Oh.
Considering that she was a counselor, McCall wished she knew how to respond to that. She didn’t. First, she doubted that Austin would ever be finished grieving for Zoey, and second, he wasn’t exactly seeing her. Yes, they’d kissed. Had even planned to have sex. But that was a long way from being a part of his and his daughters’ lives.
McCall mentally repeated that last part to herself.
Then she added some mental curse words—also meant for herself. It certainly felt as if she wanted to be a part of their lives, and that was a stupid thing to feel.
“I didn’t read the card that Zoey left,” Edith went on. “But I’m guessing she wanted to give her blessing for Austin to get on with his life.”
That seemed, well, logical. And very loving if that was true. If McCall had been in Zoey’s place, she wouldn’t have wanted Austin to grieve for her forever. Still, Austin needed someone who fit better into his life here in this small town.
And that wasn’t her. Not as the owner of a strip club.
“I’m worried about Austin,” Edith continued a moment later. She looked up, connected gazes with McCall. “He’s a good man so he might not tell you if all of this is playing havoc with him and the girls.”
Havoc was a good way of saying how all of this could play out. Austin could end up getting peppered with gossip. Heck, it could even end up hurting his business just as it would hurt her foundation. She knew how important his ranch was to him. It wasn’t just his livelihood but also his home.
“Will it help if I leave town?” McCall came out and asked.
“Yes,” Edith immediately blurted out. She pressed her fingers to her mouth and held them there for a moment. “But if I ask you to leave, Austin might not forgive me for doing that.”
That was possible. He already resented Edith’s interference. “This would be my decision,” McCall said. “I won’t go see him today because Gracie’s not feeling well, but I can talk to him tomorrow if she’s well enough to go to preschool.”
Edith nodded, murmured a thanks and stood. “I think that’s for the best,” she said as she walked back to her car.
The best. That was another good saying for McCall leaving. She just hoped it was a decision she could go through with. Hoped it didn’t crush her heart, either.
But McCall already knew that a heart-crushing was exactly what she was going to get.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WHILE HE RODE his appaloosa toward the barn, Austin tipped back his Stetson and used his forearm to swipe the sweat from his forehead. Of course, since his forearm was wet, too, it didn’t help much, but it was better than having the sweat trickle down into his eyes where’d it’d sting like hell.
He enjoyed hard, backbreaking work, most of the time, anyway, but he’d pushed himself today, trying to cram a full day’s work into a morning. First, by repairing a stretch of fence and then by moving some horses to a different pasture. The second had been a necessity to prevent overgrazing, and it was a chore he hadn’t been able to put off any longer.
Thankfully, Gracie had helped Austin just by being well so that he could send them both to preschool. Then Cait had added to that helping out by asking if she could take the girls for the afternoon since it was her day off. That meant after he’d showered, he would drive over to Em’s.
Where he’d have it out with McCall.
It’d been nearly twenty-four hours since the news had broken about her owning Peekaboo. Nearly twenty-four hours since she’d issued that I have to go and I’ll call you when I can when they’d been talking on the phone. Austin had figured she’d need some time to try to deal with the fallout. Time for her to figure out how to deal with him, too. But he was more than ready to chat with McCall as to what she was considering.
Austin suspected she’d try to run.
And Edith might have had a hand in encouraging McCall to do just that.
Cait had told him that Edith had shown up at Em’s while she was there. His sister hadn’t overheard exactly what Edith had said to McCall, but Austin was betting his former mother-in-law had told McCall to get out of town. Or words to that effect. Unfortunately, in McCall’s state of mind, she just might think that was the best thing for him.
When he made it to the barn, Austin untacked the appaloosa, hosed her down and gave her a quick brush. He filled her water trough before turning the hose on himself. It wouldn’t replace a shower, but it felt damn good. Stripping off his now wet shirt, he went out of the front of the barn to head to his house, and he came to a dead stop when he saw McCall.
Wearing flip-flops and a loose white cotton dress that fluttered in the breeze, she was standing by the side of his porch and had her purse hooked over her shoulder. Obviously waiting for him. Good. This meant he wouldn’t have to go to her, after all.
He walked closer, studying her expression and looking for signs that she’d been crying or was upset. But that wasn’t what he saw at all. Her mouth was slightly open, her face a little flushed, and her wide, interested eyes were practically sliding right over him.
“Whoa,” she muttered. “Would you mind going back in the barn and walking out like that again?” She patted her chest. “This is sort of a fantasy of mine.”
It took him a moment to realize that he was the fantasy. Or rather him being wet and half-naked was. And he was pretty sure the look on her face was good old-fashioned lust. A surprise, but much better than any other mood he’d been anticipating.
Austin went to her, hooked a still damp arm around her waist, pulled her to him and kissed her. Again, he felt no hesitation. She melted right into him, giving him no resistance when he deepened the kiss with his tongue. She tasted sweet, hot and capable of quenching any thirst he’d ever had.
“Whoa,” she repeated when she eased back. Her breath hit against his mouth. “Fantasy fulfilled.”
“Then you need another fantasy,” he drawled. “Maybe I can fix that for you.”
Austin kissed her again and slid his hand down her back. He would have done a lot more sliding, a lot more kissing, too, but then he remembered he still needed that shower.
“I’m sweaty,” he reminded her.
“I know.” Her voice was a little dreamy, and she caught on to handfuls of his wet hair and kissed him.
All right. So, sweat was also part of the fantasy. He could go with that. Or so he thought, but McCall ended the kiss and stepped back.
“Damn it,” she grumbled. “I came over here to tell you the reasons why I should leave town.”
Bingo. He’d nailed it. “Then I’m glad I distracted you.”
Austin caught on to her waist again, nudged her closer, but he didn’t kiss her. Too distracting. And it was obvious they needed to do some talking before they moved on to that re-creating a new fantasy part.
“Come inside,” he said. “I’ll grab a shower, and then I can tell you all the reasons why you should stay.”
He thought he saw some panic go through her eyes. Eyes still glazed some from the lust. Since he didn’t want the panic to win out, he took her by the hand, led her inside the house and straight to the bathroom.
“Stand right here,” he instructed. “Don’t move.”
When he was certain she wouldn’t bolt, he turned on the shower and started stripping off the rest of his clothes. She pinched her eyes shut when he made it to his boxers. So, apparently that wasn’t the fantasy.
Or maybe it was.
“You have an amazing body,” she grumbled. Her voice wasn’t dreamy now but strained, and she set her purse on the vanity. “If I look at you, you’ll distract me. That can’t happen because then you might be able to talk me into staying.”
It was as if she’d just handed him the keys to the universe. Or rather the keys to fixing the problem of her wanting to run.
Bare-assed naked, Austin stepped under the warm spray of t
he shower, took hold of her hand again and yanked her in with him. McCall let out a little yelp that he quickly caught with his own mouth.
The kiss was wet, of course, because the water was slushing down them, and her yelp turned to a laugh. A short one, anyway, before she pulled back and gave him what she probably thought was a very serious look. Hard to look serious, though, with her hair soaked and clinging to the sides of her face.
And while plastered against his naked body.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” she said. “I’m sending all the wrong signals.”
They seemed very right signals to him, but he didn’t want this to take a bad direction. “Let’s table the you-leaving discussion for now. I promise once we’re done here, we’ll talk.”
By then, maybe the aching fire in his body would allow him to think so he could come up with a convincing argument for her to stay.
Because she didn’t seem to have doubts when he kissed her, Austin dived back in for another one. He was very thankful for a hot-water-on-demand heater that wouldn’t leave them shivering in the cold if this led to where he wanted it to lead.
Sex.
Austin was ready for that. Ready to move in for more kisses, but then he caught McCall looking at him. No panic this time. She was doing the same gaze-sliding as she had when she’d seen him come out of the barn. Her gaze went from his mouth. To his chest.
Then lower.
Her breath hitched, and she started to breathe through her mouth. “You have no right to look this good,” she mumbled after she cursed him.
“Same goes for you.”
He did some looking, too. Yeah, she was dressed, but the fabric was clinging to her in all the right places. He had no trouble seeing the outline of her breasts. Her nipples were now hard and puckered, just begging to be tasted.
Which he would soon do.
He wouldn’t mind tasting what was behind the outline of her panties, too.
“You didn’t have this body when we were in high school,” he said, cupping her breast and flicking his thumb over her nipple. “McCall, you are one hot fantasy.”
She shook her head, and since Austin didn’t want her arguing with him about her amazing curves, he anchored her back against the clear glass of the shower wall so he could kiss and touch her at the same time.
Too many clothes—that was his first thought, and her dress was heavy and soggy now. Still, he didn’t want to move too fast by shucking it off her so he ran his hand down her leg, pushing up her dress to her waist. That gave him some bare belly-to-belly contact. He upped that by shoving her dress up even farther, pushing down the cups of her bra and sampling her nipple. He sucked it into his mouth and nipped it lightly with his teeth.
She had a nice moaning reaction to that so he slid his hand over the front of her panties. This was semifamiliar territory for him because of what’d happened in his truck, but he intended to make this a whole lot better. He caught on to her panties, shoving them down to the floor of the shower.
Lowering himself, he gave her a kiss that he was sure she wouldn’t forget anytime soon. Just as he’d done to her breasts, he did some sucking and nipping. McCall did some cursing and bucking, but she wasn’t trying to get away from him.
Nope.
She thrust her hips toward his mouth and fisted her hand in his hair. Austin was reasonably sure he could have finished her off then and there, but he wanted to be inside her this time.
“Wait here a sec,” he told her, and he went ahead and yanked off her dress before he stepped out of the shower to get a condom from the boxes that he’d put in the cabinet below the sink.
He hurried, not wanting to risk her changing her mind. It turned out, though, that mind changing wasn’t a problem, because when he stepped back in the shower, McCall still had that heated look in her eyes, and she was struggling to get off her bra. Austin helped her with that, flinging it aside.
No way could he resist her naked breasts so he dropped a few more kisses there while he put on the condom. By the time he hoisted her up against the shower, he was as hard as stone and ready to plunge into her.
So, that’s what he did.
One hard long stroke, and he was inside. Oh, man. She was tight, wet and already moving. Austin moved with her, thrusting his hips to match her moves.
The position put them not only body-to-body but also face-to-face. That meant he could manage some more kisses, but soon the intense pleasure made even that impossible.
Everything inside him built, built, built. The need, the heat, the urgency to take her and finish this. Fast. Then faster. Deep. Then deeper. Until it all pinpointed to this one single moment where he had to finish this. Where he had to finish her.
Thankfully, McCall was right there with him. On a low silky moan, she gave in to the thrusts, and he felt her climax take hold of him. Squeezing and gripping his erection until Austin had no choice but to give in to it.
Holding on to McCall, Austin let himself go.
* * *
WEARING A PAIR of Austin’s boxer shorts and his T-shirt, McCall sat at his breakfast table, sipping a Coke, while she waited for Austin to come out of the laundry room that was just off the kitchen. She soon heard the thunk-thunk of her clothes tumbling in the dryer, and each thud was a reminder that this visit sure hadn’t gone as planned.
After Cait had called to tell her that she’d have the girls for the afternoon, McCall had come to Austin to explain why she had to leave town and had instead ended up having shower sex with him.
Amazing shower sex.
The kind of sex that zoomed to the top of the list as the best ever.
She supposed if she had to fail at a particular mission, then that was the way to go. At least her body was sated and humming even if her mind was whirling with the possible outcomes of what she’d just done.
Good grief. How could she have possibly screwed things up this much? Now, Austin would think she was some sort of tease or an idiot who couldn’t make up her mind.
McCall preferred to think of it as temporary insanity.
When she’d seen him walk shirtless out of the barn, any and all logical thoughts had jetted right out of her head. She’d been teleported back to those days when she’d had a serious crush on him and had wanted him more than her next breath.
McCall wanted to think it wouldn’t happen again, but when he came strolling back in the kitchen, she felt a fresh flood of heat. Of course, that probably had something to do with the fact that he was only partially dressed again. No shirt, bare feet. He had on jeans, and while they were zipped, the metal button was undone, leaving the denim to shift and flap a little with each step. Her heart did some shifting and flapping, too.
“Something on your mind?” he asked.
His voice was sex, smoke and a kilo of triple-strength testosterone. No smugness but rather a teasing confidence that let her know he knew exactly what was on her mind. Unfortunately, she couldn’t be mad at him for seeing into her soul. Or maybe he hadn’t had to go that deep to do any seeing. There was probably plenty of telltale signs of lust still on her face, and her body was no doubt giving off some triple-strength hormones of its own.
“I wanted you to know that you don’t have to worry about the black mold scare at Granny Em’s,” she said, and managed to sound serious, too.
He smiled, and yes, that managed to send all female parts of her into a tailspin, too. “I’m guessing Em came up with that as a way to keep the gossips away?”
“Actually, it was Cait’s idea. Your sister thinks fast on her feet.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” he joked, and then tipped his head to her. “My clothes look good on you.”
McCall glanced down at the T-shirt that clearly showed her braless breasts. Her nipples had gone hard and were highly visible, which was yet another reaction to all of Austin’s studliness. The b
oxer shorts clung to her like a second skin, and her body wasn’t letting her forget that Austin’s butt—and other parts of him—had once worn them.
He took a beer from the fridge, opened it and had a long pull from it before he sat down across from her. “How are you holding up with the gossips?”
She nearly gave him the automatic answer of “Fine,” something she’d been saying a lot to Granny Em to keep her from worrying, but it didn’t seem right to lie to a man when you were wearing his boxers.
“I go back and forth between a pity party and wanting to crush Cody Joe’s balls in a garlic press.”
Austin exaggerated a wince, then chuckled before his expression grew serious. “I’m guessing Edith’s visit didn’t help.”
It shouldn’t have surprised her that he knew about that. Cait would have told him. “She’s worried about Gracie and Avery,” McCall settled for saying, which, of course, wasn’t much of an answer.
“She told you to leave,” Austin filled in for her.
McCall shrugged and decided there was nothing she should say about the woman. No, it hadn’t been pleasant for Edith to visit her like that, but McCall wasn’t sure how she would have reacted had their positions been reversed.
“Alisha shouldn’t have called you,” McCall added a moment later. “I’m betting that wasn’t a pleasant conversation.”
“It wasn’t.” Austin had another sip of his beer. “I should have spelled out to her that she raised a whiny dickhead who thinks he can crap all over everyone and still come out smelling clean.”
That was Cody Joe in a nutshell, but McCall couldn’t put all the blame on him. No, she was just as much at fault as he was.
“Secrets don’t always stay secrets,” she said. “In hindsight, I should have ’fessed up to owning the club as soon as I inherited it. Now, it’s hurt the foundation, and it could hurt you. Don’t say it won’t,” she quickly added when she saw the argument in his eyes.
“It’ll create some talk among my customers,” he admitted. “Maybe I’ll get a few questions about whether or not you’ve done a striptease for me.” He paused. “Do you know how to do a striptease? Because if so, I might be interested in seeing that.”
Chasing Trouble in Texas Page 17
