Reading Online Novel

Tiny Dancer(Divine Creek Ranch 13)(21)



With work causing such upheaval in her emotions, she figured that had been the reason Joseph had come to mind. She liked running her own life but also relished giving control to someone else and he’d been adept at centering her in the past. With everything so off-kilter between her, Ben, and Quinten, it was possible she needed to make a visit to Hazelle House to create a little buffer.

She thought back on when the tension between the three of them had started to surface. It had been nearly a year since the night that asshole Kade Parker had suggested during a drunken altercation that Camilla led Ben and Quinten around by their balls. She’d done an admirable job up until that moment of denying her growing attraction to both men. To have her nose rubbed in it had stung and made her feel vulnerable, but Ben and Quinten had gone back to acting like nothing had been said after the confrontation was over with, at least until she’d changed her mode of dress.

She followed the curve in the road, relieved and grateful for the distraction of her thoughts as the river bridge came into view, letting her know that she was over halfway there. As she moved ever closer, the roar of the water flowing under the bridge filled her ears. Heavy rains had flooded fields and swelled all the creeks and rivers in the area so that the water had nowhere else to go. The bridge beneath her feet was sturdy, but she could still feel the vibration of the river racing beneath as she trudged on, refusing to pause. The wind flapped the damp hem of her Windbreaker against her upper thighs as it gusted, chilling her so that her teeth chattered uncontrollably. She was barely fit for human company in her current shape. She couldn’t wait to get in a hot shower—

“Oh, shit! Shit! Shit!” This time she stopped.

Standing there under her Hello Kitty umbrella, Camilla Shea O’Neal had a walleyed hissy fit. She jumped up and down, stomping her sloshy boots on the asphalt as she cursed a blue streak, having realized that she’d left her overnight bag in her trunk, back at the car.

When she’d calmed down, she was once again aware of how loud the water was and chanced a peek over the guardrail at the river below. The moon broke through the clouds for a moment, illuminating the surface of the churning water. The river was already swelled over its banks and into the river bottom and was beginning to fill in the lowlands on either side. She felt small and alone, perched over a force that large and uncontrollable.

“If they close this bridge tonight before I can get my stuff, I’m gonna be so pissed. Oh, yeah, Cami, like you’re not already there? Well done, baby cakes. Shit!”

There was no help for it so she walked on toward Grace’s home, the end of the bridge and the last half of the trek in sight. Distant lightning flickered. Well, sort of in sight. She sped up her steps.

Ben and Quinten and their unpredictable moods came to mind. She loved working with them. Ben was a sweet boss, usually, and he had a great partner in Ethan, whom she adored. Quinten was a hoot to be around and normally so easygoing that nothing got to him. At least it had always been that way until the last few months. She didn’t know what to do.

“I know what I’d like to do, though.” Ben had looked ready to kiss her earlier in the cooler. Part of her wished he had. “Can’t go there, Camilla, no matter how much you want to. You know what happens when you mix business with pleasure.” Especially considering that she wanted them both. She had no idea how they’d feel about that.

“You can’t go there with either of them because once you flip that switch your heart will be involved and you can never go back. Right now, they don’t know how you feel about them. You look into their eyes while one of them makes love to you and you’ll be addicted.” Oh, but it’s an addiction I’d never want to be set free from.

Unfortunately, she also knew how it felt to need someone else and be cut loose from them, irrevocably and involuntarily. The pain wasn’t worth it and she couldn’t risk it again.

The thought of them no longer being a part of her life made a chill sweep through her heart that rivaled the cold, wet wind lambasting her. She shook her head. Talking about it only increased the need she felt for them.

Headlights lit the road ahead of her as a vehicle drove onto the bridge behind her. She couldn’t avoid being seen because she still had a bit of distance to go on the bridge. So much for her plan to hide in the bushes. The rain, which had only been falling in a steady downpour, became a deluge, illuminated like cold silver curtains by the vehicle’s headlights.

“Crap!”

She prayed they didn’t hit her as she walked on the narrow shoulder next to the guardrail. The end of the bridge came into sight, and she lengthened her stride as the vehicle approached steadily. She hopped over the rainwater-filled dip between the bridge and the road just seconds before the truck hit it at full speed, spraying her with a surge of cold, muddy water.