Wild Ride: Lance and Tammy by Lietha Wards Read Free Book Online Page B

in twenty minutes ma’am.”
    “Thank you.”  She felt like she was a terrible burden now.  Lance had proffered himself for her, and now he was putting her up. 
    The woman left.
    “I feel guilty.  I can stay in a hotel.”
    He shook his head. “None of us would have that.  I have plenty of room.”
    She breathed deeply staring up at him.  It was to stop the tears from filling her eyes.  She started to feel the emotional burden of meeting her family again.  Thankfully, he spoke distracting her.
    “Okay, now we talk. Come with me.” He carried his bag in one hand and took hers in the other and led her through a long wide hallway. She could really get used to his hand on hers.  If, after five years, only meeting her family made him do this, she’d endure her mother’s disdain over and over again. Oh, she hoped that he wasn’t angry with her.  He was so unreadable. 
    They walked down a long hallway to a set of double doors. He opened one to reveal a large bedroom.  She looked up at him questioningly. “My room.  We won’t be disturbed here.” He closed the door behind them.
    “Lance I—“
    “One moment.” He lifted his luggage and disappeared down a hall for a moment. When he came back his hands were empty.
    She was too anxious to know why he put herself out for her, but wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. “W—why did you—I mean—”
    “Sit down.” He indicated with a sweep of his hand to the bed.
    It surprised her that she listened so quickly because he was being a little demanding and Tammy never took orders from anyone except the doctors—at work.  Maybe it had something to do with that inscrutable honeyed stare and the sound of his soft husky voice.  She sat on the edge of the bed.
    “He was an ass.  She was horrible,” he finally said.
    She looked up at him as he stood there, handsome and foreboding, giving nothing away in his expression, as usual.  Could he possibly look any more striking? Yet he was right about her family. “He’s always an ass. And she was always horrible,” she agreed without hesitation. Was that the semblance of a smile?  She felt her own mouth pull a bit.
    “A spoiled pompous ass. It pissed me off.”
    She laughed that time, her eyes twinkling and to her shock he actually smiled down at her. In all the years she’d known him, she’d never seen him angry, not even when Richard and her mother were staring down their noses at him. His self-control was impressive. She would have never guessed that it angered him. If anything, she thought he was annoyed with her for not telling him anything about her life. Then she remembered what he’d told her back home . It doesn’t matter Tam. No one’s judging you here.  We all know who you are, here, now.
    He pulled one of the Queen Anne styled chairs away from the wall so when he sat down facing her, their knees nearly touched. He rested his elbows on the armrests and interlocked his fingers. Then his eyes met hers and she ceased laughing, but kept a smile.  He was really a pleasure to look at, even in all of his seriousness. “We need to get our story straight. Your mother is obviously going to make this experience a living hell for you, and your father is too intelligent not to catch on that this is a sham.  Then there’s the pompous ass, still looking at you with lust in his eyes.”
    He was spot on about all of it. She didn’t know how he deduced this after just meeting them for a brief moment, but she was certain he didn’t get his degree out of a Cracker Jack box. Lance went to Harvard and graduated with honors. She nodded in agreement and he began talking.  She couldn’t help but hang on every word.
    “My favorite color is red. I like expensive wine, but would take a good cold bottle of beer on a hot day after working in the fields over that anytime.” He stopped and waved a hand at her. She realized it was her turn.  He was telling her a little at a time probably so she could remember it