Free Bad News Cowboy by Maisey Yates Page B

different than talking to them the same way you would your brothers but adding the...back arching you were doing.”
    â€œHow?” she asked, sounding totally mystified.
    â€œIt just is. I mean, I don’t talk to women the way I talk to Connor and Eli.”
    â€œYou pretty much talk to me the way you talk to Connor and Eli. Except condescending.”
    Jack let out a heavy sigh. “Get in the truck.”
    â€œSee? You’re all ordery.”
    â€œKate,” he said, through clenched teeth, “get in the truck.”
    This time something in his tone spurred her to obey and she got in the passenger side of his black F-150. He breathed into his nose and then let a slow breath out through his mouth. He was insane.
    He shook his head as he got into the truck, slammed the door behind him and started the engine before Kate could say anything.
    He put the vehicle in Reverse and drove out of the parking lot, gripping the steering wheel tight, tension creeping up his shoulders.
    â€œSo,” Kate said. He had known his reprieve wouldn’t last. “What exactly would this flirting boot camp entail?”
    Okay, so she hadn’t forgotten. Which meant he was committed. No turning back now. Anyway, there was no reason not to go through with it. Kate was just Kate. End of story. “I figure since we’re working together on the rodeo, we might as well work on this, too.”
    â€œWhy?”
    The question of the year. “I don’t want to babysit you the whole time we’re organizing this. And when you go pro, Kate Garrett, there are going to be cowboys all over you.”
    â€œAnd what? You think I’m so stupid I’m gonna get tricked into bed? Like I don’t know my own mind? Or are you trying to help me get some?”
    The tension crept higher, climbing up into his neck. “That isn’t what I said.”
    With any luck, him taking control of the situation would keep her from getting taken advantage of. Not that it would be wrong for Kate to get laid.
    Even thinking about it threw up a big fat stop sign in his brain, warning his thoughts not to go any further.
    Okay, so it wasn’t as if he expected she never would. Or even that she hadn’t. Because, as she had pointed out a few times, she was twenty-three. And you didn’t exactly have to be smooth to get a guy into bed.
    But she deserved better than an ass clown like Chad.
    â€œOkay, what you do with my teaching is up to you,” he said. “But forewarned is forearmed. If you want to get better at talking to guys, I’ll help you. And what will help me is if I know that you’ll be more prepared to deal with jerks should any approach you. And that you understand you don’t have to do anything with them just because they asked.”
    â€œGood grief, Jack. I know that,” she muttered.
    â€œJust don’t ever sell yourself short.”
    â€œWhy not? Men do it all the time. I don’t understand what all this protecting me from shallow creeps who are only after one thing is about. You
are
that creep. I mean, obviously, with other women, not with me.”
    He nearly choked on his tongue. “That’s different.”
    â€œHow is it different?”
    There was no way for him to say how it was different without sounding like a total jackass. So he kept quiet.
    But Kate wasn’t content with that. Of course she wasn’t. “Come on, Jack. I’m waiting for an explanation.”
    He let out an exasperated breath. “It’s just that there are different kinds of women. There are the kind that you marry. And there are the kind that you...”
    A hard crack of laughter filled the cab of the truck. “Are you kidding me? Are you trying to tell me that you marry good girls and sleep with bad girls? And that if I keep pushing my breasts out, the boys will think I’m a bad girl and corrupt me?”
    â€œIt’s not good and bad.” He had no