Billion Dollar Cowboy

by Carolyn Brown

  “You are the girlfriend. You should stand out, and besides, there will be photographers here to take pictures for the area newspapers. It will be great. We’ll drape the walls in navy blue. That will be a better background for your blond hair. We’ll use white tablecloths and get the florist in Sherman to put together red, white, and blue carnation bouquets.”

  “In mason jars,” Laura added.

  “Oh, I like that better than vases. And maybe instead of drippy candles we’ll use oil lamps. I bet the catering service can come up with those.” Maudie made notes in her book. “I’ll tell the caterers to wear red bow ties and the bartenders to wear red vests. This is going to be the best party ever.”

  At noon they finished the last of the arrangements and Laura was free to go back to the office, but Andy said that he had things under control.

  “You might ask Colton if he’s got a tractor that needs a driver this afternoon,” Andy said.

  She felt like a bird set free from a cage when she hopped up into the tractor’s seat. She turned the switch and the hum of the motor turning over was music to her ears. She pulled the lever to drop the disc that would turn over the rich black soil and slipped a Blake Shelton CD into the player before she shifted into gear.

  Life was good again. She liked driving and being outside. That’s why she’d stayed in the greenhouse business so long. After her vo-tech classes in high school, she could have easily gotten a job as a data entry processer in the computer department of a large firm. But she loved the smell of dirt and new plants. She liked watching something grow from a seed and selling lovely plants to the customers.

  She had thought that maybe Aunt Dotty would leave the little ranch she owned to her and Janet when she passed. But she’d left a will saying that it was to be sold and all the proceeds given to her church. Apparently, raising the two girls was enough inheritance.

  Blake sang the same song that she and Colton had danced to on Saturday night and she thought about turning the tables. Who was he when she wasn’t looking? She’d had sex with him, danced with him, and even slept with him, but something said that she hadn’t tasted all his cookin’ yet, either.

  “Do you listen to your music loud or soft and do you think of me when you hear this song?” she asked when Blake asked similar questions in the lyrics.

  Nothing had prepared her for the upheaval that had shaken her world apart the past month. She thought back on that day when her last resort was to call Andy. She and Janet were across from each other in the booth. She’d figured Janet needed rent money or maybe fifty dollars to tide her over until payday, but she’d never thought of her needing ten thousand dollars.

  The news had been delivered and Janet had fled the scene. The only person she could think of was Andy. They’d been to the family reunion back in April and he’d told her over a couple of cold beers that he was still working for a rich cowboy who had been his best friend forever. He’d laid down the conditions for the loan and offered her a job to pay it back all in one breath. It was fate and even though it could be a bitch at times, it had saved her sister’s hide that day.

  It had brought Laura to the Circle 6 two days later.

  Was it going to be a fickle bitch and break her heart?

  ***

  Daisy curled up in Laura’s lap on the front porch after supper and a big white duck waddled up the steps to rest beside her chair. It had to be the duck she’d heard about. He seemed docile enough and acted like he owned the place—a whole lot like Daisy did.

  It was therapy to watch the sun go down, rub the cat’s yellow fur, and listen to purring while the duck put in his opinion with an occasional quack. She wished that was all it took to solve her trust and commitment issues, but like Aunt Dotty used to say, “If wishes and buts were candy and nuts, you’d all have a Merry Christmas.”

  “Whatever that means,” she told the animals.

  Daisy purred a little louder.

  Donald gave his biggest quack of the night.

  The front door swung open and Colton sat down in the rocker beside her. “I guess Daisy told Donald about you and he’s come to see if she’s right. I think he might like you.”

  “Why wouldn’t he like me? I don’t kick animals,” she said.

  “No, you just throw them out into the hay when they put a half-dead mouse on your bare leg.”

  She smiled. “Well, there is that. But I forgave her because I’m a sucker for cats.”

  “Think you’d hurt her feelings if you shoved her off your lap and came out to the gym with me? I need a spotter. Andy is knee-deep in figures and Rusty has gone into town for the wheelbarrows and stuff for the games. I need to work the tension out of my muscles tonight.”

  She set the cat to one side. “I could use a good run on the treadmill. Let me get my shoes.”

  “I’ll wait right here.”

  Twenty minutes later she was standing over him while he raised the weights up and down in ten unit reps before putting them back in the rack. On the tenth time she thought she’d have to help him but he managed without her. He sat up on the bench, wiped his face with a towel, and nodded toward the machinery.

  He picked up a bottle of water from the cooler in the corner and drank the whole thing. “I’m going to ride the bike a few miles while you run.”

  She stepped onto the treadmill, set it to a nice comfortable trot to warm up, and after five minutes hit it to speed up to five miles an hour. Five more minutes and she poked the buttons to do six miles an hour. That wasn’t as fast as she could run, but it got a good heavy heartbeat going.

  When she’d run thirty minutes at that rate she slowed the speed twice back to a jog and then turned it off. While he finished his bike run, she used the Gazelle, a ski-type machine that exercised the arms and upper body as well as her legs.

  They were both panting at the end of the session and with a wave of the hand he said, “Might as well do ten minutes in the sauna to burn the soreness out. Grab a bottle of water and I’ll meet you there.”

  “Want me to bring one for you?”

  “No, I just drank a whole one. My stomach won’t hold anymore now.”

  She set her water on a small table right inside the door and stripped out of her clothing, leaving it all lying on the floor. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body and stepped into the steamy room. Wide benches against the walls circled the room. The floor was tile and cool on her feet.

  “That doesn’t make a bit of sense,” she said.

  His voice came through a fog of steam as he entered the room. “What? The cold floor?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “I’m not sure how they did it but I didn’t want the tile to be hot on my bare feet so I told them to make it cool. It’s got something to do with a system up under the floor. They had to build it up in order to put it under there.”

  She sat down on a bench and he joined her. Moisture rolled off his body worse than when he was lifting weights. She tried to listen to what he was saying but he was so damned sexy sitting there all wet and silky looking. There was nothing but a towel between what she wanted to touch and her fingers. Temptation in a sauna with a sweaty cowboy—lord, she did not have a halo or wings. It wasn’t a bit fair.

  “I want to kiss you so bad I can taste it,” Colton said abruptly.

  “And?” she whispered.

  “I’m dripping sweat.”

  She padded over to the door and pushed the button to lock it. She threw one leg over his and eased down on his lap, being very careful that she didn’t slip off to either side.

  Cupping his face in her hands, she brought his mouth to hers. His hands reached out to touch her cheeks and his tongue teased her wet lips open.

  “I want you,” he said.

  “In here?” she asked.

  “On the cool floor with the steam all around us. I’ve wan
ted you ever since we got home from Dallas.”

  Her pulse raced. “Sounds kinky.”

  “I don’t do kinky, darlin’. Plain old mind-boggling sex like we had in Dallas is fine with me.”

  He slid onto the floor carefully, keeping her on his lap and leaned back against the bench. “Feels pretty good on a naked butt as well as on the feet.”

  She slipped off his lap and sat down on the cool floor. The sensation was unreal. Cold tile, hot steam.

  He tugged at her towel, rolled it up into a pillow, and gently laid her on the floor, placing the towel under her head. “You are addictive, Laura Baker.”

  He snuggled up next to her and traced her lips with his fingertip.

  “You look like a Greek god with dark hair and green eyes.” She brushed his hair back away from his sweaty forehead.

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Your hands anywhere on my body make me so damned hot it’s unbearable.” He moved down and kissed each breast.

  She ran the tip of her forefinger from his neck, down his shoulder, and to his palm. She picked up his hand and placed it firmly on her ribs. “Hold on right here while you make love to me, Colton, or you’ll slip off.”

  He rolled over on top of her, kissed her long, hard, and passionately, and sunk himself into her body. She hadn’t figured on just how big he was or how hard the tile was and in just a few thrusts she was panting. The release came in a burst and a moan.

  “Now for seconds,” he whispered seductively in her ear.

  “Oh. My!” She gasped.

  She feared he would slip off her body so she wrapped her legs tightly around him and when he said her name in a hoarse drawl, she tightened her hold.

  “Wow!” he mumbled after a while.

  “I know,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Time for phase two,” he said.

  “I don’t know if I’m up for phase two,” she told him.

  One second she was on the cool floor with him on top of her, the next she was in his arms and he was carrying her out of the sauna. “Oh, I think you are.”

  “Colton, I’m naked.” She fussed when he unlocked and opened the sauna door.

  “Yes, ma’am, you surely are at that.”

  “But?”

  “I locked the doors when we came into the gym. No one else can get in until I unlock them.”

  When they reached the edge of the pool, he tossed her into the deep water. When she surfaced he was right there in front of her, his eyes locked with hers and his lips coming closer and closer. She barely had time to shut her eyes before another searing string of kisses set her on fire again.

  “You ever had sex underwater?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Or in a sauna until tonight. I’ve never even been skinny-dippin’ until right now.”

  “You poor deprived baby. We’ll have to remedy that, won’t we?”

  Chapter 14

  Everything was perfect.

  Nothing was right.

  Colton wasn’t sure how both those statements could apply to his life but they did. He and a crew had worked all day on the fencing job on the far side of the ranch. Laura had spent the entire day in the backyard making it nice for the upcoming weekend. She had barely come inside for supper before going right back out.

  After the absolutely awesome sex the night before, he was sure she’d invite him up to her apartment for the night, but she hadn’t. And then at breakfast, lunch, and even supper she’d barely talked to him.

  Dusk settled, bringing a nice breeze which was a rarity for Texas in the summer. Donald waddled around in the yard quacking at Daisy, who teased him by swatting at his beak when he got close. Was Laura teasing him? No, not Laura. She was as straightforward and honest as any woman he’d ever known.

  “Hey, you want to go lift some weights?” Andy plopped down in a rocking chair on the porch beside Colton. “I haven’t exercised anything but my brain in four days and that kind of exercise does not burn off the calories of peach cobbler and ice cream.”

  “I lifted last night so I’m going to pass and let my muscles rest until tomorrow,” Colton said.

  “Every other day, huh?”

  Colton nodded.

  Daisy shimmied up the mimosa tree and back down it on the porch side, bounced over to the porch railing, and walked it like a tightrope until she could jump into Colton’s lap. She walked up his chest with her front paws until she could rest her head on his shoulder.

  Andy pushed up out of the rocking chair. “That crazy cat is spoiled almost as bad as the duck. I’ll go find Rusty to spot for me. You realize ever since Laura came to the ranch that nothing is the same. That cat don’t even hiss at me anymore.”

  Colton stroked the cat from head to tip of the tail. “Guess Laura is taming her for everyone. Who’d Roxie put you with for the games?”

  “Darcy Massey. I don’t even know the woman except to tip my hat to her at church. She’s Ina Dean’s cousin’s daughter. It takes teamwork to win and I don’t know if she can even dig up a fishin’ worm. You and Laura will probably win or else Cynthia and the preacher,” Andy said.

  Andy kicked at a piece of dirt like a little boy in his frustration.

  Donald spread his wings and floated up the steps to nest beside Colton’s rocking chair. “I could give her fifty dollars to put her with the preacher and give you Cynthia. She’s not printing out the final copy until tomorrow night. After that rules say it can’t be changed.”

  Andy shivered. “I’ll keep Ina’s niece, but thanks for the offer.”

  He headed out for the gym and Colton kept petting the cat. It didn’t solve his problems but Daisy purred in appreciation. The last glowing rays of the day were slipping away when Laura marched up on the porch and propped a hip on the rail. She pulled off her gloves and leaned forward to pet Daisy. Colton got a whiff of the remnants of vanilla-scented shampoo and fought the urge to twist the strands of her hair around his fingers.

  “You ready to see your sister?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am, but maybe you ought to know that we don’t agree on things very often. My therapist called it a love/hate relationship. I love her because she’s always been my leaning post but I can get pretty mad at her. She loves me but she uses me a lot to get her out of trouble. Don’t be thinkin’ we’ll get along the whole weekend.”

  Colton laid a hand on hers. “Would you be more comfortable if she stayed in the big house? Hell, you can stay here too for the weekend so y’all would be in the same place. That way you wouldn’t be cramped up together in that little apartment. There’s plenty of room. Just choose a room and put her in one of the other ones. I would have never built a house this big but it came with the ranch when I bought it.”

  “I thought Andy and Rusty had rooms up there,” she said.

  “Andy has a small apartment on the ground floor back behind the office. The original owner built in a mother-in-law apartment on the other side of the dining room and that’s Granny’s space. Rusty sleeps in the bunkhouse. We’re building another bunkhouse, which should be up and ready by fall. Andy is moving to it when we get it done,” he explained.

  She moved into the rocking chair and set it in motion before she pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. “Thank you. I think I’d like that a lot. I’ll just move a few things over the day that she arrives. Tell me more about these games everyone talks about. The idea of not knowing what is expected of me makes me pretty nervous.”

  Daisy had evidently had enough petting because she was barely a flash of yellow as she dashed across the porch, the yard, and disappeared with the duck quacking and chasing her around the house.

  “There they go. Do you ever wonder what they talk about?” Colton asked.

  “You were going to tell me about the games?” Laura reminded him.

  “Just fun stuff. You’ll find
out. It’s mostly about teamwork. To be totally honest, I don’t know what all will happen, because Granny changes them up from one year to the next. She’s always got a twist of some kind up her sleeve, though. Roxie got to do the pairing up, but Granny, Ina Dean, and Patsy are the ones who figure out how the games will go. You like to fish? I do know we’ll be fishing because she’s ordered fishing rods and reels.”

  She shrugged. “I haven’t been fishing since I was a little girl and lived in Arkansas. I thought it was exciting, but it didn’t take much to amuse me.”

  “Why won’t you sleep with me in my bedroom? We’ve had sex and you slept with me in the hotel and in the sauna,” he blurted out.

  ***

  The question took Laura by surprise. Not so much that he’d asked it but that he was so open about it. She opened her mouth to give him a curt answer then shut it tightly. He deserved honesty and that’s what he’d get.

  “You know part of my background, right?”

  “I know you would have been in foster homes if your Aunt Dotty hadn’t taken you and your sister to raise.”

  She shook her head emphatically. “She was good to us. We had plenty of food, a lot of discipline, and clothes on our back. She made sure we finished high school and took us to church every single Sunday morning. But sometimes I’ve wondered if she didn’t just want a couple of kids to help run the ranch. It didn’t hurt us to work and I loved the ranch, but there was no bonding like with Roxie and Maudie. When I left, the day after my eighteenth birthday, there were no tears. I’ve got a feeling that when Roxie goes to college there will be a lot of tears around here.”

  Colton reached across the distance, removed one of her hands from around her knees, and held it tightly.

  That gesture melted years of hardness from her heart.

  “Go on,” he said softly.

  “I’ve seen a therapist but it didn’t do a bit of good. I admit and realize that I have trust and commitment issues but it’ll take more than talking an hour a week to get past them,” she said.

  She paused and the silence hung between them like heavy fog.