The Rebel's Return (Red River) Read Online Free PDF

still pure sweetness. His disgruntled expression only seemed to enhance the badass aura that he still pulled off so well, even years later. He shoved a hand into the front pocket of his jeans. Jeans, she sadly realized, were still his trademark. She was pleased to see that his jaw hadn’t relaxed yet. Not pleased to see the attractive stubble, or the hard, chiseled line of said jaw, but it was nice to know she was making him angry.
    God, she was an idiot.
    He sighed roughly. “That was a long time ago.”
    She shrugged. “There are certain things a girl doesn’t forget.”
    The dimple went into hiding, replaced by incessant jaw ticking. “So you’re never going to forgive me for something that happened a helluva long time ago? We’ve both moved on. We were practically kids, Nat.”
    That was the pathetic, tragic part of all of it. She had tried to move on. And had only wound up with another guy cheating on her. She had been publicly humiliated twice. The first time, with Aiden, her heart had been completely broken. The second time, with Franco, it had been her pride more than anything, because she hadn’t really loved him, and he’d cheated on her with her own cousin.
    “Why does it look like smoke is about to come out of your ears?”
    She touched her hand to her chest, trying to look shocked and cool and collected, nothing like the person he was describing. “Smoke? No, no, you’ve mistaken my expression. It was disgust. For the entire male gender for being unable to remain faithful or have any sense of decency.”
    His brows snapped together, and he scowled. Looks like she had successfully pissed him off.
    “Who hurt you?”
    Her mouth dropped open, and her heart squeezed so tightly in her chest that she couldn’t breathe. She thought he was mad at what she’d said. Instead he was standing there looking all hot and tough and angry…because someone had hurt her. Oh, the confusion of it all. She wanted to hate him, so much, but then he did stuff like this. Or like come back to Red River to care for the father he had a horrible relationship with. Why couldn’t he just be one hundred percent jerk? Fifty percent jerk was way harder to ignore. She turned her head from his intense blue gaze and caught Sabrina staring at them like she was watching a movie, while holding her latte in one hand and taking a bite out of a cannolo from the other. She quickly looked down.
    She tilted up her chin and dodged his question. “ You. ”
    He rubbed the back of his neck and winced. “Besides me.”
    She had no intention of telling him about her second great judgment screw up. “No one you know or need to know.”
    “What did he do to you?” His voice was soft, thick with concern…and laced with anger.
    She crossed her arms and refused to get caught up in his charming display of protectiveness. “Nothing. Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.”
    He gave a short nod. “I know you can, Nat.” This time his voice was gruff and sent a thrilling shiver down her spine, like it always used to. “You always have been one of the smartest people I know.”
    Always the charmer. Like he actually thought that bit of flattery would have her serving up cannoli. Not going to work. “Which is why I can’t sell you any cannoli.”
    “What?’
    She nodded. “That’s right. I can’t sell you any cannoli because that wouldn’t be smart.”
    He was frowning again.
    She grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him out the door but he didn’t move. He didn’t even sway. “If you’ll kindly leave my store, you’re interrupting a business meeting.”
    The only thing that moved was the corner of his mouth, making a dimple appear as he looked between her and Sabrina.
    She narrowed her eyes on him. “We do business. Important business. Sabrina is the top real estate agent in town.”
    She sucked in a breath as Sabrina smiled wanly, a latte moustache obvious from across the room, along with icing sugar dusted across her black