by Myla Jackson
Two Can Play That Gameby Myla Jackson
Copyright © 2011, Myla Jackson. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Editor: Layla Chase
Cover artist: Myla Jackson
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
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Two Can Play That Game
Charli Sutton arrived for her shift early at the Ugly Stick Saloon, had the floors swept and mopped, the chairs arranged and the counters spic-and-span before her boss arrived.
When Audrey Anderson walked through the door lugging a box of whiskey, she whistled and her brows rose. "I believe a mystery elf has been at work here."
Charli eased down off the ladder she'd climbed to clean the old-fashioned mirror spanning the wall behind the bar. "I had energy to burn, I thought I'd get started early."
Audrey frowned, waving a hand at the bar’s interior. "You did all this? I'd say you had energy. Did you sleep here?"
"No, of course not." With a laugh, Charli relieved Audrey of her box and hurried toward the storeroom behind the bar. She barely slept all night.
Audrey followed her into the storeroom and leaned against the door. "Okay, spill. Who are you and where did you hide Charli?"
"I am Charli. The same Charli you've seen here every day for the past two years." Charli smiled and shifted from one foot to the other, wanting to divulge her secret but afraid her boss would think her crazy. She wasn't ready to share what had happened the night before. Not yet. When she'd woken this morning, she'd pinched herself, wondering if the previous night hadn't been one elaborate and very sexy dream.
The ache between her legs and the rawness of her pussy reminded her the escapade had not been her imagination. She really had been naughty with a stranger. Not only had she made love to someone she didn't know, she'd done it in the judge's swimming pool. And, if she was not mistaken, the judge had been watching.
A shiver of excitement rippled across her body and moisture pooled between her legs. All of her newfound excitement was due to a whispered dare from the man in the black cowboy hat. He'd been at the bar the night before, watching her...listening to her conversation with Audrey about being bored with life in Temptation, Texas.
She thought she could name all the regular customers in the bar. Was the cowboy who'd fucked her in the judge's pool been one of those men she saw on a regular basis? Had she underestimated someone?
Audrey crossed both arms over her chest. "I'm not letting you out of here until you tell me what's going on." Her eyes narrowed.
"Nothing's going on." Her gaze shifted high and left. She'd always been a terrible liar. "Come on, Audrey, we have work to do. The bar opens in—"
"Thirty minutes. You have everything done." Audrey's eyes narrowed even more until she was squinting at Charli. "Something’s different. You got laid, didn't you?" Her frown cleared and a smile lit her face.
Heat spread from Charli's chest up into her neck and face. Ah hell, not only was she a terrible liar, she'd never been good at hiding her feelings.
"You did. I knew it." Audrey grabbed Charli's hands and dragged her into the bar, pushing her onto a padded stool. "Tell all."
Charli laughed, the eruption of sound ending on a sigh. "There's not a whole lot to tell."
"Start from when you left the bar and don't leave out any of the details. I want them all." Audrey sat on a nearby barstool and propped her chin on a fist, her eyes wide, eager.
Shifting in her seat, Charli glanced away. The excitement of the night before rippled through all over again. "Well, when I left here, I got a phone call from a man daring me to skinny dip in Judge Stephen's pool."
"What?" Audrey sat up straight, palms flat against her knees. "You didn't take the dare, did you? They call Judge Stephens the hangin' judge for a reason."
Charli shrugged, her lips twisting into a wry grin. "Yeah, well...I did."
"Skinny dip?" Audrey let out a long low whistle and grinned. "Baby, I didn't know you had it in you. Go on."
"Anyway, the guy who dared me said he'd be watching."
"That's it? Just watching?” Her brows wrinkled. “I thought you got laid."
Charli's lips twitched. A shiver ran through her at the memory. "Oh, he didn't just watch."
"He joined you?"
"And how." With another sigh, Charli leaned her elbow on the counter and stared across the deserted dance floor, last night’s scene replaying across her mind. "It was magical...floating in the water, being touched...made love to...Sheer magic."
Audrey sighed as well, her eyes glazing. "Nice." She blinked and straightened. "Okay, who is the lucky fella?"
The images disappeared like a popped bubble. "That's the problem." Charli's arm dropped to the counter. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Audrey stood. "You had sex with a guy and you don't know who it is? What did he look like?"
Charli shrugged. "Tall, dark, built like a fortress."
"Hair, eyes? What color?"
"I don't know." She shook her head, her words lame even to her own ears.
"How could you not know?"
"He wore a black cowboy hat pushed down low over his eyes. I couldn't make out his facial features in the shadows."
"What about his hair?"
"Same. The hat hid hair and eyes."
"Holy crap, Charli. What were you thinking?"
Her stomach curled into a ball. What had she been thinking? "That there was moonlight, the night was fabulous and filled with stars." Charli jumped up from the stool and paced the length of the bar, turned and paced back. "I got excited and suddenly he was there. It felt right. Hell, this vagina hadn't had any action in nearly six months."
"He could be a pervert, a serial rapist or worse...married!" Audrey flung both hands in the air. "Haven't I taught you any better?"
"Hey.” Her body went rigid. “Weren't you the one telling me I should take a chance?"
"A chance on a guy you know, not a mass murderer."
"You don't know that he's a murderer." Charli stepped behind the counter, grabbed a rag and scrubbed the counter.
Audrey laid a hand over Charli's, halting her frenetic cleaning spree. "You don't know anything about this guy."
"He was here last night. He overheard our conversation." She looked into her boss's eyes. "Shit, Audrey, he has to be one of our customers."
"It was Friday freakin' night. We always have a lot of customers on Friday nights—married and single. You can't know everyone. It had to be someone sitting close to where you were." Audrey squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "Who was sitting at the counter last night?"
"God, it was so busy, I can't remember." Charli recalled the guy with the military haircut. "Kendall Mason's brother. He had a stool at the counter last night. He even made a comment about making any place fun, if you try."
"Connor Mason?"
"Yeah, Connor." Charli's heart skipped several beats. Connor was tall, built Army-tough and incredibly sexy in that I-eat-bullets-
for-breakfast way. Her eyes widened. "You think he might have been the guy who dared me to swim in the judge's pool?"
Audrey frowned. "He just got back from Afghanistan." She touched a finger to her chin. "Maybe. No telling. Hell, fourteen months in a war zone without sex..." Her hair bobbed as she nodded. "Was he wearing or carrying a black cowboy hat?"
Charli's shoulders drooped. "No."
"Don't rule him out. He could have had it in his car or truck." Audrey checked her watch. "Do you think whoever it was will show up tonight?" She looked up, connected with Charli’s gaze and nodded. "Duh, of course you do, or you wouldn't have been here an hour early. Speaking of early, we better unlock the doors. The after-work crowd will be arriving soon."
Charli let out a relieved breath, glad Audrey would focus on something other than Charli's love-life.
Halfway to the front entrance, Audrey spun and shook a finger at Charli. "Don't think you're getting off light. I'm watching you and I'll be looking for anyone in a black cowboy hat tonight. And no more dares!"
Charli held up her hands in surrender. "No worries, I've learned my lesson. Never make love to a stranger in a black cowboy hat." A chuckle rose up in her chest, a smile spreading across her face. "I'll get his name first."
Audrey rolled her eyes, turned and unlocked the entrance.
Several men spilled inside, laughing, calling out to each other, their boots scuffing across the floor.
Her gaze on every man passing through the door, Charli searched for a black cowboy hat. Plenty of straw hats and a few ragged baseball caps drifted by, clutched in hands or perched on a head, but no black cowboy hat. With Saturday nights every bit as busy as Fridays, Charli didn't get much of a chance to study all the men in the bar.
Between slinging bottles like a pro and satisfying drink orders for the very busy waitresses, she didn't have the opportunity to talk to the men filling the bar stools more than to give them the drinks they ordered. She knew two of the eight men personally, the other four were repeat customers she hadn't had the time to get to know. Connor Mason wasn't one of the men leaning on the bar, sipping beer and talking.
Audrey joined her briefly after ten when the band took a break and everyone rushed to the bar for a refill. "See him yet?"
"I told you, I don't know for sure who HE is."
"Connor Mason." She tossed a bottle of scotch in the air, expertly caught it and poured a jigger into the glass in front of her tipping it up with a flourishing wave of her hand. She set down the scotch bottle, grabbed the water nozzle and topped off the glass. "Did you see Connor?"
"No." Charlie jammed a pitcher beneath a beer tap and flipped the spigot. She grabbed two bottles of Guinness, tossed them in the air, caught them, popped their tops and slapped them on Libby's tray, completing the order with the full pitcher of beer. "He's not here as far as I can tell."
Audrey frowned. "Who else?" As she dragged a bottle of tequila over five shot glasses, she glanced fleetingly at the crowd. "Geez, what's the occasion? We're never quite this busy on a Saturday night."
"Rodeo weekend." Charli popped the cork on a wine bottle and tipped it into a long-stemmed glass.
"Think your cowboy is with the rodeo?"
Charli stared through the crowd, her gut clenching, praying her black-hatted cowboy was with the rodeo. Bronc riders never stuck around. "God, I hope not."
"Yeah, they leave all too soon." Audrey gave her a quick hug. "How about the guy at the end of the bar, he's staring at you like he wants you."
"That's Jackson Gray Wolf, Audrey. And he's staring at you. If he was staring at me, it would be because I still haven't gotten his beer to him." Although Charli wouldn't mind doing it with Jackson, he'd had his eye on Audrey since she took over the Ugly Stick Saloon. Only Audrey didn't have time for a love-life. "Why don't you go for him?"
"Who? Jackson?" Audrey hefted the tray she'd filled with ten drinks onto her shoulder and stepped out into the crush. "No time for love, sweetie. No time for love." Audrey disappeared into the crowd of cowboys and cowgirls, a sea of denim and belt buckles, and all there to have a good time.
Kendall Mason slapped her tray on the counter and plunked her butt in a seat vacated recently by a cowboy. "Remind me to wear tennis shoes next time I work."
Guilt causing her heart to thump against her ribcage, Charli grabbed empty glasses and mugs from the tray and dropped them into the soapy water of the sink behind the bar. "How's school?"
"I graduate in just under a month. Can't wait.” She whooshed out a long breath. “Then maybe I'll get a real job."
"And make a lot less money."
Kendall sighed. "Yeah, but at least I won't have to work nights and weekends. I've got a real, honest-to-goodness sex-life now. I want to live it."
"Point made." Charli couldn't help the nudge of envy. "How are things between you and Ed?"
"Best sex ever." She grinned. "What about you? Dating anyone?"
Charli's lips pressed together. "No." Not really. How could she say she was dating someone if she didn't know who it was or if it would ever happen again?
"You should." Kendall gave Charli her order and stood waiting, her gaze staring out across the ocean of faces. "Love is wonderful."
"I wouldn't know," Charli said, her voice flat, unemotional. "Say, didn't I see your brother last night? Is he back for good?"
"Connor?" Kendall's face brightened. "Oh, yeah. Isn't it great? He's back from the war early. It's so good to have him home safe and in one piece."
"Is he here tonight?" She fought to keep interest from her voice.
"Not that I know of. I left him playing cards with Ed. The two are buds from high school. They have a lot of catching up to do."
Charli's shoulders slumped. So much for a repeat performance of last night. If her man in the black hat was in fact Connor Mason.
With Connor out of the equation, Charli took more interest in the other men at the bar, staring at their builds, imagining them naked and partially submerged in water.
A couple of the guys seated at the counter could be broad shouldered and tall enough to be her mystery lover. A thrill of lust gripped her body, sending waves of sensation through her, reawakening her core.
One of the men lifted a hand to get her attention.
Her stomach knotting, Charli walked toward him, thinking the whole way, This could be him.
As she came abreast of the cowboy, she forced a smile to her face, praying her lips wouldn't tremble…unless of course they looked sexy trembling. "What can I get you?" she asked, her voice cracking, so unsexy-like.
"I'm good, it's just..." He crooked his finger.
Heart racing, Charli leaned closer. "Just what?"
"You have cherry juice on your..." He reached out, his finger nearly touching her breast when he pulled it back, his eyes widening. "Er...on your...there."
Her pussy creaming, Charli nearly fell over the counter into his dark brown eyes. "What?" she asked, completely oblivious to the shouts and noises surrounding her.
"You have a red juice streak on your...you know."
Charli's gaze dipped to where the man pointed. On the swell of her breast was a long pink, sticky trail of cherry juice. Heat rushed to fill her cheeks. "Oh. Well." She dabbed at it with a cocktail napkin but the sticky juice didn't wipe clean.
"Here, let me." He dipped a napkin in a full glass of water and leaned over the counter, his darkly tanned face within inches of hers, his full, sensuous lips curled in a hint of a smile.
Rooted to the spot, Charli couldn't move, her breath catching in her throat, butterflies flapping against the inside of her belly. A waft of leather and soap drifted her way, further scrambling her brain cells.
The cowboy pressed the icy-cold, wet napkin to the swell of her heated breast.
Her knees threatened to buckle, her vision blurred and she thought she might pass out.
"Breathe," he whispered into her ear. "I won't bite you...unless you want me to."
Charli's eyes w
idened and she remembered to fill her lungs. More warmth flooded her cheeks and she fought to keep from leaning into him to steal a much-desired kiss. "I'm not afraid of you. It's just that the water is cold."
As he rubbed the napkin across her breast, her nipples beaded, making distinct points jutting through the thin lace of her bra to make twin bumps on the front of her ribbed knit white tank-top.
The cowboy's gaze dropped lower, the grin widening. "How long is your shift?"
"I close the bar." A hint of disappointment filled her. Her mystery lover knew she closed the bar. He'd waited until she had finished her shift and called her when she'd been on her way home. He must have been watching for when she left the Ugly Stick Saloon.
Too bad. This guy was cute. By the size of the ridge pushing against his fly, he was well equipped, like the man who'd come to her in the judge's pool.
"I can hang around." He sat back on his stool and lifted his beer mug. "I don't know many people in this area."
"Oh, yeah?" That made two of them. "Just visiting?"
He nodded. "Staying with a buddy of mine from the Army."
Her pulse picking up, she leaned across the counter. "Connor Mason?"
"Yeah, you know him?"
"Met him last night." She glanced over the stranger's shoulder, her gaze scanning the bar’s patrons. "Is he here?"
"Said he'd be here after he ran an errand."
Libby and Audrey swung by with empty mugs and orders to fill. Charli took care of their requirements and saw to her other customers at the bar before returning to Connor's pal. "Got a name?"
"Guess it would only be polite to exchange names, considering I've already touched your breast." He laughed. "Name's Reed Townsend."
Her skin tingling where he'd touched it, Charli held out her hand. He engulfed it in a large grip, equally strong and gentle. "Charli Sutton. Nice to meet you."
"Charli, I need two shooters and another pitcher of beer." Libby plunked her tray on the counter and off-loaded the empties.
Twenty drink orders later, Charli swiped the back of her hand over her forehead and turned to the bar stool where Reed had been sitting, a smile on her face.
