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

  Angus and his fiancée had what Fancy wanted—the perfect little family, love and a future together. They looked so stinking happy, like they belonged.

  Her eyes blurring, Fancy let Colin lead her away from Angus and his family. They stopped in front of the stand where a woman spun sugar into cotton candy.

  “Blue or pink?” Colin asked.

  “Blue.” It matched her mood.

  “I’d have taken you for a pink kinda girl.”

  “It’s sugar and food coloring. What does it matter?”

  When he handed her the thin paper cone capped with a cloud of blue cotton candy, Fancy took it and tore off a sticky swath and shoved it into her mouth. The sugar dissolved on her tongue, sweet and gritty, reminding her of going to the fair with her parents when she was young. As an only child, her parents had showered her with everything, including cotton candy. They’d been a tight-knit family unit.

  Colin opted for pink cotton candy, bringing a smile to Fancy’s face.

  “I would have taken you for a blue cotton candy guy.”

  “To me, cotton candy isn’t right unless it’s pink.” He tore off a wad of the feathery concoction and stuffed it into his mouth, some of the pink dissolving on his lips.

  Fancy swallow hard, fighting the urge to lick the candy off him. Instead, she focused on her blue cloud of sugar. Anything but Colin and his kissable face. “Doesn’t pink damage your male ego?”

  “Not at all.” He glanced up. “There they are.”

  Fancy turned toward the fairgrounds entrance gate.

  Uncle Carl entered with Maggie McFarlan on his arm. He was laughing at something she said. Every time Fancy saw them together, they appeared happy and always smiling at each other. It seemed a shame to break up a happy couple.

  But Fancy didn’t want to deal with the alternative. Staring across the room at Colin and his latest conquest would be difficult. Perhaps by that time, Fancy would be glad she hadn’t fallen for him—glad she’d held out for a man who would love her forever, not just for a night or two.

  Somehow the vision in her head didn’t include a man for her. Only another woman for Colin.

  “Ready?” Colin held out his arm.

  Fancy opted to ignore his invitation and fell in step beside him without touching. She’d be better off weaning herself from Colin now.

  “Colin, Fancy, we didn’t expect to see you two here.” Mrs. M smiled, though her smile appeared strained.

  After the craziness of the previous night, Fancy didn’t look forward to ruining their evening, but she’d promised to help Colin. And she had a stake in this as well. “Uncle Carl, Mrs. M. Just the folks we were hoping to run into.”

  Uncle Carl’s brows pulled together. “You were?”

  “Yes. We’d like to apologize for last night, wouldn’t we?” Fancy elbowed Colin in the gut.

  “Uh, yes.” Colin rubbed his belly. “We would. I must have had too much to drink.”

  “A good thing Angus drove last night.” Mrs. M nodded. “At least he had his head on his shoulders.”

  “Right. Colin was in no shape to drive,” Fancy added. “We’d like to spend time with you both this evening to show you Colin can behave when he wants to.”

  “Oh, that’s not necessary,” Mrs. M assured them.

  “But we insist.” Colin cupped his mother’s elbow and led her away from Uncle Carl.

  Fancy hooked her arm through her uncle’s and smiled up at him. “It will give us time to catch up. I haven’t seen much of you over the past couple of weeks. How are the renovations coming along?”

  Her uncle stared down at her. “Fine. But then you know that. You’ve been working with the contractor as much as I have.”

  “True. But I haven’t been out there in a couple days and you probably have.”

  Colin and Mrs. M were a couple yards ahead of them when Uncle Carl leaned close to Fancy. “What are you two doing?”

  She glanced up at her uncle, her brows rising. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is it a crime to want to spend time with my uncle? My only living relative?”

  “Yes, when you’re obviously trying to keep me from Maggie.” Carl stopped and faced Fancy, his posture stiff, a frown settling on his forehead. “Colin, I understand. He and his brothers don’t know me and certainly don’t trust anyone with their sweet mama.” He shook his head. “But you… Why?”

  Rather than answer his question, she asked, “Why are you dating Maggie?”

  Her uncle relaxed and a smile drifted across his face. “You might not think older people can fall in and out of love, but I’ve been in love with Maggie since before she married John McFarlan. As teens, the three of us were inseparable. Until John asked her to marry him the day we all graduated from high school.”

  “He beat you to her?” She started walking again and her uncle fell in step beside her.

  “He did. And she said yes.” Her uncle scrubbed a hand down his face. “I chose to step out of the picture. John was a good man—a better man than I was, and she was happy with him. They had three fine sons and a good life together.”

  “John died more than eight years ago. Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

  “You don’t know how much I wanted to, but her sons were there for her and I didn’t want her to think I was insincere, poaching on a dead man’s widow.”

  “You never married,” Fancy said, her heart tightening. “Because you were always in love with another man’s wife?”

  Uncle Carl patted her hand. “For me, I’m a one-woman man.”

  “Then why did they call you the Heartbreaker?”

  He snorted. “I didn’t say I was celibate. I just never let another woman close enough. Whenever a woman wanted more, I let her go. My heart always belonged to Maggie.”

  “Are you two coming?” Colin called out from ahead.

  He and Mrs. M stood in front of the Fun House, tickets in hand.

  “If you’ll excuse me, my date is waiting.” He disengaged his arm from Fancy’s, grabbed Maggie’s hand and hurried toward the entrance to the Fun House.

  Colin held up two tickets. “What was keeping you two?”

  “We were talking.” Fancy took the tickets from Colin’s hand and handed them to the carnival worker. “Come on. We need to keep up with them.” She didn’t want to go into the details of what her uncle told her. The way it stood, her heart wasn’t into coming between her uncle and his only love. Knowing what she did made it seem mean and spiteful to keep the two apart.

  Colin handed her into the big Fun House trailer and turned to say a few words to the carnival worker before he entered. They stepped into a glass and mirrored maze, stretching the length of the trailer.

  The giggles of others who’d gone ahead echoed back to them.

  Fancy walked to what she thought was the opening only to find it was a trick of the mirrors and was a dead end. “How do we get through?”

  Colin grinned. “This way.” He led her through an opening to the next passage where their reflections were distorted. One mirror made Fancy’s head appear to be as big as a medicine ball, the next made her look short and fat. The next mirror made her look like a giant Q-tip, her middle pencil thin, her head and feet huge.

  She glanced at Colin in front of the short and fat mirror and she burst out laughing.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her against his side. “Now we both look the same.”

  “This is what eating too much cotton candy will do to us.” She laughed again. Seeing Colin short tickled her funny bone.

  Colin turned to her and cupped her face with one of his hands, smoothing his thumb across her cheek. “You should laugh more.”

  She stared up at him in the dim lighting, her gaze captured by the intensity of his dark eyes. More than anything, she wanted to kiss him. But she’d followed her misguid
ed instincts more than once with Colin and it led to heartache. “We should catch up with the others.”

  “We will,” he said, stepping closer, his other hand curving around her waist to press against her back. “In a moment.”

  Being alone with Colin was a very bad thing. It made her forget what she was trying so hard to do.

  He tipped her head up and bent down until his mouth was a mere inch from hers.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice a whisper in the suddenly silent trailer.

  “I would think you’d know by now.”

  “I don’t want to kiss you,” she lied.

  “Then don’t.” His breath was warm and minty against her lips a tempting promise of a kiss.

  Fancy wanted it, but refused to rise up and take it. “You’re the devil.”

  “I’ve been called that before,” he said, still refusing to go the extra inch to claim her mouth, daring her.

  All she had to do was rise up on her toes. One lousy inch. Her feet flexed and she rose.

  “Damn you,” she said as her lips connected with his. Electricity shot through her body, zinging from nerve to nerve, coiling at her core in a flash of heat so intense it made her breath catch and hold.

  Her fingers climbed up his chest and linked behind his head, drawing him closer, deepening the kiss.

  He held back, letting her sweep past his lips to engage his tongue in a sensuous dance.

  When she slid her leg along the back of his, his hands found her hips and pulled her close, the ridge of his cock encased in thick blue jeans nudged her belly, making her wish she’d invited him into her bedroom. The Fun House was no place to be when the desire to make love swept over her in an overwhelmingly hot surge that threatened to destroy all her plans to rid her body and mind of the one man who had never left her thoughts in the past eight years.

  Sanity reared its persistent head and created a crevice in her wicked desire. It was small but grew. Finally, Fancy pushed away from Colin, stepping back.

  His arms fell to his sides, his chest rising and falling like a runner at the end of a race.

  “We should go before…” Fancy wiped the back of her hand over her kiss-swollen lips.

  Colin reached out. “Before we make love again?”

  She shook her head and took another step backward, bumping against one of the mirrors. “Before we do something we’ll regret.”

  “Trust me. I won’t regret it.”

  “You might not, but I will.” She closed her eyes and drew in a deep, cleansing breath and let it out. “I’m here for my uncle and your mother, not to start something that will only end in a mess.”

  “Who said it has to end in a mess?” Colin took another step toward her.

  “I’m not young and naive anymore. I’m not going to fall into your arms and lose my head again.” Fancy glanced around, desperately seeking the way out. “How do we get the hell out of here?” She hurried toward what she thought was the exit and bumped her nose into a mirror. Turning, she tried the next wall, her hands leading the way to spare her face another collision.

  “Darlin’, as much as I like watching your freak out over the maze, if you’ll follow me, I’ll get you out.”

  Disgruntled that she couldn’t get herself out, she followed Colin, staying far enough behind that she didn’t have to touch him, but close enough she didn’t lose him. After what seemed a very long time, but could only have been five minutes or less, they emerged from the Fun House and descended the steps to the ground.

  Fancy glanced around, desperate to find Maggie and Uncle Carl. Her plan wouldn’t work if she allowed herself to be alone with Colin. Her resistance was crumbling and she was quickly losing the will to fight. She had to get away, restore her senses and get her shit together.

  “Colin! Oh my God! Is that you?”

  Fancy skidded to a halt and turned to see a gorgeous redhead drape her arms around Colin’s neck and planted her lips on his in a loud, wet kiss.

  His lips had moments before been on hers and, from where Fancy was standing, Colin didn’t appear to mind.

  Anger replaced helpless desperation. Fine. Let the poor deluded soul have him. What the women said about Colin McFarlan was true. He was a player, a hit-and-run heartbreaker. God, Fancy was glad his true colors came through before she’d fallen completely under his stupid spell.

  She spun, tears welling in her eyes, and ran.

  Chapter Six

  Colin unwrapped the woman’s arms from around his neck and pushed her to arms’ length, looking past her to Fancy’s face, blanched of color. “Kylie, I’m busy. Do you mind?”

  Kylie pouted and slipped her arms around his middle. “Oh, come on. Surely you can spare a minute or two to catch up with an old friend.”

  Fancy spun and ran the other direction.

  “No, Kylie. I can’t spare a second.” He tried to step around Kylie.

  Kylie was faster, moving to block his path with her body. “Not even for old time’s sake?” She ran her fingers down the front of his shirt. “We were so good in bed. Can’t we pick up where we left off?”

  Not really. The woman was too noisy and raked him with her claws. And not in a good way. He didn’t want to do it, but some women required the blunt truth.

  “Kylie, I have no intention of picking up where we left off. I’m not interested. I love someone else.” He gripped her arms, moved her to the side and ran after Fancy.

  “You could have been a little more sensitive, Colin,” Kylie yelled after him. “Damn cowboys.”

  Colin didn’t look back, his gaze panning the crowd, searching for Fancy. She couldn’t be that far ahead. He spotted her next to a merry-go-round, talking to her uncle and Colin’s mother.

  “Oh, there’s Colin now. He’s not lost at all.” His mother smiled and waved toward him. “Colin, honey, Fancy’s ready to leave. Carl would have taken her, if we couldn’t find you, but now that you’re here…”

  Colin captured Fancy’s elbow in his hand. “Thank you, Mom. I’ll handle this.”

  “Good.” His mother turned to Carl. “Let’s go.”

  As soon as the older couple stepped away, Fancy jerked her arm out of Colin’s grip. “You don’t have to leave on my account. I’ll find alternate transportation.”

  “If you want to go home, I’ll take you. Just give me a minute to explain.”

  She snorted. “Explain what? You’re entitled to whatever or whoever you want to do. I’m not your keeper.”

  Gripping her arm again, he led her toward the Ferris wheel and handed over two tickets. “Get in the seat.”

  She stood with her feet braced and her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m not going on the Ferris wheel with you.”

  “I would like the opportunity to talk. Uninterrupted.”

  Fancy shook her head. “No.”

  “We’ll just talk.”

  “No.”

  He lifted her hand and threaded his fingers with hers. “Please.”

  Fancy rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’m going to regret this,” she muttered. “Fine. I’ll ride the damned Ferris wheel with you, but it won’t change my mind.”

  Colin handed Fancy into the seat and turned to the operator, slipping him a fifty dollar bill. Beneath his breath he said, “I like the view from the top, if you get my drift.”

  The man winked and waited until Colin settled in the seat beside Fancy. Then he flipped a lever and set the Ferris wheel in motion and it rose to the top, around and back to the bottom, settling into a slow rhythm of revolutions.

  “I’m here. Talk,” Fancy said, staring straight ahead.

  “I haven’t gone out with Kylie in over a year. She wasn’t right for me and I told her that. It turns out she’s hard to convince.”

  At the top again, the Ferris wheel jerked and groaned.

 
Fancy reached for his hand. “What was that?”

  Not above taking advantage of her when she was frightened, Colin scooted closer to her and tightened his fingers around hers. “It’s an old machine. They make noises. Probably needs a little oil.”

  “Okay. So why are you telling me about Kylie? Like I said, you have a right to be with whomever you want. I’m not stopping you.”

  “I’m telling you because the women I’ve been with before never worked out.”

  “Including me,” she said, her tone flat.

  “That wasn’t because we weren’t compatible. What happened between you and me was a timing issue. The other women weren’t right because they weren’t you.”

  There. He’d said it, opened his mouth and heart. He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the backs of her knuckles.

  She didn’t pull away. That was a good sign. If she really didn’t want him to kiss her, she would have yanked her hand—

  Fancy jerked her hand from his. “Colin, I came back to Temptation to purge you from my life, not reunite.”

  His stomach lurched, from the ragged stop and start of the Ferris wheel and from her words. “You came to what?”

  “To get you out of my system. I need to move on with my life.”

  Hurt and a little angry, he asked, “How’s that working for you?”

  She snorted. “Not so good.”

  His lips quirked into a smile. “You mean making love in the storeroom wasn’t part of the plan?”

  She shook her head and chuckled, the sound catching at the end. “Hell no.”

  “And kissing me in the Fun House wasn’t furthering your goals.” He turned in his seat and cupped her face in his palm. “And kissing me now would shoot your plans all to hell.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her gaze slipping to his mouth, her tongue darting out to swipe across her lips. “All to hell. Ah, hell.” She reached out, captured the back of his head and drew him close, claiming his mouth, twisting her tongue around his.

  At that exact moment, the Ferris wheel jerked to a halt, rocking the seat.

  Fancy broke away. “We’re stopped.”