For Love's Sake Only by Lena Matthews Read Free Book Online

old adage was true; no man would buy the cow if he got the milk for free. And Charlotte had been extremely free last night. Free with her wants, free with her desires, and completely free with her body. She had let Ty, a man she’d only known for a day, do things with her that she had never allowed her past lovers to do. There was just something about him that made her give in to him. Something lethal, and she had to run from him, and herself, before she did something stupid, like lose her heart to him.
    Spurs & Mistletoe: For Love’s Sake Only
    37
    Pushing the trailer door closed, Charlotte leaned back against the cool wood and banged her head softly repeatedly into the door. She had only come down for the weekend.
    Two days to do grunt work and then straight back home. And in one night she had put aside all of her morals and beliefs and given in to a handsome man in a Stetson.
    “So stupid!” She cursed herself for the hundredth time, but this time, like the last, she wasn’t sure if she was cursing herself for leaving his bed, or allowing him into her bed in the first place. The ringing phone cut off her self-loathing. “Sane here.”
    “That’s always good to hear,” chuckled her best friend, Tamara. “So how are things on the Ponderosa?”
    Charlotte closed her eyes for a second and smiled. Tamara’s friend-radar must have gone off. They had always been able to tell when one needed the other. “A bit more exciting than I ever thought possible.”
    “Really? Do tell?”
    “I am such an idiot.” There were no two ways about it. Walking across the room, Charlotte set her briefcase on the table before sitting down in a chair.
    Tamara’s warm laughter filled the line. “I so love when your rants begin this way.”
    “Then you’re going to love this.” Taking a deep sigh, Charlotte blurted out what had happened last night, giving as much detail as possible considering her location. By the time she had finished bringing Tamara up-to-date, Charlotte was exhausted, and feeling ten times the fool. “I can’t believe I ran out on him.”
    “I can’t believe you’re able to walk.”
    “No shit.” She laughed, shaking her head in denial. “I’m such an idiot! Why did I leave him?”
    “Because you’re an idiot. I thought we already went over that,” Tamara concurred, without missing a beat.
    “Tamara, you’re not supposed to agree with me.” 38 Lena Matthews
    “Please, I’m your friend, if I can’t tell you when you’re being an idiot, who will?”
    “Do you have to say it with so much glee?”
    “As a matter of fact, I do.”
    Charlotte could hear the amusement and love in Tamara’s voice, and it went a long way to sooth her rumbling nerves. Standing up, she walked across the room to the large windows. “Do you think I’m a skeez?”
    “Hell, no. For once in your perfect little life you went out and had a great time, with what sounds like a great man. That doesn’t make you a whore, Char, that makes you human.” Leaning against the window, Charlotte looked out at the busy rodeo. Who would have ever thought she would have had to travel three hundred miles to find her humanity? “Being human sucks.”
    “Who are you telling? Last night you spent the night playing Cowboys and Indians, and I spent it poring over job applications. How is that fair? I was so depressed, I ended up eating a box -- yes, you heard me, a box -- of brownies. Being unemployed is hell on my diet.”
    “Tamara ...” Charlotte groaned.
    “Oh, don’t ‘Tamara’ me. I ate a box of brownies. You slept with a cowboy. I’m thinking we’re about even.”
    “Yeah, but I bet I enjoyed Ty a hell of a lot more than you enjoyed your brownies.” Charlotte couldn’t help but tease.
    “Well, that’s good to know,” said a hard voice from behind her. Charlotte whirled around from the window and almost dropped the phone as Ty slammed the door shut behind him. “Because for a moment there, I was beginning to wonder.