So Tough To Tame

“No! Not seriously! There is no picture of my...” He glanced at Rayleen, self-conscious about his language even if she did have the mouth of an old sailor. “...manhood online. Or anywhere else. As far as I know.”

“Ah. Cell phone cameras are tricky beasts, aren’t they?” Charlie tried to make her words sound sympathetic. It didn’t work. She broke down in laughter.

No, there were no cock shots of him anywhere, but there was one small problem that—

Rayleen cupped her hand around her mouth as if she were going to whisper a secret. “Someone posted a picture of his naked ass on Facebook.”

“Rayleen,” he groaned.

“Took me a few days to find it, but it was worth the work.”

Walker closed his eyes against the sight of Charlie’s horrified delight. He shook his head. “Why do you have to tell everyone? It’s just a picture of an ass, for God’s sake.”

“Just a picture of your ass while you were sleeping naked on some girl’s bed.”

Not for the first time, he said a quick prayer of thanks that he was a stomach sleeper. He should’ve known that woman would be trouble. She’d started texting her friends five seconds after orgasm.

“Oh, Walker,” Charlie said, her voice closer than it had been. But he didn’t open his eyes, even when her hand patted his cheek. “You haven’t changed at all.”

Much as he’d like to, there was no denying the truth. When he’d woken this morning, he’d greeted the day with exactly as much to his name as he’d had when Charlie had left town for college: a big truck, a strong back, good hands and some almost-promising ranch work lined up. The only thing he’d managed to add were a few aches and pains, a small savings and a little regret.

He suddenly remembered that he’d been too tired to hang out tonight.

When he opened his eyes he found that everyone had moved on. Rayleen was reabsorbed in her game of solitaire. Nate and Merry were propped on bar stools, laughing with Jenny, and Charlie...Charlie had cleared a small space near the jukebox and pulled some cowboy into her arms to two-step.

“You were right about her,” Rayleen said without looking up. “She’s all right. Bought me a drink and everything. In my own bar. My best Scotch.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Rayleen nodded. “Yep. You were right. I like that girl.”

Yeah. Unfortunately for his pride, so did he.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_152b4a85-452b-59e4-abdc-8e20d1ce753d)

CHARLIE STARED DOWN her hangover in the mirror. Unless Rayleen had installed fluorescent bulbs in the bathroom, her face was a damn unattractive color this morning. She looked closer, scowling down her own bad mood and daring her stomach to rebel.

It’d been years since she had a hangover. A few unwise nights during her first year in Las Vegas had taught her about pacing.

But the hangover hardly mattered. She dreaded going to work anyway. No point wasting good health on it. It would be a bad day with or without a shifty stomach and a headache. At least she’d had fun flirting with Walker last night.

Resigned to her miserable day, she forced herself to drink a full glass of water, then showered and shaved her legs and put on enough makeup to hide the green before slouching to her car. She already had antacids in the glove compartment. This wasn’t the first stomachache the Meridian Resort had given her. She was prepared.

She’d thought this job was her saving grace. She’d thought Dawn was swooping in to save her like an old friend riding in on a white horse. Now Charlie was tied to the railroad tracks and trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

Then again, it wasn’t really something that had happened. She’d done it to herself. Not deliberately, just...stupidly. And she’d always thought she was so smart. She’d spent a blissful twenty-nine years believing she wasn’t an idiot, and then she’d been arrested for criminal conspiracy. Lesson learned.

The drive to Teton Village was over in a flash, fifteen minutes accelerated to mere seconds by her dread. The scattered resorts and gigantic lodges were beautiful. There were miles of exquisite architecture and landscaping designed to look perfect amid the snowdrifts and icicles. But to her, the whole village looked like so much trash washed up on the shore of these mountains. She wove her way through the maze and headed toward the Meridian Resort halfway up the hill.

Three weeks ago, she’d been grinning through this whole drive, so thrilled and excited to have an opportunity. Any opportunity.

Clenching her jaw, she waited for the gate to the employee parking garage to open, staring straight ahead so she wouldn’t glare at the tiny camera lens to her left. Her stomach turned. She ignored it and pulled into her numbered spot. Another little camera lens watched as she got out of her car and headed toward the utilitarian steel door set in the cement wall. On the guest level, the cement walls were painted a homey beige, and the fire doors were paneled with wood. But the employee floor had all the appeal of a prison. Appropriate.

She took the stairs up one level and headed for the basement offices of the security department.

Dawn’s office was two floors up, with a lovely view and high ceilings, but Charlie wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Dawn sitting on one of the metal chairs outside Charlie’s door.

Dawn leaned back in her chair with a smile. “This is quite the walk of shame, Charlotte.”

“What are you talking about?” Charlie asked with a sigh. She unlocked her door, aware that she was an idiot to bother with locking it in the first place. Dawn had keys to everything, after all, and she used them.

“You haven’t been in your apartment since yesterday. Already out making new friends, I guess.”

Charlie hid her grimace of frustration before rounding her small desk. “What I do when I’m off the clock is none of your business.”

“As long as you’re not sleeping with other employees of the resort, you mean. Or anyone in management.” Her tone was always sweet, always helpful, which only made her words so much creepier.

“I’m not.”

“With your history, we can never be too careful, can we?”

Charlie squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, just so she wouldn’t have to look at that cute cherubic face. “I already explained about the facilities manager. Twice. And your husband—”

“Oh, I’m not worried about my husband, Charlotte. He likes nice girls. Like me. He wouldn’t risk everything he’s built just for a few moments of sordid...What’s the word I’m looking for?”

“Pleasure?” Charlie muttered, thinking Dawn must be a real treat in bed, with her stiff neck and her inability to even say something dirty, much less do it.

“No,” she snapped. “Depravity. Or plain old sluttiness.”

“You should try it sometime. You might like it.”

Her face wasn’t looking so cherubic anymore. Her perfectly rouged cheeks went red. “I pushed for you for this job in spite of your reputation. Nobody else wanted you. You should remember that.”

As if she could forget. As if she’d still be sitting here for any other reason. “Why?” she asked.

“Because if you don’t remind yourself of that, you’re going to—”

“No, I mean, why did you want to hire me?”

Dawn drew in a breath and smoothed down her blond bob. Her smile reappeared. “Because we’re friends. And I’m not the kind of person who’d turn her back on a friend in need.”

She was insane. That was the only explanation for it. Dawn had lost her mind sometime after high school. Sure, she might have been a little uptight and judgmental, but she’d been normal. But this? This wasn’t normal.

“Nobody else would’ve hired you, Charlotte.”

“Yes, so you’ve reminded me.” It was true. She’d sent out dozens of résumés. With her education and experience, she should’ve been an automatic interview. She hadn’t received one phone call. Until Dawn.

“And nobody will ever hire you again if you leave here under bad circumstances.”