Cowboy Crazy

by Joanne Kennedy

  “So let me buy you a coffee. And maybe a doughnut?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Oh, that’s right, you just swore off those.” He shot her a sharp glance. “Or were you swearing off something else?”

  The card in his fingers caught the light and flashed in her eyes. She felt like she was under interrogation, but Eric was just making conversation.

  Wasn’t he?

  “No, I was just warding off the coffee cake.”

  “Good. I was afraid Lane had inspired you to swear off the Carrigan brothers, and I wanted you to go to the Petroleum Club with me tonight.”

  “The Petroleum Club?” Sarah could feel another unkept vow winging away to join the ones that had fluttered off the night before. The club was a massive cedar-sided building on the edge of town, a complicated structure with elaborate gables jutting from the roof and subtle lighting fanning over the walls. Membership fees were astronomical, and nonmembers rarely passed through its intricately carved doors. The food was rumored to be incredible, the atmosphere posh beyond belief. Sarah was dying to go there.

  And maybe spending time with Eric would help exorcise whatever evil impulse was urging her toward Lane.

  “You know you want to go,” Eric said. “And I need a date. It’s a benefit dinner.” He flashed her a knowing smile. “The chef there is incredible, and their wine list is a mile long. I know you appreciate good wine.”

  Sarah did like good wine. Unfortunately, she usually liked bad wine too—especially the super-sweet pink stuff. Learning to tell the difference was part of her scheme to infiltrate the upper classes.

  “It might look bad,” she said reluctantly. “Other employees might get the wrong idea.”

  “It won’t be just you and me,” he said. “I bought a whole table, so I actually have three seats to fill.”

  She turned to see Gloria standing behind the pastry case, staring expectantly at her, then flicking her gaze to Eric. Her roommate scanned Eric’s expensive haircut, then licked her lips at the cut of his Armani suit.

  “Well, hello,” she said in a Mae West purr.

  “Hi, Gloria. Eric, this is my—friend. Gloria. Gloria, this is Eric Carrigan. He’s…”

  “Oh, I know who he is.” Gloria’s dimples deepened as she gave her blond locks a peppy Meg Ryan toss. “It’s just wonderful to meet you. I so appreciate all you do for this town. I mean, half our customers are Carrigan employees. If it wasn’t for you, we’d all be drinking our coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts.” She giggled and Sarah winced at her slightly maniacal pitch. Gloria had a tendency to try too hard with men. “I mean, I like the finer things in life. Don’t you?” She cocked her head and pressed her arms to her sides, turning slightly from side to side in a gesture that appeared little-girl bashful but actually emphasized her own “finer things.” Both of them.

  “Maybe you’d like to go with us tonight too,” Eric said, obviously charmed by Gloria’s puppylike friendliness.

  Sarah could feel her two lives colliding again, but she was helpless to stop it. Gloria never saw a party she couldn’t liven up with a little table-dancing, and she’d never met a man she wouldn’t try to seduce—especially if he happened to have a tight butt and a loose wallet.

  “A bunch of my golf buddies are going to be there.” Eric named a couple of higher-ups from other energy companies. “All men, though. We could use some female company.”

  Gloria was practically drooling on the counter at the prospect of man hunting at the Petro Club. “I’d be happy to come,” she said primly. “Thank you so very much!” She tilted her chin down, angling it toward the swell of her breasts, and fluttered her lashes up at Eric.

  “Great.” Eric grinned. “My friends are going to love you.”

  “I sure hope so.” Gloria tapped Sarah’s regular order into the register and beamed. “I’ll do my very best to make that happen.”

  Chapter 13

  Lane ignored the stare of the receptionist in the lobby of the Carrigan building and hit the “up” button on the elevator. He’d woken exhausted by dreams of Sarah and had resolved that if she was going to wear him out, he’d rather she did it in person. Hopefully he could talk her into lunch, because five o’clock would be way too long to wait. He’d play on her conscience, point out that they’d never gotten around to talking about the drilling.

  Stepping into the elevator, he tipped his hat to two giggling young women as they exited. City girls in Casper were mostly country girls trying out town life. Eventually, they’d finish with the outside world and return to the small-town cycle relationships, work, marriage, and children—who would repeat the cycle all over again. They all giggled when they saw a cowboy—except for Sarah. She wasn’t a giggler, which was part of the reason he’d been compelled to come back.

  Compelled. How long had it been since a woman compelled him to do anything? He hit the button for the tenth floor and eyed his reflection. The wavy stainless steel walls of the elevator gave his image an amorphous fun-house twist, stretching his legs and widening his shoulders and hat so he looked like a cartoon cowboy. Ducking down to check his reflection in the smoother panel that housed the controls, he realized he hadn’t shaved that morning, and maybe not the day before, either. Stubble shaded his chin and his hat was bent where the bull had stepped on it. He looked like a refugee from Wyoming’s outlaw past, not the heir to one of its most successful companies.

  At least, it used to be successful. Eric had been grumbling about the dwindling supply of oil in the West for years, and now he claimed that if they couldn’t access deeper reserves under the rocky Wyoming plains, they were going to run out of product. Their methods had to change.

  Well, they could change without Lane’s help. He wasn’t coming along for that ride.

  But he’d been thinking about his family, and a few things were bothering him. Sure, he hadn’t asked for a life of ease, but he’d lived one. He’d ridden the Carrigan gravy train straight to stardom, and yet he’d gone on the nightly news to bite the hand that had fed him all his life.

  The elevator beeped and the doors slid open, revealing a gleaming modern hallway. Lane took a deep breath and a right-hand turn toward his brother’s office. Rapping on the door, he opened it without waiting for an answer. “Hey, bro.”

  Eric leaned back in his padded leather office chair and smiled. For half a second Lane felt like he was looking in another fun-house mirror—one that made him look nattily dressed, slimmer, and altogether tidier than usual.

  And a little on the smug side.

  “Well,” Eric said. “I thought you’d be back.”

  Lane eased into the chair in front of the desk, suddenly conscious of the ache in his ribs.

  “I realized the other day that I hadn’t been much of a brother lately. Thought I ought to stop by more often.”

  Eric’s smug grin widened. “What you realized the other day is that I have a gorgeous woman working for me. Who’s way out of your league, but that never stopped you before.” Lane started to protest and Eric held up one hand like he was stopping traffic. “I saw you looking.”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Lane shrugged one shoulder and winced. “But she’s not going to change my mind about the drilling.”

  “So she told me.”

  “She tell you anything else?” Lane suddenly felt like he was back in middle school, asking if a girl liked him.

  “Nope. But I can give you some hints and tips. First one is to shut that door so she doesn’t know you’re here. She’s got a thing about fraternizing with the bosses, and seeing you’s liable to remind her of that. You’ll lose me my date to the benefit dinner tonight.”

  “Your date?”

  “I talked her into coming to the Petro Club tonight. And that’s your next tip. You show up there and make an effort to fit in, she might see you a little differently. It’s her kind of place,” Eric said.

  Lane was tempted to laugh. With its smoked windows and brass accents, the Petro Club was all glitz and sombe
r glamour, a symbol of smug wealth and exclusivity. Eric didn’t have a clue that Sarah didn’t entirely belong in that world. He only knew the straitlaced, stylishly suited corporate creature she played by day, but Lane had caught a glimpse of a rodeo natural who dressed, walked, and talked back like a no-nonsense cowgirl.

  He liked the cowgirl best, but that buttoned-up suit was a challenge as tempting as a bull that had never been ridden. Maybe if he dressed up and stopped by the Petro Club, she’d see he was more than a cowboy.

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll come.”

  “Good.” Eric’s sharp, fox-like grin set off a warning bell in Lane’s head, telling him he was being manipulated.

  “You think she’s going to change my mind about the drilling.”

  “I think she gets whatever she goes after,” Eric said.

  “Yeah, but so do I.” Lane gave his brother a wolfish grin of his own.

  “Well, I guess that’s one strategy for getting a high-class woman to date you. Although deep down, I think she’s really your kind of girl.”

  “Oh.” Maybe Eric wasn’t as clueless as he seemed. “So you know where she’s from, then?”

  “No.” Eric looked past him. “Hey, Sarah, where are you from?”

  Lane spun to see Sarah, decked out in a prim navy suit and heels, standing in the doorway. She was looking at Lane with murder in her eyes. She probably thought he was telling Eric all her secrets.

  “I went to Vassar.” She turned and walked out, leaving the door wide open.

  Eric shrugged and looked back at the computer screen. “That’s all she’ll ever tell me. Sometimes I think that girl’s got secrets.”

  “Would that matter?”

  “No.” Eric clicked the mouse a few times and leaned sideways, his eyes on the doorway. “Sarah, come here,” he said loudly. “This spreadsheet’s acting weird.”

  She reappeared and walked over to the desk, edging around the side to join Eric without so much as looking at Lane.

  “Here.” She clicked the mouse a few times, biting her lower lip. She’d done that the other night and Lane had bitten it back, nipped her, and she’d kissed him, and then…

  “Hit this, and then this. See?” Sarah bent over the desk to demonstrate, revealing a scrap of lace in the V of her lapels. He shifted forward for a better look and she straightened and shot him a look that reminded him of a bucking bull’s killer glare.

  ***

  Sarah struggled to keep the mouse from shaking in her hand. It was obvious she’d interrupted Lane in the midst of spilling her secrets to his brother. Why else would Eric suddenly be asking about her past?

  The whispers had been all over the office five minutes after Lane had arrived. The cowboy brother’s back. That’s twice in two days. She’d taken yoga breaths to hold back the blush heating her face and still she’d had to turn away from the whispering interns as they speculated on his reason for being there. She wondered if he’d come to see her, and dread of what he might say or do warred with vivid memories of the night before.

  Seeing Lane again could only lead to trouble. What was done was done. She was moving on.

  She’d resolved to stay holed up in her office until he left, but she needed to make a copy and the machine was down the hall, past Eric’s office. She’d zipped past the open door as fast as she could, but she’d stopped short when she heard Lane talking to Eric.

  You know where she’s from?

  The air had whooshed from her lungs as fast as the pleasant short-term memories fled her thoughts. It was really her own fault. What kind of a professional slept with her boss’s brother?

  Then again, what kind of a man kissed and told without even waiting a day?

  She’d asked him to keep her secrets, and he hadn’t answered—but he was answering now. Worse yet, he was doing his best to peek down her cleavage. And while any reasonable woman would be contemplating a sexual harassment suit, she could feel her skin heating and her nipples tightening. She had to concentrate so hard on suppressing her body’s instinctive response that she didn’t hear what he said next—something about rodeo and her bust.

  “What?”

  Eric cast her a curious look and she realized she’d dropped her mask and was getting red in the face.

  “He said your rodeo expedition was a bust.”

  “Oh.” She let out the breath she’d been holding and her heartbeat slowed a little. “Yes, it was.”

  “I think he wants another chance.”

  She felt like a trapped animal with Eric watching her expectantly while Lane worked the Carrigan charm for all it was worth. Obviously his ego had swelled to the point where it put pressure on his brain. How could he think she’d get anywhere near him now that she’d caught him about to betray her confidence?

  She remembered the vow at the Starbucks and repeated it to herself. Never again. No more following her impulses. No more letting down her guard. No more sex with cowboys in moonlit trailers at the rodeo grounds.

  That last thought brought another flood of heat to her face and she turned away so Lane couldn’t see it as she edged out from behind the desk. The space between it and Eric’s neatly organized bookcase was narrow, and knowing Lane was watching her backside didn’t make her face cool down any. The room felt close and hot and she just wanted out of there, but her heel caught on the leg of the desk and she tipped off balance, grabbing at the chair for support.

  But the chair wasn’t there; Lane was. He stood quickly and caught her hand in his, putting the other hand on her waist to steady her. In an instant Eric was gone, the office, the tower, even the humiliation and dread that had filled her moments before. Suddenly she was back on the dance floor at the beer tent and she had a crazy impulse to melt into him the way she had the night before.

  She glanced up, praying he hadn’t caught her reaction, but his eyes were inches from hers, fixed on her face. He wasn’t smiling like she expected; he looked intensely serious, as if he was forcing her to take notice of this moment.

  She jerked away from him and hooked her shoe with her toe, sliding her foot back inside and righting herself. Backing up a step, she smoothed her skirt and then her lapels, wishing she could smooth down her feelings as easily as she straightened her clothes. She was being a fool. He was a rodeo cowboy—a player. All those tender words, those sensitive responses—they were simply designed to get her naked.

  And she wasn’t going to fall for them again.

  Chapter 14

  Lane looked down at his hands as Sarah stalked out of the office. He could swear his fingers were tingling from where he’d touched her. For half a second, the two of them had replayed their brief dance at the bar, his hands steadying and supporting her, her flesh yielding under his palm.

  He looked up to see Eric watching him, eyes narrowed. “Did something happen between you two?”

  “No.” Lane’s voice came out thick and hoarse. “Nothing. I just—I need to talk to her.”

  He almost overturned the chair in his hurry to follow Sarah, but she was already halfway down the hall. He called her name and she hastened her steps, turning into an office and swinging the door shut behind her.

  Lane caught it just before the latch clicked.

  “Hey.” He edged through and let the door close behind him. “We need to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.” She stood with her back against a desk, her hands gripping the edge on either side of her hips. He had no doubt she was trying to look tough, but the pose was more alluring than fierce.

  “There’s a lot to talk about,” he said.

  “I noticed you had a lot to talk about with Eric.”

  “Not really.”

  “You were talking about where I was from.” She tossed her head in a move worthy of a soap opera star, but he saw more fear than anger in her eyes.

  “I wasn’t going to tell Eric a damned thing. I was trying to help.” He took a step toward her, but her knuckles whitened on the edge of the desk and
he took the step back and spoke in the soothing cadences he used on frightened horses. “Eric’s a detail guy. I was trying to see if he’d checked you out. If he had, I could have saved you from worrying about keeping secrets. As a matter-of-fact, he knows you’re keeping something from him, and he says it doesn’t matter.”

  She scanned his face and he stared back, willing her to believe him. Her jaw was tense, but he sensed that sudden shift of energy he’d felt the night before, and he thought he saw that straitlaced professional mask slip for a moment.

  She wanted to believe him. He just needed to keep pushing. Like he did with the horses—if he asked for a little more each time, eventually they’d form a true partnership.

  “We can keep what happened this weekend a secret,” he said. “For a while.”

  “Forever,” she said. “I’ve worked in places where…” She swallowed hard. “Where women had sex with the boss. I’d lose everyone’s respect.”

  “I’m not your boss. And that wasn’t just having sex,” he said. “It was a whole lot more than that.”

  That wasn’t what he’d intended to say, but it was true. Because—what was it? Why was he so smitten with her? Why was he even here?

  “Because I’ve been running away from who I am all my life, just like you.” He was sensing the truth as he formed it into words. “You’re a class act, Sarah. No one would ever know you weren’t born to wine and fine china. But underneath all that, you and I are a whole lot alike—it’s just that we’re moving in different directions.” He smiled. “Maybe we could meet in the middle.”

  His words surprised him as much as they’d surprised her. He hadn’t realized his feelings until he put them into words, but what else could have made him come to the office on a Friday morning, like a regular nine-to-five wage slave?

  He peeled one of her hands off the desk, then the other. She didn’t help him any, but she let him. As he looked down at her, the office seemed to fade away. He could smell flowers. Hear music. What the hell?