Free Blood Ties by Lori G. Armstrong Page B

fi erce pounding on the door.

    I pulled my palm from Kevin’s grasp and reluctantly answered the summons.

    Ray didn’t bother to mask his fury when he jerked the screen door open.

    “Hi,” I said brightly. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

    “Didn’t know I needed to make an appointment to see my own girlfriend.”

    Th
    e way Ray insisted on referring to me as his girlfriend made me think I’d outgrown the role.

    He angled his head toward the SUV parked in my usual spot. “Th
    at Wells’ car?”

    “Yeah, it’s my car,” Kevin said over my shoulder.
    “Why? Did you run into it?”

    Ray ignored him and said to me, “What the hell is he doing here again?”

    “Didn’t know I had to make an appointment to see your ‘girlfriend’,” Kevin mimicked.

    “Very fucking funny.”

    Might as well be raining testosterone. And me without my sharp-tipped umbrella to jab both of them in the ass.
    What else could I have piled on today?

    “Actually, it is pretty funny because Kevin was just leaving.”

    Kevin frowned. “I thought we were going to get your car?”

    85

    “Where is it?” Ray asked.

    “Now that Ray is here, he can drive me to get it.” I added as a sweet afterthought, “Besides, don’t you have plans with Lilly?”

    Kevin’s eyebrow lifted. I never gave a rip about his plans with Lilly. Hell, most of the time I tried to ruin their plans. He smiled, bent down, and kissed me squarely on the mouth.

    “Nope. You wore me out today, hot stuff . I’ll call you tomorrow.” Sidestepping Ray, he climbed in his car and drove off .

    I wiped Kevin’s sloppy kiss from my lips and smiled under the cover of my hand. No doubt he’d won that round, but unfortunately he didn’t get the spoils of war. Me.

    “What the hell was that about?” Ray demanded.
    “Nothing.”

    He punched the support beam on the porch. “Didn’t sound like nothing.”

    Ray’s periodic bouts of anger don’t bother me; I suspect it’s all for show. I can handle it, even when that side of him reminds me of my father. Was it some subconscious thing that I was attracted to men who resembled my dad?
    I shivered. I’d had enough mental traumas today to even consider the idea. I wanted to erase the day’s events by retrieving my Sentra, eating a decent meal, and indulging in a sweat-soaked round of sex or two.

    Not necessarily in that order.

    86

    “Let’s just forget about it, okay?”

    Ray shook his head, and shoved me aside with a practiced pout. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
    “Who?”
    “Th
    at asshole Wells.”

    “How does he look at me?” I breathed against his rigid jaw, inhaling sweat, anger, and dust. “Like this?” I slid my hands up his denim shirt, kissing him until his heartbeat increased under my palm. Th
    en I whispered a suggestion
    in his ear that would not only wipe the look off his face, but would most likely cross his eyes.

    No big stunner that Ray followed me inside without any additional stupid questions.

    At that point sex as a cure for emotional ails seemed less dangerous and addictive than tequila.

    Missy came in ahead of shift change on Friday so I could leave early. Although we’d forged a truce of sorts in the last week, I doubted she’d ask me to co-host her next Mary Kay party. Th
    e sheriff stayed tight-lipped and terse in my presence too, even after I scrubbed his offi ce. Al,
    well . . . Al was just sweet, harmless Al, a bumbling, red-faced buff oon. Sometimes I wondered what it’d take to get him riled.

    I’d kept Ray in the dark about my Friday night plans with Kevin. He’d get pissed off and pouty, whine that another Friday slipped past and I didn’t hang around to watch him play pool or off er to chalk his stick.

    Th
    e things I put up with for a decent orgasm.

    On the drive to Kevin’s offi
    ce, I popped REO Speed-
    wagon’s High Infi delity into the CD player. Music chronicles most events in my life. Th
    ese tunes reconnected