Cowboys Like Us

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “Noah, I’m telling you I’m not a call girl.”

  “And I’m telling you that I understand. We’ll work around it.”

  She threw up both hands. “Okay, believe what you want. But right now, you’d better get downstairs.” She stood. Her halter top had fallen until it was draped around her waist, but she made no move to retie it around her neck.

  “Yeah, I’d better get going.” But he couldn’t seem to stop looking at her. Light from the overhead fixture in the bathroom picked up the sheen of moisture on her breasts, moisture left there by his eager mouth. God help him, he wanted more.

  A call girl. That made it even more important that he not make love to her. She needed a completely platonic relationship with him if she had a prayer of changing her life. And so far he’d completely bombed out on the platonic thing.

  Gazing at him, she pulled the halter top off over her head and shook out her hair. “Unless you want a quickie before you go. On the house.”

  “No!” He backed toward the door, while his whole body screamed with frustration. “Listen, I should never have kissed you. I should never have gone beyond kissing you.” But, oh, God, was it fantastic. He could still taste her on his tongue. “Tomorrow we’ll map out a job strategy. I’m thinking something in sales.”

  She arched her eyebrows. “Because I already have sales experience, you mean? I guess that makes sense. If I can sell my body, I can sell widgets.”

  “That’s not what I meant!”

  “I must not be very good at selling my body, though.” She kicked off her sandals and began to peel off her capris. “I’ve offered it to you several times now and you keep turning me down.”

  His heart thudded in his chest as he watched her take off the last of her clothes. A quiver of need passed through him. “It’s very, very hard.”

  She laughed and glanced at his crotch. “I can see that.”

  “Hey! I didn’t mean—”

  “Men have told me all sorts of lies, Noah, but all I have to do is look at the fly of their pants and I know exactly what they’re thinking. It’s like those witching sticks some people use to find water. Men get around me and—boing!—that witching stick points right in my direction.” The devilish gleam was back in her eyes when she met his gaze. “If you decide you want to drill for water, come and see me. I’ll give you a special rate.”

  It took incredible willpower for him to turn away from a very naked, very tempting Keely and walk out of the suite. Somehow he did it.

  11

  NOAH WENT THROUGH THE motions of seating people in the rows of white folding chairs on the grassy courtyard where the wedding would be held, but his thoughts were still back in the suite with Keely. He’d been stupid not to see the truth immediately. The interview she’d been going to in the topless bar might have been with some sort of Las Vegas madam. Or worse yet, a pimp. The thought made him shudder.

  Well, he was going to save her from that kind of life, just the way Richard Gere had saved Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Except Richard Gere had hired Julia Roberts for sex in the first place, so that had been part of the deal from the beginning.

  If you decide you want to drill for water, she’d said, her skin flushed with desire, her eyes issuing a definite invitation. Was he a total fool to be so chained to his principles? Probably. His friends would certainly say so. Keely would certainly say so.

  Then something else occurred to him. In her chosen profession as a hired lover, she wouldn’t go to bed with a man because she wanted him. Having sex because she wanted to might be a real treat for her, a vacation from the same-ol’, same-ol’.

  Now, there was a dangerous concept. If he truly believed that, he could start thinking that he’d be doing her a favor, giving her a chance for some mutual satisfaction for a change. That might be the only motivation he’d need to send him over the edge.

  Then Keely appeared and he wondered if he hadn’t toppled over the edge some time ago.

  If he hadn’t, this latest dress of hers would do the trick. A rush of possessiveness heated his skin as if he’d just opened an oven door, and he hurried over so that he’d be the one to escort her to her seat.

  She smiled as he approached. The smile was sly and seductive, and it put the final touch on a picture designed to bring him to his knees. She’d tamed her wild curls, pinning them on top of her head for a regal, sophisticated look. But it wasn’t any less sexy than the tousled style she usually wore. Maybe it was even more sexy, because he could imagine the fun of mussing her up.

  Rhinestone earrings and a small rhinestone-trimmed shoulder purse sparkled in the light from the tiki torches surrounding the courtyard. But the fit of her dress was the real showstopper. It shimmered over her body like mercury, outlining her hourglass figure to perfection. Made of an iridescent material, it rippled and flashed like a hologram with her every movement.

  Although the dress had a high-necked collar, a diamondshaped cutout beneath the collar showed an impressive amount of cleavage. And the back of the dress was nonexistent except for that little band of a collar. Beneath it was a spectacular view of supple, golden skin sweeping down to her waist.

  Her skirt was ankle length, but a slit up the side ran to midthigh. Another few inches and it would graze the edge of her panties. That was assuming she wore any tonight. She had a wicked gleam in her eyes, so absolutely anything was possible.

  Pulse racing, he offered his arm. When she slipped her hand through and moved in close, he took a deep breath and nearly zoned out on raspberry lotion. “Where do you want to sit?” he asked.

  “On your lap,” she murmured.

  “Keely.” He thought his heart would pound right out of his chest.

  “Is that a yes or a no?” She flashed him another of her I-dare-you smiles. “You’re outrageous.”

  “And you’re turned on. I’ll bet your witching stick is twitching. I’ll bet you’re picturing all the possibilities right now.”

  “Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?” And she had a right to be. She was dead-on accurate about the state of his mind and his body.

  “It’s a safe bet that you’ll be thinking about me straddling you instead of listening to the ceremony. And speaking of that, I’ll sit on the groom’s side of the aisle. He asked me to the wedding, after all.”

  Taking another deep breath, Noah escorted her to the seats on the right side of the aisle.

  “And I can tell you’re just dying to know, so I’ll end the suspense. I’m not wearing panties. They ruined the line of the dress and it was too hot for panty hose. You can think about that while you’re standing at the altar trying not to look my way.”

  Swallowing hard, he halted near a row of chairs with a vacant seat. He noticed that most of the men in the vicinity had their attention firmly fixed on Keely. He lowered his voice. “Are you planning to throw out lines like that all night?”

  “I’m only trying to live up to your expectations, Noah. Do you like the dress?” “It’s…um…tight.”

  “Well, that’s on purpose, because if it was too loose you’d be able to see right down the front.” She drew closer and dropped her voice to a low purr. “I’m not wearing a bra, either.”

  He struggled for his next breath.

  She ran her index finger along his sleeve. “Does looking at me in this dress make you hot?”

  He cleared his throat.

  “I’ll take that as an affirmative. Besides, I know it does. I can tell by the way you’re breathing, sort of rough, like a car that needs to be tuned. I’d be glad to give you a tune-up, Noah.”

  “You’d better take your seat.”

  “Guess so.” She squeezed his arm briefly before turning toward the row of chairs. Then she glanced over her shoulder. “See you later, big guy,” she murmured, puckering her lips in a phantom kiss.

  Moments later he took his place at the altar with the other groomsmen. As the minister led Jenny and Brandon through their vows, he tried to pay attention to the ceremo
ny. After all, that was the reason he was here—to witness his buddy getting married.

  But instead, he spent the entire ceremony exactly as Keely had predicted he would. He tried not to look at her, but he couldn’t help it. And every time his attention strayed in her direction, he thought about how little separated him from her naked body. Only one tight, silvery dress. A dress with no back and a slit up the side. Once the collar was unfastened, she’d be bare to the waist. And if they were alone, he could easily push aside that skirt….

  KEELY BECAME MORE CAUGHT up in the ceremony than she’d expected to be. She’d meant to concentrate on Noah and complete the seduction she’d started with her entrance. Instead, she found herself listening to the words of the ceremony, and for some stupid reason they were making her cry.

  She blinked back her tears. Maybe B.J.’s upcoming wedding was hitting her harder than she wanted to admit. When she thought of B.J. getting married without her being there, her stomach felt hollow. Years ago they’d talked about being maid of honor for each other. It had been a given. She wondered if B.J. had chosen her friend Sally for that job.

  Discarding that depressing subject, Keely focused on Brandon and Jenny. They seemed so damn happy, as if they didn’t mind a bit that they were severely narrowing their options with this move. Keely had always believed in keeping her options open. Any man who had dared mention the “M” word had been dropped.

  By keeping her options open, she’d remained free to fly to Paris if she wanted, free to party wherever the music was the hottest, free to sleep with a gorgeous hunk who suddenly appeared on her radar. Jenny was giving up those options. And yet the life that Jenny had chosen didn’t seem so bad at this moment, and all of Keely’s options seemed to have lost their luster.

  It was Noah’s fault. Seeing him again had stirred up those childish dreams of living with one man—Noah Garfield— for the rest of her life. No other guy had ever inspired those dreams, and when Noah had rejected her, she’d decided it was a stupid idea in the first place.

  And it was still stupid. Jenny and her friends might think the world had changed enough to allow a woman like Keely to live happily ever after in Saguaro Junction, but Keely, who’d inherited her mother’s craving for excitement, knew better.

  So did Noah, which was why he’d never consider her as his life companion.

  Life companion. God, did Noah have that written all over him. Any woman fantasizing about a man who could see her through all the joys and sorrows fate could dish out would recognize Noah as the real deal. He made her mouth water as he stood up there in his tux. He made her yearn for things that were beyond her reach. But early on she’d taken a clear-eyed inventory of herself, and now she had to have the courage to accept who she was…and who she wasn’t.

  In the meantime, however, she could have one weekend of lovemaking. Another woman would be lucky enough to have him for a lifetime, but Keely had been allowed this weekend and she intended to make the most of it.

  She was aware that the dynamics between them had changed since she’d accidentally left her cell phone on and he’d assumed that a cell phone meant she was a call girl. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on in that fertile brain of his, but she had the definite feeling that his resistance to her was weakening. It could be the effect of the dress, of course, but she thought something else was happening.

  Whatever it was, she wouldn’t question it. If thinking she was a call girl allowed him to let go and make love to her, then she’d let him think she was a call girl. She didn’t care how he perceived her, so long as the end result was hours and hours of wild sex. And then they would part. It was the only way this could end.

  She blinked back another rush of tears. Damn. Maybe one of the reasons she hated weddings was that they always made her cry.

  “OH, MAN, WILL YOU look at that.” Clint handed Noah one of the two piña coladas he’d brought over from the bar before turning to face the action—Keely doing the limbo in her tight, silver dress. “Tell me you’re not letting that go to waste.”

  Noah took a cooling sip of his coconut-flavored drink, hoping the icy concoction would quench the fire in his belly. Or better yet, maybe the rum would short-circuit his brain. But the drink seemed to have no effect whatsoever and he was still in agony as he gazed at Keely sliding under the pole, her body moving rhythmically to the beat of the music and the clapping hands urging her on. “You have a one-track mind, son,” he told Clint, although the comment applied to him, too.

  “Every other track gets shut down when a woman built like Keely does the limbo,” Clint said. “Any man with breath left in his body would respond to a sight like that. But you’re the only guy here with a chance of acting on that impulse. I just need to know you’re up to the job, so to speak.”

  “You might need to know, but you’re not gonna know.” Noah kept his tone casual, disguising the fierce emotions that had gripped him from the moment the luau reception had begun and Keely had made it clear that she planned to party.

  When Keely partied, sexual sparks flew in all directions. She’d drawn the attention of every man in attendance, with the possible exception of Brandon, who was understandably preoccupied with his new bride. For a solid two hours Noah had fought his own sexual bonfire. At the same time he’d tried to stamp out the smaller blazes of jealousy whenever he caught a man looking at Keely the way Clint was doing right now.

  “I guess you don’t really have to tell me anything.” Clint kept his gaze on Keely while he took another swallow of his piña colada. “It’s a foregone conclusion that something’s gonna happen between you two.”

  Noah had pretty much concluded the same thing, but he wasn’t happy about it. He should be stronger, nobler, wiser. Then he’d be able to keep his hands off Keely and be in a better moral position to help her turn her life around.

  But he’d been forced to admit his own weakness and her greater strength. Before much longer, she would get her way. He couldn’t hold out anymore. He’d tried to justify it as a pleasure that Keely deserved, after all those times when she’d only been doing her job. As a justification it didn’t work very well. In his heart he knew that this would be about his needs, not hers.

  By the time he’d finished his piña colada Keely had won the limbo contest, adding her prize to the one she’d picked up for taking first place in the hula contest. She turned in Noah’s direction and blew him a kiss.

  Clint chuckled. “Like I said, a foregone conclusion. At lunch I wasn’t sure about the chemistry, but tonight she’s on your trail, buddy.” He clapped Noah on the back. “How does it feel to be the envy of every guy here?” “Just wonderful.”

  “Funny, but you don’t look as happy as I would expect you to. Is there a problem?”

  Noah looked at his friend. Clint had no idea how many problems were connected to this situation, but Noah wasn’t going to enlighten him. Instead, he grinned. “Clint, Keely’s a woman. Of course there will be problems.”

  Clint nodded. “Point taken.” He glanced at Noah’s empty glass. “I think we need a refill. Let’s—”

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Greg crooned into a wireless microphone, “may I have your attention, please.”

  “Damn, but he loves that mike,” Clint said. “I think he believes he’s the next David Letterman.”

  “Don’t complain,” Noah said. “Better him as the emcee than either one of us.”

  “True.”

  Greg glanced around at the crowd. “It’s now time to play a special version of that old favorite, musical chairs, better known in this case as musical laps!”

  Noah remembered having fun playing the game at Greg’s wedding. The guys sat in a circle and the women moved around the circle ready to grab a lap when the music ended. But Keely hadn’t been a part of the game a year ago. He didn’t want Keely sitting on any lap but his.

  “Finally something I can do,” Clint said. “Come on, Noah. Grab yourself a chair.”

  He was going to hate this.
Really hate it. He picked up a chair and set it beside Clint’s. Greg organized the women, making sure there was one less man in the circle than there were women walking around it. To the melody of “Ukelele Lady,” the women started to move around the group of seated men.

  Whenever Keely passed Noah, she slowed down and gave him a secret smile. Then he watched helplessly as she cruised by with that killer walk of hers. The music stopped.

  Amid breathless squeals from the contestants, Keely settled quickly in another man’s lap. Noah didn’t know him, but that didn’t matter. He hated his guts.

  Sharon plopped down in Noah’s lap. “Hi, cutie,” she said, turning to smile at him. “Having a good time?”

  “Sure.” He unclenched his jaw and smiled back. “How about you?”

  “I’m having a great time watching you watch Keely. I’ve never seen you with that look on your face.”

  “It’s indigestion. I should never have eaten that poi junk.”

  “Uh-huh. Indigestion and lovesickness look about the same on a man. I can see where I could get confused.”

  “You’re confused, all right.” Lovesickness? He’d better not be coming down with that disease. Catching it from a woman like Keely could be fatal.

  Greg commanded the microphone again. “Okay, ladies, that’s enough lap dancing for this round. On your feet.”

  Sharon slid off Noah’s lap. “We all like her, you know,” she said.

  He played dumb. “Who?”

  She rolled her eyes and glanced at her husband sitting next to him. “Did you find out anything interesting?”

  “He’s not talking,” Clint said. “I did my best, but—”

  “We have to eliminate a lap,” Greg said. “Clint, come on out of there.”

  “Aw, man,” Clint grumbled as his wife began to laugh. “I never get to have any fun.” Muttering to himself he hauled his chair off to the side and Greg started the music again.

  Once again Keely passed by Noah, her hips swaying in time to the music. He ground his teeth and suffered. The tune continued and she approached for the second time, still wearing that secret little smile. When the music abruptly ended, Noah reacted without thinking. Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her down to his lap.