Looking for Trouble

by Becky McGraw

  LOOKING FOR TROUBLE

  By

  Becky McGraw

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Becky McGraw on Smashwords

  LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, Copyright @ August, 2012 by Becky McGraw. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Special Thank You

  I’d like to thank Kellie for her help proofreading and editing this book, as well as working with me on edits to the others in the series. I’d also like to thank my new BETA readers and friends, who have volunteered to help me with the new books in the series to make sure the Texas Trouble series is the best it can be. You guys are the best, and I appreciate your help.

  Finally, I’d especially like to thank you, the reader, for purchasing and reading my books. I hope you enjoy reading them, as much as I enjoyed writing them.

  PROLOGUE

  Wade Robert’s former sister-in-law, Sabrina, was marrying the smug bastard she’d introduced him to at the rodeo arena, and he didn’t know why he was here. His brother, Kenny, was barely cold in his grave, and yet, here was the wife who professed to love him, getting remarried before two years had even gone by.

  Women were fickle creatures and it would take him a lifetime to figure them out. That was one reason, he didn’t do relationships. Another was he usually picked the wrong ones to love, and Sabrina was one of them.

  Not that Wade thought there was any acceptable time Sabrina had to wait, before she remarried. If she’d have waited ten years from now to get married again, he still wouldn’t like it, because he loved her. Unlike him, his brother Kenny, would have wanted her to move on and be happy, even if she’d met the man who could make her that way a week after he was killed. That’s just the way his brother was, his heart was bigger than his store of common sense, and that was why he was dead now. He’d given up his own life to save his best friend.

  It was Wade who was having the problem with her remarriage.

  He wouldn’t admit it, not even to himself, because he felt like he was betraying his brother, but he wanted to be the man to replace his brother in Sabrina’s heart. In the three visits he’d made to check on her in Phoenix since his brother had died, Wade hadn’t let her know he felt, because he had thought it was too soon.

  The first two visits, she’d been a grief-stricken mess, then the last time she was a solemn shell of her former self, hollow and working herself to death. He had been waiting for her to get back to her old fiery self, before he told her, and now it was too late.

  All that didn’t matter now though, he was over it. What mattered to Wade now was that Sabrina was happy, even if he wasn’t particularly fond of the man who made her that way. Wade wanted that for her too, just like his brother had, because he did love her. He loved her enough to let her go…his brother had too.

  That was why he was here at the wedding, to bury the hatchet with her new husband, apologize for being an ass at the rodeo arena, when she’d surprised him in Dallas, and to tell her to be happy. He didn’t want to lose her in his life.

  Wade took a swig of his beer and looked up at the hot blond singer on the stage, picking on an acoustic guitar and belting out sultry country songs to keep the crowd dancing. Her smoky voice wafted across the room to him and wrapped itself around his libido. The sound was as rich and smooth as aged bourbon, and he definitely felt intoxicated by it, as did the cowboys lining the stage, he was sure.

  Earlier, when Gabe, Sabrina’s brother, had introduced him to Cassie and Luke Matthews, owners of the Double B ranch where the wedding was being held, he’d made a comment about how good the singer was. Cassie had told him the singer’s name was Jess Sparks, and that she was on the verge of signing a contract with some big record label. Cassie was excited to be able to get her for the wedding.

  Listening to her now, Wade could believe it. She had the looks and the vocal ability to go a long way in the music business, he was sure. It was obvious that she felt the songs she sang deep down inside, and knew how to make the crowd feel them too. He’d met and held her gaze a couple of times, while she performed, and it felt like someone had plugged him into an electrical socket.

  Of course, that could be because of the way she was shifting those mile-long legs, and curvy hips of hers, in those tight black leather pants she had on too, he thought with a chuckle. With the spike-heeled, ‘come fuck me’, black western boots she had on, every man in the room was probably feeling it.

  Wade dragged his gaze from the singer and scanned the dance floor for Sabrina. He needed to take care of what he’d come here to do. He met her eyes across the dance floor, where she was dancing with her new husband. Swallowing down the rest of his beer, Wade threw the bottle in the garbage, then strode across the floor to the couple. He could only hope that he didn’t wind up rolling on the floor with the groom, not to mention the Sheriff, of this one-horse town. That’s how their first, and last, meeting had gone down at the arena.

  Walking up to them, Wade forced himself to say, “Congratulations…can I have a dance with the bride?”

  Cole Jackson’s feet stopped moving, his body tensed, then his face pinched up, before he dropped his hands from his wife’s waist to clench them into fists. Not a good sign, to Wade’s way of thinking, but the Cole Jackson surprised him, by stepping aside. With a warning glance at him, Cole walked off the dance floor, leaving him to dance with Sabrina.

  He took her hand and put his other at her waist, then swung her onto the dance floor, into a two-step. Leaning close to her ear and said, “I’m sorry for the way I acted at the arena, Bri.” His voice shook from the effort it took him to say the words, and emotion pushed up into his throat.

  “I know it was a shock, Wade…I’m sorry I surprised you like that…and at work too. I should have picked a better time.”

  “There wouldn’t have been a good time, sugar…”

  Her step faltered and her eyes filled with sadness, then she said in a pained voice, “I’m sorry you feel that way…”

  She evidently thought he was saying he’d never accept that she had gotten married again. Looking down at her, Wade gave her a rueful smile, then told her, “That’s not what I meant, darlin’. I’m fine with it now…I was shocked at first, but you’re right, you deserve to be happy.”

  Wade stopped moving, then pulled her to the corner of the floor and looked deeply into her eyes, before he told her what he’d wanted to tell her for a long time, but never had the guts, “I love you, Bri…as much as I loved my brother,” then Wade took a deep breath and to
ld her what she needed to hear from him, “Kenny died a happy man…because of you. You deserve that same happiness, and if that cowboy does that for you….”

  Sabrina’s eyes glittered with happy tears when she told him, “He does, Wade…I love him.”

  With a nod, Wade pulled her to him for a hug, then leaned down and kissed her cheek. Sabrina put her hand to his cheek and said, “Thanks for understanding…I don’t want to lose you in my life,” then she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

  Suddenly, she was pulled away from him and Cole Jackson was standing between them. He put a finger in Wade’s chest then growled, “Get your fucking hands off of my wife.”

  Wade pushed the man’s finger off his chest then laughed loudly, because this guy had no clue that Wade had just surrendered, waved the white flag, let her go, and accepted that this is what Sabrina wanted. With a wink at Sabrina, just to irritate Cole, Wade said, “Be seeing you, sugar,” then he gave her a big grin and walked back to the bar to get another beer.

  After he got his beer, Wade turned back around and went to sit with the row of adoring cowboys by the stage and get his flirt on with the beautiful country singer, he probably had a snowball’s chance in hell of connecting with. At least he could enjoy his beer and the scenery, now that he’d accomplished his goal for being here. His conscience was clear, and his step a lot lighter than it had been in a long time. It was time to have a little fun for a change, before he headed back to Steamboat Springs, where the rodeo was currently at.

  Jess Spark’s sultry voice came over the mike and Wade slid his eyes up her long leather-covered legs to the smooth skin of her stomach, showing above the low cut pants, then over her breasts, which were covered in a shiny black satin top that cutaway right under her breasts. He noticed her nipples were hard under the material, and it didn’t look like she was wearing a bra.

  Wade took a swig of his beer to put out the fire that raced through him, headed to parts south. When he looked back up, he noticed her looking down at him with a half-smile that said she had caught him looking. He shrugged then tipped his hat at her with a big grin. Surely this wasn’t the first time she’d caught a horny cowboy staring at her, because how could they not?

  When she finished the song she’d been singing, she stepped away from the mike and covered it with her hand then talked to the guy who was playing bass guitar for the band, then spoke to the woman playing fiddle and finally the drummer. They all nodded, then she took her hand off the mike, and reached behind her to take a badass, blue electric guitar off a stand, then she put the strap over her head and pulled her long blond hair free.

  After she plugged in the amp, she strummed it a little, then said, “I’m a country singer, but I cut my teeth on classic rock, and I want mix things up a little! Any Aerosmith fans here tonight? If so—would you please, Walk. This. Way!” she said, then her fingers moved over the strings in a blur, and she was rocking everyone in the room with her rendition of the classic song, dancing all over the stage with her band.

  The crowd went stinking nuts and everyone stopped what they were doing to gather around the stage. Wade got so turned on watching her, he wanted to jump up on that stage and lick her from head to toe. The beat from the drum and the guitar worked through him and ramped up the electric current humming along his nerves, as did her playing that damned guitar. Seeing her long fingers move like that, made him want to feel them on him.

  When she finished Walk this Way, she went right into the slower love ballad, Angel, a totally appropriate wedding song, but not appropriate at all the way she was singing it. She was sex on a stick up there, and the way she moaned the words made him clench his teeth. Her cat-like green eyes caught his and held, and it was like she was singing the song to him.

  Wade would definitely like to save her tonight, he thought, as she belted out the song, causing all kinds of havoc inside of him. Lord have mercy, he was having one of the most intense sexual connections of his life in the middle of a wedding reception! This woman lit him up like a football field on a Friday night, she was like a magnet up there on that stage, she owned it…and everyone under the tent, including him.

  After she sang the last note, to wild applause and whistles, she said into the mike breathlessly, “We’re gonna put on some tunes so y’all can dance, and we’re taking a short break,” then she put her guitar on the stand and grabbed a towel to wipe her face and neck, then downed a bottled water. Wade was breathless too, the woman had stolen it from him with her heady performance, his heart was still pounding in his chest and the hair on his arms was standing on end.

  The band members went down the back steps behind the stage, then canned music started playing over the PA system. Wade sat there a moment, stunned, trying to get his heart rate and breathing back under control, then he pushed up from the chair and finished his beer. He needed to get the hell out of here, fast. He knew she was just teasing him, while she sang to him on stage, she was probably paying him back for ogling her. There was no way in hell she’d be interested in him, a thirty-four-year old broken down bronc rider who was basically a gypsy. He’d just stepped into the grass when someone grabbed his arm and he stopped.

  “You’re not leaving, are you?” the sweaty, but beautiful, blond singer asked him, then winked, and added, “We’re just getting warmed up.”

  “I’d say if that’s you getting warmed up, then they’re in for a helluva show. You were amazing,” he told her and saw her fan her shirt out from her breasts to try and cool down. Wade swallowed hard against the lust that slammed into him again, and dragged his eyes back to hers.

  “Thanks…I kinda hoped you’d stay around a little while, we have two more sets, then we’re done. Thought maybe we could go have a drink…or something,” she told him and licked her full lips, which made him want to do the same thing.

  Holy shit, she was hitting on him. Jesus, she could have any cowboy in there panting after her, and she’d chased him outside, it just didn’t make sense to him, but he wasn’t going to kick a gift horse in the mouth. She must have a screw loose or something, he thought, then chuckled. “Wow, sugar, I’m flattered, really flattered…”

  “But? You’re married?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow.

  He coughed and beat his chest, that was the last thing he was, or probably ever would be. “No, I’m not married, engaged, or otherwise occupied, how about you?”

  “Nope, sadly single, and obviously desperate if I chased you down, right?” she teased in that smoky voice of hers then chuckled.

  He laughed at her bluntness and said, “That’s kinda what I was thinking…you’re way to beautiful for the likes of an old broken down bronc rider, sugar.”

  “If you’re what young, green bronco riders grow up to be, then I was right to chase you down, darlin’,” she purred then grinned and her green eyes sparkled.

  She was definitely hitting on him, and Wade felt like they’d just opened the gate for him for a ride. Adrenaline and just a little fear pumped through his veins, then he told her, “I need to head back to Steamboat Springs…” then grinned, and finished, “But you know what? I have a little while…you like to dance?”

  “Haven’t done that in a helluva long time,” she said then added with a wink, “other than onstage to entertain a certain cowboy.”

  Wade stifled a growl and the intense urge to pull her into his arms, then said in a low husky voice, “I was thoroughly, um…entertained.”

  “Good, Jazzie bet me I wouldn’t do it earlier, but it looks like I won that bet,” she said then squeezed his arm.

  “Who’s Jazzie?” He hoped it wasn’t a guy, because that would mean she really was just messing with him, most likely.

  “Jazzie Ramos, my best friend, and the fiddler in my band…she can burn the strings off of that thing,” she told him and shook her head.

  He breathed a sigh of relief then asked curiously, because he wasn’t entirely sure he liked being their stake. “What was the bet?”

  “That
I wouldn’t do the Aerosmith thing and then talk to you…she saw me looking at you earlier. I haven’t done that since, um…well…in a long time,” she told him then pulled him toward the dance floor, and added, “I’m pretty focused on my career, and she told me I needed to get my groove back, that I was working too hard and needed to play a little…not to mention it’s my birthday, and she said I deserved a present.”