Foxy Lady by Marie Harte Page A

for the best. Meghan and I’ll head back to Seattle too. I’ll talk to Mom about it. She’ll understand.”
    Julia mumbled under her breath, “I wish Meghan understood. She needs to come home with us.” Meghan, predictably, didn’t turn around. Like Ned, her youngest sister tended to hear only what she wanted to.
    They reached the house all too soon. Ned and his brothers greeted them on the porch.
    Bob scratched his shoulder, and she saw Gabby smile at the motion. “Itchy” was so appropriate.
    “Hell, Jason. Nice to see you could join us, finally.” Snitchy—Dave—grinned and put Jason in a headlock. “Hey, Meghan. Ned’s been pining for your sister.” He leered at Gabby. “Mama wants to meet the girls who’ve put her sons in such a dither. Her word, not mine.”
    Julia hadn’t realized Snitchy could clean up so well. He wore pressed jeans and an unwrinkled shirt. When he winked at her, she almost wanted to smile back at him. And Itchy, despite his constant scratching, looked and acted presentable. Had she made a mistake condemning Jason’s family because of Ned?
    “’Bout fucking time,” Ned muttered and glared at Ty.
    “Guess her boyfriend held them up,” Snitchy sneered.
    No, not a mistake. Ned was still an ass. His brothers were still lemmings at heart.
    Though his lips curled in pleasure when he looked at her, anger shone in his eyes. “Nice to see you again, Julia.” Ned’s fake smile annoyed her. As did the meaty hand he reached out for her.
    Ty slid effortlessly between her and Ned, caging her in a strong arm as he guided her up the steps. “Williams.” He deliberately knocked into Ned when the larger man refused to back away from the front door. “We’ll talk later about you paying for our tires. Now, Jason, why don’t you introduce us to your mother.”
    Julia hated to admit it, but she felt a whole lot safer in Ty’s arms than she would have arriving alone. Ty possessed an air of invincibility that encouraged others to believe in him. The strength and integrity inherent in the shifty but stubborn fox lent itself to trust. She’d seen more Ac-taw back down from a fight simply because of the way he looked at them. Like he could see into a body’s very soul.
    Kind of the way he’d looked at her yesterday.
    His hand tightened around her shoulder, and he kissed her on the head as they entered the house. Instead of calming her, his innocent kiss aroused her.
    She still couldn’t believe she’d had almost-sex with Ty Roderick. And he wanted to do it again, to come inside of her. God willing, she could resist another tryst, because where Ty was concerned, Julia had little sense. Her only defense against him for so many years had been to remain aloof, to act as if she didn’t see him, when in reality he was all she ever saw.
    Every time he came into the office to talk to Gerald, when she saw him around town, or when he spoke at the Silver Fox Clan meetings, her animal soul cried out for his. The fox inside her knew she’d found something special in the male, but Julia couldn’t afford to trust him. Not when her family’s existence in Cougar Falls depended upon keeping the deep, dark family secret. Sometimes she really hated her parents for falling in love. She snorted. More like an unfathomable lust and selfish need for pleasure.
    “Um, Julia?” Ty stared down at her. “You okay? I’m sensing some real distress, baby.”
    “You can smell that?” she whispered, conscious of all the men coming out of the woodwork. A lot of relatives joined them in the large living room.
    “That, and your nails are digging into my forearm,” he whispered back.
    She immediately released him.
    “That’s better. Now we can hold hands.” He gave her a smug smile and tugged her after him.
    Ned stood with his brothers and father, glaring at Ty. Jason’s mother seemed to be a sweetheart, and his uncles and cousins had manners the younger Williams men sorely lacked. Apparently, Ned Sr. was the