Dancing Queens & Biker Kings
Sweet & Rugged in Montana
Maggie Dallen
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Cinderella Blackmail
Chapter One
He looked like trouble.
Claire eyed the biker who sat in one of the bar’s booths with his back to her. She hadn’t seen him come in and she didn’t recognize him by the too-long dark brown hair, but the leather jacket gave him away.
A bad boy.
Every town had them, even Lulu. And, according to Claire’s mom, she was destined to fall for one. She slammed the cash register shut with enough force to make the whole machine shudder.
Yeah, that was so not part of the plan.
But then, moving back to her tiny hometown in Montana hadn’t been part of the plan, either.
Her family’s bar wasn’t crowded at four in the afternoon, but it would pick up soon. The regular crowd would be here as soon as work let out and since it was a Friday, the crowd would no doubt fill the bar to max capacity by the time nine rolled around.
By which time she’d be nice and cozy in bed. She sighed quietly just thinking about it as she moved out from behind the bar and crossed over to the booth. Trouble wasn’t alone. A woman sat across from him.
Now she looked familiar. She didn’t recognize the pretty blonde who sat in the booth facing her as she approached. Lulu was a small town and unless this woman moved here yesterday, Claire would have seen her on Main Street or heard about her from one of the gossips. But she still looked familiar. With her perfect highlights and her manicured nails, she screamed ski bunny.
Lulu sat in a valley between the closest regional airport and the ski towns that hosted world-renowned, exclusive gated ski communities. It wasn’t uncommon to see tourists rolling through town.
Her gaze shifted back to the dark-haired man whose back was to her. It wasn’t even all that unusual for a biker to make his way through. But typically the two kept their distance.
Ski bunnies didn’t typically keep company with the bad boys, not unless they were looking to slum it.
As she drew closer she saw the way the perfectly groomed woman was leaning over, allowing her buttoned-down shirt to gape as she batted her eyelashes at the man sitting across from her. Well, that explained it. Clearly this woman was looking to have a good time with one of the locals.
Except this guy couldn’t be a local. She didn’t recognize him. And yes, Lulu was that small that she would recognize a local by the back of his head.
She bit back another sigh. Man, she missed the big city.
Pasting a friendly smile on her face, she stopped beside the booth and pulled a notepad and pen from her apron pocket. It was just for show, really. Customers seemed to feel better if they thought she was writing down their every request word for word, and staring at the pad gave her an excuse to avoid eye contact at times like this when she would rather have been anywhere else.
The pen she’d pulled out had run out of ink an hour ago, but it didn’t matter. She could remember orders for a fully packed restaurant without even trying, a gift she’d picked up from too many years spent waiting tables and tending bar.
She’d grown up waitressing at this dive and she’d waited tables in Manhattan while studying ballet at the academy. The last ten years when she’d been a professional ballerina were already starting to feel like a dream. Like maybe she’d never left Lulu in the first place.
“What can I get for you?” she asked, her voice polite but bored. One more hour and then the night shift would arrive and she could get out of this place.
“I’ll have a gin and tonic,” the blonde with the perfect highlights said, her voice just as breathy as Claire would have imagined.
“Anything to eat?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, just drinks.”
Of course. One didn’t get that perfect Barbie figure by snacking between meals.
She didn’t lift her gaze as she pretended to jot it down. Gin and tonic, she pretended to write.
“And for you?” she asked the other patron.
His silence lasted so long she finally lifted her gaze from the pad.
And then she froze.
Those eyes. Clear, crystal blue and rimmed by the most ridiculously long black lashes. Lashes she’d envied her entire life.
“Claire.” He looked just as incredulous as she felt. Even with that shaggy dark hair hanging in his face, she could see his eyes widen, his eyebrows shoot up.
“Hi Cole.” Even to her own ears, she sounded less than thrilled to see him. It wasn’t like she had anything against this guy—they’d grown up together, were in the same grade at the same small school. Everyone knew Cole Deckland and his family, ranchers who owned a huge expanse of land on the outskirts of town.
How long had he been staring at her like that? From the moment she’d stopped next to their table, no doubt. He was clearly in shock, and it wasn’t hard to figure out why.
He gave his head a little shake, and flashed her a small grin she remembered well. “I didn’t know you’d come back to Lulu.”
This. This right here was why she’d been unable to summon up even a polite level of friendliness at seeing her old classmate. She’d known this question would be coming. Oh, he might not have spoken it aloud, but the question was there. What are you doing back in Lulu? It was a common theme around here. She’d had to answer it a million times when she’d first moved back six months ago. She’d thought she was done having to explain herself but now here was one more figment from her past come to taunt her with her failure.
She was about to launch into her tried and true response—a beautiful blend of self-deprecating humor with a dose of truth. I just couldn’t stay away. It was the pat answer she gave when she didn’t have the time or the emotional wherewithal to give a real response. But even her real response wasn’t the whole truth. An injury, she told people. She’d come home to heal.
That was true enough, but every time she left out one little detail. The injury to her ankle might heal, but she’d never recover well enough to continue on as a professional ballerina.
But the ski bunny saved her from having to give any response at all. Not bothering to glance in Claire’s direction, she leaned across the table even further, placing a well-manicured hand on Cole’s leather jacket. “Aren’t you going to order, sugar?”
Ugh. Sugar. The woman had a hint of a southern accent and was wearing enough perfume to temporarily block out the smell of stale beer that permeated the walls of this sordid establishment. Even in the dim lighting Claire could see that her makeup was flawless.
For a moment, her jealousy was so intense it nearly knocked her over. Not because of the perfect hair or the perfect nails—something she’d never experience again as long as she was working at The Flaming Hog.
No, the acrid taste in her mouth had more to do with the woman’s overall attitude. She had the entitled air of a woman who was used to having her way.
An unexpected wave of emotions had Claire struggling to breathe
normally. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. She’d only ever wanted one thing in her life and had worked her butt off to get it. And life had taken it from her.
Meanwhile this woman looked like she’d never worked a day in her life and she’d probably never heard the word no. She probably got everything she ever wanted.
She watched as the woman’s fingers clutched greedily at Cole’s leather jacket. Despite her raging jealousy and momentary wallow in self-pity, she felt a genuine smile tugging at her lips.
This woman got everything she wanted and right now, this woman clearly wanted Cole.
Join the club.
Before Claire had left Lulu behind for good when she was seventeen, she’d listened to her girl friends gossip for hours on end about Cole Deckland. He’d been the heartthrob of Lulu High and it seemed that even after a decade, some things hadn’t changed.
She shouldn’t have been surprised. Sometimes it seemed like nothing at all had changed around here.
Claire turned her attention from the ski bunny to her “sugar,” who was still staring up at her as though he’d seen a ghost. His gaze was fixed on her and those deep brown eyes were just as intense as she remembered.
She shifted uncomfortably under his watchful stare. He’d always had this effect on her, making her feel awkward and clumsy in her own skin. Which was ridiculous back then, when she’d been a ballerina in training, and even more ridiculous now. She might not be a dancer anymore, but now she was an adult. One who’d experienced the world and men, and one who should not be made to feel like a gawky teenager just because a cute boy was staring at her.
Still, try telling that to the butterflies in her belly.
She was dimly aware of the ski bunny sighing with obvious irritation at being excluded from this oddly silent exchange.
That was another thing she remembered about Cole. He’d never minded silence. Where most people would rush to fill the air with some sort of mindless chatter, he’d been content to sit back and watch the people around him squirm.
Irritation blew past jealousy and self-pity. Why was he staring at her like that? So she was a failure. So she’d made it out of Lulu only to come back twelve years later with her tail between her legs. So all of her best laid plans had fallen to pieces.
That was no excuse to gawk at her like she was an animal at the zoo, and he certainly had no right to make her feel all frazzled and uncertain like she was still some kid.
She lifted the pad and raised her brows meaningfully. “Your drink order?”
He blinked at her and his gaze sharpened as if she’d startled him out of some daydream. He shook his head again and looked up with that ridiculously sexy grin that she was starting to hate. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m just surprised to see you, is all. What are you doing back in Lulu?”
She pinched her lips together to bit back a snippy retort. Hadn’t he heard? Hadn’t everyone heard? She’d heard her name whispered so often those first few months she’d returned, it was almost comical.
How had Cole missed the memo? His brother Dax was one of the first people she’d seen when she’d returned. And she ran into his sister, Alice, all the time in town.
He was waiting for an answer, but what could she say? The truth? She cast a quick glance at Miss Perfect Highlights and dismissed the idea. There was no way she was airing her dirty laundry in front of this woman.
So she ignored the question. “I’ve been back for a while now,” she said, toying with the pad. “You must have been out of the loop with the gossip back at the ranch.”
He winced. It was small but she caught it. What was that about? Was it possible that she’d struck a nerve with the cool, unflappable bad boy?
He reached up and scratched the back of his neck in an aw-shucks gesture she remembered well. “I haven’t been home in a while,” he said. “I’m actually on my way back to the ranch right now.”
In a while. She thought about that phrase. How long? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. If she was going to get all prickly and self-righteous at some old acquaintance asking personal questions, she couldn’t exactly turn around and do the same. But she was curious. Because it just occurred to her that this was the first time she’d seen him as well. Living over the bar which was smack in the middle of Main Street, she was sure she’d run into everyone by now. But she hadn’t seen Cole, which meant “a while” was at least six months.
Huh. Her interest was officially piqued. The Decklands were the kind of family she’d been obsessed with keeping tabs on when she was younger. They’d seemed to have everything she did not. They’d had the ridiculously kind, involved parents, the acres and acres of gorgeous land with all the animals that went with it, and the kids had each other. As an only child in a one-parent household, the Decklands had seemed to have it all.
Of course, that perfect picture was ruined when their parents died five years ago. Claire had been dancing with the New York City Ballet at the time but she’d heard about it from her mother. She’d wanted to come home for the funeral, but hadn’t been able to take time off from the ballet.
“I was sorry to hear about your parents,” she said.
He looked up in surprise at her softly spoken words. She caught the flicker of pain in his eyes before he gave her a small smile. “Thank you.”
There was another silence and this time it was broken by the blonde who Claire had managed to forget about for a moment there.
“Cole,” she whined. “Are you going to order, or what?”
His eyes never left hers and his grin turned rueful. “Sorry, I’m holding you up, aren’t I?”
Before she could say no and point out that they were currently one of three tables, he continued. “I’ll just have a beer. Whatever’s on tap is fine.”
She gave a nod and turned back to head to the bar. She hadn’t gone far when she heard the blonde say, “The service is so slow here. We should have gone to my place.”
Claire rolled her eyes so hard it hurt.
Chapter Two
Cole knew Claire had heard Aubrey’s rude comment by the way her spine stiffened as she walked away.
Man alive, that walk. She still had it, that same grace and elegance that had always set her apart from every other girl in Lulu. Even as a kid, there’d been something otherworldly about her. Like she’d been daydreaming about a life he could never even imagine while he and the rest of their class were off making dirt pies on the elementary school’s playground.
“Let’s get out of here,” Aubrey said. Or at least, he thought her name was Aubrey. Maybe it was Audrey. Or Annette? Heck, he hadn’t set out to meet a woman today. It was sheer cowardice that had made him park his bike out front of The Flaming Hog. The ranch was only another ten minutes away, an easy ride. But he’d been too chicken to head there without at least one beer in his system.
This blonde had sidled up to his booth the moment he’d sat down and started talking his ear off about how she was on the outs with her husband. He’d let her talk. He hadn’t wanted to be rude and… ah, who was he kidding? He’d taken one look at the Barbie wannabe and had seen one thing. A distraction. He didn’t feel guilty, he knew that when she was looking at him she saw something similar. Maybe a distraction. More likely vengeance of some sort. He hadn’t been back home in nearly a year but he remembered the type of people who would float through during tourist season, and this woman screamed trophy wife. He’d bet his bike that she and her hubby had gotten into a tiff while on their ski getaway and she was here to make someone jealous.
Any other day he might have been keen to help her with her vendetta. But today he had bigger things to deal with. Namely, seeing his family again after nearly a year on the run. He could call it whatever he liked but neither he nor his siblings could be fooled into thinking his last trip had been anything other than running away.
But he was back.
He couldn’t imagine how bad things had gotten at home if his younger brother had actually reached out to him. Their famil
y home must have burnt to the ground for Dax to send an SOS to him, the good-for-nothing brother. He might be the oldest, but they’d all known who the responsible one was long ago.
Taking some money out of his pocket he slapped it on the table. Aubrey, or whatever her name was, stared at him in shock. “Are you leaving?”
He assumed that was a rhetorical question since he was halfway out of his seat. “Yeah. Sorry to run, but I really need to get home.”
He couldn’t wait forever and he couldn’t tell her the other part… that he’d rather shove a fork in his eye than have Claire come back to their table and think that there was something going on between him and this shallow, entitled brat.
He couldn’t say why Claire’s good opinion meant something to him when he’d practically given the finger to his family and the rest of the town years ago, but there it was. Seeing her had jarred him out of his self-pitying cowardice and reminded him what he’d come back here for.
He had a family to see and reparations to make. He wasn’t sure he could ever truly make things right with Dax and Alice, but it was about time he started.
With one last wink and a feeble explanation about how he was running late, he slipped out of The Flaming Hog just as a crowd of noisy tourists poured in. Luckily Claire was so busy taking care of them, she didn’t see him leave.
Which was for the best. He’d been struck stupid at the sight of her and she clearly hadn’t been happy with his line of questioning. Not that he could blame her. He knew better than anyone how awkward it could be returning home to their small town.
He’d made something of a habit out of running away and then coming home with his tail between his legs. But not this time. This time he’d be here for the long haul. His family clearly needed him and this time he’d step up to the plate.
* * *
A few hours later he stared at Dax over the dirty dinner dishes on the dining room table. The dining room looked exactly how he’d left it nine months earlier—the same giant oak table nestled into the small room adjoining the large kitchen. He shouldn’t have been surprised, he and his siblings hadn’t done much to change the place since their parents had passed away five years ago, almost as if by changing the décor they’d be ruining their parents’ memory.
Dancing Queens & Biker Kings: Sweet & Rugged in Montana Page 1
