Caught Up Read online

  She let it rest because, damn it, he smelled good, too. With her face in his chest, she couldn’t help but notice the faintest hint of cologne, something earthy, made spicy by the heat of his body. The familiar but unidentifiable scent mingled with something all his own, a powerful intoxicant, clean and masculine, and Cassie hooked her thumb into his back belt loop, riding the high as he took her around and around the dance floor. Lost in the sensual movement of his body, she didn’t notice Heath approach, nor did she realize what he wanted until he cut in; Jase’s body felt that damn good wrapped up in hers.

  “Bring her to me when you’re done,” he told Heath, leaving her with a stare so heated his friend’s hands on her just seemed wrong.

  Heath spun her away, and Jase melted into the crowd. “How long have you been seein’ him?” It was like a dull roar in her ear, and Cassie’s stomach plummeted at Heath’s tone.

  “I…this is our first date.” And had she really just said first? Implying more?

  Heath jerked his head back and muttered something she couldn’t hear. His pinched expression said so much it didn’t matter, and they made a round in awkward silence as she searched for Jase in the crowd.

  “You see how he’s lookin’ at you, girl?”

  There. He stood at the edge of the dance floor, a beer in his hand and the hint of a smile on his lips. And she was sopping up every belly-swirling drop. Who wouldn’t? The men parting around Jase all paled in comparison. And he was watching her with a similar expression, not missing a beat when the waitress with the wannabe Hooters outfit just happened to lift her tray and stick out her butt as she brushed past him.

  “I’m tellin’ you this because that’s my boy.” Heath shook his head. “No, he’s more than that. He’s like my brother. If this ain’t for real with him, you best leave him be.”

  “I—”

  “You don’t have to say anything. Just mark my words.”

  Mark my words? Was she dancing with a date cop? They finished the song in silence, and before Cassie could flee on her own, Heath grabbed her hand and pulled her toward one of the benched tables lining the dance floor.

  “Hey, woman!”

  Cassie’s head snapped to the left, and her face broke into a grin at the sight of her Backstreet waitress and escape conspirator, Karyn.

  Apparently in safe hands, Heath dropped Cassie’s and continued toward Jase, who sat at the far end of a bottle-strewn table, his back against the wall.

  “You here with Heath?” Karyn asked, shouting over the music—a three-step number Cassie didn’t know.

  Cassie shook her head and aimed a pointed gaze in Jase’s direction. Karyn’s eyebrows rose in surprise, though the following smirk showed nothing but satisfaction.

  “It’s not like that,” Cassie said loudly.

  “Whatever it’s like, you watch yourself tonight.”

  Good God, why was everyone in Marian County trying to warn her away from Jason Lucas? First he was a man-slut, then a murderer, and now…now she had no idea what he was. And wait…wasn’t this the same woman who’d tried to hook her up with Jase in the first place? “Why would you say—” Oh, shit. Cassie whipped her head around, searching for a fuming Pixie.

  “She’s not here,” Karyn said. “If she was, you’d know. She’d be all up Jase’s ass. Or plotting your death with her girls over there.” Karyn nodded to the front of the table Jase occupied. Two woman stood sentinel, moving to the music, nursing longnecks, and appraising the scene.

  Great. The ex had “girls.” And Cassie had to walk right past them.

  “Don’t worry,” Karyn said, smiling. “I’ve got your back.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I don’t want to drag you into—”

  “Listen, you’re not dragging me into anything that hasn’t been going on for twenty years,” Karyn said, and took a swig from her own bottle. “I went to school with all of them. I wasn’t friends with them then, and I’m sure as hell not friends with them now. Immature, I know, but that’s how it is. Just being honest.” Before Cassie could respond, Karyn leaned in for a quick hug. “Have fun. I’ll see you around.”

  She made her way toward Jase on wooden legs, giving the women in question a wide berth. She couldn’t deny the connection they’d made at Saxon Lake or the fact that they’d left the dance floor smoldering in their wake, but she didn’t need this…this…drama. All she needed was a signature—a signature from the man giving her that grin she just couldn’t get used to, the one revealing a confidence like Cassie usually had to fake. And Jase sat straddling the bench, something else she didn’t need to see. Nor did she need to be pulled down between his legs.

  “I liked watching you dance,” he said as she settled in front of him, both legs to the outside of the bench—demure and determined to stay that way. “Made me jealous as hell seeing Heath’s hands on you, though.” This was accompanied by a wink and a smile, and Cassie wasn’t sure whether he was serious or trying to put her at ease.

  Breathe, Cass, breathe.

  She tried to do just that as Jase caught the attention of a nearby waitress, pointed to the bottle in front of him, and flicked two fingers.

  And she really didn’t need to be drinking.

  Jase swept her hair over one of her shoulders. “Relax,” he said, pulling her closer.

  Relax? Not gonna happen, not with all the nerve endings she possessed singing the praises of Jase’s body nestled against hers. She didn’t think it possible, but he upped the turn-on factor when he moved his lips against her bared neck. “This hair…”

  The heady combination of lush lips and warm breath made her shudder violently. In response, Jase hissed through his teeth. He shifted, and proof positive of his own arousal pressed against her backside. Oh God, she wanted more. She wanted him to reach around and cup her, rock her against him, public venue be damned. As if acknowledging this madness, Cassie let her head fall to Jase’s shoulder. A calloused hand wrapped around her neck, and he whispered into her ear. “I want to feel your hair against my skin.”

  She was a shuddering mess. If he was trying to exploit her vulnerabilities…

  “Who is this bitch?”

  Cassie’s head snapped forward, and she immediately zeroed in on the slinger of that arrow. One of the ex’s girls, a willowy woman with a slightly hooked nose and board-straight platinum hair, curled a lip while her heftier friend whispered something in her ear.

  Jase turned Cassie’s head so their eyes met. “Relax.”

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “I’m trying.”

  “You’re going to get stares. Aren’t you used to that by now?”

  And what the hell was that supposed to mean? “Only hard cases grow used to insults and sneers.”

  “All softness in my arms, huh?” He grinned. “I just meant they’re jealous, babe.”

  Of her? Of her with Jase? Yeah, Marian County was definitely stuck in junior high. Proving this, the women began covering their mouths and talking in hushed tones. And the pettiness continued when the shorter, stockier girl decided to make an announcement. “You’re so not worth our time.”

  Wow. Cassie was pretty sure she’d read that line in a Baby-sitter’s Club book when she was like…eleven. But she shouldn’t joke. That level of immaturity was kind of alarming. Ready for anything, Cassie watched the resident mean girls move off and disappear into the crowd on the opposite side of the dance floor. Behind her, Jase moved slowly to the rhythm of a well-done Waylon cover. How…how could he play it off like that?

  Because a couple of adolescent women weren’t worth ruffling feathers over. Huh. Maturity. She could get used to that. And Jase’s swaying body was quite the incentive for Cassie to push the incident from her mind. She was working on that when the waitress appeared, slammed down two bottles, collected some money from Jase, and spun, nearly colliding with Heath.

  “You comin’ out to Three tomorrow?” Heath asked, taking a seat.

  “Planning on it.” Jase sounded annoyed, but Cassie
reached for her bottle, somewhat relieved by the distraction. “Problems?”

  “Only that the damn rig’s right up next to a hell of a marsh. Distracting, you know?”

  Distractions all around then. Like Jase’s arm curled tight around her waist. “Gotta keep your head in the game, Heath. Can’t have you hurt ’cause you’re counting birds.”

  Heath shook his head and scooted closer. “Tell me you haven’t seen ’em lighting out there…green wings, blue wings, cinnamons? And when they bank? Blocks out the sky, bro. That marsh…” Heath shook his head, “…pristine. Hope that well don’t fuck it up. Not like I’d get to set up a duck blind back there, you know ol’ Blackmore, but that’s the kind of place us hunters dream about keeping clean, safe.”

  Jase tensed behind her. “I hate that well being there, too, but I don’t get a say in where to sink the bit. And that’s the bitch of this job. You see some beautiful country. You also see some of it disappear.”

  Heath inched closer, and when he leaned toward Jase, Cassie found herself in the middle of a big dude sandwich. Bring it now, bitches. “You sure this is what you want, Jase?”

  Jase’s arm slid up her stomach, stopping just below her breasts. “I know exactly what I want. Getting there fast, too.”

  Though Jase’s warm hand sent chills skittering across her skin, something told Cassie she wasn’t the subject of that last remark.

  “Then what?” Heath asked.

  “Then I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. You, too. You hear me?”

  “I can’t…I’m not…you.” Heath’s eyes moved up her body to settle on Jase’s face, and Cassie flushed. “I can’t—”

  “Yeah. You can.”

  She didn’t need to be privy to something this private, whatever it was. She also didn’t need to be gossiped about by Jase’s ex-girlfriend’s posse. She needed his lease signed in a few days, and she needed to be gone in a month. She needed a long weekend with her mother and time off from work, but she sure as hell did not need to be feeling the dangerous things she was feeling for the man at her back.

  Cassie twisted her head and found her mouth just inches from Jase’s. “I’m going to hit the ladies room,” she whispered, wondering if they had a cold shower in there.

  He nodded and they locked eyes. In that moment, what she needed faded to the background. She wanted more time with him, more than her job would allow. Time to get to know the man behind the conversation he’d just had with his friend. She wanted time like this, heady and seductive, a slow-simmering romance. Time she could never have, not with him.

  “Hurry back.” Jase tilted his chin, catching her lips with his. It wasn’t a kiss, but it was damn close.

  She pretty much fled the scene.

  A line stretched out of the women’s bathroom—not surprising given the number of people and empty beer bottles crowding the dance hall. She didn’t really need to go. She had to go, had to get away for a minute. Or two. Or forever. What was happening with Jase couldn’t happen. And if she continued down this path, the false hope flitting around in her head would become crushing disappointment. That she knew for sure.

  A shoulder slammed into hers, spinning her around.

  “Excu—” Her words died on her tongue when she recognized Blondie, the pixie pal.

  The woman’s face twisted into a sneer. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”

  Cassie’s mouth sagged for a split second before she busted out laughing. Maybe it was the beer. Whatever it was, she let Blondie have it. “Watch where I’m going? I’m not going anywhere. I’m standing in line. You were leaving the bathroom and decided to plow into me in a juvenile attempt at…at…I don’t even know what.”

  “Listen, bitch, I don’t know what you’re doing here with Jase,” she said, pointing a French-tipped nail in Cassie’s face, “but you better back away from him.”

  Cassie smiled like a maniac. “Seriously? Are you in junior high?” She really needed an answer to that question.

  Blondie moved closer as her friend from earlier loomed in the background. “I’m a grown woman and I’ll kick your ass like one.”

  Cassie’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Because I showed up at a dance with Jason Lucas?”

  Several heads snapped her way at this admission, and Cassie didn’t miss the fact the crowd pressed closer.

  “That’s ground you don’t tread on. You don’t show up here, hanging all over him—”

  “I think it’s kind of the other way around, Sasha,” a voice behind Cassie’s shoulder snipped.

  “Shut up, Karyn,” Sasha snarled, and Cassie realized the woman wasn’t as pretty as she’d thought. Makeup made her that way, but you couldn’t hide her type of ugly. “Nobody gives a damn about your opinion, river rat.”

  “Don’t listen to her, Karyn,” Cassie said over her shoulder. “I think you’re the shit.”

  “You think she’s the shit?” Sasha asked. “What, are you into women, too? Gonna make it a threesome with Jase?” She smirked. “Not like he’d be a stranger to that.”

  Cassie reeled, stunned at the extent to which Sasha’s admission affected her. Jase had been with two women at one time? Was this Sasha one of them?

  “Cat got your tongue, Dimples?”

  “Why don’t you take your white-trash ass back to whatever trailer park you crawled out of and leave me the hell alone?”

  Damn. Did she really just say that? She must have, because Sasha’s hands found purchase in Cassie’s hair and started pulling. Needles of pain pricked all along the sides of her head, and she couldn’t see a thing. Her safety shield had become her prison.

  Cassie kicked and twisted. Her blood boiled in anger and embarrassment. So this is how they do it in Marian County, she thought, trying to find her balance. That was unfortunate, because if she wanted to keep her beloved hair, she was going to have to regress a few decades.

  She shoved Sasha. With an oomph, the woman stumbled backward. What felt like ten thousand follicles ripped from Cassie’s scalp, and pain lanced through her body, all the way down to her toes. She probably would have collapsed, but hands held her up. Drunks love a fight, and no one in Hintzen was about to let the altercation end so easily.

  Okay, then. Cassie brushed whatever remained of her hair out of her face and caught a split-second peek at Karyn and Sasha on the floor.

  Sasha’s friend charged.

  Better prepared this time, Cassie’s fist connected with some manner of flesh and bone, though she couldn’t really say where or how because everything seemed blurry. She knew she was crying. She knew little else…except that her knuckles burned and throbbed and hurt like hell.

  “Stupid bitch!” someone screamed.

  Before her second assailant landed the return blow she sensed coming, Cassie was lifted up and away. The crowded dance hall tilted, and she saw rafters.

  Jase hugged her tight to his chest. “Cassie.”

  She buried her burning face in his shirt, unwilling to meet the eyes of anyone watching. Which was everyone.

  “What the hell?” Sasha shrieked.

  “What the hell? I should be asking you that.” Jase’s arms tightened around her, his voice level but harsh. “You laid your hands on my woman.”

  Cassie heard a choking sound and swept a clump of hair from her wet face to see a snarling Sasha. The flushed woman strained against a man’s arm, held tight across her chest. Heath?

  “Your woman?” Sasha screamed. “Your woman?”

  His woman?

  “Daphne’s gonna shit over this!”

  Jase’s chest rumbled as a deep chuckle escaped his throat. But when he looked down that laughter fled. Blue eyes searched hers, revealing something new, something raw and unchecked.

  “You okay, Karyn?” Jase’s ragged voice matched the look she’d seen on his face.

  “Yeah,” Karyn said, brushing a strand of hair from Cassie’s face. “And I told you I didn’t want to see that pretty face messed up.”

>   “I think that part’s okay,” she winced.

  “Jase!” Sasha screeched again.

  Cassie mustered her ugliest glare as Jase spit on the ground at Sasha’s feet. Turning, he carried her through the crowd with all the reverence of a bridegroom. Spitting wasn’t the most gentlemanly thing he could have done, but it made a point, a point she kind of liked.

  Cool night air hit her skin, and Cassie drew a deep, shuddering breath, coming back to her senses—senses that told her this was wrong. This attraction was way wrong.

  “Jase.”

  “I’ve got you.”

  “Jase.”

  “We’re almost to the truck.”

  “Put. Me. Down.”

  He complied so suddenly her head spun. “You okay, babe?”

  “No, I’m not okay. And quit calling me babe, baby, or anything related.”

  He reached out to cup her cheek. “I’m sorr—”

  “You’re sorry?” She wrenched away from him “No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I agreed to this. I just got into a fight in front of half of Marian. I’m here on a job.”

  “Cass—”

  “The last time I threw down over a guy in a dance hall, I was seventeen years old.”

  Some combination of curiosity and satisfaction flickered across his face. “So you came out of retirement for me?”

  Cassie narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Is this what y’all do down here? Fight? Because that’s all I’ve seen in the last week.”

  “People fight for what they believe in. Some people believe in nothing but themselves, others—”

  “And what do you believe in?”

  His lips parted, but he didn’t respond. She took a step toward him. Her anger pulsed. She particularly felt it along her stinging scalp. “I’m not seventeen. I’m not your woman. And I don’t appreciate being used to make your ex jealous.”

  He leaned into her. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “‘Daphne’s gonna shit when she hears about this?’ And you laugh? What kind of people act like that?”

  “Daphne doesn’t have a right to shit over anything I do. Hearing she thinks so is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. And don’t you get that a woman like you brings out the worst in a different type of woman? A woman like Sasha?”