Bucked (13 page)

Mustang went on to briefly describe his relationship with Sage, both past and present.

When he was done, Jenna looked smugly at Slade. “Told you there was a girl.”

Slade rose. “Yes, you did. I gotta hit the head. I’ve been holding it since he started this story. I didn’t want to miss anything.”

She watched him go all the way to the men’s room, obviously proud of her powers of deduction. When he disappeared through the swinging door, she turned back to Mustang. “I’m sure everything will be okay. I mean, we only found it because we were looking.”

“I know, but it feels really shitty lying to her. Keeping things from her. You know?”

“Wow. You really are serious about this girl. You must be. You didn’t even suggest we go back to your trailer. I think you’re in love.”

Mustang sobered and let the idea sink in for a bit.

Maybe he was. That was some heavy shit.

Jenna laughed. “Don’t look so miserable. I’m happy for you. I’m glad that you met someone special. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am.” He let out a bitter laugh. “I think.” What he wasn’t so happy about was the idea of going back out on the road and leaving her. He sighed and then changed the subject. “So, are you planning on traveling with Slade for the rest of the season?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m heading back to New York after this leg of the tour. They’re heading to the West Coast next and I have things at home I need to take care of.”

Her face visibly saddened.

“You’re gonna miss him.”

She drew in a deep breath. “Yeah.”

Mustang and Jenna were sitting in the silence of shared misery when Slade returned. “Why do you both look so serious all of a sudden?”

Jenna snapped out of her reverie. “No reason, but back to Mustang’s situation. I think you need to tell her. If you feel strongly about her and you think you might have a future together, you can’t start off with a lie.”

Slade’s head swiveled, telling Mustang he disagreed. “Nope. Keep your mouth shut, man. What she doesn’t know can’t get you in trouble. Chances are she’ll never find out anyway. She doesn’t sound like the type to be out renting pornos.”

Jenna spun to face Slade. “You would start a relationship by keeping things from each other?”

This was one dogfight Mustang was staying out of. He took another swallow of beer and watched the action in silence.

“I’m saying if the truth would hurt her and it won’t change a thing if she knew anyway, why tell?”

Jenna’s brows shot up. “Oh, really.”

“Look, Jenna. If I had gone and took a job that required me to have sex with other women before we started seriously dating, would you really want to know? Especially if I never was going to do it again?” Slade asked.

“Yes, I would.”

That had been a silly question on Slade’s part. Even Mustang knew the answer to that one. Of course, she would. Jenna had been bitten by the curiosity bug. She had to know everything.

Mustang couldn’t be silent any longer and jumped in. “Okay, Jenna, I agree that you think you’d want to know, but the real question is would you be able to accept it? Could you get over it, forgive him and move on like nothing had ever happened?”

She sat for a second thinking and then shook her head. “I can’t picture Slade doing that so it’s hard to imagine.”

“But you can picture me doing it?” Mustang scowled, not sure if he’d just been insulted.

“You did do it,” she reminded.

“Then let’s pick another scenario. Let’s say Slade started seeing another woman back home in Texas after meeting you in Tulsa but before you met back up in New York. If after getting back together with you he vowed to never see her again, would you still want to know?”

“That doesn’t work either.” Jenna let out a sigh. “I know you were both seeing other women after Tulsa. If ‘seeing’ is really the euphemism you’d like to use for what you were doing.”

“That’s really what you think?” Slade frowned. “That I was with other women that whole time?”

Jenna nodded. “I try not to think about it, but really, we had no commitment. You guys were such playboys and then when you never called me. What was I supposed to think?”

Slade shot a nasty look at Mustang. This conversation wasn’t going as planned.

“I didn’t, you know. ‘See’ or do anything else with another woman while we were apart after Tulsa.” Slade reached out and held Jenna’s hand.

Her face softened. “You didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t.” Slade shook his head.

“Aww. I didn’t see any other men either.” Her voice sounded all soft and lovey-dovey.

Mustang rolled his eyes. “Um, excuse me. Now that we’ve got that settled, can we get back to my problem?”

The two lovebirds continued staring into each other’s eyes until Mustang leaned forward and tapped Jenna’s forearm.

“How about this? Let’s say Slade had been with someone else after meeting back up with you in New York.” Before he got Slade in trouble, Mustang added quickly, “He wasn’t by the way, but if he had been would you be able to forgive and forget?”

She frowned. “No, because that would mean he would have cheated on me after we agreed to not see anyone else. But that’s not a good hypothetical situation unless you and this woman agreed to have a monogamous relationship before you made the videos. Did you?”

He shook his head. “Hell no. I wouldn’t have agreed to the movies if I had. I hadn’t even had sex with her yet when I took the jobs. I’m not going to take on any more movies now that we are together like that.”

“So then you weren’t cheating on her.”

“No.”

“Then technically she really can’t get mad at you,” Jenna reasoned.

Slade let out a puff of air. Mustang glanced at him. “What do you think, Slade?”

“Whether she can or can’t technically get mad at you, I still can’t believe you’re even considering confessing everything. I told you. If you’re not going to do it again, keep your mouth shut.”

Jenna gave Slade an unhappy look. “I really think we need to talk about this propensity you have for keeping secrets.”

“How come I always get into trouble because of you?” Slade asked Mustang.

He couldn’t worry about those two. Mustang had his own issues. Drawing in a deep breath, he looked at Jenna. She was all for him confessing his sins even though he knew her well enough to believe she’d be the first one to hold a grudge, no matter what she said.

He glanced at Slade, who shook his head to reinforce his opinion against telling Sage anything.

“Okay. I’m not telling her.” Mustang sat back, but that decision grated on his conscious. He leaned forward again. “But maybe she would understand. She knows what my father’s like and how much I hate my job at the prison. Hell, I don’t know.”

Slade shook his head. “You are really fucked, man.”

Didn’t he know it.

“Mmm. I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Little Bit.” Mustang moved the hair from her neck and sent shivers down her spine when he kissed the sensitive skin just below her ear.

Sage’s breath caught in her throat as he nipped with his teeth and then soothed it with a brush of his lips.

“Oh, really? Then why did you avoid me all week since you’ve been back?” She tried to make it sound like she was teasing, but the question was totally valid.

It would be easy to simply sink into the pleasure and forget her feelings. For her own sanity, she couldn’t let that happen. Mustang had returned from Oklahoma late Sunday night and then had said he was too tired to see her every night during the week.

“I’m here now, aren’t I?” Did he hesitate before answering or was she being paranoid?

They were only together now because she hadn’t been able to stand it anymore and had walked to his house right after dinner.

He’d made some excuse to his parents about taking her into town for ice cream, when in reality they were in the trailer parked behind some trees by the lake.

The scenarios running through her head for the past few days as to why he was avoiding her had spanned some crazy territory. She imagined everything from his having met and become involved with another woman while he was away, to his having a secret wife and kids living in Oklahoma.

“Yes, you’re here. Finally.” She was starting to sound like a bitch.

He moved his hand to the button at the waist of her shorts. “Perhaps I can make it up to you.”

He slid his hand into her panties and had her shaking in mere minutes. Then he stripped her bare and shed his own clothes.

Donning a condom like he’d been appointed the poster boy for birth control after that one time he’d forgotten, he slid inside. He continued stroking in and out of her until they both gasped for breath.

Lying exhausted on his bed, Sage knew she was addicted to Mustang and the withdrawal was going to be bad. Too bad there wasn’t any rehab for this kind of addiction.

Mustang’s cell phone rang and he reached for his jeans on the floor. He frowned at the display. “I should take this. One second, Little Bit.”

He held up one finger and, turning his back to her, he wandered over to the other end of the trailer. She could only hear half the conversation and even less than that once he disappeared into the bathroom, but from what she could determine, he was telling someone he was busy this weekend.

She wondered who exactly he’d be busy with. When he came back to the bed and flung the phone on the mattress next to him, she fought the urge to ask anything about the conversation.

Unfortunately, she lost the fight. “So, you have plans this weekend?”

Now that the sex was over, her mind had gone back to work on making her insane.

Looking devilish, he dragged the tip of one finger down her stomach. “Why? Do you have something in mind?”

“That depends on if you’re too tired or not.” That came out sounding snippy.

He cocked one brow. “Oh really?”

She refused to give in to the distraction when he slid his hands between her thighs and instead kept her legs firmly clamped shut…until he began kissing a trail down her stomach. The lower his mouth got, the more her resolve lessoned, until she couldn’t resist anymore.

He spread her legs easily enough once she stopped fighting. “I’m not tired now.”

Grinning, he dipped his head low and she suddenly couldn’t remember what they’d been talking about.

An hour later, when they were reduced to two tangled, sweaty bodies, Mustang groaned. “I have to get up.”

“Why?” She rolled onto his chest and touched the cleft in his chin.

“I have to use the bathroom. Let me get up, get cleaned up, then I’ll come right back. I promise.”

With a moan of protest, she let him up but didn’t resist watching his ass muscles move as he walked to the bathroom. The door had just closed when she heard a muffled sound coming from the tangle of blankets. Mustang’s phone was ringing.

Sage knew the right thing to do would be ignore it and tell him it had rung when he got back. She could yell to him and ask if he wanted her to answer it. Or she could give in to morbid curiosity and look at the caller ID.

Leaping at the origin of the noise, she pawed through the blanket until she found the phone just as it stopped ringing. But before the display changed to say
Missed Call
, it very clearly read
Jenna
.

The bathroom door opened and she dropped the phone, bunching the covers back over it. Shaking, she tried her best to look casual but one thing kept invading her mind.

Who the hell was Jenna?

Mustang crawled onto the bed and gathered her in his arms. She stiffened.

“I think I better go.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s late. Your grandmother will start to worry. I’ll drive you.”

“I can walk.”

“Don’t be silly, Little Bit. My parents think I drove you into town. Of course, I’d drive you home too.”

She doubted he called who ever this Jenna was by some silly nickname that made her sound ten years old.

Suddenly feeling sick, Sage swallowed hard, torn between asking him who she was and grabbing her clothes and running to find somewhere private to throw up.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Thanks.”

***

“Thanks a lot for calling me back, Mustang.”

“What?” He barely recognized Jenna’s sarcasm in his sleepy state.

“I called last night and left a message. You never called me back.”

Mustang wiped a hand over his face and glanced at the bedside clock. It was too damn early for a lecture. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see a message. What’s up? Why are you up so ungodly early on a Saturday morning?”

Jenna laughed. “Up late last night, were we?”

“Maybe.” He’d been
up
, all right. Twice to be exact, which was actually fewer times than he’d like to be when he was with Sage.

“Anyway. We decided to stop by for a visit.”

“What?” That woke Mustang up. He bolted upright. “You’re coming here?”

“Yup. We’ve got a map that shows us how to get to Magnolia but we need to know where to go from there once we hit town. Slade doesn’t have a GPS and he refuses to let me buy him one.”

“Put Slade on the phone please, Jenna.”

“He’s driving.”

“Please, just put him on.”

He heard the transfer of the phone and then Slade’s voice. “I told her you wouldn’t welcome us with open arms.”

“Jeez, Slade. What the hell? You don’t call first?”

“She called last night. You didn’t answer.”

“Where are you coming from?” Mustang tried to remember the tour schedule but that part of his life had taken a back burner lately to all the rest.

“We’ve got this weekend off so I brought Jenna home to meet my father. She’s been in my ear about coming to see you all week.”

“You withstood it for a week. You couldn’t last a little longer?”

Slade chuckled. “You don’t know what she did to convince me.”

Mustang could only imagine. He heard a slap and an “ow” from Slade. “You deserved that, man.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, we’re here now so tell us where to go.”

“Go to the diner on Main Street and I’ll meet you there.” He was hungry now that he was fully awake and keeping Slade and Jenna in town would also keep them away from Sage and his father, which was a good thing.

They hung up and he threw clothes on. His mother was already up making coffee, but he bypassed that and headed for the door, telling her some friends were in town. That was followed by the usual invitation for them to visit, which Mustang dodged with some excuse as he grabbed his keys and escaped.

So far, so good. Now, if only Jenna would get her fill quickly and he could happily send them back to Slade’s father.

Not long later, Mustang sat across from Jenna and Slade, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand and a scowl on his face. “So, Miss Curiosity, why exactly are you here?”

“To see you, silly.” She had the innocent look down pat.

He let his gaze roam down her and noticed she still dressed like she was in New York, even when she was in a hole in the wall like Magnolia, Texas. “I don’t believe you, darlin’.”

“Why else would we be here?”

“You want to check her out.”

Jenna tried to control her smile. “Who?”

“You know very well who. You may be able to wrap Slade around your finger with whatever kinky little thing you used on him, but it won’t work on me.” Then he thought about it. “Hmm. Unless you’d like to give it a try on me and see if it will work. What was it anyway?”

He looked from Jenna to Slade.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Jenna challenged. “Besides, it was for book research anyway. Getting Slade to do what I wanted and come visit you because of it was just a nice bonus.”

“I was book research?” Slade frowned.

She shrugged. “Sorry, baby.”

Mustang raised a brow. “Tell me when this book releases, okay?”

Jenna laughed. “I’ll send you a signed copy.”

Slade groaned and signaled for more coffee while Jenna leaned forward. “So, when do we get to meet her?”

He looked up at the ceiling. “Um, let me see. Uh, never?”

A frown furrowed Jenna’s brow. “Oh, come on. What possible harm could it do?”

“Darlin’, I couldn’t even begin to list all the harm her meeting you could do.” He pictured that cozy introduction.

Sage, this is Slade and his girlfriend, Jenna. She’s the woman we shared for a week in Tulsa. You should read her book. It tells
all about it, right down to the old double P.
Yeah, right. He might as well add,
Oh, and by the way, that’s the name of the porno I
starred in too.

He shook his head more adamantly. “Nope.”

“There’s a good chance we’ll accidentally run into her you know.”

“How would that happen when you’re leaving right after breakfast?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? We stopped by the hotel on the edge of town. They have plenty of availability in case we decide to spend the night.” Jenna’s grin was more evil than anything Mustang had ever seen.

He turned to his supposed friend. “Slade, come on. Help me out here.”

Slade shook his head. “She’s got a mind of her own, man.”

“What’d she do? Threaten to cut you off if you don’t do whatever she wants?” Mustang suggested.

Sipping at his coffee, Slade nodded. “That and more.”

“If you just introduce us I’ll be happy, and then Slade will be happy too.”

“You’re missing one thing, darlin’. I don’t really care if Slade is happy.” Mustang was scoring a victory for himself when his phone rang. Pulling it out, he took one look at the caller ID and debated. Finally, he flipped it open. “Hey, Missy.”

“Missy? I thought he said her name was Sage.” Jenna hissed to Slade.

Slade motioned for Jenna to hush up, and gratefully she did so Mustang could deal with this.

“Hey there, my star. I know you said you were busy today, but I could really use you on set. Jon’s the star and he specifically requested to work with you again.”

“Yeah, about that. I couldn’t really talk when you called last night but the deal is, I’m not going to be, uh, taking on any more work in that area.”

Jenna’s eyes opened wide as she caught on. Slade took another second until she mouthed to him the word porno.

Mustang dragged his attention back to Missy’s voice. “I’m really sorry to hear that. The camera loves you, Mustang.”

Well, he didn’t love the camera, or, come to think of it, a dick-shaped whip handle in his ass. “Thanks, but it’s not for me.”

“We could talk money if that’s the issue.”

“Nope, that’s not the problem, but thanks for the offer.”

She sighed deeply. “Okay. You’ll call me if you change your mind?”

“Yes, ma’am.” God willing he’d never need to.

“Oh, and I’d thought you’d like to know
Double P Ranch
is already on sale and
Mistress Lena’s Punishment Part XII
will be out next week.”

He felt his face heat and seriously hoped Missy’s voice hadn’t carried across the table to Jenna or Slade. He didn’t need to be answering any questions about what his punishment had been in graphic detail. That was the one specific he’d left out of his confession.

Some things a man couldn’t tell even his best friend. “Great. Thanks for telling me, Missy. Good luck today and say hey to Jon for me.”

“Will do. If you change your mind we’ll be back at the ranch where
Double P
was filmed.”

“I don’t think I will, but thanks.”

The table was strangely silent. Two sets of eyes focused solely on Mustang as he flipped the phone shut.

“Wow.” Jenna let out a long, slow breath. “I know you told us about the videos, but hearing even half that phone call made it seem even more real.”

She should only know how real it felt being the subject of the camera zooming in for the money shot.

“Oh, it’s real, all right.” He shook his head. Looking around to see who was in hearing distance, he lowered his voice. “She offered me more money not to quit.”

“More money than two-thousand dollars a day? Damn!” Slade let out a whistle.

“Maybe I’m in the wrong business.” Jenna laughed.

Slade raised a brow. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What if we made them together? Bet you’d be all over that.”

Mustang held up one hand to silence them. “Okay, enough of this talk, please. I live in this town.”

Jenna shook her head. “Boy oh boy. For a man who didn’t even own a cell phone until about a month ago, you sure do get interesting phone calls.”

As if on cue, his phone rang again. He glanced down and shoved it back into his pocket. Sage. That one he couldn’t answer in front of Jenna.

“Who was that? It was Sage, wasn’t it?” Jenna sat forward in her seat.

“Nope.” Mustang shook his head and shoved the phone deeper into his jeans.

“Yes, it was. Why didn’t you answer it?”

“Because knowing you, you’d grab it out of my hand and introduce yourself, and then invite her to breakfast.”

“And? What would be wrong with that? Give me that phone.” Jenna jumped up and started a search of his pocket in an attempt to grab his cell.