To Protect the Heart of a Brazen Woman [Brazen Sisters 6] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Free Page B

beater she loved kept dying there was a good chance it was a rental. He still couldn’t believe her sisters had let her drive it out of town. As he turned onto the long driveway, he spotted it parked in front of the house. Bobbie had just hopped out. He slammed on the brakes and jumped out of his truck without even killing the engine.
    “Bobbie, please wait. Let me explain.” For every step he advanced, she retreated.
    “No. Get off Brazen property and don’t come back.” She turned her back on him and walked up the stairs to her front door.
    “Damn it. We need to talk about this.”
    “Talk about what? The fact that you’re dating someone? Or that you let me kiss you? Oh, I know. We can discuss that you kissed me back and wanted to screw my brains out in a fucking storage closet.” She wasn’t shouting, or crying. In fact, she was way too calm for his liking.
    “For crying out loud, I’m not dating someone. I went to dinner with someone. One date. And it wasn’t even a date.”
    “I don’t want to hear it. Why are you even here? You’ve made it completely clear there can’t be anything between us. So let’s just go with that.”
    “You don’t mean that, Bobbie. We’re friends.”
    “No, we’re not. Friends don’t treat each other this way. I’m sorry, but I think a clean break will be the best thing for both of us.” As if that was the end of the conversation, she walked into the house and slammed the door in his face.
    This wasn’t the end of it. The end of them. How could it be the end of them when they hadn’t even started yet? She was going to hear his side of things. He’d give her a few days to get settled in and then he’d sit her down and explain. In the meantime, he was going to have another talk with her sisters and their spouses or soon-to-be spouses. If any of them blew this fucking mess any more out of proportion he’d make sure they got parking tickets everyday for the next year. Jake wasn’t about to ask them to try and fix things, but he just didn’t need them making it worse, either.
    This was something between him and Bobbie, and it should stay that way. He saw the curtain move and knew she was watching him. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed her number.
    She answered, but there was no sweet hello like he usually got. “Are you going to leave?”
    “Eventually.”
    “Jake, you can stay out there all night if you want, but I’m going to take a bubble bath and go to bed. Then again, if your girlfriend doesn’t mind, maybe you’d care to join me?”
    She hung up on him before he could respond. He knew her offer was sarcasm in its finest form, but it would serve her right if he took her up on it. Jake walked back to his truck and got the hell out of there before he did just that.

Chapter Two
     
    Jake glanced around the library as he walked in with his niece, Charlie. He followed her to the children’s section and stood by the wall while she perused the shelves. A few people looked their way, but quickly dismissed them. They were probably looking for something to gossip about. Well, they weren’t going to get it from him.
    On the outside, everything about Jake looked normal. He’d made damn sure of it. No one needed to know that on the inside he was fighting a battle he’d already lost. Bobbie’s final strike had come at his own hands. Taking Kerri out—even though it hadn’t meant anything to either of them—may have broken Bobbie’s heart, and the guilt was eating away at his soul.
    Not that he had a reason to even feel guilty. He was single and could see whoever he wanted. The problem was he wanted to be with Bobbie, yet at the same time, he felt like he’d be holding her back. She was so damn young. At twenty-one, she had so many opportunities. How many would she give up by attaching herself to a guy like him? Her friends would want to go out and she’d be stuck at home with her old husband. Okay, so twenty-eight might not seem all that