the wild Were instinct side of him shouted back. No one, Were especially, could blame him for responding so quickly and profoundly to her. And hell, he could always follow his nose and walk back if he needed to.
“Anything you say,” he answered. He waited until she climbed up into the cab, admiring the way the dark denim jeans hugged the curve of her ass, then closed the truck door and walked around the back of the pickup. An uneasy sensation raised the hairs on his skin. He glanced over his shoulder one last time to make sure they weren’t being followed.
* * *
The truck started up with a rumble and Ty climbed inside. Jess glanced at the stretch of his T-shirt against the broad plane of his back and strong shoulders as he pulled the door shut.
Even roughed up, Ty Grayson was attractive as hell. He seemed even bigger in the confined space of the truck cab, the energy he threw off radiating around him like heat off a woodstove. Her heart was still pounding too hard and too fast in her chest, matching the insistent throb between her legs. Jess pressed her thighs together tightly to stem the ache and pulled out of the parking lot.
She still wasn’t exactly certain what had happened inside the bar. The guys had been moving so fast their punches had become blurred. One minute they were circling one another and the next the creepy guy who’d started talking to her had gone sailing through the air, breaking straight through the front of the wooden bar.
“We can get you cleaned up when we get to my house, if you want.”
“That all depends.”
“On what?”
He flashed a brilliant white smile at her in the dark. “If you’re offering to help.” The seductive, teasing tone in his voice brought to mind an image of them together in a shower. Naked. Skin slick with soap. Her stomach flipped and tightened and Jess gripped the steering wheel a little harder and let out a slow, steady breath to calm the jump in her pulse. The speedometer kicked up a few notches.
His muscular arm, dusted with dark hair, lay along the back edge of the bench seat, placing his large hand close enough for his fingers to gently skim a path up along the back of her neck. A delicious shiver radiated outward. Jess tried to focus on her driving rather than continuously glimpse at how the faded denim clung to his thighs...and other places.
“You know you’re going to be the talk of the town by tomorrow,” she murmured. Not that it would be a good thing, in her case. For a teacher anything that drew criticism or suspicion from parents wasn’t good. But then again, she was off the clock, and an adult. Why couldn’t she just let her hair down for one night?
A slight frown formed a distinct crease between his brows. “Yeah, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” He stared straight ahead out the window into the dark.
Jess glanced in her rearview mirror. No lights. That was a good thing. It meant her brother Davis, a county sheriff, had kept his promise not to follow her tonight while he was on duty. “You don’t like complications.” Neither did she.
His gaze trailed a warm path over her skin that she could feel like a physical caress, even as she kept her eyes on the road.
“I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”
Jess’s mouth curved into a knowing smile. “See, I knew we had things in common.”
“Oh, I sincerely doubt my family is anything like yours.”
“What would you know about the tribulations of family? You seem like a loner to me,” she teased.
“Oh, I’m the quintessential family guy. Got plenty of family—larger than yours, I’m sure. We’re just...estranged.”
Jess quirked a brow. “Black sheep, huh?”
“You could say that. It’s not like I did anything wrong so much as I didn’t want to go along with what they had planned for my life.”
“I get that.” Boy, did she ever. “My three older brothers are always trying to tell me what to do.” Along with what to wear and who to date, Jess added silently to herself. “Only one of my brothers seems to understand the pressure of being a younger sibling in our family. And he’s got the advantage of being a guy.”
“You the only girl?”
Jess nodded, twisting her hair around her finger. As a little sister, she had no hope. Davis, Edgar and her older twin, Paul, were always going to think they had a right to run her life. Which was precisely why tonight had been her only shot at a one-night stand.
She turned out toward the water, heading down a steep hill, the streetlights almost nonexistent as she wound down the gravel driveway to the large white craftsman-style house perched on a bluff overlooking the water.
It was two houses, really, both heavy and squat with massive squared pillars and multipaned windows, hooked together with an extended railed porch and uplit to show off the architecture and the manicured landscaping. At one time the larger had been the main house her great-great-grandfather had built for his seven kids, and the other a carriage house.
Her parents had had the brilliant idea of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast, but that business had dissolved after their sudden deaths. Only by Davis and Paul selling off their two homes and refinancing had they been able to afford to keep the place, leaving her living there still with all four of her brothers. The only good thing was she didn’t have to share a bathroom, since each bedroom had its own. The bad thing was she was rarely ever truly alone. Except for tonight.
Davis was on patrol. Edgar was working overtime as the county’s coroner and Paul, who was mayor of Sinclair, was at a city council meeting. Riley was off playing military guy, which left her alone to play doctor with her date. She sincerely doubted if he’d care that she was only licensed as a teacher.
“That’s a lot of house for one person,” Ty said beneath his breath.
Jess pulled into her parking spot and killed the engine. “Yeah, it would be if I lived here alone.”
Ty stiffened, the skin tightening around his eyes as his gaze bored into her. Her offhand comment had made him uneasy. She’d lived around enough testosterone to know the signs, and noticed that his left hand closed into a fist. “You’re not married, are you?”
Jess speared him with a no-nonsense gaze that removed any doubt how she felt about his question. “No.”
“Kids?”
“No. Worse.”
His brows rose in question.
“Brothers.”
Ty visibly relaxed, his mouth slowly spreading into a devastating half smile that made her stomach backflip. His lips were on the full side, like Brad Pitt’s. Sexy. Perfect for long, slow kisses. “Is that all?”
She couldn’t help but laugh as he opened the door and climbed out, coming around the truck to open her door for her. He offered a hand to help her down from the truck. Jess slipped her hand into his much larger, warm one. A zap of something potent zipped along her nerve endings, an instant attraction that made her warm all over despite the chill in the air.
She stood for a second looking up at his face. “You’re the first guy I’ve met who doesn’t see that as a problem.”
Ty shrugged. “I have—had,” he amended quickly, “more brothers than I care to count.”
Her smile faded. He sounded so sad. She could hear the mourning in his voice. “I’m sorry. Something bad happened to them?”
He shook his head. “It’s not that. They’re still alive. Just don’t want anything to do with me, that’s all. And right now the feeling is mutual.”
“Oh.” It really was the only thing Jess could say. She couldn’t imagine life without her brothers. Okay, that wasn’t totally honest. She imagined life without her brothers interfering all the time, but that wasn’t the same as living