Six Degrees of Desperation (Dirty Tricks) (3 page)

His lips descended over Charli’s, warm,
sensuous and oh, so wonderful. She melted into his arms, losing
herself in his embrace, heat building low in her belly, her pussy
dampening as his tongue slid between her teeth and claimed
hers.

When he lifted his head, Connor gave a husky
laugh. “I should have known a kiss wouldn’t be enough.” He set her
away from his body and stared down at the bulge in his jeans. “You
make me crazy.”

Still clutching the flowers, Charli forced a
laugh past her kiss-swollen lips. “Not nearly as much as you make
me.”

“I should go.” He held out his hand for
hers.

Charli reached for him with the hand still
holding the card.

“What’s this?” Connor touched the paper
lodged between her fingers.

Charli’s heartbeat fluttered against her
ribs, and she jerked her hand behind her back. “Just a note to
myself.” She fought to keep from freaking out. What if he demanded
to see the note? Obviously, he hadn’t sent the flowers, leaving
Original Sin as the mystery sender and penman of the Love you naked
note.

“Let me see.” Connor held out his hand.

Her first instinct was to shove the note
into her mouth and swallow it to keep Connor from discovering her
secret. But sure as she tried, she’d choke on it, he’d have to save
her, she’d be embarrassed and he’d see the note all nasty and damp
anyway.

Charli reached out with her empty hand and
pulled Connor close. “I missed you, too.” She slipped her hand
behind him, sliding it into his back jeans pocket, tugging him
closer until the ridge of his fly dug into her belly. “Any chance
your lunch break is long enough to take up where we left off?” She
wiggled her hips, rubbing him suggestively.

His fingers curled around her waist and he
held her still. “Don’t, unless you mean it.”

What had started as a ploy to distract his
attention from the note had blown into full-fledged lust. Charli’s
body burned so hot she feared her clothes would catch fire.
Suddenly she couldn’t wait to get out of them and strip Connor
naked. “I mean it. Can you tell me that you can wait until three or
four o’clock in the morning to do this?” Charli stepped back, her
fingers going to the buttons on her shirt, flicking them open one
at a time. She led him toward her bedroom, her shirt falling to the
floor.

“I really should get back to work. I have a
lot to do…” Connor’s voice faced off as Charli’s fingers closed
around the rivet at the waistband of her jeans. “Then again…” He
took one step forward.

Charli’s smile broadened and she flipped
free the rivet. “Fifteen minutes, that’s all I’m asking. Otherwise
it’ll be the tiny hours of tomorrow morning before you see me like
this again.”

Connor’s gaze rested on Charli’s fingers as
she slid down the zipper, exposing the black lace thong beneath.
His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed hard. “I guess I
could spare fifteen minutes.” He took another step, then
another.

“You have to catch me first.” Charli
shimmied out of her jeans, turned and ran for the bedroom,
excitement bubbling up in her veins, a giggle rising from her
throat.

“Game on,” Connor said behind her, a thud of
a boot hitting the floor followed by another before socked feet
pounded down the hallway after her.

He caught her at the foot of her bed, lifted
her in the air, kissed her soundly, and then tossed her on the
mattress.

Charli squealed as she landed then assumed
what she hoped was a sexy pose, wearing nothing but the black thong
and her best black lace bra. “Is that all you have, cowboy?”

Fingers slipping the buttons free on his
shirt, Connor stalked around the side of the bed. “There’s more…so
much more.” He shed his shirt, letting it fall to the floor. In the
next second, he was on the bed, lying beside her, kissing her, his
tongue thrusting between her teeth, teasing hers, sliding along its
length.

It wasn’t enough. She wanted him inside her,
thrusting his cock in the same motion as his tongue. Her blood
pounded through her veins, her breath catching in her throat.

His mouth left hers, traveling down the edge
of her jaw, following the line of her throat, kissing and nipping
at the sensitized skin until he found the puckered nipples pressing
against the silken, lacey fabric of her bra. He bit through the
lace, capturing a nipple below, rolling it between his teeth.

Charli’s back arched off the mattress, a
moan escaping past her vocal cords. “More. Please, more.”

“For you…anything.” He pushed her bra over
her breasts, then sucked a nipple deep into his mouth, pulling
hard.

Her feet digging into the mattress, Charli
pressed upward, her hands capturing his head, holding him close as
wave after wave of sensation washed over her.

Connor’s other hand tweaked the tip of her
other nipple, then slid across her ribs and downward.

“Oh, Connor, hurry, before I come apart.”
Charli’s fingers gripped his hair, urging him downward.

He complied, leaving a trail of warm, wet
kisses across her ribs and down to her panty line. His thumbs
hooked the elastic and dragged the black lace over her mound and
down her legs to her ankles.

Impatient for more, Charli kicked off the
panties, slinging them to a corner.

A grin spread across Connor’s face and he
crept up the middle of the bed between her legs, his hand sliding
along the inside of her thigh to the center of her heat.

Charli lifted her knees then let them fall
to the side, exposing her wet core to Connor.

He bent his head, leaving butterfly kisses
on the insides of both knees and all the way up to her pussy.

“Please, Connor, please,” Charli begged.
“You’re teasing me.”

“I thought you liked foreplay.” His tongue
flicked out, swirling around her channel, delving in then back
out.

Charli gasped. “It’s highly overrated,” she
said, her breath catching as her muscles clenched in response to
his next attack on her vagina.

“I think it’s well worth the effort.” He
parted the hairs over her clit, then the folds and breathed out a
warm stream of air.

The sparks the air ignited made Charli buck
beneath him. “Please, Connor, make me scream.”

His chuckle added more warm air to her
already heated pussy.

“Nooowwww,” she cried out.

“Patience, sweetheart.” He tongued her clit,
laving her like a tasty morsel, licking and sucking the nubbin into
his mouth.

Charli’s fingers dug into Connor’s hair, her
nails scraping against his scalp, the sensations rocketing through
her, launching her into orgasm. She threw back her head and
screamed, her body pulsing, each spasm racking over her until she
fell back against the bed, completely limp.

Chuckling, Connor crawled up her body, his
bare chest pressing against her breasts, his jeans scraping against
her thighs and hips.

“Aren’t you overdressed?” Charli reached
between them, her fingers finding the rivet at his waistline.

His hand stopped her and he kissed the tip
of her nose. “I can wait.” He kissed her lips. “I have to get back
to work. I promised the boss I’d help out at the rodeo. Gabe’s
bronc riding today.”

Disappointment welled up. “Really? You’re
leaving?” She wriggled against him. “Sure you don’t want to
stay?”

“Oh, I want to stay.” He kissed her soundly
and rolled off the bed. “But I have to go.”

Body still languid with afterglow, Charli
slipped her bra in place, sat up and drew her knees up to her chin.
“I’ll see you tonight?”

He shoved his arms into his shirt, his boots
on his feet and crammed his cowboy hat on his head. “Save a dance
for me.” With a wink, he left.

For a long moment, Charli sat there, her
pussy still throbbing, aching for Connor, the aftermath of her
orgasm still rippling through her system. Then she flopped back,
turned and buried her face in a pillow and screamed her
frustration, pounding her fists against the mattress.

After her little burst of frustration, she
lay there for a long moment, buried in her pillows, a thousand
thoughts roiling around her mind, all coming back to her safe,
sensitive cowboy, Connor Mason and the fact that she’d had the
opportunity to tell him about her mystery cowboy and hadn’t.

Damn.

That night, she’d tell him. She’d pull him
to the side and break it to him, first thing.

Her cell phone buzzed on her nightstand
several times before she pulled her face out of the pillows and
snatched it up, praying the caller was Connor, asking her to let
him back in to finish what they’d started. Then maybe she’d tell
him what she should have told him already.

The buzzing stopped before she could answer
and the caller ID indicated an unknown caller.

Charli’s heart skipped several beats then
raced ahead as the light blinked on for a voice mail message. She
eased her finger onto the play button.

“Hi, beautiful. Ready for our next dirty
trick?”

Charli paced in the storeroom, only
half-listening while Audrey gave her instructions to the waitresses
before the doors opened on the Ugly Stick Saloon, and the annual
Cowboy Masquerade Ball commenced. She'd done the best she could to
fix her mussed hair, finally piling it up on top of her head in
careless curls. The tumble in the bed with Connor had been well
worth destroying Mona's handiwork.

Customers lined up out front, waiting to get
in, many wearing costumes, others would be given black masks as
they entered to allow them to join in the masquerade, should they
choose.

Normally excited by the hoopla, Charli was
already sweating the hoards of cowboys that would descend on the
saloon in moments. Tonight would be a nightmare, an absolute
nightmare.

The call she’d received shortly after Connor
left her, still horny and a little less than satisfied, had been
from her AWOL mystery cowboy, who’d proceeded to drop the bomb.
He’d been sorry about being out of touch, but that he planned to
make it up to her. That night he’d be wearing a black cowboy hat
and wearing a yellow rose at the ball.

The same night Connor would be there, and
Charli still hadn’t told him the truth.

"Charli, honey, are you all right?" Bella
Severs slipped an arm around Charli's waist. "You're as wound up as
a blind rattlesnake getting her new button."

"I'm just a little worried." Charli
appreciated the hug. She could use a lot of those right now, when
her world stood a chance of falling completely apart. But the
longer Bella hugged her, the more she felt trapped. She turned her
back to the pretty brunette. "Could you pull the strings on this
corset just a bit tighter? I'd hate to have it come undone during
our number."

"Why worry? The cowboys would love it."
Lacey Neil skimmed her finger along the top of Charli's black
corset. "I'd love it too. You have lovely breasts."

"Don't listen to her," Kendall Mason called
out from the other side of Audrey. "She'll be giving you sex
education lessons before you know it, and then all hell will break
loose."

Lacey pouted toward her former housemate,
Kendall. "You know you loved it. Admit it."

Kendall grinned. "You bet. And the best part
is that I got my cowboy."

Bella tugged on the strings at Charli's
back. "Just rub it in, why don't you? Ed Judson is quite a catch. I
wouldn't mind having him give me a few sex education lessons as
well."

"Watch it." Kendall's eyes narrowed. "He's
all mine. Plenty of cowboys are out there tonight for you to choose
from, so keep your paws off my man." Her words sounded harsher than
the smile on her face belied.

"Wouldn't do you any good anyway, Ed's only
got eyes for Kendall." Audrey glanced around at the women
assembled. She wore a similar dancehall-girl costume in opposite
colors. Where the staff had red corsets and black skirts, Audrey's
corset was black, her skirt red. "I don't guess any of you are
really listening to my instructions, are you? Just do your best and
watch for your cue to dance. I'll be there to help anyone who
starts feeling overwhelmed."

"Are you dancing tonight, Audrey?" Lacey
asked.

"No, ma'am." Audrey shook her head. "I hung
up my dancin' shoes when I bought this dump."

"That's a shame. I've seen you dance and
you're one of the best. You even make me hot." Lacey lifted the hem
of her shiny black dancehall-girl skirt and tucked a couple dollar
bills under the edge of her red lace, thong underwear, making
certain the greenbacks showed when she moved.

"Lacey, honey, what are you doing?" Bella
asked.

"Priming the pump, baby. Priming the pump."
Lacey flipped her skirt and turned, flashing her
might-as-well-be-naked behind at the group of woman. "If that
doesn't get me some tips, these cowboys are all gay."

"Keep it clean, this isn't stripper night at
the Ugly Stick Saloon. We’ll have all we can do to keep the drinks
flowing and the customers happy."

Greta Sue leaned into the storeroom door.
"It's time. You want me to open the doors?"

"You have the extra bouncers in place?"

"Cory and Nick McBride are my backups should
I need help." Greta cracked her knuckles loudly. "Not that I ever
need help."

"Just the same, being everywhere at once is
going to be hard. Jackson will be there as well if you need him to
step in and settle an argument." Audrey walked toward Greta and
patted the large woman's shoulder. "We just don't want to end up in
a brawl like last year. The damage to the place eats away at any
profits we hope to gain.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll run a tight ship."

"You do that. In the meantime..." Audrey
flung out her arm with a flourish. "Let 'em in."

The other waitresses and Libby, the
bartender, hurried out to the barroom floor.