TJ grinned, and his dark-blue eyes sparkled. So dark they almost looked black. “Whatcha doin’ this far from Dragonclaw? You usually stick to that place like glue when you’re not with me. And you haven’t been with me. Couldn’t come with me last time either.”
Beck nodded. “Harrison needs me around this year. Rainy season.”
“Damn,” TJ said. “I could use you. And come on, aren’t you ready to roam? See more of this wild range?”
Beck looked around him. “I think the last of the wild range is here now. The rest has been tamed.”
“Maybe so,” TJ said, rocking back on his heels. “But there are still many adventures to be had. What d’ya say you take off work and—”
“Can’t,” Beck said, grabbing another nail and placing it between his teeth while he set up another and slammed it in. He took the one from his mouth and nailed it in also. “Swamped.”
TJ let out a snort. “Harrison pimping you out?” He looked around, his piercing dark-blue eyes taking in everything. “I didn’t think this spread would be able to afford it.”
“Not for money,” Beck said, setting his hammer aside and studying his work. Then he cocked his head, looking at TJ. “What did you need me for anyway?”
“Why does it gotta be that I need you for something?” TJ asked playfully. “Maybe I just want you along.”
Beck just glared at him. He liked TJ. He’d step in front of a speeding truck for him. But TJ always had a plan. Always something he was working on. Beck didn’t mind helping. He just liked being told beforehand.
TJ put his hands on his hips. “I really didn’t need anything in particular, Beck.”
“No help carving out the side of a mountain so you can mine it?”
“No!” TJ laughed. “I swear I just came to check on my big, strong brute of a best friend. No one around our usual wandering haunts has seen you. Then I find you here instead of Dragonclaw. So there must be a reason.”
Beck wasn’t sure he wanted to tell TJ about Sierra yet. He was oddly possessive of her. Their nights together… He hadn’t known that life could contain such ecstasy.
He was falling for her. Hell, maybe he was already more in love with her than he had any right to be.
He wasn’t ready to share her just yet.
But TJ was just TJ…
“Who lives here?” TJ asked, looking over curiously. “Why in tarnation are you blushing?”
Beck wished to hell he wasn’t, but he could feel his neck heating up. He wished he could be like TJ. Always smooth, calm, and in control. Educated. Kind and polite to everyone.
And TJ’s dragon had never buried a bunch of innocents under a goddamn mountain.
Something Beck envied even after hundreds of years of trying to drink away the pain and guilt.
But he was doing better now. He had Sierra. She was teaching him that was a fluke. He wasn’t a monster.
She was… loving him.
Just as he was thinking about her, the door to the ranch house opened, and she stepped out onto the porch, looking gorgeous in jeans and a gray sweater. Her blond hair caught in the wind, and her cheeks flushed as she noticed him and waved. “Beck!” Her eyes moved to TJ, and she looked puzzled.
“Ah,” TJ said, a look of surprise slowly turning to genuine delight. “You found yourself a lady! Well, why didn’t you say so, Beck?” He started walking forward. “I’m your oldest friend. You gotta introduce me to your girl.”
Beck put a hand on TJ’s arm, stopping him. “It ain’t like that. It ain’t… permanent.”
TJ stopped and stared at him.
“I’m just helping her ‘round her place and fixing it up a little, as I owe her a favor.”
“The talon?” TJ asked, eyes widening. “You said you would never give that to anyone again.”
Beck felt his heart clench, but he couldn’t back down now. “Too late. I did. And I’m glad I did. I like the lady, but she knows I can’t stay here. She knows it ain’t—”
“Permanent,” TJ said.
“Yeah,” Beck said.
Silence sat between them for a moment, the only sound the rustling of dry Texas grass and wind through the trees.
“Well, of course, Beck,” TJ said, picking up his smile once again as he walked forward, slapping Beck on the back and dragging him with. “You’ve always been a helper. Of course you’re helping the nice lady. Now let’s go meet her. Anyone who treats you well is fine by me.” TJ smiled. “And if she makes you happy…”
“She does,” Beck said. “So watch what you tell her about our old shenanigans. She don’t know about dragons.”
TJ raised an eyebrow. “Of course not. Have you ever known me to misbehave?”
“No,” Beck said, shaking his head to try and remove the odd paranoia he couldn’t shake. Was this what having a mate was like? Not even wanting another man to look at them?
But when they reached the porch and Sierra’s smile set his heart on fire again, he could mostly push away that odd feeling of reservation in his chest and introduce two of his most important people.
But as Sierra led them both inside, inviting TJ to dinner, Beck couldn’t quite shake a sense of unrest that he’d never felt before.
15
As Sierra ate dinner next to Beck and across from TJ, she didn’t know what to make of Beck’s friend.
He wasn’t anything like Harrison or Clancy or even Dallas or Reno.
There was an air of refinement around him, and charm, but something held back. Like he was hiding something.
Perhaps he was just the polar opposite of Beck. They were both clearly Texas men. Tall. Muscled. No-nonsense. But while Beck was huge, TJ was merely tall and built. They were both handsome men, but she preferred Beck’s roughhewn handsomeness to TJ’s almost pretty-boy looks.
Just her preference.
Though, after knowing Beck for a while, after feeling his embrace and tasting his kisses, she’d probably take him no matter what he looked like.
She was more smitten by this man than she’d ever thought possible.
Beck was laughing at a story TJ was telling, and there did seem to be a good rapport between the two.
But there was just something nudging at her.
“Now, how did Beck win over the prettiest little lady in these parts?” TJ asked playfully. “This big ol’ brute. Sweet little thing like yourself oughta be with someone more refined.” He gave her a smile.
She gave him one back but didn’t quite feel it reach her eyes. There was something in the way he called Beck a brute.
Something hidden.
“Not at all,” she said. “Beck’s totally my type. I like a mountain man.”
Beck’s beaming smile was all the thanks she needed, and she leaned into him, blushing and bumping him with her shoulder.
“That’s good for Beck, then,” TJ said amiably. “This is a pretty little spread too. Nothing like Dragonclaw, but real nice. Homey.”
She smiled. “Thank you. It’s been in my family a lot of years. My ancestors homesteaded it.”
TJ nodded. “Back then, a man could take what he could hold.”