Chapter 6

“No, I didn’t. I swear.” She realized that she was standing there with bed-head, wrapped in a bedspread, mostly bare shoulders showing, and that Nolan was still half under the covers, clearly just awake and naked from the waist up, so her words wouldn’t carry much weight.

“Sleeping, okay, sleeping, but that’s it, and that wasn’t on purpose. He got into bed with me. I didn’t even wake up.”

“You know, that’s the nicest thing a woman has ever said to me.” Nolan cut in.

She glared at him. He was smirking, the jerk. He’d cheated on Michelle with a member of her own family and thought this whole thing was amusing? “You’re not helping.”

He put his hand up to block his mouth from Michelle’s view. “You want me to tell her what you can do in your sleep?”

“Shh.” She looked around. Any weapons? Blunt or otherwise?

“What are you whispering about?” Michelle shrieked. Shrieking must run in their family. Candace had never noticed before.

“State secrets.” He turned to Michelle. “Candace is correct. She slept all night. I thought she was someone else when I woke up.”

“You mix up women in bed?” Candace snorted. “Impressive.”

Michelle looked crestfallen. “I didn’t realize you were that type when I asked you to move in, Nolan.”

“No, I meant…” He sighed. “I’m just saying. If I knew she was your sister, I never would have—”

“Stayed.” Candace nodded at her sister. If he said anything about what he did to her, she’d show him what shrieking could sound like. She’d have a talk with Michelle later and bring it up only if Michelle needed proof the guy was a sleazeball. Why hurt her more? “If he knew I was me, he would have run. Far.”

“That’s for sure.” He rolled his eyes. “Very far.”

Candace ignored him. She was damn glad she’d delayed her trip to Rosehill and showed up here, because her sister definitely needed saving from Nolan. If Michelle thought this guy was even close to someone she should get serious about…

Michelle’s face crumpled; she hid her face in her hands. “I can’t believe you did this.”

Candace and Nolan exchanged glances. Nolan pointed to himself, then to Candace, then shrugged, hands up. Which one did she mean? Candace pointed emphatically at him. Give her a break.

“Why did you come here?” Michelle raised her tear-stained face, mascara already smudged from sleep making black tracks down her cheeks. “I told you not to.”

Candace gaped. She was in trouble? Oh, that was just special. “I came so I could—”

“And now look what you’ve done.” Michelle gestured to Nolan.

“What I’ve done?” He poked himself in the chest. “You’re mad at me?”

“You slept with my sister.”

He put his hands to his ears. “I did not realize she was your sister.”

“Ha!” Candace turned on him. “Like that makes any difference?”

“I’m sorry, did I take some vow of chastity I’m not aware of?”

He had the gall to look bewildered. A sociopath, devoid of a conscience. Add that one to the other two and you got Womanizing Alcoholic Sociopath. The triple crown. Candace strode across the room, nearly tripping on the bedspread, took Michelle’s shoulder and steered her to the door. “C’mon, Michelle. Let’s get out of here. Give Mr. Carrington lots of privacy to dress and hardly any time to get the hell out of here.”

She led her sister down the hall, more angry and shaken up than she’d been in a long time. She hated that she’d been so vulnerable and had responded so thoroughly to Nolan instead of punching him in the jaw and throwing him out of the house.

The worst part? Standing there just now, wanting to throttle him for the way he’d taken advantage of both her and Michelle, a stupid hormonal part of her had been taking in his muscled body, warm and alive against the white sheets, his vivid brown eyes and strong, handsome features. No matter how much her brain said jerk, jerk, jerk this other part had only managed to come up with mmm-more.

She needed to buy a marital aid. The largest they had. A plug-in that would dim the lights for blocks and give her an orgasm of her life. Then her ridiculous libido should be happy and stop bugging her about a man who wasn’t worth her toenail clippings.

In a way she was glad this fiasco had happened, because it made her job so much easier. Nolan had shown his true colors. Hello, I’m a horse’s butt.

End of story. He was history. Even Michelle had to see that.

Now Candace could go back to her original plan, head out later on today with a clear conscience, having done her big-sisterly duty here. In two days she’d be in Langford and could start her granddaughterly duty there.

__________

Michelle was getting ready to blow. She could not believe, not believe that her darling big sister, Candace, had once again showed up to take over her life and tell her how she was screwing up. Most people only had one mother. Michelle had three: her real mother, who was sort of around for her first eight years, her grandmother, who raised her after that, and her big sister, who was a giant, bossy pain in her rear. Such a lucky girl.

This time she had to make it clear to Candace that she was twenty-six, not twelve. That she had really sworn off losers and had really found a decent man, and if Candace screwed it up… She whirled on her sister. “You just had to come up here. You couldn’t trust that I—”

Candace put a finger to her lips and pushed open the door to Michelle’s childhood room, which Michelle saw through Candace’s eyes and realized it looked like the room of a…twelve-year-old. Dammit. She’d been keeping it neat, forcing herself to pick up every night before bed, but last night after drinks with coworkers Jennifer and Nick, she’d needed an outfit for Ray’s get-together and hadn’t been able to decide what to wear, tried on everything she owned, then it got late, and— No. She wasn’t going to be defensive anymore. She lived her life honestly and it was her own damn business how she kept her room.

“Michelle.”

Candace shut the door behind her, glanced around, but miracle of miracles, didn’t make her usual face and comment about pigs. Okay, she’d only done that once, when Michelle was thirteen. But it still hurt.