This time Sunshine was more serious, and while he appreciated that she was no longer giggling, Cole missed the vivacity of her laugh. He wondered if he could harness both Sunshine’s intrinsic sexiness and the silliness of what they were doing. He had a feeling if he could get it right, the resulting image would sucker-punch just about every man in the grand state of Montana, and they’d all come flocking to his range.
He had to make Sunshine forget she was posing for a camera. How could he do that? “I want to see some muscles.” Sunshine did her best, and the results made her chuckle, but it wasn’t enough. For a while they tried different poses and different guns, but he couldn’t get the shot he was trying for.
“I’m getting tired,” she said. “And cold.”
“Cold? It’s the middle of the summer. I’m burning up. Just a few more shots. Go back to the AK.”
“Fine.” She picked up the gun, sat on the counter and crossed her bare legs in front of her.
“Hold it right,” he told her and she gripped the weapon as if about to shoot it. “Show me some cleavage, honey.”
She rolled her eyes and plumped up her breasts under her halter top. Leaning forward, she shimmied her shoulders until Cole shifted, feeling a stirring of something down south of his belt. “Damn, it’s really hot in here now.” He smiled at her, then in one smooth motion reached behind his head and peeled off his T-shirt, knowing she liked that move. He held up the camera again, edging closer.
“Wooh, who’s showing some skin now?” she said.
“I’ll show you some skin,” he said, his voice deep and suggestive. One handed, still holding the camera up to take the shot, he fumbled with his belt buckle and dropped his pants. “Come on, baby. Pose like this.” He did an over-the-top cheesecake pose that had Sunshine cracking up. “No? You don’t like that? How about this?” He pulled another crazy pose, balanced on a single leg.
Sunshine tossed her head back and laughed. Before she could recover Cole snapped a half-dozen shots. She held up a hand. “Stop it. I’ll look like an ass.”
“What the hell are you two doing?”
Sunshine jumped off the counter and Cole spun around.
Holt Matheson stood gaping at them in the doorway. The rest of Cole’s friends stood right behind him.
Well, hell, this was embarrassing. Cole awkwardly pulled up his jeans, zipped and buckled them, his camera still in his hand. “You all ever heard of knocking?”
“Never had to knock before.” Holt stood his ground. “Never caught you prancing around in your skivvies, either.”
Jamie wolf-whistled as he pushed past the older man and stepped inside. “Sunshine, you look hot! You posing for a calendar or something?”
Sunshine’s cheeks were scarlet, but she took her cue from Cole and set her firearm down carefully on the counter. “Not a calendar, some promotional photos to help drum up more business for Cole.”
“Why the hell would you do that? Thought you two were enemies,” Holt said.
“More business for Cole means more business for me,” Sunshine said. “And maybe most of the customers will be too enticed by my food to even make it into the range.”
“They’ll be enticed by something, but it won’t be your cooking, I’ll tell you that,” Holt said with a significant look at her skimpy outfit. Sunshine flinched at the insult, and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Everybody out!” Cole knew he might be alienating his best customers as he said it, but he couldn’t stand the look on Sunshine’s face or the way she’d caved in on herself. If Holt Matheson thought he could come in here and insult his girl he had another—
His thoughts crashed together. His girl? When had Sunshine become his girl? But his body was functioning on automatic pilot and he ushered the whole crowd out of the range and shut the door behind them.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Like hell I don’t.” Cole caught Sunshine as she headed for the door, too. “Holt Matheson is a cranky old man. Don’t you listen to him. You are the most beautiful woman to hit Chance Creek for years. You have nothing to be ashamed about.”
“Prancing around with guns—in a sleazy outfit? Sure I do.” She tried to get past him again.
“That’s not sleazy. That’s sexy. There’s a big difference. Listen.” He took her by the arms, enjoying her soft skin under his fingers all too much. “We won’t use the photographs unless you want me to. We’ll figure out something else. But I hope you’ll let me keep them to look at on my own time.”
She turned her head, but he cupped her chin in one hand and brought her back to look at him. “Hey. If I could look like that in a photo and some woman wanted to keep it to ogle now and then? I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Oh, yeah?” Now she was smiling again.
“Yeah.”
“So you’ll go and pose with those guns and let me photograph you?”
Cole swallowed. “I said I’d do that if some woman wanted to ogle me now and then.”
“I might want to ogle you now and then.”
“Well, hell, that’s different.” Cole unbuckled his jeans, made quick work of the button and zipper and kicked them all the way off. Hooking his thumbs in the waistband of his boxer briefs, he added, “You want these bad boys off too?”
“I think we better keep it tame for now.”
From the way her gaze was locked on his boxer briefs, though, he was sure she was more than a little interested about what was going on underneath. What was going on underneath was a direct response to her sexy outfit. Pretty soon, tame was not going to describe this encounter.
He willed himself into a more presentable state—he didn’t need raunchy photos of himself all over the Internet—and positioned the AK strategically. If the photos found their way into the public’s hands, let them ogle his thighs and biceps, not his—
“Looking good,” Sunshine crooned, taking up the camera and holding it up to take a shot. “Sell it to me, baby.”
Cole did his best, although it was only moments before his bravado faded and it became more work than play. He was relieved when Sunshine put the camera down. “Okay, you’re off the hook. You’re a good sport.”
“You’re a good sport, too. Let’s get these photos downloaded and off my camera. We’ll go through them together and get rid of any ones we don’t want.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter Fifteen
Sunshine hadn’t counted on the men still waiting in the café for them, but when they walked through the range door, Holt, Ethan, Jamie, Rob and Cab were all there.
“Good to see you got your clothes back on, Cole,” Holt said. “Thought I might go blind a minute there.”
“I’m glad you didn’t change,” Jamie said to Sunshine. “I like your outfit.”
“Well, I don’t like having to wait forty minutes to place my order,” Holt said.
Sunshine, on her way toward the door, stopped in surprise. “You’re going to order?”
“If I can ever get any service around here.”
She really wanted to go and change before anyone else happened by, but Sunshine figured that a customer was a customer. If the ornery old man was actually going to eat here, she’d better jump on the opportunity. She turned around, went to the counter and grabbed her order pad. “What’ll you have?”
“Rob’s been yammering on about some chili. Says it’s pretty good. Now I see he’s been too distracted by the scenery to even taste it.”
“Dad—Sunshine was wearing clothes last time.” Rob wiped a hand over his jaw. “I mean, not that you aren’t now. Well, at least some—”
“What Rob’s trying to say is the chili is good.” Cole whacked Rob on the arm.
“How would you know? You’ve never tried any,” Sunshine said.
Cole scratched the back of his neck and she wondered if he’d just remembered they were supposed to be on opposite sides. They didn’t feel like they were enemies anymore, though.
“Well, it smel
ls good, anyway.”
“I’ll bring you both a bowl.”
The others placed orders too, and Sunshine went happily to fix them up, forgetting about her clothing for a while. When the bells chimed to announce another customer, she looked up to smile broadly in welcome to the newcomer.
The unfamiliar man blinked, then grinned back. He spotted Cole. “Hey, man. I like what you’ve done to the place.”
Feeling self-conscious all over again, Sunshine grabbed a menu, then put it back. This man wasn’t here to eat—he was here to shoot, if the case in his hand was any indication.
“Come on back, Bud,” Cole said.
“I don’t know, Cole. Some food sounds pretty good right about now.”
“We’re having chili,” Holt said.
“Chili will do just fine.” Bud sat down with the other men. He was middle aged, with thinning hair and heavy features. His gaze followed Sunshine’s every move.
“One bowl of chili, coming right up,” Sunshine said, and wished there was a door through the kitchen straight into the apartment. Maybe Cole could do something about that one of these days. She tugged her neckline higher and went behind the counter to see to the food. Several minutes later, when she was ready to serve it, she turned back to find Bud still eyeing her.
She wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Cole was watching the man watch her, and she wasn’t sure how to take that. She had a feeling Bud was treading on thin ice.
She efficiently hefted the tray of bowls and made her way to the table. Handing them around, she checked to make sure everyone had the proper silverware and enough vegan spread for the cornbread.
“Honey, looks like you dropped a fork over there,” Bud said.
She turned to scan the floor, but saw nothing. “Where?”
“Under that table. Way under.”
Sunshine bent to look and heard the unmistakable sound of a camera app on a cell phone click behind her. She straightened quickly and spun around. “What do you think you’re doing?”
She knew what he was doing—snapping a photo of her bottom in her tight micro mini—but before she could snatch his phone away, Cole beat her to it, dropped it on the floor and smashed it with the heel of his boot.
“What the hell?” Bud stood up, his chair scraping across the floor.
“Out!”
“But—”
“Out—consider yourself banned!”
“Cole!”
But Cole wasn’t kidding around and Bud figured that out pretty quickly, especially when a look around the table showed him that no one was on his side.
“I ain’t paying for that chili.” He stormed across the room and out the door.
“That’s more business you just lost,” Holt said when he was gone. “Kind of on a roll, aren’t you?”
“Shut up.”
“Testy, too,” Holt observed to the others.
“You all right?” Cole asked Sunshine.
“I’m fine.” In fact, she was more than fine. The ferocity with which Cole had defended her made her feel more protected than she’d felt in years. He’d kicked out a customer—a customer whose business he needed—for her sake. That told her he cared about her more than anything he might have said. A tendril of happiness curled through her. Maybe things were looking up. But she still needed to get out of here and change. When she and Cole were alone the sexiness of her outfit had been playful. Now it was simply embarrassing. “Can you hold the fort while I go put on something else?”
“Sure. I’ll walk with you and make sure Bud’s not loitering around.”
Cole walked her all the way to the apartment and stayed there until she was safely inside. When she moved to close the door behind her, he followed her inside. “Mind if I watch?”
The playfulness was back, as was the buzz she felt all through her veins. She knew if she said no, Cole would make out that his request was just a joke and would return to the range. She didn’t want to say no, though. She wanted Cole to watch her. She wanted him to touch her, too, but that would have to wait until later.
She nodded.
Cole’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he shut the door behind him with alacrity, and leaned against it, never taking his gaze from her. Without a word, she found her clothes from earlier and laid them out on the couch. First she untied her halter top and let it fall away. A hiss of breath told her Cole found what he saw to his liking. She took her time reaching down and shimmying out of her skirt, pulling off her panties for good measure. Why not? In for a penny, in for a pound. She found she wasn’t shy in front of Cole. She knew he appreciated the view. Knew too he wanted to touch her as badly as she wanted to be touched. She let him get a good long look before reaching for the soft, floor-length skirt she’d started the day in.
“You aren’t going to wear anything underneath that?
She shook her head. “And I want you to think about that all day long.”
He groaned. “You’re killing me.”
“Don’t die yet, cowboy. I’ve got plans for you later.” She pulled on a pretty bra and fastened it behind her, then slipped on her shirt.
“What kind of plans?” He reached for her as she made her way to the door.
“Good ones.” She reached up on tip-toes and kissed him square on the mouth. He caught her in his arms and returned the favor.
“Guess I’d better get back to the range,” he said some minutes later.
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Good.”
Chapter Sixteen
The rest of the day dragged for Cole, even though business picked up late in the afternoon. Sunshine even got some customers during the dinner hour, including several single men who sidled through the door, peering around with great interest until they located her and saw she was fully clothed. Cole could tell that Bud had been talking.
His violent reaction to the man’s attempt to photograph Sunshine’s ass had surprised him, especially when he considered that he had been doing almost the same thing just a few minutes before.
That was different, he told himself. Sunshine had agreed to it, for one thing, and she’d posed herself, but he had to admit he’d taken the pictures for the same reason Bud had—he wanted to look at her body later when he was alone.
The view Sunshine had given him when they went back to the apartment had been far better than any of the photographs he’d taken earlier, though, and she’d as good as promised they’d be together tonight.
By the time they closed up, Sunshine seemed satisfied with her day and Cole was aching—physically aching—to get her alone. He knew he needed to watch his step, but his body wasn’t going to let him take things too slow.
“Word about my restaurant is spreading,” she announced happily as they walked the short distance to their apartment.
Cole didn’t say what he was thinking—that most of her customers today came to see her rather than eat her food. At the very least none of them had disliked her cooking. He had to admit her chili wasn’t half-bad. A little beef in there wouldn’t have hurt, but he’d hardly missed it.
He wanted to ease into things slowly when they let themselves into the apartment, but they’d barely stepped into the living room when Sunshine turned to say something, bumped into him since he was trailing so close behind, and his arms went around her of their own accord. An instant later he was kissing her again. God, he couldn’t get enough of kissing Sunshine. With a sigh, she melted against him and he drew her close, one hand cupping the base of her head, the other sliding down over the curve of her hip.
A few minutes later, he pulled back.
“I’ve been waiting all day to do that.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” He did it again and kept kissing her until both of them were breathless. He began to angle her toward the sofa and lowered her down, positioning himself on top of her.
She didn’t fight him. Instead, she kissed him back, twining her arms around his neck. When he reached a hand under
her soft cotton shirt, she pulled back and for one awful second Cole thought she would stop him. Instead, she lifted it slowly over her head. Her silky, pretty bra tantalized him, and he dropped appreciative kisses along the edge of the fabric, his mouth brushing her soft curves. He had fun teasing her for some time before he found the clasp behind her back and freed her to his view.
“Magnificent,” he said, bending down to take one nipple into his mouth. Sunshine moaned and arched her back, the better to give him access as he teased and played with her, lavishing attention on first one, then the other breast.
It was obvious she loved his touch and that fueled the fire within him even more. She’d been so distant when she arrived, he’d thought she was forever out of his reach. To find that not only would she allow him to be close to her, but that she wanted it so badly revved him just thinking about it.
When she grew restless, he took her hand, led her to the bedroom and shut the door. He sat down on the bed and drew her down to lay beside him. He shifted on top of her and soon moved his hands to the waistband of her floor-length skirt. It was soft and stretchy, skimming her hips and flaring at the hem. It made her look like some sort of goddess, but he decided it too needed to go.
He wanted all of her.
He slid his hands under the waistband, loving that she’d let him know earlier that she wore nothing beneath. He’d never be able to watch her in the café again without wondering what she had on. As he slid the skirt over her hips, his hands caressing her ass as he did so, Sunshine moaned again, and Cole wanted to join her. She was so beautiful and so open to him. He wouldn’t have believed it a week ago if someone told him they’d be together like this. He put all thoughts of the past and future behind him and bent to the task of making Sunshine moan again.
He moved to trail kisses down her belly and between her legs, gently parting them for better access. Sunshine opened to his touch and sighed when he explored her most intimate places. She ran her hands over his shoulders, urging him on by lifting her hips. When she began to grip him hard, he knew she was close.
Heat flooded him at the idea of being inside her. He was so hard he ached, but he knew he was moments from getting everything he wanted, and he didn’t mind taking it slow.
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