Asking For Trouble (19 page)

When she shook her head and increased her
pace, Beau sucked in a breath through his teeth as she sent him
hurtling the rest of the way into oblivion. His muscles tensed, and
his head buzzed as the heady release swamped him. Beau bent over
breathing hard and put his hands on her shoulders to recover his
senses.

When he finally found his voice he croaked
hoarsely, "Lord, baby...that was..."Unbelievable." And it was
unbelievable to Beau, because he knew she was a virgin when he met
her. Never in a million years did he expect her to...but obviously,
she'd gotten
creative
before. This certainly wasn't her
first rodeo, he thought and pulled up his shorts.

Jazzie looked up into his eyes and gave him
a sexy smile that made his knees weaker that the orgasm he'd just
had. Evidently, she'd noticed his surprise, because she said with a
chuckle, "What? I might have been a virgin, Beau, but I wasn't a
nun."

He snorted and wrapped his arms around her,
then said into her hair, "I think you proved that point, because
I'm sure that wasn't in the nun handbook."

Beau felt her tense in his arms, then she
mumbled softly against his chest, "Tell me about Jenny Anderson and
what happened with you."

Dread coursed through him, because he knew
when he refused to talk about it, she was going to assume the
worst. He might be falling in love with Jazzie, but that was
something he wasn't going to talk about, now or ever. "I'm not
going to talk about it now, sugar, we need to get you to that safe
house, so I can head to Bowie."

"What's in Bowie that's so all fired
important you have to leave me? I don't want to go to that safe
house, I don't trust anyone but you to keep me safe...stay with me,
Beau," she pleaded and rubbed her face against his chest.

He groaned then hugged her and said, "I have
to go, sugar, or you'll never be safe."

"This has something to do with those guys
who are after me and Frankie?" she asked and looked up at him.

"Yeah, and I can't talk about that either in
case something goes sour," he told her. By sour, he meant if by
some long shot they managed to kidnap her, he didn't want her
having information that they could coerce out of her. The more she
knew, the less safe she'd be.

"We've gotta work on our communication,
Beau...there sure is a helluva lot you can't or won't tell me," she
said petulantly.

"When this is all over, darlin', I'll talk a
blue streak," he assured her, although his relationship with Jenny
Anderson still wouldn't be on the table. It was a fluke that Jenny
was at the hospital in Henrietta tonight, and even more of a
coincidence that she was Jazzie's doctor. The last he'd heard,
Jenny had still been in Amarillo somewhere, that was another reason
he never went back to his dad's ranch.

"If I'm at that safe house, how am I going
to teach my class next week? I set up lessons for a group of inner
city school kids for Saturday afternoon...I can't cancel on them,"
she said seriously, looking into his eyes.

When she looked at him like that, there
wasn't a damned thing he could deny her. He sighed, then said,
"I'll pick you up and take you...or arrange for the agents guarding
you to take you."

The brilliant smile she gave him sent heat
zinging through him again, and he hugged her to him so he didn't
have to see it. Every smile, soft glance, or touch she gave him
just pushed him closer to the edge of falling in love with her, and
he couldn't let himself do that, because he knew he'd hurt her.

What happened with Jenny had turned him into
a friends-with-benefits only kind of guy, seeing her tonight had
reminded him of that. His hard and fast rule since Jenny was that
he only slept with women he wouldn't develop feelings for, and ones
he knew were on the same page with him. It was easier, less
complicated, and satisfied his needs. They didn't require the words
that seemed to be stuck in his heart forever.

Jazzie Ramos wasn't that kind of girl. She
might be pretending to be, because that's what she thought he
wanted, but having sex in stairwells wasn't her. She had a soft
heart, and he was afraid he was going to stomp all over it, before
this was said and done. The best thing he could do for both of them
was to cool things off with her, let her go, so she could find
someone to give her what she deserved...a happily ever after.

But Beau was a selfish bastard though, and
couldn't make himself do that. Just the thought of her with someone
else turned him inside out...the situation at the lake house was a
prime example. Maybe, with a little distance, he could work her out
of his heart. Right now though, it was impossible for him to let
her go.

***

Beau was startled awake by something wet
swiping across the side of his face. He sprang up and wiped his
cheek with the back of his arm, then sputtered when he realized it
was Sarge who'd licked him damned close to his mouth. The
slack-jawed bulldog sat there on the bed next to him, and Beau
would swear the dog was grinning at him. Beau's face pinched up in
distaste when Sarge's doggie breath hit him square in the face. He
shoved him off the bed, then plopped back against the pillows, and
threw his arm over his eyes.

He heard Karlie yell for Sarge, and knew
she'd be in the room in a minute, because the door was cracked
open. When he'd gotten to the cabin late last night, Gabe let him
in, but he'd been too tired to talk to his brother. Beau had been
so worn out, he'd just come into the bedroom, stripped naked and
dove under the covers. Those covers had migrated off the end of the
bed during his fitful sleep that was filled with visions of Jazzie
and her almost drowning and that guy on the boat putting a bullet
in her, instead of him saving her.

Beau shuffled to the end of the bed and
leaned over to grab the covers, so he didn't shock his
sister-in-law, when she came in here. Gabe wouldn't appreciate him
giving her a full monty, he was sure.

He'd just reached over, when the door was
flung open and Karlie walked in and said, "Sarge! Where are you bad
dog?" She skidded to a stop and her mouth dropped open, then she
grinned, "Nice view..."

Beau felt heat start at his toes, and work
its way up to his face, and he yanked the covers off the floor to
cover himself. "Ever heard of knocking, sugar?" he asked her
gruffly.

"Ever heard of keeping your clothes on when
you sleep at someone's house?" she retorted sassily then folded her
arms under her breasts. "You're lucky Sarge didn't gnaw off your
dangly bits," she said with a snort.

"He tried to French kiss me awake, is that a
prelude to the gnawing of my dangly bits?" Beau teased with a
chuckle, then added, "His idea of foreplay?"

Karlie's face turned as red as her hair, and
she warned him, "You better not let Gabe hear you with all the sex
talk, or you're gonna lose your dangly bits another way."

"Where is your husband, anyway?" Beau asked
his beautiful red-headed sister-in-law.

"He had to go to the station, something
about a drunk naked cowboy in a goat pasture, I don't even want to
know what that's about," she said and snorted again. Beau chuckled,
because the sound was so damned funny coming from her.

"Can I borrow your Lincoln?" Beau asked her
with a grin, because he knew what she was going to say,
'Nobody
drives Freddie'
. He just liked to aggravate her about it. "I
need to go to town and talk to him and Sabrina...and eat some of
that delicious breakfast my sister is famous for. Freddie will get
me there faster than my truck, I'm really hungry."

"
Nobody
drives Freddie, except me,"
she said and her eyes sparked with anger. Beau knew she let Gabe
drive her hot-rod Lincoln now and again, but he was the only
one.

He chuckled then pulled the cover around
him, and slid to the edge of the bed. "How did I know that's what
you'd say?"

"Because it's the same damned thing I tell
you every time you pester me about it."

"So, what have you two lovebirds been up to?
Have fun in Tahiti?"

Her bright blue eyes softened and she
sighed, "It was amazing...the wedding and the honeymoon."

"You went on the honeymoon?" Beau asked her
in confusion.

"No--
our
honeymoon, silly," she said
in a dreamy voice, then told him, "We had to cut our first one
short, because Gabe got poison ivy at the cabin in the mountains. I
told him we shouldn't..." she stopped and blushed.

When Karlie spun on her heel and ran out of
the room, Beau shot out of the bed with the cover wrapped around
him, then laughed and shouted behind her, "Oh, no, you're not gonna
stop there...enquiring minds want to know!"

Beau laughed again and shook his head, then
grabbed a change of clothes from his duffle bag then headed for the
shower down the hall. He'd get the story out of her eventually, and
then he'd give Gabe hell about it. Beau showered and dressed, then
grabbed his keys and headed to town. Karlie didn't want to go with
him, she was going to give Sarge a bath, she said. He'd like to see
who won that battle.

Beau didn't know why, but his spirit felt
lighter than it had in days. Every time he came to the quaint
little town where his brother and sister had put down roots, he
felt that way. There was as sense of community, of family, that
he'd been missing for all of his life. He wasn't alone here.

It took him a few minutes to get to the Blue
Bird, and surprisingly, he got a spot right in front of his
sister's busy cafe, when another customer pulled out. After he
parked, he pocketed his keys, then went inside and inhaled deeply
as the rich smell of coffee teased his senses. The cook had
evidently just put bacon on the griddle, so that smoky aroma
wrapped itself around him too, and Beau's stomach grumbled.

He glimpsed Sabrina behind the bar-stool
lined counter, chatting and serving a line of cowboys fresh coffee.
When he caught her eye, he motioned to the booth he was about to
sit down in and wiggled his finger at her, and she nodded.

Beau slid into the vinyl covered booth and
pulled out his cell phone and dialed Gabe's number. His brother
answered on the second ring, and he said with a chuckle, "So tell
me about this poison ivy on your honeymoon."

Gabe growled and said, "I'm gonna kill
Karlie..."

"She didn't give away your secrets yet, but
I'll get it out of her," Beau told him with a snort.

"Keep your hands off my wife, brother..."
Gabe said in a threatening tone.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, I
don't wanna wind up hog-tied like you did," Beau teased him.

"So is there a purpose for your call, or do
you just want to harass me?" Gabe replied gruffly.

Unwelcome tension tightened Beau's shoulders
as thoughts of the danger Jazzie was in. "Yeah, I need your
help...Sabrina and Cole's too...you have a minute to come over and
talk to me at the Bird?"

"Yeah, I'll see if Cole's available too,
we'll be over there in a few minutes," Gabe told him then
disconnected. He looked up and Sabrina was standing by the table
with her arms open. Blood rushed to his face, and he scooted out of
the booth to pick her up and give his petite sister a big bear hug.
Setting her back on her feet, he leaned down and kissed her cheek.
"Hey, beautiful...how's that nephew of mine?"

"Getting into everything these days, and
wanting to know where the hell his Uncle Beau is..." Sabrina told
him with a hand on her hip. He hadn't had time lately to come to
Bowie, and he felt bad, because he missed his newly discovered
family.

"I'm sorry, sis...I've just been real bus--"
he started and she held up a hand.

"Just get your butt around here more often,
it's been over a month and I missed your ugly mug," she told him
with a chuckle and put her arms around his waist again and
squeezed. "You're getting skinny, you want some breakfast?"

His stomach grumbled, and he laughed. "What
does that sound like?" Beau asked her with a grin.

"Sounds like a deluxe two-egg breakfast with
a side of pancakes, a large milk and some coffee?" she said with a
raised eyebrow.

"You're not only gorgeous, you're a mind
reader too evidently," he said with a playful tweak of her nose.
"Get yourself some breakfast and come take a break too...I need to
talk to you. Gabe and Cole are on the way."

Her deep blue eyes widened and she grinned
and asked, "Oh yeah? What're we having a family reunion?"

Beau slid back into the booth and said,
"Something like that..." Waving his hands and swooshed her toward
the kitchen, and ordered, "Hurry up woman, wouldn't be good for
business if your customers see a skeleton sitting in your
booth."

The bell above the door chimed and Sabrina
looked up and smiled from ear to ear. Beau knew that Cole and Gabe
must've just come in. He looked over his shoulder and there they
were in their putty colored uniforms. Gabe walked up to the booth,
then elbowed him to shove over, so he could slide in beside him.
Cole walked right up to Sabrina and wrapped his arms around her and
kissed her like there was no tomorrow, right there in front of the
whole cafe. Beau noticed that not many people paid them any
attention, so he figured it was a common occurrence at the
diner.