Corralled (3 page)

Lainie had stretched him out on the padded exam table and dug her fingers into his sore calf. The strength and skill of her hands surprised him almost as much as the color of her eyes— the hue of burnished copper.

And so began his obsession with Lainie Capshaw.

At an event the next week, Hank popped into the medical aid station, only to discover that Lainie worked every other week with the EBS circuit. In the interim, he’d stumbled across information about Lainie’s heritage that’d shocked him. The curly- haired cutie with the sparkling eyes and magical hands was the daughter of worldfamous bull rider Jason Capshaw. An icon, a legend, a man who’d died way too young, way too publicly, gored by a bull in an arena filled with thousands of adoring fans. A man who’d left behind a young widow and a five- year- old daughter. A little girl christened Melanie— who’d been nicknamed Lainie by her adoring father.

LORELEI JAMES 9

When she’d checked out Hank’s sprained pinkie the following week, Hank asked her about her famous father. Lainie’s sunny disposition vanished as fast as a Wyoming rainstorm. Yes, she was Jason Capshaw’s daughter. No, she didn’t want to talk about him. So Hank seized the opportunity to steer the conversation in the direction he’d wanted all along: He’d asked her out.

Lainie’s response? A vehement no. She absolutely did not date rodeo cowboys. Ever. Period. End of discussion.

Normally, he’d move on. Yet, something about her called to him. Hank didn’t push, but he let her know he wasn’t giving up on her either.

His luck turned the night of a sponsors’ dinner. The wine had relaxed her and he swooped her onto the dance floor during a sexy, suggestive Dierks Bentley tune.

Lust exploded between them the instant he hauled her into his arms. Hank’d had his share of sexual conquests in his years as a bullfighter and a cowboy. But nothing in his experience was as potent as slow dancing with Lainie Capshaw fully clothed.

They’d managed to keep their relationship platonic for another twenty minutes. Sex between them rocked his world. He’d believed Lainie felt the same. So Hank hadn’t demanded exclusivity, fearing it’d spook her, given her “no dating cowboys” rule.

Now he wished he had.

“Hank? Buddy, you okay?” Kyle asked, breaking him out of his reverie. “You’re awful damn quiet.”

Hank sighed. “I don’t know. Guess I’m more shocked than anything. Aren’t you?”

Kyle shrugged as Hank parked at the far back of the motel lot.

He hopped out and lowered the tailgate with a loud clank while Hank snagged the six- pack.

They sat on the tailgate, gazing at the sky. The stars were bright, despite the light pollution from the town. He passed Kyle a

9 CORRALLED

bottle. A
pop- hiss
sounded, followed by a metallic
ping
as he flicked the cap into the truck bed behind them.

Kyle spoke first. “You asked me if I was shocked. I’m not. She ain’t the type to play games, but I suspected she was seein’ someone else. I figured it’d be a guy who lived in her area.”

“Lainie don’t exactly seem like the ‘what happens on the road, stays on the road’ type, with a different fella in every town.”

“Exactly. I figured her deal with the other guy couldn’t be that serious if she was with me every so often.” Kyle sent him a sidelong glance. “Am I right?”

“She and I never made promises to each other. It’s been pretty casual.” Hank knew it wouldn’t help the situation if he admitted he’d wanted those promises from Lainie and had been prepared to offer them in return. Tonight, in fact.

“You been with other women since you and Lainie hooked up?”

Hank shook his head. “You?”

“Nope.”

“That’s a fuckin’ surprise.”

“Why?”

“ ’Cause I know you.”

Kyle’s back straightened. “No, you don’t. I ain’t the horndog I used to be.”

Hank snorted. “Right.”

“Did you ask me about screwing other women so you could run and tell her that she was just another meaningless tumble for me, while she was special to you?”

Heat rose up Hank’s neck. Kyle had nailed his response and he knew it, which was what made this situation doubly hard.

Thick silence descended.

“Hell, Hank, maybe Mel— Lainie— has the right idea. Maybe we all oughta walk away from this.”

LORELEI JAMES 9

He practically snarled, “I don’t wanna walk away from her.”

“Me neither.” Kyle drained his beer and rattled the paper sack, reaching for another.

Hank finished his Bud and grabbed a second. “I’m open to suggestions as to what to do.”

“Beats me. Ain’t shit like this usually settled with fists?”

“You saw how she reacted when we got into a shoving match.

Made it worse. That ain’t gonna work.” He sent Kyle a tight- lipped smile. “One of us could be a gentleman and bow out.”

9

“Go for it,” Kyle said, flashing his teeth at Hank in a nonsmile.

Hank laughed. “Not a chance.”

“I ain’t bowing out; you ain’t bowing out. Then we’re back to square one.”

“Appears that way.”

Another bout of quiet stretched between them. Normally Kyle would fill the void with chatter, jokes, and bullshit, but tonight he was unnerved. For the first time in a long time he’d found a woman who invoked real feelings in him. Lainie wasn’t his usual she’s- hot-and- she- fucks- like- a dream type of woman, who he’d happily bang until he got sick of her. No, from the moment Kyle met her, he’d known she was different.

Immediately after rejoining the EBS, Kyle learned from the other fifty- nine guys on the tour that Mel did not fraternize with cowboys. Ever. Given her tragic family history, he understood her need to detach herself, especially from bull riders. Given the fact she was the only woman on the sports medicine team, he understood her need to keep a professional distance and reputation.

Everything changed the night Kyle landed hard enough on his riding arm that he feared he’d cracked his elbow, which sent him straight to the sports med room. Lainie had slapped a sling on him,

9 CORRALLED

never losing her good humor during the drive to the closest hospital for X- rays.

When he admitted to the attending doctor at the ER that he thought he might’ve cracked his tailbone too, Lainie’s professional edge sharpened— as did her words. She asked if Kyle had neglected to tell her the full extent of his injuries in the sports med room because of her gender— or because she wasn’t a doctor.

Kyle confessed he had a problem sticking his ass in the air for a woman. She’d snapped back that if it bothered him, she’d scratch her crotch, refuse to shower, and walk around with a ball- swaying swagger so he’d think of her as a guy.

From that point on, he’d become smitten with the oh- so-feminine yet ballsy woman called by a man’s name. Kyle knew the attraction wasn’t one- sided, no matter how many times she’d denied it. No matter how many times she’d told him she didn’t mess around with bull riders. Period. But he’d worn her down with a mixture of charm and luck.

They’d ended up fucking in a restaurant bathroom ten minutes into their first date. Sexually, they meshed. Kyle proved her fears of locker room stories were unfounded, as evidenced by the fact that no one on the EBS tour caught wind of their raunchy rendezvous.

Now that he’d found a woman worth fighting for, Kyle wasn’t giving her up without a fight.

Even to the point that you’ll lose a good friend?

Maybe.

“Think it’ll be hard with us both bein’ on this circuit?” Hank asked.

“Probably. It ain’t like I’m planning to get the shit kicked out of me just so she’ll put her hands on me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve had her hands on me. It might actually be worth getting stomped.”

Kyle punched Hank in the arm. “It’s a damn cryin’ shame we LORELEI JAMES 9

can’t just share her until she makes up her mind which one of us she likes better.”

Hank’s beer bottle stopped halfway to his mouth. “You know, that ain’t a half- bad idea.”

“I was kiddin’.”

“I’m not.”

“Seriously? Like I’d get her Friday night and you’d get her Saturday night? Hank. Buddy. You know that’d never work. Especially when we’d be in the same town, knowing exactly what’s goin’

on behind closed motel room doors. Maybe in the motel room right next door.”

“True. But what if . . . ?”

Now he’d piqued Kyle’s curiosity. “What if . . . ?”

“What if we were both with her? At the same time. Think she’d go for that?” Hank asked.

Kyle froze. Maybe it was irony or fate or some such shit, but he and Lainie had once discussed that very thing. “One time we were watching porn in a hotel room and she admitted girl- on- girl action didn’t appeal to her. But two guys taking care of her sexual needs?

She said to sign her up.”

Hank faced him and grinned. “Well, there you go. I knew this was a good idea. Problem solved. We’ll pitch it to her first thing tomorrow.”

“Now, hold on.” Kyle took a drink of beer. “I ain’t sure she wasn’t just all talk.”

“You trying to convince me? Or yourself?”

“Both, maybe. Hell, I don’t know. This just seems really fucking weird.”

“Was Lainie drunk during this conversation about being with two men?”

“No.”

“That tells me she’d be open to it.”

9 CORRALLED

“That don’t mean that I’m on board.”

“For a threesome? Why the hell not? I’m totally on board.”

Hank snickered. “You ain’t afraid Lainie will be comparing our dick sizes or something?”

“Fuck off, Lawson. That ain’t what concerns me. What if part of her deal is she wants us to be together, kissing and touching and shit like them women in porn threesomes are?”

That visual immediately caught Hank’s attention. His body went rigid before he shuddered. “No fuckin’ way am I sucking your dick, Gilly.”

They both went quiet.

Hank drained his beer and handed them each a fresh one. “But I’m gonna point out that Lainie knows us both well enough that she wouldn’t expect us to be doin’ each other when we’re doin’ her.

And because she’s had sex with both of us, if anyone can talk her into a three- way relationship, it’d be us.”

“That’s true.”

“Best- case scenario: She agrees to be with both of us when she’s working the CRA tour.”

“What about when we are together? Will it always be the three of us? Or will I get to spend time alone with her?”

“I don’t know the damn logistics,” Hank grumbled. “We can sit here and plan the whole goddamn thing out how we want it, but we both know she’ll have ideas of her own. Knowing Lainie, she’ll probably bring up things we ain’t even considered.”

“You ain’t whistlin’ ‘Dixie’ there.” Kyle listened to footsteps fading on the blacktop. An engine started. A Buick slowed as it drove past them. The occupant probably wondered why two cowboys were tailgating at the Broken Spur Motel at midnight.

“So we need to talk to her,” Hank said. “But we have to present a united front. She either takes both of us or neither of us.” Hank turned and Kyle felt his quizzical gaze. “Right?”

LORELEI JAMES 9

Rather than respond,
Fuck no. You’re on your own, pal
, Kyle muttered, “Right.”

“Good. You ’n’ me will talk specifics on our way to her motel tomorrow morning.”

“Where’s she staying?”

“Cow Palace Inn.” Hank jumped off the tailgate and gathered the empty beer bottles, dropping them into the crumpled paper sack with a muffled
chink
. “Well, roomie, I’m whipped and goin’ to bed. You comin’?”

“Nah. I’ll be along in a while. Think I’ll sit out here and strategize covering my bulls tomorrow night.”

“I looked at the roster from the stock contractor. He’s brought some seriously rank bulls.”

“All the better.”

“Thought you might say that. Got your room key?”

Kyle nodded and aimed his face at the stars, hoping Hank would get the hint that they were finished talking.

Hank lumbered off without a word.

Somehow Kyle managed to put the bizarre conversation and situation out of his mind and focus on the reason he was here: to ride bulls.

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9

8
hen the knock came on Lainie’s door at eight a.m., she’d expected to tell housekeeping to go away, not Hank. And Kyle.

Dammit. She should’ve left the safety chain on. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Coming in, because Lainie, darlin’, we need to talk.” This from Hank as he brushed past her.

“There’s nothing left to say.”

“Wrong,” Kyle said as he walked past her too and stood next to Hank.

She crossed her arms over her chest. The shrunken camisole and ratty boy shorts she wore as pajamas left little to the imagination.

Kinda late for modesty now, since they’ve both sampled the goods
you’re trying to hide.

“Can we please talk about this? What happened last night and what’s been going on the last few months?” Kyle asked.

“Why? So I can hear you call me nasty names because I’ve been sleeping with both of you? No, thanks.”

Kyle and Hank traded a look. Then they faced her again. Hank looked at her hard enough that she shivered. “That’s the kind of guys you think we are, Lainie? Really?”

LORELEI JAMES 9

No. But with both of you here together like this? Being flip is my best
defense against all this testosterone.

“What Hank is trying to say, sugar, is that we’d never do that to you.”

“You two exchanged pretty harsh words last night.” Lainie’s eyes narrowed on the shadow below Kyle’s jawbone. “Did you smack each other around after I left?”

“If you remember, I ride bulls for a living. I tend to get beat up by them on occasion,” Kyle said wryly.

Lainie stomped over and peered at the dark mark. “Has anyone looked at this?” She reached up. Before her fingers connected with his stubbled jaw, Kyle snatched her hand and kissed her fingertips.

She didn’t dare look at Hank. Would anger burn in his eyes with Kyle touching her so blatantly? Right in front of him?

“Just listen to us,” Hank half pleaded. “If after we’ve had our say you don’t like what you’ve heard, then you can kick us to the curb.”