Jed stirred me from my thoughts. It was ironic he was the one offering himself. His services. I’d thought of him often when I was alone. Had the picture of the younger version of him in my head. When I had to think of something untouched, untainted by Macon.

To dream about. And now he was here.

Back then I’d been too young for him, of course. Why would Jed have wanted a seventeen-year-old girl? Or even notice one who’d been dating his little brother? He hadn’t. In fact, I hadn’t laid eyes on him since then. Until now.

Now. I sighed as I took in every inch of him. Even though he’d been a grown man all those years ago, he’d filled out since. He was thicker. More muscular. More intense. Focused. The white snap shirt fit him like a glove and God… even his hands were hot.

I hadn’t been wrong back then about how hot he was, and he was even more so now. And instead of not seeing me like I’d thought all those years ago, he saw me now.

His whiskey-colored gaze was searching. Roving. Dark. As if life had tossed shit in his way and he’d dealt with it. Survived. I wondered what that might be. What had hurt him. If he’d hurt me. No. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

This was an exchange. Not an even one, either. I didn’t get on my knees for anyone.

Why was I doing this? Why was I even considering Jed’s bold offer? Because for the first time… ever, I wasn’t controlled by my father. I didn’t have to consider repercussions or how my actions could be used against me. How he could not only mess with me, but with Jed, too.

That was why I’d shut the casket, proving that he wasn’t coming out of that thing and soon he’d be beneath six feet of dirt.

If I wanted to have Jed Barnett get me off, I could.

No strings. Sure, it was insane and perhaps stupid, but I was allowed to be both right about now.

He stepped close, so close I could feel his heat. His hand came up and he stroked my cheek again, his eyes following the move. I tried not to step back. Refused to do so. I wouldn’t let him know he made me nervous, that long ago I’d thought about this, hoped for his touch.

“I’m not sleeping with you,” I said. It was one thing to do this, another to go that far. I just… couldn’t.

This close I could see the corner of his mouth turn up. I picked up his scent. Wintergreen and pine forests. “Who said anything about sleeping?” he murmured, his voice tipped low as if we were in a bubble where it was only the two of us.