One Rodeo Season

Ian leaned forward, a playful smile on his lips. “You know, you’re actually quite funny when you want to be.”

Was that a challenge? It sounded like one. “Don’t tell anyone. It’d ruin my reputation as that bitch with the bulls, and then where would I be?” She ignored the way her face warmed at his compliment, and she really ignored the way he noticed it. Something in his eyes shifted—deepened.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, his voice lower. She felt it in her chest. But then, he leaned back, breaking the spell. “Anyway, I got lucky getting to tag along with Black Jack. Otherwise, I’d probably be down at the level below this one. Black Jack was up in the bigs for a long time before he got into a bad wreck. He thinks we can get back there if...”

She arched an eyebrow at him and actually smiled. “If you stop throwing bulls to the ground?” She was teasing him, she realized. When was the last time she’d teased someone?

“Yeah, that.”

The waitress set down a huge mound of onion rings and mozzarella sticks. “Be right back with those chips,” she said, and Lacy swore she winked at Ian.

If he noticed, he didn’t show it. Instead, after offering Lacy some cheese sticks, he said, “How about you? How long have you been rodeoing?”

It was a perfectly innocent question, the kind someone asked when they were making polite small talk. But suddenly it was harder to breathe. A weight was on her chest and she wished she’d ordered the Moons Over My Hammy, just for Dad.

“I’ve been coming for as long as I can remember. My dad was the stock contractor. The Straight Arrow was his business.”

“Ah,” Ian said, as if that had answered all his questions. “This your first year without him?” His voice was kind.

She nodded, a small movement of her head.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She tried to shrug, but it wasn’t a smooth thing. She was not a smooth woman.

She couldn’t hold up under his intense gaze, so she grabbed a cheese stick and began to eat it to hide her anxiety.

“Is your mom doing okay?”

She blinked a few times. She would not cry. Hell, she would not even tear up. Absolutely no moisture would leak from any orifice in her body. “I... I really don’t want to talk about this.” She set her half-eaten cheese on her plate. “If you don’t mind.”

He tilted his head from side to side. “If you decide you want to talk, you let me know.”

“Why?” It came out so quietly it barely made it to the level of a whisper. She tried again. “Why would you want to listen to me?”

“Because,” he said simply, as if that were the only answer that mattered.

It wasn’t. Honestly, what was he doing here with her, besides trying to feed her fried food? “This isn’t a date,” she reminded him. “I’m paying for my half of the food.”

He pointedly looked at her cheese stick. “Seriously, Evans? I’m buying your salad. Consider it part of my payback for the vet bill.”

“You can’t keep using that excuse.”

“Sure I can,” he said as he ate another cheese stick. “You act like if I buy your dinner, I’ll expect you to put out or something.”

“Most guys would. Most guys would have expected something in return for saving me from Jerome. Not that I needed saving,” she hurried to add, because she realized she was making herself sound weak and she was not weak. She wasn’t.

“And you’re right. This isn’t a date.”

“Yeah?” She should have been pleased with his agreement. She wasn’t. What the hell was her problem?

Ian leaned forward again. The air between them seemed to thin away to nothingness. She forgot how to breathe. She forgot how to think.

“I’m only going to say this once more, Lacy. I’m not most guys. I’m not sitting here with you because I think it’s the best way to get you naked. I’m sitting here—with you—because we’re friends.”

Flashes of that dream came back to her. Naked. With Ian.

His gaze dropped down to her lips. He took a deep breath, his eyelids drifting to half-mast, as if he were smelling her and not the overpowering scent of fried onions. “Besides,” he added in the exact same voice she’d heard in her dream, pure sex in the air, “you want me, you know where to find me.”

“Wait—what?”

“You know what I mean,” he said, leaning back. The waitress brought her salad and the chips, but Lacy couldn’t even acknowledge food right now.

Had this man promised that they were friends, and then immediately offered—well, something? Something that he probably didn’t offer his other friends?

Yes. Yes, he had. The look he was giving her was exactly the stuff that dreams were made of, and for a moment, she considered the possibility that, once again, she’d fallen asleep in the cab of the truck and that at any second, all of her clothes were going to fly off and Ian would be reclined on a bed, promising her that she wouldn’t be able to think straight by the time he was done with her.

“I’m not the kind of man who boxes a woman into a corner—or pins her against a trailer—without her permission. That’s not how I operate. Me trying to be a decent human doesn’t mean you owe me a damn thing. Yeah, I’m attracted to you. There’s something about you...”

His voice trailed off as his gaze drifted over her face, her chest. He took another deep breath and exhaled. Lacy knew her jaw was on the ground, but she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had he just— Did he want her?

“If you’re not looking for a good time, then no harm, no foul,” he went on. “You’ve got a lot to deal with right now and I respect that. But if you want to have a little fun, you know where to find me. No strings.”

“I can’t—I can’t be hurt. I can’t take any more pain.” The admission was out before she could do anything about it.

He leaned forward and cupped her face in his palm. His touch was a kind of electric that she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. Not from another man. Not even from her handshake with Ian a few days ago.

His thumb stroked over her cheek and she knew she should lean away. She should break the contact and put an end to this madness that he’d started. That she’d started.

“I won’t hurt you, Lacy Evans. And I’ll do what it takes to make sure no one else hurts you, either.”

Good lord, he was serious. He barely knew her and he was touching her and promising to—to what? To protect her? To be her friend? With benefits? But only if she wanted to? Did any of that even make sense?

Nothing made sense. It made even less sense when the look in his eyes changed—she felt it where his skin touched hers.

Once, she’d been caught out in a summer storm while she’d been swimming in the creek. The skies had opened up and she’d barely gotten out of the water before lightning started striking. She’d grabbed her horse, Jacks, and dragged him out of the cover of the trees into the open grass. Moments after they’d made it to safety, lightning had struck one of the trees. The air around them had taken on a charged feel, making her hair stand on end. It was as close to being struck by lightning as she’d ever been.

But here? With Ian touching her, looking at her with the kind of intensity that made talking, thinking, nearly impossible? All she could do was feel the way he cupped her face, his massive hand tenderly holding her, his thumb stroking over her skin as if she was a jewel of the highest value.

And then his hand dropped away from her, breaking the spell. He sat back and said, “No strings, either way. It’d be fun. Nothing more.”

She wasn’t so naive that she didn’t get his meaning. He’d sleep with her if she wanted him to—but any relationship they might have would be limited to friendship.

So she might have had an erotic dream about Ian Tall Chief. So he could reduce her to a quivering, wordless mass with a look and a simple touch. So he might be the most gorgeous man to ever look at her. It didn’t matter.

“Honey, I know you can do better than this.”

Mom’s voice floated up through Lacy’s memories. Her parents had raised her better than to tumble into a relationship that was no strings—and no promises.