The room erupted into laughter.
“Not a chance,” Ethan told her and clicked the stop watch. “You got ‘em all, sweetheart, with two seconds to spare. So you definitely do not have to marry my baby brother.”
Caleb tried not to scowl while the rest of his brothers hooted and applauded. Sometimes it just burned his ass, how Ethan and the others talked about him. Being the youngest Boone might have made him the baby back when they were kids, but he was a man now, wasn’t he? A tough, hard-working cowboy with the fastest rope and surest hands in Crystal Valley, in fact. So why did everyone talk about him – and regularly treat him – like he was still in diapers?
“Hey.” Chris, the largest of the Boone boys, gave him an elbow nudge. “You still riding in the team roping event at the rodeo tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” Caleb perked up a little. “Me and Jeb partnered up. We’re thinking about using Dancer in the first round. He’s been pretty steady in practice.”
“Hastings said that they invited some teams from the pro circuit to compete,” Chris said. “So I was thinking you might want to sit this one out.”
“What are you talking about, bro?” Caleb stared at his brother. “I can out-rope every man in the county. Besides, I’ve been waiting for this rodeo all spring.”
“It’s the only event where they let women compete against men, remember?” When Caleb didn’t say anything, Chris leaned close and said in a lower voice, “You want to risk having your ass handed to you in front of everyone in town? By a couple of ladies?”
“Sure, why not?” Caleb pushed himself out of his chair. “Be a nice change from you and the rest of the boys patting it.” Before Chris could reply, he strode out of the private room and headed for the parking lot.
As Caleb came around a corner a tall, redheaded waitress walking in the opposite direction collided with him.
“Hey, oh, damn.” He caught her before she fell backward and steadied her. “I’m so sorry, honey. Must have forgot to take off my blinders tonight. You okay?”
“I’m fine, Cowboy. Nice catch.” She gripped his arms as she looked up at him with brown eyes so light they seemed to glow from within with sunlight.
Caleb had never held such a tall woman in his arms; she stood only an inch shorter than him. She also had a long, slender body like a professional dancer, but he guessed the waitressing kept her strong and slim. She worked hard, too; he could feel the calluses on her palms and fingers. Her straight garnet-red hair had been cut short into a clever wedge shape that flattered her angular features, and showed off her beautiful throat and delicate shoulders.
“You with the wedding party in there?” she asked.
Feeling a bit dazed, Caleb nodded. “My brother Ethan’s the groom. I haven’t seen you waiting tables here before tonight. You new in town?”
Two dimples appeared in her cheeks. “Yeah, I am.” She glanced over his shoulder. “Listen, I’m all done here. You know a place around here where a gal can get a beer, maybe shoot a friendly game of pool?”
“Sure.” Caleb grinned. “I’m heading there now. Want a ride? My name’s Caleb Boone, by the way.”
“Harper Mason.” She tucked her arm through his. “Let’s go.”
#
The tavern where Caleb Boone took her was barely more than a bar and three pool tables, but Harper felt right at home. She’d spent most of her childhood in little watering holes just like it, sipping a soda and listening to her father and his friends swap tall tales. Dad had seen to it that she could ride before she could walk, and rope before she could read. He’d never held her back from competing, either, even after all his old back injury had finally put him in a wheelchair.
As she watched Caleb fetching two beers from the bartender she felt guilt needle her again. She hadn’t lied to him, but she shouldn’t have let him assume she was a waitress. On the other hand it felt good to spend a couple hours not being Harper Mason, the hottest female rodeo star on the Northwestern circuit.
Caleb returned to her side and handed her a dark bottle as he surveyed the balls she’d racked on pool table. “You want to break, Red?”
She took a sip of the ice-cold beer. No one had called her Red since her Dad had passed, and she loved hearing it again. “You want a chance to win, Handsome?”
His mouth curved. “What are we playing for, cash or other?”
“Well, I’m not exactly a rich woman.” She stepped up to him to feel the heat of him, and look into his pretty gray eyes. “What falls under other?”
“We got a little game we play called You Say, I Do,” he told her, his voice soft and low. “You win, you get to say anything, and I have to do it. Or vice-versa.”
He smelled so good it was distracting her. “Anything?”
“As long as it don’t break the law, and the loser is willing, yeah.” His teeth flashed in his lightning smile. “Anything.”
“All right.” She handed him a cue. “But I don’t cotton to that gentlemanly ladies-first nonsense. So you break.”
“Gotta love those equal rights.” Caleb handed her his beer and chalked the cue’s tip. “Here we go.”
Harper watched his excellent first shot, and the two that followed. On the fourth he tried a difficult bank shot, probably to show off a little, and missed.
“Aw, that’s a shame.” Harper handed over their beers and went to the wall rack to select a lighter cue. “How long you been shooting pool, Cal?”
He mirrored her on the other side of the table. “Since I could sneak in here and a few other places without getting carded. I guess about ten years. How about you?”
Harper bent over to line up her shot. “Since I was tall enough to hold a cue and see over the edge.” She glanced up at him. “My dad had a table in the basement.”
“So I’m about to be hustled?”
Without even looking at the table, she took her shot and sank two balls. “Yeah, I think you are, Cowboy.”
Chapter Two
Caleb watched Harper expertly run the table, sinking every shot she took. With the skill and surety of lifelong experience she’d likely wipe up the floor with him, but he didn’t mind. It felt good to be with a pretty woman who knew nothing about him or his six older brothers. He didn’t have to talk about their weddings or babies; as far as Harper was concerned, he was the only Boone in town.
Maybe he could be her Boone.
Just as Harper was about to sink the eight ball, a burst of laughter came from three men watching TV at the bar. The sudden, loud sound startled her enough to make her scratch the shot.
“Take it again,” Caleb told her when she came to him. “Outside interference.”
“Mercy. You really are a gentlemen.” She fluttered her long eyelashes at him. “But since I wouldn’t give you a do-over, the table’s yours.”
Caleb liked how upfront and honest she was, and that she didn’t trade on her looks or gender to take the advantage. Once he cleared the table and sank the eight, he gave her a direct look. “Looks like I’ll be having the say this time, Red, and you the doing.”
Harper laughed, drawing appreciative glances from all around the room. “I always pay my debts. So what can I do you for, Cowboy?”
Caleb held up a finger before he went over to the jukebox and fed it some quarters. He then returned to Harper and held out his hand. “Do me one dance.”
She took his hand, and eyed the tiny patch of floor he led her to. “Not much room to sashay around here,” she mentioned.
“It’s a slow song.” Caleb turned to face her, and tucked his arm around her narrow waist.
“That’s good,” she murmured as she shifted closer. “Because I can’t dance worth a damn.”
Caleb intended to make a liar out of her as he moved her in a slow circle. Whirling her to the soft sound of the crooner lamenting a lost love made him grin, but watching her expressive face grow dreamy sent a surge of hot blood to his groin.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he urged as he lace
d his fingers through hers.
“I can’t decide if I want another beer. I should bring ear plugs next time we shoot pool. And this might be the best night I’ve had in just about forever.” Her dimples framed her slow smile. “And it’s only getting started.”
“You have a lot of energy for a girl who just got off work.” Caleb saw her brows draw together, and asked, “Something wrong?”
“It’ll keep.” She ran her hand over his shoulder. “You working tomorrow?”
“I work every day, Red. You heard of Ghost Lake Ranch?” When she shook her head some of his tension eased. “That’s my job.”
“Ranch hand, huh?” She rubbed her palm in a circle against his bicep. “I didn’t think you got this fine body doing Pilates. You like working cattle?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s never easy, but it’s what I know, and what I love. Plus I got the prettiest workplace in the world.” As the song came to an end he stopped and smiled down at her. “You’ll have to stop talking trash about your dancing skills, girl. That was real nice.”
“I’m glad you liked it.” She patted his chest. “Because when I win the next one, I’m not going to ask you to dance.”
Caleb chuckled as he walked with her back to the pool table, where he racked the balls before insisting she have the break. This time it took Harper only five minutes to run the table and sink the eight ball. She made such short work of it that two men came over to stand beside Caleb and watch.
“That’s the prettiest pool hustler I ever saw,” one of them said.
“Best get your wallet out, son,” the other advised.
Once Harper finished the game she circled the table to replace her cue on the rack before crooking her finger at Caleb. He went to her, and chuckled as she took the cue he hadn’t used and put it back.
“Don’t you want to give me two out of three?” he asked.
“Nope.” She gave him a long, surprisingly serious look. “I can say anything, right?” When he nodded, she added, “Does it have to be here?”
“No.” He was starting to feel a little nervous now. “What do you have in mind, Red?”
“You’ll see.” She tugged on his hand. “Come on.”
Once they were in his truck, Harper directed him to drive to a cluster of cottages just on the edge of town. Caleb knew they were summer rentals that could be had by the week, and when she had him park outside one, guessed she’d taken it until she could find more permanent accommodations.
“All right, we’re here.” He shut off the engine and turned to her. “What’s it going to be, Ms. Mason?”
“Walk me to the front door and I’ll tell you,” she said, climbing out.
She was going to ask for a kiss, Caleb decided, and put his arm around her as they crossed the yard. “If you’re looking for a place to live, I can help, you know.”
“I’m sure you can.” She stopped, unlocked the front door, and then tucked her keys into her pocket. “Ready to pay up, Handsome?”
“You say, I do.” Caleb spread his arms. “I’m yours, Red.”
“Good.” Harper smiled. “Spend the night with me.”
#
Any other cowboy hearing that would have been on Harper in a flash, but not Caleb Boone. His jaw tightened, and his eyes darkened almost to black, but he didn’t touch her.
“Maybe that beer went to your head,” he said carefully. “You feeling a little woozy?”
“Cowboy, I grew up in bars. I could probably drink you under the table.” She hooked her fingers behind his belt buckle and pulled him closer. “I’m protected and I’m clean. How about you?” When he nodded, she smiled. “Then we’re good to go.”
“I could be lying,” he said, almost as if he were scolding her. “I could be a lowdown dirty dog of a man only interested in one thing.”
“If that were the case, you would have asked me for a blow job instead of a dance.” She saw the doubt in his eyes. “Come on, Caleb. Don’t tell me you’ve never spent the night in a lady’s bed.”
“Oh, yes ma’am, I have – but not on the same night we met.” Now he brought his hand to her cheek. “Harper, I’m serious. You don’t know me. I could be anyone.”
“You’re a gentleman, and a good loser. You won’t let a lady fall if you can catch her. You’re Caleb Boone, and I want you, and you want me. You have since you caught me in your arms.” She walked backward into the cottage, tugging him along with her. “Come on, Cowboy.”
He leaned back against the door to close it. “Just answer me this: you want to get married, have a bunch of kids?”
Harper shrugged. “Someday, maybe, if I ever settle down. Now? Hell, no. So why don’t you come over—”
Caleb stopped her words with his mouth, his tongue, and his teeth. Harper groaned as he ravaged her with a kiss so hungry her back bowed.
He broke it off and hauled her off her feet. “Bedroom.”
His growl made her kiss him, long and hard, before she gasped, “End of the hall.”
Caleb kept kissing her as he carried her, and once inside her bedroom had her under him on the bed in a heartbeat. He rolled aside only enough to unfasten the snaps on her shirt and open her jeans. Then he straddled her and stripped her from top to bottom before he stood.
“Turn the light on,” Harper begged.
He switched on the lamp on the night table before he began to strip. Hard, coiled muscle bulged in his arms and across his broad, tanned chest, making her mouth water. His dark eyes never left hers as he worked his way out of his boots and then his jeans. Once he was naked, Harper smiled.
“Oh, yeah.” She sat up and reached out to trail her fingers from his collarbones to his navel. “Bring that gorgeous body down here to me. I want to play with it.”
“We’ll take turns,” he told her, stretching out beside her and placing his hand on her hip. “Damn, you’re so pretty.”
Harper tucked in her chin to watch him trace the edge of her aureole with a fingertip. He had barely touched her, and already her nipples looked dark red and ached with every pulse of her heart.
“It hurts,” she murmured. “Kiss it and make it better.”
Caleb cupped her breast with his hand, first pressing his lips to her peak, and then giving it a slow lick. “Like this?”
“It still . . . ah.” As he latched onto her and sucked she shuddered. “That’s it. Oh, yes.”
Caleb rolled over her to ravish her breasts with his mouth until she squirmed frantically beneath him. He lifted his head. “Something else bothering you, ma’am?”
She spread her legs and rolled her hips, shivering as she felt the press of his erection against her softness. “You could say that.”
“Want me to kiss that and make it better, too?” he teased.
As tempted as she was to feel his mouth between her legs, Harper shook her head. “I can’t wait anymore. Please, Cal, I need you.”
Her cowboy rolled with her again, shifting her on top of him and pulling her over his erection. “All right, then. Let’s dance.”
Harper braced her hands against his chest as she lowered herself onto the thick spike of his hard penis, letting her breath escape her as she sank down. His wide girth made their fit glove-close, and as he filled her, she let her head fall back.
“You say, I do, Red,” he said softly, reaching up to cover her breast with his big hands. “Damn, you’re squeezing me so good. You like it? You like my hard cock in that wet little pussy?”
Harper clenched around him until he grunted with pleasure. “Oh, this big lovely thing is mine now.”
“That’s going to make it hard to go to work.” Caleb smiled up at her as he slowly massaged her mounds. “You planning on staying in bed forever?”
“At least ‘til Christmas. Ah.” Harper covered his hands with hers, and slowly began to rock herself over him, riding his length with smooth, slow strokes. “If you were mine I’d be on you every night, Cal. Swear to God.”
“Lean down here.” He gently tugged on
her nipples, and when she lowered herself, he wrapped his arms around her back, holding her to him. With powerful thrusts of his hips, he worked in and out of her. “Hold onto me.”
Caleb drew out of her as he shifted off the bed, supporting her in his strong arms as he turned her onto her belly.
“Oh.” Harper lifted her bottom, shimmying it against his erection until he fitted his thick cockhead to her folds and she could take him again. The new angle made him feel huge inside her. “Harder, oh, yeah. Oh, that’s so good.”
“You say, I do,” he muttered as he began pumping into her softness with deep, hard thrusts that made the entire bed shake.
Harper swallowed a wail as she braced herself and pushed back against him, her breasts bouncing and her buttocks smacking against his belly. Just as she thought she might explode, Caleb reached under her and rubbed a finger between her folds, stroking her throbbing clit.
“Cal.”
“I’ve got you,” he told her, his voice tight. “Come on, Red, show me what you got for me. I want all of it, right now.”
Harper’s muscles stretched before they went hot with pleasure. Her climax seized her and dragged her off, shaking her like a doll and then cradling her with bursting delight. She felt Caleb crouch over her and make hoarse, frantic sounds as he plunged deep and pumped hard, filling her with jet after jet of his seed.
They both collapsed in a panting, sweaty tangle, her breasts squashing themselves against the mattress while his chest heaved into her shoulder blades. Just as she released her last, blissful sigh, Caleb pulled her over onto her side and spooned with her.
“Damn,” he murmured. “You sure you want just one night?”
Harper chuckled. “I’ll probably be too sore for this tomorrow.” She bit her lip before she added, “Cal, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Caleb drew out of her and turned her to face him. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, baby.” She cupped his cheek. “I mean about work.”
“Oh, right. Call your boss tomorrow and see if you can take the day off. Or the week.” He lowered his mouth to hers. “Maybe a month.”
MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) Page 139