Cowboy Blues

by Delores Fossen

  “A hundred percent,” Nick verified without hesitation. “Take an umbrella if you’re headed out anywhere.”

  She nodded and seemed both unconvinced and amused. “Skeeter also said I was to be careful or I’d end up in your bed. How accurate is he about predictions like that?”

  Now he hesitated. It took some effort for Nick not to curse over the old ranch hand’s doling out a bed warning. “No percent whatsoever.”

  Of course, it meant that Skeeter, who was partially blind and hard of hearing, had still seen the attraction between Lindsay and him. Not a good sign if it was that obvious.

  “It’s Skeeter’s birthday,” Lindsay went on. “He won’t say how old he is exactly, but he claims if we buy him enough beer, he might spill. Anyway, a group of us are getting together at the Longhorn to celebrate. You’re invited.”

  “The Longhorn?” he repeated.

  Lindsay shrugged. “Not many places for an adult birthday party in Wrangler’s Creek. Worried about returning to the scene of the crime?” she joked.

  Yeah, he was.

  Of course, now the barn fell into that category, too, because he’d also kissed her there. He’d thought enough about her during the showers and his sleepless nights that they weren’t exactly Lindsay-free zones, either.

  “I shouldn’t have kissed you again,” he said.

  Another shrug. “I think we get a little mindless when we’re around each other. Like now, for instance. I’m thinking things about you that would make you blush.” She chuckled.

  Then she blushed.

  Nick didn’t want to know about those thoughts, because he was having some bad ones himself. That’s why he was about to decline the invitation, but Lindsay spoke before he could say anything.

  “Come if you can,” she added. “I’ll understand if you can’t make it.”

  That was it. A no-pressure pitch as she walked off, giving him a nice view of the jeans-clad butt that had garnered his attention that night in the bunkhouse. It was still an attention-getter.

  Lindsay gave Gumball a neck pat before she left the corral and headed in the direction where the hands parked their vehicles. No doubt so she could go home and get changed for a celebration. One for a man Nick had known his whole life. The party would include lots of beer. Probably dancing, too.

  The two things that had led up to that first kiss.

  Except this time he wouldn’t be there. Plenty of the other hands would be, though, and he’d already heard a couple of the guys talking about hitting on Lindsay.

  Crap.

  Nick cursed himself. Then cursed those party-bound ranch hands and this blasted attraction that wouldn’t cool down. He put up Gumball and went to his bunkhouse so he could shower and change. He opted for cold water again, and if he’d thought ice packs would help, Nick would have tried that, too.

  He went ahead and ate to give everyone else time to get to the Longhorn. He definitely didn’t want to be the first to get there, but the minute he arrived, Nick realized that wasn’t a problem. It appeared that half of Wrangler’s Creek had shown up to celebrate Skeeter’s birthday. And despite the wall-to-wall crowd, he had no trouble spotting Lindsay.

  She was standing next to Skeeter at the bar, and as expected the hands from the Granger Ranch were surrounding her. She didn’t have on jeans tonight but rather a blue summer dress that hit several inches above her knee. Her legs managed to grab his interest as much as her butt had.

  He’d seen her like this before, he realized. Laughing, drinking a beer and having fun. She probably didn’t know that her face lit up when she was happy. Probably didn’t know that it made her even more beautiful than she already was.

  The ranch hands noticed, all right. Nick saw a couple of them give her long, slow glances, and while that didn’t please him one bit, he couldn’t blame them, because he was doing the same thing.

  Nick stood there and watched her for a few seconds, feeling another wave of that heat wash over him. His belly tightened, and there was some tightening below that, too, behind his zipper.

  She was mid-laugh over something Skeeter had said when she spotted Nick, and he saw the surprise in her eyes. And he felt the energy sizzle between them. He was sure if he had a mirror that he’d be seeing the same sizzle in his own eyes.

  “I’m glad you came,” someone said. Not Lindsay. She was still at the bar. This was Jolene Millhouse, who worked at the hardware and feed store, and she stepped directly in front of Nick.

  Like he did just about everybody else in Wrangler’s Creek, Nick had known her for years, and for most of those years, she’d looked at him the way he’d just been looking at Lindsay. Jolene and he had even hooked up a time or two. Nothing serious, though, which pretty much described all his relationships since high school. Which got him thinking.

  Had it actually been serious between him and Carol Ann?

  He wanted to say no, but that’s because the idiot part behind his zipper was encouraging him to believe that if it wasn’t serious, then maybe Carol Ann wasn’t a real ex. But as a general rule, Nick didn’t like lying to himself. Yeah, it’d been serious and exclusive between him and Carol Ann.

  And that had happened fifteen years ago.

  “Aren’t you even going to take your eyes off Lindsay long enough to say hello?” Jolene asked.

  Until she’d said that, Nick hadn’t even realized he’d been staring at Lindsay, but now he shifted his gaze to Jolene. She studied him over the top of her drink and smiled. “You got it bad, Nick. Wanna know the cure for it?” She didn’t wait for him to say no, that he didn’t want to know. “Sex.”

  Jolene winked, letting him know that she could help him out with that “cure.” He wouldn’t take her up on that, even if he hadn’t been lusting over Lindsay.

  “Well, another time then,” Jolene said, glancing back at Lindsay. “Another time for me, anyway. It looks as if you’ve made your plans for the evening.”

  He hadn’t. In fact, Nick was still waffling back and forth on whether to make the mistake with Lindsay now or have another go at taking a shower to cool him down so he could try to resist her.

  Lindsay already had a beer in her hand, but she snagged another one and headed his way. “I’ve been meaning to ask,” she greeted, “is there an expiration on the man rule of not being with your ex-girlfriend’s sister?”

  “According to what Carol Ann told you, no.” He took the beer, had a long pull, while he continued to look at her.

  “Yes,” she said, then paused. “Do you wish that I’d never come back to Wrangler’s Creek?”

  “No.” He meant it, too. “This is your home.”

  He started to say more, but then he realized there were several people interested in this conversation. Jolene for one, but also the two ranch hands she was chatting with. Even Skeeter was aiming some glances their way. Apparently, folks were waiting to see where this was going so they could start the rumor mill.

  Since there was nothing Nick could do about the gossip, he could at least minimize what the gossips could hear and see. They’d just have to make up the real details for themselves.

  “Let’s go this way,” Nick told Lindsay, and he led her through the main bar and out back. Of course, that made him an idiot because there was a pitfall to privacy, and that was the privacy itself.

  With Lindsay.

  That didn’t stop him from continuing. Nick took her to the back porch beneath the old tin roof where he could see and hear the rain. Yes, the very rain that Skeeter had predicted. Skeeter would be wrong, though, about Lindsay getting into his bed. For the time being, anyway.

  The porch was empty but wouldn’t stay that way. Soon, someone would come out for a smoke or in search of the fresh air that had led him and Lindsay to their first kiss. That’s why Nick knew he had to hurry so they wouldn’t be interrupted.

  He turned to tell h
er that he was driving himself crazy with these thoughts of her, but it wasn’t a good idea to turn. Or look. Because Nick felt the same punch that he’d felt the other times he’d seen her like this. He didn’t bother to curse himself or fight it. He just slid his arm around the back of her neck and kissed her.

  Their beer bottles clinked and clanged between them, but without breaking the lip-lock, Nick took them and put them on the window ledge next to them. That not only freed up their hands, but with nothing between them, he could pull Lindsay right against him.

  He could have sworn his body said, “thank you!”

  But Nick didn’t think his brain would be in on that gratitude. That’s because the kiss was even better than the others, and he knew he’d never forget that taste. Like a good party and a feast all rolled into one. He’d never forget the feel of her in his arms, either. Hard to forget how her breasts pressed against his chest. And even if he developed some kind of memory block, that sound she made would stay with him.

  A soft, silky moan that had another “thank you” ring to it.

  Great. It couldn’t be good that both of them were going to be stupid about this at the same time, but apparently that was the case. Because not only did they deepen the kiss, the touching and the body-to-body contact went up a notch.

  Before she hooked her arm around his waist and gave his butt a hard push, Nick hadn’t thought they could get any closer while standing outside, but he’d been wrong. Of course, it helped that it was the right kind of contact. His zipper against the front of her dress. It gave him a huge reminder that he wanted her out of that dress. Out of her bra and panties, too.

  But not here.

  Not on the back porch of the Longhorn Bar.

  That warning thankfully blared through his head. “We’re leaving now,” Nick insisted. He took hold of her hand and hurried her down the steps and into the rain.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE RAIN DIDN’T cool down Lindsay one bit, and while she hadn’t seen this coming—not so soon, anyway—she welcomed it.

  Thankfully, they hadn’t hurt themselves with the breakneck race from the back of the Longhorn to the side parking lot. She could add another thanks that no one had seen or stopped them along the way. Lindsay wouldn’t have cared if someone had spied them, but she doubted Nick wanted the word out until he’d worked through his man rule and his feelings for her.

  Of course, it was possible the only thing he was feeling for her was lust. But she thought something more was there, just beneath the surface. And no, she wasn’t talking about his jeans and boxers.

  Lindsay got another round of things she welcomed and was thankful for when they got into Nick’s truck and he immediately pulled her into his arms. She got another kiss, and his mouth was pure magic.

  All the feelings and the heat he could bring out in her, and better yet, the reaction was mutual.

  The kiss was hard and hungry, as if he were starved for her. All that skirting around each other they’d done for the last week had been an insane kind of foreplay.

  “Go to my place,” she insisted when he broke the kiss to start the truck. “It’s closer.” Even though closer suddenly didn’t feel near enough. Still, it was better than going seven miles or so back to the Granger Ranch.

  Nick nodded and started driving, but they hadn’t gone far when he glanced at her. Uh-oh. Common sense—or rather what he thought of as common sense—was returning now that he didn’t have an immediate source of the scalding attraction.

  Lindsay did something about that.

  She dropped a quick kiss on his mouth and then lowered her head to go after his neck. That way, Nick could still see out the windshield while she stoked the fire. It turned out, though, that stoking wasn’t that hard. One kiss, then a lick and nip on his neck, had him cursing her.

  Nick pulled off the side of the road, both the truck and his motions jerky and hurried, and the second they were at a stop, he took her again. This time, his hand went into her hair. This time it was even harder than the other kiss and had a Texas-sized amount of urgency to it. Lindsay hadn’t lost any of her own urgency, but that revved her up to the next level.

  “We should get to my house now,” she insisted. Best not to have sex while pulled off on Creek Road. It wasn’t exactly a hotbed of traffic, but there were four houses on the road, and one of the other owners could drive up at any time.

  That brought on more cursing from Nick, and he let go of her to throw the truck into gear. They made it about a block before he pulled over again and kissed her. This time, his hand went up her dress.

  And then inside her panties.

  Lindsay saw stars. Maybe the moon. Heck, an entire galaxy, and the revving up skyrocketed her straight to a need that made her not care one bit that they were on the side of a road, in a truck.

  Nick seemed to care, though. He pulled back his hand, let go of her and, with yet another round of cursing, he started driving toward her house. Even though it was only about three more blocks away, they stopped two more times. And the last time, Lindsay put her hand in his pants. Turnabout was fair play, but like the touching he’d done to her, it only made them crazier than they already were.

  Nick pulled into her driveway and nearly plowed the truck into the porch of the small house. Lindsay didn’t mind, because it put them closer to being inside. Only then did she realize something.

  “My key is in my purse at the Longhorn,” she said, her breath gusting. “I left it on the bar.”

  If he was upset about that, he darn sure didn’t show it. He just gave her another of those scorcher kisses, this one so hot that it possibly melted every thread of her underwear, and he hauled her out of his truck. He didn’t stop the kissing, which made her thankful for yet something else—that she didn’t have neighbors right on top of her.

  They were already soaked from the run from the Longhorn, but a second soaking came when they got out of the truck. It probably would have gone a lot faster and Lindsay wouldn’t have bashed her elbow on the steering wheel if they’d stopped kissing and groping, but that hardly seemed like an option.

  Nothing did.

  Except for her having Nick.

  Nick was on the same page there, too. They kissed their way up the steps onto her postage stamp of a porch and finally made it to the door. With his arms wrapped around her and his mouth on hers, Nick rammed his shoulder into the door and sent it flying open, along with shattering some of the wood frame that had held it in place.

  “I’ll fix that later,” he mumbled around the kiss.

  At the moment repairs of any kind were way down on her list of concerns. Ditto for bruises and torn clothes. Even air for her lungs. The ache and burn had gone to a full-scale blaze, and Lindsay wanted a fix—now.

  Nick had enough sense to shut the door and drag a chair over in front of it to hold it in place. And he did all of that while still kissing her blind. Obviously, he had no trouble multitasking with his smooth, fluid movements.

  Lindsay’s movements, however, weren’t quite as slick. She hoped Nick shared her views about torn clothes not being a problem, because when she went after his shirt, she heard a button pop and then ping to the floor.

  “I’ll fix that for you later,” she assured him.

  His shirt fought her every step of the way, but Lindsay got it off him. Finally! And she got to touch and kiss all those wonderful muscles on his chest. He was ripped. Perfect, too. But then she’d already known that because of the towel peep show in the bunkhouse.

  She kissed her way down to his stomach while she got him unzipped, and she would have just continued that if Nick hadn’t hauled her back up. So he could go after her dress, she realized. He pulled it off over her head, hitting himself in the face along the way, but that didn’t deter him. He rid her of her bra and had a touching, kissing fest on her body as she’d done to his.

  “Pe
rfect,” he drawled.

  There was nothing perfect about her body, but Lindsay was glad he thought that. Glad, too, that with the next set of kisses, he hooked his arm around her waist and got her moving to her bedroom. Or what he likely thought was her bedroom. It wasn’t, so Lindsay shifted directions and kissed him all the way there.

  Before today, they’d kissed twice, and now she’d already lost count of how many times they’d shared that particular pleasure. She was fairly sure that the number was going to skyrocket before this night was over.

  There were still unpacked boxes on the floor, which they tripped over, but it was a small room with a big bed so they landed on the mattress. With him on top of her. All in all, not a bad place, because she could feel more of him this way and felt yet even more when she slipped her hands into his jeans.

  He didn’t curse this time, but his eyes met hers. So intense. So on fire. He groaned out something she didn’t understand, and he ravaged her mouth again. Her breasts, too. If she hadn’t already been so close to the brink, she might have let him linger there awhile. But Lindsay wanted a different source of pleasure-giving right now.

  She got him unzipped and accidentally punched him in the stomach. He grunted, pushed her hand away and finished the job himself. Boots, jeans and boxers—all gone. And she finally got a great look at what had been behind the towel.

  “Perfect,” she concluded.

  The corner of his mouth hitched in the shortest history of short smiles. It ended when he got on the condom he took from his wallet and then pushed into her. A lot of things ended for Lindsay in that moment, too. Sanity, for instance. Ditto for any other thoughts. Everything vanished except for Nick and the pleasure. Not bad things to hold on to.

  It turned out that Nick didn’t just look perfect. He also hit the mark on that with lovemaking. Definitely not too gentle. Not too fast, either. But he certainly was thorough. He moved harder, deeper, and swept her right into the rhythm that Lindsay knew would take her to only one place.

  A giant climax.