Cowboys Like Us

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  Noah sighed. He hadn’t a clue how to respond. Nobody who saw him give a key and money to a woman who looked like Keely would believe that was an innocent arrangement. But it would be, damn it. And somehow he’d find a way to explain that to the guys. But he might as well forget trying until tomorrow.

  “Yeah, come on.” Greg flicked an imaginary rope over the group. “Get along, little doggies. Let’s go see the diving.”

  “Aw, what’s the big deal?” Clint said. “It’s just some guy showing off.”

  “No, it’s a guy and a gal,” Brandon said. “They’re supposed to be star-crossed lovers or something. There’s a whole story that goes along with it. It’s a pretty cool show. Jenny and I watched it last night.”

  “So is the gal topless?” Clint asked. “I’m not interested unless I can see her ti—”

  “They’re diving, you sex maniac.” Greg whacked him on the shoulder. “The dive takes about one second. You wouldn’t see anything, anyway.” He chuckled as he glanced over at Noah. “You’re under no obligation to stay for the show, lover boy.”

  “But I want to see the show,” Noah insisted.

  “Sure you do,” Greg said with a smirk. “And then you want to go play bingo, and after that you’ll be ready to get steak and eggs at the coffee shop. No chance. Don’t try to kid a kidder, buddy.”

  “I do want to see the show.”

  “Then you’re drunker than I thought,” Greg said. “Come on, then.”

  Noah followed his friends as they mingled with the crowd heading for the cliff and diving pool. On the way he walked past the large rock where he’d kissed Keely that afternoon. The misty jungle atmosphere and the wildly beating drums rekindled a vivid memory and created all kinds of dangerous sensations in his body. The longer he put off going up to the suite, the better. “In fact, I’m going to the bird bar with you guys,” he said over the sound of the drums.

  Clint snorted. “The hell you are! You get your fanny up to that room and do your duty. You owe it to us, now that we’re out of the game.”

  Noah decided it was pointless to argue. Tomorrow he’d straighten everything out. Somehow.

  “Look!” Greg said. “There they are, ready to dive!”

  Glancing up, Noah saw an olive-skinned couple in scanty swimsuits standing at the edge of the cliff. Each wore a lei and a crown of flowers. Torchlight glinted off their burnished bodies as they held hands and gazed into each other’s eyes. Then they embraced, bodies writhing in passion.

  Great, Noah thought. More suggestive behavior to stoke him up.

  Then two warrior types came from either side of the cliff and pulled the couple apart. As the drumbeats softened, a gentle woman’s voice described a Polynesian version of Romeo and Juliet—lovers from warring families who were forbidden to marry.

  As the narration continued, the couple pantomimed begging for permission. Finally, according to the narrator, the father of each family agreed to a test of the couple’s devotion. If the lovers could survive a leap from the great cliff called Nooki-Nooki, they would be allowed to wed.

  “And I thought Jenny’s dad was a hard sell,” Brandon murmured.

  Clint elbowed Noah in the ribs. “A cliff called Nooki-Nooki. That’s where you’re gonna hang out tonight, cowboy.”

  “Oh, ease up on him,” Greg said. “From the way he’s acting, you can tell he’s out of practice. If you keep after him he’s liable to develop a case of performance anxiety.”

  Clint hooked an arm around Noah’s shoulder. “It’s like riding a bicycle, buddy. Once you hop on, I promise you’ll remember what to do.”

  “I appreciate the advice,” Noah said. The conversation was not helping his state of mind. “Now, are you two going to watch this dive or stand around flapping your gums and miss the whole thing?”

  “Guess we might as well watch it,” Greg said, turning toward the cliff. “But God knows what you’re doing here, Garfield, when you could be upstairs doing the horizontal hokeypokey with a woman who could be Julia Roberts’s twin sister.”

  Personally Noah thought Keely was better looking than Julia Roberts. As the drumbeats swelled to a crescendo, he scanned the crowd. She’d said she wanted to watch this show. His pulse rate quickened at the idea that she could be here in the crowd, maybe only a few feet away.

  And then he saw her.

  She stood about fifty feet from them, her face lifted as she watched the couple at the top of the cliff. And she’d been clothes shopping. But if Noah had hoped for outfits that wouldn’t stir him to new heights of lust, he was out of luck.

  Her new dress was pale green and strapless. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out how it stayed up. From the appreciative glances Keely was collecting, several men in the crowd were hoping it wouldn’t stay up. The slinky material hugged her hips and ended at the middle of her golden thighs.

  With Keely standing there looking as delicious as a frozen daiquiri, Noah couldn’t imagine how any male in the area could concentrate on the divers. He certainly couldn’t. When the splash came he didn’t even glance over at the pool.

  “That was amazing,” Clint said. “And now our friend Noah can—oh, will you look at that?”

  “What?” Noah quickly swung his gaze to meet Clint’s, but he knew he was dead. Clint had caught him gawking at Keely.

  Clint grinned at Noah. “Spotted her, did you? Hey, guys, Noah’s sweetheart, ten o’clock. And raise your heat shields, boys. This gal’s hotter than the space shuttle on reentry.”

  Greg whistled low through his teeth. “Wouldn’t you love to find that prize at the bottom of your Crackerjack box?”

  Brandon chuckled. “And if you two are real good to me, I promise not to tell Sharon and Tina what you just said.”

  Noah definitely didn’t appreciate his friends ogling Keely. In fact, he hated it. It might be hopeless, but he had to take a stab at setting the record straight. “Look, I know what you guys all think about her, but here’s the truth. She’s between jobs and short on money. I offered her a place to crash for the weekend while she decides what to do. We’re not going to have sex.”

  His friends nearly split a gut laughing.

  “Yeah, right,” Clint said as he wiped tears from his eyes. “I’ll tell you what, old buddy. If you spend the weekend with that woman and don’t have sex, I’ll give you all my leather-bound issues of Hustler and see if I can locate a hotline for Dr. Ruth, because you obviously need serious therapy.”

  “It’s true,” Noah insisted. “She’s…well, I knew her a few years ago. She’s like a sister to me.” That lie didn’t come easily.

  “A sister,” Brandon said, his tone skeptical.

  “Yeah, a sister,” Noah repeated. Maybe if he said it often enough even he’d believe it. “We grew up together.”

  “No kidding?” Greg seemed impressed. “Then you picked the right place to grow up. Nobody I grew up with turned out like her.”

  “So she’s really a friend?” Brandon asked. “Then you should bring her to the wedding, man.”

  “Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He’d begun to look at this weekend as sort of a surgical strike—do a good deed and then get the hell out of the area. The only way he could deal with the temptation Keely provided was to keep her isolated from the rest of his life.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Clint said. “Let’s go ask her right now before she leaves. What’s her name?”

  “Keely,” Noah said. “But don’t ask her. I don’t think she’d feel comfortable about coming.”

  “That’s not the impression I get from the lady,” Greg said. “She looks like the kind of person who’d be comfortable anywhere.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  “See, that’s why I don’t want her to come to the wedding,” Noah said. “You guys would be tripping over your tongues, and your wives would get mad, and it would ruin the whole event.”

  “You let us worry about that,” Clint said. “Come on. Let’s go see Keely and invite her to
the wedding.”

  “Back off, Clint.” Noah hated when situations got out of control, and that seemed to be happening a lot lately. “If anybody’s going to ask her, I will.”

  Brandon grinned. “A little territorial, are we?”

  “No, I’m not.” A guy who became territorial about Keely had nothing but heartache ahead. But the feelings churning through him were too damn familiar. That protective streak that had caused him so much trouble many years ago hadn’t died the way he’d hoped it had.

  “So you’ll ask her,” Brandon prompted.

  Noah felt trapped. If he didn’t agree to ask Keely they wouldn’t believe that she was an old friend. “Okay, I’ll ask her, but don’t expect to see her there. She’s not a fan of weddings.”

  “Then she’s gorgeous and unusual,” Greg said. “Noah, you’ve picked a winner this time around. Lots of great sex with no commitment required is a helluva combo, my friend.”

  “We’re not having sex, damn it.”

  “Hey, buddy,” Clint said. “I think the woman you’re not having sex with might be heading back up to that lust chamber you call a hotel room.”

  Noah glanced over toward the place where Keely had been standing. Sure enough, she was walking away, and nobody made an exit like Keely. She’d perfected that walk by the time she’d turned sixteen, and it caused grown men to whimper like babies.

  “Ay, chihuahua,” Clint moaned, right on cue.

  “I can’t look,” Brandon said. “I have to keep my thoughts pure for Jenny.”

  “Well, I’m looking,” Greg said. “That’s what I call poetry in motion. In fact, I feel a poem coming on. I’ll call it ‘Ode to Keely’s A—’”

  “Never mind the odes, Shakespeare,” Noah said.

  “So,” Brandon said, a knowing smile on his face. “Are you gonna go up to your suite or hang out with us?”

  “The thing is, I have to go over Keely’s résumé tonight.”

  “Her résumé?” Greg chortled. “I can’t believe you said that with a straight face.”

  “I can’t believe you’re still standing here,” Clint said. “Go handle that résumé, buddy.”

  “I really am helping her figure out a game plan for her career.” Noah edged away from his friends. “I know you don’t believe me, but that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.”

  His friends all nodded as if they were convinced he was a nutcase they needed to humor. They probably didn’t believe that Keely was a childhood friend, either.

  “Really,” he said.

  Clint gave him a thumbs-up. “See you in the morning, stud.”

  8

  KEELY WAS IN A FUNKY mood as she rode to the top floor of the hotel in the brass and glass mirrored elevator. She’d seen Noah and his buddies at the cliff-diving show and she knew they’d seen her. No doubt they were still trying to talk Noah into hooking up with her for the night.

  But they weren’t encouraging him because they thought she was a nice girl. Quite the opposite. Normally she’d take satisfaction in their view of her. She’d been thumbing her nose at stuffy convention for so many years that it was second nature to her now. Her strapless dress was designed to raise eyebrows and she’d bought it for the purpose of making Noah’s eyes bug out. She was reasonably sure it had.

  But lately the thrill of shocking and titillating people was wearing thin. Difficult as it was to admit, she was growing tired of always being the bad girl, the rebel, the outsider. Interviewing Suzanne and Joy had been like taking a trip back in time to attitudes she’d held dear when she’d posed for the centerfold.

  In those days she’d dared anybody to stop her from doing what she wanted, when she wanted. If baring her body could get her where she wanted to go, then she’d take her clothes off with pride, and to hell with anyone who disapproved. Suzanne and Joy felt the same way about dancing topless to earn college tuition.

  Keely applauded their gutsy decision and wasn’t sorry she’d made a similar one so many years ago. The money had helped her get a journalism degree and the moxie she’d shown in posing had influenced Carolyn to hire her at Attitude! Because of that centerfold, she’d left Saguaro Junction far behind, which had been her goal.

  She’d snagged the trendy apartment in L.A., mingled with the cool people, had all the sexual freedom she could want. She wouldn’t trade her life for anything, and yet at the moment she felt restless and out of sorts, wishing for something she couldn’t identify.

  Using her key, she activated the elevator doors and stepped onto the lush, jewel-toned carpeting of the hallway. She needed to shake off this mood if she expected to seduce Noah tonight. But as she walked to the suite and went inside, the falling water in the entry reminded her of the cliff divers. Maybe the show was to blame for her weird thoughts.

  For all its sappiness, the narration had touched something in her. It was only an imaginary story, but still she wondered what it would be like to love somebody so much that you’d risk your life to be with them. She’d never taken a relationship with a man that seriously.

  Maybe she wasn’t capable of such deep passion. Maybe she didn’t want to be capable of it. Passion that intense had tremendous power to wound. Or to trap. Like her mother had been trapped in Saguaro Junction. Her father had admitted that his wife had been unhappy on the ranch, and more than once he’d said that Keely was just like her. Keely had no intention of making her mother’s mistake and letting love coax her into a life she wasn’t suited for.

  But while she’d watched Noah and his friends from the corner of her eye and thought of the occasion that had brought them all together, she’d felt a moment of…could it be envy? Surely not. She didn’t want any part of that white-lace-and-promises routine. Let other women turn into Betty Crocker if they thought it would satisfy them. Her sister, B.J., was welcome to that role, but she had no intention of becoming an apron-wearing, muffin-baking, floor-scrubbing drudge.

  Still, loving someone so much you’d jump off a ten-story cliff for them—now, that would be something to experience. Once upon a time, as they said in fairy tales, she’d imagined herself that much in love with Noah. But at sixteen every emotion had been hung with heavy drama, each moment carried the weight of life and death. Noah had rejected her, and guess what? She’d survived just fine. Okay, so she’d leaped at the chance for revenge, but that didn’t mean she still had a thing for him.

  And he wouldn’t reject her this weekend. Not with what she had planned.

  Now that he’d viewed her slinky green dress, she could move on to the next item in her shopping bag. Walking over the footbridge into the bedroom, she nudged off her sandals and shimmied out of the dress.

  In moments she’d slipped on the black thong bikini she’d bought. She’d considered greeting Noah naked, but there was still the chance that his buddies would come back to the suite with him. Besides, minimal coverage often played with a man’s mind more than complete nudity. She’d done an article on the subject three years ago.

  Come to think of it, over the years she’d gathered plenty of ammunition on the most effective ways to seduce a man. And that’s why Noah was going down.

  She’d explored all the options of the remote earlier in the evening. Taking it from the ledge, she turned on the colored-light show, the adult movie channel and the hot tub, which was nicely positioned for viewing the giant screen. She clicked through the movie options and chose one called Playmates in Paradise. That should start his engines.

  The well-stocked bar included some excellent champagne. She filled the ice bucket, opened the champagne and settled it into the ice. Wrapping a bar towel around the whole arrangement, she carried the bucket and two crystal flutes out to the terrace. After retrieving the remote and placing it within reach of the tub, she poured herself a glass of champagne and climbed into the bubbling water.

  Easing down onto a molded seat, she glanced to her left and there was the glittering Strip stretching toward the downtown area where her hotel was located. If she turned he
r head in the opposite direction, she could watch three busty women get naked with one well-endowed surfer.

  Keely took a sip of champagne and watched the movie action for a while. Stimulated by bubbles and the erotic behavior on the screen, she began to really look forward to Noah’s arrival. The movie was fairly classy, yet here was yet another film directed by a man. A woman would have reversed the equation. Keely had never made love with more than one partner at a time. In real life it might be very confusing and she wasn’t sure she’d like it, but she didn’t mind including that scenario in her fantasy life.

  Then the man who’d played several roles in her fantasy life walked into the living room. He glanced out to the terrace and then looked at the screen.

  Keely picked up the remote and muted the sound of the movie. “I’m relaxing,” she said. “Unwinding from a long, busy day. How was your bachelor party?”

  He cleared his throat. “Okay. Listen, Keely, it’s…uh, perfectly obvious what you have in mind here, but I have no intention of—”

  “Oh, I know that,” she said. “You don’t plan to have sex with me, right?”

  “Right.” He sounded hoarse.

  “Well, don’t worry about it. I can take care of myself.” Her natural talent for improvising kicked in. “In fact, that’s what I was doing just now, before you arrived. The movie got me in the mood, and then the jets in this terrific hot tub did the rest. Somebody knew exactly how to position the nozzles. It’s the best design I’ve ever experienced.” There. That should turn his crank.

  He stared at her and swallowed hard. “Oh.”

  “It seemed a shame to let all this go to waste.” She took another sip of champagne to keep from grinning in triumph. “I admire your principles and all, but the mood of this suite really gets me hot. I needed to blow off some steam. Now I’m all mellow and ready to brainstorm my career options. Did you know that a good orgasm can make you think more clearly?”