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“What’s wrong with that bucket of bolts this time?” The teasing, sultry voice came out of nowhere and slammed into Brody Chambers like a sucker punch. The come-hither cadence normally wreaked havoc on his dreams, but it had been two long years since he’d heard it up close and personal.

His heart and breathing stilled. He’d thought he was alone on the old country road, so the familiar feminine voice took him by surprise. Every muscle in his body drew tight. Lowering the wrench he’d used to tighten his rear axle, he slid from beneath the bed of his pickup truck. The shimmering afternoon sun blinded him for an instant, but then he saw her.

The first thing he noticed was hot red nail polish on sandaled feet and then long, well-toned legs. A short, tight denim skirt hugged shapely hips. As he rose to his feet, another stretch of pale, bare flesh flashed between the waistband of her skirt and a short, cropped red top. Full, rounded breasts stretched the fabric to its limits.

Cassie. Cassie Pallard. They’d grown up together on neighboring ranches. He’d loved her most of his life. A couple years ago, he’d offered her his heart. She’d enslaved him with her sexy body and wanton ways and then she’d left him to join the rodeo circuit with his best friend. The blow to his ego had been brutal. The blow to his heart shattering.

He’d never forgive her in this lifetime.

Brody continued to study Cassie with silent intensity. Her dark auburn hair was secured at her nape, but the summer heat and humidity made damp tendrils cling to her neck. The cherry red of her lips matched the color of her nail polish. The expression in her deep blue eyes was an intriguing mix of frustration, wariness and hunger. The hunger stirred a matching one in him, but he clamped a tight rein on it.

Dropping his gaze to her throat, he noticed a few familiar freckles. Her breasts rose and fell in agitation. He knew them to be soft and lush. While he watched, both nipples plumped and strained against the soft fabric. The involuntary reaction had her fair, telltale skin turning pink in embarrassment. It also had his body stirring in swift, unwelcome arousal.

The hot surge of desire infuriated him, so he lashed out in anger. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Cassie crossed her arms over her chest, causing him to shift his attention back to her face. Not for the first time, he wondered how many men had fallen victim to her wild, untamed beauty while she’d been gone.

“This is my home, too, remember?”

Brody’s jaw tightened. “How can I forget? Someone in town always makes a point of mentioning how well you and Chuck are doing in the circuit. Chuck and Cassie, Chuck and Cassie…”

His best friend’s part in the love triangle had wounded him as much as her betrayal. They’d been closer than most brothers. Blond, blue eyed and a natural charmer, Chuck Groves had been the ladies’ man of the team. Brody had never been jealous of his buddy until Cassie ran away with him.

She started to speak, hesitated, and then started again. “I know you won’t believe me—

“Then don’t waste my time. I have work to do.” He turned and headed for the cab of his truck.

“Brody, please! I’m really in a bind.”

“Go tell Chuck,” he tossed over his shoulder.

“Chuck and I split up months ago.”

That gave him pause. With his fist locked around the door handle, he turned to her again. “I don’t give a damn about your relationship with Chuck.”

He lied. The thought of her with any other man still ate at him like a disease, an affliction that filled him with self-loathing. He hated that he still cared.

Cassie continued, “Chuck and I knew right away that we’d made a mistake.”

She returned his steady gaze without flinching. Unless she’d become a better liar in the past couple years, she was telling him the truth. She’d never been able to look him in the eye and lie.

“Not according to local gossip.”

“We stayed together for convenience,” she insisted. “We shared living and traveling expenses, but it was strictly platonic.” He made a disbelieving noise, and she quickly added, “I don’t mean he was celibate. There were always women willing to share his bed. I just wasn’t one of them.”

Brody shook his head. She might be telling the truth, but it didn’t matter. Nothing changed the fact that she’d walked out on him. His initial feelings of impotent rage had tempered to gnawing jealousy, but he figured it would take a lot more time to work that out of his system.

“It’s the truth, Brody. I swear it on my life.”

He locked gazes with her again. “So what does any of that have to do with me?”

He watched her swallow hard, intrigued by the deepening blush on her cheeks. She licked her lips and fire licked through his veins. He forced himself not to react.

“I came here to ask you for another chance.”

Blood pounded through him, hot and thick, pooling at his crotch. His jeans were suddenly too tight, his breathing too shallow as blood roared in his ears. Despite everything she’d done, his body still craved the satisfaction only she could give him.

But he prided himself on never making the same mistake twice.

“Not interested.” He opened the truck door and started to climb into the cab, but she moved quickly, grasping his hips to stop him. Her grip was firm, her touch burning through the layers of his jeans and briefs. His body jerked in surprise. He stiffened and turned.

Cassie abruptly dropped her hands, but she stayed within touching distance. So close that he could smell her and feel the waves of heat from her sweetly feminine body.

“I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized and took a step back. She shifted her gaze from him. “I know you hate me and I don’t have any right to ask for favors…”

“Then don’t.”

She continued in a breathless rush. “I left the rodeo circuit and I’ve come home to stay. I just need a little help until I can get a job and support myself.”

The suggestion sparked his anger. Did she really think she could walk back into his life as if nothing had happened?

“Why come here?”

“I don’t have any where else to go.”

“Go to your folks.”

Her parents had retired and moved to Arizona shortly after she left town.

“They live in a tiny, one-bedroom trailer in a retirement community.”

He knew she’d never gotten along with her parents. Most of the people in her life had either condemned her for her free spirit or been jealous of her beauty. He and Chuck had been her family. At least until she’d ruthlessly cut him out of the equation. The reminder had him clenching his hands into fists.

“Not my problem.”

“I know,” she said, her tone dropping to a low whisper.

A wave of protectiveness washed over him at the wobble in her voice. Cassie had always been too proud and independent for her own good. He resented her ability to tap into his emotions and hardened himself against her small show of weakness.

Her next words were barely a whisper. “But you’re the best friend I ever had, and I don’t have anywhere else to turn.”

This time she bit her lip to keep it from trembling. Brody watched her mouth, feeling a jolt of electricity at the revealing action. The pleading had to be hell on her pride, but if she thought he’d just forgive and forget, she was dead wrong.

“I’m not asking for a handout,” she hurriedly added. “I’m willing to work for room and board. I’ll cook or clean or muck out stalls. Whatever chores you need done.”

“I don’t need any help at the house or on the ranch,” he told her coolly. But when she heaved a sigh that caused her breasts to rise and fall, another shaft of stinging desire stabbed at him.

“There’s only one thing I need from a woman like you.”

His deliberately insulting tone made her spine stiffen and brought her chin up high. She glared at him for a long minute.

“Sex?” she grumbled.

He didn’t bother denying it. “Sex.”