Cowboy Underneath It All by Delores Fossen Read Free Book Online Page B

moments anyway. But Eliza could tell from Kane’s next long breath that it wasn’t going to be promising for long.
    â€œI have no idea where this is going,” he said. “Still don’t. And that means this wasn’t fair to you. I shouldn’t have started this.”
    Good grief. That sounded like a goodbye. Eliza wanted to ask if he was about to dump her, but her throat didn’t cooperate. Kane must have taken her silence as a cue for him to continue.
    â€œI’m sorry for not thinking this through,” he said. “But I’m not really sorry for what just happened between us.” He paused. “Are you?”
    She couldn’t answer this fast enough. “Not a chance.”
    He gave her a lazy smile. A kiss. And she thought maybe the kiss had the potential to turn into another round of lovemaking. But the ringing sound stopped any chance of that. Or at least delayed it.
    Kane fumbled around on the nightstand, located his phone, but he cursed when he looked at the screen. She cursed, too, when she saw the name of the caller.
    Charlene.
    He didn’t take the call, and it went to voice mail. Kane played the message and put it on Speaker so that she could hear.
    â€œKane,” Charlene said in her message. “Call me about those cows. I’m pretty sure we can work out a deal now.”
    He shrugged. “Guess she had a change of heart.”
    Maybe. But Eliza suddenly had a bad feeling about that. The bad feeling went up a notch when there was a knock at the door. It was a little too early for visitors.
    â€œThat’d better not be Charlene,” Kane grumbled.
    He threw back the covers, got up and started to dress. Eliza did the same, but Kane finished ahead of her and went to the door. Whoever was visiting was persistent about the knocking, and the knocking got louder and louder with each passing second.
    â€œHow could you?” someone asked. And it was a voice that Eliza immediately recognized.
    Violet.
    Her sister repeated her question and then shifted her gaze to Eliza. “I remember everything you told me when I was drunk. You and Kane have been lying to me, to everyone, and it has to stop right now.”

Chapter Six
    â€œHell.” And since Kane didn’t know what else to say, he just repeated it a couple more times.
    Violet was clearly upset, and judging from her red eyes, she’d been crying. The moment she stepped inside, fresh tears came, but even then she managed to give both Eliza and him a stern look.
    â€œWhy?” Violet asked. That question was for him. “Why would you even do something like this?” She directed that one to her sister.
    Eliza shook her head, and Kane figured it wouldn’t be long before she had tears in her eyes, too. “I thought... Well, I thought I was doing the right thing by lying to you,” Eliza said. “I didn’t want anything to get in the way of you being with Dax.”
    Violet threw her hands in the air. “And you thought telling me you were in love with Kane would help?”
    Kane had figured the L word had been thrown around when Eliza had first told Violet about their budding relationship. Their fake budding relationship, that was. But he had known that it could possibly be true. Eliza could be in love with him. Or maybe she thought that she was. He certainly hadn’t helped matters in that department by spending the night with her.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Eliza said to Violet. “I honestly believed I was doing the right thing.”
    â€œWell, you weren’t,” Violet snapped. Her gaze slashed to Kane. “And how long have you known about the lies?”
    â€œHe didn’t know,” Eliza jumped to say.
    She was obviously trying to defend him, but Kane wasn’t going to let her take all of this on her shoulders. “I found out the day I got home. Eliza told me when we were at the pub.”
    That sent Violet’s hands up in the