Free EMMETT (The Corbin Brothers Book 3) by Lexie Ray Page B

depressing.”
    “Oh my God,” she gasped, howling with laughter that she tried to suppress behind her hands, failing miserably. “I didn’t mean it like that! I really didn’t! You were just … I thought you were so uptight. I didn’t think things would be like this with you. I had fun making you uncomfortable in the bar. It was the most fun I’d had all night — maybe all week.”
    “I’m so glad I could be a source of entertainment for you,” I said grumpily, but I was only joking.
    “I’m glad, too,” she said. “And I’m glad we did this. I have to say, and I hope it’s not a mistake to do so, but I wouldn’t mind doing that again with you.”
    “Again?” I thought about my cock. Could it perform again, so close to the last one? I could do it, given a little motivation. And I had all the eye candy right here, stretched out beside me. “Right now? I’m game.”
    “Not right now,” she said, slipping into giggles again. “I mean in general. Friendly sex. No strings attached.”
    “Except the business,” I said. “That’s a pretty thick string.”
    “Business and pleasure would be conducted completely separately,” she said. “Could you do that? Would that be a possibility?”
    Agree to something that would secure more sex with Peyton in the future? In a heartbeat.
    “I think we can work something out,” I said, impressing myself with my own coolness. “If you can, of course.”
    “I do,” she said, smiling. “Now, we’d better get our clothes back on, or we’re not going to be able to talk about the project very professionally.”
    It was surprising — we spoke for hours about our goals for what we wanted to do. It was enormously productive, both of us taking notes at certain points, building on each other’s ideas for what we wanted.
    “Shit, is that the time?” I asked at one point, dismayed as Peyton typed something on her phone she said she wanted to remember later.
    “God, it is, isn’t it?” She paled. “Have we really been together that long? I swear that it only seemed like an hour or so.”
    But it had been five — five whole hours alone with Peyton in my trailer — and it had flown by. I hadn’t done a lick of work on the ranch for five whole hours. Part of me liked that. I worked so hard all the time. Wasn’t I entitled to a little time off now and then? But I had to get to whatever I was assigned to do. I’d been assigned for a reason — because a body was needed in a specific place. I couldn’t shirk that responsibility for very long and feel good about myself.
    “We’re going to have to pick this up another time,” I said. “As soon as possible, preferably.”
“Definitely,” she said. “This is the beginning of something really beautiful, Emmett. I can feel it.”
    I could feel it, too, though perhaps not in the same way she meant. I was thrilled, positively thrilled, at our ideas, the way we’d been able to bounce them off of each other, finishing each other’s sentences like excitable twins, at one point. But another part of me looked forward to the pleasure aspect of the relationship Peyton had promised. Was that twisted? Was I wrong to wish we could have a quickie before she left?
    “I’ll talk to you soon,” she said, then kissed me quickly on the cheek before dashing to her car and motoring away. She had somewhere she needed to be just as badly as I did, and I had to wonder where it was. I didn’t like that feeling, but I had to remember she wasn’t mine. She never would be. No strings attached. I just needed my heart to listen to the words my ears had heard.
    I checked my appearance in the mirror and then the display of my phone to confirm the time before slipping it in my pocket. There was a text from Tucker.
    “If you value your ass, you’ll get to the barn from wherever you are ASAP,” it read. “Chance is pissed.”
    Pissed because I’d been missing. Fucking great. It made me dread being here even more, if possible. If