Laredo's Sassy Sweetheart (9 page)

“Nope.”

Of course, that was where men went when they
needed to get some…peace of mind. Still, Laredo had told her he wasn’t interested in Cissy. She believed him.

And yet…

“Is it wrong to follow a man?” she asked Hannah. “Does that fall under the heading of spying? Stalking? Prying?”

Hannah jumped from the bed. “I wasn’t going to suggest it, but since you mentioned it, I think late-evening walks under any heading are healthier than lying awake. Hurry and get dressed!”

“Sexual tension is very bad for the brain,” Laredo told Ranger as they met at Bloodthirsty’s pen.

Ranger nodded. “I think I’ll drink all day tomorrow. You should, too. That’s the best way to train you for riding this beast, I do believe. Let’s go get a case, and we’ll both go at it. That way, when you finally do ride him, you won’t remember how stupid you looked when Bloodthirsty flings you into the next county, and I won’t remember the shame and embarrassment of my brother’s unfortunate rendezvous with the dirt.” He grimaced. “So much for Jefferson pride.”

“We gotta find Tex.” Laredo glanced around, frowning. “Where do you think he is? He wasn’t back at Miss Delilah’s.”

Ranger shrugged. “Think he’s across the street.”

“Why do you think that?”

His brother jerked his head toward an empty stall. Suspiciously, Laredo went to peer inside.

There was a pair of pink panties lying in the straw
that said “Make My Day” in silver-studded letters. In fact, the tiny stud letters were about all that made the panties classify as a garment; there wasn’t much fabric to brag about.

Laredo blinked. “They’re kind of see-through.”

“Yeah. You have to kick them over to read the back. It says ‘And My Night Too.”’ Ranger laughed. “That scalawag.”

“Hmm.” Laredo felt a little sad. Tex didn’t have any conscience, no guilt. He knew how to eat from the Garden of Good and Evil without repercussions. Katy had been in Laredo’s room, looking like sweet heaven—and all Laredo had done was stand there like a goon.

“Don’t feel bad,” Ranger told him. “You and Tex are total opposites. You only look alike. But inside you’re so different, you’d probably be schizo if you hadn’t been split into twins.”

“Yes, but he’s the settled one, the gardener, the grower of buds. I’m the rebel, the James Dean. But I’ve never had trouble with women before,” Laredo said, worried. “They like me, and I like them.”

“Well, Katy’s got you spooked. It’s because you like her for serious.”

“I do not like her for serious.” Laredo shook his head. “She…she’s too smart for me.”

“One day you’ll get it together, maybe,” Ranger assured him. “You’ll find the moment, and you’ll get it right, and when you do, I don’t want to have to hear you babble about it for weeks on end. Just enjoy it, and don’t screw it up.”

“Screw it up?” Laredo went pale. “I don’t know if I can enjoy it if I’m worried about screwing up. I think you just gave me my first case of performance anxiety, and I don’t even know what I’m performing.”

Ranger grinned. “For your first performance, you’re going to hang on to this bull for eight seconds, or at least long enough to make yourself a winner in Katy’s eyes. Then you’re going to let her reward you for a job well done.”

Laredo followed his brother out of the barn. “And if that’s not how the performance goes?”

“Then you don’t get a curtain call. You get to move onto the next Big Thing.”

“That’s right.” Laredo told himself he felt better about that, but strangely the thought made him feel something altogether different.

Performance anxiety had just kicked up another notch.

“S
EE
?” H
ANNAH SAID
. “I told you Laredo wasn’t going over to the enemy.” They watched as the two men got into Laredo’s truck and drove away. “Don’t be such a fraidy-cat.”

“I’m not.” But she was, Katy acknowledged to herself.

“Okay, here’s the deal. When he’s done riding on Saturday, you take him back down to the creek and you finish what you started before the wild boys rode in to the rescue,” Hannah instructed. “After that, you can plan your future.”

“Future?”

“Whether this is a spring fling for you or something serious. Whether it’s Duke University, or the cowboy for you.” Hannah smiled, pleased with her advice.

“I’ll miss you when I go, Hannah,” Katy told her. “I never had a real best friend before, and it feels good. You’re so much like a sister to me.”

“Hey,” Hannah said, her funky-punky hair totally awry. “Don’t get mushy on me. The way I see it, I’m going to lose you, either to Duke or to Malfunction Junction. It’s to my benefit to do everything I can to help you and Laredo break through this barrier of reluctance you’ve built. Both of you. I’ve got to tell you,” Hannah said with a sigh, “you’re both so prickly around each other, it’s starting to jangle my chi.”

Katy followed her friend back inside. “Rest your chi. I’m going to sleep in my own bed,” she said. “I have a feeling Laredo and Ranger will be gone for a long time.”

W
HEN
K
ATY AWAKENED
, she had the unbearable sensation of being smothered. Something was crushing her, and it was huge, and no matter which way she tried to wiggle, it had left her no room to escape.

Her mouth was open for air, so at least her trachea wasn’t squished, she rationalized. It was dark in her room, too dark to see anything, but her panic subsided when she recognized Laredo’s scent. Macho. But still on top of her.

“Laredo!” she whispered urgently. “Get off!”

He snored in her ear.

She tried to push him.

He didn’t budge.

It wasn’t all bad having the cowboy in her bed and on top of her, but this wasn’t the way she’d dreamed it would happen. With a muffled grunt, she managed to pull one arm free.

“Laredo,” she said, tapping on his shoulder.

Bare shoulder, she realized.

He snored again.

She moved her hand below the sheet and tapped at the bottom of his spine. “Laredo,” she said more softly, not really wanting him to wake up now.

It gave her an excuse to tap just a few inches lower, just enough to tell whether—

She squeezed her eyes shut, prayed for bravery and traced a few inches lower to his buttocks.

He was buck naked. Lying on top of her.

And from the feel of frontally aligned matters, he was now fully awake.

Laredo didn’t move, keeping his face buried in the pillow. Katy’s tap-tapping had awakened him in every sense of the word. He knew it was Katy because no one else would be sleeping in her bed.

He just hadn’t realized he’d laid himself on her when he’d crashed into bed like a falling tree. Surely he’d lain
beside
her and then rolled over on her.

His heartbeat seemed to triple. She felt so soft and small underneath him. The gentlemanly thing to do would be to get off her right now…but he had a
massive erection, which he was hoping would go away any second, before she noticed.

He really did not want her to notice.

Problem was, he was pretty sure she couldn’t miss it, since it was pressing against her lower region. Her female anatomy. The place where “Make My Day” underwear would be, if she were the type of girl who wore such, but she wasn’t, and that was his biggest problem of all.

Her breath caught in a gasp, and he realized he was busted. She
knew.

He was pretty certain that no matter how far Bloodthirsty threw him, his embarrassment couldn’t come close to what he was now feeling.

There were two options open to a man with an obvious predicament of desire: he could apologize, get up and vacate the room—and probably the premises—for good.

Or he could act like it was nothing out of the ordinary, roll over and go back to sleep.

They didn’t have to discuss it.

Suddenly he felt her hand, the one that had been tap-tap-tapping its way down his backside, make its way around his hip and underneath, between them. His surprise made him arch, and she caught him in her small, delicate hand.

“Oh, my,” she said on a whisper. “I had no idea.”

He hadn’t, either. He was going to die if he didn’t get inside her quick. There was a Lonely Hearts train running on the tracks outside—no the train was in
his head, pushing all rational thought out of his mind. He couldn’t bed Katy. She would regret it if he took her because he’d be her first, and he had no intention of being here past Saturday.

There wasn’t a woman on earth who didn’t want a man to hang around, even if she said otherwise. Especially not a virgin.

But her hand was gently squeezing, and the last of his sanity began to drain away. “Katy,” he said on a groan.

“Yes?” she asked, somewhere near his ear.

It all felt too good. “Sweetheart, I want you real bad, and if you don’t let go, I’m going to lose my mind.”

And you’re going to lose your virginity, he didn’t add.

She hesitated, her hand relaxing. He tried to take a deep breath, to push back the demand his body was begging for.

“All right,” she said. “I understand.”

She released him, and he rolled away. She got out of the bed. Her retreat was so swift and so sudden he opened his mouth to complain.

But she was gone.

“Damn it,” he said. “Damn it to hell!”

He’d only been mildly out of sorts when he’d gone to drink a few beers with Ranger, but now he was really out of sorts. And a whole keg of beer wouldn’t put out the fire engulfing him. Even his mouth had dried out from erotic heat. She’d felt so
good underneath him! So pliable and warm and sweet…yet once again he’d let her slip away.

And she’d sounded so disappointed it nearly killed him.

“Y
OU BOZO
,” Ranger said when he complained about it the next day. “Maybe you’ve forgotten what to do to a willing woman.”

“That’s the trouble!” Laredo glared at his brother. “She doesn’t understand what she’s willing to do!”

“Sounds like she does.”

“I mean, she…Katy’s special. She’s different.”

“Oh,” Ranger said on an enlightened note. “She’s—”

“Yes!” Laredo glared harder. “Yes, she is. And I think she should stay that way, seeing as how it’s only me she’s trying to give it to.”

“Hmm,” Ranger said thoughtfully. “That does muddy the waters a bit. I’d have to recommend that you leave that opportunity unexplored.”

Laredo’s heart sank as the voice of common sense jibed with his own gut reaction. “Me, too.”

“After all, you have nothing to offer her.”

“Nope,” Laredo agreed, shaking his head.

“She could do much better, first off.”

“I know,” he said glumly.

“So forget about her,” Ranger told him.

“I’m trying. She’s just so darn cute, though.”

“You know, once passion gets ahold of you, bro,
it’s gonna eat a hole in you big enough to fit itself into.”

“I think I’m already there. I feel like Jerry could drive his rig through me.”

“Listen.” Ranger clapped him on the shoulder. “Go home. To Malfunction Junction.”

“Why?” Laredo stared at his brother.

“You’re in way over your head. You can’t ride this damn bull, anyway. All they need is an eight-second guy, and that would be me. Or Tex. Not you.”

His throat dried out; his stomach clenched. “I’m not a quitter.”

“No, but you shouldn’t have said yes in the first place. Only reason you did was to show off. But you didn’t know you were going to fall for Katy, and you didn’t know she was, you know—” Ranger cleared his throat delicately “—untouched. And so, it’s best if you move on. If you don’t go home, at least move on, and keep looking for that Big Thing you’re wanting to do. This is not it.”

Laredo closed his eyes, pressing his fingers against his eyelids. “I think I’m falling in love.”

“I know it, you dope. Fortunately, Katy doesn’t realize it. While there’s still a piece of your heart that’s ambivalent, get gone. Otherwise you’re going to end up making love to that little gal. And you’ll do something stupid after that, like get her pregnant—”

“I know how to wear a condom, thank you,” Laredo snapped.

“Finer men than you have worn the raincoat only to find themselves at a shower nine months later. That’d be baby shower,” he emphasized.

“I get it. I don’t think you’re right. I think I can stay here another night and ride that bull and stay away from Katy.”

“And then?” Ranger asked.

“And then ride away and forget it.”

“Not to doubt you, bro, but there are clues that tell me different.”

“Name one,” Laredo invited.

“You ran over here with your zipper unzipped, for one.”

Laredo glanced down at his jeans, making a swift adjustment. “That doesn’t mean a thing. It was dark on the stairwell, and I didn’t want to turn on the light and wake everyone up as I passed their doors, and I was trying not to kill myself by falling down the stairs when I left.”

Ranger laughed. “Whatever.”

“Name another clue.”

“Where did you sleep, if not in Katy’s room? After the incident, I mean.”

“In the upstairs den. Or TV room. Whatever you want to call it. I bunked on the sofa.”

“Why’d you fall asleep on her in the first place? Just a question that leads up to clue number two.”

Laredo thought about the softness under him he’d awakened to. “Guess I was tired, or I’d had too much to drink, and I got in the bed I’d been sleeping in. I didn’t know she was there.”

“But you ended up sleeping on top of her. Even in your subconscious, you want to be with her. Right on top of her, to be specific.” Ranger grinned at him. “And anyway, all you have to do is say ‘Katy,’ and your nostrils flare. You look like you’re going to explode any second.” Ranger snickered, shaking his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody with the hots as bad as you’ve got them. You’re radioactive, man.”

When she’d held him in her soft, little hand, Laredo had felt positively nuclear. He rubbed his face, thinking over his choices. “I can’t not ride the bull. You hellish beast,” he said to Bloodthirsty.

“You’re in hell, but it has nothing to do with any bull other than what you’re spouting.”

“I can do this. I am bigger than myself.” Laredo brightened. “That’s my new mission statement.”

“Being bigger than yourself?” Ranger leaned against the rail. “Think of it this way. You won’t be able to make love to Katy once this bull stomps your gizzards out of you, so it won’t matter.”

Laredo felt himself go chilly all over. “None of you became impotent from getting thrown.”

Ranger laughed. “We knew how to land. You’re a virgin at bull riding. She’s a virgin at lovemaking. One brings you pain, and one brings you sheer joy.” He shrugged. “Let me know if you want to back out. I’ll make your excuses.”