Boots and Bareback: Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 3 (2 page)

Isabella swayed with the electronic creature, her movements all sex-in-motion.

When the horse spun to the side, she stayed with it, her body twisting and bending in a languid, captivating style.

Jonathon alternated between watching the girl and watching his sons. When the song came to an end, men were tossing twenties at the base of the contraption, yelling for an encore. Gabe rose, his hand going to his pocket. Tanner and Sean followed suit, each reaching for their wallets.

Jonathon grinned. “Yessirree, she’s the one.”

Smiling broadly, Audrey turned to Jonathon. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

“Miss Anderson, I have a proposition for you.”

She winked, her smile broadening. “Now, Mr. O’Brien, I’ll take that as a compliment, however, my man might not.” She tossed her hair, motioning toward Jackson who was standing guard beside the mechanical horse and its sin-worthy rider.

“Not that I wouldn’t be tempted by such a lovely lady, but I’d like to hire your establishment for my son’s bachelor party.”

“Now
that
I can do.” She turned to face him. “When are you planning this event and what kind of food and entertainment would you like to provide for your guests?”

“A week from today, I’ll leave the food up to you, and I want her.” He pointed to the woman on the fake horse. “Is she one of your for-hire strippers?”

Audrey frowned. “No, Isabella made it clear she doesn’t want to hire out as a stripper. She doesn’t think she’s as pretty or sexy as the other girls.”

“Seriously?”

“She has confidence issues where her sexuality is concerned. I don’t get it, but she does. How about Lacey?” Audrey pointed toward one of the women holding a full tray of beverages, fielding passes from every man at the table she was serving. “Lacey’s one of my best and she’s sexy as hell.”

“Nope.” Jonathon nodded toward Isabella and made his stand. “We want her. If you can’t get her, the deal’s off.”

The owner of the Ugly Stick Saloon stared across the floor at Isabella. “She’s a beauty, but she’s never expressed an interest in stripping.” Audrey shrugged. “All I can do is ask.”

“Tell her I’ll pay her five hundred dollars a dance if she’ll do it. And I’ll pay you a thousand-dollar commission to get her to agree, on top of renting the saloon for the party.” He pulled his wallet out, extracted ten one-hundred-dollar bills and slapped them on the table. “There’s a good-faith deposit.”

Audrey stared down at the pile of bills. “You don’t even know how much I charge to rent the place.”

“Money’s no problem. I just want that girl there.”

“I’ll do my best.” Audrey picked up the bills and stuffed them into the low-cut top of her shirt inside her red, lace bra just barely visible. “No guarantees. I don’t insist on my girls stripping. It’s completely up to them.”

“I’ll be by tomorrow to sign papers.”

Audrey leaned back, her brows forming a V over her nose, her lips quirking upward in a smile. “You’re a pushy bastard, aren’t you?”

“Only way to get what you want.”

The woman chuckled. “And I’ll bet you get what you want every time.”

“That’s my aim.” He grinned and stuck out his hand. “I’ll be by tomorrow. Tell my boys I’ll see them at home.” He nodded toward his sons, pushing their way through the crowd of men now standing around the horse and its bareback rider, catcalling and hooting with every move of the woman’s luscious body. His boys had a thing for this Isabella. Her reluctance to perform as a stripper endeared her to Jonathon even more. She was modest and unassuming about her body. And damned sexy, even if she didn’t think so. Even if she wasn’t
the one
, she just might get his boys interested in finding a woman and settling down.

Audrey stood, tucking her hands into her back pockets. “Will do, Mr. O’Brien. Drive safely.”

His duty done, Jonathon left the Ugly Stick Saloon and headed back to the Rockin’ O Ranch, more than determined to see his boys settled.

When the raucous cowboy song ended, Isabella had been more than ready to dismount her gallant machine and change into her uniform of cutoff jeans, tank top and cowboy boots. Normally, she wouldn't be caught dead struttin' around in a bikini and cheesy chaps. But when she saw the amount of money the cowboys were throwing on the floor at her feet, she couldn’t just walk away. One more song. She could ride for one more song.

Though dancing half-naked in front of a bunch of drunken cowboys wasn’t her thing, Isabella had to remind herself that it was all for a good cause. And they didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t quite as busty as the other girls, or that she wasn’t as graceful and sexy. One of Audrey’s requirements of her
girls
was that they either sang or danced in order to get hired on as a waitress at the Ugly Stick Saloon. Since Isabella couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, she’d opted to dance. Not that she’d done much dancin’ on the horse ranch. Dancing was like having sex, only in public. And Isabella didn’t consider herself sexy.

As liquored up as these men were, anything with a vagina would be sexy to them.

Still, this was her first time performing by herself and she was anything but a performer. Give her a real horse and a decent pair of jeans and she’d show them what real riding was. The sexy outfit was just for show. She hoped it did the trick. Being a sex object had never been one of her goals in life and she wasn’t so sure she had all the right equipment to qualify. Her body wasn’t shaped like the other girls, and she didn’t have the moves. Hell, she was more at home in a barn than in a bedroom. Her track record in relationships had proven that.

Because of her failed love life, she needed this job and the money she could earn through tips. She was saving to buy back Sundance before her ex sold the horse at auction. No amount of tips from waiting tables would add up fast enough to cover the cost of the thoroughbred horse. She needed a way to make big bucks quick. Perhaps this mechanical horse gig would be her ticket.

When the band played a sexy, swaying melody, Isabella motioned for Jackson to switch the horse into a slower, more sensuous action. More capable of holding on with only a light touch, Isabella closed her eyes and imagined herself in another place, a place where she could ride Sundance bareback across lush green fields of hay. The music filled her, dancing and swaying all around, her body moving to the gentle rhythm, her mind entering another dimension, one in which her body ignited and her core heated to molten levels. Wearing nothing but a bikini and chaps, she could imagine all kinds of sexy, naughty things she could do alone with herself or with a man…or men…who knew what it took to please her.

That’s where her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Daniel, had gone wrong. He’d been frustrated and finally insulted that he couldn’t get her off. No amount of foreplay on his part brought her to orgasm. Sweet-talk or Daniel’s hands sliding across her skin hadn’t brought her to that elusive climax she craved, not that Daniel spent a whole lot of time pleasing her. When she didn’t come within five minutes of trying, he blamed her and went on about the act of screwing her, calling her frigid and the ice queen.

Isabella’s chest constricted. Maybe she was frigid. She’d never considered herself sexy, why should anyone else?

She should have ended their association before it had come to a boiling point. Then maybe Daniel wouldn’t have been such a dick about Sundance, the horse she’d raised since he was a gangly colt, all legs and no coordination, her only true friend in this crazy, mixed-up world. He’d been a gift from her father.

Sundance had won his first three races, the long shot, coming out of nowhere, attracting the attention of the Circle C Ranch, who’d made an offer to purchase him.

Isabella had refused to sell, until that fateful day her parents were involved in a tragic automobile accident, killing her father and confining her mother to a hospital bed for several months before she gave up and died. Everything, including their home and property, went to paying off the medical bills and still, it wasn’t enough. Isabella had been forced to sell Sundance to the Circle C Ranch. Fortunately, they’d offered her a job caring for him and the other thoroughbreds. That seemed like so long ago. Now she worked at the Ugly Stick Saloon and she hadn’t seen Sundance in six months, although she’d followed his track statistics.

Isabella leaned over the mechanical horse’s back, pretending to ride like the wind, trying to forget for the moment how much she missed her horse. Someone stuck a riding crop in her hand and she tapped it against her thigh. She’d never used one on Sundance.

A roar of approval rose from the crowd of men, prompting Isabella to open her eyes, reminding her of where she was.

She tapped the crop to her ass and more bills floated to the floor at the base of the imitation horse.
Hmmm
.
This could be lucrative.
All she had to do was pretend to like a little whip action and the men went wild. Her pussy tightened. Maybe it wasn’t all pretending and she wasn’t as frigid as Daniel thought.

She arched her back and ran one hand up her side to cup her breast, the other hand rose to lightly tap the crop against her other breast, drawing it across the tip and down the center of her cleavage. The leather against her skin sent heat radiating downward to where her cunt slid across the smooth back of the horse.
This could be addictive.

“She’s so hot, I’m gonna come!” One cowboy cried out, whipping his hat from his head to fan the front of his jeans.

“Keep it in your pants, George. I’m gonna marry that girl.” Another cowboy dropped to his knees. “Marry me, Isabella.”

Isabella laughed, pressing a hand to her chest, the crop clutched tightly in her fist. Maybe she was going too far with the sexy vamp thing. Maybe she was getting off a little more than she’d intended. Her eyes widened. Hell, she
was
getting off. By herself. Without a man…a miracle as far as her ex was concerned. Her ego took a leap.

“More! We want more!” The men surged forward, jockeying for position at the front of the line.

Jackson Gray Wolf stepped out front, crossing his arms. “Back off!”

“Come on, Jackson, you’re blocking the view.” A burly man in dusty jeans and a wife-beater shirt lumbered forward. “We wanna see her ride bareback.”

Jackson held his ground. “Back up and I’ll consider moving. Be a jerk and the show’s over.”

The men behind the big burly cowboy yelled at him, “Get back, George, we wanna watch.”

“Move it, cowboy.”

“Let her ride!” A bigger guy than wife-beater-shirt reached out and pulled the obnoxious one out of the way.

Isabella breathed a sigh. One of the O’Brien men. Gabe, she remembered from the time he’d asked her out, shortly after she’d arrived at the Ugly Stick. She’d considered going out with him, but it had been too soon after Daniel dumped her.

At least Gabe wasn’t obnoxious like the wife-beater. Still, he looked as hot and bothered as the rest of them, his jeans tight around the groin area. Based on the swell, he had a real boner going there.

Another twinge of excitement nudged at her core. The rocking action of the horse, the feel of leather in her hands and the sight of a handsome aroused man, a gentleman cowboy to boot, all added up to turning her on. Too bad Daniel hadn’t figured that out. Then she wouldn’t be missing Sundance and wondering when she’d ever see him again. And that was the reason she’d stayed so long with Daniel. The horse. Not the man.

A toothless cowboy surged forward. Jackson cut him off before he reached Isabella.

What would she have done if Jackson hadn’t been there to ward off unwanted attention and groping by the drunks in the saloon? Isabella longed for the wide-open spaces of a ranch where she could get away from the crowds.

What she wouldn’t give to be doing what she loved the most, working with horses on a large horse ranch. Not that she didn’t appreciate all that Audrey had done for her. If it hadn’t been for Audrey and the Ugly Stick Saloon, she’d be on the street, flat broke with no way of earning enough money to keep her afloat, much less have any chance in hell of buying her horse from Daniel.

If only she could earn the money faster. She knew that if Daniel couldn’t get Sundance to win the next two races, he’d have the horse up on the auction block. Isabella had been the only handler who could work with the horse. The only one who knew how Sundance operated.

The thoroughbred racehorse responded to light nudges, not heavy-handed whipping with a riding crop. Knowing Daniel, he’d gone right to using the crop to get the horse to move. Maybe even out of spite for Isabella’s departure. And when Sundance wouldn’t respond, Daniel would have blamed Isabella.

Yes, she should have gotten out of that poisonous relationship earlier. She would have, if not for Sundance. Instead, she’d stayed at the Circle C Ranch, working for Daniel and his mother, training and caring for the racehorses until Daniel had fired her as a girlfriend and horse trainer.

Now the closest she’d gotten to a horse was riding the mechanical horse at the Ugly Stick. Which hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought it would be. For some strange reason, the rocking motion, the audience of aroused men and the leather crop combined had given her a bigger charge than she’d felt in a long time. Had she been a man, she’d leave the stage with a hard-on. As it was, she felt all warm and wet and ready for anything.