All Smoke No Fire (3 page)

“Are you serious?” Dax watched Huck’s face. The guy was a joker, but as a supervisor at the company that employed all four of them, Huck had inside information and took his job very seriously.

Of course, Huck was the kind of guy who could really keep a secret. Every Friday after work, he packed up a bag and left in his truck, never saying where he went, coming back sore and tired Sunday night in time to get a few hours’ sleep before work the next day.

“Yeah.” Huck pulled out his phone and typed on it. “I can set you up tomorrow when I get back. Fake your signature on the request form. Give you a week off.” He slid his phone into his pocket. “No problem with work, buddy.”

Dax looked at Shaw. The most stable of all of them, he’d saved his oil money to buy a herd of cattle for the ranch he’d inherited from his grandfather. His girl Harper worked for a beverage company as the on-site representative at rodeos around the country. She and Shaw were counting down the months until they could leave their day jobs, buy those beeves, and ranch full-time.

Shaw opened his mouth, then closed it.

Everyone waited to hear his thoughts.

“You know how scary it is to get on a new ride at the county fair?” Shaw’s mouth quirked up. “But you really want to do it ‘cause you know it’ll be fucking amazing.”

Dax nodded. That’s what his stomach felt like: jittery with the mix of excitement and fear. “Then you get halfway through the ride and puke all over yourself.”

The guys laughed.

“What’s going on in here?” Harper’s voice called from the back of the room. “The newest country music star is still talking to us lowly fans?” Harper’s red hair shone as she came down the aisle with CJ.

Towering over petite Harper, Pete’s woman, CJ, strutted toward them, thin and beautiful, her head of curly platinum-blonde hair glowing like a halo.

“Ladies.” Dax touched the imaginary brim of a cowboy hat. “I need advice from someone with a whole brain in their head.”

The guys stood, making room for the women, and they all resettled, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy.

Harper had a beer for Shaw plus a carrier with three more beers, one of which she passed to Dax, the other to Huck.

“Hey, this girlfriend thing is kinda handy.” Huck winked at Dax.

“Try it sometime.” Harper had already given up trying to find the right woman for Huck, but she’d been hot on the job for Dax lately.

“What’s going on?” CJ handed Pete a beer, smiling at him like he was the best thing that’d ever happened to her.

Pete pointed to Dax. “You’re not gonna believe this.”

Dax explained Marilou’s offer in one quick sentence, then took a long pull of cold beer, still not comprehending that this was really happening to him.

“Go.” CJ’s eyes went wide, her smile showing her amazement. “This is an incredible opportunity for you.”

Harper nodded. “Definitely. Go. You’ve got nothing to lose, and if you end up flying in to the Dickinson airport tomorrow, we’ll pick you up and you can tell us all about it. But Lord, just jump on this, Dax.”

Shaw wrapped his arm around her, smiling. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” He glanced at Dax. “Go back to the hotel and get your bag, think about it for a while, and us lowly fans are going to wander over to the honky tonk down the street. If you decide not to go, come and find us.” He narrowed his gaze on Dax. “But I am encouraging you to go.”

Dax’s head started spinning again. He’d been so sure at least one of them would try to talk him out of it, that it felt like he’d just been propelled off into space. “You sure I shouldn’t wait and—”

“No.” Five voices chorused the word.

“We’re not trying to talk you into anything.” Shaw stood, helping Harper from her chair. “But if you didn’t want our advice, if you’d already decided not to do this, you wouldn’t have even told us about it, right?”

The other three stood.

Was his buddy right? Had he already decided and was just looking for affirmation from them? “Yeah.” Things were falling into place too easily for this to not be right. “I think I can do this.” He slid off the stage and hit the floor, the solid feel of his decision as strong as the concrete beneath his feet.

His friends said goodbye, the girls giving him hugs, making him promise to send tons of pictures. They left and Dax picked up his guitar case, looking at the stage again, knowing he’d never forget this night, this moment. It’d either be the biggest event of his life or the most foolish choice he’d ever make.

Dax finished his beer as he walked out of the auditorium. Whichever way this turned out, he’d damn sure better not puke all over himself, which ironically was what his stomach urged him to do right this second.

Marilou could sleep ten hours tonight. This north-central and midwest tour had sounded like a great idea when her agent came up with the plan. But after today’s seventh casino concert, she felt wiped out. She carried her three bags out of the back entrance of the casino, a security guard following her the few yards to her waiting bus. After she punched in the code, the doors swung open. “Thank you.” She shook the guard’s hand and climbed the steps onto her bus.

The door to the soundproof room with the drivers’ bunk beds stood open on the left side and Joe and Beth sat at the small booth that ran along the right side of the aisle.

No Dax.

“Hi, boss.” Joe slid out from the long, padded bench. In his thirties, his full head of brown hair looked rumpled, like he’d just woken. “How did it go tonight?” He reached for her bags, but she shook her head.

“I got these, thanks. And it was a great show.” Marilou couldn’t find any enthusiasm to perk up her voice. Why had Dax chosen not to make the trip with her?

Joe slid into the cushy driver’s seat and pulled out his checklist.

Beth, Joe’s wife, yawned, her long, blonde hair twisted into her sleep braid. “Anything you want to tell us?” Her smile tipped in a wise-ass smirk.

“Like what, for instance?” Usually, Marilou loved to talk with the couple, spend the long miles chatting with whichever one of them was not driving. Until they had to sleep before their shift.

A thump sounded from the back of the bus. She looked in that direction, past the first bathroom, past the kitchenette, past the lounge seating area, and back toward her bedroom with its private seating area and en suite bathroom.

Dax appeared in the doorway, rubbing his head. “Low bridge.” He laughed.

Beth’s smirk grew…smirkier and she slid out of the bench seat. “We have a stowaway.” She walked past Marilou to the front of the bus, kissed her husband’s cheek, and disappeared into the soundproof sleeping room, closing the door.

“We’re rolling.” Joe shifted and the bus eased forward.

Marilou could almost cry right now as relief and excitement flooded her. “Hi, smokey.” She set her bags on the table.

From the front of the bus, Joe’s ubiquitous talk radio rolled from his speakers.

Dax placed his hand on the wall to steady himself as the bus picked up speed. “If you’re gonna call me smokey, I think I might just bail at the next stop.”

She walked up to him and squeezed his forearm for a couple seconds, it was so big and muscled, it made her giddy. Giddier. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you here.”

He looked down at her, his face unreadable. “I tried to talk myself out of it, but to be honest, I wanted to be on this bus more than I’ve wanted anything in my life.”

Marilou could fall in love with his habit of total openness. Gesturing to the seating group with a low table and four leather chairs, she gave him a nudge. “Sit. Let’s talk a bit.” She yawned. “Before I crash for a few hours.”

“Sure.” He folded his big body into one of the chairs. “Joe and Beth explained the shift driving. Even with regular shift-change stops, it’ll only take us twenty-four hours to get to New Orleans.”

“And we can sleep through a lot of those hours.” Marilou opened the tall, narrow fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer. “This okay?”

He nodded. “Why don’t you fly?”

She used an opener on the tops then set the beer on the table and sat across from him. “Scared to death.” There weren’t many things that frightened her, but this one she wasn’t interested in letting go of. “Since the turbulence on my first flight when I was eighteen, I’ve never gotten on another plane.”

“Bad, huh?” He watched her with those beautiful eyes.

“Yeah, I got hit on the head with something and threw up.”

Dax frowned. “Sounds horrible.” He drank from his bottle. “But it could have been worse.”

“Yep.” She lifted her beer in a toast. “To being alive and having the opportunity to start something new in our lives.”

He tapped his bottle to hers, then drank.

Tonight they’d be sharing a bedroom. It’d be strange for her, not sure if the zing of awareness she felt for him was reciprocated. She wouldn’t push it, though, and if something happened, all the better. She’d been in a dry spell for more months than she cared to admit. “You saw the bedroom?”

He opened his mouth and worked his jaw a few seconds. “You have two beds in there. Are we…” He swallowed. “Is one of them for me, or do I sleep out here?”

She just wanted to hug him, squeeze him tight. Such a gentleman. “Yep, one of the beds is for you. There’s a thick curtain that pulls between them so it’ll give a little privacy. I have a niece who likes to travel with me when she’s not in school—she’s a junior in high school and thinks she wants to be a singer.”

Dax grinned. “Did you talk her into that the same way you talked me into it?”

With a laugh, Marilou crossed her legs and her skirt rode up, showing some leg.

His eyes followed the movement, almost a caress from her calves up her thighs. Was he interested? His gaze shot to hers with narrowed lids, sexy, hungry. He shifted in his seat. Was there a bigger bulge behind his fly now?

It would be so easy for her to let him seduce her, let him peel off her clothes and kiss her tingling skin, use those big hands to please her, then lie completely naked next to him as he slid his hard shaft deep inside her…

Her gaze shifted from his swelling cock to his face, her breath coming fast, her mouth open in invitation.

Dax shook his head once, as if mentally shifting gears. “Ah…the reason I’m here.” He swallowed and took a couple breaths. “You said I might have talent?”

As she pushed back the desire that threatened to make her do something foolish, one last chill raced through her, raising goosebumps on her skin and pebbling her nipples. “I did, Dax.” Talking business would keep her from slipping onto his lap and kissing those sensual lips of his. “I started out as a talent agent. Left home for New Orleans right out of high school with my boyfriend, who wanted to become a musician.”

“You’re not from New Orleans?” His gaze dropped to her breasts, then flicked quickly back to her eyes.

The touch of his gaze on her nipples tightened them even more, sending pulses of desire down to her core. “I’m Cajun, from a parish northwest of the Big Easy.” She barely saw her family anymore, but sent them money as often as she could, and flew her niece out to meet her whenever schedules allowed.

She blinked away her homesickness. “I acted as his manager, booking gigs, inviting agents to see his show.” She crinkled her brows. “Unfortunately, he had very little talent, and agents turned him down every time. He decided to pull out and try Nashville, but one of the local agencies liked my hustle and offered me an entry-level position.”

“Uh huh.” He lifted one booted foot onto the opposite knee. “I can see where this is going.”

Marilou liked to see him relaxing. “Yep. Boyfriend went north, I stayed, working my ass off until I became a talent agent.” She leaned forward, placing her hand on his knee. The heat of awareness flared inside her. “So yes, I know you have what it takes.”

He sat so still, she started to slide her palm off his leg. Grasping her hand, he held it on his knee, tracing his thumb back and forth across her knuckles. “Thank you for telling me that, Marilou.” His blue eyes turned darker as he stared at her. “And I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but I really admire you.” He watched her for a few seconds. “And I appreciate that you want to do this for me.”

Admire. Appreciate
. Great, that sounded like she’d become a priceless antique to be kept up on a shelf.

“But I like you, too.” Dax held her hand tighter. “And if it won’t get me kicked off the bus, I need to tell you how attracted I am to you.”

A shudder of heat contracted low in her belly. “Now, that’s what I was hoping to hear.”

****

Dax couldn’t believe he’d just blurted out something so goofy. He’d seen the look in her eyes, the hard prominence of her nipples, and the way her breath came fast when he gave in to the temptation and looked her over as he would a hot, sexy woman, not just his new mentor.

She wanted him too, and it shoved so much blood down into his cock, he didn’t figure he’d be able to form another sentence for a while.

Rising to her feet, she let go of his hand and glanced briefly at the driver. “Let’s finish this in the bedroom.” Marilou grabbed her purse and Dax picked up her other bags. She wandered back to her room and flipped the light switch, turning on the lamps on the tables next to each of the beds.

Dax followed, closing the door behind them and setting her bags down. He forced down the nerves that had kept him jittery since he’d first met her. Was he about to kiss Marilou Roselle, country star? Would a kiss lead to more? On his right, a sitting area with two recliners and a table between them faced a wall-mounted TV. To the left, the nice-sized bathroom with a shower gleamed in the subdued light. The beds sat at the back of the bus and he wanted nothing more than to pick her up in his arms and lay her down on one of them.

Turning toward him, she gestured between the two of them. “I don’t want this to have anything to do with our business arrangement.”

“It won’t.” Desire stole through him, heating his blood as he stepped forward and reached for her. “Trust me.” Hell, he would have said just about anything at that point.

Placing her palm on his chest, her arm straight out, she shook her head. “I do trust you, but we haven’t knocked out our business arrangement yet, so as much as I’d love to…” She wagged her brows at him. “We need to wait until that’s done.” A big yawn escaped her. “And I’m exhausted right now, smokey.”