Lasso My Heart (3 page)

“Out for the year? Of the NFR?” The National Finals Rodeo was a few months off, but surely there was time for Tucker to get back in the standings.

“No, out for good. I’m all washed up.”

* * * * *

Tucker had said the words to himself over and over but when spoken aloud, they rang with a finality he felt deep in his bones.

He had a buckle from every championship there was—except one. And that one silver prize was never going to belong to him. After healing from his injuries in the past, he’d jumped right on the back of the next bull, ready to ride for glory. But now he was gun-shy. He hadn’t quite figured out why yet, but he had no desire to try again.

“You can’t be serious, Tucker.”

“As a heart attack,” he drawled. He couldn’t go on for the lump in his throat. “How about that pie now?”

“Yeah. C’mon.” Josh turned off the shed lights and headed for the one on the porch. In the faint light, Tucker studied his friend. Josh sure had filled out in the past few years since they’d bunked together in cheap motels around the country. His shoulders were huge, his thighs—

Tucker shook himself. He had no business checking out Josh’s thighs. Not while they were walking to the house to meet his wife.

Who was another problem altogether.

When he set foot on the porch steps, he wondered what the hell he was doing here, in Bum-fuck, Texas, asking for a lowly ranch hand job.

Trying to raise a little cash.

If that were the truth, he could take some commercial gigs, endorse horse supplements or energy drinks. But he’d run from all things related to his old life. He was ready for a new adventure, and getting back to his roots had seemed like the place to start.

A shadow appeared beyond the screen door, then it opened and a figured stepped out onto the porch. Her face was thrown into shadow, but Tucker swore he felt her gaze roaming over him.

“Jesus,” she breathed.

His heart flexed with happiness of being back with people who’d known him before he was famous.

“Is that Tucker Lee?” Dixie’s stunned tone struck him funny, and he and Josh dissolved into guffaws of laughter.

Dixie looked between them. “You sound like two hyenas laughing out here. You’ll scare the chickens and get that old rooster crowing. Now come inside at least so I can see you properly.” With that, she went into the house.

Tucker sobered at the sight of her round backside. Josh ushered him in first. When the three of them stood in the homey, good-smelling kitchen together, Tucker stopped thinking he’d made a bad decision in coming here.

His old friends stared at him. They’d gone to high school together, but none of them had been very close. Except for a few months right after graduation when he and Dixie had worked in a mom and pop joint.

He met her gaze. She had the same dark doe eyes with insanely long lashes, upturned nose, full lips and a pointed chin. The snapshot of her in his mind had been one of an eighteen-year-old Dixie, but this woman was slightly changed. Softer. More beautiful.

He let his breath trickle out, and it sounded as a wheeze. “Good to see you, Dixie.” He reached for her at the same moment she reached for him. They both tried to hug with the same arm, moved to the other and ended tangled up in an awkward embrace.

So much for that reunion.

She stepped away. “Good to see you too, Tucker. What a surprise to find you on our doorstep at ten o’clock at night.” She eyed Josh, who pressed his lips together. Tucker got the feeling she was chiding him for such a long day.

“I’d say I was passing through, but it’s not exactly true. Can we sit down?” Suddenly the four wooden chairs around the table were appealing as hell.

“Of course. Sit and I’ll put on some coffee. Unless you want beer?” She had already bustled across the worn linoleum to the coffeemaker, but she twisted to ask.

“Coffee’s perfect.” He’d had enough liquor and hard living for a lifetime. He took a seat, and Josh’s chair creaked under his bulk.

Tucker swung his gaze from Dixie to Josh, unable to put them together yet in his mind. He shook his head. “So how’d this come about? How long have you been married?”

“A year,” she said, dumping water and grounds into the coffeemaker. From behind she still had the body of an eighteen-year-old. Curves for miles.

“Well congratulations.” Tucker dipped his head toward Josh. The friend he’d rodeo’d with was different too. Bigger, stronger, with a few new lines around his mouth that extended upward.
Smile lines.

Tucker envied the hell out of him. After five years of busting most of the bones in his body, what did he have to show for his life besides a pile of buckles? Any prize money he’d made was long gone, and he hadn’t had a regular girl in too many years to count.

Buckle bunnies had kept him company for the last few years. They’d follow him out of the arena, chase him to his trailer. One thing would lead to the next, and he’d wake up beside one.

And sometimes he’d awaken to a rough, manly jaw on his pillow too.

He flicked his gaze to Josh, drinking in the square jaw that had once haunted his dreams. Tucker had a feeling Josh had just left the rodeo because he wanted to end their wild and lustful relationship but hadn’t known how. Of course, Josh had never been cut out for the life of a professional cowboy.

“This place suits you,” Tucker said. “Both of you.”

“Looks a little more rundown in the daylight, but we’re working on it, aren’t we, Dixie darlin’?” Josh extended an arm, and she curled against him, leaning with her soft breasts against his head.

A weariness struck Tucker and he longed for a pillow of his own.

“The kitchen is next on our remodel list. But that can’t happen until late fall when things slow down on the ranch,” Dixie said. Her dark eyes were something Tucker always thought of when he conjured a memory of her. Mostly he recalled her eyes blurred with passion as he thrust into her, though.

He either needed to give them a story so he could stay or get the hell off their land. The latter was probably the better choice, seeing how he’d slept with both of them in the past. Did they know? Had they ever confided in each other?

He looked between them, trying to reenact the conversation in his head.

“Dixie darlin’, there’s something I gotta tell you about my list of lovers.”

“Oh?”

“I slept with a man. Did delicious and dirty-bad things to him. Then up and left him when things started getting too intense. It was Tucker.”

“Tucker? What a coincidence. I did delicious and dirty-bad things with him too. I guess you and I had more in common than I thought.”

The brakes skidded on the mental soundtrack, but Tucker held it together. Dixie brought him a steaming mug of coffee that made his gut cramp at the heavenly aroma.

He brought the cup to his lips, closed his eyes and sipped. This was something a cowboy appreciated—good coffee. He groaned, and they both snapped their attention on him.

“Damn, Dixie, either you make a great cuppa joe or I’ve been drinking swill out of motel coffee machines for too many years.” He drank half the mug despite the temperature.

When she smiled at his compliment, his heart gave a happy little squeeze. He definitely wasn’t leaving—he needed good friends right now, and though he knew how both of them looked as they came, they’d been friends first and foremost.

He lowered the mug and set it on the worn wooden surface. “I need some work, and I heard ya’ll are looking for a hand.”

Josh nodded, and Dixie slid into the chair adjacent to him. She placed her hand over Josh’s, giving Tucker a strange thrill that wasn’t really jealousy. He was happy for them.

“We aren’t able to pay much, but it’s a fair wage. Room and board, two-hundred dollars a week.”

Tucker nodded. “It’s a sight better than what I’m earning now.”

“I have to ask, Tucker. Why aren’t you returning to the circuit? You’ve been on a five-year winning streak.” Dixie’s steady gaze gave him another kind of thrill. In his jeans.

He eyed her from the corner of his eye. “Don’t they say to go out while you’re on top?”

She dipped her head, wearing a pink glow on her high cheekbones as she traced a gouge in the table surface. “And that’s why you’re leaving? Glory before the fall?”

“Somethin’ like that.” He wasn’t going to say he was scared of getting thrown again. That he’d had a gutful of being tossed on his back, shoulders, head. He wanted to settle down and have a life very much like Josh and Dixie had created here.

“Plus I broke both my legs not too long ago, and I’m still recovering.”

Dixie sucked in a breath. “I never heard about your injury.”

“You must not follow the rodeo very closely then. It was all every broadcaster talked about for a month.”

Her blush deepened, and she threw a look at her husband. “We don’t watch much TV in the evenings.”

At that, the corner of Josh’s lips twitched up. He connected gazes with his wife, and Tucker could practically feel the hormones raging between them. The air thickened. He’d never felt like such a third wheel in his life.

“So you’ll take a chance on a washed-up bull ridin’ drifter?”

The moment was broken, and Dixie looked past Tucker to the door, where he’d set down his backpack. “If that’s all your possessions, I’d definitely call you a drifter.”

“Don’t need much more than boots, a hat and gloves for working cattle, do I?”

Dixie’s tinkling laugh was exactly as he remembered it. “Josh would probably appreciate you wearing some clothes.”

Josh’s gaze snapped to Tucker’s. He read confusion and worry there, along with an old spark Tucker knew far too well. His chest tightened as Josh’s gaze slid away.

“If you grab your bag, I’ll show you to your room.” He stood.

Tucker got to his feet, and alarm crossed Dixie’s pretty features. “You haven’t eaten anything, have you? You can’t go to bed on an empty stomach.”

Tucker couldn’t stop himself from drifting toward her. Sweetness oozed from her, and when she fussed over him, he liked it. A lot. He hooked her into a quick hug, pecking her on the top of the head. “I’ll make do till breakfast.”

“I’ll make French toast.”

He released her before Josh grew suspicious about how his wife knew their new ranch hand favored French toast. “I’ll be up before dawn.”

“Good because I’ve got some horses to work. Best to do it before the heat.” Josh led the way out of the house and down the porch steps. Tucker expected them to head to the barn to a meager cot at the back. But Josh took him around the house to a small addition only accessible from the rear.

When they entered, Tucker caught a breath of fresh pine. Josh snapped on a light to reveal the wood that lined the walls and floor a double bed with plenty of pillows.

“Dixie’s touch,” Josh said with a smile in his voice.

“I see that.” He tossed his pack onto the quilt. “I’ll be comfortable here. Thank you.”

Josh pushed open a small door to show off a bathroom equipped with a shower stall. Not big enough to press a body against and fuck him under a water spray, but good for one man.

Tucker dragged in a deep, steadying breath. Standing so close to his ex-lover was driving him mad. Josh’s familiar scent raised memories of salty skin, of licking down his hard abs to his long, thick cock.

He clamped down on the thought and gave his friend—new boss—a nod. “I’m grateful you’re taking a chance on me after…” He trailed off.

Josh stared at him for a long moment. “She doesn’t know, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say,” he said, low.

With a nod, Tucker stuck out his hand. “I’ll work hard for you.”

“I’d never expect less. If you don’t have an alarm clock, the rooster will have you up long before dawn. ‘Night, Tucker.”

“G’night.” As he watched his friend leave, his heart gave a happy patter. He’d made it through the first hurdles. Now if he could just keep his dirty thoughts in check and his cock from reacting when the Thorpes were around.

* * * * *

Dixie awakened slowly, aware that she’d slept well past her normal time. Dreams clung to the edges of her mind. Scorching-hot dreams with a pair of big, work-roughened hands on her, sliding up her inner thighs, parting them. Then seeking her heated center while jaw-length hair brushed her face.

She jolted fully awake. Her husband’s hair was kept short but Tucker’s was longer, the dirty blond ends sticking out of his hat.

Having her ex-lover return to her life had confused her dreams. She wasn’t a young girl, and he hadn’t been her lover for many years. Guilt filled her, along with a deep longing that needed satisfied.

Reaching between her thighs, she conjured her beloved, hardworking husband into her mind. He was up and long gone to work with the horses, but she’d do just fine with his fantasy. When she probed her slick folds, a shudder overtook her.

As she circled her clit, a ragged moan escaped her. She turned her face against his pillow and teased her swollen nubbin. Her breath came roughly as juices wet her panties. Gliding her hand up to her breast, she pinched the tip. Need sliced through her, and her thighs fell apart.