Wild Cowboy Nights

by Katee Robert

  Hope jumped like he’d electrocuted her. “Oh, God.” She shimmied until he set her on her feet, quickly stepping away from him and adjusting her clothing.

  He hated that, though he didn’t blame her. He couldn’t get the feeling of that scarred skin out of his head, and the knowledge that he’d been the one responsible sat heavy in his chest. He took a step back and went to get rid of the condom.

  Daniel knew something was wrong the second he touched his cock. He pulled the condom off—the ripped condom. “Oh, shit.”

  Chapter Four

  What the hell did I just do?

  Hope stared at the broken condom and suddenly the night was closing in on her and she couldn’t catch a full breath. Oh, no. Oh my God. She tried to think past the rushing in her ears, but the panic cresting inside her made it all but impossible. “I’m on birth control.” Sort of. The truth was that she’d just gotten a prescription last week and started them today—well, technically yesterday. It shouldn’t have happened like this.

  It shouldn’t have happened at all.

  There was no excuse for the stupidity of what she’d just done. She looked around wildly, half expecting a brilliant solution to materialize in front of her. There was nothing but the stars and the field around the house, both so painfully familiar and yet completely different. It was all different. All wrong.

  She never should have followed Daniel through the backyard, but she’d been so blind, so sure she could fix everything like she always did. “I have to go.”

  “Hope…” Daniel sighed. “Yeah, you should. Let me give you a ride.”

  That was the last thing she needed. Even with all evidence pointing to her having no common sense when it came to this man, it was like she was eighteen again, rushing headfirst into every situation, heedless of the danger. She’d just more than proven that she couldn’t trust herself to keep control, which meant she needed to stay away from him in situations like this.

  Situations like what? We’re at a party at his cousin’s house and ten feet from half a dozen other people. It’s not like I followed him home.

  Ollie chose that moment to start barking, and they both spun around as Adam walked around the side of the house. He stopped short when he caught sight of them, and even in the shadows, Hope could see the way his gaze jumped between them, his eyes widening for half a second before he got control of himself. “You two okay out here?”

  “Fine.”

  Adam and Daniel stared at each other in a way she’d never seen before, almost calculating. Like there was a line they were on opposite sides of. Hope didn’t like that. She didn’t like that one bit. They were best friends—had been since they were kids. She refused to be something that came between them. She smoothed back her hair, belatedly realizing her hair tie had disappeared into the darkness. Damn. “We’re good. I was just coming back inside to find Jules. I’m kind of tired and I want to head to the bed-and-breakfast.”

  “Hope—”

  Adam stepped forward, angling so he stood between her and Daniel. “I’ll give you a ride. I’ve got the keys to Jules’s truck.”

  “Perfect.” She honestly didn’t care who was behind the wheel as long as she was putting some distance between herself and Daniel. She needed to think, and it was impossible to do that with her body still beating in time with the pleasure he’d brought her and his presence overwhelming her while he was just standing there.

  She wasn’t back for good. It wasn’t fair to get tangled up with him. No matter how she could rationalize it, she’d never be able to have no-strings-attached sex with Daniel. She just wasn’t capable of it.

  So she ran.

  Like a scared kid.

  Hope took a few careful steps back. “I’ll see you around, Danny.” Then she hightailed it for Jules’s truck. She didn’t stop to think that it might be yet another stupid idea until Adam got behind the wheel and cranked the engine on.

  He barely waited until they were off the dirt drive to start on her. “Why are you back in town, Hope?”

  “What?” She jerked back, stung. “I’m here for the scholarship in John’s memory.”

  “That’s all well and good—if it were true. But you could set that shit up down in Dallas without ever setting foot back in Devil’s Falls, and you damn well know it.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I have half a dozen meetings set up tomorrow alone and—”

  “Meetings you could hold over the phone.” He didn’t look at her, but the judgment in his voice hurt. A lot.

  It was a fight not to hunch down in the seat. “If you didn’t want to see me, you didn’t have to offer to drive me.”

  “Fuck, that’s not it.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m happy to see you, kid. Really, I am. I’ve missed you like crazy—we all have—but this isn’t about John. This is about Daniel.” He didn’t give her a chance to jump in, not that she knew what she was supposed to say. Things with Daniel were complicated, and not in a good way.

  Adam turned onto the highway leading into Devil’s Falls. “I don’t judge you for not coming back. Fuck, I left, too, and I had every intention of staying gone. I’m sure it’s hard being back here and seeing John everywhere.”

  She knew exactly what he meant. She might have been the kid sister, but she’d tagged along through most of their grade school adventures, and then again once she hit sixteen and Daniel finally woke up and realized she was totally in love with him. Daniel. Seeing him and Quinn and Adam together only brought into relief the missing piece, but there was comfort in knowing that those three were here in Devil’s Falls, still friends despite everything. Still living and loving and maybe occasionally getting into trouble for old times’ sake.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “You goddamn well know what the problem is. You’ve moved on with your life, left the past where it belongs. Daniel hasn’t.” He finally looked at her, the lights of an oncoming car illuminating his face. “Despite not having seen you in a hell of a long time, I still love you like a sister, Hope. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and watch you grind what’s left of Daniel into the ground when you leave again.”

  “That’s not fair.” She couldn’t dredge up any anger. Adam could be a dick, but that’s not what this was. He was worried about Daniel. It seemed everyone was worried about Daniel. “I didn’t come back here to mess with him.”

  “Maybe not, but you being back is going to do exactly that.” He headed into town, pulling to a stop right next to her car in front of Cups and Kittens. “If you care about him even a little after all this time, stay the hell away from him, Hope. I mean it.”

  She stared at the dashboard, wondering when it had all gone wrong. Oh, yeah, right around the time my skirt hit my waist. “I came back to help.”

  “You won’t help Daniel. You’re only going to make it worse.”

  Her throat tried to close, but she managed to speak past it. “Some things don’t change. You can be so damn mean sometimes, Adam.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He sat back. “But it’s the truth. You’ve been doing well. Don’t look at me like that, of course I’ve followed up on you over the years—you’re the little sister I never had by blood. Hell, Hope, you’re doing better than well. I’m fucking proud of you.”

  Her eyes burned, and she blinked a few times, trying to tell herself that it was because of the heat and not because she was actually tearing up. She’d always considered him and Quinn brothers while they were growing up, though she’d thought those relationships had broken at the same time as hers and Daniel’s. Adam had disappeared off to do the rodeo circuit, and the most she’d heard from Quinn was a snarky Christmas card every year. “I didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t exactly announce it. That’s on me.”

  Those things went both ways. She’d followed his rodeo career, but she’d never seen hi
m ride live. The thought of seeing one of the men she cared about getting thrown from the back of a furious bull…she couldn’t handle it. “I promise I didn’t come back here to cause problems.”

  “I know, kid. Trust me, I know. And if you were planning on staying, I wouldn’t be warning you off him—you two were always good together.”

  Yeah, they had been. Right up until he stopped returning her calls and forced her to move on with her life without him. Hope took a shuddering breath. “Things change.”

  “Some things. Not this.” He got out of the truck and walked around to open her door. She hopped down and squeaked when he pulled her into a hug. “I missed you, Hope. We all did.”

  She recovered quickly and hugged him back. “I missed you guys, too.”

  He let her go and ruffled her hair, the move one he’d repeated thousands of times before. “I’ll follow you to the B&B and carry your bags up.”

  “It’s fine.” She was already heading around the car for the tailgate. “I’ve got it.”

  “There’s no shame in asking for help.”

  She went ramrod straight and turned to glare at him. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, let alone that of a man she respected and loved like a brother. “I am not helpless, and I’m more than capable of wrestling a stupid suitcase into my room. Leave it alone.”

  “If you say so.” Adam held up his hands. “Kid, I don’t know how they do things down in Dallas, but you’re back in Devil’s Falls—around here, we help each other out, and it’s not seen as a criticism.”

  She knew that—just like she knew that she was being rude for snapping at him. She was just so damn used to people looking at her screwed-up knee and seeing someone less than whole. And, truth be told, her leg was hurting her something fierce right now, the pain radiating all the way to her hip. All she wanted to do was go up to her room and lie down for a little while and just process everything that had happened.

  But that didn’t mean she should be taking it out on Adam. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” He gently nudged her aside and grabbed her suitcase. “It’s weird being back in town, huh?”

  “The weirdest.”

  Fifteen minutes later, she was all checked in and Adam was gone, leaving her in peace. At least in theory. In reality, she kept replaying the last few hours and wondering when her well-intentioned plan had jumped the rails. The goal had always been to come back here, get some closure, and go back to her life in Dallas, feeling better about everything. About putting that nagging what-if question to rest, once and for all.

  Instead, here she was, having just had a quickie with her ex against the side of a house, getting ripped a new one by a man she considered a brother, and going to bed wondering what the hell she’d been thinking.

  Coming back to Devil’s Falls had been a horrible mistake.

  …

  Daniel spent the next few days half sure that Hope would randomly show up on his doorstep. By the time he realized she had no intention of doing that, almost a week had passed. I don’t even know how long she’s in town for. He should just let it go. It was no wonder she didn’t want to see him. Their past aside, she’d barely been back in town an hour and he’d been fucking her against the wall like she was…well, anyone other than Hope Moore.

  Dirty, filthy sex wasn’t what they did.

  Hell, they didn’t do any kind of sex these days.

  Except they had.

  He shook his head and opened the driver’s door so Ollie could jump into the truck. She didn’t quite make it, and he was forced to leap forward to catch her before she flopped onto the ground. “Damn, girl.” At least between the pup and work, he’d had more than enough going on to keep him from having too much time to wonder what Hope was doing. If she was revisiting their old haunts. If she was spending any amount of time down at the diner.

  If she’d visited her brother’s grave.

  He should just leave it alone. If she wanted to see him, it was child’s play to figure out where he was. He hadn’t asked her to come back. Damn it, he’d been doing just fucking fine before she showed up. And yet there he was, starting his truck and heading away from his house. The entire time he sat there and told himself this was a mistake. He didn’t have any right to make demands on Hope’s time—not after what happened thirteen years ago, and not after what happened a week ago.

  But he wanted to.

  He drove into town and then ended up parking outside Cups and Kittens because cruising Main Street was for idiot teenagers and stalkers, neither of which he wanted to be. Yep. Just visiting my meddling cousin. Right. He pushed through the front door—and immediately regretted his decision to come here.

  Ollie took one look at the pair of cats sunning themselves in the afternoon beam of light, yipped, and took off running. Daniel dived for her, but she evaded him like a pro, barking up a storm. The cats fled, jumping up onto one of those cat jungle things and out of reach, hissing and swiping, their hair standing on end while Ollie ran circles around the base.

  “What’s going on out here?” Jules came sprinting out of the back and skidded to a stop in front of the scene. “Oh, good lord.”

  Daniel scooped up the pup—who was still barking shrilly enough to burst his eardrums—and backed up. “Didn’t stop to think this was a bad idea. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Here, bring her into the back.” She led the way back into the kitchen and shut the door behind them. Once he was sure there were no cats in the room, Daniel set Ollie down. She set to sniffing everything she came across, apparently having forgotten the drama she’d just started. Jules laughed softly. “Maybe we should have gotten you a cat.”

  “Nah, I’m more of a dog person.” He hadn’t planned on having a dog, but Ollie had grown on him in a big way. She was just so damn goofy. He crouched down and ran a hand over her back.

  “So, what brings you into town?” Jules asked the question far too casually.

  He thought about lying or making some lame-ass excuse, but they both knew why he was here. “You seen Hope around?”

  “She left.”

  The bottom of his stomach dropped out, and he shot to his feet. “What?”

  “Yeah.” Jules shuffled her feet. “I guess she wrapped up stuff faster than she thought she was going to and headed back to Dallas yesterday.”

  I missed my chance. He knew he was half a second from weaving on his feet and brought his shit under control fast. He should have known that she wouldn’t want to see him again before she left down. Why the fuck would she? She was missing her goddamn knee and her brother because of him, and the first thing he’d done after not seeing her for thirteen years was let things get out of control and use a condom that was far too old. They hadn’t even had a chance to have the conversation where he explained that he was clean…

  “I need her number.” He didn’t realize he was going to say it until the words were out of his mouth. He’d let things stand before, and he’d put enough distance between them that she’d eventually moved on with her life because that was what was best for her at the time. The thought of her being hurt and retreating because of what he’d done for a second time was too much to bear. He had to at least talk to her or let her yell at him. Something.

  “I don’t actually have it.”

  Of course she didn’t. Why would she? He’d have realized that if he’d stopped long enough to think instead of just reacting. Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s probably for the best.”

  Jules bounced on her toes a little, practically wringing her hands. “I guess I should apologize. I didn’t think things would go so sideways or I wouldn’t have invited her to your surprise birthday party.” She hesitated. “I know Adam got kind of pissy with you that night.”

  “It’s fine.” The thing was, he understood why Adam had acted the way he had. Daniel would have done the same thing if he�
��d found one of his little cousins in the same position he and Hope had been in, and both Adam and Quinn viewed Hope as a little sister.

  He scooped up Ollie and headed for the back door. “I’ll see you around.”

  “Daniel.”

  He stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her. “Yeah?”

  She was actually still, her expression painfully serious. “I really do miss you. We all do.”

  What could he say to that? He knew he was a miserable bastard, just like he knew that even being in the room with his friends was enough to bring them down. They tried to hide it, but it was the damn truth. For the longest time, he’d tried to fake being happy, but it hadn’t worked. Nothing worked.

  So he’d done them all a favor and started withdrawing more and more. Being alone kind of sucked sometimes, but he was getting used to it. Since he didn’t see either himself or the circumstances changing anytime soon, he gave Jules a small smile and lied through his teeth. “I’ll try to come around more often.”

  “No, you won’t.” She shook her head and waved him away. “Just don’t get pissed when I’m showing up on your doorstep and intruding in your life.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything else.” He walked through the door and out into the August heat. He tilted his head back, letting the sun beat down on him, wishing it could burn away the sick feeling in his gut. Hope was gone. Again. He didn’t believe in second chances—not really—but if he’d been allotted one, it had slipped past him while he’d been stewing. He’d never see her again.

  It’s for the best. She can do better than a man like me, and we both know it.

  The truth didn’t make him feel a damn bit better, though.

  Chapter Five

  Hope pounded on the door for the third time, not caring that it was almost midnight or that all the lights were off or that no one knew she was back in Devil’s Falls. After her initial panic attack earlier today, she’d been eerily calm while she finished her work, cleared her schedule for the weekend, got in her car, and started driving west. But now that panic was back—with interest. Six weeks. It’s been six freaking weeks. Too long. Six weeks since her snafu with Daniel and the broken condom.