Free One Night in Vegas (Entangled Lovestruck) (Gambling Hearts) by C. M. Stone Page B

together.”
    “That sounds like a rousing endorsement.” She awkwardly typed out her response as Molly continued down the trail.
    A few feet farther down the trail Chris spoke again. “He say where he wants to have breakfast?”
    “No. Should I text him again?”
    Chris shrugged and straightened in the saddle. The urge to scream at him and demand some sort of real response was overwhelming. She had found him occasionally confusing the night before, but it was nothing compared to the constant cycling through extremes of the morning. He seemed capable of only two moods: he was either ready to ravish her then and there, or he virtually ignored her.
    She stayed quiet and stewed in frustration the rest of the way back. At the barn, she silently untacked Molly and checked the horse’s hooves. All the old habits of horse care were coming back to her, for which she was grateful. Something to focus on that didn’t require speaking to him was more than welcome at the moment. They got the horses their grain and Chris checked their water.
    Chris shut the barn door, his back to her. “Do you want to take a shower before Jackson gets here?”
    She braced her fists on her hips. “No, I want you to talk to me.”

Chapter Ten
    Chris froze, taken aback by Eliza’s sudden directness. “I’ve been talking to you all day.” He recognized how weak that excuse sounded even as he said it.
    “There’s something you’re not telling me.” Undaunted, she came closer to him. “You’ve been getting weirder and weirder ever since we got back to your house. What’s going on?”
    For a few brief seconds he weighed the likelihood of being able to just leave entirely, then dismissed that as absurd since it was his own backyard. What would he do? Abandon her there and go drive down the street to hide until Jackson took her away? No matter how uncomfortable it made him, he had to preserve at least some dignity.
    “This is just a little difficult for me. I really like you, Eliza, but—”
    “No.” She raised a hand, warding off any further words from him. “No, you’re not giving me that ‘I like you, but’ speech. You’re the one who was on the prowl all night. Don’t go acting like you weren’t.”
    Damn, she really wouldn’t let up. Even as cornered as he felt, he admired her nerve. He stepped back to lean against the side of the barn and dragged a hand through his hair.
    “Okay, you’re right. I was. And you’re going back to Missouri in, what? A week and a half? This can’t go anywhere.”
    There was hurt in her eyes now that made his stomach burn with acid. He did that to her, which was exactly what he’d been so desperate to avoid.
    She closed her eyes, lips pressed tightly together. “You’re saying you want last night to just be some one-off thing?”
    No , he almost said, but bit it back. He knew exactly what he wanted, but he couldn’t possibly say that. There was no going back with a girl like Eliza, and he’d known it the first time she’d kissed him. It’s why he panicked, and why he let her push him away in the first place. All he could do now was distance himself. “That’s what I thought we agreed to last night.”
    She opened her eyes again. Instead of the pain he’d expected to see in them, he saw a simmering rage. “You’re such a coward.”
    He spread his hands wide, exasperated. “How am I coward?”
    “You’re being an ass and pushing me away again because you won’t risk getting attached or committed to anything but your precious freedom.”
    His jaw dropped. She might as well have plucked the words directly from his own mind. Had he ever been that forthright with someone? Not that he could recall. Eliza simply got him like no one else, which would have thrilled him if the power of that understanding didn’t scare the crap out of him.
    Rather than keep facing her, he started walking back toward his house. “That’s not it.”
    “You’re a liar and a coward.”
    “Me?” He spun