Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (8 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

“Dalton?”
  Why he’d said that, Cade had no idea.  He knew it was her.  Every sexy inch of her, most of which was bared.  Hell.

“I
’m sorry to keep you waiting
,” she
said
, flashing
Cade a
sugary sweet smile. 
“I was having trouble with this darn zipper.” 
She bent to give the troublesome zipper another tug, and in doing so gave him a glimpse of what lay beneath her clingy top.

Cade’s jaw unhinged and
fell
open.  His mouth went
desert dry
.  H
e couldn’t think of anything to say
,
wasn’t even sure he could
speak
if he wanted to.  His tongue seemed to have burrowed into the bottom of his mouth.

Her appearance didn’t affect Burk’s ability to communicate one bit.  He let out a low whistle.  “
Damn.  Don’t you
look mighty fetching tonight
.”  He moved to pull out the chair across from his.  “Allow me.”

His friend’s actions had Cade frowning.  Especially since it had Dalton sitting next to him.

“
Why t
hank you, Burk
.”  She smiled
at him across the table as
he
settled back into his chair.

“Fetching?” Cade snarled.  “Hell, she’s all but naked!”

Lacy scoffed.  “Naked?”

He let his gaze run over her assessingly.  “Definitely
naked
.
”

She laughed. 
“You wouldn’t know a naked woman if she landed on your head.”

“Is that so?”  Cade stabbed his fork into the bowl of spaghetti and piled it onto his plate.

“
Was he
always this way?” she asked, turning to Burk.

“This way?” Burk replied.

“
A
prude.”

Burk nodded.  “
Not when he
was younger. 
He had an appreciation for females in skimpy clothes.  Nope, h
e wouldn’t have thought you looked too naked back then.”

“Hello,” Cade cut in with a scowl.  “I’m still sitting here, you know.”

Ignoring him, his friend continued, “Myself, I think you look just fine.
 
I’m not complaining.
”

Cade frowned.  What the hell was Burk thinking?

Lacy glanced his way and flashed him a victorious smile.

“
He would,”
he said, tempted to knock Burk
right off his chair
.

“Would you prefer to lend me some of your clothes to wear while I’m here?”

Hell no!  The last thing he wanted was her sweet scent all over his clothes.  “Don’t you have a story to write about me?  Or are we going to spend dinner discussing your fashion sense?”

“Who says PMS only affects women?” Lacy remarked, exchanging
grins
with Burk. 

His irritation growing, Cade jabbed his fork into the pile of spaghetti on his plate.  “You’re pushing it,
Dalton
.  Keep it up and there isn’t going to be any story.”

“I was only teasing you.”

She was that.

“Truth is
,” she said, “
I didn’t think you’d want to start at dinner
.  B
ut that’s fine with me.  Just let me go get my briefcase and we’ll start.  I’ll be back in a flash.”   

The second she disappeared through the doorway Burk turned to him.  “You sleep in a vat of vinegar last night?”

Cade scowled.  “You sleep in a vat of Spanish Fly?”

“Spanish Fly?”

“Don’t sit there and pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.  Lacy came here to do a story on me, not a Playboy centerfold.  So I’d advise you to keep your fly up!”

Burk eased back in his chair with a grin.  “If I didn’t know better, old buddy, I’d say you were jealous.”

“Like hell,” Cade protested.

Lacy returned, briefcase in hand and both men fell silent.  “Am I interrupting something?”

“No.”  Cade glared at Burk, daring him to speak.

She placed a small, handheld tape recorder on the table.

“What’s that?”
he
asked.

“Easier than taking notes. 
Will that be
a problem?”

“No.”  He just wanted to get the whole thing over with.

“Okay, let’s get started then.”  She pressed the record button.  “What is it you miss most about being on the circuit?”

“Nothing,”
he
said flatly as he pushed the food around on his plate. 

“
Don’t believe it
,” Burk argued.  “
He misses it all - t
he crowd
s
, the bulls, the glory
.  Did I mention t
he women
?  Oh, and let’s not forget the
adrenaline rush
that comes with
the profession
.”

“Excuse me,” Cade
muttered
in irritation,
“
but
I believe Dalton is interviewing me.”  He turned back to Lacy
with a sigh
.  “Burk’s right, I miss it all. 
One moment I was on top of the world of rodeo riding.  The
next I was
busted up
and in too much pain to
really give a
damn
.”

“That was the injury that put you out?”

He nodded.  “Damn bull stomped all over me.  B
usted
my hip.
  And sure enough the
reporters ate it up.”

Cade had made his resentment toward reporters very clear.  Not that she blamed him.  No doubt Mac would love for her to capture the look in Cade Tyler’s eyes
at that moment
on paper, to expose the doom and gloom of his life after the circuit.  Every journalist knows...sorrow sells.

Cade was right. 
Bustin’ Loose
was a rag.  According to Mac, the owner of the magazine wanted her to get the dirt on the ex-rodeo star.  Enough to up the columnist’s salary she’d be receiving by
five
grand a year.  She couldn’t turn the offer down, but she also had no intention of taking
the ‘blood-sucking vulture’ route
.
  Somehow she’d find a way to make it work.  To guarantee sales for Mac while allowing Cade to hang onto his pride, however damaged it may be.
   

“
What else would you like to know about this ‘has been’?”
Cade asked as he reached for his glass.

She opened her mouth to argue, to tell him that he wasn’t a ‘has been’, but the look in his eyes told her it would be useless.  That was something he
would have to
work out for himself. 

Her gaze dropped to the mini-cassette
recorder on the table in front of her. 
Despite having done
countless interviews
in the past
,
she
suddenly
f
ound herself struggling with what to ask
next
.  “I...uh...”

“Ask him about
the hordes of females he used to have tagging along after him
,” Burk prompted with a grin.

H
ordes
?
 
She couldn’t keep a brow from arching at that.  Cade was the sort of man to catch a woman’s eye, so having them chase after him didn’t surprise her. 
But hordes? 
Of course,
he’d been a
rodeo star
.  She supposed that came with the territory.  While t
he women in Cade’s past weren’t something she cared to hear about, the public would.

Lacy fingered the cassette player.  “So b
eing the big rodeo star you were, I
guessing
you had a different woman in your bed every night.”

Burk chuckled.  “You got that right.  Cade
drew
the ladies
in
like flies to honey.”  

“He’s exaggerating,” Cade muttered.

“Wish I were, but it’s true. 
Even after he married.  Women came at him like herds of stampeding cattle”

Her attention shifted back to Cade, disappointment surging through her.  One thing she couldn’t stand was a man who was unfaithful.  Her last boyfriend was that kind of man.  “Your wife didn’t care?” 

Burk answered for him.  “Why should she?  Once she came into his life she was the only
woman on his mind.
  The other women never stood a chance.
”

“Oh,” Lacy said
, relieved to hear Cade hadn’t forgotten his vows to his wife.

“You sound surprised,” Cade said with a frown.

“I have to admit that
I imagined women going in and out of your bedroom in shifts.
  Wife or not.
”

“You wouldn’t be the first journalist to think that.  But they were wrong. 
There’s only been one woman in my bed
since I married
and that was my wife. 
Of course, I don’t have to worry about you putting that i
n your
story.  It would hurt sales.  You and I both know that all those horny women who read your magazine want to know they stand a chance with a rodeo star, married or not.” 
Cade pushed away from the table and stood
and
carried his plate over to the sink and tossed it in with a clatter.

Lacy turned off the recorder. 
This wasn’t going to work. 
She wasn’t any better than
all th
ose
‘
horny women
’
Cade referred to. 
Her ending up in his bed had been purely accidental
.  H
er wishing he had
been in it with her
made her one of those desperate women who fantasized about being with a man like Cade.

“Excuse me.”  Grabbing her things,
Lacy fled to the privacy of the guestroom, closing the door behind her.  She sagged against it with a sigh.  Not once in all her years of being a reporter had she ever considered giving up an assignment, but this time she had no choice.  Things had gotten too complicated.  She would call Mac in the morning and let him know.  Then she’d start the job search
all over
again. 

She
crossed the room and knelt by the bed
to pull out her
suitcase
.  Setting it on the bed, s
he had just reached
for the zipper
when her cell phone rang.
Pulling it from her purse, she flipped it open.

“Hello?
”

“Ms. Dalton?”