his head, staring mutely at her.
    “Obviously you gave out your room number.”
    “Nope,” he said, keeping his voice low.
    Was she being a total idiot? Once Sophie released him, that was it. She could barely stand this close to him without her skin feeling flushed.
    There was another knock. At someone else’s door.
    Sophie strained to hear.
    “Oh, Ethan...” Same woman, same question. Trying every door? That was sick.
    Kind of like her back in school. Sophie cringed at the memory of hiding under the bleachers to watch him run track. Begging for a transfer to auto shop, of all the dumb things, just so she could be in the same class as Ethan.
    Teenagers did lots of crazy stuff. She couldn’t let it get to her. And anyway, she’d bet the woman in the hall was a lot older than fifteen.
    She held the key poised at the lock. “Wait,” she said, and started when he put a shushing finger to her lips.
    It was unnecessary. No one in the hall could’ve heard her low pitch. And she’d bet he knew that. Yet she simply stood there, staring into the vivid blue of his eyes, while he lightly skimmed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip before lowering his hand. The move was so subtle, she’d be a fool to make anything of it.
    Her cousin was right. Lola had worried Sophie would have trouble dealing with Ethan. But she’d honestly thought he no longer had any effect on her. She was wrong. She would just be more cautious, that was all. Ultimately she trusted he’d keep his word.
    “We haven’t come to terms on Sunday yet,” she said, voice low and firm.
    Their eyes dueled a moment.
    “We’ll renegotiate tomorrow,” he said with a sexy smile that could get a ninety-year-old woman in trouble. “After the rodeo.”
    She laughed. “Oh, hell no.” Sophie jabbed a finger at him. “You will stick to me like glue until I tell you otherwise. I want your word on
that
.”
    He grinned as if he was enjoying this. “You’ve got it.”
    “And shut up when I tell you to shut up.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Without the smirk,” she murmured as she inserted the small key, narrowing her attention to the task as she gathered her courage. “You think you know me. From where?”
    “Wattsville High.”
    Her heartbeat went bonkers, and heat flooded her face, but she refused to look at him. “Because I used my real name?”
    “No. I didn’t remember that.”
    Okay, at least that was settled. The second the lock sprang, she thought of something else. “Dammit.”
    “What?” He was quick to pull his wrist free.
    It was too late but she should’ve considered leaving him cuffed until she brought the Jeep closer and got her bag. She glanced at the cuffs still clamped to the bedpost. Maybe she’d leave it there for now.
    “Don’t worry. I’m staying right here,” Ethan said. “I’m not even going for that beer I’d wanted at the Watering Hole.”
    “You’re right about that.”
    He put a hand on her hip, and a soft gasp slipped past her lips.
    “Hands off,” she warned, as much with a glare as with words.
    “Mind moving so I can get up?”
    She ignored the subtle undertone of amusement in his voice and headed back to the window. After she saw him grab his jeans, she looked out through the parted drapes, aware of him moving behind her. The bathroom door closed and she sighed with relief.
    Her swirling thoughts would drive her insane if she didn’t get a handle on what to tell Lola. Sophie had had no business making any kind of deal with him. Would Mandy ever negotiate with a bail jumper? Not in a million years.
    The minute the rodeo started