Bucked (12 page)

He’d had more than three people in his bed a time or two. Tamping down the guilt, Mustang let out a breath. “Exactly. You understand, right?”

“Of course, but I’ll miss you.” She nipped gently at his chin with her teeth.

“I’ll miss you too, Little Bit.” Running his hand up her body, Mustang leaned his head down. His lips hovered tantalizingly above hers and then he thought better of it. With a groan, he leaned away. “I better not start something we don’t have time to finish.”

Quickies just weren’t possible with Sage. He found he never wanted his time with her to end, which is why he tried not to think about the day it would. Maybe that was another reason to not quit the prison. Working there would make Mustang’s remaining weeks in Magnolia feel like an eternity.

Sage sighed and rolled off the bed. “I better get home before Grams wakes up. When are you leaving for Oklahoma?”

“Right after work Friday, I suppose.”

“I guess we won’t have much time together before you leave since you have to work all week.” She sounded sad as she pulled on her shorts.

“I’ll be home Sunday night.” Regretfully watching her tug the T-shirt over her head, covering the last of her beautiful, exposed nakedness, Mustang rose from the bed himself.

“You better be good while you’re gone.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the mouth.

“I will.” As if he had a choice. He hadn’t even thought about another woman since that first night he’d seen Sage at his parents’

house. After the time they’d spent together, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to
not
think about her again.

“No hopping on a bull to see if your arm is better.” Her eyes narrowed with warning.

He laughed. She hadn’t been talking about other women at all. “No hopping on any bulls. I promise.”

“Okay.” She hovered in the doorway of the trailer. “See you.”

“See you, Little Bit.”

Watching her roll her eyes at the name and disappear down the stairs, he realized he was in big trouble. He missed her already.

After hauling ass for most of the trip, Mustang pulled into the parking lot of the arena at about eleven o’clock Friday night. He got out of the cab with a groan, stretching muscles stiff from sitting in one position for too many hours.

He hadn’t stopped, just driven straight through. Now he could use a rare hamburger and a cold beer. A men’s room would be handy too. Luckily, he knew where he could find all that and more.

The neon beacon across the street beckoned. Slade and Jenna had called about an hour ago. They’d pulled into town earlier that night and checked into the hotel. They should already be at the bar waiting for him. When he pushed through the door and heard Jenna’s squeal, he knew they were.

“You made it.” She jumped up from her chair.

“Yup. I made it, darlin’.” Mustang accepted her hug, before shaking Slade’s hand and eyeing his beer on the table. “Hey, man. It’s good to see you. Damn, I could sure use one of those.”

Slade laughed. “I bet. I’ll get you one.”

Jenna grabbed his arm. “Wait. Are you still on painkillers? You can’t drink if you are.”

Mustang smiled. “No, mother. I’m not on the pain pills.”

He would have been tempted to lie to her even if he was still taking them. Luckily, he was done with pills, until the next injury, at least.

Slade paused, brow raised. “Am I allowed to get him a beer?”

“Yes.” Jenna narrowed her eyes. As Slade headed for the bar, she added, “Smart ass.”

Mustang laughed. “Uh oh. Is there trouble in paradise?”

“Nah. We’re good. We just spend a
lot
of time together. When you’re on the road it’s twenty-four seven.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve been traveling from one end of the country to the other with him for much longer than you have.”

“I know. How did you two never kill each other?” Jenna shook her head in amazement.

Two bottles in hand, Slade walked over just at that moment. Mustang accepted the beer and raised it in salute to Jenna. “Alcohol helps.”

Jenna lifted her own drink in a toast to Mustang, sent an innocent glance at Slade and took a long swallow.

Mustang smiled. “I’ve really missed you guys. Tell me everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone. How’s Skeeter?”

“Not too bad. He says he’ll be back next season.”

“I’m glad of that.”

Jenna leaned one elbow on the table. “You tell us what’s been happening with you. How’s it being home?”

Slade cringed at Jenna’s innocent question. “You probably shouldn’t bring that up.”

“Why?” She looked from Slade to him.

“I’m not a big fan of visiting home, is all. No big deal.” Mustang explained.

“But why don’t you like going home? With you guys being on the road so much, I’d think being home would be a nice change.”

Mustang laughed. “You haven’t met my father.”

Realization crossed Jenna’s face. “Ah. Hey, did you stop to eat during the drive? I think the kitchen’s still open.”

“Yeah, I could eat, but wait one minute. You, the inquisitive writer who has a question for everything, is willing to let the subject about why I don’t like going home drop? Just like that?”

Jenna shrugged. “No need. I totally understand.”

Still confused, Mustang looked to Slade for an answer.

“Mother issues,” Slade supplied.

It seemed these two really had gotten to know each other living together on the road. There was definitely a story there and Mustang wasn’t sure he was up to hearing it right now. “Listen, I need to hit the head. If a waitress wonders by, order me a burger rare and fries.”

“You got it.” Slade nodded.

Mustang returned to the table moments later and found a place setting, a bottle of ketchup and a fresh beer had been left at his seat. Things were looking up.

Until Jenna started talking again. “So, who’s the girl?”

He frowned and glanced around the bar. “Which girl?”

“The one at home you’re not telling us about.”

“What makes you think there’s a girl?” He tried to keep his face neutral.

“For starters, there’s a bimbo leaning against the bar with her boobs ninety percent out of her top and you haven’t even glanced at her.”

“That’s because I’m too busy looking at you, darlin’.” He grinned at her and let his gaze drop suggestively down her body.

“Bull shit. You didn’t even try to kiss me or cop a feel when I hugged you. There’s a girl.” Jenna narrowed her eyes at him.

Mustang looked helplessly at Slade, who just laughed. “Sorry. You’re on your own there, buddy. I already have my hands full with her.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jenna’s unhappy gaze redirected in Slade’s direction.

Slade scowled in Mustang’s direction. “See. Now you’ve got me in trouble.”

Mustang laughed. “You did that all on your own, man. Don’t blame me.”

The burger and fries arrived and life was good. Slade and Jenna were providing his dining entertainment. His blissfully parent-free accommodation for the night was parked conveniently across the street. What else could a man ask for? All right, maybe Sage in his bed tonight would be nice. And his name on that rider board for tomorrow too, now that he thought about it.

He bit into the burger and the juices flooded his mouth. For now, this was good enough.

“Damn.” Jenna suddenly reached into her ever-present sack of a purse that seemed to follow her everywhere.

Mustang wiped his mouth with the napkin. “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot I was supposed to email my agent with that list of dates and cities where Slade’ll be riding.”

Mustang’s gaze swung to Slade. “Why?”

Slade rolled his eyes. “They’re going to plan a bunch of book events around the tour.”

Whipping the tiniest computer he’d ever seen out of her purse, Jenna set it on the table and flipped it open. “It’s brilliant. I mean, the book is about bull riders, right? So what could be better than having book signings at the events?”

Mustang’s eyes opened wide. “Like inside the arena?”

“Out in the lobbies, probably. In some locations they’ll be bookstores located pretty close to the event but mostly, yeah, at the arenas.”

“But, uh, then won’t people figure out that, uh, you know…it’s us?”

Their threesome was the subject of that damn romance novel Jenna had written. Pretty much every detail from what he’d read.

Jenna glanced up at him. “I’ve found there are generally two types of people. Those who believe the author has personally done every single one of the things they write about, no matter how kinky or absurd the story, and those who think everything is fake even when it’s absolutely real.”

“Uh, yeah, but Jenna.” He lowered his voice. “We really did do all that stuff in your book.”

Normally, at least a few months ago, Mustang wouldn’t care who knew what had happened in Tulsa. That was before Sage had come into the picture.

“What I’m saying is it doesn’t matter whether we did or didn’t. People will believe what they want anyway, so I’m not worried.”

She shrugged.

With a glance at Slade, who echoed Jenna’s shrug, Mustang let out a long breath. “Okay. If you say so.”

Jenna clicked around on her tiny contraption for a few minutes. Then she typed so fast he could barely see her fingers, before she flipped the lid shut.

He frowned. “What did you just do?”

“I emailed the event list to my agent.”

“You can get on Internet sites and stuff with that little thing?”

“Yeah. Cool, huh?”

He nodded. “Could I, uh, get on a website?”

Slade’s beer halted halfway to his mouth. “You. On the Internet?”

Mustang scowled at his comment.

Jenna smiled. “Maybe he wants to email his girlfriend.”

“I wouldn’t know how if I wanted to,” Mustang admitted.

Jenna’s eyes opened wide. “Ah, ha. So there is a girl. Here you go. It’s all yours.”

Slade laughed as Jenna passed Mustang the computer. He took one look at it and slid it back to her. “I’m not emailing anyone. I just wanted to check something. Could you do it for me? I want to see if this site is up yet.”

Pulling his wallet out of his pants, he took out Guy’s card.

She read it. “Sports Photography?”

He tried to play it cool. “Yeah, this guy had talked to some of the rookies about modeling for his site. I thought I’d check it out for them.”

No way was he going to tell her or Slade about the nude modeling or the other stuff. Although, if this website was up and running and Junior was front and center, he may have to. He hadn’t thought of that before he’d handed the info over to Jenna and her heightened curiosity. Shit.

“Sure, I can check for you.” Jenna clicked around a bit and then shook her head. “Nope. It says it’s coming soon.”

“It doesn’t say when it’ll be up?”

“No. Wait a second though. Let me see something.” Frowning determinedly at the screen, she started with the fast typing again.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m researching who owns the domain name and seeing if they have any other sites up.”

He wasn’t sure what all that meant and he wasn’t sure he liked it anyway. When Jenna’s eyes opened wide and she said, “Holy crap,” Mustang knew for sure. He should have kept his mouth shut.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mustang, this guy runs male soft-porn sites.” Her shocked gaze focused on him.

Uh, oh.

“I guess it’s a good thing none of those guys agreed to model for him then, huh?” He really wished she would close that thing.

Reaching over, he tried to push the lid shut. “Thanks for checking. I’ll let them know.”

“Some of this stuff is really…wow.” She smacked his hand away and kept clicking keys and he started to panic.

Slade’s brows shot up to his hairline. “If it’s so bad, Jenna, then maybe you shouldn’t be looking at it.”

“I didn’t say it was bad.” She grinned as Slade frowned. Then she paused and leaned closer to the screen, before looking at Mustang with her mouth hanging open.

He swallowed hard. “Um, what?”

She spun the screen to face him and there he was, in almost-full glory. “That’s what.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And stop showing me naked men. I don’t want to see that shit.”

Flipping the lid shut, he hoped that was the end of it, but she simply opened it again and there he was.

“What’s going on?” Slade asked.

Mustang watched horrified as she spun the screen to Slade. He paled and averted his eyes immediately. “Jeez, Jenna. I don’t want to see that shit either.”

“Look closer.” She demanded. “Don’t you recognize those chaps and that hat?”

Slade forced his eyes back to the screen and then did a double take. “Holy shit.”

“Look even closer and there’s a fresh scar on his left arm, right about where Mustang’s would be. Then there’s his…you know.”

Slade challenged her. “What about his ‘you know’?”

“Well, I mean, I’d recognize that… Never mind.”

Mustang felt his face growing warm. “Okay. It’s me. They were paying a hundred and fifty an hour and I didn’t know I’d be naked when I called.”

“They didn’t tell you?”

“Well yeah, on the phone they did, but they said it was artistic nudity. I figured… I don’t know what I thought but I didn’t think this.”

She continued to stare as the screen until Mustang started to feel pretty uncomfortable. Then she frowned and clicked one more time and the reaction on her face told him he better look too.

Another page came up. In the picture, his eyes were closed as he grasped Junior in his hand and tugged, trying to get himself hard for the next shot like the photographer had requested, concentrating so hard he didn’t know the damn guy was snapping away the whole time.

“Shit.”

Then he noticed another man behind him in the photo. He was seated in a chair and enthusiastically jerking off while appearing to watch Mustang doing the same.

“Holy crap. Who the hell is that? I swear to you, there wasn’t anyone else in that room except the photographer and me.” Not like that made it any better, but still, he’d only done that in front of one guy and for the camera, not for that other guy to get off on.

Jenna leaned closer. “He’s superimposed. It’s a pretty crappy job but it looks real enough at first glance.”

Slade leaned over and looked too, before quickly leaning back. “Damn. I told you I would have loaned you the money. You didn’t have to do that.”

He drew in a deep breath, thinking of what else he’d done rather than borrow Slade’s money. “I know.”

Then another thought hit him. The photographer knew Missy Love. He was the one that recommended Mustang for the job. What if the two sites were linked somehow? He swallowed hard. “There isn’t any more on there, is there?”

If there was, Jenna and her writer’s snooping abilities would find it. Better Jenna than Sage. God, how would Sage react if she knew? He couldn’t even think about it.

Jenna clicked around some more. “No, I don’t see any more, but that raises a very good question. What else could have been on there? What else did you do, Mustang?”

She leaned back and folded her arms and he knew he wasn’t getting out of there until he’d confessed. He raised his arm.

“Waitress. Another round.”

Shortly thereafter Jenna sat wide-eyed and, amazingly, speechless. Meanwhile, Slade covered his eyes with his hand as he leaned his head heavily on the arm he had braced on the table.

Mustang swallowed the dry from his throat. He’d gotten pretty graphic. Knowing Jenna, she’d be able to find the damn videos anyway with a little research. He figured he better prepare Slade for that discovery.

“So, that’s it. I’ve got thirty-five hundred dollars from the movies, thirty-eight if you count the uh,
modeling
. Looking back, I’d return every red cent if I could take back what I did to earn it.”

Jenna frowned. “That’s what I don’t get though. You pride yourself on your sexual prowess.”

That term had Slade laughing but she continued anyway. “Why are you embarrassed?”

He might as well come clean about it all. These two people were his closest friends in the world, not counting Sage, and that was complicated. “Because you’re right. There is a girl and I don’t know what she’ll do if she finds out what I’ve done. She knows I posed nude, but that’s it.”