Boots and the Heartbreaker: Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 11 (5 page)

Her doorbell rang, yanking her out of her frustrated state to sit upright in her bed. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Only twenty minutes had passed since she’d left Colin at the diner.

Could it be? Had he disregarded her instructions to wait an hour before coming to pick her up?

Her pussy clenched and she rolled off the bed. She ran to her dresser and unearthed a sheer, baby blue robe that only came down to mid-thigh and didn’t do much to hide her naked form beneath.

Colin was just what she needed at that moment, and to hell with her self-inflicted promise to rid her system of the man. Her pussy practically ached for him.

“Coming!” Fancy raced to the door and flung it open.

A man wearing a local cable company uniform took one look at her and his jaw nearly dropped to his knees. “Uh…uh…” He gulped and tried again, his eyes getting wider as his gaze swept over her nearly naked body. “Am I catching you at a bad time?” he squeaked.

Her face flamed and she covered the important parts with her arms and crossed her legs. “No, no. I need the cable installed, if you could wait just a minute.” She slammed the door in his face and leaned her back against it, her knees shaking.

“Oh. My. God.” Never had she been more mortified. And that poor cable guy!

Fancy pushed away from the door and ran for her bedroom, throwing on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, covering every bit of skin from her ankles to her neck. When she returned to the door, she pushed down her embarrassment, threw back her shoulders and opened the door, calm, cool and collected.

The cable guy and his van had disappeared. In their place were a big black, four-wheel drive pickup truck and Colin McFarlan.

“Why couldn’t you have been five lousy minutes earlier?” she wailed and waved him into the house.

“I was going to wait in my truck, but the cable guy took off, squealing tires. I was afraid something might be wrong.”

Wrong was an understatement.

As she closed the door, Fancy’s frustration, embarrassment and nerves bubbled up her throat and erupted into sidesplitting belly laughs that had her doubled over clutching her tummy.

Colin waited quietly until her laughter turned into giggles and faded away.

His brows wrinkled. “Do you mind telling me what’s so funny?”

She shook her head. “Sorry. I can’t.”

“It’s about eighty-five degrees outside. Are you wearing that to the fair?”

She glanced down at the sweatshirt, her lips twitching. “No. Give me a minute.” Dashing for her bedroom, she slammed the door behind her as a way to keep herself from asking him to join her.

After nearly flashing the cable guy, her lusty passion had deflated considerably. But with Colin in the other room…

Fancy quickly changed into dressy shorts, a cotton blouse she tied at the waist and strappy flat sandals. A quick brush through her hair and she was ready to leave.

When she stepped out of the bedroom, her heart leaped to her throat.

In her earlier rush to get to the door, she’d set BOB on the end table beside the couch.

Colin had taken a position in a chair opposite the couch and now stared from her to BOB and back, his brows dipped. “Do I want to know what happened with you and the cable guy?”

“No.” She grabbed BOB and hid it behind her back. “Why don’t you get a couple of beers out of the refrigerator while I…put this away?”

His frown deepened. “Are you and the cable guy…?”

Her brows shot up. “Oh, heavens no. I think I scared the poor guy to death.” She chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll come back.”

“Good.” Colin’s scowl lightened and he reached into the refrigerator, extracting two bottles of Miller Lite. “I would have thought you’d have switched from beer to fancy wine, with your life in Dallas.”

Fancy shook her head. “Nothing is as good as a cold beer on a hot Texas day. I used to love drinking beer with you and your brothers after we hauled hay.”

Colin twisted the top off one bottle and handed it to her. “I remember. You drove the truck.”

“I offered to throw hay bales, but you McFarlans wouldn’t hear of it.”

“We were afraid you might break a nail.”

She frowned. “I’m not all fluff, you know.”

“And you could ride a horse like nobody’s business back then. Do you still ride?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t had the chance.”

“We’ll have to remedy that.” He twisted the top off his beer and drank a long swallow. “Now, about the device you put away.”

Her pulse quickened. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“I find the subject…interesting.” Colin tipped his beer and drank.

“Sadly, it wasn’t, and then it was just embarrassing.” Her cheeks burned as she recalled the horrified expression on the cable guy’s face. “Could we please not talk about it? And since you’re here so early, maybe we can stop by the hardware store if it’s still open and buy some batteries?”

In mid-swallow when Fancy dropped that last request on him, Colin spewed beer across the room and broke into a fit of coughing.

Other than having to clean up the beer, Fancy was proud of her comment. Let him stew on that a while. Not that she wanted to be a tease, but he wouldn’t let the subject drop.

She upended her beer, drank it down in several gulps and licked the drops from her lips. “Ready?”

Colin’s gaze zeroed in on her lips. “More than you’ll know.”

Fancy’s core heated and her pussy ached.
Holy hell.
The way he was looking at her like she was the main course and he was a starving animal…
oy!
If she didn’t leave soon, she’d be dragging him into her bedroom and kicking BOB to the curb. She grabbed her purse and one of his hands. “Come on. Let’s go to the fair.” At least at the fair they’d be surrounded by people. Nothing sexy could happen with so many people around them.

Chapter Five

Colin’s thoughts kept straying to that silver dildo standing proudly on Fancy’s end table. Walking from the parking area to the fairgrounds with his cock straining against his blue jeans made every step Colin took painful.

He’d arrived early at Fancy’s house with the intention of seducing and making sweet love to her before they headed for the fairgrounds.

If they made it to the fair at all.

Her laughter had put the kibosh on his intention, taking the wind out of his sails. Until she’d run off to dress and he noticed the sex toy on her end table.

What sweet hell was this? She used toys to get off? He’d been so fascinated by the idea he’d stared at the toy until she appeared in the doorway looking all flushed and pretty in her shorts. Those long, bare legs stretched from her feet practically to her chin, and they’d been wrapped around his waist the night before.

Colin had wanted to march her back to her bedroom and take her then and there. He might even take the toy with them. The possibilities were positively titillating.

But when Fancy came out of the bedroom, she shut the door firmly behind her, making it clear that room was off limits.

She’d be a tough nut to crack, but crack her, he would.

Challenge accepted, sweetheart.

Mentally rolling up his sleeves, he concentrated on finding opportunities to get her alone, while stalking his mother and her date to keep them from being alone. It promised to be an interesting evening.

“We should hang out at the entrance and wait for my uncle and your mother,” Fancy said.

“Or we can get cotton candy and throw a few rings over the soda pop bottles.” Colin led her toward the carnival booths, scoping the larger rides and attractions for possibilities of alone time. The Ferris wheel and the Fun House were about the only places he could get Fancy alone. And if he slipped the carnie a fifty, he might stop the Ferris wheel at the top for long enough to…whatever she’d let him get away with.

Colin stopped in front of the booth with the guns shooting water into a ring.

A little boy gave the carnie a dollar and the man set him up on one of the guns.

Colin recognized the four-year-old. “Dalton, is that you?”

The boy smiled up at him. “Oh, hello, Uncle Colin.”

Colin glanced around for the boy’s mother.

Gwen stood nearby. “Hi, Colin. Angus didn’t tell me you were going to be here.”

“I didn’t know I would either, until about an hour ago.” He pulled Fancy against his side. “Fancy, this is Gwen, Angus’s fiancée, and Dalton, here, is her son.”

Fancy shook hands with Gwen. “Nice to meet you. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

The carnival worker cleared his throat. “Do you want to play, mister?”

“Since Dalton is playing, we should join him.” Colin handed him money for all three of the adults.

They stood at the guns and the carnival worker told them to start.

Dalton, Gwen, Colin and Fancy pressed their triggers and water squirted out. Colin’s stream hit dead center of his ring and filled the balloon behind it. Dalton, Gwen and Fancy only managed a little water in their balloons. At the end of the allotted time, Colin won the shooting match and the carnie gave him a choice of prizes. He glanced at Fancy. “Is there something you would like, or we could pass on our good fortune to someone else?” He tilted his head toward the Dalton.

The little boy sighed and stared up at the prizes he missed out on. His mother put her hand on his shoulder. “Come on, let’s find another game.”

Fancy followed Colin’s lead. “I’ll pass.”

Colin swung Dalton up on his arm. “You forgot your prize.”

“But I didn’t win,” Dalton said. “You did.”

“And I want you to have it.”

Dalton hugged Colin’s neck. “Thank you, Uncle Colin.” He stared at the prizes for a long moment and then pointed to a gaudy tiara with shiny pink and purple fake stones. “I want that.”

Colin’s brow puckered. “You sure you don’t want the sling shot or the cowboy hat?”

Dalton shook his head. “No. I want the crown.”

The carnie handed him the crown, Colin set Dalton on the ground, and the boy ran over to his mother. “This is for you.”

Gwen bent to take the tiara from him. “Oh, sweetie, this is the most beautiful crown I’ve ever seen.” She put it on her head and modeled it. “I love it.”

Dalton hugged her and then pushed away.

Angus arrived carrying two sticks of cotton candy.

Dalton ran to Angus and hugged him around the knees. Then he pointed at Gwen’s head. “Mr. Angus, look what I got for Mommy.”

Angus smiled at the crown. “I like it.”

Colin’s heart twinged at the happy little family in front of him. He could picture him and Fancy with a little Fancy or Colin eager to ride the rides at the fair. It struck him then, this was what he’d been missing. Not only did he want Fancy in his bed where he could make love to her for the rest of his life, but he wanted the entire package—Fancy, kids, a home together, baseball and soccer practice, ballet recitals—the whole nine yards.

For a moment he couldn’t breathe past the incredible longing squeezing his chest. He turned to Fancy and held out his hand. “Ready for some of that cotton candy?”
And for you and me to start a family?

He bit down hard on his tongue to keep from blurting out what he really wanted. The woman was dead set on keeping him at arm’s length. He had to take it slow or risk her thinking he was insincere, only wanting to get into her panties and tossing her like last weeks’ rotten tomatoes.

Fancy drew in a deep breath and looked up at him with a wide smile and suspiciously shiny eyes. “I’d love some cotton candy.”

She slipped her hand into his. No argument.

Colin would count that as progress. If he played his cards right, he might convince her he wasn’t the hit-and-run wreck every female in the county claimed.

Fancy swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. Seeing Gwen, Angus and Dalton together had been a blow to her already aching heart, and the reason she’d come back to Temptation to exorcise Colin’s memories so she could get on with her life.

Angus and his fiancée had what Fancy wanted—the perfect little family, love and a future together. They looked so stinking happy, like they belonged.

Her eyes blurring, Fancy let Colin lead her away from Angus and his family. They stopped in front of the stand where a woman spun sugar into cotton candy.

“Blue or pink?” Colin asked.

“Blue.” It matched her mood.

“I’d have taken you for a pink kinda girl.”

“It’s sugar and food coloring. What does it matter?”

When he handed her the thin paper cone capped with a cloud of blue cotton candy, Fancy took it and tore off a sticky swath and shoved it into her mouth. The sugar dissolved on her tongue, sweet and gritty, reminding her of going to the fair with her parents when she was young. As an only child, her parents had showered her with everything, including cotton candy. They’d been a tight-knit family unit.

Colin opted for pink cotton candy, bringing a smile to Fancy’s face.

“I would have taken you for a blue cotton candy guy.”

“To me, cotton candy isn’t right unless it’s pink.” He tore off a wad of the feathery concoction and stuffed it into his mouth, some of the pink dissolving on his lips.

Fancy swallow hard, fighting the urge to lick the candy off him. Instead, she focused on her blue cloud of sugar. Anything but Colin and his kissable face. “Doesn’t pink damage your male ego?”

“Not at all.” He glanced up. “There they are.”

Fancy turned toward the fairgrounds entrance gate.

Uncle Carl entered with Maggie McFarlan on his arm. He was laughing at something she said. Every time Fancy saw them together, they appeared happy and always smiling at each other. It seemed a shame to break up a happy couple.

But Fancy didn’t want to deal with the alternative. Staring across the room at Colin and his latest conquest would be difficult. Perhaps by that time, Fancy would be glad she hadn’t fallen for him—glad she’d held out for a man who would love her forever, not just for a night or two.

Somehow the vision in her head didn’t include a man for her. Only another woman for Colin.

“Ready?” Colin held out his arm.

Fancy opted to ignore his invitation and fell in step beside him without touching. She’d be better off weaning herself from Colin now.

“Colin, Fancy, we didn’t expect to see you two here.” Mrs. M smiled, though her smile appeared strained.

After the craziness of the previous night, Fancy didn’t look forward to ruining their evening, but she’d promised to help Colin. And she had a stake in this as well. “Uncle Carl, Mrs. M. Just the folks we were hoping to run into.”

Uncle Carl’s brows pulled together. “You were?”

“Yes. We’d like to apologize for last night, wouldn’t we?” Fancy elbowed Colin in the gut.

“Uh, yes.” Colin rubbed his belly. “We would. I must have had too much to drink.”

“A good thing Angus drove last night.” Mrs. M nodded. “At least he had his head on his shoulders.”

“Right. Colin was in no shape to drive,” Fancy added. “We’d like to spend time with you both this evening to show you Colin can behave when he wants to.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Mrs. M assured them.

“But we insist.” Colin cupped his mother’s elbow and led her away from Uncle Carl.

Fancy hooked her arm through her uncle’s and smiled up at him. “It will give us time to catch up. I haven’t seen much of you over the past couple of weeks. How are the renovations coming along?”

Her uncle stared down at her. “Fine. But then you know that. You’ve been working with the contractor as much as I have.”

“True. But I haven’t been out there in a couple days and you probably have.”

Colin and Mrs. M were a couple yards ahead of them when Uncle Carl leaned close to Fancy. “What are you two doing?”

She glanced up at her uncle, her brows rising. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is it a crime to want to spend time with my uncle? My only living relative?”

“Yes, when you’re obviously trying to keep me from Maggie.” Carl stopped and faced Fancy, his posture stiff, a frown settling on his forehead. “Colin, I understand. He and his brothers don’t know me and certainly don’t trust anyone with their sweet mama.” He shook his head. “But you… Why?”

Rather than answer his question, she asked, “Why are you dating Maggie?”

Her uncle relaxed and a smile drifted across his face. “You might not think older people can fall in and out of love, but I’ve been in love with Maggie since before she married John McFarlan. As teens, the three of us were inseparable. Until John asked her to marry him the day we all graduated from high school.”

“He beat you to her?” She started walking again and her uncle fell in step beside her.

“He did. And she said yes.” Her uncle scrubbed a hand down his face. “I chose to step out of the picture. John was a good man—a better man than I was, and she was happy with him. They had three fine sons and a good life together.”

“John died more than eight years ago. Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

“You don’t know how much I wanted to, but her sons were there for her and I didn’t want her to think I was insincere, poaching on a dead man’s widow.”

“You never married,” Fancy said, her heart tightening. “Because you were always in love with another man’s wife?”

Uncle Carl patted her hand. “For me, I’m a one-woman man.”

“Then why did they call you the Heartbreaker?”

He snorted. “I didn’t say I was celibate. I just never let another woman close enough. Whenever a woman wanted more, I let her go. My heart always belonged to Maggie.”

“Are you two coming?” Colin called out from ahead.

He and Mrs. M stood in front of the Fun House, tickets in hand.

“If you’ll excuse me, my date is waiting.” He disengaged his arm from Fancy’s, grabbed Maggie’s hand and hurried toward the entrance to the Fun House.

Colin held up two tickets. “What was keeping you two?”

“We were talking.” Fancy took the tickets from Colin’s hand and handed them to the carnival worker. “Come on. We need to keep up with them.” She didn’t want to go into the details of what her uncle told her. The way it stood, her heart wasn’t into coming between her uncle and his only love. Knowing what she did made it seem mean and spiteful to keep the two apart.

Colin handed her into the big Fun House trailer and turned to say a few words to the carnival worker before he entered. They stepped into a glass and mirrored maze, stretching the length of the trailer.

The giggles of others who’d gone ahead echoed back to them.

Fancy walked to what she thought was the opening only to find it was a trick of the mirrors and was a dead end. “How do we get through?”

Colin grinned. “This way.” He led her through an opening to the next passage where their reflections were distorted. One mirror made Fancy’s head appear to be as big as a medicine ball, the next made her look short and fat. The next mirror made her look like a giant Q-tip, her middle pencil thin, her head and feet huge.

She glanced at Colin in front of the short and fat mirror and she burst out laughing.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her against his side. “Now we both look the same.”

“This is what eating too much cotton candy will do to us.” She laughed again. Seeing Colin short tickled her funny bone.

Colin turned to her and cupped her face with one of his hands, smoothing his thumb across her cheek. “You should laugh more.”

She stared up at him in the dim lighting, her gaze captured by the intensity of his dark eyes. More than anything, she wanted to kiss him. But she’d followed her misguided instincts more than once with Colin and it led to heartache. “We should catch up with the others.”

“We will,” he said, stepping closer, his other hand curving around her waist to press against her back. “In a moment.”

Being alone with Colin was a very bad thing. It made her forget what she was trying so hard to do.

He tipped her head up and bent down until his mouth was a mere inch from hers.