Their Ex's Redrock Twilight (Texas Alpha) (Texas Alpha Series Book 4) (8 page)

“What?” Coco asked, trying to prompt him.

Finn turned back to her and shrugged, avoiding her question.

“Babe, that dress looks amazing on you,” he said, which totally diverted her thoughts about what he’d been thinking that he wasn’t telling her—instead she felt excited pleasure over his compliment. That he did it in front of Gordon was absolutely amazing. That he did it at all made her feelings sing and made the bitterness that she’d been feeling over Gordon fade.

Then Finn blew her away even more. “I had time, bella, you’d be on my arm out at some place in town where I could buy you a drink and have all the men jealous over who I have by my side.”

To his honest comment about Coco being a hot babe, Finn heard a clueless Gordon as he muttered, “Not my wife.”

Gordon tried to twist around, but Finn stopped him, while both he and Coco ignored the ass.

“I can’t believe you did all this the way you did,” she said.

Finn raised a questioning eyebrow.

“You could have stopped me at the front door, but you didn’t,” she whispered.

Then Finn understood, and he smiled. “You need to remember now, babe, I’m the man who has your back.”

“Oh, please,” Gordon said. “You cannot have my wife’s back,
ever
!”

Finn felt Coco’s sexily painted fingernail scrape up his chest before she grabbed his tee shirt, then she used it to tug him forward. It wouldn’t have moved him, but he went with it, following her direction.

The next second, Coco was up on the toes of her high heels, kissing him with a warm, soft, and amazing mouth he wanted to kiss forever. Gordon freaked as Coco French-kissed Finn until his cock was banging hard, while he tightened his grip on Gordon so he couldn’t get loose.

The fucking wimp.

It took all Finn’s willpower not to pant when she kissed the breath out of him. Then he had to toughen up his voice.

“You go home now, yeah.”

He’d said it like a statement, rather than a question, and he loved how full and damp her lips looked after their marathon kiss.

To which Gordon muttered things like “She reads too much damn romance” and “It’s just a phase.”

Coco ignored Gordon, but Finn could tell by the hurt in her eyes that it wounded her. Still, she smiled as if she was thinking about licking Finn’s body from head to toe, and then, with her sultry Southern drawl, she said, “I promise, Deek.”

Her fingernail trailed up his chest again and he caught her hand, lifting it, to kiss her palm.

“I’ll bring dinner,” he told her. “You call me when you hit the door back home.”

“Please,” Gordon drawled sarcastically. “How much did you pay him to put on this show, Coco?”

“I will,” Coco said. Then, turning to glare at Gordon, she snapped, “From now on we talk through divorce attorneys.”

“You can’t do that!” Gordon exclaimed, ineffectually fighting Finn’s hold. “I won’t let you divorce me. That’s crazy!”

Finn watched Coco flip her hair up on one side.

“Whatever,” she said snottily to Gordon, and then she turned and swung her amazing ass, for all it was worth, back to her car.

Finn groaned in approval, shaking Gordon’s wrists.

“You fucking idiot, losing that,” he said with a sneer, as he noticed Gordon watching Coco’s sexy ass swinging too.

“She’s just been watching too many soap operas,” Gordon grumbled. “You’ll see. She’ll be gone and back to the home I provide her by tomorrow.”

“Idiot,” Finn muttered, then he shoved Gordon into the passenger side of his Jeep.

––––––––

S
he did promise Finn she’d go right home, and she really liked calling it that, but she made one stop before going there. It was a necessary stop, and she was pretty sure Finn would understand. However, when she came out the attorney’s office, one she’d picked randomly as the first one she’d seen when driving down Main Street, she wondered why a tall and very good-looking man of Native American heritage was looking over her car.

She nearly didn’t notice him, because she was so caught up with thoughts about hiring an attorney to file for a divorce. But the man, who was looking at her license plate, would catch any breathing woman’s attention. He was that fine.

He had long, thick black hair tied in a ponytail down his back, and he wore black jeans and a black button-up shirt over a strong body. She bet he worked out as much as Finn did.

Yum.

She licked her lips slowly, wondering if the town just naturally had such ruggedly good-looking men. Like maybe it was a southwestern small-town thing, or was she simply amazingly lucky to have seen five of them now, from Zeb and Vincent, to the best of the best, which was Finn.

But she didn’t blame herself for being enticed, because she was female and the man was hot. Besides, she’d just got done dealing with her rat husband, so she was entitled to a bit of looking.

When she approached him, her breath caught as he turned to her and she saw his eyes. They were some light crystal color that was emphasized by dark lashes, and they gave his handsome Native American features an intense quality.

As she approached, he wasn’t moving away from acting as if he’d casually noticed her license plate. Instead, he was looking her up and down, and each swipe of his gaze gave her shivers in places that should only shiver for Finn.

Wow.

That was one hunk of a man with his attention centered completely on her.

Coco bit her bottom lip, wondering if maybe she’d forgotten she met the man at some time or other. Maybe he was a friend of Vincent Whitehorse. But then she tossed out that idea, because there was no way she would not remember this man.

“Coco Maxwell?” His voice was as deep as Finn’s, but it was raspier and rough, where Finn’s was as smooth as dark whiskey.

She was completely startled that the man knew her name.

It brought her high heels to a stuttered stop as she hung on to her purse and tilted her head, looking around to make certain there was enough public around them for her to feel safe. That close to him, and she finally realized the smoking-hot Indian looked pretty dangerous—and he knew her name.

“I’m not sure I should answer you,” she said, as politely as she could.

She was glad to see that he didn’t move closer, while his firm lips lifted slightly and his ethereal eyes sharpened.

“I don’t normally take gigs like this,” he said mysteriously, and his voice was growly and deep, making the shivers he could magically induce come on stronger. She had to fight against going closer to him, because his masculine aura was that strong. “That’s some dress, princess,” he said, with a look that told her he really liked her dress.

The two things he’d said didn’t go together and that made him seem edgy and maybe a little off or crazy.

“Um,” she muttered. “Thanks ... mister ...?”

“Smart and sexy too.” He put his hands in his suit jacket pockets. It was a relaxed stance, and made her a little less nervous. “I love that combo,” he said.

Coco tapped the toe of her high heel. Even as attractive as the man was, it didn’t mean she should stand out there and play the game he was playing. He obviously knew her and she didn’t know him, and that made her remember the threatening call she’d gotten back home.

“Well, I’m glad you like them,” she said, with a toss of her hair. “But I’m leaving this very strange conversation, honey. And I think I’ll probably tell my friend Special Agent Finn O’Neil or my other friend Vincent Whitehorse about a hot guy who knows my name, when I don’t know him.”

She started toward the driver side of her car while her mysterious hot Indian chuckled. “Southern sass and possibly fucking sweet.”

Then, without realizing that he’d moved from slightly behind her to the side of her, suddenly his rather large hand was on the handle of her driver-side door.

“I’ll scream,” she promised him tightly.

But he lifted the latch and opened the door for her. When she looked sideways at him, she saw that he’d stepped back. The place he’d settled wasn’t in a position on the other side of the open door, where he could have snatched her.

She looked up at him worriedly and she stepped closer to the seat, but she didn’t try to sit yet.

“That would be a good first tactic to use, princess,” he told her. “Another would be to elbow me high on my stomach, right below my ribs, when I was standing next to you. That would double me over and you could have shoved me pretty easily, and then gotten into your car and slammed the door and locked it.”

Each word made Coco’s eyes widened as she watched his attractive lips move while thinking. “Are you crazy?” she asked.

He laughed outright at that. “I really fucking am. But princess, I know your men Vincent and Finn, and I will be talking to them shortly about why I was tracking you down.”

“Tracking?” she whispered, with real fear finally making an appearance.

“I’m a PI, princess,” he rasped. “That’s private investigator, and I’m also an all-the-time mercenary, who on occasion tracks people down for other people that want them tracked down. I don’t work cheap, so as you can guess, a lot of cash was laid down on this gig. But I don’t go for tracking sweet and sexy women, especially ones who are under the arms of men like Vincent and Finn.”

Coco clutched her purse.

“Okay.” She thought about asking who it was that was tracking her, and then she decided she didn’t want to know. Finn would tell her if she needed to know, and she really didn’t want to be more scared right then. “I’m just going to go,” she said.

That was when things became really scary, because her mystery PI stepped around the door and grasped her elbow.

“Can’t let you do that, princess. Not alone.” Coco filled her lungs to scream, but her would-be abductor caught her intent, and he said, “Why don’t we call Finn on your cell, and he’ll tell you I’m not out to do you bad. He’ll also tell you you shouldn’t be alone at the moment.”

He let go of her arm and he stepped back with a crazy, intense look in his eyes. Coco could only nod while glancing around, wondering if there were other people after her. He’d said that he knew Finn and Vincent, and he wasn’t, at the moment, trying to push her into the car or pull her away with him.

His voice got very low. “You got no reason to trust me, babe. But I’d rather take a bullet than to see a woman like you, in a dress like that, hair the fuck all shiny long and curly, beautiful lips, and legs going to heaven, ever hurt in any way.”

Coco was stunned, and she whispered, “You like my hair?”

Ten minutes later, she and Caval Rome were sitting in the front seat of her car. She was on the driver side and he was on the passenger side—she’d just finished telling him about her cruel and sleazy husband and what he’d done to her. Then, since they had talked, they both realized that they knew many of the same people in town. And they realized that they’d both been to Carly and Zeb’s Fourth of July party at the same time and must have missed each other.

When she called Finn and told him that Caval Rome had been tracking her, and Caval told her she shouldn’t be alone now, Finn ordered her to hand the phone to Caval.

She only heard one side of that conversation, but it was scary hearing Caval saying, “I haven’t got a fucking light touch and I don’t know how to treat ladies delicately. I’m telling you, we need to talk soon. You need to keep a twenty-four-seven eye on your lady.”

And if that wasn’t enough to blow her mind, what Caval said next did.

“Yeah, I’m understanding the guy that contacted me was just a go-between for a high-end, nasty bad guy. I’ve had it happen before, the bait and switch.”

When Caval handed her back her cell phone and she lifted it to her ear, Finn said, “So this is you going straight home, babe? I’m seeing that we might need some communication lessons between us. I’m thinking they’re going to be the ones involving your bare ass and my hand.”

Coco thought she should be aghast. She thought she should be mad and snarling at Finn over such high-handed bossiness. She definitely thought she should not be quivering deeply on the inside with the secret hope that he really would do just what he threatened.

Once again, she promised Finn she was going straight home, and then she found out she had an escort, whether she wanted one or not, and that chaperon was Caval. Well, with all the tracking of her and high-end, nasty bad guys, she supposed she was glad he was going to stick with her. Except for that devilish smile he gave her, which was right on the edge of crazy.

“You know, princess, I know a little bit about sleazy ex’s. If you want, I can get rid of him for you,” Caval drawled in a deliciously deep voice.

Coco’s eyes widened as she put the keys in the ignition.

“Um ... no, honey.” She gulped, seeing the look in Caval’s eyes. He really meant that. Further, she totally believed he could do it. “I’ll just divorce him,” she said.

“A man shouldn’t mess around with a sweet woman like you, princess,” Caval told her. “But I get that you just want to be civil and divorce the bastard. I did that with my ex-wife, just divorced her, even as much as I wanted to do more. I did it for my daughter. But you say the word, and I’ll just fuck with him a little bit.”

The look on Caval’s face sent different shivers across Coco’s shoulders, and the edgy intent on his hard jaw showed through the sharp promise in his light green eyes. But the next second his eyes were a dark hazel gray with a wicked light, and she wondered how irises could change like that.

As much as he made her nervous in all kinds of ways, she couldn’t say she wasn’t a little bit touched that he’d offer to do that for her. He’d even tempted her a tiny bit. So she decided that underneath it all he was probably a good man, quite edgy, but he wasn’t taking the money to track her and haul her back to whoever had paid for that service. Instead, he was escorting her home.

Then she decided that after discovering your husband was having an affair, it didn’t hurt at all to have a smoking-hot man flirt with you. Better than that, it didn’t hurt at all to be the woman in Finn O’Neil’s bed. Still, she couldn’t be called Southern and a woman if she didn’t return Caval’s flirt a little bit.