Laredo's Sassy Sweetheart (7 page)

“What?”

“Yep. That’s what she said,” Laredo said with satisfaction. “You had an ex-fiancé who took exception to your, um—”

“Okay. I’ve heard enough. Take me home,” Katy demanded. “At once.”

“Hey, I didn’t ask her to tell me any of this. And trust me, I left as soon as I realized nothing good was going to come of the conversation. She just wanted me to know that she’d lied about Bloodthirsty Black’s crank out of the chute, and the chatter went downhill from there.”

Katy glared at him. “Is that why you asked me out tonight on a poor man’s date? Isn’t that what you called it?”

“No. I like driving around. I like hanging out. Frankly, you’re not the kind of friend I feel I have to take to a hundred-dollar restaurant to make happy, since we agreed that you’re not the right woman for me, and I don’t want a woman, anyway. But I will take you to a hundred-dollar restaurant, if you’d prefer that. It’s just, then we won’t be friends, we’ll be nuts.”

She sat back again. “One of these days, Cissy is
going to open her mouth too wide and find herself in big trouble.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Laredo said cheerfully. “But I don’t think you should become a mantrap unless you allow me to be the one to spring your hinge. Practice on me, Katy.”

She looked back at him. Hannah giggled. “It is so weird being in the middle of this conversation. Katy wants practice, Laredo wants to give it to her, and I’m tagging along as mediator, I think.”

“Thank heaven,” Katy said.

“Yeah,” Laredo agreed, “because I don’t think I would have been brave enough to bring this up without a witness to my good intentions. We haven’t gotten along very well up to this point. Have you noticed that?”

“It’s pent-up sexual attraction,” Hannah said with a nod. “We should have brought your brothers. At least then we could have double-dated. Or would that be a triple date?”

“This is not a date,” Laredo and Katy said at the same time.

“It’s not if the definition of
date
is individuals engaging in simultaneously pleasing activity, but whatever,” Hannah said. “Let’s play strip poker at the creek edge.”

Katy stared at her. “Strip poker.”

“It’s my favorite game,” Hannah said, pulling cards out of her duffel-shaped purse. “Remember, I told you that.”

Laredo put the truck into gear and rolled forward
a few hundred feet to park beside the creek. “It’s gotta be my favorite game, too, but only when I win. And when I’m with beautiful women.” He gave a mock leer at Hannah and Katy. “I should warn you, I cheat.”

“We know,” Katy said. “It shows in the company you’ve been keeping.”

“Actually, I don’t admire Cissy at all for lying to me. Even though she was trying to undo what she’d done,” Laredo said self-righteously.

“I think there’s a difference between cheating and lying,” Hannah said. “Cheating can be honorable if the game rules allow for it. Then it’s creative competition. But a lie is just smarmy.”

“That’s it,” Laredo agreed. “Cissy must have been covering something up, or she wouldn’t have come clean about the lie. She’s working on two tiers, is what I think.”

“What else could she be doing?” Katy asked.

“Trying to throw me off track. Exactly what was it they did with the last cowboy?”

Hannah shuffled the card deck on her knees. “They lured him.”

“Okay. I’m not the kind of guy who can be lured.”

Both women stared at him incredulously. Then Katy shrugged, opening the truck door. “Come on. Let’s spread out in the truck bed where we can think this through better.”

“A beer will definitely help my thinking process,” Laredo agreed cheerfully. He pulled down
the truck gate and they piled in, each grabbing a blanket to sit on. They pulled beers from the cooler, and then the cooler became a table for the cards.

“This night sky is gorgeous,” Hannah said. “And that will help
my
thinking process. Don’t take your shoes off, Katy. You need them for the game.”

“No, no,” Laredo disagreed. “Remember, she wants the practice of being a mantrap. I’m willing to let her practice on me, and she can start by being near naked.”

“That’s assuming you win,” Katy said frostily, “and I don’t intend for that to happen. You eliminated yourself from practicing with me when you discussed me with Cissy.”

“Picky, picky,” he said. “Take your shoes off if you want.”

“I’ll keep them on. All night, more than likely.” She gave him a level stare, but Laredo grinned at her.

“All right, back to the plan,” Hannah said, dealing hands. “You’re not the kind of guy who can be lured, you say. But sex is their great weapon, and hey, we all know a guy can’t pass that up.”

Laredo cleared his throat as Katy’s gaze stayed on him. “Well, it is a lot to ask, but sacrifices are necessary at times. And the Lonely Hearts ladies did a lot for my family last month. I can refuse luring.”

Hannah put down one card, while Laredo and Katy asked for three.

“If you’re the dealer, aren’t you supposed to go last?” Laredo asked.

“This is just a friendly game of poker,” Hannah said. “Just something to help me concentrate.” They all turned up their cards, drawing a smirk from Hannah. “Choose your article of clothing, cowboy.”

Good-naturedly, he pulled off a boot and tossed it over the edge of the truck. “Opening-round bad luck.”

Katy raised her brows. “If Laredo continues to resist Cissy, they’ll try another tack.”

“Right.” Hannah nodded as she dealt another hand. “And you’ve got the
if
handled?”

Laredo nodded. “The
if
is not even a problem. I’m pretty certain that sex with Cissy would be one of those trips into the phantasmagoric wonderland of excess a man tries diligently to avoid.”

The women stared at him.

“Right,” Hannah said, her brows raised. “Then we have to be prepared for sabotage, I suppose.”

“Sabotage!” Katy dropped another three cards. “You don’t mean our bull?”

“It’s possible,” Hannah said. “It’s either our stud or our bull. That’s sort of how Marvella thinks.”

“Hey!” Laredo exclaimed.

“Her steely mind adds up our weapons. But I still think Marvella would never believe that Cissy couldn’t pull off enticing Laredo,” Hannah continued blithely.

He finished a beer and tossed the empty into the cooler. “You girls make it sound like I’m so easy,”
he complained, grabbing another beer. “I’m not like other guys.”

They turned over their cards.

“I lost again,” Laredo said, disbelieving. “Are you cheating, Katy?”

“Me?” She shook her head. “But speaking of cheating, who is the Never Lonely Cut-N-Gurls cowboy? Does anybody know?”

“That might help us, if we knew that in advance,” Hannah said.

“Would you steal him?” Laredo asked. “Isn’t that a lying, cheating combination?
And
copying the enemy’s game plan?”

“Shh,” Hannah told him. “I’m going to call Cissy and ask, since she’s such a blabbermouth these days.” Pulling out a cell phone, she punched in some numbers. “Of course, she’s probably busy on a Thursday night,” she said snidely. “Laredo, don’t forget to remove an article of clothing. Hello, Cissy? Hannah. Sitting here playing strip poker with Laredo and Katy. Yes, I am. Laredo’s losing. He’s down two boots.” She held up the phone. “Say ‘hello, Cissy,’ you guys.”

Laredo and Katy dutifully called, “Hello, Cissy.”

“So, Cissy, we were wondering, what cowboy do you have riding Bad-Ass Blue this weekend? I was talking to the copywriter for the
Lonely Hearts Station Dispatch
today, and I couldn’t remember for the life of me who you’d told me it was. And they want it for their article, you know,” she said, hold
ing up two crossed fingers to show that she was fibbing through her teeth.

She listened for a few moments. “Oh, I see. Okay. Well, good luck. Bye.” Turning off the phone, she stared at Laredo for a moment. “They don’t have a rider yet,” she said, amazed. “That’s the second tier.”

“What is?” Laredo and Katy asked in unison.

“You. That’s why Marvella pulled out all the stops and sicced Cissy on you. Marvella’s obviously hoping Cissy can change your mind so that you’ll be
their
rider instead.”

Katy gasped. “They wouldn’t stoop that low!”

“Why else would Cissy make certain Laredo knew about your…um, lack of experience?” she said tactfully.

Katy and Laredo stared at each other. “To make me look bad,” Katy said. “Not as worldly and sophisticated.”

“She was saying, Here’s something and over there you get nothing. So ride our bull, because there’s benefits to it you never even dreamed of.”

“Okay.” Laredo sat up straight. “Listen to me carefully. I’m going to ride Bloodthirsty Black this weekend, and then I’m leaving town.”

Katy looked at him. “If he leaves now, then neither of us has a rider.”

“I’m not leaving,” Laredo said. “Are you saying you think I should leave?”

“No, but if they think you’re gone, maybe they’ll settle down,” Katy pointed out.

“You’re kind of crafty,” Laredo said with admiration. “I don’t think you’ve shown me this side of you yet.”

Katy gave him an arch look. “I haven’t shown you any sides of me.”

“They’ve got to find somebody by Saturday morning.” Hannah put the cards down. “They have one day.”

“I don’t know,” Laredo said. “Maybe Cissy was lying again.”

“And that could be, too,” Hannah said. “Okay, it’s hot, and I vote we swim. Then we’ll think some more.”

“Swim in what?” Katy asked doubtfully.

“Anything you want to.” Hannah hopped out of the truck. “Last one in the creek is a cow patty!” She pulled off her top and sprinted a few yards away from the truck. Katy and Laredo followed, peeling clothes as they ran.

“Whee!” Katy yelled, feeling free and uninhibited and fun for the first time in a long time. In white cotton bra and panties, she jumped into the creek, hearing the giant splash Laredo made behind her. They sprayed water at each other madly for a couple of seconds, and then the sound of a truck engine halted their horseplay.

“See ya!” Hannah called from the truck, joyfully waving Laredo’s jeans out the window. “I left you a blanket over there, and the cooler. Be back in a few hours, kids!”

And then she drove off.

Leaving Katy alone in a creek with Laredo, and neither of them wearing more than underwear. At least, she hoped Laredo had underwear on…she glanced nervously toward the water’s edge, but she didn’t see anything that looked like underwear on the bank.

Hopefully he still had it on, she thought, gazing at his hard chest and muscular shoulders.

And that dark intense look was back in his eyes as he stared at her chest the same way she’d stared at his. Then his gaze met hers, pinning her, it felt, with heat.

“Practice makes perfect, Katy Goodnight,” Laredo said. “I think we should start your lessons tonight.”

Then he put his arms around her, drawing her against him.

She glanced up at him. “Laredo, maybe I haven’t decided that you’re the most credible teacher for me.”

“Why not?” Laredo demanded, surprised that Katy would sound so indifferent to him. He certainly was not indifferent to her. In fact, he was afraid that despite the cold water, he might do serious injury to himself by bursting a muscle somewhere in his groin area if she didn’t hurry up and say yes.

At this moment, her tone was more truculent than he liked.
Truculent
was a word he’d never heard anyone use except on a
Peanuts
cartoon he’d watched once when his brothers were younger, but at this moment, staring down into Katy’s blazing eyes and soft, pouty mouth, he knew he was looking at truculence personified.

“You’re too cocky,” she said. “Which is good in a bull rider, but not in a kiss mate.”

“Cocky,” he repeated. “I am who I am.”

“Yes,” she said on a sigh, “I realize that. While I can accept it, that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Katy,” he said in some desperation, “a kiss isn’t forever. I swear my lips aren’t cocky. If you
just stand still a moment, I can clear up all your doubts about your kissing skills.”

She shrugged enticingly bare shoulders at him, rounded skin that gleamed above the dark water and hinted at the sweetness bobbing just beneath.

How he wished it was daylight so he could see her better!

“A kiss could be forever,” she insisted. “If it’s done right. Not like that little peck we shared yesterday. You’re already telling me you’re not going to do it right this time. And why should I participate in that?”

“Katy, no one kisses for forever.”

“But that’s my problem, Laredo,” she said. “Stanley didn’t kiss me with his whole heart. Although Hannah says that the heart is not really involved, that it’s basically an allegorical muscle, I don’t buy that.”

“What?” Laredo had serious heat beneath the waist, and she was trying to fry his brain with deep thoughts. “Hey, I just want to taste you, Katy Goodnight. You know, between friends.”

“Nope.” She kicked toward the shore and got out, streaming water down her long ponytail, running droplets down her back, into her panties, which showed a wonderful delineation of well-rounded bottom—

“There’s no such thing as a real kiss between friends,” Katy called over her shoulder.

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re going about this all wrong.” He got out of the water, walked up the
bank, picked Katy up and strode back into the water with her.

“Laredo—”

“You said we’d think better when we were wet, and I’m certain this water is easing my thought passages. Like soda bubbles need syrupy water to get through a straw. Now, listen, Katy, you’re going about this mantrap business all wrong. I offered to let you practice on me. You’re supposed to use me and abuse me.”

“I am?” Her glare turned to question.

“Oh, absolutely. Most definitely. Take advantage of me. Lay your lips on me and then say goodbye. Kiss and flee, leaving me crying.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings—”

“Katy, I swear, I won’t cry in front of you. Now, pucker up. Please.”

She cocked a brow at him. “Stanley never said
that
to me.”

He squinted his eyes at her. “Stanley clearly didn’t know all the magic words. I’m going to teach you how to be the best mantrap in town. Man-magnet of the century. Cissy Kisserton won’t be able to touch your talent. You practice on me, and we’ll both get so good, we’ll open up a kissing booth at the next rodeo. We’ll make a fortune for charity.”

She wound her arms around his neck, and he looked down, enjoying the view of flat tummy and puckered nipples through a cotton bra sticking to all the things he wanted it stuck to.

“Okay, Laredo,” she said softly. “Let’s practice.”

Thank heaven. Yee-haw! All his smooth talking had gotten him just what he wanted. He was going to kiss this little girl; he was going to dazzle her until there were stars in her eyes she couldn’t shake out….

Holding her closer, he placed his lips against hers, making certain he gentled her, like a rider with a new mare.

To his surprise Katy locked her lips onto his, sucking and pulling, and then changing pressure as she moved her lips to a different position. Her breasts snuggled up against his chest as her hands clasped the back of his head. Her lips and tongue did a sex dance all over his mouth. The heat in his groin exploded into a raging fire.

Suddenly she pulled away and stared up at him with big, blue innocent eyes. “Was that right?”

His legs were trembling from the afterburn. “Uh, yeah,” he said, “I think we’ve got something to work with.”

“H
EY
!” Hannah called, interrupting Tex and Ranger as they stood eyeing Bloodthirsty Black. The brothers turned around, and she tossed Laredo’s truck keys at them.

Ranger caught them with a deft hand. “You look like a windblown daisy. What have you been doing?”

“Playing strip poker with your brother and Katy.”

Tex stared at her. “If you’re here, does that mean you won?”

“It means I think quicker than them. It’s hard to get those two to cut to the chase. They just dance around the whole issue like Baryshnikov’s ballet—”

“What issue?” Ranger demanded.

“Sex,” Hannah said. “Love. Rock ’n’ roll. You know.”

Ranger stared at her, somewhat bemused. “Are they having sex? Or rocking ’n’ rolling?”

“I doubt they’re doing either. Or anything other than swimming. Last I saw them, they were nearly naked in Barmaid’s Creek, which for most people would be encouraging.” She sighed heavily. “But not for Katy and Laredo. They’re probably still arguing about who’s going to make the first move tonight. Or ever, for that matter.”

“My brother’s pretty slow on the uptake,” Ranger said.

“And Katy’s too smart for her own good. Can do bio, organic, almost any kind of chemistry you care to name, but she has no sense when it comes to the sexual kind.”

“I don’t care to try to name any of them,” Ranger said. “Although organic sounds like it’d be right up Tex’s alley.”

“Not right now,” Tex said. “I’m focused on Malicious Bull Riding 101.”

“So you left them in the creek?” Ranger asked.

Hannah nodded. “Do you mind fishing them out in a couple of hours? They’ll be too mad at me, and I’m afraid they’ll take their revenge by sending me down the creek-fall in nothing but my bra and underwear.”

“Sounds vengeful but inviting,” Ranger said on a rough breath. “Maybe you should accompany me to pick up the lovebirds.”

“Oh, make no mistake about it,” Hannah said with a patient expression, “they are far from lovebirds. They’ll peck each other’s feathers out before they admit that they might like each other.”

“It’s a Jefferson curse,” Tex said on a long-suffering sigh. “We never settle down, and then when we do—”

“When we do?” Ranger interrupted. “The only one who has is Frisco, and he was a freak case.”

“Why?” Hannah asked.

“Oh, it was that storm or something. All that rain diluted his brain.” Ranger turned his attention to the bull in the stall. “It all went south when he broke his leg, in my estimation.”

“Yeah, Helga trapped him, and he darn near went mad with the daily emotional trauma of her caring for him. So he was ripe for the picking. But as you can tell, Laredo is in fine physical and emotional shape,” Tex said. “He may not be very sua-vay at dating, but he’s definitely on target to avoid falling in love.”

Hannah stared at the two of them. “You’re both full of wind, but I suppose you’re harmless enough.
Please don’t forget to pick your brother and Katy up in a bit.” And she walked away.

“Hey! Don’t leave,” Ranger called. “You should ride out to the creek with us.”

She waved and kept on walking. A few more strides and she disappeared.

“That’s one crazy lil’ ol’ gal,” Ranger said with wonder. “Leaving my brother in nothing but his Calvins in a creek somewhere.”

“That sounds like a Mimi trick,” Tex said, his tone just as impressed. “And we thought only Mimi had that type of superspunk.”

“Good thing we’re not interested in a woman at this time,” Ranger said, his gaze turning to his brother.

“Yeah, man. Let’s get back to this bull,” Tex agreed. “He has just a little less crank to him than Hannah.”

“True,” Ranger murmured, his gaze bouncing back to the exit Hannah had used. “Just a little less crank. But a helluva liftoff.”

“W
HAT
I
WANT TO KNOW
,” Laredo said, as he placed a beer bottle cap on his bare stomach to show Katy that he could roll just as well as she could, “is why you agreed to marry that Stanley guy in the first place. If he didn’t like to kiss you, that is. Isn’t sucking face a basic building block for a successful marriage?”

Katy lay very still on her back on the blanket Laredo had laid down for them. She focused her
stomach muscles to move slowly, so that the beer cap on her belly made a guided flip, flip, flip motion up her stomach. “I fell in love with Stanley, not with his sexual prowess.”

Laredo grimaced. “I guess not.”

“Did you ever fall in love with anyone?” Katy asked, taking the beer cap off her stomach and resettling it lower.

The question interrupted his successful rolling of the beer cap. “I was up to two rolls until you asked me that,” he charged. “You should never ask a man about love when he’s trying to align his stomach muscles into the perfect gyration for beer cap rolling.”

She put two beer caps on her stomach and began crunching her muscles so that the two caps moved upward in unison. Laredo sighed and sat up. “I’m not going to be able to beat you at this game. How about we try one of mine?”

“Answer the question,” she told Laredo, putting a third cap on her stomach.

“No. I’ve never had a hankering to fall in love.”

She frowned. “One doesn’t always get a hankering. Sometimes love just hits.”

“Did you have a hankering? Or a hit?”

“A hankering. Actually, I’d studied so long to be good at my chosen profession that I think I really wanted a fling. The kind the other girls had when they went on spring break.”

“Katy,” Laredo said, “when your friends went to the beach for spring break, they were not going
to find a husband. Subconsciously you picked stability.”

“I know. Well, marrying Stanley felt as wild and crazy as I could be. However, after living around Hannah for a while, I’ve decided to change. I’m going to up my footloose meter.”

“Excellent. Can I make a swimsuit top for you out of beer caps?” Laredo asked.

She stopped rolling her stomach, which made him feel slightly less hypnotized. On the other hand, if she could move her muscles that well, imagine what other muscles she could utilize—

“Laredo, I said, go ahead.”

“Oh.” His mouth watered as she accepted his invitation. Of course, he hadn’t been serious. He’d been teasing, certain of a
No!
“Well, to make a proper swim top,” he said, trying to sound knowledgeable, “you’d have to take off the one you’re currently wearing.”

She sat up, turning her back to him.

“What?” he asked dumbly.

“Unhook me.”

His fingers started gently trembling. Maybe he’d drunk too much beer. That was it! He didn’t have enough caps for a proper beer-cap top. He counted three Katy had rolled on her stomach, and two on the ground beside him. There was an old one someone had tossed away; he could use that one. It would be an even number, he thought, his mind hazy with rapid-fire counting. He could cover her decently
with six caps. One each for her nipples, which left four caps, two per breast…

He was going to lose his mind in the process.

“Laredo,” Katy said, turning her head to glance at him, “maybe you are all bull and no consummation.”

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat, reaching a tentative hand toward her back.

But then he pulled his hand away. If Katy thought kissing was forever, then making love to her would be lifetimes into infinity. If not infinity, at least into googolplex, a word he thought Miss Smarty Pants might be impressed that he knew.

“A googol is ten to the hundredth power; a googolplex is ten to the googol power,” he said, wishing desperately he was brave enough to accept her invitation. The thought of seeing her bare breasts was enough to scissor his brain in two. “A googolplex is the largest named number. Bet you didn’t think I knew that.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you always delve into mathematical jargon when you’re undecided?”

“I was trying to get my mind off my hormones. It’s not working.”

She let her gaze roam downward. “So I see.”

Taking a deep breath, he said, “Katy, I think I’ll rescind my creative offer of a beer cap top.”

“Because?”

“Because I won’t be able to stop there. I’ll want to make you a beer cap thong—”

“And then we’ll be drunk…”

“And then we’ll be drunk, and then…then I might make love to you but neither of us would remember it, and your first time should be special,” he said on a rush, happy to have found reasoning that sounded sane.

“I want to,” Katy said softly. “I want you to be the first.”

“Why me?” Laredo had never heard such sweet words, but he truly was not the man to act upon them.

“Because you’re sexy. And macho. And I’m going to Duke after the summer, and I’ll probably fall for another of my own kind—”

“Your own kind?”

“Some studious, boring, tenure-bound professor, and I’ll have missed the opportunity to have a hot cowboy take my virginity. That sounds like a woman’s dream fantasy come true, don’t you think?”

He wasn’t sure about a woman, but he knew the fantasy sure as hell had him standing straight up. “Katy,” he rasped, “you’ve got to quit talking like that. I can only take so much.”

“Uh-uh,” she said, turning all the way around and situating herself between his legs so that she faced him, “This is the new me. Remember?”

“I like the old you,” he said desperately.

“Yes, but the old me lived in her fears. She was a shell without adventure or fearlessness. I don’t want to be a chem prof with no sinful side explored.”

“The right man is out there,” Laredo said, hanging on to no with all his might. “The one who’ll stay around and give you children and a secure house and a solid marriage. The one who’ll take you to church on Sunday and give you an iron for Mother’s Day and—”