Carolyn Brown - [Spikes & Spurs 07]

by Cowboy Seeks Bride

  No one, not even Joel, ever talked to her during sex. There was foreplay in varying degrees, sex, and then snoring. She shouldn’t compare, especially in the middle of the most earth-shattering sex in the world, but she couldn’t help it. She kept expecting the moon to fall right out there on the other side of Little Turkey Creek and the stars to follow, landing like the burnt-out ends of a Fourth of July sparkler on the water and sizzle as they drowned.

  “Lord help us,” she mumbled.

  Dewar lowered his lips to hers. “I don’t think even He has that much power.”

  The whole world, complete with thoughts, disappeared as she gave in to her body’s needs and let desire take over. At the climax, the stars all exploded, creating the most gorgeous array of sparkle she’d ever seen.

  So that’s what it’s supposed to be like, she thought as she fought to regain her breath.

  “Age-old question? Was it good for you?” he gasped.

  “Yes, sir, it was very good for me,” she said.

  Somehow he’d moved and she was snuggled up against him. It had to be the magic that had re-situated him without her even knowing.

  He flipped the edges of the quilt up over her and hugged her tighter. “We can sleep for a while, but it would probably be best if they didn’t…”

  She covered his lips with her finger. “I understand, Dewar.”

  He kissed her fingertips and buried his face in her hair.

  She shut her eyes but the beautiful warm feeling still lingered. Would it go away when they peeled back the quilt? That was the question on her mind as she dozed off into yet another dream about Dewar.

  Eeyore nudged her back and awoke her an hour later. She quickly looked at the horizon to see if the first signs of the sun coming up heralded a new day and squirmed out of Dewar’s tight embrace.

  “Don’t go,” he whispered.

  “I’ve got to go rinse off and get dressed or else I’m going to smell like sex all day.” She giggled.

  He threw the quilt back and carried her to the creek. He sat down with her in his lap with the cool water rushing around them. He bathed her with his hands and rinsed the soap away with double hands full of water.

  “I’ve heard that a woman never believes anything a man says when he’s having sex with her so I want to say something,” Dewar whispered.

  “And that would be?”

  “You are so beautiful that you make my brain go to pure mush when you are near me. All I want to do is drag you off to a private place and make love to you all day and night,” he said.

  She was speechless. Nothing anyone had ever said to her had been so simple and yet the depth of his words were so romantic.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “I just don’t know where it can possibly lead, though. We’re almost half-done with the trail run and what happens when it’s over?”

  She kissed the scar on his cheek. “Let’s don’t borrow worry from tomorrow. We’ll just enjoy the miracles of today.”

  He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought her lips to his.

  “You make me hot as hell,” she panted when he broke the kiss.

  “Yes, ma’am, and you do the same to me.” He laced his fingers in hers and led her back to their cocoon quilt. He helped her get her clothing on before he quickly dressed himself.

  One of a kind, she thought. There will never be another real cowboy in your life, so you’d best cherish every single memory.

  She flipped the quilt over to the dry side and sat down, reluctant to let the night come to an end. He sat down beside her and ran his fingers through her hair, combing out the tangles gently. Then he deftly French braided it, weaving wildflowers he picked from around the quilt into the twists and turns.

  Her scalp tingled at his slight touch and she would have given her job to a beggar on the street for a mirror to see what she looked like with Daisy Mae braids complete with wildflowers. When she looked at him, he smiled and she could see herself in his eyes. With no makeup, no fancy haircut, no high-dollar stiletto shoes, and not even a mist of exotic perfume, he thought she was wonderful. And it felt right.

  ***

  Eeyore snorted and started back toward the camp.

  “I know,” Dewar told him. “We can’t stay here until daybreak.”

  He’d never known a woman as strong, as determined, or as willful as Haley. Not even his red-haired sister, Colleen, and she was a force. But sitting there with her eyes shut, half her face in shadow, the other half illuminated by the moon, she looked soft and sweet. She had two sides, his Haley did.

  My Haley! Whoa! Hold the horses. She’s not mine and probably never will be. But there will never be another woman who’ll make me feel as alive as this one.

  Eeyore snorted again.

  “Okay, I hear you. It’s time, isn’t it?” He moved away from Haley and together they gathered up her things.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and mumbled, “I’d rather stay here and be in trouble. I was dreaming about you when Eeyore woke me up.”

  “What was happening?” Dewar asked.

  “If I tell it before breakfast it will come true and that’s one dream I do not want to come true,” she said.

  “You are superstitious?”

  “I come from Cajun background. Of course I’m superstitious. How long until daybreak?”

  “Two hours tops. Coosie will be up puttering around in an hour.”

  “Where did you get this quilt?” she asked.

  “Are you always full of questions?”

  “Seems that’s the way I’m made.”

  Dewar chuckled softly as they tiptoed toward the chuck wagon. “From the wagon. It’s for emergencies. Guess last night was an emergency.”

  “I don’t imagine he was thinking of using it for what we did,” she said.

  Eeyore followed them and waited a few yards back until Haley was safely tucked into her sleeping bag before he went back to the herd.

  Dewar kissed her on the forehead. “I swear he is just like a dog.”

  “And he’s going to have a wonderful life at your ranch,” she said.

  Would I have a wonderful life there or would I grow tired of it after the glow wore off? she wondered.

  She was already sleeping when he returned from putting the quilt away. He laced his fingers under his neck and wondered what she’d been dreaming.

  It seemed as if he’d just shut his eyes when he heard Coosie cussing the donkey.

  He sat up and glanced over at Haley to see her rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “What’s happening with Eeyore?” She yawned.

  “Damned critter, wakin’ me up before I was ready to get up. Just come right up to my sleeping bag and commenced to snortin’. I thought a coyote was about to bite my ear damn near off, but it was just your jackass,” Coosie fumed.

  Dewar bit back the chuckle. The damned jackass was probably tattling about what he’d seen down at the creek the night before. Thank God Coosie didn’t understand jackass lingo.

  Haley stretched, reminding him of the old momma cat out in the horse stables when someone stroked her back. She wiggled the kinks out of her. “What makes everyone think that critter belongs to me alone? Evidently he loves you too, Coosie. He didn’t want you to oversleep.”

  “First time he’s ever done that and it better be the last. I swear he scared the hell out of me. First thing I see is his ugly nose when I open my eyes. My soul shot right out of my body like a bottle rocket.”

  “Did it go up or did it go down?” Haley giggled.

  Coosie grumbled as he flopped the morning biscuits into the top part of the Dutch oven and hung it above the fire. “You are too damn happy to be just wakin’ up. You must’ve had sweet dreams about somebody and I bet it wasn’t that pesky jackass.”

  “No, it wasn’t and yes, I did, and, no, I’m not telling what my dreams were. Is that sausage I smell?” Haley changed the subject.

&nb
sp; “Yes, it is. Gravy can boil and thicken while the biscuits cook. Coffee is ready, so get up and help yourself. It looks like another rainy day so you’d best be gettin’ the idea in your heads. I’d forgotten about the spring rains in this season.” Coosie cocked his head to one side and drew his eyebrows down when he saw the flowers in her hair. “You goin’ to a dance or something?”

  Dewar caught the look Haley flashed him when she realized the flowers were still woven into her hair and graced her with his most brilliant smile.

  Haley touched her braids. “No, just thought I’d put a little sunshine in your world this morning. You like my new hair decorations? Since we don’t have a hairdresser out here, I had to make do with what was available. I had a bath in that creek last night after everyone was asleep.”

  “Bet the water was cold,” Dewar whispered.

  “Don’t pay no attention to him,” Coosie said. “He’s always grumbling about something. That’s the way of a trail boss. I think they look almighty fetching and it’s nice to see a woman takin’ care of herself. Just don’t go braidin’ flowers in that damn donkey’s tail.”

  “Yes, sir.” She whistled shrilly and Apache came trotting across the field to her side.

  Sawyer sat up and grabbed his head. “That’s a hell of a way to wake a man up. Reminds me of that damned alarm clock Momma sent to college with me. First time it went off I thought a freight train was coming right up the middle of my bed.”

  Finn rose up on an elbow. “Is it morning? What’s our job assignment today, Callie?”

  Rhett dug his fists into his eyes. “Sorry, cousin. You’re in a different type of war zone this morning. That wasn’t a bomb threat. It was Haley whistling for Apache. I didn’t know a girl could do that.”

  Dewar looked up to see Stallone trotting across the field. “You told me you couldn’t whistle.”

  “I did not. You asked me if I could whistle and I asked you why I needed to. I didn’t want to or need to until now.”

  Dewar frowned. “Well, it looks like she’s done called all the horses up. You been holdin’ out on us, girl. Where’d you learn to whistle like that?”

  “From my Cajun cousins,” she said with a shrug.

  “What else did those wild cousins teach you?”

  Haley rubbed her hands across Apache’s back and removed one small burr, tested again, and tossed the saddle blanket across him before hefting the saddle up. “They taught me lots of things, but I’m not telling all my secrets. Apache and Eeyore and I keep some things real close to our hearts.”

  Chapter 14

  The morning hadn’t started off like Friday the thirteenth. Haley had awakened to the sounds of Coosie cooking, the fresh aroma of sausage frying, coffee boiling in the blue granite pot, and Eeyore standing under the tree a few feet away, keeping watch over her.

  She had looked across six feet of spring grass to see Dewar propped up on one elbow, a grin on his face, and the sun rising behind him. In the soft golden glare she barely caught the slow wink, but the blush that it caused burned her cheeks. Dewar could relay more with a wink than some men could with a candlelit dinner for two in a fancy restaurant.

  Breakfast was over, dishes put away, and the campfire stomped out when she whistled for Apache. And that’s when the day went to hell in a handbasket. She barely got him saddled when the dark clouds rolled over the beautiful sunrise and thunder rolled over in the southwest. Lightning streaked through the sky, and Eeyore snorted disapproval.

  “It’s all right, boy. We’ve ridden in rain before and it didn’t melt either of us. I don’t suppose it will this time, either, but nothing says we have to like it, does it?”

  She finished saddling Apache, put her slicker on, and settled into the saddle just as the first big drops of rain splattered against the yellow slicker.

  “Worked the sore out yet?” Coosie asked from the wagon.

  “Pretty much. After two weeks, it should be gone, shouldn’t it?” she asked.

  A loud clap of thunder made them both duck their heads.

  Coosie laughed out loud. “That one parted my hair.”

  Haley looked at his big round bald head and cracked up. “I think it scared any hair from growing for the next ten years.”

  “It faded the red in yours.” Coosie still laughed.

  She stuck her tongue out at him. “Since it’s raining and you made fun of my hair, you have to talk to me to atone for your sins.”

  “Well, it is redder when the sun shines on it and sayin’ so is not sinnin’, young lady. So start with the questions and we might find something I’ll talk about, but then again, maybe we won’t. I’m not telling you stories that you should be asking Dewar about. And besides, you should be riding up front with him and talking to him all day anyway, not lingerin’ back here with the old chuck wagon driver. I bet his feelings are hurt.”

  “Why would you say that?” she asked.

  “Well, honey, any old cowboy worth his salt can see that you two got a thing for each other and if you really want to hear about him and his family, then spur that horse and ride up there beside him where you belong.”

  The cows moved slowly in the rain and nothing the cowboys could do hurried them. The old longhorn bull decided the pace would slow down and by damn, it did.

  After the first few huge drops, the rain settled into a soft drizzle. The lightning passed over them, taking the thunder with it to rattle its way toward the northwest. From what Dewar said that morning, they were moving southeast of Enid that day.

  Enid was one of those towns that had been settled during the Oklahoma Land Run long after the railroads had put an end to cattle runs, but since it was so flat, she could well imagine that during the cattle trail days there would have been a store sitting just over there. It would sell basics for the cowboys like tobacco and whiskey.

  Mercy, but she was glad that Dewar didn’t chew. She hated the smell of any kind of tobacco. A good shot of whiskey on his breath wouldn’t be bad, but her nose snarled at the idea of chewing tobacco.

  “Well, why aren’t you up there with him?” Coosie asked.

  “I haven’t been invited,” she said.

  “Can’t see a headstrong redhead like you waitin’ for a formal invitation. Guess I was all wrong about you havin’ a backbone and bein’ sassy.”

  “No you weren’t,” Haley said quickly.

  Coosie chuckled. “I heard that you got Finn to open up some the other night. That’s a good thing. Man needs to talk that kind of experience out of his soul or else it will eat him alive and leave nothing but a hollow shell of a man.”

  “He’s a good man and he was doing his job. I think losing that woman that he loved was as hard as the job,” she said.

  “Probably so. So did Sawyer tell you all about his woman or did Rhett talk about that sissified ponytail?”

  “They did not,” she said.

  Coosie smiled. “Well, then you better get your questions lined out for another night if you want to get inside them boys’ heads and get them to talkin’.”

  “Come on, Coosie. You talk to me. I’m bored.”

  “Girl, you’d best not be sayin’ that too loud out here on the cattle drive. It’ll come back around and bite you on the butt real quick.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you’ll have your hands so full you’ll wish for a nice quiet ride without no problems. You ever think about gettin’ a cowboy for Christmas, Haley?”

  She was glad for the slicker hood and hoped it covered the burning crimson filling her cheeks. “Of course not. What would I do with a cowboy?”

  How in the devil did he tell so little and suddenly have a dozen questions of his own, anyway?

  “Any chance when you sit on Santa’s knee this year that’s what you’ll be thinkin’ about?” he asked.

  “Christmas and Santa are both a long way down the road, Coosie,” she said.

  “Well, it’ll sneak right up on you so you’d best be thinking abo
ut it. And while you are thinkin’, if you ain’t goin’ to do right by him, don’t do at all. He’s a good man. I’d hate to be in your shoes if you break his heart.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Just what I said. His sisters are pretty damn protective of him and I’d sooner face off with a mountain lion as those two, especially if they gang up on you. Gemma rode broncs professionally and Colleen used to crawl up on a bull’s back pretty often.”

  “You tryin’ to scare me?”

  “I’m just telling you that you need to be careful. Toyin’ with a cowboy’s heart can get yours broken in the process.”

  Haley let that sink in as she rode along. What would Dewar’s wife be like? Would his sisters like her or would they hate her?

  A brilliant shade of jealousy replaced the scarlet in her cheeks. The idea of another woman touching him, holding him, making wild love with him, or worse yet—the very thought of him braiding flowers into another woman’s hair—that was just plumb downright damn wrong.

  An airplane flew over their heads and she was amazed for a few minutes until she remembered that she really did live in the modern world where jet airplanes and even little biplanes like the one right above them existed. The days of the cattle trail drives from southern Texas to the railroad in Kansas had long since passed and what they were doing was just the forerunner of a reality television show.

  An old Western movie on television had started this whole thing. When the credits rolled after the show, she wondered if modern-day cowboys could stand up under the pressure of the primitive lifestyle. Would they be able to give up the real world where airplanes took people all the way across the country in half a day? Could they learn to live in a world where traveling involved going thirteen to fifteen miles in a day that lasted from sunup to sunset?

  The rain stopped as suddenly as it started and the sun popped out from behind the clouds. She shed her slicker and handed it off to Coosie without getting out of the saddle. And the next phase of Friday the thirteenth went into effect.

  The airplane had made her homesick for her office, for her friends, and for her family. She wished she was on it and headed back to Dallas to a civilized lifestyle. She sighed and argued with herself. One old gray jackass did not a ranch make! She and Dewar were as different as night and day in the real world. Sure, they were hotter than a wildfire coming across the plains when it came to sex; however, wildfires burned down everything in their pathway and then died. Even knowing that, it was still impossible to walk away from Dewar and too late to stop her stupid heart from wanting him.