Deceptive Truth: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 4) by Olivia Jaymes (reading women .txt) 📕

She pointed at his chest, right where his cold heart resided. "You don't get to be carried away. You made these rules, and you have to stick to them. Unless you're ready to blow away the rules. Are you? Are you, Knox? I'll go out on a limb here. Why not? I'll say that I don't want these rules. Can you say it?"

She was literally shaking like a leaf, her entire body trembling with emotion. There was anger, for sure. Fear, as well. Terror that he didn't feel the same when she knew deep inside that he felt...something. Was it only lust? She'd seen that plenty of times in her life but this didn't feel the same. This felt like something she'd never experienced before. He had to be feeling it too. She'd seen it in his face.

He whirled on his heel and strode a few paces away before turning back.

"I don't know how this even happened," he said, scraping his fingers through his hair so it was almost standing on end. "We were having a perfectly normal conversation and fixing dinner. And you took that–"

"Don't you even go there," she said quietly. "I'm not taking the fall for this all on my own. We both wanted this. I didn't jump your bones or make you do anything that you weren't all on board for. Hell, Knox, if I hadn't stopped you, I have a feeling we'd be doing more than just kissing right now. This was a mutual decision. You don't get to wash your hands of it because it's inconvenient."

"I don't want to talk about this. You're not being reasonable."

"Because I won't let you blame me? Fuck you, Knox Owens."

He didn't say anything else, his jaw tight and his lips pressed together in a thin line. After a long moment, he turned and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jenna standing there all alone. Just as she'd been less than thirty minutes ago. So much had changed in that small window of time.

All these emotions had been simmering between them and the moment they allowed the heat to turn up, they'd exploded. All over the place making a big, damn mess. She hadn't wanted this tonight, but she couldn't say that she was sorry either.

Her anger draining away, she leaned against the counter, letting her heart rate and breathing go back to normal. The realization of what had happened was penetrating her brain. This was a cluster fuck of gigantic proportions. She'd thought she'd been so clever, pushing her feelings aside and pretending that they didn't exist. She couldn't, however, deny them any longer. Where did that leave them? They had work to do still.

The next time she saw Knox could she act as if nothing had happened?

She wasn't sure she was that good of an actress. And she was tired of lying to herself.

She wanted Knox. Did he want her?

16

After leaving the kitchen, Knox had gone upstairs to his room to lie down. He couldn't rest; he was far too agitated for that, so he ended up staring at the ceiling and replaying his conversation with Jenna over and over in his head.

Not a pretty picture.

Knox wasn't feeling all that proud of himself. In fact, he was ashamed of his behavior with Jenna. She'd called him out and for good reason. His actions weren't matching his words and he was acting like a giant hypocrite. And if there was one thing that he hated, that was a hypocritical person. He'd grown up with that shit so he didn't have any patience or pity for himself when he displayed that sort of crap. There wasn't any excuse that was good enough. He'd acted like a jerk and she'd rightly given him a big fuck you.

He'd walked out on her not because he thought she was being unreasonable. Far from it. He didn't have an argument in defense. Guilty as charged. He shouldn't have been kissing Jenna. He'd been the one that had put the rules in place and then first chance he'd broken them.

He should have had more control. But...he couldn't deny the heat that shimmered between them whenever they were together. He was attracted to Jenna. Fuck it, he really liked her as well. As a person. She was genuine and fun to be around. She was smart and witty and she made him laugh.

He'd been sure that he wanted to end their relationship. There hadn't been any doubt in his mind at the time. He'd been angry and hurt, disappointed too. But now that he was ass deep in this investigation, he understood how desperate Jenna had been. She'd been at the end of her rope, willing to do just about any outlandish thing to find out what happened to her sister. Plus, he could tell that she wasn't a bad person. She didn't go around pretending and lying about shit. He trusted her.

So where did that leave him? And them? She'd kissed him back. She'd said that she had feelings, although she might not anymore after he'd walked out. If she was angry, he couldn't blame her. Neither of them had acted well since the beginning. What they needed was a fresh start. Put all of the past well and truly behind them. He'd say he was sorry. He'd tell her that he had feelings too.

Which was scary as hell because he didn't go around telling women that he had feelings for them. The last one had been a long time ago. Years, actually. He'd thought he'd