Free Brazen (Brazen 1) by Maya Banks Page A

disapprovingly.
    “Now, J.T.,” she drawled. “I said I’d crash at the hotel if I got too intoxicated. Besides, I’m driving Seth’s truck, and I have no desire to find out what he’d do if I wrapped it around a telephone poll.”
    “Oh, shit.”
    “What?”
    “Does Seth know you’re driving his truck?”
    “Well, he does now,” she said with a grin.
    J.T. chuckled. “It’s going to be fun as hell to have you around again. I only wish I was there to see Seth shit a brick when he realizes you took off in his truck.”
    “What’s the deal with his truck?”
    “He loves that truck,” J.T. said.
    She shrugged. “I didn’t see anything special about it.”
    J.T. snorted. “You wouldn’t. It’s a guy thing. He bought it six months ago. Custom paint job, big tires, roll bar with lights—you know, guy stuff.”
    She rolled her eyes. “A truck is a truck is a truck.”
    “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
    The waitress swung by and delivered Jasmine’s shots. Jasmine gripped one of the small shot glasses in her hand and raised it toward J.T. “To Barley, Texas and being back home.”
    “I’ll drink to that,” J.T. said, raising his beer.
     
     
     
    “What do you mean she went into town?” Seth demanded. “How the hell did she get there?”
    Carmen frowned at his tone and tsked under her breath. “She drove. How else would she get into town unless you wanted her to walk like you made her do this afternoon?”
    Seth sighed. “I didn’t make her walk, Carmen. You know once Jasmine’s made up her mind about something, there’s little you can do to change it.” And then another thought occurred to him, about the same time he realized that Zane wasn’t home and hadn’t been home all day. Which meant there was only one way Jasmine could have driven into town. He groaned even as he headed to the garage to see what he already suspected.
    He stood in the doorway, bracing his hand on the frame as he stared at the empty space where his truck was usually parked. If she so much as put a scratch on it…
    She’d be lucky if she didn’t put herself in a ditch somewhere. She hadn’t driven in the year she’d been in Paris, and before that, she’d always tooled around in Zane’s smaller truck, not that she’d driven a lot even then. She’d always been content to tag along with him or Zane wherever they happened to be going.
    But she wasn’t a little girl anymore. Hell, she never had been. Even at sixteen she’d had more experience in her eyes than most women a dozen years older.
    The memory of her mouth hot against his, her tongue bold and seeking, sent a bolt of awareness through his body. He closed his eyes, not wanting to relive the hurt in her eyes when he pushed her away.
    “Seth, J.T. is on the phone for you,” Carmen called from the kitchen.
    He shut the door to the garage and walked back to where Carmen stood, phone in hand.
    “Hey, man, what’s up?” Seth asked as he put the phone to his ear.
    “Not much. I’ve been down at the bar with your girl.”
    “Jasmine?” Annoyance inched a slow crawl over his shoulders. The idea of Jasmine hanging out with J.T. irritated the shit out of him. Nearly as much as the idea of her going out with Brad.
    “I got called out. Domestic disturbance. On my way to it now. But when I left, she was on her way to throwing one hell of a drunk.” J.T. hesitated for a moment. “It’s not that I don’t trust her. She said she’d get a hotel room if she wasn’t able to drive home. I just worry about her. Something seemed to be bothering her. I thought you’d want to know.”
    Seth swore. “You did right. The last thing I want is for her to get hurt. I’m without wheels, but I’ll call Zane. He’s on his way home. I’ll have him stop in and pick her up. In the meantime, I’ll call Tucker and have him make sure Jasmine stays put until Zane gets there.”
     
     
     
    The room was a little blurry. Okay, maybe a lot blurry. But she was having