Cowboy Jackpot: Valentine's Day (11 page)

He started with Kira's strange behavior in the back hallway
of the casino the day before, told them about Jayden's suggestion to stick
close to her in case she was trying to pull a quick one.

"And you listened to Jayden?" Gigi frowned.

"Afraid so." Dallas talked about Kira acting
suspicious, and trying to leave the suite that morning, alone and with her
suitcase, and how he'd kept her in the suite, kept an eye on her.

"Knowing Kira, I'd guess she was testing you."
Gigi looked concerned.

Dallas set down the untasted beer. Gigi's guess seemed
accurate. "And I failed the test." He looked at Gigi. "But do
you blame me? What else was I supposed to do?"

"Talk to her." Gigi set down her beer, too.
"Explain your concerns. Get a feel for what she's feeling."

Dallas stood and walked to the wall of windows.
"Feelings. Hell, I don't think I have them anymore." His heart felt
heavy knowing he'd messed up so badly. Was that a feeling?

"Okay." Boone said. "So you went to the
casino office and you each got your split."

Dallas spun around. "That's the thing. She didn't take
half. She gave me all of it."

"What?" Boone's voice went up an octave.

"She's rich."

"She is?" Boone looked at Gigi. "You knew
that, didn't you."

Gigi grimaced. "I knew her parents were rich, but she's
pretty independent. I figured she'd take half the jackpot to pay off her school
loans and—"

"No, she's got millions. She inherited it." Dallas
watched for Gigi's reaction.

She sat forward, her eyes wide. "Really? She never
said."

Boone scratched his cheek. "How did she work around the
casino's regulations to give you the money?"

Pacing in front of the glass wall, Dallas told them about
the attorney, and the words Kira had quietly spoken when they were alone. Words
that had hit him like bricks. He explained that he'd given her some time, then
come back to the suite and apologized. He'd thought things were back to normal,
then she'd walked out. Again.

"Aw hell, buddy." Boone gestured to Dallas's beer.
"Take a pull. You need a little numbing."

Dallas flopped into the armchair. "Sure do." His
chest hurt, his head throbbed, and a feeling of panic built with each passing
minute. "Problem is, when she walked away, she gave me what I asked for—a
quick, clean end. Now I'm not sure that's what I want."

Gigi clasped her hands in front of her. "Tell me what
you like about Kira."

"She's smart, beautiful, sexy, funny. She makes me
happy." Her smiling face popped into his mind. "She doesn't let me
get away with any of my BS."

"And you got plenty of that, buddy." Boone
grinned.

Gigi turned to him and gave him a stern glance. The bull
rider actually looked apologetic.

Was this what love was all about? Changing your bad habits
just enough to make someone else happy?

Gigi caught Dallas's attention again. "That's good.
What's one thing she does that makes you happy?" 

"Well, she wanted to surprise me by giving me the
entire jackpot." The disappointment on her face when he'd ruined it still
haunted him.

"She's very generous. With her time and
her…um…money." Gigi smiled. "I guess I know why, now. But what else
about her?"

"She's adventurous." When he'd made love to her up
against the wall of windows, his first instinct was to be more cautious, haul
her into the bedroom, but he knew stepping out of his comfort zone would make
her happy, so he'd done it, and had loved every second of it.

"She gets her own way, and makes me think it was my
idea." When she wanted to go dancing, he was okay with it because dancing
made her happy. When she wanted to hear the story of his arrest, he told her,
because she wanted to hear it, and he wanted to please her.

Boone cleared his throat. "That'd be every woman's
trick."

Gigi smacked his leg. "Boone, you're not really helping
here."

He held up his hands. "Okay, okay. I'll let the expert
do her work." The cowboy stood and went to the bar for another beer.

"Dallas, what do you feel for her?" Gigi tucked
her legs under her on the couch.

"Feelings aren't my thing." He felt his jaw
tighten.

"Don't say them out loud, just see if you can
experience them."

He heaved a sigh. When he'd gone into the gift shop at the
strip club looking for something heart-shaped, and the only non-triple-x rated
item was the hip chain. What had he been feeling then? 

He thought about the picture Boone had sent him. The six of
them and their giant liquor glasses. Dallas had ignored everyone but Kira. Her
face, hopeful, sexy, excited. His lips had curled up as he'd stared into her
beautiful eyes.

He liked her, wanted to make her happy, wanted to see her
smile. Her smile made him happy.

"Happy." Something warm radiated around his heart.
He'd never been happy with a woman. Even his relationship with Layna had been
just a physical connection, something he'd grasped at, hoping an emotional tie
would follow. It never did with Layna, but with Kira?

A bubble of something crept up his throat and burst out of
him as laughter. Was he going crazy?

"What's happening over there?" Boone leaned on the
bar, watching him.

"I think Dallas has found what he's been looking
for." Gigi's voice was soft.

Dallas glanced between her and Boone. "Does falling for
someone and going nuts feel exactly the same?"

"Exactly the same." Boone said.

Gigi raised an eyebrow. "A girl
has
to be crazy
to fall for a rodeo cowboy."

Is this what Kira was feeling for him? Is this why she
wanted more from him? She wanted to take things a step further, find out how
much better this feeling could get.

He took a breath and prepared to ask himself "the
question."
Did he love Kira? Excitement raced around his heart, sending it pattering
wildly. The Valentine's Day mushy stuff had hit him. Hard. But was it love?

"He's gone silent again." Boone strode toward
them. "This could be bad."

"Give him time. He's realizing just how amazing Kira
is. How letting her in could be the best thing he's ever done in his
life."

"Kira is a hell of a woman." Boone leaned on the
back of the couch behind Gigi. "I've gotten to know her over the last few
months. She and Dallas would be good for each other."

Gigi looked up at her fiancé. "They would. It's not so
much that opposites attract, as it is both of them looking for something that
the other can give them."

They weren't very damn subtle, but he'd play along.
"Like what?"

She nodded at Boone.

The bull rider smiled at Gigi, and Dallas's chest clutched
at the emotion in his gaze and the intensity in the look Gigi returned. He
wanted that for himself. With Kira?

Boone pierced Dallas with a hard stare. "You've been
alone since you were nineteen. When you turned twenty-eight last year,
something made you want to settle down, and you did, but with the wrong woman.
Now you're afraid to admit Kira might be the right woman because you nearly got
destroyed once."

His friend was right. And more perceptive than Dallas had
given him credit for. He was tired of being alone.

"Buddy." Boone set his hand on Gigi's shoulder but
stared at Dallas. "Your instinct to find someone was right. Don't let what
happened with Layna make you lose your chance with Kira."

Dallas's cautious side still warned him not to let the
connection between him and Kira get too deep. It told him that jumping into
another relationship this quickly was foolish. But his heart told him something
different. Nearing the end of his rodeo career, he wanted to be part of a
family. Make a family of his own. He could see him and Kira building a house on
his property in Reno. Building a life and a family. Could she be happy on a
ranch in Nevada?

"What could Kira need from an old broken-down bronc
rider?" She was a millionaire. She could do anything, date anyone she
wanted.

"Dallas, she doesn't know what she wants to do with her
life." Gigi laid her hand over Boone's on her shoulder. "Her family
is in accounting. And while she did what was expected of her and got her degree
in finance, she's not excited to work in her family's business."

"She never mentioned that." Dallas went back over
the conversations he and Kira had. "She didn't mention anything about what
she wants to do with her degree."

"Did you ask her?" Gigi's eyebrows lifted.

They'd talked about his parents, but never hers. "I
guess I didn't." Why hadn't he asked again, after that first time when
she'd fallen asleep? Why didn't he ask her about her life in New York? Had he
been afraid of getting to know her better? Afraid it would lead to him getting
too close to her?

"I hope Kira will forgive me for betraying her
confidence when I say this." Gigi glanced at Boone before continuing.
"After you and Kira met in December, she asked about you."

"A lot," Boone added. "She'd tune in to
conversations whenever your name was mentioned." He chuckled. "Hell,
if
I
noticed her interest in you, it had to be pretty damn
obvious."

This was a lot for Dallas to take in. Kira wasn't happy in
New York. She was interested in him, and she'd come right out and admitted she
wanted to try a relationship with him. That thought alone made him want to run
after her and drag her back to Reno with him. For good.

No, no running and no dragging. He had to figure this out.
"I'll think about it, and when I'm in New York next week—"

"Dallas, don't be an idiot." Boone's voice echoed
loudly in the room. "Do something now or she'll be gone forever."

Dallas looked at Gigi. She nodded. "I know Kira. If you
wait, it'll be too late."

He stood and walked to the glass wall, looking out at the
city. He could play it safe and do nothing, hope that if he decided to go for
it next weekend, Kira would fall into his arms. That'd be the safest way. Then,
if he decided this week that he didn't want her…

Fuck. Didn't want her? His breath stalled at the idea of not
having her in his life. He wanted her so damn bad, his hands fisted and his
heart thumped, ready for action.

He grabbed his phone from his pocket and pressed Contacts.
K. Kira. He could call her, but she'd just send him straight to voice mail, and
maybe block his number.

Spinning around, he looked at Gigi. "I don't know how,
but I'm going after her. Right now."

Gigi squealed. "Thank God. Boone said you'd go for the
grand gesture once you realized you loved her." She pulled her phone from
her pocket.

He loved her. It didn't hurt to think it. It did generate a
burst of fear, but he could live with that. It was Kira he couldn't live
without. How could he get to her? She would be at the airport and probably
through security already. With his head spinning from the word "love"
banging around in it, he couldn't think. "What do I do?"

Dialing her phone, Gigi smiled. "Boone and I figured it
out on the way to your suite." She held the phone to her ear. "Leave
this one to me."

****

Kira sat in a wide vinyl chair at the gate where her flight
would take her home to New York. When she'd walked through security three hours
ago, her tension eased. Dallas couldn't get to her here.

She'd turned off her phone and wandered through the airport
for an hour then went to the deserted gate and sat at a window seat watching
airplanes arrive. Was it just two days ago she'd flown in? Full of excitement
and expectation knowing she'd see Dallas again? It felt like a week. When they'd
made love, it had been the most amazing experience of her life. She let out a
breath. She'd miss it. She'd miss him.

Saying goodbye to him had been one of the—no—the hardest
thing she'd ever done. In less than twenty-four hours, he'd slammed into her
heart like a rank bull, and left his mark. Permanently.

How difficult would it be to see him next weekend? To not
touch him, not kiss him, or stare into his incredible eyes?

Someone jostled her as they sat next to her. She'd been too
spacey the last couple of hours to notice the area filling with travelers.

"We will now begin boarding flight 4214 to New York
LaGuardia…"

Boarding already? Kira jumped up and looked for the girls.
Gigi, Annie, and Bree should be here by now. Taylor was staying, renting a car
and driving to San Francisco to visit her grandparents.

She spotted Annie and Bree standing by the boarding gate.
Hauling her suitcase, she picked her way through the crowd. "Hi. Did you
just get here?"

Both girls looked exhausted. Annie nodded. "We've been
trying to call you."

"Sorry. I forgot to turn my phone back on." She
looked around the area. "Where's Gigi?"

Bree's forehead wrinkled. "We thought she was coming
with you. We haven't been able to get her on the phone, either."

A bubble of panic threatened, then she remembered who Gigi
was with. "She's probably coming to the airport with Boone. He's flying up
to Reno today."

The girls nodded. Bree yawned. "I'm going to have a
cosmo and crash."

"We will now begin boarding first class…"

They moved into the line and in minutes were settled in
their seats. Kira had the window seat in the last row of first class, and Bree
and Annie were across the aisle from her. Gigi would be sitting next to Kira,
whenever she decided to show up.

As promised, both Annie and Bree had ordered cosmos, slurped
them down, and now rested under blankets, with pillows beneath their heads.

As people filed onto the airplane, Kira watched for Gigi.
She turned on her phone. No call from Dallas. Had she expected one? Stupid
cowboy. She deleted the four voicemails from Annie, then called Gigi. It went
right to voicemail. Maybe she was in line to board the plane, and had turned it
off.