Boots and Buckles (3 page)

Mona laughed and clapped her hands when she was supposed to and spun and did the grapevine. She’d let her life become too mundane, too predictable, it was time she had a little more fun.

As she danced with Bunny, she just happened to glance toward the far corner of the bar, right into Grant Raleigh’s ice blue eyes.

“Do you think she’ll give me her number after slapping my face?” Sam asked, with his back to the dance floor.

Grant’s radar had picked up on Mona as soon as she stepped onto the dance floor with a woman Grant recognized but couldn’t put a name to. As the line dance progressed, Mona got into the moves, her hips swinging, her smile bright.

Grant’s jeans tightened. He remembered how Mona felt beneath him, her hips in his hands as he thrust into her while she sucked on Dalton’s cock. That she’d been willing to go to bed with the two of them made him hot then and even hotter as he watched her dancing.

When her gaze met his, Grant froze, his breath caught in his throat. She recognized him immediately.

She stopped in mid-step, her gaze going from surprise to shock. The rest of the dancers bumped into her, she tripped on her own boots and tried to catch herself, taking down half the line like a row of dominoes.

Grant leaped from his seat.

“What the hell?” Sam exclaimed and jumped up after him.

Pushing his way through the crowd, Grant emerged onto the dance floor.

Mona lay in a tangled heap of boots, legs and laughing people. She struggled to get her feet back under her, cringing as someone stepped on her leg.

Grant held out his hand. “Take my hand.”

She looked up at him, her face blanching, and hesitated.

Sam arrived at his side and lunged in, lifting her to her feet. “Mona, are you okay?” He pulled her into his arms and brushed the hair out of her eyes.

Another woman grabbed Grant’s hand and pulled herself to her feet, pretending to trip so that she could wrap her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek. “Thanks. I don’t know what happened.” She laughed. “All the sudden I was in a dog pile on the floor.”

Grant barely heard the woman, his gaze on Mona as Sam led her off the dance floor and sat her in a nearby empty chair, his hands resting on her arms.

“I’m Tacey Reese.” The tall, sandy blonde held out her hand. “And you are—?”

Grant’s hands clenched into fists.

Tacey’s smile twisted. “Obviously not interested.” She stepped out of his arms. “Well, thanks anyway.”

Grant dragged his gaze from Sam and Mona and glanced down at Tacey as if seeing her for the first time. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”

“You’ve got a thing for her?” She tipped her head toward Mona. “I get it. You don’t have to entertain me. But you might consider this…sometimes dancing with another woman makes the one you want take more notice.” Tacey’s brows rose in challenge.

“It’s the least I can do.” Grant held out his hand, forcing his attention away from his partner and the woman he’d lost to his own stupidity. “Care to dance, Tacey Reese? I’m Grant Raleigh, the cowboy with the bad manners.”

Her jaw dropped. “
The
Grant Raleigh?”

“Afraid so.”

“I’d love to dance with you, even if you only have eyes for another woman. Anything to get to two-step with a rodeo star.” She raised her arms and stepped out on the floor. “Ladies, eat your heart out.”

Grant had to laugh. Tacey had a sense of humor and didn’t take his lack of interest in her personally.

“So what’s the story?” Tacey asked.

“What story?”

“You and that other woman. What’s up with her? Did she break your heart?”

Grant stumbled, stepping on Tacey’s foot. “Sorry.”

Tacey didn’t miss a beat, limping a little, but determined to get the scoop out of him. “I take that as a yes. I thought you were married? Is that it? You fooled around with that other woman when you were married? Are you still married?” She backed away from him and would have pulled out of his grip had he not tightened his hand around her waist. “Just so you understand, I make it a rule not to mess with married men.”

“It’s a long story. And, no, I’m not married, nor was I when I met…that other woman.”

“I have time and I’m a sucker for a sad story. You want to blow this joint and find a cup of coffee?”

With Sam leading Mona back onto the dance floor and holding her close to his body, Grant couldn’t stay and watch as the woman he loved fell for a better man than he was. “I’m not jumping in the sack with you.”

“And I’m not asking you to.” Tacey smiled at him. “But I might ask you to buy me that cup of coffee.”

“Let’s go.” Grant grabbed her hand and led her toward the exit before he went to war with his new partner over the same girl he’d left his old partner over.

At the truck stop on the edge of Temptation, where two major highways met, Grant sat with a perfect stranger who seemed hell bent on dragging out his life history over a cup of really bad coffee that resembled stump water.

Tacey led off with, “You and Dalton Faulkner used to be partners, right?”

Grant nodded. “Dalton and I go way back to when we were in high school, doing local rodeos. We teamed up then.”

“Wow, all the way back to high school.” Tacey shook her head. “And you two aren’t even talking now, from what I hear.”

“You know a lot about the circuit.” Grant’s eyes narrowed. “Are you a reporter or something?”

She shook her head. “No, but I keep up with the cowboys and rodeo news. There’s something about a cowboy who’s tough enough to stare a bull in the face and still get on it that makes my heart go pitter patter.”

Grant chuckled. “Tacey, I don’t know why you’re hanging out with me when there’s a saloon full of cowboys who’d love to know they make your heart go pitter patter.”

Tacey grinned. “Like I said, I’m a sucker for a sad story. So, let’s hear it. You and Dalton were partners. What happened that made you two split?”

“I knew Dalton could be a player, but I trusted the man with my life on more than one occasion. I just shouldn’t have trusted him with Mona.”

“Mona is her name?” Tacey nodded. “Go on.”

Grant took a deep breath into his constricted lungs and continued. “She’d met Dalton first, and he’d swept her off her feet. When I came into the picture I was smitten by the pretty brunette with her sunny smile and playful laugh. But she was with Dalton. At least until Dalton decided to share.” His groin tightened in remembrance of that first night he, Dalton and Mona had been together. Never in his life had he considered making love to a woman with another man in the same room, much less both of them making love to her, until he’d been on the circuit with Dalton for a year. His partner had introduced him to the possibility at the last rodeo, with a buckle bunny who’d been more than willing to teach them the ropes of a ménage.

“Let me get this right…you shared the girl?” Tacey leaned forward, the color in her cheeks heightened. “As in, you both had your wicked way with her?”

“I know it sounds so wrong, but at the time it felt right. And she was all for it.”

Tacey’s cheeks grew pinker and she fanned herself with her napkin. “Gets me horny just thinking about it. Two hot cowboys. I’m about to cream my panties. Do you realize that’s every woman’s wet dream?”

Grant shifted in his seat. “Sorry.”

“Oh no, go on.” She dragged in a deep breath, her chest rising, her nipples tight little buds pressing through the rib-knitting of her T-shirt. “Please.”

“I made a promise to her that I’d be back for her at the end of the season. That our relationship wasn’t over just because we left Temptation.”

“And you didn’t keep your promise.” Tacey stared at him, her gaze open, honest, demanding honesty out of him.

“No.” Grant glanced down at his hand holding the coffee mug. “At the next town, Dalton moved on to the next woman, completely blowing off what the three of us had shared. But I had every intention of keeping my promise, with or without Dalton.”

“What happened?”

“Our wild past caught up with us. The woman we’d shared at the stop before Temptation showed up, claiming she was pregnant. She demanded that one of us marry her or she’d take her problem to the press. Dalton laughed at her and told her to prove it.”

“And she did?”

“Yeah, she got a DNA test. It was Dalton’s baby, all right.”

Tacey gasped. “Did he marry her?”

“When I confronted him with the truth, he refused.”

“Jackass.” Tacey sat back against the seat. “What happened to the pregnant woman?”

Grant pushed a hand through his hair.

“You stepped up to the plate.” Tacey snorted. “What about Mona? How did you let her down?”

“It’s not one of my prouder moments.”

“Oh, you
didn’t
break it off in a text or over the phone, did you?”

He nodded. “I couldn’t get back to Temptation, not in the middle of the season and I couldn’t marry the woman without first letting go of the one I loved.”

“Makes sense, but by the phone?” Tacey shook her head. “Not cool.”

“The next time she called, I told her I’d been wrong. We had no future and she shouldn’t wait around for me because I wouldn’t be coming for her.”

Tacey winced. “Harsh. You made her hate you so that she’d get over you quicker?”

“I didn’t want her to come looking for me. I thought it would be best to break it off completely.” Grant glanced out the dark window of the truck stop. “I married Desiree in front of a Justice of the Peace so that she wouldn’t have to raise the baby alone.”

“You didn’t love her.”

“No, but I promised to make a good life for her and the baby. They didn’t deserve to suffer because Dalton was a dick.”

“But you were still partners in the team roping. How did that work?”

“Before all this happened, we were at the top of our game, as far as team ropers went. No one could beat our time and the sponsors wanted us on every ad.” Grant’s lips thinned. “When Dalton refused to own up to his responsibility, our partnership took a hit. I lost respect for him and it showed in our work. But we had sponsors to live up to. I couldn’t quit.”

“Until?”

“Desiree came with us. I don’t have a home to go to, so she was stuck living out of a trailer. She was okay with that. The press got wind of it and painted it up to be a whirlwind, fairytale romance. She enjoyed being in the spotlight and played it up, happy to get in front of every news camera she could. I didn’t care about much of anything back then.”

Tacey sighed. “Because your heart was hurting?”

“I’d settled in for the long haul, making the best of the situation and trying to make a good life for my wife and her coming baby. But one night when I went out for groceries, I came back to find Dalton in bed with Desiree. She was about four months along, just starting to show.”

“Ouch.” Tacey touched a hand to his. “Dalton was a dick.”

“If I thought he cared about her, I might have let it slide, but he didn’t. He took what he wanted and left the rest for others to clean up.”

“Remind me to steer clear of Dalton Faulkner.”

“Trust me. He’s not someone you want to fall for.”

“What happened with your wife?”

“She miscarried.”

“Intentionally or was it an act of God?”

“Whatever it was, she wasn’t sticking around. She signed divorce papers and hopped in bed with the next cowboy who’d have her.”

“Wow.” Tacey raked her hands through her long blonde hair. “I said I liked a good sob story, but…wow. Yours is one of the saddest I’ve heard in a while.”

“Yeah, and now my new partner is falling for the woman I came back for.”

Setting her cup on the table, Tacey pushed back her chair. “Finish your coffee, you’re coming home with me.”

She was pretty and nice and her nipples were still budded and poking against her shirt, but she wasn’t Mona. “I told you, I’m not sleeping with you.”

“I know. Again, I didn’t ask you to. You share a trailer with your partner, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Grant’s eyes narrowed. “So?”

“What if your partner brought your sweetheart home with him?”

Grant’s chest tightened. He hadn’t thought of that.

Tacey shook her head. “Look, I’m not going to jump your bones or make you get me pregnant so you’ll marry me. I’m just trying to help you out. All the hotels or B&B’s in the area are full with the rodeo in town. Either you sleep in your truck or you come home with me. I don’t care.” She stood. “What’s it going to be, cowboy?”

Maybe he was the dumbest cowboy in all of Texas and more than likely he was making yet another huge mistake, but he stood and followed Tacey out the door.

Chapter Three

Mona almost cried as she watched Grant leave the saloon with the tall, athletic blonde. Before the song was over, she stopped and gazed up at Sam. “I have to get back to work.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sam held on to her hand a moment longer. “You seem shaken by your fall.”