Free KIDNAPPED COWBOY by Lindsey Brookes Page A

open then rounded as she looked down at his bare chest.  Coming instantly awake, she struggled to free her entangled legs.
    He let out a grunt of pain as her knee connected with his poorly timed morning erection.  Being relaxed was the last thing on his mind now.  He dropped his head back onto the mattress with a low groan, unable to speak.
    “You’re naked!” she exclaimed, sitting up.
    “Hardly,” he forced out through clenched teeth.
    “Then why aren’t you wearing...” her words trailed off as her head pivoted toward the door, suddenly aware of their unexpected visitors.
    “Clothes?” Brandon finished for her as he glowered at them from the open cabin door.
    “Everyone calm down,” Dalton said.  Ignoring the throbbing pain between his legs, he eased back up into a sitting position.  “I can explain.” 
    His brother’s expression darkened as he did a quick sweep over Caitlin.  “Explain what?  Why you left my new truck in the middle of town in a snowstorm and then disappeared for two days?”
    “Look─”
    “Forget it,” his brother replied, cutting him off with a deepening scowl.  “No need to explain anything.  You were just being your usual irresponsible self.”
    “That’s not true!” Caitlin said, coming to his defense.
    “Leave it go,” Dalton muttered through teeth still tightly clenched.  He could defend himself, but in this instance it was better off if he didn’t.
    But she wasn’t hearing it.  She was clearly determined to set things straight.  “He didn’t leave it.  I...”
    Her words were swallowed up by Dalton’s mouth as he pulled her up against him for a kiss.  The last thing he wanted Brandon to find out was that this slip of a female had taken him to the cabin by force...by curling iron.  Besides the humiliation he would suffer if the truth were found out, she would ruin any chance at all of convincing his brother not to shut down the retreat.
    She tore her mouth from his with a gasp, her green eyes flashing with outrage as she struggled to push him away.  “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “That’s what I’d like to know,” his brother said as he stood, arms crossed, glaring down at him.
    “Giving her a good morning kiss,” he replied as he swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and stood.  “Which I would have preferred to do without a roomful of spectators.”   
    Brandon turned to the men standing behind him.  “Would you two mind waiting for me in the truck?  I’d like to have a word with Dalton in private.”
    “Certainly,” the man Dalton didn’t know replied with a departing nod. 
    Alan Martinson paused at the door to glare at Dalton, then turned to Brandon.  “I trust you’ll handle this matter.”
    “You can count on it,” his brother replied, clearly pissed.
    “I’ll be in the truck.”
    “Ass,” Dalton muttered the second the door closed behind Martinson.
    “How long have you been bringing women to Stoney Brook for these twisted sex outings?”
    “Twisted what?” Caitlin shrieked before he had a chance to correct his brother’s assumption.
    Oh, hell.   Just when he thought matters couldn’t get any worse.  “Watch yourself, Brandon.  You have no idea what you’re talking about.” 
    His brother shot him an angry scowl.  “Unless she’s a cop, you’re wasting your breath denying what went on here last night.”  He pointed to the table by the sofa.  “Those are handcuffs, aren’t they?”
    Damn.  “Yeah, they’re mine,” he lied with a nod. 
    Caitlin gasped.  “What?”
    “We ran into each other in town the other night and, well, I’m sure I don’t need to say anymore.”
    The frame under the mattress creaked as Caitlin scrambled off it.  “Don’t listen to him.  The handcuffs are mine, and we didn’t have sex.”
    “We might as well fess up, darlin’,” he said, pulling her up against him and slipping an arm around her shoulders.  “You’ll have to forgive her.