Loving Justice (El Camino Real Book 2) by Sable Hunter

help but respond and when she did, it was like they were both zapped by an electrical shock. Justice groaned and sealed Charlee’s lips with his own. She almost swooned with pleasure. This was what she was born for. Charlee didn’t just receive, she gave as good as she got, playing an erotic game of tug of war with their lips and tongue. Giving her desire full rein, she wove her fingers through his hair and pushed against him while he devoured her mouth with ultimate skill, nibbling with his teeth, pushing and pulling with his tongue, moving his mouth over her in a sensual womb-clenching dance. All coherent thought was gone, this was a be-all and end-all kiss. “Justice,” she whispered when she pulled away for breath.
    “Come back.” He reached for her again.
    What were they doing? She still hadn’t told him…anything. “No, we can’t do this.”
    “The hell we can’t.” She could see confusion in his eyes. Placing a hand on his chest, she stopped him, moving backward on unsteady feet. “I don’t want to kiss you.” Lies didn’t come easy, they pricked tiny wounds in her conscience.
    Justice snorted. “Your body’s telling me a different story.”
    “I’ll deal with my body,” she retorted with a toss of her head.
    “I’m jealous.”
    Charlee whirled on him, hands on her hips. “What I can’t deal with is you not knowing what you want. You told me that you didn’t think of me this way, that we were only friends. You didn’t want this, you said so.” Stepping closer, she started to touch him, then pulled back like he was too hot to handle. With a hard shake of her head, she reconsidered. Risking the pain, Charlee placed the tip of one finger over his heart. “You said I wasn’t your type. You said I was a tomboy.” She was right in his face, her finger poking him in his chest. “You don’t get to change your mind!” And you don’t get to call me by another woman’s name, she silently screamed. To give Justice credit, he didn’t flinch. But he was the size of a mountain, six-three to her five-three, outweighing her by at least a hundred pounds.
    “You’re throwing words at me that I said when I was a kid.” She was recounting what he’d spouted off the day Toby painted the graffiti on the water tower. His friends had run with it, making a song out of whole thing. They’d given him a hard time and he’d overreacted, taking it out on her. “You know it didn’t change how I felt about you.”
    “No,” she murmured, “I know that. But it wasn’t your feelings in question. It was mine.” Holding her hands up, she stopped his retort. “Let me ask you a question. Do you remember being in the diner the day after you returned from Abby’s surgery?”
    Justice frowned, and he locked her eyes with Charlee. “Vaguely. One of my headaches was coming on, and I’d ended up in a saloon the night before…” His voice trailed off. “I was full of medicine.” Then, he walked around in a circle. “I met Zelda and Toby there to sign a release form for some photographs she wanted to use. Why?”
    “I was there.” Her voice was small. This was important.
    She could see he was thinking, and she saw no deception in his expression. “You were there.” He looked to one side. “Maybe. What happened?” He narrowed his eyes. “You got angry.”
    “Yea, I got angry. You don’t remember? I called you a jerk.”
    Justice smiled. “Did I deserve it? What did I do?”
    She debated on what to say next. Then settled on the truth, or what of it she was willing to reveal. “You hurt me.”
    “How?” Pain crossed his face.
    She hung her head. “I was jealous. You were with your friends. You ignored me.” She said these words out loud, the rest she whispered in her heart. You slept with me, called me by another woman’s name and got me pregnant.
    “I’m sorry.” He looked disturbed. “I remember so little, I got drunk the night before, and I have no memory of that.”
    Bingo.
    He didn’t