Bet Your Boots

by Starla Kaye

  She’d invaded his space. He waited to feel threatened by that, but he didn’t. It just seemed right.

  Laughter drifted up from the pool below his half-open window. Mandie and her group were at poolside Bessie had told him. He wasn’t real sure he wanted to see some of them in bathing suits, particularly the Talbots. Still he was drawn to the window. Drawn to see Mandie for the first time in a week.

  Good God! His knees about buckled as he gaped at Mandie wearing a one-piece black swimsuit with what might be considered a very conservative neckline. He could barely see the swells of her breasts. But his memory easily stripped away the suit. He knew exactly how perfect those breasts were. Exactly how well his hands felt holding her at the waist.

  As if she sensed him watching her, she glanced up and met his gaze. For just a second she looked perturbed with him, which he deserved. Then she smiled, warmly, happily. “Come join us!” she called out and everyone focused on him.

  “I….” He desperately wanted to, and yet was reluctant.

  Even from up here he saw disappointment settle onto her beautiful face. He sighed. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  Butterflies danced merrily within her. Cole was back! She’d been so hurt that first night when she’d discovered he’d left while she was working with her clients. He’d left a note for her on the bed, telling her he’d needed to go check out a horse auction. She’d known the truth: he’d asked—no demanded—that she move in with him and then regretted the decision. It had taken her another two days to finally move into his bedroom. But she hadn’t known how to face him when he returned. Should she be mad? Should she pretend she didn’t know why he’d fled?

  Seeing him just now eased something inside her. She wanted to do a happy, skipping dance all around the pool. But she needed to maintain some dignity in front of her clients.

  Almost as one, they all climbed from the chaise lounges they’d been sitting on and began gathering up their towels and stuff. Doreen looked directly at her. “We’ve decided to go into town for a nice dinner out.” She smiled knowingly. “Give you and your rancher some time alone. Time to kiss and make up.”

  Mandie’s face heated. “You don’t need to do that. We were going to barbeque.”

  Edward Spithaven shook his head, quickly playing along with Doreen’s idea. “Maybe tomorrow night.” He put a hand at his wife’s back and guided her around the row of chairs. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

  A few minutes later Cole walked out of the sliding doors from the dining room. He’d changed into black swim trunks that revealed a whole lot of pretty spectacular man. She tried not to drool. “It looks like your bruises are fading.” She’d been worried about him.

  He put a hand gently across his abdomen. “Yeah, almost gone.” He glanced around, frowned. “What happened to your group? Weren’t they all out here?”

  She watched him walk closer to where she sat on a chaise lounge. Her pulse raced. She wanted to jump up and throw herself at him. Instead she said huskily, “They all decided to go into town for dinner. Doreen thought we needed some kissing and making-up time.”

  His eyes darkened and his gaze seemed to lock onto the swell of her breasts. “Wise woman, that Doreen.”

  “I moved into your bedroom,” Mandie said, worrying about his reaction.

  “Sure did.” He walked right next to her chair and motioned her up. “I think it’s time we got to that kissing business.”

  She stood, moved until they were almost skin-to-skin. Her breasts rose and fell in a shudder. “You still okay with me being there? I can always move back out.”

  He slipped his hands around and cupped her bottom. Then he drew her up on her toes so she rubbed against the hard ridge of his highly aroused cock. “Let’s see how it goes, but I’m okay for now.” He lifted her even more, urging her to wrap her legs around him.

  “I’m going home,” Bessie called out from the sliding doors. “Not that you two will care.”

  Mandie practically leaped away from Cole, her face flaming. “Oh God,” she groaned. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  Bessie chuckled. “Don’t be. I was young and lusty once, too. A long, long time ago. But I remember how it was.” She winked at Mandie. “Be gentle with him.”

  Cole squeezed his eyes shut and mumbled, “Now I’m the one embarrassed.” But Bessie had already disappeared, her laughter following her through the house.

  Suddenly Mandie shook off the embarrassment and pure pleasure lightened her spirit. She skipped by Cole and dove into the pool. Coming to the surface in the middle, she stood on tiptoe and grinned at him. “Join me.”

  He groaned. “Oh, darlin’, joining with you is exactly what I had in mind.”

  “Naughty boy.” She glanced toward the closed gate of the tall wooden privacy fence. Should she? Was she really that daring?

  Cole walked to the edge of the pool. “Man,” he countered, puffing out his chest, rubbing at the front of his hard ridge. “Naughty man.”

  Her heart raced with anticipation, with longing. While he watched her in surprise, she made her way to shallower water and slipped out of her swimsuit. She tossed it to the tile surrounding the pool. “Come play.”

  In two seconds flat he’d jerked off his trunks, tossed them aside, and dove into the water. He surfaced right in front of her. His eyes sparked with the fire of desire. “This is crazy.” He pulled her against him, made her feel his hardness. “Protection.” He stiffened, started to draw away. “Hell, what was I thinking?”

  “I’m on the pill. It’s okay.” As he sighed in relief and eased back, she put her arms around him. She made him move with her as she backed to the side of the pool. “Sometimes you just need to step outside the box, cowboy. You up for this?”

  He lifted her up until she could rest her arms along the pool edge. Then he guided her legs around him, held his shaft next to her throbbing clit. “Oh, yeah, I’m up for this.”

  As she shivered in excitement, he drove upward, slid firmly to exactly where she wanted him. “Ohhhh, cowboy,” she purred. “Now this is good.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cole’s arms were braced on the pool’s edge on either side of her. Mandie’s legs were wrapped tightly around his waist. He grimaced, groaned, and pistoned harder and harder. His face got redder; his grimace tighter. She briefly wondered if his heart could stand much more. He wasn’t old by any means, but he wasn’t as young as he used to be either. His body had endured a lot over his years of bull riding. And she sensed his healing ribs probably still ached. Not that any of it would slow him down. Determined man.

  She watched him squeeze his eyes shut and he pumped even harder, which she hadn’t thought possible. Then he growled out, “God almighty!”

  He sucked in air. “I’ve never…Damnation!”

  Mandie dug her fingers into his back and clamped her whole body even tighter around him. “Cole!” she gasped. Every drive, every powerful thrust upward made her more and more desperate. “Cole, I need….” She couldn’t get the rest of the words out, could only join him in their frantic search for that magical moment.

  Somewhere on the fuzzy edge of reality she thought she heard a noise from the house. A scrapping sound? She started to look around the man grimly determined to finish the job, and then her world exploded. She stiffened, held his harshly breathing chest against her, and felt her release raining around his still pumping shaft. “Cole!” she shouted mindlessly. “Oh, Cole!”

  Even as she fought her way back to reality while he continued to fight toward his own completion, she thought she heard another noise coming from the house. Her muddled brain tried to decipher the low, odd rumbling, scrapping sound. But all such thoughts were forced away when Cole grabbed hold of her even more firmly than before. He held her still and rammed a final time into her, roaring out, “Ohhhhh, Gawd!”

  Finally the tension drained from him. Finally he eased his death grip on her and she could breathe again, think again. The hair on the back of her ne
ck prickled and she knew what she’d heard. She tried to shrink in front of Cole’s big body and whispered uneasily, “We aren’t alone.”

  He blinked at her comment and then scowled fiercely as he, too, sensed the presence of someone watching them. He held Mandie to him, protecting her as best he could. She’d never seen such rage on a face before he snarled, “What the hell are you doing here, Danielle?”

  “Danielle? How do you know who it is?” Mandie questioned, both mortified and furious.

  The woman who had hurt Cole so badly and tried to ruin him in divorce court walked closer to the pool. Her heels clicked on the concrete with each step. The strong scent of her perfume drifted toward them in the slight breeze.

  “That’s pretty crude, Cole. Disgusting actually.” She snorted in distaste. “When you get done fucking your latest slut, I want to talk to you. I’ll be in the great room.”

  “Get the hell out of here! Off my ranch!” Cole bit out.

  Mandie couldn’t help squeaking, “I can’t breathe.” He was crushing her, whether in his fury with Danielle or in his effort to hide her nakedness from his ex-wife.

  Instantly he eased his hold and slid from her body at the same time. “I’m so damn sorry.”

  She straightened her legs and touched the bottom of the pool with her toes. “This is not your fault.”

  They both heard the sliding glass doors open and close behind them. Danielle’s overly strong scent hung in the air behind her. Their magical moment in time was over. As she watched his powerful body grow stiffer and stiffer in anger, Mandie realized she was falling in serious lust with the cowboy. Maybe even love. And his ex-wife’s invasion into his life brought out the defend-her-world side. That woman was not going to drag him back to hell again!

  “Out!” she demanded. “Lift me out of the pool.”

  He looked confused but obediently put his hands around her waist and lifted her up to sit her on the tiled edge. It only took a split second for his eyes to narrow as he realized she sat there naked. “What if she sees you?”

  Mandie smiled tolerantly at the dear, annoyed man. “This slut can live with it.” She pulled her legs out of the water and was pleased at his immediate sucking in of a breath when he saw the part of her body he’d only moments ago been inside.

  While he dealt with what appeared to be renewed desire, she strolled around the side of the pool to where she’d tossed her swimsuit. She put an extra sway to her hips for his benefit, and to annoy That woman even more if she was still watching them.

  As she tugged the one-piece suit over her wet body, she heard Cole striding across the pool, making his way to the side where he’d thrown his swim trunks. She glanced up in time to see the muscles of his arms bunch and strain as he lifted himself out of the water. So very, very nice. She sighed, wishing she was touching him again.

  But he didn’t appear to notice the abandoned trunks and started to storm toward the sliding doors. Mandie called out, “Your trunks! Put them on. She doesn’t deserve any free shows.”

  Mandie padded barefoot toward him, reaching to snag a towel from her chaise lounge. She haphazardly dried off and watched Cole grab up the trunks, then jam his legs into them. Pain and fury strained his expression, yet he took a second to give her a quick flash of an amused male grin.

  “Free shows?”

  She smiled right back at him, adding a hint of naughtiness, she hoped. “Shows only for me.” She turned and pranced happily away. “At least for the summer.”

  His frustrated grumble sent warmth spiraling through her. It made her even more determined to have a showdown with Danielle. Slut? Oh, really!

  * * * * *

  Cole watched Mandie pull open the sliding doors and prepare to walk into his house. The house where his damn ex-wife waited for him. What the hell could she possibly want from him now? Because he knew she wouldn’t just come to visit. Maybe he needed to get a restraining order like his attorney had suggested the last time she’d come to the ranch.

  “You’re not welcome here, you know,” he heard Mandie boldly state, which jerked him into movement.

  He stepped into the dining area and found Danielle standing in front of the fireplace in the great room. She’d obviously been studying his collection of prized belt buckles displayed on the mantle. She’d wanted them in the divorce settlement, as if he’d ever give them to her! Now she stood glaring daggers at Mandie, who stood just inside the room.

  “I have nothing to say to you, bitch.”

  Mandie seemed to find Danielle’s attack humorous and her lips twitched. He didn’t, though. He moved between the women and pinned a dark look on his ex. “Pot calling the kettle black, Bitch Queen.”

  Danielle’s whole body puffed up in outrage, as if she hadn’t called him much worse. “I’m not here for name calling, Cole. Or for watching my husband fuck another woman in the pool.”

  “Ex-husband,” he countered automatically.

  “Jealous, are you?” Mandie asked casually. She shifted to stand next to Cole and stroked his arm. “He is amazing.”

  Cole gaped at Mandie’s nerve but his ego absorbed thatparticular stroke. Still, he was uncomfortable with the focus being on his banging his lover in the pool. “Okay, ladies, let’s get to the real issue. What exactly did you drive all the way out here to demand now, Danielle? Not that you’re going to get it.”

  Lips he’d once found sensual, pursed in irritation. Eyes he’d once been drawn by sizzled with anger. “I need a new car,” she snapped bluntly. “Some idiot cut in front of me last week and managed to total my Lexus. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt. Not that you care.”

  “I’d never wish you injury.” Even though he hated everything about her, he’d spoken the truth.

  Mandie put her toe into the conversation. “You expect the man you shunned while married because he got hurt to help you? You couldn’t even visit him in the hospital.”

  Cole didn’t remember telling her all of that. His sister must have. “Mandie,” he tried to take control again.

  But Mandie was apparently on a roll. She ignored him to focus again on the brunette glowering at her. “You stole more from him in the divorce settlement than you deserved, which was really nothing. You expect the man you basically deserted to buy you a new car? Talk about a nut job. And I know nut jobs, sweetie pie. I’m a psychologist.”

  Danielle looked ready to launch herself across the room at Mandie. Catfight came to Cole’s mind. It wouldn’t be pretty. He’d seen Danielle go after another rodeo bunny that she thought was hopping after him and she fought dirty. Of course, she hadn’t really wanted him; she just didn’t want another woman to want him either. Which meant—divorced or not—Mandie was on her bad list.

  His furious ex took a step closer, glaring at Mandie and then him. “Are you going to let her talk to me like that? Nut job?”

  Oddly, he agreed with Mandie. He shrugged and put his arm around her shoulders. “You did call her a name first. Slut, I believe you said.” He flashed Danielle a pissy look. “Oh, and bitch.” Now he really was pissed.

  Mandie snuggled against him and he had to fight not to bodily throw his ex-wife out of the house. He wanted to strip Mandie out of that way-too-sexy swimsuit, wanted to….

  “Good God, Cole, you’re thinking with your dick again. About sex! With her!” Danielle hissed. “Focus. On me. On my needs.”

  He had to admit the blood in his body had started rapidly heading south, that his dick was swelling. But he damn sure resented Danielle talking about it. “My focus is no longer on any of your needs. That bridge wasn’t only burned but blown up months ago.”

  Those pouty lips thinned and he was struck, again, by how mean and nasty she could be at times. He shook his head sadly at the woman who couldn’t grasp that she couldn’t continue to harass him. “As far as I’m concerned, sweetie pie,” he added, enjoying using Mandie’s term and seeing Danielle bristle, “you can walk everywhere you want to go.”

  “But, Cole darling, I have a jo
b to get to. I need a car.” She attempted to soften her expression, tried to plea reasonably with him.

  “You drove here somehow. You’ve got a car.”

  “It belongs to Taylor.” Her eyes widened and she slammed her mouth shut, realizing what she’d let slip.

  Cole smiled smugly. “So you didn’t drive here in a rental car. You’re driving your lover’s car. The man you’ve been living with since the divorce.”

  “That takes balls,” Mandie said in amusement, earning a killer look from Danielle. “Evidently he’s not man enough to provide for you himself. Or else he’s as slimy as you are, sending you to your ex-husband to try and finagle into giving you something you certainly don’t deserve.”

  “Stay out of this! This matter is between Cole and me. Only.”

  Cole grinned down at Mandie. “Excellent points, sweetheart.” He faced Danielle. “Get. Out. Now.”

  “But….”

  “Now. Just so you know, my attorney told me I should file for a restraining order against you. And I’m going to do it.”

  Danielle narrowed her eyes and stormed toward the front door. “Don’t threaten me, Cole.”

  He was on her heels all the way to the door. “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise. If you ever so much as put a toe on my property again, I’ll call the sheriff. I’ll have your ass hauled into jail.” He shoved her out onto the porch and slammed the door in her outraged face. It felt damn good.

  When he turned around, he found Mandie slipping the straps of her swimsuit off her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled with amusement and desire. He went rock hard in an instant.

  “You deserve something special after all of that.” She lowered her gaze and her voice. “I’ve got something in mind…if you’re interested.”