Blazing Bedtime Stories, Volume VIII: The Cowboy Who Never Grew Up
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He seemed to contemplate her words for the next few moments while her heart beat a frantic rhythm. As if she feared he might refuse.
He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. They had a verbal agreement and that was as good as gold. This was just a formality.
A formality that would keep her from getting canned.
“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” she rushed on. “No surprises. The money’s all there. The terms are exactly what our lawyer spelled out.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get right on this.” An easy grin spread across his face. “Just as soon as I get cleaned up first.”
“You could just sign it now and be done with it.”
“You wouldn’t want me to sign something I haven’t read, now would you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then it’ll have to wait until after I take a shower.”
The words conjured an image of his hard, rippled, naked body. Water sluiced over him, running in rivulets down his golden skin—
Um, excuse me. You’re here to work, not fantasize.
Especially since Pete Gunner wasn’t even close to her fantasy man. She liked calm, mild-mannered, understated men. Like Jim. He was the staff accountant for Western and he made an amazing lasagna. He’d brought it to the last office party and everyone had oohed and ahed. He’d also invited her out a half-dozen times over the past year. Not that she’d accepted. She’d been so worried over the new line and Pete’s role as spokesman that she hadn’t wanted to spare the time.
That, and Jim was just about the most boring man she’d ever met.
She squelched the thought as soon as it struck.
Boring was good. Preferable to the love-’em-and-leave-’em type.
Then why are you standing here watching rodeo’s biggest womanizer take off his shirt?
Pete undid the last button of his shirt and reality smacked her. “W-what are you doing?”
“Taking a shower, remember?” He grinned and the shirt dropped to the floor, revealing a muscular chest sprinkled with silky hair. “Unless you plan on washing my back, I’d get while the getting is good.” He reached for the button on his jeans and she whirled. His laughter followed her out of the bathroom and into the living area of the bus.
A table stood to her left with a bench on one side and two plush-looking chairs on the other. She slid into one of the overstuffed chairs, plopped the papers down on the marble-topped table and drew a steadying breath.
Okay, so she’d had temporary brain malfunction. No big deal. She would simply reboot.
Pulling out a pen, she set everything out and flipped the page to the first spot he needed to initial. There. The moment Pete Gunner finished his precious shower, he would sign and she would head back to Houston.
Her job would be secure. Her life would be back on track. And she could finally breathe again.
Shifting her attention from the anxiety rippling in her stomach, she took a good long look at her surroundings. The motor coach was top-of-the-line with a rear bedroom, a full-size bathroom and a kitchen. A media center sat just to her left complete with a plasma TV, Blu-ray player and several other pieces of equipment that she couldn’t identify. And then there was her chair.
The softest, most supple leather she’d ever felt. It tugged at her backside, cushioning her tired muscles, lulling her to sink back. Relax.
Not.
She perched on the edge, fully alert, ready for the handsome cowboy to waltz out of the bathroom so she could save her ass.
At least that was the plan for the first five minutes. But then five turned to ten and ten to twenty, and her back started to ache. She braced herself, but it only made her more uncomfortable. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to scoot back just a little. There. That was better.
It’s not like she needed to be ready for a foot chase. She had him cornered. If he wanted to stall, fine. She would kick back and wait him out.
The bus rolled along and the hum of the shower echoed in her ears. Before she knew what was happening, her head started to feel heavy. She slumped forward once, twice. She jerked upright and glanced at her watch. Ugh. It was half-past midnight and she’d been up since six in the morning. To make matters worse, she’d been tossing and turning every night for the past six months thanks to a certain unreliable cowboy. With her job hanging in the balance, sleep hadn’t been a luxury she could afford. Not then and certainly not now.
She had to do this.
She yawned and fought to keep her eyes open. A battle she was destined to lose. The chair was too comfortable and the cowboy too damned slow, and suddenly there seemed nothing wrong with closing her eyes for just one teeny, tiny minute. Just to pass the time.
WHAT THE HELL was she doing here?
The thought echoed in Pete’s head as he stood under the shower and let the hot water beat down on his sore muscles.
Okay, so he knew what she was doing here. Western had been dogging him with those contracts for months now and they’d obviously gotten tired of waiting. He couldn’t blame them. They’d offered him one hell of a deal. One he’d be crazy to turn down. He would make more in one year as the Outlaw Outfitters spokesman than he’d made in the past three seasons on the circuit. Sure, it wasn’t nearly as much fun. But at least it didn’t hurt like hell.
He flexed his throbbing shoulder and tried to ignore the stab of pain that shot through him.
Signing was the best thing for him. He knew that.
Then stop fooling around and sign already.
He would.
He would haul his ass out there, read through everything, sign on the dotted line for the sexy little marketing exec who’d cornered him on his own bus, and be done with it.
With her.
At least that’s what he told himself when he finally climbed out of the shower, dried off and put on a pair of clean jeans.
He found her slumped in a chair, her eyes closed, her lips parted. A steady snore filtered through the air and a smile touched his lips. She was a little thing, but she sure could belt one out.
He didn’t blame her. He’d paid an arm and a leg for those chairs and he’d dozed off in them too many times to count. Particularly after a night like tonight.
He sank down in the chair nearest her and shifted his attention to the papers spread out on the table. Snatching up the copy, he kicked back and turned to the first page.
He meant to read the entire thing.
He really did.
But his shoulder nagged at him and he couldn’t seem to concentrate. After two pages, he tossed the stack onto the table and reached for the remote control. A click of a button and a rerun of the latest NASCAR race blazed across the massive screen. The sound roared through the bus and she stirred.
With the fast reflexes of an eight-time PBR champion, Pete hit the mute button. The sound faded into the steady hum of the engine.
Wendy shifted, but she didn’t open her eyes. Instead, she half turned, snuggling deeper into the chair.
He fixed his gaze on the TV and tried to ignore his throbbing muscles keeping tempo with his heartbeat. He could kiss a good night’s sleep goodbye. Times like this, it was all he could do not to grind his teeth. Which was why he’d turned down the woman tucked into his bed. And the one stowed away in his bathroom. Even a warm, willing body wasn’t enough to distract him from the pain wrenching through him after a particularly grueling ride.
But damned if the steady, hypnotic sound of Wendy Darlington’s snoring didn’t do just that as he sat there and the minutes ticked by. That, and she smelled really good. Like homemade peach ice cream. And heaven knew he’d always had a hankerin’ for peaches.
He closed his eyes and focused on the soft zzzzzzz echoing in his ears. Her scent filled his head and oddly enough, his shoulder started to settle down. Not that the pain went away completely. There wasn’t a woman alive who could distract him that much.
But at least he managed a few hours of peace. No crying shoulder. No bulls to ride. No contracts to sign. And most of all, no truth nagging at him, because, as determined as Pete was to sign the damned contracts, he didn’t really want to. He’d gone from being a nobody to a somebody by being wild and free and reckless. The leader of the notorious Lost Boys—the most talented group of riders on the circuit so-called because they hailed from the same small town of Lost Gun, Texas. Pete was their poster child. He lived for the thrill of the moment, and Western America was all about the future. About supplementing his income when the fun ended and he was no longer raking in the cash. While the contract wouldn’t actually keep him from climbing onto a bull, it would still send a powerful message that Pete Gunner was getting older, wiser and it would certainly end his career as PBR’s favorite badass.
But none of that mattered as he sat there, listening to Wendy Darlington snore softly just a few feet away. Instead, he fixated on the sound and let his troubles slip away along with the pain. And then for the first time in a long time, he actually fell into a deep sleep.
4
SHE HAD THE WORST CRICK in her neck.
The pain edged its way past sleep until Wendy finally opened her eyes. She blinked once, twice and reality quickly crashed down around her.
Pete Gunner sat on the opposite side of the table, a pile of pancakes drizzled with sweet-smelling syrup in front of him. He wore nothing but a pair of jeans and a smile. His shoulders were broad, his chest solid and tanned and muscular. Golden swirls of hair spread from nipple to nipple before whirling into a funnel that dipped below the table’s edge. A bucking bull tattoo blazed across one thick biceps. Muscles rippled and flexed as he scooped a bite, and her mouth went dry.
“Good morning.” His deep, sexy voice snapped her back to reality and the all-important fact that there was sunlight streaming through the windows.
Oh, no.
She bolted upright and winced at the pain at the base of her skull. “This can’t be happening.” Her gaze swiveled to the window and she blinked against the stream of brightness. “I slept all night? The entire night?”
“A whopping six hours.” He shoveled in a mouthful of pancakes and chewed.
“It’s six-thirty? In the morning?”
“I thought we already established that,” he said after he’d swallowed.
“Have we been driving all night?”
“With the exception of a thirty-minute stop, yes.”
“Where exactly are we?”
“Texas.”
She gave him a duh look. “Exactly where in Texas?” She glanced sideways and caught a glimpse of Welcome to Pinto Creek on a road sign that flew by. “Pinto Creek?”
“For about the next five minutes, then we’ll be in Lost Gun. And then home.”
“How far is that from Dallas?”
“Three hundred and twenty-six miles.” He motioned to a mile marker that rushed by. “And counting.”
“This can’t be happening.” Panic bolted through her and she pushed to her feet. As if there were any place to go. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”
He shrugged. “People get grouchy when you wake them up. For all I know you could be some kind of early morning crazy who threatens to murder the first person that taps them on the shoulder. I like breathing too much, especially when I’ve got a mean bull coming up in Boulder next week.”
The mention of bulls snagged her back to the all-important fact that the papers still sat untouched on the table between them.
“You still haven’t signed.”
“I never sign anything before breakfast. I can’t concentrate on an empty stomach.” He held up a forkful. “Pancake?”
Her stomach grumbled at the sight, reminding her that she hadn’t had anything since the chocolate bar she’d wolfed down at the rodeo arena.
Woman doth not live by candy bars alone.
Lisa’s voice echoed in her head. Best friend and serial-dater Lisa was always encouraging Wendy to go out with someone—anyone—and have some fun.
But at twenty-eight, Wendy wanted more from a man. Sure, she liked doing the nasty as much as the next red-blooded female, but she wanted a real relationship to go with it. And while she didn’t have her heart set on marriage just yet, she at least wanted a man who was open to the concept.
That’s what she told herself, but her gaze snagged on Pete’s mouth anyway. A dab of syrup sat at the corner and she had the overwhelming urge to lean across the table and lick it off.
Crazy.
She shook away the notion and fixed her gaze on the papers. “I really need to get these back to corporate for a counter-signature.” The bus swayed to the left as it made a sharp turn and she clutched the edge of the chair. “The sooner that happens—” she fought to regain her composure “—the sooner you get your check.” She dangled the one advantage she had over him. Money. It was more than they’d ever paid to any spokesperson in the history of Western America and it was a heck of a lot more than the payout on any old bull.
A gleam lit his eyes before taking a nosedive into the deep blue depths. “I never talk money before breakfast, sugar.” He downed a large gulp of milk that sloshed slightly in the glass as they rumbled down what was now a dirt road.
She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he took another bite and a strange tingling started in the pit of her stomach.
It was the bus, she told herself. They were pitching and rocking. Enough to hollow out anyone’s stomach.
Except his. He seemed immune.
She knew the feeling. She’d lived her life on the road at one time and nothing had bothered her. Not traffic. Or turbulence. Or a rough stretch of road.
Then.
But now things were different. She was different. Even if she had slept like a baby for the past six hours.
“So why don’t you like pancakes?” he asked as they hit a pothole and she clutched at the chair’s edge.
“Who said I don’t like pancakes?”
“I offered to share and you turned me down.”
“It’s not that I don’t like them. I just don’t happen to want one right now.” Liar. She wanted one desperately. A bite of his pancake. A bite of him.
Whoa. Back the horse up.
Where had that thought come from? She didn’t want anything from Pete Gunner except his signature, which obviously wasn’t happening until he finished the mountain on his plate.
She drew a deep, shaky breath and tried to tamp down on the anxiety rolling through her. Gripping the chair, she slid around and sank down again before she broke an ankle.
Unearthing her cell phone, she spent the next few minutes doing her best to ignore Pete and his pancakes while she checked her voice messages.
Ten from Lisa wanting to know how things were going and when she would be back home. One from her dad telling her he would have a six-hour layover in Houston next week on his way to a Cubs’ alumnae dinner. One from Fred telling her not to come back without the papers in hand.
Ugh.
“You missed yoga this morning,” Lisa said when she picked up on the second ring. Lisa had been her first friend at Western. The first friendship she’d ever had that had lasted longer than six months. “Are you still in Dallas?”
“Not quite.” She watched Pete take a great big bite. Syrup dribbled down his chin and before she could stop herself, she licked her lips. He grinned and she gave herself a great big mental slap. “I, um, think this is going to take a little longer than I anticipated.”
“But you’ll be home by tomorrow, right? My parents are coming over to meet Mike and I want to finish painting my living room first. I need you to help.”
“You guys just started dating two weeks ago. Isn’t it a little early to spring him on your folks?”
“What can I say? When it’s right, it’s right.”
“Wasn’t it right with Wayne about three months ago? And Marty before that? And Kevin last year?”
“Mike is way better than all of them.” At the moment. Wendy was willing to bet Lisa would find something wrong with him when things started to get a little too serious. Just as she’d done with Wayne. And Marty. And Kevin. “Listen, can I borrow your red dress? He’s taking me out for a special dinner tonight and I don’t have time to comb the mall for a new outfit.”
“Only if you pick up Tom and Jerry for me. I doubt I’ll be home until late tonight.”
“On second thought, maybe I’ll swing by the mall—”
“They’re not that bad.”
“They ate my cell-phone case.”
“They thought it was a Twinkie and I promise it won’t happen again. You know I’ve been taking them to obedience classes. Please,” she added when Wendy hesitated. “I’ll throw in the open-toe shoes.”
“I still think I’m getting the raw end of the deal, but okay.”
“You’re the best.” Wendy killed the connection and glanced up to find Pete looking at her.
He arched an eyebrow. “Tom and Jerry?”
“A golden retriever and a Chihuahua.” She meant to stop there, but he kept looking at her as if he expected more and the words slipped out on their own. “My mom passed away in a car accident when I was just a few months old. My dad traveled a lot, so I spent way too much time staring at the inside of a hotel room. He bought me videos to help pass the time. I had every cartoon collection out there, but the Tom and Jerry ones were my favorites.” A smile tugged at her lips. “My dogs are always roughhousing and fighting, and so the names seemed to fit. What about you?” Not that she cared, but it was better to talk than sit quietly and lust after him. “Any pets?”
“Just one.”
“And?” she prompted when he seemed hesitant to continue.
“A miniature Yorkie named Tinkerbell.”
“It figures.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re the cowboy who refuses to grow up. I should have known you’d have a sidekick named Tinkerbell. But a Yorkie? What kind of a self-respecting badass buys a dog that can double as a powder puff?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t pick her. She picked me. Somehow she ended up scavenging around this old rodeo arena just outside of town. She managed to jump up into the back of my pickup and follow me home one night. She’s been with me ever since.”
She had a quick visual of him cuddling a tiny, yapping Yorkie and her chest hitched.
The realization made her back go ramrod-straight. So what if he had a dog? That was no reason to go all soft and gooey inside. He was still a major thorn in her side.
Still wild and crazy Pete Gunner.
“Living out of a suitcase doesn’t exactly lend itself to pet ownership,” she pointed out, suddenly desperate to kill the vision of him cuddling a ball of fluff. “That’s why I never had one when I was growing up. How do you do it?”
“My ranch foreman looks after her when I’m away.”
“Lucky you.”
“There’s no luck involved, sugar. It’s all hard work.”
“I’m sure signing autographs is hell on the knuckles.”
If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn that she’d struck a nerve. He frowned. “I do a lot more than sign autographs.”
“I forgot. You also dodge responsibility.”
Silence stretched for a tense nanosecond as he eyed her. “Apparently I’m not too good at it because here you are.” His frown turned into a full-blown grin. “Then again, I might be a damned sight better than I give myself credit for—” he motioned to the passing scenery, reminding her of the six and a half hours she’d just slept away “—because here you are.”
“You’re a jerk.”
“Keep up the sweet talk—” he winked “—and I’ll surely be scribbling my signature before breakfast is over.” Challenge gleamed hot and bright in his gaze, daring her to say something else, wanting her to. As if he liked the verbal sparring.
Crazy.
Men like Pete usually had a big head to go with their bad-boy reputation. They were used to having their egos stroked, not deflated, but Pete seemed different. Maybe she was imagining things. Even more, she was making her situation that much harder. The point was to coax him into signing, not piss him off.
She clamped her mouth shut and shifted her attention to the window while he went back to his breakfast. Pastureland stretched endlessly as they rolled along for the next ten minutes before the landscape gave way to haystacks and a sprawling one-story house with a gigantic wraparound porch.
“Home sweet home,” Pete announced before shoveling in his last bite. He pushed from the table and slid the plate into a nearby sink. The bus took a left and started down the long lane leading up to the house. Pete reached into the stainless-steel refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of what looked like a lime-green slushie. “Margarita chaser,” he offered when she arched an inquisitive eyebrow.
It figured.
If the rumors were even close to the truth, he would probably follow that up with a six-pack and then pull a few Hooters’ girls out of the closet.
She shook her head and he turned his attention back to the pitcher. Without bothering with a glass, he downed half of the container before finally coming up for air.
“Don’t you think you should slow down a little?” she asked as they started to slow. “I need you sober to sign this.”
“Don’t worry, sugar. I can do just about anything under the influence. I’m sure I’ll be able to scribble my John Hancock.” He set the remainder of the pitcher on a nearby countertop as they rolled to a complete stop. He grabbed the T-shirt draped across the back of his chair and pulled it on just as the bus door powered open.
“If you could just do this really fast for me,” she said, blocking his path toward the door. “I’ll be out of here in a flash—”
“I knew you’d make it!” The excited voice came from the doorway.
Wendy turned and her elbow slammed into the pitcher, knocking it onto its side. Margarita oozed over the countertop and dripped onto the floor.
She snatched up a dishrag and wiped at the mess just as a tall, lanky young man bounded onto the bus. He had the same killer-blue eyes as his older brother and the same whiskey-blond hair, which brushed the collar of his red-and-blue plaid Western shirt.
“A promise is a promise.” Pete grabbed Wade Gunner in a quick bear hug while Wendy wiped at the spilled margarita and frantically scooped as much as she could back into the pitcher.
“You’re just in time, too,” the young man told Pete. His eyes flashed with excitement. “It’s happening.”
“Right now?”
The boy’s head bobbed. “She’s about to pop any friggin’ second.”
“Hot damn!” Pete exploded. “That’s my girl.” He headed for the door on the heels of his younger brother and panic bolted through Wendy.
She dumped the last of the iced drink into the sink before her gaze dropped to the pale green stain on the front of her shirt. Great. Now she was going to reek of tequila.
Except she didn’t.
She caught a whiff of the almost-empty pitcher and smelled only fresh-squeezed lime juice and the sharp, pungent scent of vitamins.
Wait a second—
Her speculation stalled as she realized the counter was clear. Pete had bolted, and taken her contract with him.
“You forgot the pen—” She started after him, but his long strides had him yards ahead of her by the time she lunged off the bus. He was a man on a mission.
That’s my girl?
His words echoed in her head and her throat tightened. In all their meetings on the topic of Pete Gunner, her boss had never mentioned anything about a significant other. Just a long list of temporary flings while he was on the road, including a week with a recent Country Music Association award winner and a few weekends here and there with a Victoria’s Secret pinup.
She thought of the margarita that wasn’t really a margarita and the Yorkie named Tinkerbell. Maybe Pete Gunner wasn’t half the badass he pretended to be.