One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas) (14 page)

“And do you still like Tanner?” Russell asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t. I thought he’d always have a little place in my heart since he was my first crush, but even that’s gone.”

“Whoever you fall for, I will go to war for you, darlin’. Not even this feud is going to stand in the way of your happiness.”

“If you hate the feud, then why do you keep doin’ whatever Granny demands?” Leah asked.

“Because that damned Naomi was really ugly to Joyce when she found out about the affair. You know nothing stays a secret very long in Burnt Boot. Naomi created a problem for Joyce. I’ll do whatever I can to bring the Gallaghers down for that alone.”

Betsy Gallagher pulled up a stool at the far end of the bar, raised her beer toward Leah, and smiled as if she knew something that Leah didn’t. Leah ignored her and polished off her shot of Jack on the rocks.

“Hey,” Jill yelled above the noise of a line dance on the wooden floor and the jukebox turned up to the max. “You want another one?”

She shook her head. “Not tonight. I can’t stay long.”

Jill moved out from behind the bar and cupped her hand over Leah’s ear. “Rhett won’t be in tonight.”

Leah nodded and mouthed, “He called me already.”

Betsy shot a dirty look her way as Leah left, but she ignored it, a blast of smoke and noise following her as she stepped out into the darkness. The moon and stars were covered by dark clouds.

Half expecting Betsy to come storming out of the bar to argue, she didn’t hurry to her bright red truck sitting at the back of the lot. Instead, she took her time, because if she couldn’t see Rhett, then a good old catfight might be the next best thing. She’d never been in a hair-pulling fight like Mavis and Naomi had gotten into at the store a few days before, but it might be fun to knock Betsy square on her ass.

Why can’t you see, Rhett? Nothing is keeping you from going to the Fiddle Creek bunkhouse to see him.

A broad smile covered her face and suddenly all thoughts of Betsy sitting on her stool and trying to rile her up disappeared. With a little extra bounce in her step, she quickly climbed into her truck. She started the engine and looked up to see a sheet of copy paper taped to her windshield. A big heart, drawn with a red crayon, covered the entire paper. “TG + LB” was written in the middle with a smaller heart drawn around each set of initials. The plus sign was in the middle, where the two hearts connected.

She got out of the truck and tore the paper off, but peeling the tape off was another matter. He must’ve used a steamroller to make sure the wind didn’t blow it away. She gave up trying to remove it and carried the paper over to Tanner’s truck. She ripped it into tiny little pieces and tossed it onto his windshield. The slope carried it down into the valley that kept the wipers out of sight. Hopefully, it would be raining when he came out and they would be smeared into his sight when he flipped on the wipers.

“That is stalking,” she mumbled.

That is doing what Naomi told him,
the voice inside her head said loudly.
This is a war, a stinky war, Leah. No one is nice, and every trick in the book is fair.

She got back into her truck and drove straight to Fiddle Creek, throwing up a cloud of dust behind her all the way to the bunkhouse. Dammit met her on the steps and walked beside her until she settled into a rocking chair. Then he put his head in her lap and rolled his eyes up at her.

“You are spoiled,” she said.

His tail wagged in agreement.

“Hey.” Rhett opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. His hair was wet and hung almost to his shoulders. A white tank top hugged his body like a glove and baggy pajama pants rode low on his hips.

“Am I seeing things? Is this a mirage?” He crossed the porch in his bare feet and sat down beside her in the other rocking chair.

“It’s not a mirage,” Leah answered.

Dammit moved from her over to Rhett.

“Fickle, isn’t he?” Leah said. “Did he learn that from you?”

“No, ma’am.”

She changed the subject. “Looks like rain.”

He reached across the distance and covered her hand with his. “I was about to call you, and yes, it feels like rain. I’m glad you came by.”

“Rhett…” she started.

“Leah…” he said at the same time.

“You go first,” he said.

“I feel awkward coming here uninvited.”

“You have a standing invitation, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “I was going to call you to ask you out on a real date, maybe dinner and a movie. I get my new truck next Monday. We could celebrate that and you finishing your first day of school.”

“I’d like that.” She smiled.

“Then I’ll pick you up at seven? And that will be our third date, right?”

She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”

“Your grandmother?”

“Will pitch a hissy, but I’m not going to think about that tonight.”

A clap of thunder sent Dammit whining to the door. A streak of lightning too close for comfort brought Rhett to his feet. Keeping her hand tightly in his, he led her inside the bunkhouse.

The minute the door was open, Dammit raced inside, curled up on the sofa with the two cats, and put his paw over his eyes.

“I’d like to do that too,” Leah whispered.

“Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ll protect you,” he said.

Lightning split the clouds and the rain started—not a few sprinkles that increased to an intense rain in a few minutes, but a downpour that started with enough power to create a solid sheet, blocking out everything.

Rhett drew her closer and led her to the other end of the sofa. “Meet Jill’s two cats. That one is Chick and the one closest to Dammit’s face is Piggy. Now we’re all acquainted, let’s sit down and visit.”

He pulled her onto the sofa beside him, sitting so close that she could feel the heat coming off his body. She wanted more than conversation, more than kisses, and lots more than making out. She was ready to take the next step, and she wasn’t real sure how to tell him.

“Hungry? There’s a chocolate pie in the fridge.”

She shook her head. Food wasn’t what she was hungry for that night.

“Something to drink?”

She nodded. “Sweet tea would be nice.”

“Got a pitcher full. Bless Jill’s heart, she keeps one in the fridge all the time,” Rhett said. “Give me a minute.”

Another clap of thunder made Dammit whine and both cats sat up and looked at him as if he’d caused the noise. They’d barely settled back down, their legs wound around each other in sleep, when Rhett carried two glasses into the living room and handed one to Leah. She drank deeply, downing a fourth of it before she put it on the coffee table.

Rhett laid a hand on her shoulder. “Leah, what are you nervous about? I’ve never seen you like this. Is it Eve or me?”

“It’s me. I’m not real aggressive, Rhett, but I…”

He gently ran a hand down her cheekbone and stared into her eyes. “But what, Leah?” he whispered.

“But, oh, hell.” She shifted her weight until she was sitting in his lap and pulled his face to hers in a passionate, lingering kiss that left her wanting more than his hands splayed out across her back.

“I like that
but
very well,” he drawled. “You got any more of them hiding?”

The desire running through her body, melting her into a hormonal puddle, scared the shit out her. She should tell him how she felt, but she wasn’t sure how to do it. She wanted tell him about the thing going on with Tanner, but the very idea of him knowing terrified her.

She shut her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. “No more buts,” she said.

“Sleepy?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I couldn’t sleep if I were lying on a big, white cloud.”

“Something is on your mind. Just spit it out, Leah.”

“I want you,” she said. “I’m not like Honey or Kinsey. I’m not used to making the first move or stating what’s on my mind, so I’m new at this, but I want you, Rhett.”

“Hang on,” he said as he stood up slowly, his hands cupping her bottom.

With her legs wrapped around her waist, he carried her to a bedroom, with Dammit right behind them. “Not tonight, old boy. You go let the cats protect you from the storm,” he said as he kicked the door shut with his foot.

“He sleeps in here?”

“Oh, yeah, that would be his rug beside the bed.”

“Lucky dog,” she said.

It had to be Eve surfacing, because Leah had never been so bold in her whole life. In both of her semi-serious relationships, she’d waited for the fellow to kiss her first, and she would have damn sure never said those three words—
I want you
—not even after they’d been to bed together.

Instead of dropping her on the bed and diving right into the sex business, he sat down in a recliner and readjusted her legs until he was holding her like a groom carrying her over a threshold. It was dark and there was no moon, so she could only see him in silhouette when the lightning shot through the sky outside the window.

“Do you know that when someone is blind, their other senses are heightened?” he asked.

What the devil did that have to do with sex?

“We can’t see too well, so this should be an experience,” he said.

By his tone, she could tell that he was smiling. She reached up and traced his jawline with her fingertips and be damned if he wasn’t right. Her fingers were on fire. She circled his eyelids and then drew a line down his nose.

“Sweet Jesus,” he moaned. His mouth covered hers, first in a sweet kiss and then in a hungry one. “It’s true. Every touch, every kiss is so much more.”

“When the lightning flashes, I see you in silhouette, Rhett, and you are one damn sexy cowboy,” she whispered.

“Lord, even your breath against my skin makes me…well…” He took her hand and pressed it to the front of his pajama pants.

There was no doubt that he was ready, and she had been since he’d appeared on the porch with his hair wet and his muscles stretching that tank top. She reached down and tugged the shirt up over his head and then laid her face on his chest.

“Darlin’, you aren’t one bit hotter than I am right now,” she said.

And that’s when Eve did a 180-degree turnaround.
Good God, Leah, is instant gratification worth getting thrown off River Bend? You’d better think, girl, before you dive into this water. It’s pretty damn deep.

Leah listened to Rhett’s heart doing double time and wondered when she’d started using swear words even in her thoughts. Not even her alter ego was going to keep her from what she wanted that night. Not Eve. Not River Bend. And for damn sure not Granny Mavis.

She pushed back a little and raised her chin. Lightning lit up the room for a split second, and in that time, she could see the desire in his eyes. He wanted her as much as she did him, and that fueled the fire raging in her gut.

“Leah, if you’re going to push a button and a red light is going to flash to stop, please do it right now,” he whispered.

“I’m not,” she said.

She’d started it, and she was going to finish it. Maybe when they finished tonight, it would be over. Maybe it would be the beginning of something wonderful. The future was never clear, but the present, the right now, was, and she wanted Rhett more than she’d ever wanted anything in the whole world.

She sunk her hands down into just the right amount of hair on his chest and said, “I never knew that my fingertips could feel so fiery hot and yet be so cool.”

“Guess it all depends on what you’re touching.”

His lips found hers before she could say anything else and he slowly unfastened every single one of the twenty small buttons up the front of her shirt. He laid it open like he’d unwrapped a present and kissed her between her breasts. His warm breath and lips on that part of her skin made her squirm. She yearned for him to get on with it and yet she wanted this new experience to last forever. Was this what they talked about in the romance books? Foreplay? Did that also mean there would be afterglow?

He stood her up and led her to his room. Somehow, her shirt was gone and then her bra, and her bare breasts were against his chest, the soft hair teasing them until they ached. His hands brought about sizzling heat as they pulled off her boots, peeled her jeans down to her knees, and then laid her on the bed.

Naked. She was naked and it didn’t feel wrong. Instead, it felt right. Then he was beside her, minus pajama pants. Wrapping his arms around her, he drew her to his side and brushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t have to be next to you to know how beautiful you are, Leah. Just thinking about you makes me hot. I’ve wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

She pressed closer to him, feeling his erection against her. She was ready for the foreplay to be over, ready to feel him inside her, ready for that magic thing called afterglow. She’d never had sex or made love with a man who talked during it. Mostly, it was a few fumbling kisses and then the act itself followed by snores and boredom. This was a whole new ball game for her, and she liked it a lot.

She slid her body over until she was on top of him, one leg on each side of his waist. Leaning forward and pressing her breasts against his chest, she bookended his cheeks with her cool hands and brought his lips to hers again. His hands moved from her back to her breasts and she moaned out loud.

The combination of his touch in the darkness and the sensations in every part of her body as it touched him fueled a fire that grew hotter and hotter until she thought she’d explode before they ever got around to having sex.

“My God, this feels good. Your skin is like cool water on a hot summer day,” he whispered.

She inched her fingers down. “And this?” She teased the already hard erection.

“That is going to get you in big trouble.”

“What kind?” she whispered.

He kissed her hard and rolled on top of her.

Her hands automatically went around his neck. She readied herself for the first thrust, but it didn’t happen.

“What do you want, Leah? Talk to me.”

She wrapped her legs around him. “I want you to make love to me. I don’t want sex, Rhett. This is so much more, and I like it.”

With a firm thrust, he started a rocking rhythm that had her panting in less than a minute. “Like this, darlin’?”

“Just like that. Don’t stop.” Her voice was ragged, and she was frantic in her desire for release within ten minutes.

“Oh. My. God,” she mumbled.

“Now,” he said. “I want this to be good for you.”

“I feel like I’m somewhere in the clouds, looking down, and my body is on fire,” she said.

Then his mouth covered hers. They moved in unison until he growled her name hoarsely. She dug her nails into his back and tried to melt her body into his.