Looking For Trouble

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Authors: Becky McGraw

Tags: #romance, #contemporary, #western romance, #steamy romance, #cowboy romance, #contemporary cowboy romance, #texas romance

BOOK: Looking For Trouble
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LOOKING FOR TROUBLE

 

By

 

Becky McGraw

 

 

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook
is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share
this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy
for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please
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respecting the hard work of this author.

* * *
* *

PUBLISHED BY:

Becky
McGraw on Smashwords

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE,
Copyright @ August, 2012 by Becky McGraw. All
rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright
Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted
the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text
of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced,
transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored
in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system,
in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now
known or hereinafter invented, without the express written
permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

A Special Thank You

I'd like to thank Kellie for her
help proofreading and editing this book, as well as working with me
on edits to the others in the series. I'd also like to thank my new
BETA readers and friends, who have volunteered to help me with the
new books in the series to make sure the Texas Trouble series is
the best it can be. You guys are the best, and I appreciate your
help.

Finally, I'd especially like to
thank you, the reader, for purchasing and reading my books. I hope
you enjoy reading them, as much as I enjoyed writing
them.

PROLOGUE

 

 

Wade Robert's former sister-in-law, Sabrina,
was marrying the smug bastard she'd introduced him to at the rodeo
arena, and he didn't know why he was here. His brother, Kenny, was
barely cold in his grave, and yet, here was the wife who professed
to love him, getting remarried before two years had even gone
by.

 

Women were fickle creatures and it would
take him a lifetime to figure them out. That was one reason, he
didn't do relationships. Another was he usually picked the wrong
ones to love, and Sabrina was one of them.

 

Not that Wade thought there was any
acceptable time Sabrina had to wait, before she remarried. If she'd
have waited ten years from now to get married again, he still
wouldn't like it, because
he
loved her. Unlike him, his
brother Kenny, would have wanted her to move on and be happy, even
if she'd met the man who could make her that way a week after he
was killed. That's just the way his brother was, his heart was
bigger than his store of common sense, and that was why he was dead
now. He'd given up his own life to save his best friend.

 

It was Wade who was having the problem with
her remarriage.

 

He wouldn't admit it, not even to himself,
because he felt like he was betraying his brother, but
he
wanted to be the man to replace his brother in Sabrina's heart. In
the three visits he'd made to check on her in Phoenix since his
brother had died, Wade hadn't let her know he felt, because he had
thought it was too soon.

 

The first two visits, she'd been a
grief-stricken mess, then the last time she was a solemn shell of
her former self, hollow and working herself to death. He had been
waiting for her to get back to her old fiery self, before he told
her, and now it was too late.

 

All that didn't matter now though, he was
over it. What mattered to Wade now was that Sabrina
was
happy, even if he wasn't particularly fond of the man who made her
that way. Wade wanted that for her too, just like his brother had,
because he
did
love her. He loved her enough to let her
go...his brother had too.

 

That
was why he was here at the
wedding, to bury the hatchet with her new husband, apologize for
being an ass at the rodeo arena, when she'd surprised him in
Dallas, and to tell her to be happy. He didn't want to lose her in
his life.

 

Wade took a swig of his beer and looked up
at the hot blond singer on the stage, picking on an acoustic guitar
and belting out sultry country songs to keep the crowd dancing. Her
smoky voice wafted across the room to him and wrapped itself around
his libido. The sound was as rich and smooth as aged bourbon, and
he definitely felt intoxicated by it, as did the cowboys lining the
stage, he was sure.

 

Earlier, when Gabe, Sabrina's brother, had
introduced him to Cassie and Luke Matthews, owners of the Double B
ranch where the wedding was being held, he'd made a comment about
how good the singer was. Cassie had told him the singer's name was
Jess Sparks, and that she was on the verge of signing a contract
with some big record label. Cassie was excited to be able to get
her for the wedding.

 

Listening to her now, Wade could believe it.
She had the looks and the vocal ability to go a long way in the
music business, he was sure. It was obvious that she felt the songs
she sang deep down inside, and knew how to make the crowd feel them
too. He'd met and held her gaze a couple of times, while she
performed, and it felt like someone had plugged him into an
electrical socket.

 

Of course, that could be because of the way
she was shifting those mile-long legs, and curvy hips of hers, in
those tight black leather pants she had on too, he thought with a
chuckle. With the spike-heeled, 'come fuck me', black western boots
she had on, every man in the room was probably feeling it.

 

Wade dragged his gaze from the singer and
scanned the dance floor for Sabrina. He needed to take care of what
he'd come here to do. He met her eyes across the dance floor, where
she was dancing with her new husband. Swallowing down the rest of
his beer, Wade threw the bottle in the garbage, then strode across
the floor to the couple. He could only hope that he didn't wind up
rolling on the floor with the groom, not to mention the Sheriff, of
this one-horse town. That's how their first, and last, meeting had
gone down at the arena.

 

Walking up to them, Wade forced himself to
say, "Congratulations...can I have a dance with the bride?"

 

Cole Jackson's feet stopped moving, his body
tensed, then his face pinched up, before he dropped his hands from
his wife's waist to clench them into fists. Not a good sign, to
Wade's way of thinking, but the Cole Jackson surprised him, by
stepping aside. With a warning glance at him, Cole walked off the
dance floor, leaving him to dance with Sabrina.

 

He took her hand and put his other at her
waist, then swung her onto the dance floor, into a two-step.
Leaning close to her ear and said, "I'm sorry for the way I acted
at the arena, Bri." His voice shook from the effort it took him to
say the words, and emotion pushed up into his throat.

 

"I know it was a shock, Wade...I'm sorry I
surprised you like that...and at work too. I should have picked a
better time."

 

"There wouldn't have been a good time,
sugar..."

 

Her step faltered and her eyes filled with
sadness, then she said in a pained voice, "I'm sorry you feel that
way..."

 

She evidently thought he was saying he'd
never accept that she had gotten married again. Looking down at
her, Wade gave her a rueful smile, then told her, "That's not what
I meant, darlin'. I'm fine with it now...I was shocked at first,
but you're right, you deserve to be happy."

 

Wade stopped moving, then pulled her to the
corner of the floor and looked deeply into her eyes, before he told
her what he'd wanted to tell her for a long time, but never had the
guts, "I love you, Bri...as much as I loved my brother," then Wade
took a deep breath and told her what she needed to hear from him,
"Kenny died a happy man...because of you. You deserve that same
happiness, and if that cowboy does that for you...."

 

Sabrina's eyes glittered with happy tears
when she told him, "He does, Wade...I love him."

 

With a nod, Wade pulled her to him for a
hug, then leaned down and kissed her cheek. Sabrina put her hand to
his cheek and said, "Thanks for understanding...I don't want to
lose you in my life," then she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

 

Suddenly, she was pulled away from him and
Cole Jackson was standing between them. He put a finger in Wade's
chest then growled, "Get your fucking hands off of my
wife
."

 

Wade pushed the man's finger off his chest
then laughed loudly, because this guy had no clue that Wade had
just surrendered, waved the white flag, let her go, and accepted
that this is what Sabrina wanted. With a wink at Sabrina, just to
irritate Cole, Wade said, "Be seeing you, sugar," then he gave her
a big grin and walked back to the bar to get another beer.

 

After he got his beer, Wade turned back
around and went to sit with the row of adoring cowboys by the stage
and get his flirt on with the beautiful country singer, he probably
had a snowball's chance in hell of connecting with. At least he
could enjoy his beer and the scenery, now that he'd accomplished
his goal for being here. His conscience was clear, and his step a
lot lighter than it had been in a long time. It was time to have a
little fun for a change, before he headed back to Steamboat
Springs, where the rodeo was currently at.

 

Jess Spark's sultry voice came over the mike
and Wade slid his eyes up her long leather-covered legs to the
smooth skin of her stomach, showing above the low cut pants, then
over her breasts, which were covered in a shiny black satin top
that cutaway right under her breasts. He noticed her nipples were
hard under the material, and it didn't look like she was wearing a
bra.

 

Wade took a swig of his beer to put out the
fire that raced through him, headed to parts south. When he looked
back up, he noticed her looking down at him with a half-smile that
said she had caught him looking. He shrugged then tipped his hat at
her with a big grin. Surely this wasn't the first time she'd caught
a horny cowboy staring at her, because how could they not?

 

When she finished the song she'd been
singing, she stepped away from the mike and covered it with her
hand then talked to the guy who was playing bass guitar for the
band, then spoke to the woman playing fiddle and finally the
drummer. They all nodded, then she took her hand off the mike, and
reached behind her to take a badass, blue electric guitar off a
stand, then she put the strap over her head and pulled her long
blond hair free.

 

After she plugged in the amp, she strummed
it a little, then said, "I'm a country singer, but I cut my teeth
on classic rock, and I want mix things up a little! Any Aerosmith
fans here tonight? If so--would you please,
Walk
.
This
.
Way
!" she said, then her fingers moved over the
strings in a blur, and she was rocking everyone in the room with
her rendition of the classic song, dancing all over the stage with
her band.

 

The crowd went stinking nuts and everyone
stopped what they were doing to gather around the stage. Wade got
so turned on watching her, he wanted to jump up on that stage and
lick her from head to toe. The beat from the drum and the guitar
worked through him and ramped up the electric current humming along
his nerves, as did
her
playing that damned guitar. Seeing
her long fingers move like that, made him want to feel them on
him.

 

When she finished Walk this Way, she went
right into the slower love ballad, Angel, a totally appropriate
wedding song, but not appropriate at all the way she was singing
it. She was sex on a stick up there, and the way she moaned the
words made him clench his teeth. Her cat-like green eyes caught his
and held, and it was like she was singing the song to
him
.

 

Wade would definitely like to save her
tonight, he thought, as she belted out the song, causing all kinds
of havoc inside of him. Lord have mercy, he was having one of the
most intense sexual connections of his life in the middle of a
wedding reception! This woman lit him up like a football field on a
Friday night, she was like a magnet up there on that stage, she
owned it...and everyone under the tent, including him.

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