Two Cowboys Next Door

by Jay S. Wilder

  The helicopter ride had been bad enough. Tanner had spent the whole time stiff as a board and asking for antibacterial wipes. I closed my eyes, picturing what life would be like when he wasn’t dogging my heels twenty-four-seven—and I wasn’t paying him for the privilege.

  “You should text her, kid. That’s not one to wring them dry and leave them. She’s a fucking keeper. Either a long ass relationship or a fucking trip down the alter for that one, but nothing with the looks of a fling?”

  That was something I’d thought about, all the way to my next engagement. I’d been cursing myself black and blue for starting something I wasn’t at all sure I could finish when she’d been nothing but good to me. At her expense, no less. She’d been perfect. I’d been a total asshole, and now I wasn’t sure how to make it up to Natalia. Somehow I didn’t think a simple text would convey enough of what I needed to say here.

  “Thinking awfully hard, don’t go bursting a blood vessel, buddy. I need you to sign my fucking check.”

  A half-strangled laugh came up from my throat and my lips twisted despite my mood.

  “Alright, alright.” I took out my phone. Maybe I should keep it short and sweet, leave the rest to my actions if she agreed to my plan.

  My fingers flew over the screen, and I invited her back to my place again tomorrow. Assuming she was free. She’d enjoyed it so much the first time, I figured I’d give her a second look, and be less rushed about it this time. I read the text three or four times before pressing send.

  “There. Now leave me alone, asshole.”

  Tanner grunted at me, shoved my shoulder, and took out his phone.

  “Don’t ever say I didn’t do nothin’ for you.”

  “Sure.”

  I couldn’t help wondering if our burgeoning bromance was going to turn my relationship with Natalia into the romantic comedy from hell. Not that we had a relationship. Or anything close to that word. My brain backtracked with enough force to send my internal wheels spinning while the driver came to a stop in front of the large skyscraper where I was about to pull a huge business deal for my father.

  Time to get my head back in the game and my phone on silent. Although I checked the screen once for a reply before we walked in the revolving doors.

  Chapter 16 - Natalia

  I’d barely set foot in the door before my phone was ringing in my hand and I dropped my clutch on the couch collapsing next to it.

  “Hello?” I let my head hang back, legs spread in absolute physical luxury. Since I knew it was Carlos, the best I could do was get comfortable. “How’d you know I’d be home by now?”

  “GPS in your phone.” He said it so matter of factly as if everyone was using it. Meanwhile, the idea that he knew my every move made me break out in hives as I jolted up from my mini-cocoon on the couch. “How’d it go with the billionaire? Do we have a score yet?”

  My hand clenched the edge of my couch, my other hand pressing tightly into the phone. I needed to work my lack of information to my advantage. Which wasn’t a problem, given that what I was about to say was the truth.

  “I need more time.”

  “Penn, I don’t need you hanging out with that asshole an— “

  Carlos cut off mid-tirade. I held the phone away from my head to check the connection and saw that we were in the clear, no random hang-ups. What was going on? A slow unease settled across me, and there was some shuffling on the other line.

  “Um, hello?” I ventured again, not really wanting to get lectured, but not wanting to get a verbal ass kicking for hanging up on him either.

  “Natalia, good to fucking hear from you. So soon too! You work fast. I like that in a woman.” Jared’s voice fed down the line toward me and my nose wrinkled with disgust. “Of course you can take your time, dollface. The more time with boy toy we give you, the more he trusts you, and the better the score, right?”

  A stab of shame buried deep in my gut. I tried to shut my eyes to the truth. What I really wanted to remember was our time together unblemished by this damn mission, and instead, they were tainting it all with a thick layer of shame and betrayal. I licked my lips, words sticking in my mouth.

  “You still there, dollface?”

  God, his little nickname for me was sickening.

  “I’m here and you’re right. That sounds like a good plan to me. How much longer do I have to make this happen?”

  There was a pause.

  “I’ll leave it to your good judgment. When you find a big enough score, you’ll let me know, okay? I’ll text you my cell number on your brother’s phone. In the meantime, I’m not thinking you’re going to want to continue that conversation, so I’ll do you a solid. Just to prove I’m a good guy.”

  Before I could say anything else, he hung up on me. Two seconds later my cell vibrated in my hand, and a new number flashed under Carlos’s name with the text for me to keep him—meaning Jared—informed as much as possible. I doubted that he could keep my brother away from me for long. Still the idea that I didn’t have to process his particular brand of asshole right now was a small miracle, especially when I was still dealing with the idea that Carlos was tracking me like a parent of an unruly kid. The thought rolled in my stomach as I clutched my middle with a grimace.

  “You just don’t know how to leave well enough alone…” I said to no one in particular before flattening myself on the couch in the pose I’d been in before the phone call.

  The idea of lying there for an undecided amount of time staring at the darkness on the back of my eyelids sounded perfect. Too bad my phone went off again. I nearly hurled it across the room at the wall. I was so stunned by the shrill ring, and must have turned vibrate off when I was clutching it for dear life while talking to Jared.

  Another text showed up on my screen—from Liam.

  He was asking me back to his palatial home tomorrow. So soon was right. I swallowed past the lump in my throat immediately wondering if our intimate rendezvous in the helicopter had something to do with the second invitation being so quick. Not that it really mattered why, I reminded myself, I did have a job to do first and foremost. My family wouldn’t suffer for my big heart. Also, I refused to pick up where I left off in Spain, being a full-time thief while my brother’s ripped away any sense of autonomy I’d pieced together for myself while in America.

  Spain wasn’t an option. With that firmly in my mind, despite my complicated motivations, I typed a quick and to the point acceptance of Liam’s invitation. The idea that I was seeing him tomorrow should have filled me with giddiness. Instead, dread sunk into a small ball in my stomach. I threw my phone onto the other side of the couch, curled up on my side, and reached for the remote.

  Hours of mindless TV would surely make me feel less like a horrible person. After all, it supposedly rotted people’s brains and what did I need a brain for when all I had to do to get secrets out of Liam was do a little seduction in public places. Never mind that the experience had been my first successful sexual experience. It was all a means to an end.

  The sickening thought made me curl into a ball as I stared at an infomercial for stretchy soap. Maybe I should buy some to wash away my sense of guilt.

  Chapter 17 - Natalia

  When a limo showed up outside my apartment complex, this time, I was ready for the royal treatment. Liam and his bodyguard weren’t waiting for me in the backseat, but there was a bag of goodies. A quick dump out revealed designer workout clothes, new sneakers in my size, a filled forty-ounce bottle of water, and a small still sealed bottle of natural herb supplements that were supposed to be soothing. There was a little note at the bottom of it all that I ripped open while wondering how I was going to change in the back of a limo.

  I figured our time together should be more adventurous, but I got you organic, homeopathic drugs for the helicopter in case of turbulence. Put on the clothes and I’ll meet you outside the helicopter so we can take our next step.

  Liam

  Nice pun, given the sneakers I was
holding in my hand. I didn’t bother asking how he’d known my shoe size and figured people with more money than the GDP of some small countries had their ways. Better to leave them to it, than speculate. A quick search on my phone turned up a lot of info on the supplements while I struggled to dress as the limo changed lanes, made turns, and was a general huge pain in the ass.

  The idea that he wouldn’t be there to hold my hand in the helicopter this time left me more nervous than last time until I took some of the L-Theanine he’d provided me with at the beginning of my trip. I was still nervous, but it took an edge off my terror. I was better able to focus on other things, like how I could draw out these dates without pissing off Jared and ruining our tentative deal.

  By the time we’d landed I’d cobbled together a spotty plan that may or may not work. It was worth a shot. As I glanced at the window with my stomach in my feet, I saw we weren’t in the same place as yesterday, which kind of contradicted what he’d said in his text. I shrugged off the spontaneity. For all I knew it was just a different patch of his vast acreage on the estate. I knew a man who had a family estate. My life was weird as hell.

  “So what’s on the agenda today, master and commander?” I smirked and strolled off the helicopter toward a waiting Liam dressed in workout clothes as if I didn’t have wobbly knees and a slight buzz from the natural drugs. Fake it until you make it. “I’m sure you have everything planned, am I right?”

  “The way I was raised, the lady isn’t to lift a finger,” Liam went in for a tight hug before brushing his lips from my ear across my cheek in a move that managed to be classy and also achingly intimate. “Thanks for complying with my odd rules.”

  “It’s half the fun, right?”

  “I’m glad you agree.” He smiled, one that reached his eyes which was a rarity, and snatched my hand in a warm, comforting grip that sizzled all the way into my shoulder. “You ready?”

  I raised one eyebrow, and he took that as his answer squeezing my hand and leading me forward on a winding, uphill hiking trail. So we were getting down and dirty. I was suddenly glad he’d provided me with clothing alternatives, otherwise, I’d be romping in the heat in jeans and a sequin-studded black t-shirt. We were quiet as we climbed, both taking in the stunning scenery with the red rocks spread out before us, as the morning sun beat on our backs. Oddly pleasant and new, the silence was never awkward. We’d been through too much together now for us to make small talk and I think we both vibed on the calm, quiet strength of the moment as it opened between us.

  “Want to stop for a water break? We’re nearly there.” Liam had dropped my hand two or three miles back, but now he reached back for me helping me onto an outcropping of rock.

  “Where’s your trusty bodyguard today?” I gulped down a good half of my water bottle with an inner sigh as our thighs touched against the rock that baked in the mid-morning sunshine. “Shouldn’t he be ruining this too?”

  He had the grace to look embarrassed before he looked back up at me.

  “Tanner is riding in an ATV somewhere in sight of me on the trail. He promised he’d be close enough to come to my rescue, but out of sight so not to ruin our time together.”

  “Cheers to that.” I put out my water bottle, and we clinked them together, both laughing, before taking a drink. Neither of us broke eye contact as we swallowed deep. “Kind of reminds me of yesterday…another audience.”

  Damn it. I really wasn’t planning on mentioning what happened in the helicopter yesterday, and Liam coughed sputtering on a sip of water.

  “You okay?”

  “Uh…yeah…fine.”

  If he was going to be a gentleman, I could be a lady and ignore the blush deepening his cheeks. He moved around on the rock to get comfortable, making pebbles skitter downward. I carefully kept my eyes glued to the horizon.

  “Do you regret yesterday? I didn’t…push you into anything that made you uncomfortable?” His voice wavered on the last few words showing the depth of his feelings. “I never thought that when we saw each other again that things would, uh, escalate so quickly. Especially when we’d only just worked through our issues.”

  Okay, so it was time for this conversation. If this was happening, then I wasn’t sitting down for it, and I scrambled up to keep walking with the sun beating down on my back.

  “Shouldn’t I be bringing this up?” I hedged, looking back at him as he tore his gaze from my ass and scanned my face with a rueful grin.

  “You left me an opening; I took it. Now answer the question.”

  “Fair enough.” I continued climbing enjoying the solid ache that sprang up in my legs, echoing through my abdomen as small rivulets of sweat eased down my back. “No, I don’t regret it. That’s the simple answer. Everything we did yesterday…we did together, on the same page.”

  There was a pause as we navigated a tough grouping of rocks scrambling over them.

  “What’s the hard answer?” Liam prodded putting a protective hand on my back as I stumbled and regained my footing.

  “Thanks. Um, the answer is pretty obvious.” I took a second to catch my breath, unsure whether I should even broach the subject. “We’re from different worlds, you and me, and my people don’t exactly like your people, it’s kind of hard to forget…” I let the rest of my musings drift into the open air in front of us, fairly certain he could pick up the mental slack himself.

  “Forbidden fruit is always juicier, ain’t it?”

  When I looked over my shoulder, he wore a wolfish grin.

  “Don’t you get sick of fighting it?”

  “Mmm? What?”

  There was a break in the trail up ahead and a sudden thrill of excitement that we were getting somewhere zinged from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. The sound of rushing water pushed up through the sudden foliage making me blink in surprise. A waterfall? Here, in the middle of the desert?

  “What’s happening between us, Natalia. It’s something I’m not sure I can fight…”

  “How come we haven’t seen anyone else today out and about?” I switched the subject.

  Liam pushed past me leading us toward the gorgeous waterfall cascading and tumbling over red rocks. A small oasis in the never-ending desert. Much like the sexual drought I’d previously experienced until everything went to hell in a hand basket.

  “I have guards on either side of the trail keeping everyone else back. We won’t be bothered. Money makes a lot of things possible that otherwise wouldn’t be.”

  I made a small noise in the back of my throat following him to an impressive picnic spread laid out on the rocks by the waterfall. We were falling into dangerous territory. As much as my guilt urged me to run all the way back home, a part me yearned for more of the man standing in front of me. Plus, the logical side that playing on the flirty side worked to our advantage in getting information. Granted, it also put me in serious risk of falling too deeply and too far for a man that could never be mine.

  Chapter 18 - Liam

  She ignored my quest for answers. I could either do the right thing and go with her blatant change of subject or let my silenced anger win out.

  I knew my choice.

  “Do you want me to back off? It’s a simple question that will solve a lot of problems.”

  An odd tingling creating goosebumps all up and down my arms while I watched her on the path, physically aware something had changed between us, but mentally unable to keep up.

  “You're awfully pushy,” she smiled, but it strained her face. She licked her lips, and the emotion behind the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

  “Why aren’t you being pushy? Most women would want to pin me down and make me a trophy to be won. Instead, I’m chasing you around in the desert, always at your heels, and you’re brushing me off again and again. I don’t get it, damn it!”

  “You want me to want to pin you down? After two seconds of knowing you? That’s really how you want me to act, like all the stupid, girls chasing after your money instead of gettin
g to know the person you really are on the inside?” She flung a hand out and raked it through her ponytail sending brunette tendrils flying every which way. “I can’t act like that. We know each other a little better than that, after what you’ve been through! After what we’ve seen. I was complicit, and I’m sorry.”

  I blinked, unsure how to take the level of passion I’d brought out in her. I’d gotten her riled up, and she was ready to pounce. I swallowed, suddenly parched, but unable to take my eyes off Natalia. She was now pissed as hell, and after a moment, she whipped around and stomped off along the trail path behind our picnic.

  “Why are you even opening this can of worms? Before you could barely stand the sight of me and now, the air between us. I’m suffocating all the time.”

  When I started to speak, she came at me, hand crossing across her neck in the unmistakable gesture for me to shut the hell up. So, I clamped my mouth shut.

  “You don’t get to talk!”

  That was obvious enough. Took everything in me to slide my slight grin into a neutral expression. Instead, I nodded knowing she needed to rant. I’d started this ball rolling, and the least I could do was push it down the hill and meet it down at the bottom.

  “So far, you’ve been in the driver’s seat every step of the way. You pursued me. You called all the shots on these outings. You even picked out stuff for me to wear, for Christ’s sake!”

  I eyed her up and down in appreciation loving that the workout clothes I’d picked out hugged her in all the right places. Better than I’d even expected when picking them out. My slight diversion was brought to a head when she made an impatient noise in the back of her throat and hissed at me. An actual cat hiss that made the small hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.