Roundabout Road (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend Book 2) (21 page)

“Um, no, Ma’am, you did not.” Julia clamped her mouth
shut, smiling over the table at Liddy.

“Then let the ones’ being asked the question answer it,
my dear.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” She started to giggle under her breath.

“And please stop that incessant giggling, Julia Margaret.
Next thing you know, you’ll be the one listed at the top of my most-watched for
all of ten years. I do keep a list you know.”

Julia’s head bobbed. “Yes, Mrs. Rosebud. I’m sure you
do.”

The three sharing the booth were barely able to hold in
their amusement. Then Theodora Rosebud turned her attentions directly onto Liddy.

“Where are those terrible annulment papers, Ms.
Humphrey?” Mrs. Rosebud held out her aged hand, likely expecting her to be able
to produce them out of thin air and somehow place them in her palm.

Yet she,
Mrs
.
Lidia Giotti, raised her gaze proudly at the old hag. “I burned them last
night. I needed something to make fire out of to keep warm.”

Jake shoved her knee under the table just to keep her tongue
from elaborating on exactly
why
she had needed a fire to keep warm with.

“Would that be late last night, while down in Mr. Peabody’s
old quarry, Ms. Humphrey?” Theodora wondered aloud. The fact of the matter
still fresh in her mind, apparently.

All three of them seated within the booth busted a gut
the second these damning words were voiced, while a very angry woman caught up
in a relentless cycle of bitchiness, beyond anything they could have ever
imagined—on an early Sunday morning, no less—strode away to have words with her
carelessly foolish granddaughter who’d dropped a plate of scrambled eggs onto
the floor.

“To keep warm, huh?” Jake teased.

Under her breath, she whispered, “If you hadn’t taken
off
all
of my clothes while we were down there, I would not have had any
need to stay warm.”

“I would have warmed you. And I do believe I did, more
than that. Not once had I heard any complaints about how it was done, either.”

He nudged her shoulder with his, reminding her of
their long, eventful, sweaty night.

“Yes. You did keep me warm, didn’t you? And now it is probably
caught on tape.”

“Yeah. It probably is. Just think, we’ll have
something to tell our grandchildren about.”

Liddy rolled her eyes at the dear, sweet man. “Yeah, just
think.”

Somehow she couldn’t quite picture telling
grandchildren about her rather active sex life with their grandfather, however.

Julia Hillard giggled so incredibly hard she could
barely see straight.

Liddy could see Jake Giotti reliving the moment in his
head, grinning shamelessly from ear to ear, and darting glances at the seam in
his jeans.

And she, Liddy Humphrey-Giotti, knew life with this
wonderful man would be anything but boring. Likely, it was to be as lively as
it had been ten years past. Whenever she with a man sporting a boa tattoo, with
her name on it, how the hell could it ever be dull?

The End

A teaser except from Book 3

Seduction of Saber

Saving the Sinners of Preacher’s
Bend

Women don’t normally grab Saber Patterson by the upper
arm to stop him from leaving.

Normally there was never a reason for him to leave.

Normally,
they grabbed him in a whole lot of other places. Then each would apologize
quite convincingly afterwards, followed by the sly handing over of a phone
number and a twirl of the hair in case he hadn’t noticed the desire in their
eyes.

If he was lucky, the bat of the eyelashes came last as
though it would help their cause.

Yet there was always a first for everything these
days; a first to be shocked at the action of a very attractive woman; a first
to even consider that it mattered; a first in a very long time for Saber to
even care.

And the woman was definitely attractive: long red
hair, startling blue eyes, and a cute little mole on her left cheek.

He had to ignore the sudden pull of heat that pulsed
through her fingertips, as best he could, while clearing his throat. Such an
intense heat was heading straight to his insides—right where it could do a man
some pretty hefty damage.

She let go of his arm and smiled. “Sorry about that.
It’s just that I don’t want you to leave.” She gave his arm a tender, sisterly
sort of pat; likely in case she’d miscalculated her strength.

Saber cleared his throat, willing his body to settle
down.

He wasn’t so certain staying here was such a good idea
any more.

****

Julia did not want him to leave.
Besides, there
was plenty of room inside the boarding house for another to stay. So what if
she would need to rearrange a few things? Vacate her room, for a start. She
needed the money. One more boarder wouldn’t hurt anyone. Anyone that is, except
her rather angelic conscience and her father’s worrisome attitude toward her
well-being.

It’s just that rearranging rooms wasn’t on her to-do
list for the day, when having other issues to deal with.

“Can’t go anywhere without a ride,” he said.

She pulled her gaze from his without hesitation. “Oh.
Yeah. That.”

The only true reason for wanting him to stay exactly
where he was, now that he was here, was that she did not want the likes of one
very sinister Rachel Rosebud to sink her claws into this man.

Theodora’s granddaughter had tried to sink her claws
into Jake Giotti and a few others lucky enough to get away. On this particular
occasion, Rachel Rosebud could find her own hunky hunk. This one was hers!

Besides, she needed as much money as she could get her
hands onto, just to pay off a few unfortunate bills. His money was as good as
anyone else’s, and she did not want to lose him on the account of being too
jittery . . . and too awestruck!

He might be gorgeous, but surely she could get past
that. And Niagara Falls was just a tiny trickle over a few rocks. She wasn’t
kidding anyone.