Read Rugged Fire [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 4] for Free Online Page B

Marta.
    “Okay,” Marta whispered, “see you later.” She tiptoed away.
    “We’ll walk you home,” Seb said. Lianne nodded.
    A few moments later, they were out of the stuffy diner and in the chilly night air. The stars above were bright, only obscured in small patches by dark-gray nighttime clouds.
    “I don’t get it, Lianne,” Seb said.
    “What’s that?”
    “You’ve lived here your whole life, apart from the years you spent at college. We’ve lived here our whole lives. When did you get so…so…”
    “Not ugly?” she filled in helpfully. “Not awkward? Not annoying?”
    “No!” Will said from her other side, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. “That’s not what we were thinking at all. You’re beautiful, and contrary to popular belief, that’s not something you’re born into.”
    Lianne giggled. “You should be a spokesperson for my cosmetics line.” Despite her joking tone, she felt her heart fluttering like a stampede of butterfly wings. He thought she was beautiful? Had he actually just said that she was beautiful? She almost couldn’t focus on what Seb said next.
    “What I was really wondering was when you got so confident?”
    “You mean you don’t remember me prancing around in my cheerleading garb? You don’t think that takes guts? I had braces , and I and still wore those awful glasses. I mean, I’m never gonna be a Cherie Crawford or anything, but those were some truly awkward times.” Cherie was captain of the squad when the twins were seniors, and Lianne always got a little sore when thinking about her big-boobed, blonde perfection. Lianne knew that Seb and Will had both dated her at one time or another while in high school.
    “There’s no comparison, Lianne, so don’t go there.”
    Lianne felt her one brief moment of elation slipping away. Of course there was no comparison. Even though Will had just said she was beautiful, he probably meant it in the intellectual, you-have-a-great-personality way, which was nice, but Lianne knew what guys really went for.
    Boobs.
    Big ones.
    And Cherie Crawford definitely had her beat in that department. In fact, Cherie had her beat in everything—in looks, in personality, and most definitely in sexual experience. Damn, Lianne thought she had put her ungainly high school years in the past, but coming back to Savage Valley after graduating from Colorado State, being around the twins and around all her old acquaintances, brought those familiar insecurities to the surface all too quickly.
    Lianne knew she wasn’t the prettiest. She had nice, long legs and a decent ass, a pretty enough face. She knew her eyes were her strongest feature. They always received the most compliments, and sometimes even open stares with their bright-violet hue. But apart from that, she didn’t have that much going for her. Most guys thought she was too thin, and of course, the ultimate deficiency, her small boobs, were a constant point of contention with the male sex. Dudes liked big boobs. She knew that because she’d been told on several occasions while testing out the dating waters in college. Her boobs were practically non-existent with barely enough softness to hold on to, and the few guys she’d been involved with had found it necessary to point this out to her. Like she could do anything about it anyways, she’d huffed to herself on several occasions. But Lianne had always been self-conscious about them, always hesitant to wear a bathing suit or anything, really, that was too tight. She usually ended up throwing on something baggy to hide her inadequacies.
    “But let’s not talk about Cherie,” Will said, interrupting her thoughts. “God, I haven’t thought about her in years.”
    “But you…then why did you…”
    “What?” Seb asked.
    “Why did you say there was no comparison?” She felt her cheeks flaming, and thanked the dim light of the moon for making her discomfiture less apparent.
    “Did you think we were talking about Cherie?