by Starla Kaye
Two men? Two cowboys? So I’d have a choice?
She frowned. What was she thinking? No way would an arranged date happen. Her schedule defined wild. She didn’t have a spare second to squeeze in any kind of possible romancing. Sad, sad, sad. Screwed up described her life.
I will arrange to have them come to Poi Kai Resort and meet her, two weeks from this coming Saturday. They will already be on the island visiting the Silver Falls Ranch.
Could the arrangement have been any more perfect? She lived and worked close to the resort. She’d never stayed there, but she had participated in several dances at the location. Cowboys would be pretty out of place at the fancy resort.
Again, what was she thinking? They wouldn’t be there and neither would she. Impossible. Yet just the thought made her depressed clear down to her lonely soul. If only….
***
What the hell were they doing in Kauai? Shane sighed at the question.
Carson climbed out of the huge Hummer their old rodeo buddy Tipton Welsh had carted them in from the Princeville Airport at Hanalei. Tip had called them out of the blue, wanting them to come see where he now worked as foreman. The ranch had tourist activities and other things he believed they could incorporate into their place. Not that they had a guest business, although he and Carson had talked a little about it.
Carson stretched the kinks out of his long body and grabbed his duffel bag from the floor in the front passenger area. “Feels darn good to have my feet on solid ground again,” he said. “I reckon you’ll think as much yourself, if you get out.”
Tip, too, glanced in at him in the back seat. Shane didn’t want to be prodded into anything at the moment. He’d had enough of being maneuvered the last week. “What’s the rush?” Carson rolled his eyes, picked up his straw hat, and planted it on his head. “Sulking doesn’t look good on you, buddy.”
He scowled. “I’m not sulking. I’m moving at my own pace.” Okay, maybe being a tad sulky, but he didn’t want to be here.
Tip chuckled and put on his hat before closing the driver’s door. “Your pace has slowed down since the last time I saw you. Guess the last bull did a real job on you.”
“It’s best not to bring up that sore subject,” Carson intervened. Then he ambled around the front of the Hummer to join Tip so they could head off toward the foreman’s house.
Damn right he didn’t want to talk about it! Shane sucked in a breath, grimacing at a twinge of pain in his ribs. He didn’t want to talk about anything at the moment. Flying so far all those hours hadn’t helped his battered body a bit. He wouldn’t even be here if Carson had stayed reasonable and not given in to their friend’s insistence they travel to Kauai. He’d come along because he worried about Carson committing them to something not right for the Double C. Or that maybe his buddy would fall in love with the island as Tip had done and move here. Not likely, but Shane never would have expected Tip, a good old Texas boy, to settle here either.
“Are you coming?” Carson glanced back at him, annoyance in his expression.
Shane snagged his duffel from beside him and stepped out of the over-sized vehicle. Who the hell needed a Hummer anyway?
He reached back for his black Stetson, worn in just right. A man didn’t need to own a hat for every season like Carson did. Shane had two, both black: one for when he worked the rodeo, the other for working the ranch. As he straightened and settled his hat on his head, he winced. Blasted ribs needed to heal up and quit giving him fits.
He must have winced out loud because Carson stopped and narrowed his eyes at him. Old mother hen. Still, he didn’t really mind, since he cared as much about his buddy.
“You go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you.” Shane forced a reassuring smile.
Carson hesitated for a second before giving a curt nod.
Relieved not to have been questioned, Shane took a couple of seconds to get his land legs again. Besides, he wasn’t anxious to meet Keeani. Tip had met his wife of six months in a strange mix-up on a blind date, fallen head over boots for her, and then moved to her native Kauai. It had all happened in less than three months. Shane felt happy enough for Tip, but she’d been bugging her husband about playing matchmaker for his old rodeo pals.
Carson stopped and turned around. Even from a distance of about twenty feet, Shane saw the tightened jaw.
“Just get your sorry bones in the house before long. Keeani’s made a special meal for us.” Carson stated.
“I’ll be there.” Shane closed the car door a little harder than he should have, then sighed at having done so.
The other men turned away again. He planned to take his sweet time getting to the house. Speaking of sweet, this was one damn fine ranch. They’d driven miles through the lush green valley near Kamoo Something Ridge. Shane and Carson had a nice spread, but no way did it compare to this. Not that he cared. He preferred more wide-open spaces and seeing almost forever the way you could in Kansas.
Thinking about his ranch, he worried a bit. The Double C didn’t need either them right now. They had good ranch hands who knew their business. That being the case, he should have gotten his sorry self back on the circuit. He needed more points and more winnings. But Carson had managed to persuade him his body still hadn’t recovered enough to go back to riding bulls. His buddy was right. His ribs could use more time heal up this round.
Disgusted, he started toward the house, his gaze focused on his partner. The man had a sneaky side. He’d just ridden Carson to heaven and back, still been more than a good bit dazed, when Carson stretched out on the rumpled bed. His lover had pulled him down beside him and kissed him long and hard. When Carson had moved back, his eyes had shimmered with excitement. Shane had groaned, his gut warning him to beware.
In the next second Carson had announced they were going to Kauai. While he’d protested six ways to Sunday, Carson had gone on and on about it and not backed down. The tickets were purchased and Tip expected them.
The ornery devil had even gone so far as to threaten that they would never have sex again if he didn’t come with him. After what they’d just done…after how he’d already been aching to spend time pounding into Carson…. Well, he’d given in. Guess he didn’t have much of a backbone.
But observing his lover’s tight ass as he strode away, Shane wanted another hot round in bed with the tricky bastard. If they could manage it sometime during their week on the island. Damn soon, he hoped.
All in all, the initial meeting with Keeani had gone all right. Shane liked the petite Hawaiian beauty, her smiling eyes, and the way she seemed to constantly touch Tip. Shane didn’t see the retired rodeo bareback rider as even close to good looking. Clearly that was in the eye of the beholder. Tip was one lucky sonofagun. Shane patted his full stomach and pushed back from the table. He needed to find his bed in their small guesthouse. “If you’ll excuse me—”
Keeani’s big brown eyes widened and she gasped, “No! You cannot escape just yet.”
“Escape?” he asked, annoyed she’d figured out part of his plan.
Carson grinned at him. “She’s already got your number, buddy. That’s exactly what you were going to do.”
Shane remained seated and glanced around at the others. His gut tightened. There was something in his partner’s eyes that made him suspect trouble. Keeani smiled, “Madame Evangeline agreed.”
She faced Carson. “Your e-mail acceptance came this morning. She has already set up the meeting for this weekend, at the Poi Kai Resort. Isn’t that wonderful?” She bounced in happiness.
Shane growled, but his lover grinned. “I suppose that will work. Did she include more details in the e-mail?”
“I don’t know what you two have planned here, but it won’t involve me!” Shane had little doubt about what they were talking about. Carson had been hounding him about this matchmaking nonsense with a woman named Madame Evangeline. He’d refused to even consider it.
Keeani’s lower lip wobbled, her eyes glistened.
&nb
sp; Tip went to stand behind her, placing his hands on her small shoulders, and said, “It’ll be fine, sweetheart.” He glowered “This is important to my wife. It won’t kill you to meet whoever the woman is and spend one night with her.”
When Shane stiffened and started to protest, Tip lowered his voice and his expression hardened “One night. Her arrangements don’t mean you have to bed the woman.” He blushed at his wife’s gasp. “All that is agreed upon is that you two spend time together. Hell, just wine and dine her. Maybe take a walk along the beach.”
“Carson—”
“He’ll do it,” Carson stated in his no-nonsense tone, holding Shane’s angered gaze.
“I sure as hell won’t!” he fired back, although seeing the tears Keeani blinked back made him feel like horse shit.
“Actually,” Keeani said in a near whisper, “the arrangement is for both of you.”
“What?” Shane barked, looking straight at Carson. His buddy didn’t reveal surprise. A little concern, but not stunned. “You asked for a woman wanting two cowboys?”
Carson glanced away. “Well, no. I told her we were partners, friends…close.” He shook his head, sighed, and added in resignation, “She must have…. Whatever. If the woman is expecting to meet and spend an evening with us both, then we’ll do it.”
Shane couldn’t wrap his mind around a woman wanting to be with two cowboys at once. Of course he’d heard of ménage a…threesomes. He’d never been involved in one. The idea wasn’t that unappealing. Kinky. Okay, damn hot. But with Carson? Could he do that?
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Carson groused. “It’s an evening together, the three of us. That doesn’t have to mean,” he waggled his eyebrows, “that we’d do the horizontal two-step together.”
Keeani’s brow furrowed.
Tip scowled and Shane reined in his bizarre thoughts. “If I agree to this one arranged date, you’ll stop pestering me about this whole matter?”
Carson nodded.
His buddy likely had his fingers crossed. Probably the toes in his boots, too.
Chapter Four
“I can’t do this!” Kendra glared at Alexis in the dressing room mirror. She had one boob in a coconut cup and one boob that refused to go in the other bra cup. “I can’t!”
Alexis walked over and pushed Kendra’s hands out of the way. She lifted the problem coconut shell cup and gently guided the uncooperative breast into place. “Situation resolved.”
Tears threatened and Kendra’s stomach churned. “That’s not all of what’s wrong.”
She’d been stressed ever since learning about this arranged meeting between her and the two cowboys from Kansas. She’d been dreaming about a sexy cowboy for so long. But two at the same time? What if neither of them met her visualization? Would she be soured on all cowboys? Would her fantasies be ruined forever? She didn’t have time in her harried life for more than the occasional one. She needed it.
She exhaled deeply, wincing at the slight movement of the rough shells over her tender breasts. She still hadn’t gotten around to replacing the felt lining and would pay for that negligence today. “My dreams are all I have. If this goes wrong…. If they are—”
“This could be far better than those dreams of yours,” Alexis chastised with a frown. “It’s two cowboys.”
Kendra paced away and fluffed out her skirt. “Could be, being keywords.” A tear trickled down her cheek and she dashed it away. Then her shoulders slumped and she mumbled, “I should never have agreed to any of this.” She glowered. “You pushed me into it, all of it. Agreeing to spend a night with two cowboys is bad enough. But you accepted this dance show without discussing it with me. And they are supposed to meet me here.”
She paced across the small room again, fluffing the sides of her grass skirt again. “First impressions are a big deal, you know. And here I’ll be shimmying my ass around wearing a pink skirt made of fake grass and bouncing my boobs in a dumb coconut shell bra.”
To her disgust, Alexis laughed. “They’ll think themselves the luckiest cowboys in the world.”
Kendra snorted and then stopped to curl her lip in a snarl. “I swear I’m going to get even with you for this whole mess.”
A thought occurred to her. “Do they know I’ll be dancing this afternoon? Maybe they think I’ll be meeting them later.”
Alexis shook her head. “You read Madame Evangeline’s last e-mail. She told them about the show. And sent them one of our promotional dance photos.” She frowned. “But I think it was one from last year…when you were still a full-out brunette.”
“Then maybe they won’t recognize me.” She experienced a second’s worth of hope.
Until Alexis smiled. “Kendra, unless they’re complete idiots, they’ll recognize you.”
The familiar rhythmic drum music signaled them to head out to the performing area in the middle of the Poi Kai Resort.
Mary and Sue rushed inside before she could find a way to disappear. They’d gone out to greet the crowd and try to invite anyone in the immediate area to come see the show.
“Come on! The people are waiting,” Mary grabbed Kendra’s arm and tugged her out of the safety of the ladies room.
“I owe you,” Kendra shot back at the still grinning Alexis.
***
Carson set his bottle of beer on the patio table and glowered at Shane. “You’d think you were taking a slow walk to the gallows.”
Shane nodded. “Feels like it.”
“It’s for one damn day and night. And it’s not like you’re doing this all alone.” He’d had enough. “Maybe you should.” He scooted his chair back and stood. “Meet this Kendra Barlow on your own, I mean.” When they’d seen the photo of her, his interest in the woman had been immediate and surprising. Still, this whole date was for his friend.
“You leave, I leave,” Shane growled in warning, edging his chair back as well.
Carson heaved a disgruntled sigh. “Neither of us can go. We gave our word we’d follow through with this arranged date.”
“You gave that matchmaking woman your word.” Shane looked ready to bolt.
Before Carson could give a counter argument, three men on the small beach in front of a fake cave across from them began playing a rhythmic island song. He shifted his gaze away and settled back into his chair. He wasn’t into reggae or this particular kind of music, but he’d sit through the show, anticipating his first sight of Kendra. Learning she’d be one of the dancers had sparked his curiosity.
Two skimpily clad young women with long dark hair scurried from the cave and began shaking their hips. What sane man that would pass on this opportunity? His buddy watched each shimmy and shake with avid interest. Was one these beauties Kendra? The photo Madame Eve had sent them showed four women in the dance group, but she hadn’t told them which one was their date.
In the next second two more women appeared, both a bit taller and breath-stealing pretty. But the one in the pink grass skirt wearing a slight frown captured his attention. Now she was a woman he’d like to strip down and spend a long, steamy night with.
Shane watched in fascination as two island women danced onto the beach stage barefoot, hips swaying, breasts bouncing. He’d seen this kind of dancing on TV once when he’d flicked channels around. It hadn’t held his interest at the time. But, damn, he liked the hell out of it in person. So did his lower body.
He shifted in his chair and hoped no one would notice the way his cock had tented the front of his too-tight jeans. He’d gone too long without loving a pretty female. Then he remembered why he was here and his mood soured. An arranged date.
He started to get up to leave when two more eye-catching dancers slipped from the cave entrance. One in particular snagged his attention. His dick grew harder; his pulse raced. Damn, talk about hot! And she knew how to shimmy her hips. He hoped he wasn’t drooling.
Then he forced his gaze higher and couldn’t move it beyond two plump breasts cupped by a pair of coconut shell
s. He ached to replace the shells with his palms, squeeze those….
The dancers did a sexy little hip-swishing spin. He swallowed and stifled a shudder. Sweat beaded on his upper lip. No doubt she affected every other man in the area. A glance at Carson told him his good buddy sure was under her spell.
He reached for his beer and chugged the rest of it, hoping it would cool him down. It didn’t. As he focused on the woman in the pink skirt again, he thought his poor old heart would beat itself to death. She had more wiggle to those amazing hips than any of the others. Those shells were working darn hard to contain her tempting breasts. And her smile…. God, he’d never seen one so….
She did another sassy, hip-teasing turn and captured his full attention once more. He hadn’t noticed her waist-length hair all that much before, but now the wavy mass fluttered around her, caressed her sweet body. It fascinated him, until he studied her closer. “Is her hair purple?”
“It appears to be,” Carson said in a husky tone. “I’m real glad we didn’t miss this.”
Shane didn’t want to admit he agreed, because that would mean he had accepted the arrangement then. But he wasn’t suffering. He kept watching the dancers, thinking about the photo in the e-mail. Which of these dancers was Kendra? They’d been told she had blue eyes. These women had brown eyes.
Interrupting his musings, the purple-haired beauty looked in his direction and her blue eyes widened. She fell out of sync with the others. He knew in that instant she was the woman he’d balked at meeting. His gut warned him his world would never be the same.
Kendra tried to do no more than smile at the audience as she danced or she would lose her concentration. But she couldn’t stop staring at the two men sitting across the pool from her. Cowboys. In wide-brimmed hats and jeans, they stood out in the sea of more typical tourists sporting shorts and T-shirts or swimsuits. Her cowboys.
She missed a step and then another. When Alexis gave her a what-the-heck-are-you-doing look, she managed to get back to dancing. She’d hoped they wouldn’t show up. She hadn’t wanted to be disappointed and have them ruin her cowboy fantasy vision.
