Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (16 page)

“Cody,” she moaned, letting her head fall back. “Oh please—“

His mouth was hot on her storm-cooled skin, so hot she almost cried out with the ecstasy of it. His tongue curled around the nipple, stroking and teasing, and his hot breath scalded her nakedness. Deep and hard, she felt the hunger grow, the need that could overwhelm her in an instant. When she felt a shudder go through
him, she sighed in answer.

“Kelly,” he ground out her name, covering her
breast from the cool air with his hand. “I want you so
badly. But I’m not sure—“

She put her fingers to his lips, not certain what he was going to say, but sure she didn’t want him to say it. “Yes,” she whispered hoarsely. “Oh yes, Cody.
Tonight.”

He drew back, holding her shoulders, searching her
face. “I won’t ever marry you,” he said bluntly.

She nodded, loving the darkness of his eyes. “I
know.”

His fingers tightened almost painfully on her shoulders. “You’re sure?”

She nodded again, her eyes full of what she was
feeling for him.

He saw it and he almost had to wince at the inten
sity. Could he handle this, he wondered? Was he
playing with fire?

“I won’t hurt you,” he promised softly. “And I’ll
make sure you don’t get pregnant.”

Kelly nodded again. She knew he would take care of
her. She’d known from the first that the only thing he would damage would be her heart. She was prepared
to risk it.

“Look,” she said calmly, but with regret. “The storm’s over.”

Cody let his hand slide down from her shoulder,
down the length of her breast, and he touched the tip with his thumb before he covered her again. She shivered and her hips moved involuntarily. He closed her
blouse and kissed her nose. “Back to reality,” he
muttered, more to himself than to her.

“I promised to meet everyone for pizza,” she told
him sleepily. A bed, with him in it, was all she could
think of. Would he come back to her house? She
wished she knew what had driven him away the last
time.

He met her gaze and his old smile began to creep
back. “I heard Tammy say she was staying the night at
Heather’s,” he noted.

Hope blossomed. “That’s right,” she said, managing to sound casual.

“That means you’ll be all alone.”
 

“I’ve been alone before.”

“But not tonight.” He drew her to him and kissed her one last time. “Not tonight.”

Chapter Seven

Bruno’s Pizza Party was crowded, but they were able
to get a long table for the whole team. Country and
western music was playing on the jukebox.

“This is quite some place,” Cody muttered as he
held the door for Kelly. The girls scooted by to claim the table, their small, sturdy bodies flying through the place like a herd of conquering gerbils.

Kelly laughed at the girls, then favored Cody with a
bright grin. “Not your usual style, I know,” she
teased. “But you’ve got to get a feel for how the other
side of Las Vegas lives.”

“Do I?” He made a comical face. “Why?”

She hooked her arm through his to lead him to the ordering counter. “To bring you back to basics,” she
chattered on. “To get you in touch with your roots.”

“How do you know anything about my roots?”

“I don’t mean yours personally.” She was sunnily
unaware of a growing tension on his part. “I mean the roots of the culture as a whole.” She made a sweeping
gesture. “I mean country music and Softball and mom’s apple pie—“

“And pizza?” He laughed, but his eyes were wary
again. He turned and slid his arms around her waist.
“Why don’t you come right out and say what you
really mean?” he asked her softly, his gaze intense.
“Why don’t you say ‘honesty and truth and integrity—and no gambling or covering up for criminals’?”

She stared up at him, shocked. He saw right through
her, to things she hadn’t even admitted to herself. He
was right, of course. She’d been blithely assuming she
was going to reform him, even if she hadn’t put the concept into concrete form in her own mind as yet. The dream had been there from the first.

“Cody,” she whispered. “I’m—I didn’t mean to… “

“Never mind,” he said with a sad smile. “It won’t work, anyway. I am what I am. At some point, you’re
going to have to come to grips with that.”

He was right. She knew it. Her mind knew it. Why
couldn’t her heart get it straight?

The counterman took their order, but she hardly
paid attention. Her thoughts were swirling and she was
trying to get her bearings. She wanted Cody. She’d
gone too far to back away now. She wanted him near, at hand, touching. But she was going to have to pay.
Was she ready for that?

The girls were in high spirits and Cody joked right
along with them. When the pizzas came, there were the usual arguments over what had been ordered and how
many pieces each would get.

“One large pepperoni,” announced the delivery
girl, slapping it down on the end of the table. “One large mushroom and sausage.” She plunked down another. Hands reached out from all sides. “And one
pineapple, green pepper, Canadian bacon, olive,
shrimp, sunflower seed, maraschino cherry special.” She balanced it on the palm of her hand. “Who wants
it?”

A chorus of groans and disgusting noises emanated
from the group as almost everyone disavowed the
special. “We didn’t order anything like that, did we?”
Kelly asked Cody.

His smile was smug. “We certainly did. Put it right
here.” He patted the empty space in front of him.

“Ugh!” Heather cried as the pizza was placed be
fore Cody. “How gross!”

The others chimed in, and even Kelly shook her head in despair, but Tammy looked shyly at Cody. “It
looks good,” she said.

Cody smiled at her. “You want to share with me?”
he asked.

She nodded, brushing aside Heather’s shout of horror.

Cody moved to make a space for her. “Come on
over,” he told her. “Better hurry. I’m pretty hungry.”

Tammy jumped up and came around the table to sit
beside Cody. He pulled out a piece of the pizza for her,
put it on her plate, and leaned close, telling her things
that made her grin while she ate. Kelly watched the
two of them and all the mixed-up feelings she’d been
having fell away. Any man who could treat her
daughter like that deserved the benefit of the doubt.

They ate until they were stuffed. They laughed and joked and sang along with the jukebox. Then it was time to go, and they began to gather their things while some of the girls called their families for rides.

Once outside, they milled around the parking lot for
a bit, waiting for parents to arrive. Heather’s mother drove up and Kelly bent at the driver’s window to speak to her for a moment while Heather and Tammy
piled into the back seat. When Kelly turned back, she saw Cody walking toward the street where a long, low
flashy convertible had pulled up.

The two men who emerged from the car were of a special, sleazy mold most frequently found in casino
bars. With sharp, hungry faces, they looked out of
place anywhere else—except, perhaps, at the track.

“Hey, Cody,” one of them was calling. “Is that really you?”

Cody grinned and spun slowly, modeling his polo
shirt and jeans.

“I didn’t even think it was you at first, man,” the
other chortled.

“My suburban disguise,” she heard Cody say.

Kelly flushed, resenting his words just a little, and then he moved closer to the men and she could only
hear snatches of their conversation.

It seemed to be something about Sugar. There was
a shout of laughter, and then they looked more serious. Kelly hesitated, wondering if she should join them.
But Penny’s mother drove up at that moment and she was sidetracked. By the time Penny and a few others were packed off, Cody was coming back toward her.

“Anything for Sugar,” he was calling back to the two men. “Thanks for letting me know.”

They got back into their convertible and drove away.

“Who was that?” she asked, watching the car dis
appear into traffic.

“Just some guys from the casino,” he said casu
ally. He looked at her and she knew he was about to
say something she wasn’t going to like, but before he
had a chance, another car stopped beside them.

“Hi there!” Glenn Waxman leaned out, smiling at
Kelly. “Did I miss the party?”

“Oh hi, Glenn.” She glanced at Cody, then gave
Glenn a big smile. “You missed it, I’m afraid. But the
girls had a good time.”

“Great.” Glenn glanced from her to Cody, ob
viously not sure who Cody was or why he was stand
ing near Kelly. “Uh...are you busy tonight?” he ventured, looking hopeful.

Oh Glenn,
Kelly thought as warm satisfaction
coursed through her.
You couldn’t have done this at a
better time.
“I’m afraid I am,” she said pleasantly.
“But I’ll see you at the game on Saturday, won’t I?”

Glenn looked disappointed. “Yes, I guess so.”

“Daddy,” Suzy cried, running up with three other
girls in tow. “Can you take us all to the roller rink to
night?”

Glenn looked at Kelly, then at Cody. “I guess so,”
he said in a voice that should have broken her heart.
“See you later.”

Kelly waved and turned back to Cody. His eyes narrowed as he watched Glenn drive away.

“That’s just about all of them,” Kelly said, but Cody’s face stopped her. “What’s the matter?” she asked, frowning.

He looked back at her, then away again. “I’m going
to have to take a rain check on tonight,” he said.

She felt as though something had hit her, hard, in
the pit of her stomach. “What?”

He was avoiding her eyes. “Something’s come up
I’m
going to have to take care of. I’m sorry.”

A false, eerie calm settled over her. “I see.” Her
tone was icy. “Something to do with Sugar?”

His eyes met hers at last but instead of seeming
apologetic, he looked almost annoyed. “You’ve got
your car here,” he said, without answering her ques
tion. “I guess you’ll get home all right.”

“I guess I will.” She smiled a bright, artificial smile.
Inside she was seething.

“Okay.” He hesitated. “I’ll see you later,” he added gruffly, then turned, swung into his car and started the
engine.

Kelly refused to watch him go. Instead, she hurried to her own car and got inside, fumbling first with the
seat belt and then for her keys in her purse, just to
look busy. When she glanced up, he was gone. To the very last second, she didn’t believe he would actually go like this, after all their plans, with hardly a word of
explanation. But he did.

For a long moment, she sat very still staring straight
ahead. “He did it again! He did it to me again.” The
impulse to drive after him seized her, but before she
could act on it, she heard a knock on her side win
dow.

“Mrs. Carrington?” It was Mandy. “I can’t get my mother on the phone. Can you give me a ride home?”

Kelly sighed. She felt guilty for not noticing that one
of the girls had been left without a ride. “Sure, honey,” she said, unlocking the door. “Hop in.”
Mandy gave her a grateful smile. Kelly smiled back, feeling rueful. “I’ve got all the time in the world,” she
muttered as she started the car. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Once home, Kelly took a long bath and washed her
hair and tried not to think about Cody. But of course,
he was all she could think about—his kiss, his touch,
his rudeness!

“Damn you, Cody Marin,” she said aloud to no one.

She dried her hair until it fell around her face, then
put on her prettiest nightgown. If she had to be alone,
at least she didn’t have to be dowdy.

She looked into her full-length mirror. The filmy
blue nightgown fell to just below her knees. It was so
translucent, she could almost see through the fabric. She looked good. Seductive. Attractive.

He had wanted her. She’d felt it, and he’d said as
much. His hands on her body had told her, his kiss
had said it all. Yet he kept retreating. What it was, she
decided suddenly, was a giant tug-of-war between
herself and his life-style. Right now his life-style was
winning.

Kelly wandered through the house. Tim’s picture caught her eye. She stared at it. Who was that man?
She hardly remembered him now, and to tell the truth
she wasn’t sure she wanted his picture watching her
any longer. Picking it up, she walked quickly to Tammy’s
room and put it on her dresser. He was Tammy’s father, and she wanted Tammy to hold fond memories. Even if those memories were half truths that she’d made up to
protect her daughter from what her father had really
been like. He was dead now. What would it hurt to
pretend he’d been a better man than he really was?