Boots and the Heartbreaker: Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 11 Read online

  Colin slid across as well and stood at the same time she did, putting them a lot closer than Fancy anticipated.

  She took a hasty step backward and nearly fell.

  A big, callused hand reached out, grabbed her arm and yanked her against a solid wall of muscles.

  Her breath lodged in her lungs, refusing to move in or out, Fancy planted her hands on Colin’s chest, prepared to push him away.

  “Umm. You smell like spicy apple pie.” Colin leaned close and sniffed her neck. “A la mode.”

  “I like apple pie and ice cream. So?” Her words came out of her mouth in little more than a whisper. Unable to breathe with him so close, she couldn’t expect more.

  “I like apple pie and ice cream too.”

  Remembering what Dusty had said, Fancy concentrated on finding fault in Colin. She sniffed, hoping he smelled awful of sweat or horse manure. Instead, his cologne made her core tighten and her fingers curl into his shirt. Damn. This was going to be hard.

  “Uh. If we’re going to the fair, I need to go home and change into something casual.” A pencil skirt, suit jacket and high heels wouldn’t be at all practical walking through the grass.

  “I like what you’re wearing.”

  “Yeah, but when I’m rocking on the Ferris wheel, it’s nice to know the folks waiting on the ground aren’t getting an eye full of my underwear.”

  “Okay. I wouldn’t want to share that with them, anyway.”

  “It’s not like you’re going to see them. I told you. We’re not a thing. The only reason we’re going to the fair together is to interfere with your mother and my uncle’s budding romance.” She pointed at him. “Hands off.”

  He held up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you wish.”

  Fancy stared at him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t trust you.” Worse. She didn’t trust herself. Now that she’d thrown down the gauntlet for him to remain hands off, she couldn’t think past those hands on her body.

  Well, crap. The best way to combat her own urges was to deal with Colin the same way they planned on dealing with Maggie and Carl.

  Never let them be alone together.

  She repeated that mantra all the way to her house and almost had herself convinced. That is, until she stripped out of her skirt suit and stood in her bra and panties, looking at the clothes in her wardrobe. The cool breeze from the air conditioner feathered across her heated skin, reminding her that she was nearly naked.

  If she’d let Colin come to her house with her, he would be waiting out in the living room. All she would have to do was walk out there in her bra and panties and nature would take its course. Oy! Talk about stirring the juices.

  No amount of cool air could chill her rising desire at just the thought of standing naked in front of Colin. What she needed was to slake her thirst with BOB, her battery-operated boyfriend. One orgasm coming up!

  Slipping out of her bra and panties, she lay on the bed and opened the drawer to her nightstand. Fancy removed the smooth, shiny dildo from the cloth bag, applied a generous dollop of gel to it. Her pussy was already wet from thinking about Colin and their raw sex among the whiskey and beer the night before.

  Yeah, she could easily take the edge off before seeing Colin and have no issues with wanting to jump his bones and make mad, crazy monkey sex with him.

  She flipped the switch on BOB. He buzzed to life, vibrating in her palm.

  Oh, yes.

  As she touched BOB to her entrance, the vibrations slowed.

  Low batteries? Bad connection?

  Fancy shook BOB and he revved up for a second, then died all together.

  “Fuck!” Naked and horny, Fancy leaped from the bed and scoured the house for spare batteries. She hadn’t been back long enough to accumulate much in the way of spares. As she raced through the house, ducking past the open blinds, she realized it was a hopeless cause.

  Back in the bedroom, she stared at BOB. “You picked a fine time to die on me, dude. But I don’t have to have the vibration to make me happy. I can get there without it.”

  She lay down again on the bed, reapplied the gel and willed herself to relax and enjoy her self-stimulation.

  Closing her eyes, she touched the tip of the lifeless BOB to her pussy, now drier from her race around the house looking for batteries. Not to be deterred, she rubbed BOB in and around her entrance, spreading the gel to ease him into action.

  When she had enough lubricant to make the glide easier, she eased BOB into her channel and the comparison began…

  BOB was narrow, metallic and cold, unlike Colin’s thick, velvety smooth, warm cock. She could put BOB in her mouth, but it just wouldn’t be the same as sucking the come out of Colin’s dick.

  She couldn’t expect BOB to measure up to Colin. Why hadn’t she gotten a bigger dildo when she’d bought BOB? And those rubber glove things that slipped over the metal rod. They would have made the experience more realistic.

  In and out, she thrust BOB. With her eyes shut tightly, she imagined it was Colin, leaning over her, bending down to capture one of her nipples between his lips. With her free hand she plumped her breast and pinched the tip.

  Fancy was determined to do this. She’d pleasured herself before, eliciting a full orgasm more than one time. Now was no different.

  Except she’d made love to a live, well-hung, warm and sexy man the night before.

  After ten minutes of concentrated effort, she admitted defeat. No amount of thrusting, titty pinching and nubbin flicking was going to do it for her when she could have had a real man instead by giving in to her lust and allowing Colin to come home with her.

  Her doorbell rang, yanking her out of her frustrated state to sit upright in her bed. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Only twenty minutes had passed since she’d left Colin at the diner.

  Could it be? Had he disregarded her instructions to wait an hour before coming to pick her up?

  Her pussy clenched and she rolled off the bed. She ran to her dresser and unearthed a sheer, baby blue robe that only came down to mid-thigh and didn’t do much to hide her naked form beneath.

  Colin was just what she needed at that moment, and to hell with her self-inflicted promise to rid her system of the man. Her pussy practically ached for him.

  “Coming!” Fancy raced to the door and flung it open.

  A man wearing a local cable company uniform took one look at her and his jaw nearly dropped to his knees. “Uh…uh…” He gulped and tried again, his eyes getting wider as his gaze swept over her nearly naked body. “Am I catching you at a bad time?” he squeaked.

  Her face flamed and she covered the important parts with her arms and crossed her legs. “No, no. I need the cable installed, if you could wait just a minute.” She slammed the door in his face and leaned her back against it, her knees shaking.

  “Oh. My. God.” Never had she been more mortified. And that poor cable guy!

  Fancy pushed away from the door and ran for her bedroom, throwing on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, covering every bit of skin from her ankles to her neck. When she returned to the door, she pushed down her embarrassment, threw back her shoulders and opened the door, calm, cool and collected.

  The cable guy and his van had disappeared. In their place were a big black, four-wheel drive pickup truck and Colin McFarlan.

  “Why couldn’t you have been five lousy minutes earlier?” she wailed and waved him into the house.

  “I was going to wait in my truck, but the cable guy took off, squealing tires. I was afraid something might be wrong.”

  Wrong was an understatement.

  As she closed the door, Fancy’s frustration, embarrassment and nerves bubbled up her throat and erupted into sidesplitting belly laughs that had her doubled over clutching her tummy.

  Colin waited quietly until her laughter turned into giggles and f
aded away.

  His brows wrinkled. “Do you mind telling me what’s so funny?”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. I can’t.”

  “It’s about eighty-five degrees outside. Are you wearing that to the fair?”

  She glanced down at the sweatshirt, her lips twitching. “No. Give me a minute.” Dashing for her bedroom, she slammed the door behind her as a way to keep herself from asking him to join her.

  After nearly flashing the cable guy, her lusty passion had deflated considerably. But with Colin in the other room…

  Fancy quickly changed into dressy shorts, a cotton blouse she tied at the waist and strappy flat sandals. A quick brush through her hair and she was ready to leave.

  When she stepped out of the bedroom, her heart leaped to her throat.

  In her earlier rush to get to the door, she’d set BOB on the end table beside the couch.

  Colin had taken a position in a chair opposite the couch and now stared from her to BOB and back, his brows dipped. “Do I want to know what happened with you and the cable guy?”

  “No.” She grabbed BOB and hid it behind her back. “Why don’t you get a couple of beers out of the refrigerator while I…put this away?”

  His frown deepened. “Are you and the cable guy…?”

  Her brows shot up. “Oh, heavens no. I think I scared the poor guy to death.” She chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll come back.”

  “Good.” Colin’s scowl lightened and he reached into the refrigerator, extracting two bottles of Miller Lite. “I would have thought you’d have switched from beer to fancy wine, with your life in Dallas.”

  Fancy shook her head. “Nothing is as good as a cold beer on a hot Texas day. I used to love drinking beer with you and your brothers after we hauled hay.”

  Colin twisted the top off one bottle and handed it to her. “I remember. You drove the truck.”

  “I offered to throw hay bales, but you McFarlans wouldn’t hear of it.”

  “We were afraid you might break a nail.”

  She frowned. “I’m not all fluff, you know.”

  “And you could ride a horse like nobody’s business back then. Do you still ride?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t had the chance.”

  “We’ll have to remedy that.” He twisted the top off his beer and drank a long swallow. “Now, about the device you put away.”

  Her pulse quickened. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “I find the subject…interesting.” Colin tipped his beer and drank.

  “Sadly, it wasn’t, and then it was just embarrassing.” Her cheeks burned as she recalled the horrified expression on the cable guy’s face. “Could we please not talk about it? And since you’re here so early, maybe we can stop by the hardware store if it’s still open and buy some batteries?”

  In mid-swallow when Fancy dropped that last request on him, Colin spewed beer across the room and broke into a fit of coughing.

  Other than having to clean up the beer, Fancy was proud of her comment. Let him stew on that a while. Not that she wanted to be a tease, but he wouldn’t let the subject drop.

  She upended her beer, drank it down in several gulps and licked the drops from her lips. “Ready?”

  Colin’s gaze zeroed in on her lips. “More than you’ll know.”

  Fancy’s core heated and her pussy ached. Holy hell. The way he was looking at her like she was the main course and he was a starving animal…oy! If she didn’t leave soon, she’d be dragging him into her bedroom and kicking BOB to the curb. She grabbed her purse and one of his hands. “Come on. Let’s go to the fair.” At least at the fair they’d be surrounded by people. Nothing sexy could happen with so many people around them.

  Chapter Five

  Colin’s thoughts kept straying to that silver dildo standing proudly on Fancy’s end table. Walking from the parking area to the fairgrounds with his cock straining against his blue jeans made every step Colin took painful.

  He’d arrived early at Fancy’s house with the intention of seducing and making sweet love to her before they headed for the fairgrounds.

  If they made it to the fair at all.

  Her laughter had put the kibosh on his intention, taking the wind out of his sails. Until she’d run off to dress and he noticed the sex toy on her end table.

  What sweet hell was this? She used toys to get off? He’d been so fascinated by the idea he’d stared at the toy until she appeared in the doorway looking all flushed and pretty in her shorts. Those long, bare legs stretched from her feet practically to her chin, and they’d been wrapped around his waist the night before.

  Colin had wanted to march her back to her bedroom and take her then and there. He might even take the toy with them. The possibilities were positively titillating.

  But when Fancy came out of the bedroom, she shut the door firmly behind her, making it clear that room was off limits.

  She’d be a tough nut to crack, but crack her, he would.

  Challenge accepted, sweetheart.

  Mentally rolling up his sleeves, he concentrated on finding opportunities to get her alone, while stalking his mother and her date to keep them from being alone. It promised to be an interesting evening.

  “We should hang out at the entrance and wait for my uncle and your mother,” Fancy said.

  “Or we can get cotton candy and throw a few rings over the soda pop bottles.” Colin led her toward the carnival booths, scoping the larger rides and attractions for possibilities of alone time. The Ferris wheel and the Fun House were about the only places he could get Fancy alone. And if he slipped the carnie a fifty, he might stop the Ferris wheel at the top for long enough to…whatever she’d let him get away with.

  Colin stopped in front of the booth with the guns shooting water into a ring.

  A little boy gave the carnie a dollar and the man set him up on one of the guns.

  Colin recognized the four-year-old. “Dalton, is that you?”

  The boy smiled up at him. “Oh, hello, Uncle Colin.”

  Colin glanced around for the boy’s mother.

  Gwen stood nearby. “Hi, Colin. Angus didn’t tell me you were going to be here.”

  “I didn’t know I would either, until about an hour ago.” He pulled Fancy against his side. “Fancy, this is Gwen, Angus’s fiancée, and Dalton, here, is her son.”

  Fancy shook hands with Gwen. “Nice to meet you. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  The carnival worker cleared his throat. “Do you want to play, mister?”

  “Since Dalton is playing, we should join him.” Colin handed him money for all three of the adults.

  They stood at the guns and the carnival worker told them to start.

  Dalton, Gwen, Colin and Fancy pressed their triggers and water squirted out. Colin’s stream hit dead center of his ring and filled the balloon behind it. Dalton, Gwen and Fancy only managed a little water in their balloons. At the end of the allotted time, Colin won the shooting match and the carnie gave him a choice of prizes. He glanced at Fancy. “Is there something you would like, or we could pass on our good fortune to someone else?” He tilted his head toward the Dalton.

  The little boy sighed and stared up at the prizes he missed out on. His mother put her hand on his shoulder. “Come on, let’s find another game.”

  Fancy followed Colin’s lead. “I’ll pass.”

  Colin swung Dalton up on his arm. “You forgot your prize.”

  “But I didn’t win,” Dalton said. “You did.”

  “And I want you to have it.”

  Dalton hugged Colin’s neck. “Thank you, Uncle Colin.” He stared at the prizes for a long moment and then pointed to a gaudy tiara with shiny pink and purple fake stones. “I want that.”

  Colin’s brow puckered. “You sure you don’t w
ant the sling shot or the cowboy hat?”

  Dalton shook his head. “No. I want the crown.”

  The carnie handed him the crown, Colin set Dalton on the ground, and the boy ran over to his mother. “This is for you.”

  Gwen bent to take the tiara from him. “Oh, sweetie, this is the most beautiful crown I’ve ever seen.” She put it on her head and modeled it. “I love it.”

  Dalton hugged her and then pushed away.

  Angus arrived carrying two sticks of cotton candy.

  Dalton ran to Angus and hugged him around the knees. Then he pointed at Gwen’s head. “Mr. Angus, look what I got for Mommy.”

  Angus smiled at the crown. “I like it.”

  Colin’s heart twinged at the happy little family in front of him. He could picture him and Fancy with a little Fancy or Colin eager to ride the rides at the fair. It struck him then, this was what he’d been missing. Not only did he want Fancy in his bed where he could make love to her for the rest of his life, but he wanted the entire package—Fancy, kids, a home together, baseball and soccer practice, ballet recitals—the whole nine yards.

  For a moment he couldn’t breathe past the incredible longing squeezing his chest. He turned to Fancy and held out his hand. “Ready for some of that cotton candy?” And for you and me to start a family?

  He bit down hard on his tongue to keep from blurting out what he really wanted. The woman was dead set on keeping him at arm’s length. He had to take it slow or risk her thinking he was insincere, only wanting to get into her panties and tossing her like last weeks’ rotten tomatoes.

  Fancy drew in a deep breath and looked up at him with a wide smile and suspiciously shiny eyes. “I’d love some cotton candy.”

  She slipped her hand into his. No argument.

  Colin would count that as progress. If he played his cards right, he might convince her he wasn’t the hit-and-run wreck every female in the county claimed.

  Fancy swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. Seeing Gwen, Angus and Dalton together had been a blow to her already aching heart, and the reason she’d come back to Temptation to exorcise Colin’s memories so she could get on with her life.