Darn Good Cowboy Christmas (12 page)

Liz sat in the truck for a full five minutes just looking at the barn. It was a big, square, metal building with enormous sliding doors on the east side. One of them was open about three feet, and she had no doubt that Raylen was cleaning up after last night's party. She had her hand on the door handle when her cell phone rang and she jerked back as if she'd been burned. She answered it without even checking ID, figuring that Raylen was calling to give her a hard time about dragging her feet.

“I just woke up. I miss you. Come home,” Blaze said.

“I am home. I love it here and I can't wait for you to see this. It's as big as the winter place and I've got a barn and a dog and cat and enough Christmas decorations to light up half of Texas. And Raylen is next door and he's not married, Blaze. And I'm sitting here in my truck looking at the barn where we had a dress-up Halloween party last night, and I'm going to help Raylen with cleaning it all up this afternoon. I have a job and I love it.”

Blaze laughed. “That sounds like you are trying to convince yourself. What did you say you did last night?”

“There was a party at the neighbors'. A Halloween party with a live band and open bar and I told fortunes,” she said.

“Did you wear the turquoise?”

“No, orange.”

“And?” Blaze pressed.

“And Raylen took me home afterwards,” she said.

“Damn, Lizelle. Tell me what happened. I feel like I'm pulling teeth,” he said.

For the first time Liz couldn't tell Blaze what had happened. It was too personal, too intimate. “I set earth, wind, and fire, and it was so easy because they had cauldrons with dry ice in them so they were smokin' and that made the wind, and fire came from a candle, and Raylen went outside and got me some dirt on a paper Halloween plate and I set all three around me. Then I either did their palm or laid out the cards or both. You showed up in one of the readings.”

He took the bait. “Oh, tell me who you were reading for.”

Liz bit back a giggle. “Her name is Colleen and she's Irish to the bone. She's got strange colored red hair that is almost burgundy and deep green eyes. You'll meet her when you come to visit at the Bowie gig. She's Raylen's sister and she works as a blackjack dealer at a casino over the border in Oklahoma.”

“And what card did you see?” Blaze's voice said that he was wide awake.

“Oh, no! I don't kiss and tell, not even to you, when it comes to cards. It was her personal future. If you want me to read the cards for you then come see me,” Liz teased.

“Tressa can do it anytime I want.” His tone said he was pouting.

“Yes, she can. I don't think you'd like Colleen anyway. She's independent as hell and doesn't stutter when she speaks her mind. And she wouldn't put up with one minute of your bullshit. The first time you looked at another woman she'd tie your carcass to an altar and cut off your balls. The cards must've been wrong to even suggest that you'd meet her in the future, or else they were right and you'd better go on down to the funeral home in Claude and get fitted for a casket.”

“That's morbid, but you've got my curiosity roused. Besides, you know I like red hair. Are you just tellin' me this crock of bull to keep from talkin' more about you and Raylen?”

“I am not doing any such thing. And just to prove it I will introduce you, but rest assured it would never, ever work between you two. If she caught you flirting, I'm serious, she'd cut your balls off, deep-fry them, and feed them to her cat.”

“Shit! That made shivers up my back. Did you turn over the card that says I'm to run from her?”

“I told you, I don't kiss and tell,” Liz said. “And now I've got to go help clean up the mess. It's a neighbor thing. I'm helping them today, and starting tomorrow they're going to help me put up all my decorations so it will be all pretty when y'all get here.”

“Lizelle, don't get too involved with Raylen. He's just a kid you met briefly and built into a superhero. He's a real person, sweetheart, and real people aren't gods or heroes. Your heart will always be a wanderer. You know that old sayin' in the church about giving them a child until they are six and they'll never change. It works the same in lots of things.”

Liz sighed. “You were fourteen.”

“Yes, but my mother was a flower child and I loved the carnival my whole life, even if I didn't get to join it until I was fourteen. I'd stand by the fence and watch y'all leave in the spring, and my heart would hurt to go with you. We're carnies at heart, sweetheart. We'll never change.”

“Gotta run. Time to go earn my help puttin' up decorations,” she said.

“Did you sleep with him already?” Blaze asked bluntly.

“Losing connection. Tell Momma hi,” Liz said and flipped the phone shut.

Liz was halfway to the barn when Raylen stepped out.

“Already done?” she called out.

“You ain't that lucky. I've got the cobwebs down and part of the tables cleared off.” He grinned.

If a heart could do a belly dance, hers did. Complete with jangling music and tinkling bells.

She swallowed twice and said, “Well, I'm here to help. Tell me what to do.”

Colleen appeared right behind Raylen. “I'll tell you what to do. Come right on in. You can strip down the tables and I'll wash them. Then Raylen can fold the tables up and stack them on the rack. I bet Gemma took extra appointments today on purpose, that rat!”

Raylen winked slyly at Liz. “We'll make her work extra hard when we start putting up Christmas decorations tomorrow night, won't we?”

“Oh, yeah,” Liz said. “You going to help us too, Colleen?”

“Can't. This is my only day off this week and then I'm dealing blackjack for seven nights in a row. Six at night until six in the morning,” she said.

Liz followed them into the barn. “Lord, you'll be wiped completely out.”

“Didn't you work seven nights a week at the carnival?” Colleen asked.

“Guess I did in one capacity or the other. We were set up and running four nights a week. I did fortunes two or three of those. We were usually tearing down and moving two days and setting up one day. Those days it was all hands on deck from daylight to way past midnight. We slept and ate when we could,” Liz said.

“Miss it?” Colleen asked but she looked at Raylen.

“Of course. Would you miss blackjack?”

“Yes, I would. I'd miss the excitement. There's something about people who gamble. They are…” Colleen stopped.

“Electric,” Liz finished for her.

“That's it. There's static in the air and excitement,” Colleen said.

“Carnival inside a building.” Liz smiled.

“And you can leave all that behind for a dog and a cat and a waitress job?” Colleen pressed on as she stripped a table of its orange plastic cloth, wadding it up and tossing it in an oversized trash can.

“What would it take for you to leave your job behind?” Liz cleared cups, plates, and napkins from the next table.

Raylen bit back a grin as he worked. Liz was holding her own against his most pessimistic sister. Not that Colleen would ever let him get away with calling her that. No sir, she'd say that she wasn't pessimistic, she was realistic.

Colleen stripped off another tablecloth and shoved it into the trash can before she answered. “I'm not sure, but it would have to be huge.”

“How huge?” It was Liz's turn to press.

“Bigger than a waitress job at the Chicken Fried and an old dog with arthritis and a temperamental momma cat,” Colleen said.

“In my world my job, Hooter, and Blister are huge,” Liz said.

She didn't add Raylen or her house and land into the mix, but they were a hell of a lot bigger than Hooter, Blister, or Chicken Fried. Raylen had winked at her when she arrived, but that's all she got, which wasn't a lot after the hottest sex on the face of the earth. Maybe he wanted a friend with benefits as Blaze called some of his women. He could wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one filled up fastest, if that's what he had in mind. Liz wanted a whole lot more than that.

Colleen's cell phone rang and she dug it out of her hip pocket. “Hello… yes, I can… be there as soon as I can… good-bye.”

She flipped it shut and put it back in her pocket. “Sorry, but that was my boss. Girl who was working tonight has the flu so I'm drawing down some serious overtime. Have fun. Gemma should be here soon,” she said on her way out the door.

Liz heard the truck engine pull away from the barn before she crossed the floor of the arena and popped her hands on her hips.

“I won't be a friend with benefits,” she spit out.

“I didn't ask you to,” he said.

“Then why did you act like last night didn't even happen?”

He grinned. “It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I didn't know how you wanted to play it. If you want me to, I'll crawl up on the barn roof and shout loud enough they can hear me over in Oklahoma that we slept together last night.”

She tried to bite back the giggle but it wasn't possible. It erupted into a full-fledged guffaw that left her mascara running and her sides aching. “You. Wouldn't. Dare.”

He took a step toward her. “Don't ever dare an O'Donnell. Besides, I'm not ashamed that I had sex with you, darlin'. Are you? If you want me to show you the steps to get to the roof I'll be right glad to do so. We can both do some yellin',” he teased.

Not to be outdone, she moved closer until she was nose to nose with him. “I'm not quite ready for that,” she whispered as she moistened her lips.

One look at those delicious lips and he was lost. He circled her waist with his hands. She shut her eyes and rolled up on her toes to meet his slightly parted lips as they sought hers.

Hot desire filled every inch of her body as he made love to her mouth like he had the night before. Without breaking the kiss, he pulled her hips closer to him. She gave a little hop and wrapped her legs around his waist, his belt buckle pressing into her pelvic bone. She shifted and what was below the buckle was just as hard and pressed even more.

“Tack room?” he whispered.

She barely nodded and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. She'd been in a relationship half a dozen times in her twenty-five years, but none of them had been as hot and steamy as one of Raylen's kisses. None had made her throw common sense to the wind and agree to a wild romp in a tack room.

The kisses grew deeper and more passionate, each one turning up the heat more than the last one until she thought that steam was surely blowing out her ears. Her jeans were hot against her skin, her bikini underwear was sticky, and her bra suddenly felt two sizes too small.

She heard the tack room door open and then he kicked it shut with his boot heel. She fumbled with his belt, unzipped his jeans, and pushed her jeans and underpants down to her ankles. She shifted her weight until he was inside her. He braced her against the wall and kept his lips on hers, their tongues doing an ancient mating dance while she hung on during the fury of burning heat.

She'd had sex, but it had always been in a motel bed with the man on top. Never had she had a ride so wild or so passionate. She'd sure never felt the kind of heat that made her arch her back against the wall and beg for more. And she'd never wanted to do it again as soon as it was over.

“Hot damn!” she said.

“I take that as you are happy,” Raylen panted as he raked a table clean with a forearm and laid her down on it.

“Yes,” she panted.

He collapsed beside her, pulling her as close to his side as he could get her.

“Ready to go to the rooftop?” he asked.

“Damn near.”

His lips found hers with a fierce, hot kiss that got her ready for another round. He ran his palms from her chin, up across her cheeks, and tangled his hands in her hair.

“You…” he whispered.

“You…” she whispered back.

His hands were everywhere—on her hips, her thighs, probing, finding spots that made her forget everything but how much she wanted him.

“I want more,” he whispered hoarsely into her hair.

“Me too,” she said.

“When I touch you, the world disappears,” he said.

His eyes were dreamy and scorching hot at the same time. She stretched enough to brush a kiss against each of his eyelids and he moaned. Until that moment she wasn't aware that a man could groan in a Texas drawl or that it would turn her heat knob up to high.

Raylen had never felt raw passion before that moment. He shifted his position and suddenly she was under him on the rough table. He ran a hand down her ribs and up her back, unfastening her bra. His touch made her gasp and arch her back for more.

“Please,” she begged.

With a long, slow, gentle thrust Raylen began a rhythm that drove her crazy and brought her to the edge of a climax. Then he slowed down until she thought she'd die with desire, and at the very moment when she could stand no more, she dug her fingernails into his back and said, “Now, please, Raylen.”

“Liz!” he said hoarsely.

The heat had melted them together on the narrow table when they heard a truck headed their way. They frantically searched for clothes and pulled them over their sweaty bodies, barely getting the job done before they heard Gemma yelling.

“Hey, anybody here?”

Raylen eased the tack room door open and gave the room a once-over. “I'm in here making room to store things,” he hollered.

“Is Liz with you?”

“Isn't she out there?” Raylen asked.

“Don't see her,” Gemma said.

“Guess she took a load of trash out the back door. We've been loading it in the bed of my truck and I'll take it to the dump when we are finished.”

Liz looked at him with wide eyes and he winked. He laced his fingers in hers and led her to a door on the other side of the tack room and very gently opened it so it wouldn't creak.