Read Tempted by the Soldier (A Falling for You Novel) (Entangled Brazen) for Free Online Page B

toilet seat worked,” Doris drawled. “You didn’t steal it.”
    “It was tempting,” Lilly deadpanned. “Thanks.”
    She hurried back to the truck and climbed into the euphoric scent of sun-warmed leather and Nate. He raised a brow, watching her slather her hands with antibacterial gel from her purse, then took a bite of the hot dog dripping ketchup all over his hand. He pulled away from the gas pumps one-handed, and found a parking spot that overlooked the freeway to finish his meal.
    “You hungry?” he asked.
    She cringed at the smell of the mystery meat on a bun. “I can’t eat that.”
    He set a paper bag in her lap and took another bite. “Which is why I got you that.”
    She dug through the bag and pulled out a plastic fruit cup, a packaged salad, and a bottle of water. She looked up at him, surprised. “How did you know I was a vegetarian?”
    “Jace’s Super Bowl party last year,” he said.
    She blinked. “You remember that?”
    He uncapped his bottle of water. “You brought your own hummus dip and called the pigs in a blanket barbaric. Kind of hard to forget.”
    She managed a smile and popped open her salad, which looked surprisingly fresh for coming out of a place where you could purchase gasoline and a Duck Dynasty T-shirt with your meal. “You’re obviously a meat man.”
    “Yes. I eat meat. I’ve even been known to dream about a good steak. Are you disgusted?”
    “No. Not disgusted,” she admitted. “I know my culinary preference is not for everyone.”
    “And why is it for you?”
    She thought back to her childhood and the countless hurt and homeless animals she and her brother had carted home. How many times had a little ball of fur been the only comfort they’d had in their screwed-up world of dysfunctional love? That was the thing with animals. Their love was pure and unconditional.
    Unfortunately, some of the humans in her life still didn’t have that one figured out quite yet. She poked at her salad. Make that most of the humans in her life.
    She avoided Nate’s probing gaze. “I’ve always loved animals. I just can’t bring myself to eat something with a face, even if it is the logical thing to do,” she admitted, giving her full attention to the cherry tomato she’d speared with her fork. Tomatoes were far easier than memories. “My brother, Sawyer, and I used to adopt all the strays in the neighborhood. Dogs, cats, raccoons. We even brought a skunk home one time, thinking if we gave it a bath it wouldn’t stink so badly.”
    Nate choked on his drink, but he was grinning. “Why in God’s name would you do that?”
    She shrugged. “Poor thing looked so lonely sitting on the side of the road all by himself.” Her lips tugged up at the memory. “I had a hard time talking Sawyer into that one, but by that time we were nine, and I had him all figured out. All I had to do was cry, and he’d knock down walls to makes the tears stop. It also helped that we were twins. We usually stuck together. If one of us got into trouble, the other usually wasn’t far behind.”
    Nate regarded her, a dozen indecipherable emotions warring on his face. In the end, amusement won out. “So what happened next? I can’t imagine this story has a boring ending.”
    She laughed, thinking Sawyer would not find this story half as funny as she did. She could picture the pissed-off scowl on his face even now as he’d walked out of that emergency room. “Well, as soon as we got it into the tub and turned on the water, it bit Sawyer and sprayed us both. He had to get rabies shots, and we both had to take baths in every concoction known to man. It took weeks to get that smell out of our house.”
    Nate shook his head, laughing out loud with her. “Your brother sounds like he loves you a lot.”
    “I think it took him a while to remember just how much, after getting seventeen rabies shots because of me.”
    “What about your parents?” Nate asked.
    Clearly, the man was unaware of the