Two Can Play That Game

by Myla Jackson

Copyright © 2011, Myla Jackson. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Editor: Layla Chase

Cover artist: Myla Jackson

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues
in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as
real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is
completely coincidental.

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, purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard
work of this author.

Charli Sutton
arrived for her shift early at the Ugly Stick Saloon, had the floors swept and
mopped, the chairs arranged and the counters spic-and-span before her boss
arrived.

When
Audrey Anderson walked through the door lugging a box of whiskey, she whistled
and her brows rose. "I believe a mystery elf has been at work here."

Charli
eased down off the ladder she'd climbed to clean the old-fashioned mirror
spanning the wall behind the bar. "I had energy to burn, I thought I'd get
started early."

Audrey
frowned, waving a hand at the bar’s interior. "You did all this? I'd say
you had energy. Did you sleep here?"

"No,
of course not." With a laugh, Charli relieved Audrey of her box and
hurried toward the storeroom behind the bar. She barely slept all night.

Audrey
followed her into the storeroom and leaned against the door. "Okay, spill.
Who are you and where did you hide Charli?"

"I
am
Charli. The same Charli you've seen here every day for the past two
years." Charli smiled and shifted from one foot to the other, wanting to
divulge her secret but afraid her boss would think her crazy. She wasn't ready
to share what had happened the night before. Not yet. When she'd woken this
morning, she'd pinched herself, wondering if the previous night hadn't been one
elaborate and very sexy dream.

The ache
between her legs and the rawness of her pussy reminded her the escapade had not
been her imagination. She really had been naughty with a stranger. Not only had
she made love to someone she didn't know, she'd done it in the judge's swimming
pool. And, if she was not mistaken, the judge had been watching.

A shiver
of excitement rippled across her body and moisture pooled between her legs. All
of her newfound excitement was due to a whispered dare from the man in the
black cowboy hat. He'd been at the bar the night before, watching
her...listening to her conversation with Audrey about being bored with life in
Temptation, Texas.

She
thought she could name all the regular customers in the bar. Was the cowboy
who'd fucked her in the judge's pool been one of those men she saw on a regular
basis? Had she underestimated someone?

Audrey
crossed both arms over her chest. "I'm not letting you out of here until
you tell me what's going on." Her eyes narrowed.

"Nothing's
going on." Her gaze shifted high and left. She'd always been a terrible
liar. "Come on, Audrey, we have work to do. The bar opens in—"

"Thirty
minutes. You have everything done." Audrey's eyes narrowed even more until
she was squinting  at Charli. "Something’s different. You got laid, didn't
you?" Her frown cleared and a smile lit her face.

Heat
spread from Charli's chest up into her neck and face. Ah hell, not only was she
a terrible liar, she'd never been good at hiding her feelings.

"You
did. I knew it." Audrey grabbed Charli's hands and dragged her into the
bar, pushing her onto a padded stool. "Tell all."

Charli
laughed, the eruption of sound ending on a sigh. "There's not a whole lot
to tell."

"Start
from when you left the bar and don't leave out any of the details. I want them
all." Audrey sat on a nearby barstool and propped her chin on a fist, her
eyes wide, eager.

Shifting
in her seat, Charli glanced away. The excitement of the night before rippled
through all over again. "Well, when I left here, I got a phone call from a
man daring me to skinny dip in Judge Stephen's pool."

"What?"
Audrey sat up straight, palms flat against her knees. "You didn't take the
dare, did you? They call Judge Stephens the hangin' judge for a reason."

Charli
shrugged, her lips twisting into a wry grin. "Yeah, well...I did."

"Skinny
dip?" Audrey let out a long low whistle and grinned. "Baby, I didn't
know you had it in you. Go on."

"Anyway,
the guy who dared me said he'd be watching."

"That's
it? Just watching?” Her brows wrinkled. “I thought you got laid."

Charli's
lips twitched. A shiver ran through her at the memory. "Oh, he didn't just
watch."

"He
joined you?"

"And
how." With another sigh, Charli leaned her elbow on the counter and stared
across the deserted dance floor, last night’s scene replaying across her mind.
"It was magical...floating in the water, being touched...made love
to...Sheer magic."

Audrey
sighed as well, her eyes glazing. "Nice." She blinked and
straightened. "Okay, who is the lucky fella?"

The
images disappeared like a popped bubble. "That's the problem."
Charli's arm dropped to the counter. "I don't know."

"You
don't know?" Audrey stood. "You had sex with a guy and you don't know
who it is? What did he look like?"

Charli
shrugged. "Tall, dark, built like a fortress."

"Hair,
eyes? What color?"

"I
don't know." She shook her head, her words lame even to her own ears.

"How
could you not know?"

"He
wore a black cowboy hat pushed down low over his eyes. I couldn't make out his
facial features in the shadows."

"What
about his hair?"

"Same.
The hat hid hair and eyes."

"Holy
crap, Charli. What were you thinking?"

Her
stomach curled into a ball. What had she been thinking? "That there was
moonlight, the night was fabulous and filled with stars." Charli jumped up
from the stool and paced the length of the bar, turned and paced back. "I
got excited and suddenly he was there. It felt right. Hell, this vagina hadn't
had any action in nearly six months."

"He
could be a pervert, a serial rapist or worse...married!" Audrey flung both
hands in the air. "Haven't I taught you any better?"

"Hey.”
Her body went rigid. “Weren't you the one telling me I should take a
chance?"

"A
chance on a guy you know, not a mass murderer."

"You
don't know that he's a murderer." Charli stepped behind the counter,
grabbed a rag and scrubbed the counter.

Audrey
laid a hand over Charli's, halting her frenetic cleaning spree. "You don't
know anything about this guy."

"He
was here last night. He overheard our conversation." She looked into her
boss's eyes. "Shit, Audrey, he has to be one of our customers."

"It
was Friday freakin' night. We always have a lot of customers on Friday
nights—married and single. You can't know everyone. It had to be someone
sitting close to where you were." Audrey squeezed the bridge of her nose
between her thumb and forefinger. "Who was sitting at the counter last
night?"

"God,
it was so busy, I can't remember." Charli recalled the guy with the
military haircut. "Kendall Mason's brother. He had a stool at the counter
last night. He even made a comment about making any place fun, if you
try."

"Connor
Mason?"

"Yeah,
Connor." Charli's heart skipped several beats. Connor was tall, built
Army-tough and incredibly sexy in that I-eat-bullets-for-breakfast way. Her
eyes widened. "You think he might have been the guy who dared me to swim
in the judge's pool?"

Audrey
frowned. "He just got back from Afghanistan." She touched a finger to
her chin. "Maybe. No telling. Hell, fourteen months in a war zone without
sex..." Her  hair bobbed as she nodded. "Was he wearing or carrying a
black cowboy hat?"

Charli's
shoulders drooped. "No."

"Don't
rule him out. He could have had it in his car or truck." Audrey checked
her watch. "Do you think whoever it was will show up tonight?" She
looked up, connected with Charli’s gaze and nodded. "Duh, of course you
do, or you wouldn't have been here an hour early. Speaking of early, we better
unlock the doors. The after-work crowd will be arriving soon."

Charli
let out a relieved breath, glad Audrey would focus on something other than
Charli's love-life.

Halfway
to the front entrance, Audrey spun and shook a finger at Charli. "Don't
think you're getting off light. I'm watching you and I'll be looking for anyone
in a black cowboy hat tonight. And no more dares!"

Charli held
up her hands in surrender. "No worries, I've learned my lesson. Never make
love to a stranger in a black cowboy hat." A chuckle rose up in her chest,
a smile spreading across her face. "I'll get his name first."

Audrey
rolled her eyes, turned and unlocked the entrance.

Several
men spilled inside, laughing, calling out to each other, their boots scuffing
across the floor.

Her gaze
on every man passing through the door, Charli searched for a black cowboy hat. Plenty
of straw hats and a few ragged baseball caps drifted by, clutched in hands or
perched on a head, but no black cowboy hat. With Saturday nights every bit as
busy as Fridays, Charli didn't get much of a chance to study all the men in the
bar.

Between
slinging bottles like a pro and satisfying drink orders for the very busy
waitresses, she didn't have the opportunity to talk to the men filling the bar
stools more than to give them the drinks they ordered. She knew two of the
eight men personally, the other four were repeat customers she hadn't had the
time to get to know. Connor Mason wasn't one of the men leaning on the bar,
sipping beer and talking.

Audrey
joined her briefly after ten when the band took a break and everyone rushed to
the bar for a refill. "See him yet?"

"I
told you, I don't know for sure who
HE
is."

"Connor
Mason." She tossed a bottle of scotch in the air, expertly caught it and
poured a jigger into the glass in front of her tipping it up with a flourishing
wave of her hand. She set down the scotch bottle, grabbed the water nozzle and
topped off the glass. "Did you see Connor?"

"No."
Charlie jammed a pitcher beneath a beer tap and flipped the spigot. She grabbed
two bottles of Guinness, tossed them in the air, caught them, popped their tops
and slapped them on Libby's tray, completing the order with the full pitcher of
beer. "He's not here as far as I can tell."