Nothing doing. She refused to allow him the privilege. She was thinking that she hadn’t looked him straight in the eye since he’d acknowledged her presence. About all she could see was his bare-chested brother.

Parr stayed sitting, legs sprawled in a too-small chair, his heavy jeans worn down to white over his thigh muscles. He was so big that he seemed to dwarf everything around him, especially his younger brother. His coal black hair was unkempt, as if he hadn’t combed it this morning, and there was a dark shadow of beard on his face that proclaimed his need for a shave.

He knew she was staring at him, but wouldn’t give himself the pleasure of feasting on her beauty this morning. She was still his brother’s woman, and even if she was looking at him like a hungry cat eying a dish of fresh cream, he could not reciprocate. Being in the same house with her was agonizing without being able to let her know—or even hint at—how much he still wanted her.

“If you two will excuse me,” Parr told them, “I’ll leave you alone to patch things up.”

His words caught her by surprise, making her gasp. “Thanks,” she hissed.

“Don’t mention it, honey,” he retorted as he rose from the chair and quickly exited the kitchen.

Bobby Joe breathed a sigh of relief.

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“Please sit down, Mary Beth. Let me explain about last night.”

Needless to say, the big, expensive party had ended sooner than expected. The guests were probably still trying to figure out why.

Without speaking, she took the seat left warm by Parr’s half-naked body. The way the jeans fit his muscular legs, he might just as well have not been wearing them at all. Mary Beth brought her attention back to his brother, who’d launched into a speech that sounded rehearsed.

“I didn’t ask Luellen to come to the party last night, you know. That was all her idea.”

“Then how did she know where it was?”

“The whole town of Iminga knew. We invited just about everybody. You saw how many guests there were—”

“That’s beside the point,” she snapped. “What I want to know is whether what I saw in the storage room was all her idea.”

Mary Beth fumed when Bobby Joe didn’t answer right away, her observant gaze directly meeting his. Her tension showed in her hands, flattened on the tabletop as if she had to fight the urge to smack him. She waited for his answer.

“Oh Lord. I’m not sure I know how to say this so you don’t misconstrue my words,” he began.

“Just spit it out.”

“I took her in there, hoping to avoid a scene. Her divorce is final now, and she has—had—this crazy notion that I might dump you and take her back.”

“Oh?”