Red's Hot Cowboy (27 page)

“Oh, yeah. You know what watching you stretch out like that does to a woman’s hormones? That women’s team over there is ready for drooling bibs.”

He chuckled.

She stood up and picked up her bag.

“You were joking, right?” he asked.

She winked.

They ordered burgers and beers and ate slowly with Wil wondering if she was teasing. Pearl kept wondering if she should tell him that this wasn’t her normal dating life. She liked to go out, but she did not fall into bed with every man who took her to a rodeo or a movie.

On the way out of the bowling alley, he slung an arm around her shoulder and drew her close to his side. Things got so hot in the truck cab that Pearl opened one eye to see if the windows were steamed up. It surprised her that the stars were twinkling brightly and there was no fog on the windows.

He pulled back and untucked his shirt. “Dammit! We’re going to have to quit or get a room for sure.”

She laid a hand on his zipper and grinned. “I vote for a room.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am,” she said.

He drove to the Hampton Inn and parked. She was out of the truck by the time he was and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers in his. The memory of the only other time she’d checked into a motel surfaced but only for a minute. That night she’d been nervous and unsure about what she was about to do. With Wil, she was absolutely confident and wanting what was about to happen.

He paid cash for a room, signed in as Mr. and Mrs. Wil Marshall, and told the lady one key would be enough. When they were in the elevator he pushed the button for the second floor and turned to kiss her. She hopped up into his arms, wrapped her legs around his body and her arms around his neck. When the doors opened they were so deep into the making out session that neither of them realized it until the doors closed and they started back down.

He chuckled and pressed the button for the second floor again. That time he paid attention and carried her, wrapped around him, to the room with the picture of the Adirondack chair beside the door. He slid the key down the slot, opened the door and carried her inside the room, kicked it shut with his boot heel, and they tumbled onto the king-sized bed together.

A flurry of clothes being tossed across the room was followed by heated kisses, moans and groans, and steamy hot sex. Her hands were cold as snow, hot as a branding iron, and smooth as satin when they guided him inside her. Her last thought before she gave herself over to the rocking motion of him making love to her was that she should tell him that she wasn’t really that kind of woman. But she couldn’t utter a word other than, “Oh, Wil!”

He found the faint taste of hamburger and beer to be a heady combination, and the way she shivered when he nibbled on her earlobe made him smile. Red was hot as hell in and out of the bedroom.

“You are so beautiful and so soft,” he mumbled.

“And you are making me so, so hot,” she said.

It wasn’t Wil’s most stellar moment in the bedroom and didn’t last nearly long enough to suit him, but when it was over Red curled up in his arms and asked him if he could feel the afterglow.

“I always thought that was a bunch of hogwash until you,” he said as he pulled her close enough that her head rested on his shoulder.

“Me too,” she said.

He felt like he was walking on water. So among all those other boyfriends she’d had, at least he’d given her the afterglow.

He walked her to the lobby door at four thirty the next morning, after a second helping of steaming hot sex and breakfast at Denny’s restaurant. He circled his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest.

“Damn fine date,” she said.

“Not as good as tomorrow night’s will be,” he told her. “We’re going to Mingus, Texas, to do some Honky Tonk dancin’.”

“You are kiddin’ me,” she said.

“Not in the least, darlin’. You said you wanted to date. Well, we are going to date. Get some rest, sweetheart.” He brushed a kiss across her lips.

***

He was in the lobby at five thirty the next evening and they drove to Mingus. Before they went to the Honky Tonk, Wil stopped at the Smokestack Restaurant and they had chicken fried steaks for supper.

“No wonder Sharlene liked this place. This would run the Chicken Fried some competition,” she said.

Wil grinned. He’d show her that he could come up with fine ideas to date, by damn. By the time a week was over, she wouldn’t even think about those fellows who kept calling.

It was a night of two-stepping to country music by the old artists that Pearl loved and drinking beer from Mason jars. And Wil could dance! From the time he wrapped his arms around her and two-stepped her around the dance floor, she was floating on air. Good country music. Dancing with the sexiest cowboy in the place and four beers turned her on hotter’n a fox in a forest fire.

They didn’t leave until the place shut down at two o’clock, and when they got back to Henrietta she spent the rest of the night at the ranch house with him. The sex was great and she slept like the dead when it was over. It was full daylight when they awoke and Lucy was already cleaning rooms when Wil took her home.

“Tomorrow is Lucy’s day off so we can’t go anywhere.” She yawned.

“I’ll pick you up at three for banana splits at the Dairy Queen and then we’ll play in the kiddy park. You ever been swinging in the wintertime?”

She shook her head.

“Well, darlin’, think about wrapping your legs around my waist and kissing me while the swing is going as high as my legs can pump,” he whispered.

She shivered.

“Yep, and then we’ll have an hour or two before you have to check in guests. Your place or mine?”

“I’ll have an empty room, I’m sure,” she said.

***

On Monday he came by and they went to the movies and he didn’t even complain when she wanted to watch a chick flick. They got home early that night and fell into bed together in room twenty-five.

While she slept in her afterglow state, he propped up on an elbow. It had been fun. Hell, it had been great. But was this what he really wanted? A party every night?

No, I want a woman to settle down with. I want stability, not just insane sex.

She opened her eyes and saw doubt in his. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, darlin’. I’m played out. I’m going to get dressed and go on home.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

He kissed her on the forehead and she was asleep by the time he locked the door behind him.

***

On Tuesday he woke up with an excellent idea for a cowboy date. She’d had the city boy dates. Bowling, movies, dancing… well, the Honky Tonk couldn’t really be considered city boy but it was dancing.

He called Pearl the minute he was awake. “I’ll pick you up at five tonight,” he said.

“Where are we going?” she asked. Dammit! But she was tired. She wouldn’t mind staying in and watching a movie on television or just cuddling on the sofa.

“It’s a surprise. Wear jeans.”

“You are one sneaky devil.” She grinned.

“Yes, I am so be ready.”

At noon while she and Lucy were cleaning rooms her phone rang. Hoping it was Wil telling her more about the secret date, she answered without looking at the caller ID and said, “Hello!”

“That sounds like a come-hither voice rather than a BFF voice.” Austin laughed.

“I thought you were Wil. He’s been winin’ and dinin’ me until I’m exhausted and tonight we are going out and he won’t tell me where we are going but to wear jeans,” she said.

Austin laughed. “Sounds like you and Wil are getting along pretty damn good.”

“We are right now but it could all be adrenaline. When the adrenaline has settled there might not be anything there. Remember what that old country song said about there is nothing as cold as ashes after the fire is gone,” Pearl said.

Austin laughed. “Yep, but if the fire don’t go out, what a helluva life, girlfriend.”

“He said for me to wear jeans. Got any ideas?”

“Not a one. Rye and I had an amazing date one night on the banks of the Red River. The cowboys in this area are very imaginative when it comes to wooing women.” Austin giggled. “Have fun and I’ll expect to hear from you tomorrow.”

Wooing women
stuck in Pearl’s mind and she grinned all afternoon. Whether she was ready to be wooed or not, it might prove to be an interesting evening. No one had ever taken her to the river for a date.

Lucy ran back and forth from lobby to apartment while Pearl put on her makeup and fixed her hair.

“I told you that Wil Marshall had that look in his eye,” Lucy said.

“What if he turns out like Cleet?”

“It won’t happen. Give him a chance. He looks at you all soft-eyed and he’s one hot cowboy.” Lucy giggled.

Pearl scrunched up her hair with gel and let it hang in natural curls. “I don’t know about the soft-eyed stuff, but you got that hot cowboy right.”

Lucy was behind the desk when Wil arrived. He wore a pair of faded Wranglers and well-worn boots. His denim jacket fit tight, but to Lucy’s way of thinking he should have been wearing a sports jacket and carrying a rose in his hands. Her friend and boss deserved the best and she was getting far less.

“Evenin’, Lucy. Is Red…?”

“Right here.” Pearl stepped out of the apartment. She wore designer jeans, boots, and a Western cut shirt with pearl snaps.

His eyes started at the tips of her boots and slowly made their way up to her beautiful red curls. “Well, you look almighty fetchin’ tonight, Miz Red.”

“Thank you,” she said. She’d had men undress her with their eyes, but one had never made love to her with his eyes. From toe to eyebrows, every one of her nerve endings tingled at the way he looked at her.

She pushed through the swinging door at the end of the counter and he took her hand in his.

“Good night, Lucy,” she called as he led her across the floor.

“Don’t wait up,” Wil threw over his shoulder.

“Can I take Delilah home with me?” Lucy hollered at the last minute before they were out the door.

“Yes, you can,” Pearl said.

He opened the passenger door to his truck for her, but before she hopped up into the seat he wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her hard as if they’d been apart for the whole week instead of just a day.

All day she’d tried to weigh pros and cons. To think about how badly she’d wanted off the ranch when she was in high school, especially after Vince had left her to chase after his true calling. But that feeling of Wil’s ranch being right where she belonged hovered overhead like a big white fluffy cloud and no amount of thinking could make it disappear.

Then Wil walked through the door, smelling all yummy and looking like one of those old commercials for Marlboro cigarettes; she wondered why she even fought with herself. He wasn’t a bad boy once she’d gotten to know him. He was a great person, a wonderful caring man, so why was she fighting against her heart?

She’d figured they were going to a steak house in Wichita Falls for dinner. When they turned north toward Petrolia she thought maybe he’d forgotten something at the ranch. She looked over at him but he was tapping his thumb against the steering wheel to a Blake Shelton tune on the radio.

“Are we going to Wichita Falls?” she asked.

“Nope.”

She adjusted her dinner plans to something in Petrolia. She’d never been there so she didn’t know if the town was the size of Ringgold, Henrietta, or Wichita Falls. She’d always thought it was a little place like Ringgold or maybe Terral, but Austin had said the cowboys in this area were inventive so maybe it had a world-class barbecue café. Smoked ribs with extra sauce and coleslaw on the side sounded pretty damn good.

He turned down the lane to his house and kept going down a path toward a barn sitting back in the distance. Forget the barbecue or the steak unless he was grilling out behind the barn.

“Where
are
we going?” she asked.

“To dinner.” He grinned and stopped the truck in front of the barn.

She had her seat belt undone and the door open by the time he circled the truck.

“Oh, no you don’t.” He swept her up in his arms. “Tonight you are the princess, Red.”

“What?”

“You heard me. You are the princess and I’ll take care of you.”

“Role-playing?” she asked.

“No, statin’ facts, ma’am. I don’t role-play. I’m a cowboy to the core, but tonight you are my princess or hostage or maybe just my cowgirl in tight-fittin’ jeans.” He strolled into the barn like he was carrying a feather pillow.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to climb the ladder, though. It’s too narrow for both of us,” he said.

Austin had been right. These cowboys did have an imagination. He set her down gently and motioned for her to go first. When she was on the fourth rung, he kissed her fanny and started up behind her. The sight at the top staggered her.