Blaine, Destiny - Roping in Forever [Forever 1] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read Free

buying whores and opening the motel drapes so the whole world can watch what should’ve been kept private, ain’t the best idea either. You tell Corbin I said hello, ya hear?”

Chapter Three

    “She got in that truck with who?” Corbin asked, leaning over the table and glaring at Travis.
    “You heard me. Benson rolled in about the time she was fixin’ to leave. Bella hopped right in there like she’d been sitting next to him a lot here lately.”
    Corbin scratched his chin. “Well, ain’t she just full of surprises?”
    “Yep. But I imagine she’s gonna get what she’s got comin’ to her if she’s messin’ with Benson Leary. You know what the women ’round here say about him, don’t ’cha?”
    “You fellows decided on what you want for lunch?” Nancy asked, flipping her pen against the order pad and standing over them before Corbin had a chance to probe Travis for more information.
    “We’re waiting,” Corbin told her.
    Nancy batted her eyelashes. “Got somebody else joining ya?”
    “No,” Corbin snapped. “We’ll be ready by the time Bella gets back.”
    “Suit yourself,” Nancy said, sashaying away.
    Travis chomped on a piece of ice, and from the corner of his mouth, he said, “Benson looked pretty interested in Bella. And back to what I was a’sayin’ about him. If rumors are true and Bella gets in bed with him, she ain’t gonna have anything else to do with the likes of you.” Travis extended his arm and clasped his free hand around his elbow. “Women say he has a bigger one than that rocker Tommy Lee.”
    “Benson ain’t got anything Bella wants. That I can promise you.”
    “How in the hell would you know? You’re the one who’s been running from that girl since she first made eyes at you.”
    “She was fourteen, for God’s sake.”
    “Bella looked like she was eighteen back then. I still remember her in those hide tight short-shorts, riding bareback and gripping that old gelding like she was scared to death he was gonna get away from her. Dear God, she was a prize.”
    “She was a child!”
    “Hell, Corbin. I could look then. I was a kid, too, remember?”
    Corbin snarled.
    “I seem to recall asking her out for a movie and you beatin’ the tarnation right out of me. Taught me a lesson, that’s what ya did and look where it got me. You still ain’t asked her out, and she’s been of age for a right smart while now.”
    “I’ve been gettin’ around to it,” Corbin drawled, copping a smile. “She did always look like a picture postcard riding through town on that old plug horse, didn’t she?”
    “More like a centerfold.”
    “She hasn’t changed much, has she?” Corbin asked, sipping from his straw.
    “Maybe not yet,” Travis said, pointing toward the parking lot and acknowledging Bella’s return. “But by the time he’s finished, you can bet on one thing if nothin’ else—her innocence will be gone and that light you see shining in her eyes will be forever lost.”

    * * * *

    Benson went around front, and Bella entered the diner through the back. Nancy met her at the lockers. “Sugar, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing with Corbin Cansey, but if cat-and-mouse is your thing, we need to have a chat.”
    Stuffing her purse on a nearby shelf, Bella turned around. “What do you mean?”
    “He’s refusing to let me or anyone else wait on him. He said he’d be ready to order just as soon as you got back. Now, he’s sitting there like a toad on a log telling Travis all the reasons why you couldn’t possibly have an interest in Benson Leary.”
    “He is, is he?”
    “Sure is. You got him tore up, darlin’, tore the hell up, I’m tellin’ ya.”
    Bella felt a sudden sense of satisfaction. “Good, maybe by the time he chokes down his lunch, he’ll know what it feels like to be an outsider looking through a window with his nose mashed against the glass.”
    Nancy shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d push that cowboy’s buttons,