Love Loyal and True Read online

  His body throbbed hard in response, and annoyance surged right after. “Don’t you have your own apartment?”

  Her expression froze, then she bit her lip as her throat worked in a hard swallow. “I did.”

  When she didn’t add more to make sense, he raised his eyebrows. “And now you don’t?”

  “Now I don’t.”

  She looked like she might cry, and he wondered why she was being so damn cryptic at—he reached sideways to check his phone on the night stand—three a.m.?

  “So, what the hell?” he prompted in exasperation. “Your boyfriend throw you out?”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  Good to know.

  No! That’s the last thing he cared about.

  “Did you not pay your rent and get evicted in the middle of the night?” he asked with a sneer.

  When he noticed her white knuckles against the backdrop of the orange T-shirt clenched in her fingers, his gut tightened with suspicion. Something wasn’t right here.

  “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Yeah, you said that already.”

  Which begged the question, if she really was the psychic she claimed to be, shouldn’t she have ‘seen’ he was here? Sensed him, or a presence, at the very least?

  It was too late—or early—to start that argument, but she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to be going anywhere, so he swung his legs over the edge of the bed to swipe his briefs off the floor.

  “What are you doing?”

  Her shrill question made him pause. “I’m not going to sit here naked while you stand there staring at me.” He paused and tilted his head slightly to the right. “Unless you want to strip and join me again?”

  Her nose scrunched up. “Ew. No.”

  The immediate response would have been a real ego blow, except her gaze dropped to his bare chest, and then tracked down to the sheet across his lap. Color bloomed in her cheeks, and she whirled toward the door.

  “Stay here. Go back to sleep. I’ll take the couch.”

  Apparently, his brother’s apartment came with a roommate whether he wanted one or not.

  As she hurried away, Loyal couldn’t help but check out her gorgeous legs that went on for days. It was a crying shame she hid such glorious assets under those long skirts of hers.

  He almost grinned at the sight of both her hands in a death grip on the back hem of her shirt. She’d pulled it down so hard to cover her ass, he imagined what was no longer covered in front. Another surge of lust hit hard.

  The moment she disappeared from sight, he dropped back on the bed. He pressed his palm over his erection in an attempt to ease the ache. The increased pressure made him want to wrap his fingers around himself and stroke hard until he found release.

  He groaned under his breath.

  Fuck. Now he needed a shower—a cold one.

  Chapter 3

  Roxanna jerked awake with a gasp, her heart thumping in panic during the seconds it took to realize she’d been dreaming again. But this time there was not another fire. She was safe on the couch in Asher’s empty apartment above her shop, with the sunrise of a new day shining through the sheer window curtains.

  Relief was short-lived when she remembered the shock of coming face to face with his older brother at three o’clock in the morning. He’d warned her Loyal might use the place if he moved back to Colorado, but that had been months ago, and she’d completely forgotten about it until she ended up in bed with him—sans panties.

  That was a scenario she’d dreamed about for years. Turned out, the reality had both exceeded and fallen short of her frustrating, oft-recurring secret fantasy.

  Naked Loyal was so much better than she’d imagined—and, um, bigger, too. Eyes closed, she pictured his broad shoulders, trim abs, and the dark, sexy trail of chest hair leading her gaze down to the promise of something really damn good. Her breath hitched in her throat as longing twinged in her core.

  She shook her head and opened her eyes, because after that—or in spite of that?—it had become a nightmare. He’d been a jerk from the first day they’d met, and last night had proved no exception, starting with him calling her psycho, as if she’d planned the whole insane scenario. And then he’d suggested she strip and join him.

  The guy hated her, so she knew it was nothing more than a shock-jock comment meant to ruffle her feathers, but a small part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and call his bluff—and that pissed her off. Sometimes the loneliness made it hard to breathe, but she wasn’t desperate enough to toss aside her self-respect for a quick roll in the sheets with a guy who didn’t even like her.

  At least, she hadn’t thought she was until he was naked in front of her.

  She’d hurried out the door before temptation overrode common sense, and went straight to the bathroom to find a blow dryer for her underwear so she wouldn’t flash her ass again in the morning.

  As for the fire, she hadn’t told him because it would’ve gone one of two ways. He would’ve been the jerk he usually was, she’d have cried, and she would’ve wanted to hit him again. Or, he’d have felt sorry for her, she probably still would’ve cried, and she would’ve wanted to hit him again.

  Same results either way, except this time, she would’ve been able to aim her swing for maximum pain. Especially since, more than likely, she would’ve been hitting him for the first reason. However, she didn’t want to cry in front of him, so she’d kept her mouth shut.

  A quick rub of her eyes did nothing to alleviate the dry, scratchy irritation lingering from the smoke. She rose to peer over the back of the couch at the clock on the kitchen wall, then dropped down onto the decorative throw pillow when she saw it was only a few minutes after seven a.m. Desperate for another hour or two of sleep, she adjusted her T-shirt back down over her panties and pulled the blanket she’d snagged from the recliner up to her chin.

  Five long, exceedingly torturous minutes later, she flipped the covering aside with a huff of annoyance. No way she was going back to sleep now. Every time she closed her eyes, the sexy jerk in the other room was right there.

  Invading her mind space.

  Making her body way too hot.

  She was better off getting dressed and heading downstairs for coffee and one of Honor’s leftover cupcakes from yesterday. If she hurried, she could avoid running into Loyal again this morning, and start figuring out what to do.

  First on the list? Call her rental insurance company to see about getting a hotel until she could locate a new apartment to rent. Because Asher had warned Loyal might use this place, she couldn’t ask him to leave. Well, she could, but she’d have to play the pity card, and no way in hell she would do that with him.

  Roxanna ran her fingers through her hair along her scalp and grimaced at the amount of finger-combing she’d have to do to detangle her long, still-damp curls if she didn’t locate a brush. As she lowered her hands, she heard the sound of a door and jerked her head up to see the bathroom door was now closed.

  Damn, Loyal was up already? She didn’t want to have to speak to the unbearable jerk. And if she had to, couldn’t she have been dressed first? Too late now, since she’d left her clean clothes folded on the bathroom counter.

  She stood and wrapped the blanket around her waist while waiting impatiently for him to come out and go back to the bedroom. Sitting down to wait, she kept her head down in case he not only slept in the nude, but also walked around au natural. And then as she thought about it, she couldn’t help sneaking a peek every couple seconds.

  Uggh. Stop.

  Silently lamenting about having to share space with him, she wondered what the hell had she done to karma that her apartment building caught fire on the exact night he decided to show up back in Colorado?

  The door opened a few minutes later, and her pulse leapt as she shot a covert gaze under her lashes. He’d put pants on. Whew.

  Or damn?

  When he turned into the living room instead of going back to th
e bedroom, she lifted her head, and her breath caught all over again. Although he’d pulled on a pair of black dress pants, his mussed hair, dark stubble, and bare chest had her pulse tripping all over itself.

  She noticed he had her nightgown fisted in his large hand as she stood. The contrast of the delicate, light pink silk against his large, tanned hand made her stomach flutter. Too bad he hadn’t taken it off her instead of picking it up from the bathroom floor.

  Stop thinking like that!

  “Is this yours?” he asked.

  “One would assume—unless you have one exactly like it?” she quipped as she crossed the room to meet him.

  His thick, dark brows hovered low over his whiskey-colored eyes. “Did your apartment building burn down?”

  She shifted her gaze to his hand. She’d only taken time to wash her underwear, so the pungent smoke odor that clung to the pink nightgown hadn’t faded one bit. “I don’t know that it burned down. The firefighters were still working when I left.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you say so last night?”

  She couldn’t tell if the roughness in his voice was anger or guilt.

  Loyal—feel a human emotion such as guilt? Hah. Right.

  “What does it matter?”

  “You should’ve told me.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, his expression uncomfortable. “I’d have given you the bed.”

  “Yeah, right. More likely you would’ve mocked me and asked, ‘If you’re a real psychic, shouldn’t you have known it was coming?’”

  His lashes lifted, his gaze meeting hers as he tilted his head. “Well, shouldn’t you have?”

  She narrowed her eyes at the cynical humor tugging at his lips. Yep. She wanted to hit him again. Hard.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” she said through gritted teeth. Although, with her dream last night, it had come close.

  His expression softened. “Are you okay?”

  Annoyed that his question made her pulse leap, she reached to yank her nightgown from his hand. “Don’t pretend like you care. You’re an ass, Loyal. Always have been, always will be.”

  With that, she brushed past him and shut the bathroom door before he could see the tears that had suddenly turned everything blurry. She was not a crier, and yet the past twelve hours she seemed to be leaking every damn five minutes. She splashed cold water on her face, then found an unopened toothbrush and a tube of travel-size toothpaste to brush her teeth.

  While she dressed, she made a face at her reflection in the mirror. The brown T-shirt she’d picked to go with the skirt was soft and stretchy. Being tall and slim—willowy, her mother used to say—her breasts were on the smaller size, but the snug fit made it embarrassingly obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  Second on her list—shopping for a bra.

  As she pulled on socks and the mid-calf military-style boots, she knew it wasn’t really second, but it would be up in the top five. In the meantime, she’d grab a sweatshirt or something from the shop.

  Loyal wasn’t in the living room when she exited the bathroom. With all her things gathered in her hands, she started for the door. A sudden urge to stop and turn back had her wondering why? It wasn’t like they were friends and she needed to tell him where she was going, or even say goodbye, for that matter.

  She kept going and quietly let herself out of the apartment. Down in her shop, she went through the motions of grinding beans for the fresh roast coffee, took a small bakery box of Honor’s pre-made cupcakes from the freezer in the back so they’d be thawed by eleven for customers, then stood in the office and stared at her desk.

  Why had she let it get this bad again? She needed to find her spare Jeep keys and her rental insurance info, but would she find it in time to make the necessary calls and walk over to pick up her vehicle before it was time to open? Probably not.

  With a low groan of resignation, she put the cupcakes back in the freezer and grabbed a clean sheet of paper from the printer. She wrote and taped a Closed for Personal Emergency sign on her front door before returning to her mess of a desk.

  A bump of her hand sent the teetering stack of papers, folders, and mail on the left side spilling to the floor. She cursed under her breath as she knelt to scrape everything back into a pile, then dug around in her desk drawers a good ten minutes before she found her spare keys. Karma was really bitch-slapping her with the need to get more organized.

  “I’m listening, Universe,” she muttered. “I promise. I’ve learned my lesson.”

  But first, she wanted to get her Jeep, and she really wanted to see what was left of the apartment building. She snagged a wool poncho sweater from the front, pulled some cash from the register for the much needed bra, then went to pour a cup of coffee for the two and a half mile walk.

  After an odd moment of hesitation, she found herself turning back to add a dash of cream and sugar. She didn’t usually add the extras, but black seemed too bracing this morning. Too much like the soot she was sure to find at the apartment. She gave the lighter liquid a brief stir, then skimmed her fingers over the beads strung across the door of her reading room as she headed out with her keys.

  She was pulling the door closed behind her when Loyal came through the door from the second floor stairway.

  “Hey,” he said conversationally. “I wondered where you went to.”

  Since he had to wonder no more, she didn’t bother to respond past a tight-lipped smile. His dark pants, white shirt, and a charcoal suit coat were tailored to perfection for his broad shoulders and tall, athletic build. He should’ve looked stuffy and uptight with the starched white collar and pressed lines in his pants, but he’d left the top button undone, and wore the clothes with an effortless confidence that made her pulse speed up.

  He’d combed his stylishly cut dark hair, but he hadn’t bothered to shave the stubble lining his strong jaw. The ruggedness only added to his sex appeal. You’d think his years-long animosity toward her would make her immune to his handsomeness, and yet the man’s beauty still took her breath away every time.

  His gaze dropped to the cup in her hand and his expression turned hopeful.

  “Is there more where that came from?”

  She wanted to say no. Be the jerk to him that he always was to her and tell him to take a hike to the coffee shop three blocks away. Instead, she sighed inwardly and stopped her door from latching. She had made a full pot in anticipation of serving customers who now wouldn’t be drinking it, so no need to let it all go to waste just for spite.

  “How do you take it?”

  “A little sugar, a little cream.”

  The jolt of that reveal made her swallow hard as she extended her cup to him. “Take this one and I’ll get myself another.”

  He accepted it with a curve to his mouth that made her pulse skip. She wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of his genuine smiles. The mocking ones? Those she was all too familiar with.

  “What do I owe you?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  He lifted the cup in salute. “Thank you.”

  “Yep.” Before she got lost in that unexpected smile and the yummy scent of his cologne slowly infusing the hallway, she pushed the door open and slipped back into her shop.

  “Roxanna—”

  Nope.

  She shut the door on whatever he was about to say. Her heart might be blind when it came to Loyal Diamond, but she wasn’t stupid. She was too emotionally vulnerable to let herself get drawn in when all it would take was one caustic remark from him to slay her wide open. The man had a knack for saying just the right thing—or the exact wrong thing, as the case may be.

  After pouring herself a cup of black coffee, she exited Lift Your Spirit through the front door and turned east into the bright sunshine. While the afternoon temps usually climbed to around sixty degrees even in late October, the mornings were frosty, and the warmth on her face was welcome.

  She’d
fully expected to spend her walk mentally going over everything she needed to do after the fire, but instead, her thoughts stubbornly remained on Loyal.

  When it came to him, Idiot was her middle name. She’d been pining for the guy from the first time Asher introduced her to his older brother—all because of a stupid vision she’d had when she was nine. These days, the details were fuzzy save for the distinct voice saying, “The love of your life will be loyal and true.”

  Hearing Loyal’s name for the first time, foolish, twenty-two year old, stars-in-her-eyes Roxanna decided Fate had led her to her soul mate.

  Her soul mate, however, hadn’t quite felt the love. Far from it.

  Granted, he’d been engaged and days from the altar at the time, but when Asher mentioned she was a psychic, his older brother had first laughed, then snorted with open disdain. She found out later his fiancé had been a frequent caller to the psychic hotline she used to work for. The woman had spent thousands, then left him on their wedding day. Asher told her one of the psychics convinced his fiancé he wasn’t the right guy for her.

  After that, Loyal’s remarks became more direct. More scathing and hostile. The worst was four months ago, when he’d called her a whack-job in front of his entire family and guests at his parents’ thirty-fifth anniversary party. Usually, she could shake the words off, but that night, he’d reawakened a whole host of insecurities she thought she’d managed to bury in her past.

  That she wasn’t normal. She wasn’t good enough.

  She wasn’t lovable.

  She knew she shouldn’t let him get to her. Just because he was a jerk didn’t mean she was any of those things. But, rational understanding didn’t stand a chance against engrained emotions that had been set deep when her mother abandoned their family when she was nine, and then left her again at twenty-two. Add in a workaholic father, being raised by strict grandparents who complained daily she was too much like her mother, and she didn’t need her Colorado State University psychology degree to tell her it was enough to screw up anyone’s sense of self-worth.