Buch lesen: «Million Dollar Baby»

One

A dimly lit bar filled with rowdy patrons was an uncomfortable place to be on a Thursday night near the witching hour...if you were a woman without a date and too shy to make eye contact with anyone. The music was loud, masking Brooke’s unease.

She was lonely and so very tired of being the forgotten Goodman child. She’d spent her entire life toeing some invisible line, and what had it gotten her? Neither of her parents respected her. Her two older brothers were out conquering the world. And where was Brooke? Stuck at home with Mom and Dad in Royal, Texas. Held hostage by their expectations and her own eager-to-please personality. The whole situation sucked.

She nursed her virgin strawberry daiquiri and stared at the tiny seeds nestling in the ice. Impulsive decisions were more her style than drunken peccadilloes. Brooke had seen too many of her friends almost ruin their lives with a single alcohol-fueled mistake. She might be crazy, but she was clearheaded.

Suddenly, she realized that the band had vacated the stage. The remaining plaintive music—courtesy of the lone guitar player—suited Brooke’s mood. She didn’t even mind the peanut-strewn floor and the smell of stale beer. At the same moment, she saw a man sitting alone at the bar, three empty stools on either side of him. Something about his broad shoulders made the breath catch in her throat. She had seen him walk in earlier. Instantaneous attraction might be a quirk of pheromones, but yearning had curled in the pit of her stomach even then. Sadly, the dance floor had been too crowded, and she had lost sight of him before she could work up the courage to introduce herself.

Now, here he was. All the scene needed was a shaft of light from heaven to tell her this was the man. This was her moment. She wanted him.

Butterflies fluttered through her. Oh, God. Was she really going to do it? Was she really going to pick up a stranger?

There was little question in her mind that he was her type. Even seated, she could tell that he was tall. His frame was leanly muscled and lanky, his posture relaxed. His dark blond hair—what she could see of it beneath the Stetson—was rumpled enough to be interesting and had a slight curl that gave him an approachable charm. Unfortunately, she couldn’t gauge the color of his eyes from this distance.

Before she could change her mind, she lurched to her feet, frosty glass in hand, and made her way across the room. Not a single person stopped her. Not a single person joined the solitary man at the bar.

Surely it was a sign.

Taking a deep breath, she set her drink and her tiny clutch purse on the polished mahogany counter and hopped up on the leather-covered stool. No need to panic. It was only a conversation so far. That’s all.

Now that she was close to him, she felt a little dizzy.

She gnawed her bottom lip and summoned a smile. “Hello, Cowboy. Mind if I join you?”

* * *

Austin glanced sideways and felt a kick of disappointment. The little blonde was a beauty, but she was far too young for him. Her gray eyes held an innocence he had lost years ago.

He shot her a terse smile. “Sorry, ma’am. I was about to leave.”

Her face fell. “Oh, don’t go. I thought we could chat.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Chat?”

Mortification stained her cheeks crimson. “Well, you know...”

“I don’t know,” he said. “That’s the point. This could be a sorority prank, or maybe you’re a not-quite-legal girl trying to lose her virginity. You look about sixteen, and I’m not keen to end up in jail tonight.”

She scowled at him. “That’s insulting.”

“Not at all. You reek of innocence. It’s a compliment, believe me. Unfortunately, I’m not the guy you’re looking for.”

“Maybe I want one who doesn’t end sentences with prepositions.”

The bite in her voice made him grin. “Are you insinuating that I’m uneducated?”

“Don’t change the subject. For your information, I’m twenty-six. Plenty old enough to know my own mind.” She took a deep breath. “I’m in the mood for romance.”

“I think you mean sex.”

He drawled the five words slowly, for nothing more than the pleasure of watching all that beautiful creamy skin turn a darker shade of dusky pink. “Sex?” The word came out as a tiny high-pitched syllable. Huge, smoky, thickly lashed eyes stared up at him.

This time he hid the grin. Poor kid was petrified.

He couldn’t deny that he was tempted. She was genuine and sweet and disarmingly beautiful...in a healthy, girl-next-door kind of way. Her pale blond hair was caught up in a careless ponytail, and her royal-blue silk shirt and skinny jeans were nothing pretentious. Even her ballerina flats were unexceptional. She was the kind of woman who probably looked exactly this good when she rolled out of bed in the morning.

That thought took him down a road he needed to avoid. His sex hardened, making his pants uncomfortable. He held out his hand, attempting to normalize the situation. “I’m Au—”

She slapped her hand over his mouth, interrupting his polite introduction. “No,” she said, sounding desperate and anxious all at the same time. “I’ll call you Cowboy. You can call me Mandy.”

He took her wrist and moved her hand away. “Not your real name?”

“No.”

“Ah. Aliases. Intriguing.”

“You’re making fun of me.” Her face fell.

“Maybe a little.” He smiled to let her know he was teasing.

Without warning, their flirtatious repartee was rudely curtailed. A tall, statuesque redhead took the bar stool at his right shoulder and curled an arm around his waist. “Buy me another beer, will you? Sorry I was gone so long. Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to build a ladies’ room with only a single stall?”

Austin groaned inwardly. Damn. He’d actually forgotten about Audra for a moment. “Um...”

Poor Mandy went dead white and looked as if she were going to throw up. “Excuse me,” she said, with all the politeness of a guest at high tea with the queen. “It was a pleasure to meet you, but I have to go now.”

Thank God Audra was a quick study. She sized up the situation in a glance. Her eyes widened. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry. Don’t go. I’m his sister. Honest.”

Mandy hesitated.

Austin nodded. “It’s true. Underneath that bottled red hair is a blonde just like me.”

Audra stood up and grimaced. “Forget the beer, little brother. I’ll grab a cab. See you at the house later.”

Then his five-years-older sister went completely off script. She stepped around him and took both of Mandy’s hands in hers. “Here’s the thing, ma’am. I know it’s sometimes scary to meet men these days. Getting hit on in a bar can be dangerous.”

“She was hitting on me,” Austin muttered.

Both women ignored him.

Audra continued. “My brother is a good, decent man. He doesn’t have any diseases, and he doesn’t assault women. You don’t have to be afraid of him.”

“Audra!” His head threatened to explode from embarrassment.

Mandy barely glanced at him. “I see.”

Audra nodded. “He doesn’t live here. He’s in town visiting me, and we came out tonight to...well...”

For once, his outrageous sister looked abashed.

Mandy gave him a puzzled look. “To what?”

Dear Lord. He gritted his teeth. If he didn’t tell her, Audra would. “Today is the anniversary of my wife’s death. She’s been gone for six years. I finally took my wedding ring off, thanks to my sister’s badgering. That’s it. That’s all.”

Tears welled in Mandy’s eyes. She blinked them back, but one rolled down her cheek. “I had no idea. I am so sorry.”

Audra patted her shoulder. “It was a long time ago. He’s fine.”

Austin got to his feet and grabbed his sister’s arm none too gently despite her glowing character testimonial. “You’re leaving. Now.”

He glanced back at Mandy. “Don’t move.”

On the way to the door, Audra smirked at him. “I won’t wait up for you. Have fun tonight.”

“You are such a brat.”

Outside on the sidewalk, he hugged her. “I won’t discuss my love life with you. A man has boundaries.”

Audra kissed his cheek. “Understood. I just want you to be happy, that’s all.”

“I am happy,” he said.

“Liar.”

“I’m happier than I was.”

“Go back in there before she gets cold feet.”

“I love you, sis.”

“I love you, too.”

He watched his only sibling get into a cab, and then he looked through the window into the bar where not one but two men had taken advantage of his absence to move in on Mandy.

No way. No way in hell. The little blonde was his. At least for tonight.

* * *

Brooke breathed a sigh of relief when her cowboy returned and dispersed the crowd that had gathered around her. Apparently if the hour was late enough and the man drunk enough, even the most vehement no didn’t register.

When it was just the two of them again, the cowboy gave her a slow, intimate smile that curled her toes. “May I buy you another drink?”

“No, thanks. I wasn’t drinking. Not really. Alcohol clouds a person’s judgment. I wanted to be clearheaded tonight.”

“I see.” He cocked his head and studied her. “Do you live here in Joplin?”

“Nope.”

“So we’re both just passing through?”

“It would seem that way.”

A small grin teased the corners of his mouth. The man had a great mouth. Really great. She could imagine kissing that mouth all night long.

Finally, he shook his head, bemusement in his baffled gaze. “I know what I’m doing here, Mandy, but I’m still not clear about why you showed up at this bar tonight.”

“Does it matter?” She hadn’t expected a man to quiz her. The fact that her cowboy was slowing things down rattled her.

He nodded. “It does to me.”

“Maybe I’m horny.”

He snorted out a laugh and tried to turn it into a cough...unsuccessfully. Then he rubbed two fingers in the center of his forehead and sighed. “I’m not asking for your life story. But I’d like to know why me and why tonight. Is this a rebound thing? Are you trying to teach someone a lesson? Am I even warm?”

“Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would already have me in bed right now.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

The look in his eyes made her feel like a naughty schoolgirl. And not in a good way. She drained the last of her melted daiquiri and wrinkled her nose. “My life is boring. I’m having some family issues. For once I wanted to do something wild and exciting and totally out of character. Plus, you’re really hot.”

“So you don’t frequent bars as a rule?”

“You know I don’t,” she grumbled, “or I wouldn’t be so bad at it.”

He flicked the end of her ponytail. “I never said you were bad at it.”

Some deep note in his voice caught her stomach and sent it into a free fall of excitement and anticipation. “So are we good now?” she asked.

The cowboy stared at her. He stared at her for so long that her nipples pebbled and her thighs clenched. “What makes you believe that you and I will be wild and exciting? What if you chose wrong?”

She gaped. Words escaped her.

He closed her mouth with a finger below her chin. “It would seem prudent to take me out for a test drive ahead of time...don’t you think?”

Before she could do more than inhale a sharp, startled breath, he slid one big hand beneath her ponytail, cupped the base of her neck and pulled her toward him just far enough for their mouths to meet comfortably.

Actually, comfortable was a misnomer for what happened next. Fireworks shot toward the ceiling in all directions. Angel choirs sang. A million dizzying pinwheels shot through her veins and rocketed into her pelvis.

The man was kissing her. Nothing more. So why was the earth shaking beneath her feet?

He tasted of whiskey and temptation. If she’d had any remaining reservations about her plan, they vanished in the heat of his lips on hers. It was possible she whimpered. She definitely leaned in and wordlessly begged for more.

Somewhere in the distance catcalls and whoops and hollers signaled an appreciative audience. But Brooke barely noticed. Her hands settled on the cowboy’s shoulders. “Take off your hat,” she begged.

“I only take off the hat in bed,” he said, the words rough with lust and determination.

“Oh.”

His smile was more of a grimace. “It’s not too late for you to walk away. In fact, it’s never too late. You started this little fantasy, but you can say no whenever you want.”

She looked up at him, feeling the oddest combination of confidence and stomach-curling uncertainty. “I don’t want to say no.”

“Do you have a hotel room?”

“Not yet.”

“Any preference?”

“Not somewhere fancy.” Translation—nowhere that the staff might know her parents.

His terse nod seemed to indicate agreement. “Let’s go, then.” He tossed money on the bar for the tab and took her elbow as they walked out.

Outside, they paused on the sidewalk. It was August, and the air was pleasant at this hour. He pointed at a late-model pickup truck. “Would you like me to drive?”

Brooke shook her head. Who knew that the mechanics of a one-night stand were so tricky? “My things are in my car. I’ll meet you there. How about the Sherwood Hotel? Two streets over?”

“I know it.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, feeling brutally young and stupid.

“For what?”

“I’m sorry you lost your wife.”

He cursed beneath his breath, rolled his shoulders and stared up at the moon, his profile starkly masculine. “You told me we weren’t going to use our real names,” he said. “That was your rule. Well, mine is no rehashing the past. This is sex, Mandy. Wild and exciting and temporary—if that’s not what you want, walk away.”

His entire body vibrated with tension. She honestly couldn’t tell if he was angry or sexually frustrated or both.

In that moment, she realized that her reasons for coming to Joplin no longer existed. She wasn’t here to flirt or to pick up a stranger or to have an anonymous tryst to prove to herself that she wasn’t boring.

Right here, right now...with her limbs shaking and her mouth dry and her nerves shot...the only thing she wanted was to undress this cowboy and to have him return the favor. Because this man, this beautiful, hauntingly complicated man, tugged at her heartstrings. She wanted to know him in every way there was to know a lover.

She only had one night. It would have to be enough.

Daringly, she reached out and put a hand on his arm. She could feel his taut, warm muscles through the soft cotton fabric of his shirt. “I don’t want to walk away, Cowboy. I’ll meet you at the hotel. Don’t make me wait.”