Wild Cowboy Nights

by Katee Robert

  Of all the things she could have said, this one stung the most. Because it was true. He set the pills in front of her. “I’m staying long enough to get you sorted out, Mama. I promise.”

  “Oh, honey…” Tears filled her eyes, tears that felt like they were ripping into his very soul. There was a terrible knowledge on her face that he wasn’t ready to face. Not now—maybe not ever. His mom managed a smile. “I love you.”

  That was it. There was nothing else he could say. “I love you, too.” He waited through the torturous process of her taking her pills, and then watched her with an eagle eye while she walked back into the living room and her recliner.

  She shot him a sharp look. “I’ve been getting around just fine on my own before you got back, Adam Christopher. I don’t need you hovering.”

  “In that case, I’ll be going.”

  He hesitated by the door and looked at his mama. She used to be larger than life, a formidable woman who stood between him and the rest of the world. And here he was, leaving her again. It didn’t matter that it was for a date instead of the rodeo, or that she was practically kicking him out the door. He should be here.

  “Go, Adam.”

  As always, she knew what he was thinking without him saying it. He forced a smile. He could be positive if that’s what she wanted, at least until he got some concrete answers. “Do you want me to bring anything back?”

  “I’m fine. Go on your date.” She waved him away.

  He went, but he could feel her eyes on his back the entire time, and her words rang in his ears. The thought of settling down in one place was enough to have him breaking out in hives. It was a small part of the toxicity that had been Adam as a teenager—the desire to go anywhere but here, to get in a truck and just drive until he met the horizon. He’d failed a lot of people when he left.

  Just like his father.

  He shook off the thought through sheer force of will and climbed up into his truck. Jules apparently lived over that shop of hers, and so it took him ten minutes from leaving his mama’s house to pulling into the parking lot. Devil’s Falls was like that, though. It took fifteen minutes to drive from one end of the town limits to the other—and that was only because of the twenty-mile-an-hour speed limit and single stoplight.

  He got out of his truck and looked up and down Main Street. There were the same two bars down the street, the same diner, the same hardware store, the same everything. Nothing had changed—not even a fresh coat of paint. The only difference between the street now and when he was eighteen was the addition of a Starbucks down by the stoplight and the café in front of him that used to be a pizza joint.

  Restlessness hit him, fierce enough to have him clenching his fists. It wouldn’t take much to get back in his truck and keep driving, to search out the nearest rodeo and put in his registration. Everyone in Texas knew him. They’d get him in. He could be on the back of a bull inside of two days. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to think about the circles beneath his mama’s eyes or the worried looks Lenora kept shooting her when she thought neither of them was watching.

  No. You promised you’d stay, and that’s what you’re going to do.

  Adam paused to take in Cups and Kittens again. It was such a random-ass idea—a coffee shop where people could come and spend time with cats—but it was obvious that it was something Jules felt passionately about. Hell, he’d spent a grand total of twenty minutes with her and he could tell that wasn’t the only thing.

  Judging from that kiss, she was passionate about quite a few things. Just thinking about it calmed the impulse to get the hell out of town. He could do this. The distraction Jules offered pretty much guaranteed he could do this.

  It’s just a matter of figuring out how far you want to take it.

  Now that was a dumb thing to think. He knew exactly how far he wanted to go with Jules Rodriguez.

  All the goddamn way.

  Adam shook his head, damning himself to hell for the kind of thoughts that type of thing brought up. Her wrapping those long legs around his waist, her mouth on his, her making helpless little noises while he… “Get a hold of yourself. You’re not sleeping with the woman. You’re taking her on a date.” She was a good girl—and Daniel’s cousin.

  But she wants to be bad.

  He ignored the voice inside him and marched around back to the door where she’d told him to meet her. He barely got his hand up to knock when it was flung open, revealing a breathless Jules. She must have run down the narrow stairs behind her, because her cheeks were flushed and her chest rose and fell hard enough that it looked like her breasts were in danger of spilling free.

  Adam nearly swallowed his tongue. “What in the hell are you wearing?”

  She looked panicked. “Oh, this little thing?” She pulled at the bottom of her tied-up tank top, belying her attempt at being casual. Not that he was complaining, exactly, but the shorts were several precious inches shorter than the ones she’d worn the other night—so short that the pockets peeked out in the front and he was pretty damn sure if she turned around, he’d be able to see the bottom curve of her ass.

  She looked like some country-music video piece of tail.

  The only thing that was the same was the well-worn boots on her feet. Jules pushed her mass of dark hair off her face and frowned. “Is something wrong? You said we were going out to burgers, so I didn’t dress up and—”

  Fuck, she was killing him. “It’s fine.” But the slice of stomach and length of her long legs and the cleavage that her low-cut tank top revealed…they were making it hard to remember that he was supposed to keep his hands to himself when they weren’t in public trying to make a spectacle of themselves. It’s still Jules beneath the clothes—what little of them there are. Right. He just had to remember that, and—

  Adam’s thoughts screeched to a halt as she turned around and bent over to pick up her purse on the bottom stair. He’d been right about the shorts playing peekaboo with her ass. He gripped the doorframe, unable to tear his gaze away from the place where her mile-long legs met the curve of her ass. The shorts didn’t reveal as much as he’d expected, but somehow that only made them more erotic. He wanted to set his teeth to that curve and then lick his way around…

  Stop it. For fuck’s sake, if you don’t, you’re going to maul her right here in her doorway.

  He forced himself to take a step back, and then another one. She hadn’t signed on for hot and sweaty sex, and he had to remember that. This wasn’t about him and his nearly unbearable desire for her—as unexpected as it was inconvenient. This was about doing her a favor.

  Right. Keep telling yourself that. You wanted a distraction, now don’t going complaining that you got what you asked for—in spades.

  She locked the door behind her and turned with a smile. “I feel ridiculous. Do I look ridiculous?”

  He had to clear his throat twice to answer. “No.”

  “Are you okay?” Just like that, her smile disappeared, and her face fell. “Oh God, you’re lying, aren’t you? I look like a two-bit hooker.” She pulled on the bottom of her shorts. “I’m going to go change. This was such a bad idea. Maybe we should just call the whole thing off.”

  “Sugar, stop.” He grabbed her wrist, changing her course so that her momentum brought her slamming into his chest. “You look great.”

  “You’re really sweet for lying, but—”

  “Jules, stop talking.” He pressed his free hand to the small of her back, bringing her flush against him. Her mouth opened in a little O of surprise when she pressed against where he was rock hard. “You feel that?” As if there was any chance of her missing it with them this close. Adam waited for her to nod. “You did that to me. I see you in those little shorts and all I can think of is getting a handful of your ass as I lift you up and thrust against where you’re warm and soft and wet for me.”

  She blinked. �
��Oh.”

  It was hard to get himself leashed, harder than it should have been, but he finally managed to take a step back and put some distance between them. “Any questions?”

  “Just one.” She licked her lips. “Can you teach me to do that?”

  He opened the passenger door for her. “Do what?”

  “Dirty talk.” She hopped up into the seat, giving him another devastating flash of her ass.

  He shut the door, buying some time as he walked around the front of the truck and climbed inside. Unfortunately, he hadn’t gotten himself back under control by that point. “You want me to teach you to dirty talk.”

  “It’s just…” She waved a hand at him. She’d recovered a whole hell of a lot faster than he had. Adam was almost insulted by how unaffected she seemed. Jules must have finally got her thoughts in order, because she finished, “It’s really, really hot. And naughty, though I’m not sure if calling it naughty completely cancels out the hotness factor.”

  Hearing the word “naughty” on her lips was almost enough to have him pulling over so he could start lesson one. Instead, he gripped the steering wheel and focused on driving. “Yeah, sugar. I can teach you to talk dirty.”

  Though he was already starting to regret agreeing to this in the first place.

  Chapter Five

  Jules couldn’t quite get her heartbeat under control. She’d hoped she didn’t look like an idiot when she dug down to the bottom of her closet to get the not-approved-for-public-consumption clothes. She hadn’t expected to watch Adam’s eyes go dark or for his voice to drop a full octave when he said…those things. She shivered, staring out the passenger window.

  There was no room in her world for wanting Adam Meyer. This was a business arrangement, plain and simple.

  It just happened to be a business arrangement where she was having the sudden desire to see if her partner could follow through on the picture he’d painted with his words.

  Teach me to dirty talk. Jules almost snorted. That was the most pathetic comeback she’d ever made, but she’d been half a second from kissing him again, and one sexual ambush was more than enough in a lifetime, let alone a week.

  I want to create a scandal, but not too much of a scandal. And only when there are people to watch. Because that totally makes sense.

  She realized they’d be sitting in silence for entirely too long and turned to face Adam. Might as well own it. “So, when’s my first lesson?”

  “I’ll let you know.”

  She wilted a little but managed to get a hold of herself. Of course he wasn’t going to start dirty talk lessons in the car on the way to their first fake date. There were a grand total of three restaurants in town, not counting the McDonald’s that no one but teenagers and moms of little kids went to, and the Joint was where people tended to congregate on Saturday night before they wandered down the street to the bar or drove off into the boonies for a bonfire.

  That was Devil’s Falls, though. She liked it, no matter that people like Grant and Adam no doubt looked down on the locals—probably the only thing those two had in common. It was nice to know that on any given weekend night, she could walk down the street and find a few of her uncles or cousins playing poker at the bar, or some of the girls from her graduating class having a ladies’ night out at the Joint with classy martinis and cosmos.

  But…there was no way she’d be able to walk through the doors of any place in town without running into half a dozen people she knew. Something she hadn’t really thought about when she’d gotten dressed. Crap.

  That’s the whole point of this. To prove you’re not a spinster pining after Grant. You’re alive and exciting and dating the town bad boy.

  If that wasn’t scandalous, she didn’t know what was.

  It sounded great—in theory. In practice, she wasn’t sure she’d survive the embarrassment. “Are you sure I don’t look ridiculous?” Her shorts were so short, they might be illegal. She pulled at the hem, but it didn’t do a single thing to cover her more.

  “You look…like a scandal waiting to happen.”

  She glanced at him, shocked all over again by the edge in his voice. She wasn’t sure if he sounded mad or turned on. “Are you okay? If you’re not feeling well, we can reschedule for another night.”

  “Holy fuck.” Adam laughed harshly and pulled the truck onto the edge of the road. He turned to her, his shoulders filling the space between the steering wheel and the seat, suddenly seeming a whole lot closer. “Sugar, you’re killing me. You’re seducing me without even realizing you’re doing it.”

  “I…am?” She realized what she’d said and lifted her chin. “I mean, I am. Good. Right?” She groaned and slouched in her seat. “I’m pretty sure you’re not feeling seduced anymore.”

  She expected him to laugh or something, but he just reached across the bench seat and snagged her waist, dragging her toward him. She bit back a yelp when he lifted her to straddle him. “Uh, I’m pretty sure we’re breaking some sort of law right now.”

  “Nah. We’re parked and inside my vehicle. You’re covered.”

  She twisted enough to look through the windshield. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, but that didn’t mean there weren’t eyes on them.

  Which is the freaking point. Get it together, girl.

  His hands drifted over her hips, not touching so much as a sliver of bare skin, but she felt branded all the same. Was this guy hiding a forest fire beneath his skin? Adam looked at her with those too-dark eyes, his expression serious and yet somehow savage. “Are you ready to make a scene, sugar?”

  She licked her lips. Definitely not a mild-mannered nice guy—more like a lone wolf who’s just as likely to cuddle you as rip your throat out. “Yes. Public display of affection without possibility of arrest. Good thinking.”

  He smiled. “I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to. You say the word and I stop. Repeat that back to me.”

  Her heart was beating too fast, her tight clothing seeming to become even tighter with each breath. “You’re not going to do anything I don’t want you to.”

  “And?”

  “I say the word and you stop.” It was harder to get the last part out, mostly because she couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. He’d blown her away with the rushed fake kiss the other night. How much better would it be if he was planning on actually, say, kissing her? Her body broke out in goose bumps at the thought. “Adam—”

  One of his hands left her hip to frame her jaw, his thumb tracing over her bottom lip. “Rule number one to making this believable—stop overthinking and worrying about who could be watching. Just focus on me and feel.”

  Easier said than done. “I’m really good at overthinking.” Though it was really hard to connect her thoughts with him touching her like that, his thumb coasting back and forth, back and forth.

  “I can see that.” His fingers curled around the back of her neck, easing her forward. “What are you thinking about now?”

  She was forced to brace her hands on his chest to avoid toppling against him, and the feel of all those muscles beneath his T-shirt made her brain short out. She kneaded her fingers, moving up to his shoulders and then down again. Belatedly, she realized he’d asked her something. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “That answers that.” His hand on her hip tightened. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

  “Oh…okay.”

  “That wasn’t a request, sugar.”

  And then he did exactly what he promised he would.

  He kept it light, the slightest brushing of his lips on hers, over and over again, until she thought she might go mad with desire. She writhed against him, but he easily held her in place, taking his time, almost as if he was savoring the contact. Then, finally, his tongue coaxed her mouth open and he was kissing her.

  Just like that, the spark between them went from ca
mpfire to wild blaze, flaring out of control.

  One second she was wondering how in God’s name one man could taste so good, and the next she was rubbing against him like he was the best kind of catnip. He groaned against her mouth, his hand on her hip moving to her behind, lining them up. The feel of his hard length against the most sensitive part of her had her going still, but only for a moment. She rolled her hips, moaning at the delicious friction.

  Adam took his mouth off hers long enough to curse, long and hard, and then she was on her back on the bench seat, him moving over her, his mouth reclaiming hers. Jules wrapped her legs around his waist, arching up to meet each thrust that dragged him against the seam of her jeans. He kissed down her jaw to her breasts. “Fuck, sugar, you’re one hell of an actress.”

  She laughed, but the sound choked off when he yanked down her tank top and sucked her nipple into his mouth. “Oh my God.”

  For some reason, that caused him to pause. He rested his forehead against her chest. “Hold on. Give me a second.”

  That sounded dangerously close to him saying he wanted to stop. She grabbed his shoulders, digging her nails in. “Adam, I’m three seconds from coming. If you don’t finish what you started…” She couldn’t think of a threat strong enough, so she just made an incoherent sound of frustration. When he didn’t immediately move, she actually whimpered. “Please, Adam. Remember what you said? I’ll let you know when to stop. Well, I don’t know how else to tell you to keep going. Full steam ahead. Green light. Just make me come already.”

  His body shook, and it took her a full two seconds to realize he was laughing. “You are something else.”

  “As long as I’m something else that will be coming in short order.” Never in her life had she been this forward with anything sexual, but she felt like she might burst apart at the seams if he didn’t answer the beat pulsing through her body.