Free Once with a Cowboy: Loving Day Collection (One Night Only Book 1) by Selena Illyria Page A

“Jesus.” He banged on the steering wheel once more.
                  “Careful, bro, that steering wheel may sue you for abuse and then where would you be?”
                  “Shut up!”  Danny stayed silent while Ty dealt with the officer and accepted the speeding ticket before letting him go. He pulled into the driveway of the ranch twenty-five minutes later.
                  “Gotta go. Talk to you later.” He got out and dashed toward the door only to find it unlocked. Panic seized his heart. As angry as he was with her, he didn’t want her to have been pushed away so badly that the she took a cab home.
                  “Nessa!” he called out.
                  No answer.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
                  Nessa came out of the bathroom, wiping her damp palms on her jeans. All of her clothes were strewn all over the bed. She’d been attempting to get her stuff together to transfer to the guest room down the hall.
                  “Nessa!” Ty’s panicked voice reached her in the bedroom.
                    His pounding footfalls came up the stairs. He burst into the room, mouth parted, panting, eyes wild.
                  She frowned. “What the hell is wrong now? I’ll move out of this room as soon as I can get all my stuff together.” She went over to the bed and began folding things.
                  “I thought….there was a taxi...” His voice trailed off.
                  Nessa shook her head. “Do you know how much it would cost for someone to come all the way out here and pick me up? Anyway, I don’t have anyone to call to pick me up because they’re all doing stuff. You could always bring me into town but we wouldn’t have anything done for the party.”
                  He let out a gust of air. “Yeah, okay.”
                  “So why’d you come back? Want another round? Look, I know I made a mistake.” She drew in a deep breath. “I haven’t exactly had a lot of experience with love or acceptance.” She focused on placing her shirt into her bag. “My parents worship my older brother. They excused everything he did, whereas I was just the extra kid.”
                  Tears blurred her vision as small fissures in her heart reopened. She sniffled but refused to acknowledge the moisture dripping on the duvet or falling from her eyes. “This morning they called to tell me that Mike had found a job. It didn’t matter that he got it because I was one of his references. No. All they wanted to do was brag about how ambitious he was.”
                  From the corner of her eye she saw Ty move to the desk chair he’d used last night. She wiped away the water and continued packing. “My parents don’t hate me. They just never cared. In college I kept to myself, didn’t date, focused on my studies and getting a good job. Paul was the first boyfriend I’d had in a long time. I thought he was a good guy, at first. I didn’t even think of him as the boss’s son. And that was my mistake.” She zipped her bag shut. With nothing else to do but pour her heart out she sank down on the bed.
                  Ty remained silent, legs stretched, his gaze locked on her every movement. Whether he understood or not, she didn’t know. “I wouldn’t say he was my first love but when he said he loved me, I believed him. I didn’t have a lot of experience in that department.” A pang of embarrassment nudged some of her emotion away. She felt out of her depth and unworthy of him. Did other people have more to go on than her?
                  “I didn’t understand that he was manipulating me. He used love to convince me that by doing his work for him or finishing his stuff, I was showing I loved him. This was so