Hall was a
classic rough wood-clad Texas saloon and dance hall. On the hot night air, she
heard the strains of a honky-tonk tune from a live country band. She shut her
eyes at the sounds of the toe-tapping music and told herself she was going to
enjoy it and her social obligations to meet the townspeople. “Lord, I am
nervous.”
“Don’t be,” Chet crooned and swept a hand around her waist. “In
those jeans you look good enough to eat, and heaven knows, I’ve got a hankerin’
for that all the time!”
She elbowed him. “Come on, now. You promised to be good
tonight. If we have to win friends and influence people, you cannot be
complimenting me all the time.”
He stopped and turned her in his arms, his heavily muscled
thighs and rigid cock nestled warmly against her torso. “I promise to be good.
It’s just damn hard for me to look at you and not want you naked with those
pretty legs spread open so I can lick your folds.”
“Chet,” she warned, shivering with his ardor. “Stop, honey,
just for a few hours.”
He inhaled, looked up at the night sky. “I’m looking for
strength.”
She laughed and grabbed his hand. “Come on. Let’s dance!”
“Hey, Chet,” a burly cowboy in a white shirt and jeans
called from across the stone parking lot. “How you doin’, man?” He strode
closer with a friend who was as tall and dark as he. “Introduce us.”
“John Dayton, Shana Carpenter,” Chet said the words
mechanically then looked at the man’s friend. “And I’m sorry, I don’t know your
name.”
“Brak Henley,” the other man said, tipping his black gambler’s
hat at Shana. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He put his hand out to Chet who shook
it quickly. “Stapleton. Stapleton. Aren’t you the champ bronc buster from a few
years back?”
“I am.”
“You competing? Dayton, here, tells me you have a rodeo
doing the season opener soon.”
“No, I don’t ride any longer,” Chet told him.
John Dayton spoke up. “Chet is the town’s rodeo manager.”
“Is that so?” Henley examined him. “Got tired of the
circuit, huh?”
“Something like that,” Chet bit off.
“Chet had a bad streak of luck,” Dayton told his buddy. “Bad
press.”
Chet nodded. “That too.”
Shana stiffened.
Chet looked down at her. “Come on, Shana. Let’s go inside.
See you both later.”
He steered her toward the front door, but her feet were lead
and her heart was in her throat. Did everyone remember what she’d done to him?
“What’s the matter, honey?” He turned when she couldn’t move
beyond the front door.
She swallowed hard. Over the past weeks, how many times had
she wanted to come clean and tell him? When he kissed her in the office? When
he took her clothes off with reverent care and they made love standing up
against the file cabinets? When he put his cock inside her in her hot tub at
the B&B and just held. When he laid her down in his bed or hers and
caressed her nipples and filled her pussy with his sweet, hard cock. When he’d
probed her ass and said, We’ll stretch you a little more again tomorrow,
baby. One day soon I’ll fuck you hard there. Promise, darlin’. Come along now
and let me kiss your lovely mouth again.
“Come along now, darlin’,” he crooned against her ear. “We’re
good here, and you need to meet these people.”
She looked up at his strong handsome face. “I want you to
kiss me.”
“Aw, Shana, you know if I do that, we’re goin’ home to make
love.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “I’ll lay you in my bed good and proper
after we shake a few hands.”
What choice did she have? Tell him and lose him? Continue to
stall, not tell him and take the chance he could ever forgive her when she did
find the gumption? And as for caring for her forever? Ah. Foolishness. No one
did that. Hadn’t she learned that first hand from her mother and father? They
had loved each other badly and still couldn’t enjoy their lives together. What
made her