COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1)

by Amanda Boone

  “Yeah! I’m up!”

  “Is cougar Barbie knocking?” Frida asked.

  Alaina rolled her eyes. “I hate that word, Frida. Besides, this guy is supposed to be at least her age,” she said as she stumbled into the bathroom. Her throat was dry from a night of stripping and drinking and the bags under her eyes were less than flattering.

  “Okay.”

  “Alaina are you up?”

  Alaina sighed before pressing the phone against her chest and yelling, “Yes ma!”

  “Ugh,” Frida said, “Chill with the yelling.”

  Alaina shook her head. “Honey bun, you have no idea what I’m dealing with.”

  She could hear Frida giggling on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “God, me too.”

  There was a pause on Frida’s end as Alaina took the opportunity to dress herself, placing her on speaker. “Frida?”

  “Hey, yeah, I wanted to tell you something real quick.”

  Alaina did not like the slight tremble in her voice. “Yeah, what is it, Hun?”

  “You know that guy that’s been stalking you for the last couple of days?”

  Alaina froze with her toothbrush in hand.

  “Alaina! I’m not kidding we got about ten minutes before he gets here!”

  Alaina moaned yet again. “Yeah! I’m tryin’!” she then returned her attention to Frida. “Okay, yes Frida. What is it?”

  “I gave him your number.” She said those words so fast, Alaina barely caught it all.

  “What?” she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “Yeah, and he might call you… soon…”

  “Alaina! I swear to God!”

  Alaina shoved the brush in her mouth for all of twenty seven seconds before running it under the water in her sink. She drew her hair back into a hasty, messy bun at the top of her head, then stalked back into her room and poked her head out of her front door. “Just wait five minutes!”

  By the time she made it back into her bathroom, Frida’s diatribe of apologies was bouncing off of the walls and the distinct beeping sound that indicated a second caller punctuated her every other word.

  Alaina rolled her eyes, took the phone off of the speaker and pressed it against her ear. “Yeah, whatever. Okay Frida. I hear you. He’s calling me right now. Excuse me while I go tell him to lose my number.” With that she switched over to the unrecognizable number. “Uh, hello?”

  “Is this, princess?” Alaina found it oddly comforting hearing his voice in the light of day like that.

  “No, this is Maleficent,” she said, with an impish grin.

  He chuckled. “I see what you did there. Why Maleficent?”

  Alaina stopped moving for the first time that morning. She shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s just always been my favorite,” She said.

  “Alaina! For God’s sake, they’re pulling up!” her mother’s voice cut into her five seconds of relaxing time.

  She covered the mouthpiece with her hand for long enough to shout, “Jesus Christ, ma!”

  When she got back on the phone, the man was laughing. “You still live with your mom?”

  “Ha!” Alaina mocked. “No, I’m just here until all this wedding stuff is over.”

  “She’s getting married?”

  “Yup,” Alaina said as she took one last look at herself in the mirror and made her way down the narrow hallway.

  “That’s funny.” He said.

  Alaina took in a generous whiff of the full breakfast her mother had prepared. As she rounded the corner at the foot of the staircase, she caught sight of her tiny body bobbing around the kitchen, her golden hair practically glowing in the sunlight. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because my dad’s gettin’ remarried. I’m actually gonna meet her and her daughter right now.”

  Before Alaina could really process this, her mother turned on her with her anxiety. “You look like you just rolled outta bed,” She said, her shoulders slumping with an almost comical disappointment.

  Meanwhile, Alaina noted that her mother looked as if she had just stepped out of a Country Living magazine, with her voluminous bump and her heavily jeweled self.

  Alaina rolled her eyes. “Look, I need to go. My mom’s gonna have a conniption in about five seconds.” She didn’t wait for his response before she shut her phone.

  The chime of a doorbell filled the house.

  “Shieet.” Her mother hissed, snatching her apron over her head and half-walking, half-jogging towards the front door.

  Alaina trailed behind.

  Once they were both standing right in front of the door, Alaina suffered through one last look from her mother, flinching as she pulled her hair behind her right ear and then opened the door.

  A smile tugged at Alaina’s lips as she watched her mother’s eyes light up at the sight of her fiancé. But then she got a look at her new future family and her smile slipped right off of her face. “Oh my God.”

  That face—the face within the smoke—was right over the threshold, his hazel eyes as enchanting as ever.

  Chapter Three

  Alaina’s new stepfather was a tall guy with a thin build, but a face structured like he knew how to survive, with his long, downturned nose and his high cheekbones. He wore thick glasses and didn’t quite work the salmon plaid button down he had chosen to wear.

  She didn’t want to be rude, but she was consumed by him. There was something about those almond-colored eyes that looked oddly familiar. Just looking at him reminded her of Cajun Field, of hot dogs and beer. She could see him in one of those short alley ways right next to the restrooms, with his back to her. She could see a thin woman’s legs wrapped around his waist…

  Alaina grimaced at that thought.

  She looked back down at her barely-touched plate of breakfast food. She could feel her admirer, a man she recently learned was called Keith, watching her every move. He had a heavily-lidded tattoo of an eye on his neck. It bobbed up and down every time he swallowed.

  “Joanna, this is magnificent.” He said, shooting Alaina’s mother a smile.

  Her mother beamed from ear to ear, her nose becoming even oilier in the light of her bashful blush. “Thanks, honey.” She leaned into him, her pink, glossy lips already puckered.

  Alaina looked away from them in avoidance of the kiss, accidentally locking eyes with Keith. She stared at him, internally kicking herself for not having him when she had the chance.

  What had she been thinking, denying his advances? Now that he was about to be completely off limits, she couldn’t deny the way her heart fluttered because he was less than a foot away from her.

  Her giggling parents served as a backdrop to a nonverbal exchange that felt too intimate to be happening at the dinner table. She was so enthralled in Keith that she hardly noticed when her mother stopped laughing and they became the center of attention once again.

  “Do you two know each other?” Jeb’s voice cut right through Alaina’s thoughts.

  Keith was the first to look away. “Uh…”

  “No.” Alaina said.

  Jeb let out a hearty chuckle before taking a gulp of his wine. “Oh, Cabernet is divine.” He said. “So where did y’all meet?” he asked.

  Alaina’s eyes went wide at this. It was one thing to put out a quick lie when asked the question a first time, but she felt odd repeating herself again, especially when she had already been caught in it. “Oh, well…” Empty space filled her head.

  “It’s no big deal, Dad. I only saw her last night.”

  “But you were at Lipstick last night,” He countered.

  Alaina cocked her head to one side. Was going to strip clubs some sort of family activity? She flipped her gaze back and forth between Jeb and Keith. What could have possibly possessed Keith to tell his dad that he went to a strip club? How drunk must Jeb have been to display this knowledge to everyone else at the table?

  “You go to strip clubs?” Ma wasn’t even tryin
g to hide her disbelief.

  Jeb jabbed his finger at Alaina. “You go to strip clubs?”

  Alaina’s eyes went wide. Her mother would literally skin her alive if she found out how she was managing to save up all that money for school. “No?”

  But Jeb let out another one of his obnoxious chuckles. He twiddled his fork in-between his fingers as he said, “You know you can tell us if you’re a dike.”

  Alaina nearly choked on the small bit of egg still in her mouth.

  “Jeb!” Mother grabbed his hand, but he shrugged it off, that gleam still in his eyes.

  Alaina slouched down in her chair, half of her wondering how she was going to get out of this without pretending to be lesbian and the other half of her dying to know where her mother had found this worthless piece of bigotry.

  “Are you?” Jeb asked.

  Alaina looked up to find everyone staring at her. Keith’s grimace gave Alaina the distinct feeling that he was looking down on her. Jeb’s eyes were wide and his lips pursed as he leaned over the table at her, while a deep frown darkened mother’s face because there was no right answer to that question.

  Jeb didn’t even wait for her response. “Well that’ll be fun… a dike in the family.”

  “She’s not a goddamn dike.” Keith said, slamming his fork into his plate.

  Alaina took a deep breath, settling for some sort of half-truth. “Look, I work there… as a waitress.”

  Her mother’s eyes remained fixated on her the whole meal.

  It wasn’t until they had finished their meal and Joanna had coerced Alaina into helping her clean up in the kitchen that the subject was even brought up again.

  “When were you gonna tell me you work at a titty bar?” she asked, keeping her voice low on account of the fact that Keith and Jeb were waiting just in the other room.

  Alaina sucked in a deep breath, pumping soap onto her sponge. “It’s not a titty bar.”

  Her mother slammed a plate into the sink.

  Alaina flinched, then moved it out of the way. “I just needed the money. You know these backwoods bars aren’t gonna pay nothin’.”

  Her mother came back to the sink, leaning against it. She was so close, Alaina could smell the cheap perfume coming off of her skin. “What’d you gotta have all that money for anyway?”

  Alaina continued to pump the soap, her palm assaulting the dispenser. “You know I’m tryin’a go to college.”

  Her mother’s eyes were wide with horror.

  Alaina had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at this gross overreaction.

  She then turned away, letting out one low, weak sob. “I can’t believe my own daughter is selling her breasts for money just so she can leave me.”

  “Jesus, Ma. This isn’t about you.”

  “That’s beside the point.” She said, dropping another plate into the sink.

  Alaina tried her best to contain her anger, but the longer she stood there in that kitchen with that woman who would rather have her stay in the house for the rest of her life than actually make something of herself, the angrier she got. “Why? Because you still think it is?”

  “You are breakin’ my heart, Alaina.”

  At that point, Alaina had pressed the soap dispenser so hard that a huge puddle of the stuff had built up on her sponge. She let it drop into the sink, sighing to herself as she placed her red, sore hand under the faucet. “I’m making something of myself.”

  But her mother shook her head. “I failed with you. I really did.”

  Chapter Four

  Frida followed Alaina into the dressing room as soon as she arrived at Lipstick. Frida tied her long hair up into a bun at the top of her head and slammed into a seat right across from her. Alaina tried to ignore her curiosity.

  She had one stage performance to do and then she’d be done, so she went over it in her head over and over again. She had the counts down to the second and worked it into her muscle-memory so that once she got out there, the only thing she needed to concentrate on was her mindset.

  But Frida made that impossible. “So what the fuck am I hearin’ about Jeb bein’ Keith’s daddy?”

  Alaina pursed her lips and nodded. “Yup. That’s on you, Frida. You set me up with my stepbrother.”

  Frida ducked her head. “Okay. First of all, you two obviously like each other and second of all, you haven’t been in a relationship since before I even knew you and I just wanted to see you loosen up for once.” She said, playfully slapping Alaina on the shoulder.

  Alaina flinched at her touch. “I’m not having this conversation with you.” She said as she heard the first few beats of her song blare out on the loudspeaker. She stood up and pressed her way through the other girls in the dressing room. Her head felt like a million pounds because it carried the weight of all of those worries. She couldn’t believe her mother was getting married to a man Alaina felt uncomfortable sitting in the same room with, let alone calling her father.

  Yet, as soon as she took her first whiff of that smoke and liquor out on that stage, she felt a million times lighter. She clasped the pole with her hand. It was a new dance she had been working on, something she had practiced before opening while the bartenders mopped the floors, something she had thought about in passing while driving around running her errands.

  As her heart started to beat in time with the baseline of her song, she could feel the crowd breathing with her. Their shouts and cheers energized her performance, driving her on right to the very end. By the time she was naked and had dropped into her final pose, she felt completely relaxed. That is, until she opened her eyes and saw that face in the smoke.

  ***

  “I am tellin’ you, I don’t wanna hear it.” Alaina said, walking as fast as she could through the crowd to get outside. After her dance, she had hastily wiped the most ridiculous aspects of her makeup off of her face and thrown a t-shirt and jeans over her lingerie. She had almost made it out of the door before Keith managed to stop her.

  “Will you just listen for one goddamn second?” he asked just as she stepped outside.

  Alaina sucked in the buckets of the relatively fresh air to try to get that scent of smoke and alcohol out of her throat. “That’s all you’ve got before I punch you in the face for havin’ the gall to approach me after everything that’s happened.”

  Keith huffed out a breath. “Are you really gonna blame me for assumin’ that you weren’t lyin’ to your mother about your job?”

  Alaina’s eyes went wide as she threw her arms up in exasperation. “I’m a stripper! Of course I’m lying to my ma!”

  Keith, his confidence a perfect ten, reached out to her, placing his hands on each of her shoulders.

  Alaina clamped her jaw shut, gulping down the lump in her throat. She liked the way that felt—his skin against hers. She liked it a little too much.

  “Well, I’m not judgin’ you,” He said.

  Alaina felt oddly comforted by this. “I guess that’s a good thing considerin’ your dad thinks I’m gay… not that there’s anythin’ wrong with that…” She wanted to say something else, but the doors of the club pushed open and a group of rambunctious men came stumbling out. She scoffed, shaking her head at them. “It’s impossible to talk here.”

  “Do you want to go somewhere else? Somewhere quiet?”

  Alaina’s gut reaction was a whole-hearted acceptance, but she couldn’t bring herself to say that out loud. A small, resilient part of her didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  “Come on,” he said, flashing her a crooked smile. “I’m a biker. I got a bike. Let’s go.”

  Alaina pursed her lips, but nodded anyway. It was a good night, the air crisp and the wind generous. Yes, her head was full and yes, she was exhausted, but she couldn’t deny the way her heart throbbed for him. And as she pondered, her thoughts heavy with things like marriage and Jeb, she could think of no one she more wanted to talk about this with than Keith.

  She’d beat herself up if she didn’t a
t least take this chance.

  So, they crossed the parking lot. Now that Alaina had decided to go on this ride with him, he seemed much more relaxed. He spouted out phrases about the year and make of his bike and complained about the foggy weather, but Alaina wasn’t listening. She spent all of her brain power trying to convince herself that this was nothing but a ride between two people who would soon be brother and sister.

  Alaina wrapped her hands around his waist, noting how toned his core felt against her arms. Once he got the engine up and drove out of the parking lot, she pressed her head into his shoulder.

  Alaina closed her eyes. There was something mystical about being on that bike with that man in the middle of the night like that. The moon hung high in the sky, casting its silver light down on the two of them. A smile played on her lips and the wind sifted through her thick dark hair, as if to cleanse it of all the smoke and sweat that had coated it over the course of the night.

  Eventually, he turned off of the main road and drove into a clearing that broke up a patch of forestry. “What is this?” Alaina asked as she swung her leg over the side of the bike and stood up, wincing at the ache in her crotch.

  “My place. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid.” Keith said, joining her in the center of the clearing. He went right for the pit of ash and stone that sat off to the left.

  “Why?” she asked as she watched him fill it with the wood that had been stacked off to the side. Alaina wondered how he could have kept all of this stuff here without any of it being disturbed.

  He just let out a dry laugh. “If you had a childhood like mine, you’d understand.” He replied.

  “And what childhood was that?” Alaina asked.

  He motioned for her to sit down in front of the pile of wood. “You met my dad.”

  She pursed her lips as she tried to find a comfortable spot on the damp ground. “Yeah, well, my mom is apparently in love with him. So…”

  Keith picked up a piece of wood and lit it on fire, throwing it in with the rest of them. “That don’t mean nothin’… I was in love with him once.”