Lumberjack Weekend(Divine Creek Ranch 21)(61)

She licked her lips and looked up at them. “That was a one-time deal. You know I’m not normally so…demonstrative with people I barely know. Joseph’s mansion is the only place I’d take such a chance, and I’m not sure if I could do that again.”

“You don’t have to explain, baby,” Lucas said as he twirled one of her curls around his thumb. “We’re not worried we’ve unleashed some kind of nymphomaniac impulse hidden inside you. We just want to be the ones you unleash those nymphomaniac impulses on in private once we get home.”

Violet gaped at him and then started laughing. “Well, all right then. But if you think I’m gonna shack up with you or jump into a relationship without some clear understandings, you’re crazy. Speaking of home, I need to check my phone. I left it in my room, and I haven’t checked it at all, all weekend. I feel guilty.”

Speaking of feeling guilty…

She paused and looked between them. “What? What is it?”





Chapter Fifteen




Violet hefted her suitcase into the trunk of her vehicle before the valet could help her, and she thanked him and handed him a tip as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She was in a hurry to be gone before Josh and Lucas, and that buttinsky Joseph knew she was leaving.

“I can’t believe they didn’t tell me. Jackasses,” she muttered to herself. The Emporium was everything to her, practically her whole life, and Tex, well, Tex was an integral part of the Emporium experience…and her baby. She was willing to bet he’d been in the window when it was shattered. Poor lazy boy. He always sunned himself on the low table there when he wasn’t greeting shoppers and glomming affection. She’d tried to call Hank but had gotten voicemail, and even though her employees’ messages had been reassuring, she needed to see everything for herself anyway.

Her anger dampened as she spotted Josh and Lucas running out onto the pavement in front of the entrance in her rearview mirror. She couldn’t see their faces but their body language told her they weren’t happy with her speedy exit.

They’d meant well, she knew. But she was still mad at them for keeping the incident a secret. Her phone chirped with a text message, but she ignored it. She never handled her phone while driving. Maybe her next vehicle would have Bluetooth, but it was better to be safe on the road. And if it was Josh or Lucas texting her, she’d just as soon make them wait, like they’d made Tex and her Emporium wait.

“Big buttheads.”

She thought about pulling over and calling Joseph to ball him out, but the memory of him getting told off by that feisty little redhead stopped her. He’d felt the lash of a woman’s tongue already, and there was some part of her that knew he didn’t need it twice in one night.

Rolling down the window, she smiled when the gust of fresh air ruffled the violet wreath and bunny ears on her head, reminding her of good things that had come from the weekend. She was certainly more comfortable with her body, but it was unlikely she’d ever be comfortable flaunting her nakedness around strangers. The weekend had been a one-time deal. Fantasies always came to an end eventually, she thought as she removed the wreath and the bunny ears and laid them on the seat beside her.

Josh and Lucas had claimed they’d wanted her even after the weekend was over and they were back to their normal lives. She bit her lip. People said things in the heat of the moment, and she’d done a lot to tease them in the hour leading up to the revelation about the store. Judging by the rock-solid bulges in their huntsman breeches they might’ve been willing to say anything to get much-needed relief.

But she’d also been disappointed. It was likely the men had planned a hot scene for after they’d gotten her back upstairs, and she’d spoiled it, leaving so suddenly.

She sighed, wondering once again if she could turn around and go back as she drove into Divine.

“The guys were right. The situation probably would’ve kept until tomorrow afternoon.”

But then she remembered about Tex. Hank had told them he wouldn’t come out of her office, where he’d hidden behind her filing cabinet. If he was in distress—had been in distress for hours—then he might need to be seen by the vet. She resisted the urge to step on the gas as she entered downtown.

“Oh boy,” she murmured as she passed the front of the store and saw the boarded-up windows. Her beautiful Emporium looked like a crime scene, but then again, so did several other businesses on the route around the block, including A Divine Retreat and Divine Ink. She pulled around to the back and groaned in dismay when she recognized Bodie Cox’s big Dodge truck parked in the lot behind the building. Hank’s SUV was positioned beside him, and the two were standing nearby, talking. Hank looked more than a little suspicious of him. This was the last thing she needed right now.