Ready by Lucy Monroe Read Free Book Online

your business, Jake Barton.” Bella’s tone left no doubt she thought her husband was being unreasonable.
    “She’s my little sister. How can you say that?”
    “She’s also a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Get a grip.”
    “This is ridiculous.” Lise couldn’t believe how off-target the conversation had gotten. “Joshua is helping me, not threatening me with bodily mayhem. I’m grateful and you should be, too, Jake, because if Joshua hadn’t offered to help, I would have disappeared rather than put you and your family at risk.”
     
    The next afternoon, Joshua went looking for Lise.
    She’d disappeared after lunch and he didn’t like the idea of her being alone, even on the ranch.
    She’d been quiet all morning, even playing with Genevieve in a subdued way. She’d avoided him as much as possible and he wanted to know why.
    He found her standing on the edge of the small pond, her stillness so complete, she seemed a part of the land.
    He stopped a few feet behind her.
    “I used to come here when I was a little girl and life seemed unfair.”
    Her awareness of his presence startled him. His quiet approach had surprised trained soldiers.
    He shifted to stand beside her. “Did it help?”
    “Sometimes.”
    “You’ve been avoiding me all morning.” He looked sideways at her, but could read nothing in her still profile.
    “Jake thinks you want me.”
    “I do.”
    She turned toward him and the deeply troubled expression in her eyes tugged at him, but he could not reassure her to the contrary.
    “I’m not interested in a relationship, Joshua.”
    “You made that clear the night of Genevieve’s christening.”
    He hadn’t been thinking about a relationship then, either. He’d been thinking about sex—hot and consuming, but temporary.
    “I thought I did.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Why did you come to my apartment in Seattle?”
    “Because Bella wanted you here for Thanksgiving.”
    “I see.” Lise’s tense stance relaxed a little. “She asked you to come and fetch me.”
    “No, Bella didn’t ask me to come.”
    Lise was back to looking worried.
    “I thought you were trying to avoid me because of what happened between us last year. I came to apologize and bring you to Texas with me.”
    “You were going to apologize?” She sounded shocked by the possibility.
    “Yes.”
    She crossed her arms around her waist, hugging herself. “You don’t have anything to say you’re sorry for. You didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to.”
    He hadn’t forced her, but he had frightened her. “Hell, Lise, you ran off without saying good night to anyone else and didn’t come back to the ranch in the three days before I left.”
    “I got busy.” She was a lousy liar.
    “ Right .”
    He’d made a huge tactical error in letting Bella talk him into coming early for his niece’s christening. He hadn’t had enough downtime to get his more primitive reactions under control after the last job. Coupled with the fact that he hadn’t had sex in way too long, he’d been an explosion waiting to happen.
    His desire for Lise Barton had tipped him over the edge.
    “I got too intense, too fast, and it scared you. I’m sorry.”
    “You didn’t scare me.” She put up her hand when he would have accused her of lying again. “You didn’t. The kiss was incredible. Your passion overwhelmed me, but it didn’t frighten me.” She sighed, looking both emotionally defenseless and a little disgruntled. “My reaction to it did.”
    He hadn’t expected that response. At all. He’d spent months feeling guilty because he’d sent her running and she was telling him her own reaction had done that. “Why?”
    “A woman could lose herself in feelings as strong as the ones you brought out in me.”
    “And you’re afraid of losing yourself?”
    “Yes.” Clear hazel eyes hid nothing.
    “Is that what happened in your marriage?”
    “Not totally, but I lost enough of myself that when our mutual