Betting the Farm (2 page)

“That’s mighty ballsy, borrowing a line from Bogey,” she
quipped.

Then he was there, close, propped on his elbow inches away
from her. Kai took a deep breath and gradually raised her gaze to his face.

Damn. Just…damn.

The years had honed him from cute to fine. Ruggedly
handsome. Almost too pretty for a man. He should be in one of those magazine
ads for four-wheel-drive trucks—shirtless, sweaty and fixing fence.

Back then he’d worn his chocolate-brown hair longer, a bit
shaggier. Now it was trimmed short and neat, but still made her palms itch to
grab double handfuls. Eyes the color of Spanish moss studied her face, a trace
of amusement dancing in their depths. Those soft, full lips Kai remembered all
too well. The thick column of his neck disappeared into the collar of a plaid
Western-style shirt. A few open snaps revealed a dusting of dark chest hair.
His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing tanned, corded forearms.
Broad chest, narrow hips, long legs. Maturity looked awful good on him.

“I don’t think he’ll mind. He’s dead.” Leave it to Fritz to
be concise. Kai tried hard not to laugh.

“You know, I had Mr. Tanner under control.”

His eyes narrowed. “When? Before or after he touched your
ass?”

“I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.”

He laughed and rubbed his jaw. “How well I know, Donnelly.
How well I know.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled attractively when he smiled
and Kai felt her stomach flutter. Lord Almighty, the man was still more potent
than the eighty-proof alcohol patiently waiting in the last shot glass in front
of her. He should come with a warning label—
one look at him will melt your
panties right along with your resistance
. She gulped the liquor down,
thinking she needed it to steel herself against the onslaught of raw lust
threatening to overtake her. It was almost as if time had been turned back and
she was eighteen again, completely smitten yet scared to death of the effect he
had on her, body and soul.

Fritz leaned in close. “How many of those have you had
tonight?”

“Not enough.”

One dark eyebrow shot up. “You’re not drivin’ I hope.”

Seth picked that perfect moment to butt into the
conversation.

“Nope, she ain’t drivin’. I was gonna give her a lift home
but maybe you could, Fritz, so she won’t have to wait on me to close up.”

Kai gave Seth the stink-eye but he just shrugged his
shoulders.

Without taking his watchful gaze off Kai, Fritz pulled money
from his shirt pocket and tossed it on the bar. “Close out her tab, Seth, and
give us the rest of that bottle of Jack.”

She was being manhandled and it was starting to piss her
off. “I can pay my own tab, thank you very much, and I can find my own way
home.”

Seth slid the bottle of whiskey across the bar and Fritz
tucked it under his arm, then grabbed her elbow to help her stand. Kai snatched
her arm away.

“I’m quite capable of walking on my own!”

“You’re gonna break an ankle in those damn shoes. Give me
your arm, Kai.”

Kai spun around on the barstool and planted her feet on the
floor. When she stood, the room tilted sideways and so did she. Fritz caught
her around the waist with one arm, and if she wasn’t mistaken, snickered under
his breath.

“Easy there, tiger.”

Once everything was somewhat level again, she shoved her
shoulders back, put one foot in front of the other and wobbled out of the bar.

Every time Kai giggled, Fritz felt as if he’d been punched
in the chest with an iron fist. Every time she rolled her head on the back of
his truck seat and pinned him with those stunning ice-blue eyes, his blood
pushed through his veins in a thick, hot rush. And every single time she made
that little breathy sighing noise in her throat, his dick got harder. Right
now, he could use it to hammer nails into a brick wall.

She’d kicked her shoes off in the parking lot of the bar
before scrambling gracelessly up into his truck, giving him a mind-melting view
of her toned thighs and the bottom curve of her perfect ass. He’d scooped up
the shoes and tossed them in behind her, guessing they probably cost as much as
one of the new aluminum rims on his Ford F-250.

To kill time, he was meandering around on clay back roads
because she’d said she wasn’t ready to go home. Truthfully, he didn’t want to
take her home. He wanted to haul her back to his place, strip her out of that
sexy dress and violate her nine ways ’til Sunday because six ways would never
be enough. He wouldn’t do that, but it didn’t hurt to want.

Or maybe it did. He certainly had one body part hurting
right now.

Besides, the sex might feel great while it was happening,
but he’d only be opening himself up to more hurt in the aftermath. Kai wasn’t a
woman you could do once and forget. Like a tattoo, she got under your skin and
never left. Instead, you carried her around with you forever.

Fritz shook his head.

This was not the smartest idea he’d ever had. He should’ve
left her in the bar for Seth to take home, but God knows who else would’ve hit
on her before the night was over. At the rate she was going with the JD shots,
someone could’ve easily taken advantage of her, although not without a valiant
fight if she was conscious. He supposed he could’ve called her brother Josh to
come pick her up, but that would’ve pissed her off too.

So they’d ride and talk and when she was ready, he’d walk
her to her front door—or maybe prop her against it—ring the doorbell and drive
away. Yep, that’s what he would do. Be the perfect gentleman, even though his
dick was begging him to be someone else. Someone who’d be buried in regret the
next morning, unable to look at himself in the mirror.

She nudged him with the bottle of Jack. Fritz pretended to
take a sip, keeping his lips pressed together while he tipped the bottle. When
she wasn’t looking, he poured the rest of it out the window of his truck. It
was a shame to waste good whiskey like that but she was sloshed enough already.

“All gone,” he told her, waggling the empty bottle in front
of her face. Her bottom lip poked out in a fake pout then she giggled again.

“S’fine. I haven’t done shots in years,” she drawled, her
Southern lilt getting more pronounced the drunker she got. Her words came
slowly enough he could watch her lips form them.

Christ.

She’d eaten off her lipstick and Fritz wanted to smother
that soft, pink mouth with a hard kiss, see if she still tasted as sweet as he
remembered. Her bare feet were braced against his dashboard, the tips of her
toes painted the same crimson shade as her dress. The hem of said dress had
slid down her thighs toward her lap and the fancy updo her hair had been in
earlier was coming loose and falling around her shoulders. Fritz had rolled the
windows down because he figured she could use the fresh air, and it was
whipping the silky strands across her face. Every once in a while she’d
impatiently push it back with her hands or puff it away from her mouth.
Meanwhile, he kept a death grip on his steering wheel to keep from touching
her.

Impressive diamond studs sparkled in her earlobes
occasionally when they caught the moonlight, a blatant reminder of the kind of privileged
life she was accustomed to living. It also hadn’t escaped his attention that
her left ring finger was bare.

Fritz pulled into the edge of one of his family’s cornfields
and cut the truck’s engine, leaving the radio playing softly on a local country
station. Drawing his knee up, he turned his body to face her on the seat.

“I thought you were engaged, Kai.”

She held up her left hand between them, wiggling her
fingers. “Not anymore. We broke up six months ago. I can’t remember now what I
found interesting about him. Phillip was a bore with a capital B. He could bore
air, he was so boring.” She busted out laughing at her own silly joke.

Why did that little piece of information make him happy? He
tamped that emotion back down into its place. She certainly didn’t seem torn up
about the breakup.

“How did he take it when you broke it off?”

“Claimed I was making the biggest mistake of my life by
dumping him. He said, ‘I’m going to be a United States senator one day, and you
could be the wife of a senator, and you’re throwing all that away’. Whatever.”
She waved her hand through the air dismissively. “Like I care ’bout that crap.
I never said I wanted to be a senator’s wife. I didn’t wanna be a lawyer’s wife
either. Mostly I jus’ didn’t wanna be his wife. He was sooo bore-ing.”

Fritz chuckled. “You mentioned that. Were your parents upset
you ended it?”

“Oh. My. God! You would’ve thought I committed murder or
somethin’. You know how my mother is—always pushing. Tonight at Stacey’s
wedding she was forcin’ Trent Lathrop on me.” Her face scrunched into a
grimace. “Ewww, he’s jus’ nasty, with his big ol’ fat belly and bad comb-over
and reeeeally bad breath.” Collapsing in another fit of giggles, she slid
farther down in the truck seat.

He liked her like this—soft and feminine, relaxed and sexy,
letting her guard down. Gone was the stubborn wench from inside the bar. It
wouldn’t last, he knew. She’d wake up tomorrow morning with the mother of all
hangovers and be as cranky as they come. Still didn’t mean he wouldn’t like to
be around her in the morning, stupid as that thought was. Right now though, he
was going to enjoy her for as long as he could, even if it was a form of
self-torture.

“I’m still thirsty. Do you have anything else to drink?” she
asked.

“I think I’ve got water in the cooler in the back of my
truck.”

Fritz jumped down to the ground and rummaged through the ice
in his cooler until he found a bottle of water. Living in the South and working
on a farm, he always carried around something cold to drink, even in the
wintertime. He wiped the moisture from the outside of the bottle on the leg of
his jeans and climbed back inside the truck. Kai was busy snatching the pins
from her hair and carelessly tossing them onto the floorboard.

When he twisted the cap off the bottle of water and handed
it to her, she sighed. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Fritz watched her throat work as she swallowed. Her bottom
lip glistened with wetness and again, he fought the urge to lean over and suck
it clean.

Dammit, she was so beautiful it hurt to look at her
sometimes. More so now than when she’d left town. Left
him.
Her body had
filled out into soft, womanly curves and taut lines. His eyes kept zeroing in
on her nipples puckered beneath her dress and the juncture of her thighs that
she was inadvertently giving him quick peeks at when she swung her knees back
and forth.
Real gentlemanly there, asshole.
His perverted cock throbbed
with every heavy beat of his heart. At this rate, his balls would be sore for a
week. It looked like a cold shower was in order when he got home tonight.

“What happened to you and that Penelope chick?” she asked.

Her question caught him off guard. “You knew about that?”

She ripped at the plastic label on the bottle of water.
“Josh told me he heard you might get married.” Her voice dropped a little but
Fritz picked up on it. Was it sadness behind her words or was that wishful
thinking on his part?

Fritz shrugged. “They were just rumors. I wasn’t in love
with her.”

And she wasn’t you. None of them were you.

Damn if he hadn’t tried his best to find her replacement,
though. Being near her again like this, close enough to smell, touch, taste,
just hammered home the fact that he’d never really gotten over her. There was
no replacement for Kai.

Fuck, why’d he have to go and play the part of white knight
again?

“Oh.” She yawned and her eyelids drooped a bit.

“Want me to take you home?”

Her gaze met his and she gave him a small, sleepy smile.
“No, but I don’t have any other place to go, so I guess I have no choice.”

The vulnerability in her voice nearly broke him in half
while he wondered why exactly she didn’t want to go home. Even big, fancy
mansions could be lonely and empty, he guessed. She had a choice but in her
current inebriated state, she didn’t have the faculties to make that decision
and he couldn’t do it for her.

Fritz couldn’t resist touching her then. He trailed his
fingertips across her smooth, flushed cheek. Kai closed her eyes and turned her
head into his palm, seeking his caress.

“Fritz.” His name was one long, sexy sigh. “I’ve missed
you.”

He frowned at the way his heart thumped over those
unexpected words, and then whispered, “I’ve missed you too.”

Her shoulders relaxed and she slumped against his arm.

She’d passed out cold.

Well hell, what was he going to do now?

* * * * *

The angel in his bed was stirring. Fritz propped his
shoulder against the jamb of his bedroom door, lifting his coffee cup to his
lips to take a sip.

Kai was sprawled across the mattress on her stomach, the
white sheet twisted around her waist, his pillows shoved either out of the way
or off the bed. One long, tanned leg stuck out from under the covers and her
foot hung off the edge. Her arms were stretched above her head, giving him a
tantalizing glimpse at the side of one creamy, plumped breast. A thin white
line crossed the sun-kissed skin of her back, reminding him of days long past.

He couldn’t count the number of times he’d kissed that skin,
how many scorching summer evenings they’d spent skinny-dipping in Turner Creek.
His mouth curved into a smile at the memory, despite the melancholy ache in his
chest that nipped at its heels. They’d sure made their fair share of them in
just two short years.

Rays of sunshine streamed in through the window,
highlighting the different shades of gold in her hair. It was a bit darker now,
more like the color of dry wheat. Back then, it had been nearly as pale as corn
silk. She’d wear it in long braids once in a while, and the tips would curl
around her nipples when wet. God, but he’d tried to forget those times—and
failed miserably.

She stirred again, shifting on the bed. Fritz ducked around
the corner so she wouldn’t catch him ogling her. The sheets rustled softly. He
closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind’s eye, stretching like a cat in
the sun. Naked, sleek, warm from sleep.

“Jesus,” she groaned. Then, “Ow.”

He grinned again. Uh-huh, that gorgeous head was pounding.

He tiptoed back to the kitchen and found a bottle of aspirin
then topped off his cup of coffee.

“Where the hell am I?” she grumbled.

Fritz answered from the hallway. “You’re in my bed, Kai. Can
I come in?”

“Crap, I’m naked. Hold on.” More rustling sounds, then,
“Okay.”

He strolled to the side of the bed and sank down next to her
hip. The sheet was wrapped tightly around her chest. She sat forward, squinting
at him through the heavy fall of her mussed hair. And heaven help him, she
smelled good. Like rumpled cotton and sunshine.

He rattled the bottle of aspirin. “Want some?”

Wincing, she asked, “Would it kill me if I took the whole
bottle?”

“Probably not a good idea.” He shook out two in his palm and
offered them to her with his coffee.

“Mm, that’s good.” Her eyes drifted closed as she wrapped
both hands around the warm mug.

“Keep it. It’s my third, so I don’t need any more.”

She frowned. “Third? What time is it?”

“Nine-thirty.”

Kai glanced down at herself then up at his bare chest. All
he wore was his jeans.

“I don’t remember much after we left the bar. Did we…?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her what it would
mean if they’d had sex. It was hard to tell from her mood whether she was
hoping they did, but then she wouldn’t remember it. That was the last thing
Fritz wanted. If he was ever lucky enough to get Kai back in his bed, he could
damn well guarantee it would be memorable for both of them.

“We didn’t,” he said as evenly as he could manage. “You
passed out on me in the truck. I couldn’t see taking you home like that and
gettin’ your folks all lathered up, so I brought you back here.”

“This is your house?”

“It was my Granny Carter’s place. You’ve been here before.
Remember it?”

Kai glanced around the room while she sipped the steaming
cup of coffee. “I never saw the bedrooms, but I’m fairly sure she believed in
curtains.”

Fritz laughed out loud then stopped when she winced again. “Sorry,”
he whispered, teasing her. “I’m always up before the sun rises anyway. Granny
died three years ago and I hated to see the place sit here and rot, so I moved
in and fixed it up a little.”

“I’m so sorry. I know you loved her a lot.”

He gave Kai a crooked smile and tucked a wild strand of hair
behind her ear. “She was pretty special.”
You’re pretty special.
“Want
to take a shower? It might make you feel better.”

She shook her head. “Just let me get this cup of coffee down
and I’ll be good to go. Can you take me home? My parents shouldn’t be there
because they do brunch at the country club on Sunday mornings.”

That stung a little, making his spine straighten. Were they
right back to where they’d been six years ago? With Kai dodging her folks
because they didn’t approve of her being with him?